Ty Loves History

This is a model of a fort form the French/Indian War. It's Ty's extra credit project for his History Class. His History teacher is a fabulous teacher and Ty is having so much fun.

Dan a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed

The kindergarten bus came rolling down the street yesterday with a busload of kids with pots on their heads. Little Johnny Appleseed hopped off at our house and was so very proud of his creation. It's a week full of apple projects and he couldn't wait to hop back on the bus this morning to see what exciting thing they would do today.

Allie spent the weekend sewing for Conkerr Cancer

Conkerr Cancer is a group that makes cute, homemade pillowcases for children who are struggling through cancer/chemo. Allie did an awesome job with her sewing. If anyone is interested in a service project, Conkerr Cancer is a national organization. This project is great for children who are just learning to sew. It's all straight seams.

As Dan would say,"Hal with rockets on his shoes". Cross Country

Family Campout Labor Day Weekend

We had a great weekend family camping trip at Illinois Beach State Park. The weather was good except for high winds Friday night and Saturday morning, which made putting up the tents pretty difficult.

We had a hammock in our back yard in Ohio, but don't have a good place to put it in our yard in Illinois, so it was fun to find a spot to set it up in our campsite.

Each of the kids took one or two meals between Friday and Monday to plan and prepare-- they did a nice job. We had dutch oven mountain man breakfast and also did foil dinners several times. A pretty relaxing weekend, with short trips back home for church and for Hal's cross country and Courtney's swimming meet.

Courtney's first drive on day she gets driving permit

Courtney just got her driver's permit and is taking driver's education in school this semester. This is a picture of her on the first day she got her permit, and her first time to drive in our car and in our neighborhood.

Courtney driving video