Tubing

Right after our Soccer game on Saturday, we jumped in the van and drove to Helen, GA to go tubing down the Chattahoochee River with the home school group. What a blast we had! Nathan even went in his own tube the entire way!!!!! He is still talking about it. He makes the most incredible expressions with his face and tells me all about what we did. "Mama, water!" He takes his hands and moves them like he was going down the river in the tube and keeps saying "water". He always has so much expression when he tells stories. I could listen to him all day. :-) One of the big highlights of the day was when Daddy fell out of his tube face first in the water. Oh how I wish I could have gotten that on camera. All we saw were feet sticking up! :-) Here are a couple of pictures from that day. I don't have any of us in the tubes because I couldn't take my camera in the water but here are some before and after the tubing while we were still at the river.

Robbie and Abbey's first soccer game!

Robbie and Abbey had their first soccer game on Saturday! It was SOOOO cute! I laughed for an entire hour. They both scored goals (ok, Abbey's goal was for the other team but hey, it was a goal!). When Abbey scored her goal (for the other team) she came running across the field with her arms stretched open wide, jumped into my arms and just as excited as I've ever seen her she yelled, "Mommy! I scored a goal for you!!". My heart just melted right then and there. I couldn't have been any prouder. Nathan was the official water boy. Every time they had a water break, Nathan (all on his own with no prompting from me) would get the water bottles and say "Bubba, Sissy, Drink!". I think he enjoyed himself as much as anyone there. Daddy was in his glory because I think the coach has officially made him the Assistant Coach. He is so good with all the children and has jumped right in with both feet. The kids love having Daddy as their "coach" too. Look closely at the 2nd picture (the one where Robbie is kicking the ball). His shin guard is on completely backwards and is almost ready to fall off and Abbey's shorts are just about to her ankles. :-)

Sawnee Mtn. Scavenger Hunt

What a fun day! We had our first outing with the homeschool group at Sawnee Mountain Preserve for a scavenger hunt. We got lost on the way there, so by the time we got there everyone had already started up the mountain. I was pretty disappointed but I said, "Ok, we are going to go up anyway and hopefully we will find some people from the group along the way". Now mind you, we had never met any of these people before so I was truely on my own "scavenger hunt". :-)

Anyway, the children were wonderful and we found 32 items on our list! Some of the things we found were a Y-shaped twig, fern, moss, tree with a hole in it, berries and lots of other stuff! We did end up finding some of the others while we were there and made some new friends. We all really enjoyed ourselves and I can't wait to go back and do it again.

I really mean it!

I've got to share the sweetest little thing that happened today. Robbie was praying for our lunch and he thanked God for the "nice warm day" and for our food and for Mommy and Daddy. Then he said "Please forgive my sins. I really mean it - Amen". It just made my heart dance to hear him say "and I really mean it". He is so curious about heaven. He asks me just about every day questions about what heaven will be like. He also is very sure that he wants to go there. I have explained to him that all little children go to heaven if they die but that some day, when he really understands, he will need to ask God to forgive his sins and trust Jesus as his Saviour to go to heaven (and "really mean it"). I will often hear him whisper under his breath, "Please forgive my sins". I'm thrilled that he is so concerned with heaven and pray that he never looses that desire to go to spend eternity there. I also pray that Abbey and Nathan will get that same urgency about heaven. Have I said lately that I have the best children in the entire world?!

Speaking of the best children... Daddy took us all out to eat tonight and when we got home we had desert here (the peanut butter play dough balls and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that the children made in school this week). Anyway, after desert, I looked over at Abbey and she was at the sink washing the desert dishes!! She is such a huge helper. She loves to help in any way she can. Any time she sees me cleaning or working on something, she immediately wants to help. What a little doll.

As I finish typing this, Abbey and Nathan are playing hide and seek. They are having so much fun! Nathan is very proud because he has always called Robbie and Abbey "Bubba" and "Sissy". Well, tonight he started calling them Robbie and Abbey. He just keeps saying their names over and over and smiling from ear to ear. Before they started playing hide and seek, Nathan was just following Abbey all over the house saying her name. Then he decided to hide without telling her. So, she was looking all over for him. She asked me where he was and I called his name. He came out of the bathroom with a grin from ear to ear and said "Here I go!" (he meant here I am). Now, Abbey has hidden and Nathan is walking all over the house saying "Abbey, Abbey, Abbey" in the cutest little voice you have ever heard.

B says "Bzzzzz"

Ok, we were in school today and I asked the children "What sound does the letter A make?". I was very proud when both Abbey and Robbie shouted out the short A sound. "GREAT" I said. Then, I held up the flashcard for the letter B and asked "What sound does the B make?". Just as proud and confident as ever and without missing a beat, Robbie answered, "Bzzzzzz". Yes, there was a picture of a bumble bee on the letter B flashcard! :-) Silly Mommy! What was I thinking?!

We also had fun making (and eating) peanut butter play dough today! Here is a picture of that little adventure.

Bad guys are in Florida, not America!

We are driving in the van and Robbie is asking me if there are any bad guys in the van with us. I told him, "No honey, there are no bad guys in our van". Out of the blue, Nathan pipes in and says in his 2 yr old way "I see bad guy morra (tomorrow) and I push him away!" So, there you have it, our 2 yr old will save us from the bad guy that he knows we are going to encounter tomorrow. :-)

Robbie then informs me that the bad guys are all in Florida but there are none in America. I guess we better work a bit more on geography huh?!