April | 2014 | For my children

Easter Fun

We have patiently been waiting for the Easter holiday to come.

Silly moments seem to follow these three birds!

Coloring eggs is wonderful way to experiment

Making messes is even more fun…

New outfits, new bunnies

Miss Smiley

Boots with Easter dresses?
Papaw said of course, they are new and they are pink!

Jackson’s new brown football bunny unfortunately missed this photo.

Happy Easter

I love this photo of all. However, true personality of Jackson and Elijah makes me like it even more!

They love being together.

A beautiful Sunday for Easter!

Another Easter basket at Nana and Papaw’s…now we are ready for an Easter egg hunt!

My happy bunnies!

April 28, 2014
Categories: Memories, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

April in our Mountains

What a view!

The mountain line is amazing.

New life on the earth’s floor

Colorful flowers against leftover leaves from last year.

Abigail is super excited to find these flowers in the mountains.
She picked this purple one for Jackson.

The sunlight coming from above was a welcomed feel.

King of the Mountain…

Playing together is always special.

Walking up a windy observation tower was not on their agenda!

Although much cooler, it’s a perfect way to acknowledge spring is here.

Exposure to the world around us

Mountain to Sea…WOW!

Three little birds rotate the driver’s seat riding on daddy’s neck up and down the trail.

A good spot to take a break

A different day, a different mountaintop trail.

We found an interesting rock overhanging another. We wondered what might have slept there the previous night.

Isabela has the best seat for this ride.

Abigail loves finding new blooms on our adventures.

I love seeing her discover things she is fond of.

Daughters that truly bless their mommy!

Mother Earth offers the very best views to be thankful for.

Jackson’s photo for his trivia collection

Thank you for these many blessings!

April 24, 2014
Categories: Excursions, Memories, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck…

Ducklings…

Are we kidding?

Do these smiles look like they are kidding?

Four ducklings…two yellow, two brown.
Puddles, Peeps, Marigold, and SunflowerQuackers
Say a prayer that they survive before they are released

Isabela isn’t really sure about these fuzzy critters. She likes looking at them but she does not like when Jackson and Abigail pick up the ducks.

Abigail is a patient watcher.

We can’t believe how quickly these little ducklings are growing.

She remains one of the sweetest ducklings I know…

April 21, 2014
Categories: Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Work in Progress

Jackson finished another book in his series.
Moving on now to the final book in Level 3

A letter sent to Amy Jo as part of our thank you letter study.

By Abigail, a drawing of she and Isabela on a spring morning

By Isabela, a flower under rain

I wasn’t too pleased with his first “quick/rushed” attempt at writing a summary. After sitting together and discussing, his next try was much more satisfactory.

Second tooth lost!

Sad that we couldn’t find the tooth but at least I still get my smiley girl.
She was satisfied because the fairy left her a note saying she liked the tooth drawing that was left in place of the real tooth.

Abigail gave these to Papaw

Love Jackson, even though he mispelled “friend”

Jackson chose to describe the steps of planting peppers for a Language assignment.

An example of one of Abigail’s Spelling test.

Photographs by Abigail, enjoying her study/observations of the sky and clouds

Puzzle by Abigail

Proud of his completion to his new Smoky Mountain puzzle. Over 500 pieces, it took him about two weeks to finish. One missing piece…

His idea for playing in Papaw’s building and having cake!

Jackson has memorized all of these prepositions! He can quickly recite them. Now we wait to see if he uses them in his writing.

Happy Earth Day.
We even planted seeds!

Over the past week Abigail had started ABC order as well as trying to put together a sentence with five words.

Spelling test, actually not a 100, Maine is not correct.

Happy Birthday Janice

Papaw gave Jackson the job of finding all of the cities of the March Madness teams.

300-400

By Abigail, she described this as a birthday cake for Jackson. She said she had a hard time getting the seven crayons to all stand as candles.

We took the classroom outdoors working on our Junior Ranger Badges

The ranger signed both of their workbooks at the end of the study.

We learned a great deal of information about the black bear.

April 14, 2014
Categories: Abigail's Art, Abigail's Work, Isabela's Work, Jackson's Art, Jackson's Work, School Related, Uncategorized . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

More Vineyard Time

Happy we are having a good time working in the vineyard.

He has been a huge contributing factor in our work this season!

“I want to fly like an eagle”

“Ratoon” and Isabela are showing off some of the completed rows.

“Puppy” on top of a completed vine.

Smiley Sisters

The fields are usually littered with our toys.

Digging in the dirt is much more fun than actually working…

Worms, nature’s plows

My crown wearing princess loves finding the worms beneath the earth.

Jackson carrying out a load of cuttings alongside his sisters tagging along. Not a great photo but the memory of knowing they all seem to end up in the same row is super sweet.

The sunny days have been so fun to work under.

We have drug these three along the entire season of pruning. They have gladly joined us without any complaining.

We have to take breaks for napping in the back of the vehicle or resting on the grass.

I watched these two pretending and talking for a long time. Their conversation was sweet and their play was so innocent.
Freeze these memories!

She pesters her brother regularly! He is usually a good sport.

Photo by Jackson

The blooming tree in the background gives us joy in the early spring.

Later in the pruning process, as the vines are cut, the canes produce droplets of water at the ends. This is referred to as bleeding.

The energy of the plant taking in the new moisture and transporting it throughout the vines cause the plant to “bleed” the water. We know at this point the buds will soon follow this stage.