Finishing up CC

On the way to our CC Finale night, Leah very wisely informed me, 

"If I keep practicing diligently, one day I'm going to know everything.  Well... not everything.  But enough for God to trust me with being a doctor."

That child of mine has grown so much this year!  

She is such a studious and intent little creature, I just love watching her grow and thrive. 

The kids have a wonderful presentation which includes two whole group presentations, and individual class presentation.  For their group presentation, they recited part of the timeline, which documents all the major historical events and cultures from creation through the birth of Jesus.

They also memorized Exodus 20:1-17 and presented that as well.

The struggle about being the solo parent at events like this is that I don't often have a chance to do much documenting.  Mostly, what I can do without extra hands available for wrangling purposes is give it my half-hearted attention and try to snap what photos I can for posterity.  

I wont' lie, what I paid attention to most during their presentations was this;

who refused to let me be and had to be taken out of the chapel part way through.

I got back in time to watch Leah's class present some examples of the science facts we learned this year.

Leah was so excited that she got to present the major groups of vertebrates, which are (as she proudly and fearlessly announced): fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds.

A dessert reception always follows, and the kids and proud parents have an awesome time. 

It has been another great year in Classical Conversations.  Leah's tutor was the mother of one of her best friends, and she has grown so much in her capacity for memorization.  We just love that she is being exposed to so many excellent concepts and advanced vocabulary through the classical method of education.  And, it is a huge blessing for us to have the opportunity once a week to get out of the house and fellowship.  

I was blessed to be in charge of this year's yearbook, so I have a ton of fun images from all the CC classes.  Here's just a few of the Leah-specific ones:

Those kids have such a great time!  The tutors are excellent, and make it so much fun for everybody.

We love CC!

Easter Sunday

Easter is certainly our favorite spring holiday.  Despite the fact that the weather showed no signs of the spring season that was on its way, we had a wonderful resurrection Sunday. 

I so enjoy filling their little Easter baskets!  

Leah's

We decided long ago that Easter baskets were not to be filled with junk.  

Livvy's

 Instead, we try to pack in things that will be useful for the upcoming summer season.  

Logan's

Each child always receives a pair of sandals.

And my kiddos are absolutely wild about jammies, so they each get a summer pair of those as well.

They also got new shades (don't worry, Liv got a real pair, too!)

We rounded it out with the Milne Pooh collection of stories and poems, which we hope to read this summer.

Last year, I began the tradition of tucking Bible verses in along with their treasures.

I love having a reader in the house!

But my favorite part of Easter morning is watching the whole gang as they hang around in their jammies and mussy bed-heads. 

Those unguarded moments when they're just all together. 

I suppose these moments aren't that different from our other mornings.  Homeschooling gives us the wonderful advantage that most of our mornings aren't rushed or hurried.  Still, these days of tiny rushing feet and silly giggles are just my favorite. 

And, because it was still snowing and cold, I didn't subject my family to the traditional Easter church photo.  But I did try to re-create it a week later, once the snow had melted.

Of course, by then, Casey was on the road again.

And the three had a serious case of the sillies.  But hey, those are the things our lives are made of. 

Easter eggs and snow boots

The Colorado weather hasn't been exactly cooperative as we try to move out of winter and into spring. 

Case and point?  Our lovely neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

Which looked much more like the sleigh rides we did at Christmas than it should!

Despite the cold, we bundled the kids up in their best and heaviest winter gear and hunted for those eggs.

And they were pretty pleased with themselves too!  

It was fun this year that everybody could get in on the action.  

Livvy does not love the cold, but she was quite intrigued by the goings on of the day. 

Plus, it helped that she has something to fall back on when she's tired of walking. 

The two big kids loved posing with the Bunny, despite the fact that we took away the magic last year and let them in on the big secret: it's just a guy in a suit.  It made him much less terrifying!

Although, to be fair, Olivia still wouldn't go near him.

It was a cold, quick egg hunt, but we're always glad for the opportunity to do fun activities like this!  It makes our family traditions and culture so much richer!