New York City - Day 1

When David's parents were visiting last May we had discussed them coming out for Thanksgiving and maybe heading up for a few days to check out New York City. Dave had never been there and my NYC visit a few years ago had only lasted a day so it sounded like a good plan. Sometimes good plans just remain plans; in this case, we made it happen. The Pierces arrived on a Tuesday evening in November and we were on the road for New York City the next morning. It's a quick 3 hour drive up there so, once we arrived, we checked in to our hotel, ate some lunch, and grabbed a bus into the city.

At the bus station, ready to start our adventure!

We decided that the best way to see as much of NYC as we could with kids in tow would be to take a tour bus. The buses make periodic stops where you can get off and explore the sights if you want. When you're ready to move on, you just jump on the next bus. We were able to see most of the city this way. One of the first stops we made was to check out this beautiful cathedral.

Another stop was Ulysses S. Grant's tomb. Unfortunately the tomb was closed that day for some unknown reason but it was still nice to check out the beautiful building and walk around a bit.

We were able to see a lot of famous buildings, like The Guggenheim...

and lots and lots of beautiful old buildings that I just could not resist taking many pictures of. I'll be kind and only post one picture out of the numerous amount I took.

By early evening Noah was tuckered out!

After an afternoon of sightseeing, we headed over to Times Square.  The kids insisted that we just had to stop at the M&M store.

Each of the kids took the scanning test to see what their M&M mood color was.

Back on the streets we saw a lot of famous people, including this one!

We had a delicious dinner at Bubba Gump's. Savannah tried on Forrest Gump's famous tennis shoes!

Although the night was absolutely frigid, Noah had been begging ALL day to go to the Lego store which happened to be several blocks away, near the Rockefeller Center, so off we went. It was amazing to walk the streets of New York with all the thousands of people and the towering buildings. I made the kids look up from time to time, just to check out how amazing the skyscrapers are! On the way we got to see Radio City.

The famous Rockefeller skating rink! I was amazed at how small it was.

And finally, the Lego store!

One happy little boy! The store was pretty cool with all the displays made entirely of Legos. My favorite was the Lego dragon that went all throughout the store.

Dave really wanted to take a night bus tour so he could see the Brooklyn Bridge so around 8:00 back we went onto the bus. I can't even explain how cold it was that night and poor Xander had refused to wear his big coat that day so he was freezing. He huddled with his grandma down below but the rest of us braved the top deck so we could see the bright lights of NYC! The Empire State Building.

And the Brooklyn Bridge!

After seeing the Bridge I just couldn't take the cold anymore and Noah and I hurried below. David and Savannah soon followed but Dave persevered and remained up top for almost the rest of the tour. Unfortunately I think it was that exposure that brought about the terrible cold and cough he developed a few days later. We ended up not getting back to the hotel until late that night but it had been a fun and fabulous first day!

November/December Homeschooling

Savannah and I continue to plug away at homeschooling and have found a lot of enjoyment and an increase in knowledge as the days go by. We had to postpone French since neither one of us was having any kind of success with it. I'm working on finding another French program to use or else Savannah can save it for when she goes back to public school. As for the other subjects they keep us both busy, me with planning, Savannah with the work and studying. We try to get out of the house from time to time for some fun field trips. One fall morning we drove around looking at all the beautiful leaves and scenery and took some pictures for her Fall Science poster. We just had to stop and talk to this cute donkey and horse.

For Science we have been studying the human body and have enjoyed several experiments. One of Savannah's favorites was making a rubber bone. She soaked a chicken bone in vinegar for 3 weeks...

and since vinegar is an acid, albeit a weak one, it stripped the bone of its calcium, making it weak and rubbery. We laughed as we both bent the bone and thought of Professor Lockhart when he "heals" Harry Potter's broken wrist in the second Harry Potter movie.

Another fun experiment was checking if various items, like seashells, rocks, and eggshells, have calcium in them.

She looks like such a little scientist!

Learning about the skeletal system.

For our Science class I had bought a frog to dissect as we learned about the various systems in the body. Neither Savannah or I were particularly thrilled about it but I knew it would be useful in our studies plus the science activities book we use called for it. Savannah's expression here mirrored my own on the day we had to get started.

It took a little getting used to...

but Savannah is clearly a trooper!

In her history class we spent almost a month studying Ancient Egypt since Savannah loves Egypt! She had a couple projects that she really enjoyed doing - one was making canopic jars.

The other was The Hall of Pharaohs project. She had to research the lives of ten of the most famous or important pharaohs, mainly from the New Kingdom, and make up a short report on each of them that included their name in hieroglyphs, the dates that they ruled, five facts about them, and a picture. She did an awesome job! Here are just two of the reports she did; we hung all ten in the hallway leading to our basement.

And of course there are those little perks of schooling at home. I mean, what better way to learn about Ancient China then while enjoying Chinese food at the best Chinese restaurant in our area?

Gotta love those fortune cookies!

Hangin' Out

Although school, soccer, and church activities seemed to dominate our lives this past fall, we all still found ways to just hang out and have some fun. Xander started piano lessons which he has loved...

and has attempted to pass on his new musical skills to his younger brother. Just warms the heart, doesn't it? I wish they would always get along this well (as I type they are yelling at each other in the other room).

David and I took Savannah to see the latest Hobbit movie which we all thoroughly enjoyed! (The perks of homeschooling!)

After spending weeks immersed in Ancient Egypt in school, Savannah taught Noah all about being a mummy.

Breaking free!

My cute little Egyptian boy. He put his costume together all by himself...pretty impressive!

The kids spent every available hour after school outside playing with friends. They ran around the neighborhood like wild kids, completely carefree of life's responsibilities. Oh, to be young again. Well, not really. But they do have fun playing football, tag, running around the neighborhood playground, riding their scooters, and playing in their fort. One day I was walking one of the neighbor girls to her door and came across what Noah insisted was a plastic snake. I was a little unsure but Noah said, "See, Mom? Watch!" and went to pick it up...and that's when it moved! Noah's hand shot back so fast that I couldn't help but laugh. I know by looking at the picture that you'll wonder why we ever thought it was a toy snake but it was so teeny and lying flat and still. It must have known I was taking its picture because it raised its head and almost smiled at me.

One afternoon I heard Xander calling for me from the backyard. This is what I came across.

Noah is too much!

Who can resist such fun fall leaves?

The boys kept raking them up into huge piles and made me take several sequence shots of them running and jumping into the leaves.

David and I spent the fall season carting kids around to their soccer practices, cheering them on at their games, keeping busy with work and church assignments, and enjoying football games and for me, lots and lots of reading. One of my favorite things that occurred this fall was we got new carpet in our family room. Earlier in the year Xander had burned a small section of our carpet as he experimented with what would happen to a Kleenex if you held it over a flaming candle. Well, no surprise there, the Kleenex caught on fire and Xander flung the flaming cloth away from himself and onto my floor. Thank goodness a big burn on my floor was the total sum of the damage. It gave us a great excuse to get new carpet which we were sorely in need of.  I had to include a picture of the burn...X marks the spot! As we say, X for Xander!

ABBYs!

I was so excited to learn that not only Xander but Noah also had earned the ABBY student of the month award for October. On the first Wednesday in November Savannah and I headed over to the boys' school to see them recognized. Noah was up first and boy, was I proud of him! One of my greatest worries each day is how well Noah is maintaining control over his little body that just overflows with energy and pizazz but apparently, so far this year, he's been using it in positive ways.
  Way to go, little No!

I just love that little face!!

Noah and his wonderful teacher, Ms. Pope.

Getting some love from his big sister.

Later that afternoon it was Xander's turn. Ever since kindergarten he has received the ABBY award for October and this year proved no exception.

He still towers over the majority of the kids in the third grade.

Xander loves his teacher, Ms. Siegel.

So proud of my Xanderman!