More January – Museum Outing

For Christmas Nan gave us a membership to the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
I haven’t been there in probably 20 years or more.
It had a lot of interactive things that the kids loved, including A SIMULATOR RIDE!!?? I couldn’t go on it with Scooter and all. But my younger three did.
It had the same dioramas they had when I was a child — and the kids were about as uninterested as I was back in the day. The difference is, when I went there on field trips with Plank Road South, I had to stand patiently while a docent rambled on with boring facts.

My kids are far more fortunate. I don’t make them read anything.
ACTUALLY – I PREFER THAT THEY DO NOT!
I am quite comfortable with them just absorbing the mental images of a what a long house looks like, or what it looks like under a beaver lodge. I don’t want them reading any of the old-earth nonsense, or the politically correct revisionist history…
Our friend’s the Hs went with us.

Champ wearing his favorite shirt.

This next picture cracks me up.
Angel is 3.75.
This is supposed to be a boat the slaves used in the Underground Railroad.
As soon as the kids climbed in SHE commandeered the most forward seat.
See, she invisioned it a Roman ship.
She was being the galley captain.
The other kids?… they were the slaves.
How many other three year olds call Ben-Hur their favorite movie?
Only kids with older homeschooled siblings, I am sure!

I called her on it.
“[sic] Angel, are you the galley master?”
Big grin.

A cool hover-seat.
The lightest kids got it to move the best.
ME? – not so much!
Okay – Angel loved this mini-ball-crawl.
She loved it so much she ran to me, threw her arms around me, thanking me profusely.
Should I tell her that her dad thinks he threw out our first 100 balls and that we have another 100 in a bag in the garage?

We went under a beaver lodge.
My little dress-up boy! ♥

January…

January.

I have joked a few times that I should name the new baby either, “Winter,” or “January,” so that it will force me to stop saying, “I hate Winter,” and “I hate January.”

But it is probably not going to happen.

Skeezix reading to Angel about Dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs are the new, favorite thing around here.

Our peek at Scooter!

Baby #5
We peeked at our new baby, but chose not to find out if it is a HE or a SHE.
We’ve never found out before and didn’t feel inclined to find out this time, either.
Scooter was VERY active and we got to see lots of legs, arms, fingers and toes.
The kids were pretty interested in the whole thing on age-appropriate levels.

They were very concerned if Scooter was healthy or not.
Praise God \o/ – it appears that s/he is. ♥

Christmas Morning

Tree pre-in-law presents.
Isn’t this cute?
A few weeks ago Champ asked for cotton balls and tape.
He created this costume a la The Grinch.
He insisted he WAS Santa Claus, and that [sic] Champ was still sleeping.
Beau decided to be a complementary elf. ♥

So excited. Waiting for Nan, Ba, and Poppy to arrive for breakfast and gift opening.

Checking out a new, “Planet Earth,” coloring book while waiting for our company.

Birthday cake for Jesus.

A few days ago Champ asked us for a box.
He wanted to give us a gift.
So he put change in ziploc bags and drew us some pictures and wrapped up the box.


They were blessed with a trampoline in the basement.
Nothin’ like getting a gift you can enjoy in SIX months! 😉

Stocking time!

We went to Nan’s house for dinner.
The Brooks family were also her guests.
We had SUCH an amazing and wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve with words.

It was our third annual Christmas Eve with our friends, the Brooks.
It was such a fantastic evening.


The kids all had so much fun together.


Look at their faces!
One, Two, Three, JUMP!


They decorated birthday cakes for Jesus for us to each enjoy in our homes the next morning.


And we ate and ate and ate and ate.


And ate.


And enjoyed some yummy Christmas punch. 🙂


And my socks were knocked off by the amazing surprise gift I received.
Mr. Brooks made a table for us.
MADE. A table.
Isn’t it beautiful?