Forever Young: August 2008

Sign of the Times

Today as I was doing school with Bekah, she was reading some words and then using the words in a sentence. For example, she read the word, "feel" and then said, "I feel sad." Then she read the word, "we" and said, "My Mommy is playing the Wii." Is that a sign of the times or what???

School Time

It's that time again....back to school! We celebrated with a frosted brownie decorated to look like a white board. Todd is starting another semester at the seminary and will be taking Bible Teaching, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, and Guitar lessons. He'll be working 7-4 and taking classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and studying and doing homework when he is home!

Everyone is ready to eat the yummy dessert!

It's hard to believe that Brandon will be in 3rd grade this year. His favorite thing to do in school is science because he loves to do science experiments! This year we'll be using My Father's World - Creation to the Greeks.

Bekah is starting Kindergarten this year! She is still 4 and due to her late birthday in November, technically wouldn't start for another year. But she is very ready for school and begs to do school like her brother. And, the joy of homeschooling is that I can do it now if I want to! We'll be using My Father's World - Kindergarten as well as Teach Your Child to Read on 100 Easy Lessons.

Silly Bekah

While we were on our vacation, we happened to be in the same place as an Amish family. There were several kids of differing ages and all the girls were wearing hats like these:

Bekah looked at them and then said to me, "Mommy, that little girl over there is a cooker!" (You know, because everyone with a white hat on is a cooker!)

And, by the way, it just so happens that the girls in this picture are cooking, so Bekah must have been right!! But I didn't plan that.

Last Day of Vacation

Our final day of vacation was spent shopping in the outlet malls and the Smoky Mountain Knife Works (probably one of Todd's favorite stores ever). We left town a little before 4 pm and headed for home. We arrived home shortly after 9pm, tired and happy!

We all tried on cool sunglasses.

Bekah was making faces in the mirror with her glasses.

The knife store had added on since we were last there, and these are from the new part.

More Gatlinburg Pictures

Our next day started out with breakfast at the Pancake Pantry...the best pancakes around! Then we spent some time walking the strip in Gatlinburg. The kids enjoyed all the sights.....cool cars, King Kong, a dinosaur, a wax museum, candy making shops, haunted houses, etc, etc.

Me and Bekah enjoying the Pancake Pantry. I opted for cinnamon and spice pancakes, Brandon got chocolate chip, Todd got pecan and Bekah chose cinnamon french toast. Everyone left full and happy!

Another sight along the strip....a huge marble ball floating in water!

We had an appointment to listen to a sales presentation from Bluegreen at noon. We did that and they had a playroom for the kids. For attending the presentation, we got our 2 nights stay, a $25 gift card to Bass Pro Shop and 2 tickets to the Ripley's Aquarium. So, after the presentation, we headed to the Aquarium to use our tickets!

Touching a horseshoe crab.

Look at those strange looking fish!

Jellyfish are cool!

After dinner we went to play putt putt golf!

Daddy gives Bekah some instructions.

By the time we finished, it was time to head back to the hotel and hit the sack!

Gatlinburg Pictures!

We left Maryville on Monday morning after breakfast and headed for the Great Smoky Mountains! We drove up to the Clingman's Dome Trail, enjoying the views along the way. We took lots of pictures! Here are just a few (well, more than a few) of them!