Still

 Before it disappears, I thought I'd take one last glance...

And remember why, and be filled with the joy and wonder of it all.

Sure the stockings are hung with care, and the presents are such fun; but each year, in the quiet moments between, I am reminded of why we celebrate.
May the love and light of Christmas, the joy of receiving the Savior and being redeemed by Him, so fill hearts and shine forth into the darkness.

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15

A visit from Aunt K

We have been so blessed this past week to enjoy a visit from Husband Dear's Aunt K.  I think it's safe to say that we had much fun together and did our best to show her a little of our home here.  We spotted sea turtles, camels, gangs of marauding goats (I kid you not--ha!) and parrots in the wild.  We ate out and in, enjoyed tea parties, reading books aloud, opening early Christmas presents and playing outside.  We saw the Opera House, the sea and the mangrove swamps; and we bargained our way through a market.  We waded across a sand bar to an island and then climbed over 400 steps up to a fort on the top.  Unfortunately, I stink as record-keeper, and the few photos we have are because I remembered to grab my camera one day and threw it over to Husband Dear to actually snap a few.
Oh well, you will just have to believe me when I tell you of all the wonderful fun we had, and the things we saw along the way.  Most importantly, we soaked up time with Aunt K and caught up on her life and family news--it was just such a sweet time.

 Aunt K, I would like to say, did a great job taking pictures all along the way. =)  I snapped this one on our trip towards an older city in the interior of our country.

 These next few photos are a little more artistic--that's because I was no longer taking them!  This is a view from the fort of the old city.  We had visited here with the kids about two years ago and I thought I was going to lose my mind with them trying to inch to the very edge of each window and unbarricaded wall, but they behaved much better on this trip.

 I bet it's 'cause Aunt K was there. =)

 We took a break from school, but did take Aunt K along for swim lessons for the plus 3.  Yes, swim lessons in December--outside.

 The water's a little chilly in the morning, but we push through. =)

 Eldest son seems to dislike the cold water the most, but even he hangs in there--we love to swim!  And best of all for him, after swimming he spotted a green parrot in the tree next to the pool.

We did have to say goodbye to Aunt K eventually =( so we decided to throw ourselves back into school work for the next week.  Eldest daughter is doing an Advent handwriting exercise here.
We love you Aunt K, thank you for travelling across the world to see us, you made our Christmas!  

Eldest daughter turns seven and other fun stuff

I thought it might be time to stop in and update the blog. =)  Eldest daughter has turned seven, sniff.  She seems so much to be a grown girl already.  For her birthday, we took advantage of our new city and it's cultural benefits (there's an honest to goodness opera house here!), and we all went to see a ballet.  She, of course, loved it--eldest son, thought it might be a new way to torture him (due to the "fancy" clothes he had to put on to see it).  I did tell eldest son that he only had to go this once, and then after that he could decide if he wanted to go again (assuming we ever get the chance to go again).
Now, without further ado, lots of pictures!

We had fun studying the phases of the moon...

and eating them.

I think it's only fitting that the one picture I have of eldest daughter blowing out a candle (and we had two birthday cakes before it was all over) was on her quiche--that girl loves quiche!

 One other thing to learn to love about this place is that things don't always come as advertised.  I thought I bought regular candles, but oh no, what we got were never-blow-out-throwing-out-sparks-like-a-firecracker candles, but it added to the moment for sure. =)

 Imp's inverted tower.

Making the earth

 and cutting it apart to see all the layers inside.

 Ever the realist, eldest son adds ice caps at the poles.

You say kebab stick, he says art utensil.

Sunset on the beach, so beautiful.

 I couldn't believe it when I saw Imp in the sand, drawing circles (just like she'd seen me doing when I gave a compass lesson to her elder brother and sister, but I really didn't think she was paying attention).

 

 That is until I saw what she had found to be her "compass."  A crab claw!  It worked perfectly too. =)

Final shot, the eldest ones working together on the long 7 chain--it's been a good week!

School

Well friends, looks like I'm behind again, but I will now be dropping lots of pictures on you to try to catch up with some of our fun adventures in home school.  Yes, in case any of you missed it before, I am officially home schooling the plus 3.  It is now two months in and we are actually, for the most part I think, having a great time. I love, love, love the Montessori method and materials! Before we came over here, I had the privilege to teach in a Montessori school.  My children started school there and then we moved here and our options were very slim, as in one. We were grateful for that option, as it allowed me to do some full-time language study, but now it just feels good to be able to be teaching again and watch my children take things in, oh and I'm learning a ton too. =)

 This just makes me think of Alice in Wonderland...
What a beautiful gift, this green space!  Here Imp is drawing a picture of a plant, the cherry tree to be specific.

 This activity is an exercise in mixing the primary colors to (hopefully) create the secondary and tertiary colors...and lots of brown too. =)

 Eldest daughter drawing and recording information about plant roots.

 The absorption color wheel--this was the coolest experiment!  It took two weeks of trying to get this result, but it was well worth it.  I'm including the link for any of you interested in trying it for yourselves.
chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2012/08/absorption-color-wheel.html

 How Imp proposed she eat her breakfast, tower o' cereal--seeing how it would be well above her head and mouth, I suggested I take a picture to remember it by and then she could take the top bowl to enjoy. =)

Ahem, well you know, self-explanatory. =)
But for those of you who enjoy a little more explanation this is a grammar exercise to help eldest daughter and son to be able to find and symbolize certain grammar elements (article, adjective, noun in this phrase).  And I do try to be kind. =)

 It's a hard knock life...
Imp asked to do this work, just in case anyone was wondering.

Our leaf collection, which we dried and made into animal shapes, fun, fun!

This one may be hard to see, please forgive my lack of picture taking know-how, but it is a work with some of the major constellations.  The jar is what I call "the star jar," inside the glass jar is cardboard (with aluminum on one side--think take out lids for aluminum pans) that I punched some constellation patterns into.

 It's a little hard to see, but here Eldest son is in a dark room lighting the glass jar containing the star patterns to try to find certain constellations.  Here's the link if any of you are interested.
http://www.designmom.com/2012/05/diy-constellation-jar/

One final shot of Eldest daughter, hard at work.  It has really been such fun teaching the plus 3, exhausting at moments, but exciting and energizing as well.  Hope to show you more of our adventures soon! 

Opa!

Or the best summer vacation ever!  When husband dear and I had been newly married (before the plus 3 joined us) we dreamed about all the little vacations and big adventures we'd love to have, where we would go, what we would see (OK, for me, what we would eat--there's some fabulous food out in this great big world!).  And always on my list was the dream of a chance to visit the Greek islands.  It was one of those impossible dreams, especially when the plus 3 joined us so quickly, but still we held onto it.
And am I glad we did!  Many circumstances came together just perfectly, we took advantage of a couple of deals, broke several piggy banks--justifying that our tenth anniversary deserves to be celebrated memorably (and the plus 3 could come too) and we all had a magical adventure.

Words cannot describe how beautiful Greece is, and we loved the weather!  All the locals complained of how hot it was, but you know our perspectives are a little different. =)  It was also great to be out and about wearing short sleeves and shorts!

Stand really still like this soldier...eldest son invented a game to play after this experience where he stayed really still without moving or blinking to see if he could outlast the person he was playing against.  Only thing is he would just keep going after the other person invariably lost.  We informed him that it wasn't good for his eyes to start crying because he was refusing to blink them...strong willed that one.

This town was beautiful and we could have spent forever in it, but alas there were times when vacation was all a little too much for some of us...

 like this one.  Imp was probably the most ready to be done with vacation.

She did manage to hold it together for our trip to the Acropolis (she even took this picture =)).

 Athens was a whole other experience for us.  It was colored by inept (thankfully) pickpockets for husband dear, metros and walking, beautiful monuments and museums, fresh bakeries, Gyros (my mouth is watering thinking of it), cappuccinos worth every penny, and GELATO! I told you I'm all about the food! =)

 And some history.  The two go so well together!

 I love the mix, the building of the new right on/slap up against the old.  Husband dear at work...can you see the cafe tables running up the steps? This area was so neat.

And then there was our island adventure...Naxos.  We savored every minute of it, so beautiful!

In the end, we all kind of looked like this...but they've already asked, "When can we take our next trip?"
Look out world, I think our plus 3 are now bonafied adventurers in search of their next gelato fix!