School Thanksgiving Party

The kids and I had a great day full of Thanksgiving FUN!! We read Thanksgiving books, worked on our own Thanksgiving fun activity books, and did Thanksgiving crafts! I need to take a picture of them with their crafts. Their favorite Thanksgiving book remains Squanto about the amazing circumstances of Squanto's life the prepared him for the job God had for him. That book they had looked forward to hearing! It was such a fun day doing the out of the ordinary . . . well, except for Gabriel and Annalina did do their cursive. We even had a super fun snack a Thanksgiving Turkey cupcake cake!

Even Ross got in on the Thanksgiving worksheets! He really put himself into it and made such funny comments as he was working! On the bottom of one worksheet it had small font words and he pointed at them and said "the word says Grandma {aka Grandpa} told us about succulents [plants all over this area of CA] and trees that's what the word says!" Then on another page where he was suppossed to fill in the blanks with correct words [actually Gabriel and Annalina were!] he just scribbled all over the page with yellow crayon and said that the page said "to write words that were bumps" and then he said "This page is going really fast for me!" Histerical. He did another blank page where he "drew" a picture of "a big flower sat by the house with a but on it" and said "Mommy, this (one part of his picture) one is a very hard one for me!" Gabriel and Annalina enjoyed the humor of his comments too!

More of my Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Pictures

I found that I really enjoyed not having to think about the traditional Thanksgiving food and the purchasing and preparation of it, at least for this year. It was really fun to to hang out. I wish Babe could have hung out at the beach with us but there is plenty of more time here for that!

Non-Traditional Thanksgiving

Yes, it was a very non-traditional Thanksgiving day as my friend said this morning! BUT, so much to be thankful for . . . my hubby is home, I have a beautiful new baby along with 3 other amazing kids, I live in a beautiful area of California, I get to do the job I love (raising my children), I have a house that covers my head and keeps me warm, I have a husband who is my best friend, I have amazingly supportive parents, and the list could go on and on.

The day was non-traditional in that we did not have a big feast. Instead, I spent some of the morning with the kids and a friend and her son as our hubby's hit the books because they are nose deep in writing papers before the end of the quarter. The beach was absolutely breath takingly beautiful!!! There were A LOT of people with the same idea as us . . . Thanksgiving at the beach. At lunch time Babe and I went back down to the beach and ate at a American burger resteraunt and that was a lot of fun. The kids got to play with the robotic dinosaur Gabriel finially saved up enough money for and bought last night and they had a lot of fun doing that. The dinosaur is pretty realistic and some ways which makes it all the more fun.

Pretty good understanding for a 3 year old . . .

Ross came to me one or two days ago and said "God did not like Goliath's SIN" (Notice he said SIN and not GOLIATH). He remembered that God loves the sinner and hates the sin which he's been taught. Anyway, I agreed and he said "his sin was killing people" (Wow, excellent that he can identify a specific sin) then he said "Thou shalt not kill" and then said something about "the ten commandments". Super Duper, WOW, he knew WHY it was a sin and the verse that said so!!!

What Happiness is All About . . .

Tonight we were at Target shopping and we were talking about a toy that had a blue award ribbon on it with a #1. Annalina was asking me if I could put the blue ribbon in her hair and I was trying to say in a kind way that wasn't what it was for and I said "What would you have won a blue ribbon for?" and all of a sudden Gabriel said "I know what she won the blue ribbon for, for being the sweetest girl in the whole world." Wow, was that ever nice of a BROTHER!! Annalina just beemed when she heard him. Later tonight when Gabriel was by himself I told him how nice that was of him and how sisters need big brothers that say things like that to them. Gabriel's response was "It made me happy" (to say what he said). And he said "Just like when you do what God says your happy and when you say what Satan says you are sad."

He is as my dad would say "A tender warrior". He can sword fight VICIOUSLY and he loves all things war and bombs but he can be a tender warrior. Also, how important is it to learn true happiness which is doing what God has asked and being in His will and therefore his care and hands.

Darts and Dollars

One morning this week Ross was having a major attitude problem and I was talking to to him and telling him that his behavior was making Satan happy as I was talking Annalina turned from her school work and said to Ross "STOP His Darts!!" I thought that was great!!! She told me she learned that in AWANA. Ross did turn a new leaf.

Another story I wanted down was about Gabriel. The kids get pretend dollars at children's church and once a month they can go to the "store" and buy things. The kids came out and Annalina had wanted something she didn't have enough money for so Gabriel bought it for her then Gabriel saw water guns and thought "Ross talks about going hunting with Uncle Ben with his black gun so I think he likes guns" so he bought Ross the pkg. of guns then he bought himself a $1 pencil . . . that is love.

Heaven is a Wonderful Place

Gabriel was having his Bible this morning for school. He is reading through the whole book of John which he is enjoying. Anyway, today he got to a verse he had previously memorized (not John 3:16) anyway that got him going on Heaven and he just kept saying OVER and OVER how great Heaven is going to be and how he was looking forward to it! What a blessing to hear!! Even when he went on to another subject he was still stopping to talk about it!!! It really got him going! I am thankful he has the "blessed hope" we have in Christ.

I thought . . . Hmmm, maybe God is with me!!!

Ross has been terrified lately of monsters in his room. I kept telling him there are none and that in the days of creation on no days does it say "God created monsters on day 3 or whatever day!" Sometimes, I would pray with him for God to help him. We also had him sleep in a sleeping bad on our floor when he would wake up. We had a few really rough nights he was having so much trouble.

This morning Ross came into my room and whispered to me "I was not scared of monsters at all last night and I thought Hmmm maybe God is with me!" Things like that totally get me when they realize the peace and protection and most of all the presence of God.