So much FUN!

Tonight we had church but the kids could dress up and then Bryan and the Youth dressed up as characters from "Pilgrims Progress". I thought my crew looked so good in their costumes and wanted to share pictures of everyone. Isaac and Sarah won their age group's costume contest! :)

Isaac the pirate!! Ahoy Mate'!

Spiderman....nobody knows who you are! :) (AKA Timothy)

Grandma Sarah!

Our little horse, Elijah!

She does sting!! (Joanna)

"Christian" with his burden! :)

A Football Game

The Vanderbilt team before the game.

Florida is on the move!!

I just LOVE this picture! A lady behind them ask to take a picture of them. :)

So how did this come about? On Sunday October 7th, a man from our church came to Bryan and said that he had two tickets to the Vandy and Florida game. He was not going to be able to go and wanted to give them to Bryan so that he and Isaac could go together. WOW!! Isaac is a huge Florida fan this year! We did not say anything to Isaac, we wanted it to be a surprise!

During the week Isaac said that he would love to go to the Vandy- Florida game since it was only an hour away from us, but he knew that tickets were expensive. On the morning of the game, October 13, before breakfast we gave Isaac an envelope and told him that this was for him. He thought it was a letter from someone. When he opened it he was so excited! (wish I knew how to post the video I took of this)

Him and Bryan had so much fun! We are not huge football fans but we know that Isaac loves it. Isaac has blogged about the game too, here. I encourage you to go there and see what he has to say about this event, he even tells you the final score! :)

Our Swimmer!

Back in September Sarah started the swim team. She loves the pool and had been asking all summer if she could be on the swim team. If there is a pool she could be in it all day! When we go to the beach she would rather swim in the pool instead of play in the ocean or sand. This was a perfect fit for her. She loves it and has enjoyed every minute of it. Sad to say but Monday will be her last practice for a while, beacuse they are working on the pool and it may take 6 weeks. So thankful she has had this opportunity!!

Our little "fish". :)

Her favorite thing is the back stroke.

 Here she is after practice tonight! Isn't she a beautiful little swimmer?

If she is not swimming you can find her reading to the little ones or...

reading for herself!!

I love this precious gift from God! So thankful for her in many ways!! She is a huge help in fixing meals, playing with the little ones, shopping, cleaning, the list goes on! We do have our challenges but very few. I really could post a long one on this girl but I need to get ready for bed and I am sure that I will have more times to share things about her and for her.

Chicken Nuggets

This is what we are having for dinner tonight!! I tried these a couple of weeks ago and we have had them once a week since. :) In searching for healthier foods for my family I came across these on Pinterest. I have changed the original recipe some, because I didn't have everything it called for. They are delicious and I hope you enjoy!! *Update: I cut a few of these up and put them on my salad...YUMMY!!*

Chicken Nuggets

Place thawed chicken breast cut into nugget sizes in a bowl of milk. Let soak for 20-30 min (or longer if you need to).

Mix in a Gallon Size Ziploc or Large Bowl:
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 T Season All
3/4 tsp Pepper
1 c. Flour
2 tsp. Paprika (I didn't have this)
(actually you could use whatever seasoning you prefer)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick of butter into a few pieces and place in a 9x13 pan. Melt butter in pre-heated oven. Spread melted butter around the bottom of the pan. Lightly spray the pan, if needed, to make sure that there are no dry spots. Shake excess milk off of chicken and completely coat each piece with the seasoning mix. You can either shake the chicken in the bag, until coated, or dip each piece in the bowl until coated. Place each piece of chicken in the pan. Cook for 15 min. Turn each piece of chicken and continue cooking for 15 more minutes, or until cooked through.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zuchinni Muffins

We have enjoyed our Chocolate Chip Zuchinni muffins so much that I decided to add a little cocoa to my recipe. I changed a couple of other things and made chocolate chocolate chip zuchinni muffins. I have included pictures and the recipe below. Hope you enjoy!! :)

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zuchinni Muffins

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I actually used half white chocolate chips and half regular chocolate chips)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa, and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Yield: about 1 dozen.

Insects

Recently we did an Insect Unit study by Amanda Bennett. I included the little ones as much as I could and we had lots of fun! I was so amazed at how God would place insects in our path as we were learning. It was great because then we had some hands on learning.

Butterflies that were in the drive way. There was probably 15 of these just right behind the van.

The grasshopper. When we were learning about the grasshopper we measured how far the kids could jump. So fun!

Potato bug beetle. All the kids learned lots about insects.

We enjoyed this week long unit study. Didn't cover all of it so we can do it again later and finish it up. If you ever want a break from the regular school routine, I highly recommend these unit studies by Amanda Bennett. You can click on the links in this post or on the top right hand side of our blog is a place that will take you to the web site also. She even has weekly specials and you can get really good prices on the Unit Studies!!

Homeschool Moment

Name the States

Wanted to share another homeschool idea. I printed this map off the computer onto card stock, I numbered each state, and then I covered it with contact paper (laminate it).

I asked Isaac and Sarah to list as many of the states as they could. This really helps me to know what they know and what we need to work on.

Isaac is my map man, he loves things like this! We were apart of a co-op group last year and the class Isaac took was a states class and he LOVED it! He also asked for books about the states for his birthday. :)