My Cup Runneth Over

Home School

This is my favorite part of homeschooling...snuggling on the couch reading a great Sonlight book to the kid (or kids!) This right here makes the hard times worth it and the memories we build and the stories the kids hear...priceless.

Now...some in the family would say one of the advantages to homeschooling is the free time it gives them to read their own books and play video games. :) This is what recess looks like at our house!

 

Impromptu field trip to our neighbor's house when the fire truck came through! SO cool!

Government...Teenpact (it's educational and FUN)

P.E. and bible in the same classes.

Literature

Mid-morning snack (lots more fun in a tea cup!)

 

Ready for CHESS (optional enrichment academy classes that meet one day a week)

More field trips...science!

    

Centers :)

Not only art, but life and relational skills...

...lots of opportunity for those skills to be built!

  

Spelling, vocabulary and PE (if we count all the laughter!)

 

More PE and health (big doses of Vitamin D!)

 

 Nature journaling the nasty spider out front = science
 
 

Considering I didn't do a lot of Loe's science book work...we managed to work plenty of science in = field trip to local dairy and farm

Let's see...PE, history and socialization!

 

Outreach and cultural awareness

Definitely PE and bible (gotta memorize those verses!)

And even more science at the aquarium. And one of my favorites..Loe conquering the shoe-tying challenge!

We all have learned much this year, so much that we didn't get pictures of...regular book work, family devotions, driver's ed, jobs, church, volunteer work, frisbee, Disney, family, friends, and the list goes on and on. We LOVE homeschooling and I can NOT believe Chase will graduate in a couple of months!! 

Chinese New Year 2010

Isn't this picture above a crack up? It so captures the girls' personalities! Loe looking semi-innocent and posing and Ren looking very ornery and cute! I snapped these pics of the girls after we got home from our evening out - so I was surprised to get any smiles at all since they were so tired!

 The evening out was our traditional Chinese New Year celebration with friends. We look forward to this event every year - great fellowship, great Chinese food and very cute kids! Loe also looks forward to the occasion- knowing she'll get to hang with friends and wear a pretty Chinese dress! Sadly I think this dress is one of the bigger ones I bought when I was in China with Ren. There might be one more dress or pant outfit that is a bit bigger - I now wish I would have bought a few more for them to grow into! Hmmm...maybe another trip to China?! Ha! Just kidding - we actually have shops and online places we can pick up traditional Chinese clothes.

My how this crew of kids has grown - not only in size, but in number with the addition of new siblings!

 

  
  

     

Dressing up

 

Having two little girls around is such a hoot! They bicker and annoy each other a bunch. But, they sure do have a ton of fun together! They are becoming such friends - it's so sweet. Recently the girls went through a creative dress-up phase. Ren let Loe pick out clothes for her and then she started branching out and selecting her own outfits! This provided hours of fun. Gotta love sisterhood.

 

 

   

Fun with Ren's travel group

Two families from Ren's travel group live in Colorado. When Eric and Margo were in Denver a few weeks ago, we met them along with Dan and Karen. We went to the Aquarium and then had lunch together. It's so funny to watch the girls together. They are all so adorable. Such unique personalities - Meredith is very curious and adventurous, Joie is social and sweet. Margo and I did determine that Ren and Meredith could be dangerous together since they both have a very ornery, stubborn streak in them! We had a great time (even though  both of our girls had colds) and I'm so thankful that Trevor is getting a chance to know some of the group and they - him. Looking forward to next time!

  

 
 
 
 

  
 
 

  
 
 
 
  
  
 

Christmas Sweeties

The girls loved decorating sugar cookies. I took advantage of how cute they looked dressed in their red and white dresses and snapped several pics in front of the tree. Their expressions are hilarious and beautiful! I sure love my girls!

 

 

 
 

 

Snow Angels

 

 

 

   
  
 

  
  
  

 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

This is a miscellaneouspost - just a place to post some random photos of the girls. This one above of Ren is too funny. She colored her picture with those fabulous Color Wonder markers (those things were invented for kids like Ren, who color on things they shouldn't - sometimes intentionally and sometimes not even meaning to!) She stood up to show me and was SO proud of herself - one of those moments when I realized she isn't a baby anymore! Loe is just goofing off on the stairs below - but I so adore her smile in that shot - so I had to include that one. Then more of Ren loving on Linus, and flashing her cheesy grin.

 

 

Loe has taken it upon herself to teach Ren some basic ballet moves before she is old enough to startworship dance (a year from now!) It's pretty funny - this day she was doing some karate kicks with Loe one minute and ballet the next! These will be some well-rounded girls!

 

This just melted me - I looked over and this is how the girls were watching a movie. They really are good friends and enjoy each other, but wow do they do their share of bickering. We never had this kind of sibling rivalry with the boys and I'm still getting used to it with the girls. Though I don't suppose I should get used to it - but keep praying for wisdom on how to deal with it! But, thankfully they have plenty of these sweet moments, too.

  

Loe was anxious to look over all of the "Preschool Activities Bags" that I made with a group of women. Obviously as you can tell by the name - they are designed for preschoolers - different activities to keep them busy and learning on their own while mom gets something done - like homeschool the 1st grader - in my case! They are mostly geared to 3-4 year olds - so many are above Ren's head. I wanted to stock up on many different ones for the coming year or two. Ren is one busy kiddo and I figure the more plans I have to keep her hands busy (and out of trouble) the better! But, Loe watched me put some of the stuff together and was excited to see what each activity was all about. So, she gets to enjoy the ones that aren't consumable until Ren is older. She likes to fiddle with stuff like this. She's always been one to keep her hands and mind busy learning and exploring. These are more review and fun for her - but I'm glad she is enjoying them! I look forward to the day when Ren can use them and not eat or bend or tear them! Not that I want to rush the baby girl in growing up one minute - she is too much fun right now! 
 

Birthday Girls!

Trevor is giving me a really hard time about not keeping up with the blog and has told me I MUST update it. (I keep telling him to get on facebook - I post so much more regularly there!) So, here is the first of a few posts I'll try to the rest tomorrow.

Sadly - Ren was sick on her birthday this year. She was a trooper though and we still went out to pick up her birthday gift and went to McDonald's ( fries and chicken nuggets are her favorite and she loudly yelled "FRIES" when we walked in the door!). She loves her new car and was very anxious to help Dad put it together! She also got a new stroller (since she and Loe tend to fight over the other one!) Of course it was her bear that took the first ride in it. :)

Can't believe our baby girl is two already! Renice QingYang is changing and growing up so fast. What fun it is to be around our kids at this age - listening to them say new words and catching a glimpse of what is going on in their head! Watching them explore the world around them - soaking up information like a sponge. Ren has a very strong personality - making parenting her a bit more challenging at this stage! She's determined, stubborn, ornery, at bit defiant and yet has a very tender, lovable, sweet side along with a great sense of humor! We love her to pieces and pray that the Lord would give her birth parents a peace about where their baby girl is and how she is doing. She keeps me on my knees in prayer for wisdom and patience but we are blessed in abundance by having her in our lives. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our sweet petunia!

 

Just a few weeks after Ren turned two, Eloise turned six! WOW - what the heck happened to our tiny, baby girl? It never ceases to amaze me the changes she has undergone since we brought her home 5 years ago. She is social, sweet, talkative, bossy, bright, talkative, eager to learn, clever and did I mention talkative? :) For her birthday she got to pick out her dinner and dessert - she chose Trevor's burgers, fries and homemade milkshakes - strawberry cheese cake and chocolate flavored - oh yum!

She received a new outfit for the doll some friends gave to her and Season One of Little House on the Prairie! She was SO excited about that! She watched one after another the following week. (Fun for me, as well, since I watched a ton of those when I was younger.) Watching her become a big girl - loving 1st grade, being a big sister, organizing things around her, learning to read more fluently - we sit back and wonder just what God has planned for Eloise HuanFen's future. Whatever it is we thank God she is in our lives!

  

Snow one week, warm sunshine the next...I LOVE fall!

Just over a week ago we had 15 inches of snow - it was fabulous! It's always exciting when there is at least enough snow on the ground to play in and when this storm brought enough to cancel sevearl activities - even the kids' CHESS classes - we all got excited about a true "snow day"! (We've always told our kids that when the snow is so deep they can't make it to the table - we'll cancel homeschool for the day! Ha! No - in reality - we often take the morning or afternoon off to go sledding or play in it.)  The snow came to the mountains a few days before we got the big storm. This is the view from our deck - gorgeous indeed.

 
  
 

 

But, I wasn't quite ready to give up on having some more warm fall days - much as I LOVE summer, winter and spring - all three, fall is truly my favorite season! So, I was thrilled when the temps warmed back up and the past couple of days it was 70-80 degrees! I love to be outside soaking up the sun - feels like an extra gift during this time of the year. We met friends at the park the other day and I was really ready to pack up and go home for Ren's nap when they left - but the sun came out and I just couldn't tear ourselves away. The girls ran around playing with some other kids who were there. It was a great afternoon, and worth giving up the naptime to enjoy it. (I had a few other posts I was going to do before this one - but Mom insisted I get this one up so she could snag these pics of the girls.)

 
 

going on 2

I just ran across these pictures from over the summer. I LOVE having 4 kids and can't begin to imagine life without any one of them. And I truly am so thankful that they are all home with us together. I think there is so much good that can cmoe from having several kids growing up together. That said - the occasional day I get with just Ren has been pretty fun. A chance to enjoy her with my total attention. Last summer Loe went to our church's 3 day VBS and we also had friends invite us to go along to another VBS here in town. Loe had a blast with her friends and I had a blast with Ren! We did all kinds of things together - including a walk around a local park and then wandered over to Starbucks for a snack. I think the baby of the family gets a lot of perks - having plenty of ready hands to hold her, read to her, play with her, etc.. But, sometimes being the baby means your life is really all about your older siblings and it seems you are along for the ride! So, having some time to be the only kid for just a bit now and then is so great. I am getting the same opportunity on Wednesdays during this semester as the 3 big kids are in classes on that day. Today Ren was very excited to play at the office with Daddy for a little while when I was getting a massage. We stopped at Walmart on the way home and even that is an adventure. I am not in a rush - so she stops and explores everything! Takes forever - but it sure is fun to watch her. I get to talk to her a lot more. (I don't worry too much about her missing out on all of that focused vocabulary building time since she does have Eloise for a big sister!)  Speaking of words - this girl is starting to hook a few words together. But, she is also repeating just about everything we say! Some recognizable, some not. But, what a joy to hear her saying all these words! It's just incredible how far these precious little girls come when they are home in a family living and learning and growing together.  

These pictures just made me laugh! The girls were playing something and I can't even remember what now (the danger of not blogging pictures until months later!) but how cute is Ren in those snug capri's and the princess shoes?! Loving it! And that sweet, big sister hand on her back - guiding her along. Looks like Ren is just praising the Lord! I think it was some kind of game - but I do pray that she learns to dance before the Lord and praise His holy name! She gives me a funny look when she seems me dancing around the house in praise. But, this girl is moved by music I catch glimpses now and then of her joining in! I imagine she'll be dancing for joy before long!