Kimbrough Kids

Teacher for a Day

2012-02-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Isabel and I switched places, when she became the teacher for our little homeschool and I became a 3^rd grader! Earlier in the week she wrote out Friday’s lesson plans for group time, tea time, story time, and individual assignments for Isaac, Abigail, and even me. She found a lovely skirt and wore a very teachery outfit and could hardly wait for Friday morning to arrive! I must say “Miss Grace” did a great job and I give her an A+!

Isabel says about her time as teacher, “I was very excited, happy because I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I thought it would be pretty cool, just as a 9 year old, dreaming of being a teacher, to be able to practice as I’m 9 and I figured out from that experience that I really, really like teaching. If I do really grow up to be a teacher, then I think I may teach 1^st grade kids or Pre-K kids and after we were done with school that morning I wished we could do more school all day. I really liked it a lot!”

Kids in Kaputa

2012-02-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

The kids had a BLAST enjoying all that Kaputa has to offer! Hutch (4 ½ years old) and Lulie (almost 3 years old) were great little playmates and we all enjoyed holding 3 month old baby girl Charlie! They swam, played on the swings and slide, helped stack bricks at a church work day, went to Bible study, watched movies, and did some homeschool. These pictures show some of the fun times they had together!

It gets really hot in Kaputa, so a daily swim is for cooling off and for having fun!

Isaac, Hutch, Isabel, Abigail, and Lulie

One afternoon during a heavy thunderstorm, the kids enjoyed popcorn and the movie "Up." The wind was so heavy during this particular storm that the swing set they had been playing on just a little while earlier was totally blown to the ground!

Abigail, Amos, Isaac, Hutch, Lulie, & Isabel

We did just a little bit of homeschool during our time in Kaputa (handwriting, phonics review, mathematical reasoning, and some reading). The best part was reading Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug, which Hutch just loved!

On the drive to Bible study in Chansa Village on Friday afternoon, the 2 red-headed boys fell asleep on the bumpy road.

Baby Love

2012-01-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

While I usually have classical or other instrumental music playing throughout the day, the kids love to get a hold of my iPod and jam to our very random “Oldies & Movies” playlist. They have since taught Amos the oldie Baby Love. Well, the other morning Amos crawled onto my side of the bed and began singing these words, “Baby love, my baby love, Momma my baby love…Daddy my baby love too!”

Little Soldiers

2012-01-20T04:55:00.000-08:00

“Stand strong, stay focused on the spiritual battles at hand, and always stay full of God’s love for them because He first loved us!”

Shannan, David, and Emily, we THANK you for the words of encouragement you sent in a box across the Atlantic Ocean, all the way from Texas! Included in this extra special package were 4 new awesome camouflage backpacks with the phrase “Little Soldiers” on them, along with a compass/whistle/magnifier/thermometer keychain for the kids to enjoy.

Thanks for thinking of us and encouraging us in the work the Lord has called us to!

Art Show

2012-01-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

After several weeks of drawing and coloring, the girls were ready to present an Art Show for the rest of the family this past Saturday. They set out their exhibits throughout the living room, put on pretty dresses, and even set out a bowl of candy (to entice their little brothers to attend)!

Kids at Church

2012-01-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

We worshipped this morning with Katete Baptist Church. The kids enjoyed playing in this interesting brick formation which they called a maze, while we waited for church to begin.

Angela and Sarah (2 of Rodwell's daughters) and these 2 boys have come to church a few times with us, although they usually worship at the Isoka Baptist Church.

We meet for worship in the Katete school building.

On the chalkboard behind Blake the "Laws of Mathematics" were listed from Friday's lessons. We didn't get home til after 2pm, and although the kids were tired and hungry (okay, me too!), we really enjoyed worshiping the Lord on this rainy Sunday!

Punctuation with Abigail & Amos

2012-01-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

Our Exclamation Point

Truly a girl overflowing with life, energy, and spunkiness

Our Question Mark

“Why? Why? Why?”

Wrestle Mania

2012-01-07T01:21:00.000-08:00

One of our family’s favorite pastimes is wrestle mania! Well, let me clarify the kids and Blake are the wrestle mania-ers, while I watch and hope no one gets hurt! They have a blast playing together and rough housing.

Photographs courtesy of Isabel, who usually prefers to watch rather than participate in the wrestle mania chaos!

American Girls in Africa

2011-12-29T06:09:00.000-08:00

The kids were spoiled with lots of presents, but by far the girls will tell you that their Just Like Me American Girl dolls from their Aunt Darbi are their favorite!

THANKS AUNT DARBI!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas breakfast was cinnamon rolls, warthog sausage, and hot tea. We worshiped with Katete Baptist Church, then returned home for a late lunch.

Before opening presents on Christmas afternoon, we did the last of our Advent, where the highlight was placing baby Jesus in the nativity scene and lighting the Christ candle.

Opening presents was a blast, as always! The kids were spoiled with all kind of toys, DVDs, craft kits, dolls, etc. thanks to Grammy, Mama Dee & Grandpa, Uncle Blu & Aunt Darbi, and our Lawler family. Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Gingersnaps

2011-12-28T02:35:00.000-08:00

I love baking all throughout the year, but Christmas time is when I tend to go a bit overboard with the sweets! While Isaac, Amos and I made the sugar cookies, the girls had the job of making gingersnaps, which was a request from their Daddy. They carefully followed Aunt Darbi’s delicious recipe step by step, measuring and mixing, without any help from me, other than answering a few questions along the way!

Perfect cookies, highly praised by their Daddy…and now the girls want to do more and more cooking and baking in the kitchen!

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-28T02:06:00.000-08:00

We are still building Christmas traditions in our family, but one that has stuck the last few years is making and decorating Christmas sugar cookies. It was extra special to actually have red, green, and white sprinkles to use on the cookies, as normally we just have make do with whatever random colors I might have leftover from birthdays!

Isaac is wet because he was running outside in the rain just moments before coming back inside to decorate (and eat) some cookies.

Reptile Nature Study

2011-12-21T05:35:00.000-08:00

We love to do "nature study" but I hadn't planned for nature study of our current science topic of reptiles....but lo and behold, a snake crawled out from under our sofa last night as we were watching a Little House episode! Abigail was the one to spot it first and let's just say she definitely got our attention! I think because she was so upset about it, it actually helped me to stay (at least) somewhat calm! We've identified it as a Cape File snake, which is a good kind of snake to have around (although I'd rather not have any snakes anywhere around)!

Happy Anavershry!

2011-12-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

Our precious children worked so hard to make our 12th "anavershry" special for us this year: banners, signs, and gifts galore!

Isaac gave us a bottle of hand sanitizer filled with water...oh the cuteness of a 5-year-old!

Abigail made us a beautiful card, declaring her love for us "to the moon and back" and "I will love yall forever!"

When Amos saw the other kids giving gifts, he ran to get his 'purse' and gave it to us--we received a package of toilet wipes, his blanket, and Spiderman sunglasses!

Isabel wrote us a song entitled "Love Birds", which she played on the piano and sang! She even wrote out the music on a treble clef staff, complete with time signature (those piano lessons are paying off)!

Flat Stanley

2011-12-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

We've had several unusual visitors the past few weeks! We welcomed Flat Ashton, Flat Emily, and Flat Dillion from Gatesville, Texas, to our home in Isoka, Zambia! Here are some pictures of their exciting adventures in Africa!

Caught!

2011-12-17T04:40:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Amos were caught red-handed, hiding in our laundry basket, guilty as ever, as they were caught munching on the orange tic-tacs!

Christmastime

2011-12-09T05:36:00.000-08:00

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" This phrase from the popular Christmas song plays in my head as we anticipate Christmas and each day this Christmas season! Our kids make Christmas extra special each year, as we strive to teach them what Christmas is and is not about and continue family traditions while making new ones. This is our first Christmas season to do Advent devotions, with candle lighting, singing, Scripture, building the nativity, and prayer time each evening (thanks to my Dad for the Advent guide that we used when we were growing up)! Even though we will always miss family get-togethers, hay rides and Christmas caroling, cold weather, etc. we're enjoying Christmatime in Africa!

More Than Pets

2011-12-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

After several months of planning, building, and preparing, 4 rabbits arrived at our house this past weekend! The kids were so excited to have rabbits, but we remind them these are more than just pets. We hope that these rabbits will reproduce to provice a source of food for our village.

Haircuts

2011-11-26T03:09:00.000-08:00

A special thanks to Aunt Marci (a missionary friend here in Zambia) for giving the girls haircuts this week!

Thanksgiving in Lusaka

2011-11-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

The kids sure enjoyed their Lusaka Thanksgiving, playing friends, eating turkey, and just having a blast!

This table was reserved for "young ladies".

I told Amos, "Give me a smile for Grammy" and this was how he cheesed it!

This was Isaac's smile for his grandparents!

Blake and Amos enjoying all the good eats--it truly was a feast and a sweet time of fellowship.

School Holiday

2011-11-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

After 16 weeks of school, the kids and I are enjoying a much needed and well-deserved holiday from school and our normal routine! We are spending Thanksgiving week in Lusaka, as we buy supplies/food, get the truck worked on, fellowship, have meetings, etc. Here in Lusaka the kids have been able to play with friends they haven't seen in months, eat ice cream, enjoy a restaurant, play on playgrounds, and swim...just basically do things they do get to do much of in Isoka. We'll return home to Isoka this weekend, where we'll continue with the Thanksgiving and Christmas spirit and put up Christmas decorations!

Cooking with Isabel

2011-11-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

Isabel's assignment in her "Intro to Journal Writing" workbook was to come up with a simple recipe, but she decided it would be more fun to actually go in the kitchen and cook up something...so without any help from me or any recipe, she got out bowls, spoons, ingredients and put together this lovely creation!

She's watched and helped me make enough cakes, cookies, and brownies to have a pretty good idea of what ingredients to use. She was so proud of herself and I must admit it didn't taste that bad!

Nature Study

2011-11-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Living where we do has given us wonderful opportunities for nature study, especially as our theme of study this school year is "Animals and their Habitats". Here are some of the critters we've seen in and around our house the last few months (not to mention the flies, butterflies, roaches, ants, termites, birds, beetles, etc.)!

We often find these little critters on the walls, but this baby gecko was very brave when it chose to crawl on Blake's head!

A wounded dragonfly found in one of our flowerbeds.

The boys found this moth near our front door.

This tsessebe found its home on our living room wall--what a beautiful reminder of the good eats we had from it and from the black lechwe below (back in 2008 and 2009).

One morning in September, we read all about frogs and toads, then later that day, Isabel said she saw a toad in our dirt pit (sand box) but I thought she was teasing. But sure enough, this toad trying to hide in the corner was such a delight to observe on the exact same day we had just learned about them! It felt like a little gift from God, as we hadn't seen any toads in our yard for at least several years!

The kids built this huge nest for our chicken eggs.

This was the best of all the critters we've seen so far--a painted mantis! Blake found it one morning and it was one of those moments when we had to drop everything and come see this amazing insect! We were in awe of the beautiful markings, as we'd only seen more ordinary praying mantis' in our yard before, so we got out our nature journals to draw, make notes, and take photographs. About a week later, we found a picture of this very painted mantis in one of our school books (in our study of the African savannah)!

Helicopter

2011-11-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

It doesn't take much for us to get excited here! Today it was simply a helicopter flying overhead that had us outside cheering, laughing, and shouting for joy! We could even heard our neighbors telling her child, "Look at the aeroplane!" It is very rare (this is the first time we've ever seen a helicopter in Isoka) for us to see any flying objects in the sky, other that birds and homemade kites. We don't know who was flying or why, but it sure made our day!

Funnies

2011-10-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Kids say the funniest things, and we've had our share of funnies lately that I just have to share!

One afternoon when it was 90+ in our house and the electricity was off (meaning no fans to help ease the heat), Abigail blurted out, "My leg armpits are sweating!"

On another really hot afternoon, the 3 big kids put their swimsuits on and hopped in our swim buckets to cool off, but Amos wasn't really interested. He was still in his day clothes, but suddenly decided he wanted to get in too. So he stepped in, then Isabel prompted him to sit down...remember, he's still in his day clothes. But he went ahead and sat down, then immediately stood up saying, "No that good idee", which is his way of saying, "that's not a good idea". We all burst into laughter, while he kept repeating that phrase and then crying...after he calmed down, instead of putting on swim trunks, he just got in the swim buckets in his birthday suit!

During supper tonight, Abigail seriously comments, "What is the world without blue?" then a deep conversation followed between both girls about what the world would be like without blue, or without green. I just sat back and enjoyed every minute of it!

As you may know, Abigail is just a hoot, as she is very quick-witted! She's made up her first joke ever, and it goes like this..."You have good poses; you should be a comPOSEr!" Gotta love that sweet little 2nd grade Abigail humor!

Passing the Time

2011-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

This week, Blake is in South Africa for a Leadership Development meeting, while the kids and I are hanging out in Isoka. We're sure missing Daddy, but we're trying to do some fun things to pass the time...

Last Friday, the kids suggested a picnic which was a wonderful idea! I made one of their favorites foods (soft tacos) and they did everything else, from setting up the tables, tableclothes, and even put a flower on the table!

On Saturday morning, we had several of our friends over for a special teatime! I made homemade (oven-baked) doughnuts, as it went along with that week's story book, On Market Street, then we gave each other manicures and just enjoyed being together.

Amos with his dear Patricia

We began sewing lessons last weekend--while one girl practiced threading the machine, the other practiced piano. We also enjoyed playing mancala and LIFE.

Photo credit for this goes to Isaac, who is just learning how to use the camera. He tends to take pictures of the object rather than the people! I hope we'll look back and remember the good times and fun memories we enjoyed together rather than all the hardships of having to be apart. But with all that said, hurry home, Daddy!

Smile!

2011-10-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Isaac sporting his new smile, with his 2nd tooth gone! Just when I thought he couldn't get any more adorable!

Now Amos thinks he should have loose teeth too, but he doesn't realize how wonderful his big white toothy smile is!

Isabel Rescues a Butterfly

2011-10-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Swimming Pool

2011-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's getting hot here, with temps in the low 90s. I know that may not be too hot compared to the hot Texas summer, but you can imagine how hot 90 degree temps feel with no air conditioning to run to! Last Saturday, Blake went outside and said he was making a surprise, so of course were extremely curious and excited! When we saw this clever and creative little homemade swimming pool, it was just pure delight, joy, and fun in the hot Zambian sun!

Fashion Show

2011-10-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most fun times we had on Isabel's birthday was the fashion show! The kids dressed up in clothing items and accessories of mine and Blake's and strutted down the hallway to loud music playing in the background. Their poses, facial expressions, and mannerisms would have been better caught on video camera, but hopefully these pictures give a picture of the fun times we had laughing together!

Amos was adorable, not understanding that Daddy's clothes were supposed to be too big on him, so he refused. But we at least got him in a ball cap and tie. He began the fashion show by literally running down the hallway (of course, that's his speed--he runs everywhere)!

Isaac's style and that look on his face was just too much! Patricia and I just burst into laughing, not AT him, but at how precious he was as a miniature man!

If these girls aren't full of attitude and spunk, then I don't know what is!

3-5-7-9

2011-10-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

Isabel's Tea Party Birthday

2011-10-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Isabel turned 9 years old! She picked a tea party theme, which we enjoyed throughout the day with games, activities, and of course, a simple tea party at tea time (hot tea, lemonade, and Sixlets candies)! Enjoy these pictures from her special day!

Fashion Show!

We read Raggedy Ann's Tea Party book, then had a 'imaginary' tea party with 13 of their favorite stuffed animals.

Isabel's requested oven-fried chicken, shells-n-cheese and ranch style beans (from USA), and angel biscuits for her birthday lunch.

Vanilla cake, pink frosting...not a bit of chocolate!

Isabel in 9 Words:

Tender

Caring

Beautiful

Loving

Giving

Smart

Creative

Happy

Silly

Spiky Hair

2011-10-10T03:40:00.000-07:00

Toothless Isaac

2011-10-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

Back on our first day of school, Isaac discovered his first loose tooth and Friday was the long-awaited day for that tooth to come out! Although we don’t celebrate with the tooth fairy, we do have a little tradition of making and eating a “First Loose Tooth” cake.

The girls, who are experienced tooth get-er-outers, tried to give Isaac support and encouragement, in the last few days before the tooth came out.

Isaac’s New Look

Daddy was the hero, helping to pull the tooth out.

How better to celebrate than with a double chocolate cake!

Rainy Day Fun

2011-10-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

The rainy season has hit early this year, and we’ve savored some days of unusually low temps during the hot season! The afternoon rains on Thursday seemed the perfect time to give the kids their brand-new rain boots (thanks to our friends at Lawler Baptist Church)!

Fun Names

2011-10-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

ISABEL
Instrument Scissors Apple Bat Egg Light

ABIGAIL

Apple Banana Ice Granola Apple Instrument Lion

ISAAC

Ice Salt Ant Apple Carrot

Reading Rewards

2011-10-01T02:51:00.000-07:00

Over the summer school break, the girls participated in a reading contest through Veritas Press, with the goal of reading 40 books. They worked hard from June through September and successfully reached their goal! Now, I've read some homeschooling thoughts about not using rewards, specifically with reading, but I disagree and this little contest was a wonderful way to help encourage the girls to read, read, read. I wanted to affirm their hard work, so they each received their favorite historical American Girl doll (the mini-one) as a special reward!

Can you see the excitement on the girls faces? They had to wait several weeks for the dolls to be shipped here (thanks, Mama Dee).

Isabel with her mini Josefina doll.

Abigail with her mini Felicity doll.

Then this last week we had another little surprise that none of us expected--each girl received a $10 gift certificate towards a purchase at Veritas Press! We promptly looked through the catalog and they found some great books...may the love of reading grow in these growing girls!

2011-09-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, the girls work in their “Intro to Journal Writing” workbooks. Abigail’s response to the “When I grow up” page cracked us up! Enjoy!

When I grow up, I will be able to “eat a lot of chocolate and drink tea.” I will have “a lot and a lot of chocolate and go to bed late.” I will not have to “go to bed at 7 or no scool!”

Isaac says he wants to be a clown when he grows up.

Isabel says she can’t decide whether to be a missionary or teacher when she grows up.

Abigail's Baptism

2011-09-19T07:50:00.001-07:00

Our dear Abigail was baptized yesterday (September 18^th) in the closest water source to Mupeka. She fearlessly got in the cold, swampy water, among lily pads, flowers, and little swimming critters, to proclaim the salvation she has received from Jesus Christ!

Abigail, although very young, asked Jesus to be her Savior back in February 2010, and was now ready to be baptized. She has a child-like faith, as she is a precious child of God, and we pray for the Lord to grow and mature her as a young believer.

Kids in Mupeka

2011-09-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to Mupeka with Blake on the day they first began making bricks for the church building. We weren't much help, but we had fun watching the beginning steps of brick making.

Just like any adventurous kid, Isaac loves to climb trees.

Amos, quite the ham!

Abigail talks to Blake, while Matthew holds his baby girl, Monica (9 months old). Matthew's wife is in the blue and black striped shirt, with their first born child, Samuel (2 years, 2 months) in the blue outfit.

Village kids in Mupeka (they asked me to take their picture as we were leaving)

Daddy's Birthday

2011-09-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our precious children constantly remind me of the joy of GIVING. They have such fun on others birthdays, most excited for the birthday boy or girl to open their presents.

Isabel gave Daddy a handmade card along with a pin. Both girls had their gifts ready for him at least a month ago--they're good at planning ahead!

Abigail gave him a handmade Christmas ornament, creatively wrapped in a rainbow-colored Dr. Seuss hat! Love this hug between Daddy and daughter!

Isaac is a bit more of a last minute gift-giver, so he gathered his favorite marbles and had Isabel wrap them in a handkerchief so give to Daddy.

Fun Times

2011-09-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Boys cleaning out the washing machine. It was their idea to get IN the washer, although my plan was to just have them wipe down the areas they could reach.

Kids playing some kind of “train” game they made up.

The kids loved helping Rodwell bring wheelbarrow loads of black dirt, to fill our flowerbeds…but one time Isaac got pushed by Abigail and he went headfirst into the dirt—it was all over his face and even in his mouth!

Kids acting out “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” on morning during school.

Amos, also known as A.J. (although he pronounces it “AA”)

Growing Girls

2011-09-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

Teaching the Boys

2011-09-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

It’s a blast to teach the boys, but a totally new experience. Isaac is enjoying Kindergarten, working so hard to practice writing his letters and numbers, reminding me what concentration it takes to get your hand to move in the right way, as your brain is trying to remember how to form each letter or number. He gets a bit frustrated when the girls keep talking, which distracts his from counting in his math lessons. Overall, he’s an eager learner and I love his excitement!

Here’s Isaac with his “M” supper of meatablls, macaroni-n-cheese, and milk. The letter he’s studying this week is obviously the letter M.

Amos keeps busy, sharing his time running outside and “helping” Rodwell then coming in to “do school”, pulling out his own blue school box, full of his special scissors, glue, and markers (washable, of course)! He enjoys cutting, but his favorite pastime lately is to glue, glue, and glue some more. It’s so cute to see him squeeze the Elmer’s bottle so hard…but he has recently learned how to take the whole lid off and just pour out the glue on his paper. What a mess, but we love him anyway!

Field Trip

2011-08-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

We recently went on a little field trip to the farm at Mupeka Village. The kids were adorable, with their nature bags--nature journals, colored pencils, notepads, magnifying glasses, and ziploc bags for gathering all kinds of treasures (seeds, flowers, leaves, bark, pods). We had a nice time, wandering through the bush, enjoying a break from our normal school day and enjoying God's creation!

Abigail was wore out after hiking up a large anthill to get a bark rubbing from an interesting tree. That look on her face is precious!

Over the weekend, we visited the nearby waterfalls and Isabel was excited to take along her clipboard, paper, and pencil so she could sketch the waterfalls.

Chicken Math

2011-08-13T00:45:00.000-07:00

I like to supplement our basic Math-U-See curriculum, so we use the very colorful Mathematical Reasoning workbooks. But surprisingly, it is our chickens have proved most helpful, specifically with skip counting. Here’s how it works. First, Isabel and Abigail gather the eggs each morning.

Next, the girls sort by 2’s into groups of 10.

Finally, they count by 10s then add the leftovers, for a total of 26 eggs!

Now, before you think we’re failing miserably at math, let me explain. If you looked closely you may have counted only 25 eggs. One egg accidentally got squished in the hen house, but we still added that to our total count. By the end of the day, 6 more hens had laid their eggs for a grand total of 32 farm fresh brown eggs! And now are two funny pictures of the strangest and most colorful chickens I’ve ever seen!

Porcupines, Picnic, and Painting

2011-08-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

During these first two weeks of school, every last one of us Kimbroughs had a stomach bug. But we are finally all healthy and had a great end of our 2^nd week of school!

Each week of our “Animals and their Worlds” curriculum, we focus on a different animal. We’ve started this fun journey in the woods and our first animal was the porcupine. Who know porcupines were such interesting creatures and if you were to ask my kids, they could (hopefully) tell you some cool facts they’ve learned!

The kids worked hard these first two weeks of school, earning a “Way to Bee” for a job well done, kind word spoken, etc. and get to place a bee on our ‘bulletin board’ (wall). Once all the bees are on the wall, they get a special surprise reward—today the reward was a picnic! We searched our little yard for the best location and we settled for the carport, as the grassy areas were either wet or not shady enough. But we still had a nice picnic lunch together!

During our picnic, Amos provided entertainment by ‘reading’ to us from his favorite book, Hug by Jez Alborough.

And what better way to celebrate the end of a long week, than with art class! Fridays are our finish-up day to complete projects, take spelling tests, etc. with the goal to finish before lunch, so that while Amos is napping, we can dive into art! Painting, mixing colors and creating abstract masterpieces was a great way to finish out this Friday.

Back to School!

2011-08-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first day of school and it went great! Last year, I clearly remember us having a rough start, so I was overjoyed that everything went even smoother than I had planned for our first day back into the homeschool routine! Praise the Lord!

Isabel: “My first day of school, of third-grade was the best first day of school ever! I could not wait to do my math. It’s so much fun! And my language arts was funner than 2^nd grade’s! I love third grade! THIRD GRADE ROCKS!”

Abigail: “Second grade of school is awesome! It’s awesome because my momma teaches us and I like doing cursive and copywork. I liked doing the animal height chart too. SCHOOL ROCKS!”

Isaac (kindergarten): “I like everything about school. My favorite part was everything!” My highlight of the first day of school was during teatime when Isaac discovered his first ever loose tooth!

More Birthday Fun

2011-08-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Abigial, Isaac, Isabel, and Daddy

You know we love cookies!

Birthday lunch: lasagna, Italian bread, roasted veggies

32 and 3!

Happy Birthday, Amos!

2011-07-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday we celebrated Amos' 3rd birthday, with a fun jungle animal party--he especially loves monkeys! Just like the other children, he is growing like a weed and we're loving every minute of his toddler years!

It took some time for him to realize that having a birthday is a good, fun thing! Once he saw the presents and decorations, Amos perked up and enjoyed our special day!

One of his many gifts was this sweet, simple storybook from Grammy, called "The Story of Amos McGee". When I read it to him the first time, he just loved hearing his name in the story!

It's so fun to share a birthday with Amos! Our birthday cake was...chocolate, deep, dark chocolate! When you have a cake THIS chocolatey, there's no need to try to make it fancy!

All the kids loved Amos' "play play cook cook" gifts (plastic dishes, pots/pans, cookie cutters, etc.). What a fun birthday celebration for our precious Amos!

Monkey 'N Around

2011-07-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Back: Lane, Abigail, Isabel, Heather, Isaac

Front: Seth, Tobias, Amos

Our kids loved playing with the Schwarz kids when we visited them recently in Mbala. The Schwarz Family is the closest missionary family to us in Zambia...only a 5 1/2 hour drive away!

Piano Lessons

2011-07-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

We are in our 2nd week of piano lessons! I am so thankful to have a digital piano (thank to my late Grandma Winsman) that we bought on Stateside and brought over in our crate. Now I hope to pass on the love and appreciation of music to our children, just like my Grandma passed to me.

School Books!

2011-07-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

I love school books! These piles of wonderful books will be used for Isabel, Abigail, and Isaac as we begin our new school year next week (August 1st). You may have noticed I changed the blog background to monkeys, which is fitting as we are going to dive deep into studying "Animals and Their Habitats", along with the essentials, like reading, phonics, math, etc. This will be my first year to have a Isaac in the mix, so I'm praying for wisdom, flexibility, patience, and fun in managing the time needed for each child.

Family Reunion Fun

2011-07-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

The first ever Winsman/Kimbrough/Tidwell Family Reunion was a blast! We were last all together in October 2006! Enjoy these photos highlighting the fun times!

One of the reasons we stayed at Protea Safari Lodge was because they had a playground and lots of green grass to run and play in--essential for 7 kids ages 2 to 8!

Cason, Abigail, Isabel, and Cambree ready for a morning stroll to see the lions (in a cage, of course)!

While the kids kept busy at the playground, us grown-ups played card games like Scum and 10 Up 10 Down.

Our card game came to an abrupt halt when we noticed the kids playing Duck Duck Goose! That was the best entertainment, watching the younger kids not quite know when to stop running around the circle!

Even the big kids had plenty of playtime, with Grandpa, Blake & Blu going on a quad bike safari!

Trouble, trouble, trouble! This was the never-ending game of Trouble!

Craft time with Mama Dee!

We had just returned from an evening game drive where we spotted zebras, guinea fowl, sables, and puku.
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Bubble time with Grandpa!

Nature Walk with Mama Dee and Grandpa

2011-07-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

As we walked to the beautiful waterfalls in Isoka, it was a sweet time to enjoy God’s creation as we walked through the bush!

Amos with his Grandpa, but Amos doesn’t know how to say “Grandpa” yet, so he calls him “Mama Dee”! So when Amos calls out “Mama Dee”, he might be referring to Grandpa instead of Mama Dee! Aren’t toddlers cute?

We saw more butterflies on this nature walk that we’d ever seen before, even purple ones! We also spotted a beautiful red dragonfly and an incredible spider web! Too bad we didn’t take our nature journals along…maybe next time!