The Release

The weather here is lovely and even in December all of our high temps have been in the 60s and 70s. This means our butterflies could be released into the wild! We set them free this past Friday. It was neat to see them fly off. They were great little sports for Henry's project. Here's hoping they enjoy their last three weeks on the earth! 

Henry's Science Project

We had a lot of fun with Henry's science fair project this past month. Henry wanted to raise butterflies. We bought a kit online and got started. As we came to understand the rules more clearly (this is our first project) we realized Henry needed to "test" something and follow the scientific method. We found one idea online about testing whether the butterflies liked salty, sugar, or plain water but that wasn't very interesting. Then we had the idea of seeing which color flowers liked best. Once our butterflies emerged, Henry chose 3 different colored plants of the same type of flower and we created a butterfly habitat in their bathroom. Henry made observations at different times and charted where the butterflies were in the bathroom. While his hypothesis was wrong (he thought they would like the purple the best) he won 1st place in Botany for 4th grade and 1st place for Botany 4th/5th overall. He gets to go to the district fair next! Way to go, Henry!

All Lit Up!

We finally got the Christmas lights up on December 12th! It's the first time we've seen this house in Christmas lights and we LOVE it! We didn't get it done last year, but we promised the children we would this year. We think it looks so pretty!

Our Famous Mississippian

Earlier this month, Henry participated in a 4th Grade night of Famous Mississippians. The program started out with some fun songs and facts about the great state of Mississippi. Following this combined program, the students went back to their pods and created "wax museums" of famous Mississippians. Henry chose Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 13 Space Mission. The children memorized a short narrative about their famous person and would recite it as each  family came around to them. Ms. Schifano complimented Henry on having written one the longest narratives and memorizing it so thoroughly. She also liked his costume. We thought Hen did a fantastic job!

KELSEY!

JENNA!

JEFF!

HENRY!

A Thanksgiving Visit from Santa

My sister-in-law works at the Mall taking photos of Santa! He stopped by on Thanksgiving and we had a lovely visit. Who knew Santa was retired Army? :) 

Cousins!

For Thanksgiving last week we packed up the van and headed to Montgomery, AL to see my brother Dennis and his family. We ate lots of yummy food, shared some good converstation, fixed part of Dennis' van,  and the kids had fun staying up most of the night and goofing off with their cousins. We had a visit from Santa and took a walk to the park. It was a nice relaxing little break from reality!

Jenna's Preschool Thanksgiving Program

Jenna's Thanksgiving program wasa absolutely adorable! The children learned and performed several super cute Thanksgiving songs and then we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast together. Jenna's preschool is wonderful. She is learning so many wonderful things. She even came home today with her first little reader- in Preschool! I can hardly believe it! I have come to the conclusion that Preschool (half day, 5 days a week) is really the old Kindergarten!

North Bay Reading Fair

Jeffrey chose the book "My New Boy" for this year's reading fair. It's a cute book written from the view point of a puppy who chooses a new boy and teaches him all kinds of things when really the boy is teaching the puppy lots of new things. We thought it would be cute to take photos of Jeff and Missy that looked just like the illustrations in the book. While we didn't win this year, we think it turned out really cute and Jeff got lots and lots of compliments on his board.

Camp Carnival Talent Show

Jeff, Jenna, and Kelsey all participated in the Camp Carnival Talent Show. All three sang a song and they did a great job!

Camp Carnival

The kids LOVED Camp Carnival!

We thought we would maybe use Camp in the evenings so that we could have a date each night, but the kids loved it so much they were in there all the time. They had so much fun. The ladies who worked in there were total angels. Erica, who is pictured with Jenna fell in love with our girls. She even got misty eyed when we said goodbye! We loved these ladies!  

Let's Eat!

There was a whole lot of eating going on! That's part of the fun! The kids had so much fun being able to choose what to eat all week long. There were lots of burgers and pizza and icecream, that's for sure. One morning we ate breakfast in the formal dining room. The boys thought it was so neat that they got a tiny chilled pitcher of milk for their cereal. So fancy!