Fruitbearers

Today it was very windy here.  How windy?  Let me show you what happened on our deck :).  We had a big umbrella open above our glass picnic table.  This afternoon I heard a loud noise while I was upstairs.  I came down and looked out the back sliding glass door and this is what I saw: Yep, the glass was completely shattered and the umbrella was blown to the roof of our toolshed…all folded neatly .  Well, we had a windy day today.  How was your day?

Below are some of the poems written by my 8 year old son (now 9):- Cinquain Tornado dark, powerful destroying, traveling, twisting so exciting to watch Twister Haiku Bear is a mammal Bears can be very fearsome Bears can be cuddly Acrostic poem F all is a time when leaves fall off trees A ll of the leaves turn to beautiful colors   L ots of leaves flutter to the ground L eaves are then ready for raking Acrostic poem F lowery L ovely beaches O ranges R ain I nternational Worm Fiddling Contest D own tip A tlantic Ocean Quatrain I want to go hiking everyday Because I enjoy God’s creation I like the animals and plants Hiking is lots of fun Noun Verse       Oregon beautiful, forested raining, snowing     My state Tanka             Oregon big forests in green meadows in bright profusion high desert in bloom rivers flowing clear and blue ocean waves crash on the shore Sonnet The forest is nice in summer’s delight The forest is great in win

Last night, we hosted another game night for the international students.  We invited our homeschool friends to join us, too.  We were introduced to 2 new students from South Korea.  We had a delightful time playing foosball, Apples to Apples, Whoonu, and Charades.  We’re so glad that they felt at home here and that we helped ease their homesickness a bit.  One of the students told us more than once that spending time with our family made her so happy.  They all love our kids .  Speaking of our kids, after the church service tonight…as we were leaving, someone (we don’t know her) came to tell us that she’s so impressed with how well-behaved our kids were.  How true 1Timothy 4:12 is!!!  Today we had a birthday party for our two birthday boys (see the Wordless Wednesday post on Oct. 10th).  The weather was beautiful so we played games outside.  We played Jelly Bean Hunt, Bean Counter Relay, Broken Down Car Race, and Rocket Launching.  Instead of a traditional birthday

Yesterday, we stopped by the local Barnes & Noble store.  They were having a contest: guessing how many peppers were in the glass jar sitting on a table there.  The first prize was a sweatshirt and the second prize was a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card.  We enjoy playing this kind of game (estimating).  All five of us wrote our own guesses on the entry forms.  Later when we were home, we received a phone call notifying us that our youngest son (5.98 years old) won the first prize!  There were 95 peppers in the jar and his guess was 96.  A minute later the phone rang…and the same lady who just called, said that our daughter (14 years old) won the second prize!  Her guess was 91.  Wow…we were so astonished .  I think that lady was, too ; she couldn’t help laughing when she called the second time because it just dawned on her that she was calling the same number again!  We are so proud of our kiddos.  They are great guessers.   In January, my daughter also won a $10