The Flora and Fauna Around our House

I just wanted you to see some of the natural beauty here that we get to see most everyday.

Some of the beautiful flowers in our garden.

I'm really enjoying playing with all of the settings on the camera lately.

More of the flowers in the garden.

Pink is so vibrant!

Love these flowers.

Up high on the bush.

Low to the ground.  I had these flowers in my gardens in Virginia, Colorado, and in Maryland.

One of the gardens just outside of our gate.

Many people grow vegetables to sell on the side of the road.

The cows in the field around the corner.  Half of the time they are on the road outside of our house, but not today.

Yes, more cockroaches.  Not sure where they are coming from...but I don't think it's because we're not cleaning!

Carley's Bridal Shower

Our friend Carley is getting married to our friend Victor in Kenya next month.

Here is her Bridal Shower in pictures.

It was a lovely, precious time with friends, food, and fun!

We had plenty of food for the event.

Darla filling in a bit of wisdom and advice for Carley.

Ali and Megan.

Amazing cupcakes by Amy, Lauren, and Dyan.

Everyone enjoying the food.

Sushi!

Beautiful packages.

A wide group view.

Amy played a game with us...we had to answer questions about bridal traditions around the world.

There were definitely some interesting ones that we learned about today.

Game #2 "Project Runway: Bridal Version."

We broke up into 4 groups and had 8 rolls of toilet paper to decorate our bride!

 I just had to do a few "old fashioned memory" shots and play with the colors.

Don't worry, she has the originals on the disc I'm making her....this picture and about 200 more.

So serious and amazingly "bride-like," looking at her "bouquet."

Omega as a bride.

Sam as the Modern Tanzanian Bride.

The train of Carley's gown, as described by Ali.

A very tropical bride - Sarah

Amy and Lauren

All of the brides!

Praying over Carley and Victor's future.

Trying out some of her new glasses.

I had such a hard time picking which pictures to put on this blog post.  Carley, you have an amazing smile and you radiate joy!

Some dishes that she requested.

Amazing vase and plate from Ursula.  The color didn't come out so true in the photo; but, it's a green color.

Storage containers for her kitchen

Reading aloud another card.

One of many kangas I'm sure she'll receive.

Ahhhh!  The wonderful scent of a Yankee "Tropical Fruit" candle, from Jennifer Michalik.

A serving dish.

The handing over of the "bouquet!"

Dyan took all of the wrappings and bows and made her practice bouquet.

So fun!

Lauren, Carley, and Amy

Jane, we all adored your outfit!  Stunning!

Ursula and Omega

Cards we all filled out for Carley with words of wisdom, advice, and scriptures.

So many beautiful flowers around the room.

Starting the clean up process.

I loved the flowers, rocks, and cucumbers and hummus in the background.

Carley and Epiphany

We loved sharing this day with you Carley!

Many wonderful years of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are ahead of you (Galations 5:22-23.)  Know that many, many friends and family are praying for you both!

Fall Break Started!

Just a couple of pictures from our last two weeks of school before the break!

Sissi working on her last Rod and Staff book, what will I do with her after this :)????  She's on a roll!

Gwangi, working on his handwriting.  When we return from break he's going to start learning cursive!

Krypto has a few more weeks and he's done with his last handwriting workbook.  They are growing up so fast.

*** Added note.  Krypto's handwriting still needs some work.  I've printed off some sample pages from Handwriting Without Tears and we're going to try that style and see if it makes a difference.

Both Gwangi and Sissi moved up this past week.  Sissi is in her last Rod and Staff workbook (I just added the next two in the series to our Amazon Wish List...this girl loves school!)  Gwangi is in Book 5 of Explode the Code and reading and spelling like a champ!

One of our maps from a week ago.  

We were learning about "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal."

In the past two weeks we covered John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, the "Five Civilized Indian Nations", Louis Braille, John Audubon, the childhood of Queen Victoria, and Fredric Chopin.

Have a great Fall Break (all of you that take one)...we'll be doing some fun family days, Indy will be working on his Greek and getting his applications in for his PhD next year, I'll be doing some school prep work for the rest of the year...oh, and I printed off a lapbook that we're going to do all about Election 2012.  Guess this homeschool mom can't just "take a break" :)...there always has to be something to do!