School December

I'm simulating a windblown beard here, don't try this at home.

Nothin' like try to butter Mommy up with a little spelling practice.

My Cat in the Hat drawing.

School this month featured some very interesting topics. On Dec 7th we studied Pearl Harbor. In order to better understand how things occurred, Brett pulled out his Axis and Allies game and used the individual pieces in the game to depict the route the Japanese navy and air force took in their attack on Pearl Harbor. Garrett wanted to dress the part of a soldier as he studied some of the details of the attack and the ensuing involvement of the United States in World War II with President Roosevelt's Day of Infamy speech. One of our most remembered science days of the month came when we heard a loud thud against our back window. Brett went to explore what happened. Upon investigation, he found the culprit...a very dead bird had rammed our window at full speed. The initial solution was to find our adopted outdoor cat and offer the bird as a meal, but sensing that this bird wasn't much of a challenge, Max turned her attention to the dead bird's friend who was not far away waiting to see if his friend was going to wake up. So the boys witnessed a cat on the hunt as Max stalked and pounced on the other bird, capturing it in her mouth and bringing it over to the window for us to see. Well that was when Max made a calculation error and put the bird down. The bird leaped into the air and took off in a mad flight that led to it ramming itself into a low wall. Dazed, it barely got off the ground again before Max pounced again, this time missing and the bird narrowly cleared our back fence and escaped capture. Besides getting to be eyewitnesses to nature at work, Garrett wanted to learn more about birds and their anatomy. No, we didn't dissect the bird, but rather he drew pictures of the bird and Joy found some nice handouts on-line that helped with the rest. All the boys participated in learning about weight and measurements. We weighed Christmas presents and realized the biggest boxes are not always the heaviest. Never a dull moment.

Does making a gingerbread house count for school if you eat a lot of candy in the process?

Garrett, you can build the whole thing, can we just eat some of the candy?

I'll draw it, then I'll eat a real one...sounds like a good deal.

Ooohhh, I can't wait to be old enough to play this game with Daddy.

My recreation of one of the turrets on the battleship USS Arizona.

I've drawn it, now I just need the snow to build it.

This is what scientists do...observe, draw, record data.

My unfortunate subject of my scientific observation.

I can't take credit for the design of this weight balance, but it did a good job helping us compare weights of Star Wars toys...I was dressed for the occasion too.

India Night

In response to a unit on India that we had just completed in homeschool, we had an India night with another homeschool family. The evening started with a train ride to the Cricket Arena, where we took "batting practice." We then ate Indian food that we had made for the occasion. Since the focus of our study was on some of the impoverished areas of India, we ate what would have been a meal prepared in the low income housing villages. We made artwork, listened to music, and played a game with seeds. All in all, the food was quite tasty and more filling than we originally expected. The kids had a good time and hopefully we understand just a little bit more about one of the most populous countries in the world.






"Merry Christmas" in Hindi

Is that you Mommy?

Not only did we go on a train ride, but we were the train.

I'm making my own tortilla, can't wait to taste it cooked.

This is where we took our cricket batting practice.

Even Griff, got some hits with Daddy's help.

Here we made Rangoli art designs as part of our celebration of the traditional diwali celebration.

Even our younger siblings (Bryce and Brianna) got in on the artwork.

Eating dinner under the tent, trying to recreate an Indian village.

Noah and I are chowing down.

We had to listen to Daddy explain how to play the seed blowing game.

The Pumpkin Patch in December

Joy found the shortest possible line to get pictures with Santa Claus and she is still tickled to death that she accomplished this with the added bonus of getting all the kids on ice skates for the first time in their lives. We didn't have any major accidents or injuries (unlike the unfortunate father who broke his leg just before we arrived). The boys took turns skating with us and with large Lowes buckets by themselves. Garrett lasted the longest on the ice. He came to almost enjoy falling down on the ice, which allowed him to ditch the buckets by the end and skate with Brett around the rink covering half of it with a few "crashes into the wall" so he could experience a hockey check...or something like that.

We were all smiles before venturing out on the ice.

We weren't sure we should trust Daddy to help us stay on our skates, but he surprised Mommy.

Sure is nice to have this bucket to hold on to, as long as I don't split my chin open on it while falling forward...don't worry I didn't.

Check it out, I'm skating by myself, ok, with a little help from the bucket.

I'm not sure how long I should be doing this by myself, but so far so good.

Mommy showed us true grace on the ice, at least we have one good teacher.

Even when your pants are wet from falling a few times, this really can be fun, and I don't have quite as far to fall when I go down.

Daddy wanted in on this one, so we let him.

Lights Parade

Garrett and Joy marched in the Christmas parade this year in our hometown. Garrett was a part of the tap dancing group Luv 2 Dance and Joy marched with them as a parent chaperone. Garrett was pretty exhausted afterward as he had pretty much marched/danced for a full hour. Brett and Bryce and Griffin watched the majority of the parade from the street and enjoyed Garrett's routine and the group that came shortly after Garrett's which happened to be the local Star Wars chapter which included part of the 501st Infantry (stormtroopers). It was warmer than other years had been but it rained lightly during most of the parade--a fair tradeoff.


Daddy dressed us nice and warm so we could enjoy the parade and we didn't complain about being cold one bit.


Nothing beats seeing Darth Vader and his stormtroopers, and you wonder why I (Bryce) say that Star Wars is real...

Throw in a few Jedi and Boba Fett...Dad, when are we going to be walking in this parade as Star Wars characters, forget about dancing in it...

How many times did they have to turn that windup to get the truck to go?

I was just sitting around waiting to start the parade with Jace and Ben.

The whole dance crew, I'm the one in the front row actually looking at the camera!

Hockey Duel

An interesting thing happened this year when a dinner engagement was postponed due to illness (not our illness). Brett realized that this happened to be the night of the first Sharks vs Redwings matchup of the year in San Jose. Brett quickly discovered that they could get tickets on-line on Stubhub for a reasonable price for the whole family. Well, thinking about how potentially crazy that would be with the kids and getting home late and messed up sleep schedules, Joy suggested just just two of us go. It became all the easier when the boys unanimously asked to stay home and play with the babysitter. The thought had never occurred to Brett prior to that, but he got a new spark in his eye, called up the babysitter who was more than happy to come over last minute. Once that was cleared Brett found some nice tickets for two and off we went on our first sporting event date, just the two of us in almost 6 years. What a concept, we sat in our seats the entire game, we didn't have to get up to go to the bathroom, run around, or pacify our children. How wonderful! We saw all the plays and had nice seats to boot. Joy had the last laugh on the scoreboard as the Sharks lost 5-3, but it was a very relaxing and enjoyable evening for both of us. We even maximized our time together in the car both ways working on projects together that required uninterrupted attention from both of us which we had suddenly been blessed with. When's our next sporting event outing together...we're looking into it.


We certainly got plenty of comments about being an odd couple...

The Christmas Tree

We decided to get our tree early again this year so that we could have as much fun with it as possible, so we visited our local supermarket and selected our favorite tree of the bunch. Rather than making a mess in our front yard, we sawed off the end of the tree in the parking lot, quickly tied it down to the top of the car, threw the remaining rope in the car and told the boys to hold on tight or else the tree was going to slide off the top of the car. After successfully making five turns, we were home and the tree was up. We hope not to repeat the last year process of our tree dying and turning brown before Christmas...so far so good.

We all concur this is the one...or maybe that one...

Daddy, how are you going to lift the tree on top of the car?

Each of us "big" kids got a shot at sawing the bottom part of the tree off so it would soak up water and stay green this year.

Hold on tight! Griffin, not with your teeth!

A Christmas tree sure brings out the brotherly love in all of us!

December 2010

December was a month filled with preparation for and celebration of Christmas. We took family pictures, wrote our annual Christmas letter, selected the songs for our annual music mix, wrapped presents, baked cookies, lit the advent candles almost every night, and read the Christmas story. Joy and Garrett participated in our city's parade. We visited with family and friends. What a wonderful month.