Christmas Around the World - Day 1

In our World Geography studies this year, we are going to "travel the world" 

to see how people in other countries celebrate Christmas.  

We are going to attempt to make a treat from each country and 

make some type of ornament or craft to represent the countries as well.

Today we began with South America. 

We made these delicious 

Alfajores de Dulce de Leche Cookies.

Ethan had a fabulous time helping me make the cookies.

And we all enjoyed eating them as well!

Where is Ethan?

Every night when we go to bed, I always check on the boys &

 give them a kiss goodnight. (Shhh...don't tell Evan!) 

When I checked on Ethan last night, this is what I saw...

Do you even see a body part anywhere? 

  

It took me a minute to find his hand.

And then, I uncovered his precious face!

And when I showed him these pictures this morning, 

my boy with such an imagination giggled so much!  

He couldn't believe I took a picture of him!  

He said he was trying to keep the light out! 

Thanksgiving Craft

I got this idea from my dear friend, Kim.  She has a handprint turkey that she hangs up every fall that her daughter made when she was little.  I decided I could paint a canvas and put the turkey on it.  Now I have a permanent fall decoration made with Ethan's sweet kindergarten hands.  

8th Grade & Kindergarten

It's hard to believe my baby is in Kindergarten & my other baby is in 8th grade already!  We had a great first day of school!  It's definitely a lot more work with both boys doing full-blown school but they both had fantastic attitudes & worked hard all day!  Time went by way too fast!

My friend, Kim, gave me the idea of making pancakes in the shape of their grades. Wow!  That was NOT easy!  But it was yummy!  And the boys were tired...not used to getting up before 7 am anymore!

Evan's physical science looks fascinating.  He's building a race car on the first day!

Ethan did a great job with his handwriting, reading, spelling, & math.  He said this was going to be way more fun than Pre-K!  

Here's he's watching Mr. Demme's video on Math U See.  He thinks he's big stuff!

While I'm preparing lunch, they are working on learning the books of the Bible.  Today, they just sorted them into Old & New Testament piles.  Evan's helping teach Ethan, and I guess Eli wanted to help too. :) It surprised us both how many books that Ethan already knew that belonged in the Old Testament!

After lunch, we are all "Exploring the Earth."  We started out by watching an old Anamaniacs video that goes through every country of the world...so cute!

We also made a John 3:16 collage to show that God loves all the people around the world!

                                    

And...we ended the day taking "First Day" pictures next to our World Map...they were PRETTY cooperative...

All in all, God blessed us with a wonderful day.  Now we have to do it all again tomorrow! :)  

How was your first day of school?

This Week at the Beechem's

 We have had a very busy month...traveling to Illinois & Indiana to visit relatives & for Evan's Community Problem Solving Competition...then coming back & getting Eric ready to go to the Philippines for 11 days (he's in the air as we speak) and getting Evan ready to go to his first Youth Camp in Orange Beach, Alabama!  I think it will be nice to get to July & have a pretty empty schedule! :)

Here are a few pictures from our week...

For Father's Day, we made a cool candy poster.  We got the idea on Pinterest but had to make a few changes to go along with the candy we could find.  I thought it turned out really cute!  The boys loved making it for Daddy!

Here are the boys with the candy poster.

Eric wanted to go to Auntie Pasta's in Nacogdoches for his Father's Day meal, so we decided to pick blueberries while we were there in town.  Boy, was it HOT in the middle of the afternoon, but we managed to picked 13.5 lbs in just an hour!  Ethan & Evan didn't contribute too much, & Eric & Ethan ate more than they picked, I do believe!  But I'm so glad to have a bunch of fresh blueberries in our freezer now!

And here is a product of the yummy blueberries!  This is a recipe that Glenda gave me a few years ago!  Thank you, Glenda!  It's the best pie recipe!

And this is a little treat that God gave us last night when we were finishing up packing for Eric's trip.  It was a complete rainbow right behind our house!  So cool!

And here is Eric & Flat Ethan getting ready to leave at 4:00 AM this morning!  We can't wait to see what adventures they have!  We pray that God will work through Eric as he travels on his first foreign mission trip!  I know it will be quite life-changing!

I couldn't resist posting this adorable picture from our recent trip to Indiana...

And this adorable picture of my silly teenager!  

(That is so weird to say I have a teenager...makes me feel old!!)

T-Ball

CMPS State Bowl

Creation Museum

Today we took a little drive over to the Creation Museum created by Ken Ham's ministry, Answers in Genesis.  What an awesome educational experience for all of us!  The displays and movies and exhibits explained so many biblical concepts in ways that I've never really imagined.  We had a wonderful day learning about God's creation including a lot about Noah's Ark, the flood, and dinosaurs.  

Did you ever realize how much food & supplies Noah & his family had to pack for a year on an ark?