Lately at the Lafleurs...

Ella continues to knit a lot of hats.

Taking the crew out for a walk.

We visited Great Grandpa the other day. The cuckoo clock is always a hit. And we always seem to be there at 11 am or noon, so we see the cuckoo clock in it's prime.

We thought we would take a picture of Peter next to this picture on the wall of Spencer. Hard to see here, but they look so similar.

We see some very unique ducks when we go to our local park. Last week we some some tufted ducks.

My mom sent this delicious edible arrangement to us. It went quickly with these eager eaters!

We love identifying new birds and drawing them in our nature journals. When we were at Great Grandpa's, he showed us some of his old bird books and told us all about the birds that frequent his backyard.

Besties.

I love homeschool geography.

We are studying rocks this term. Ella was excited to find some marble in our backyard.

Into everything!

Karis: Mom, can I wear my fairy wings outside? It's pretty windy. I think I'll be able to fly today.

Last Friday our nature group visited Crescent Beach. We found some slate along the beach and the girls enjoyed breaking it apart by using a stronger rock as a hammer. Juliette was fascinated by this activity. 

Ella also commented: "it does break very easily, no wonder Anne was able to break her slate over Gilbert's head."

We found this cool fort on the beach.

And ate peanut butter sandwiches on this log while enjoying the ocean and the sunshine.

Making sundaes :)

My red hat from Ella. She was so sweet and bought some deep red yarn to make me a hat because it is my favorite color.

Silas loves looking out our backdoor at the kids playing in the yard. Peter often comes up and gives him a kiss through the glass.

Juliette sometimes sets the table with an extra spot for Peter Rabbit.

Tea parties with princess and Anne of Green Gables. My happy place.

While I was nursing Silas on the couch the other day, Peter decided that he should nurse his car.

"Ella can you brush my teeth please?"

Silas LOVES to play ball.

And now she is into making headbands.

Winter Weather...

This year in the lower mainland we have had some beautiful winter weather. This week has been the first week that we have seen our grass since it got blanketed with snow on December 5th.

Here are some pictures of the things we have been up to.

Karis finished her reading lesson book this week, so as per tradition, we went out for ice cream to celebrate.

I love how the reading practice is just naturally built in when you have younger siblings.

 It has been fun to see the kids nature journal entries about snow.

Peter loves to help out in the kitchen. He also is obsessed with ambulances. When he wakes up he usually mentions an ambulance right away. He wants to drive an ambulance when he is big. He goes around the house with his ambulance and asks me where my owie is. He then comes and touches his ambulance against my toe (or wherever my "owie" is) and assumes that it will be healed.

The other night when I was tucking him in, he said "if you have an owie when I'm big, I will come to you in my ambulance." I think this was the highest way he could have possibly expressed his love to me :)

This little man is 10 months old now.

Juliette and I had fun building a snow man last week.

Juliette and Ella have been busy knitting these days.

And the 3 girls are taking swimming lessons. While they are in their lessons, I swim with the boys. We have so much fun at the pool. And whoever thought of the idea of having a pack-n-play in the change room is a genius.

In case anybody is bored during quiet time, Ella has made a list of things to do. They all look like great ideas, except "look at a sand timer", I am not sure how exciting that would be.

The next generation of the double bob :)

We went on a few winter walks down to Robson Park. It was fun to see the frozen pond and the snow covered beaver lodge. We are so thankful to have this park in our neighborhood. 

Spencer and the kids made a fun slide in the yard last week.

I love my helpers. I have now outsourced the laundry, and the loading and emptying of the dishwasher. I once heard a mom talk about how as the kids get older the "scales start to tip" as they are able to help out more and more. I am feeling that the scales are starting to tip over here and it is so wonderful.

A little mathematician.

Ella's 10 month card to Silas on her typewriter.

Peter has started to tell Silas, "baby we brothers, we boys. I am big and you are little. We boys." It is so precious.

Ella made this hat for Peter. He loves it. He basically loves anything that Ella does, so receiving a hat from her was pretty special for him.

We went to the Surrey Nature Centre the other week. We did not know that they had such an amazing hill, or we would have brought our sled. The lack of a sled did not stop the kids from going down the hill though.

Favorite Reads

 Over the past year I have not read as many books as I typically do. This in largely due to baby Silas' arrival in March. Silas is a complete joy and blessing. He was a fussy baby when he was a newborn and liked to be held and cuddled into the late evening. This worked out well for me, because I loved to hold and cuddle him. In the summer months he was very unhappy inside the house in the evening. He would get warm and clammy and would stop crying almost immediately when he was out in the fresh air. This worked well for Spencer and I because this meant that we spent most summer evenings on the back porch taking turns holding our baby boy. It also gave us a chance to meet our new neighbors and have several conversations and times of prayer about our new life in Whalley.

Looking back at these months I am so grateful that Silas was that way. My house was messier than normal and I did not read as much. But babies are much better than cleaning and reading. The books that I did not read are still waiting on the shelves, but our baby boy is no longer a newborn.

Even though I did not read as much, here are some of my favorite reads of the past year (in no particular order).

For the Children's Sake - Susan Schaeffer Macaulay - This was a reread for me. The first time I read it was when Ella was 4 and after reading it I so desperately wanted to give our kids the type of education Macaulay describes in her book. Upon rereading it I feel refreshed and encouraged in our journey of homeschooling. I am hoping to make this annual reread.

Mere Motherhood - Cindy Rollins - I read this book twice within the matter of months. I love the way Cindy Rollins writes and I share many of the same views on homeschooling as she does. She also follows Charlotte Mason's method of education and has so many practical tips and words of wisdom for homeschooling moms. My favorite part of this book is at the ending when Rollins talks about how her kids are grown up now, so she is spending her time helping homeschool a young boy that lives in the inner city. 

The Power of a Praying Wife - Stormie Omartian - This is an excellent book on a very important topic. I want to spend more time in prayer for my husband this year.

Praying the Bible - Donald Whitney - This book is all about praying the words of Scripture. I read it late last year and it has already had an impact on my prayer life. I was feeling stuck in praying the same things over and over, and this book has changed that.

The Lifegiving Home - Sally and Sarah Clarkson - Sally Clarkson is one of my favorite homeschooling authors. This book is about providing a lifegiving home for our families, friends, and others who come through our door.

The Shaping of a Christian Family - Elisabeth Elliot - This book describes Elisabeth Elliot's upbringing. This also was a reread for me. I liked it so much that I kindly asked Spencer to read it as well, and he loved it too!

Discipline by Elisabeth Elliot - Ok, so I am not actually finished this one. I am reading it slowly because it is rich with wisdom. I have so much respect for Elisabeth Elliot and love the way she lived her life. There is much to learn in these pages.

Spencer's favorite book from the past year was Center Church by Timothy Keller. (But I know it is secretly the Elisabeth Elliot book I had him read).

As a family we are currently reading "The Five Little Peppers and How they Grew" by Margaret Sidney. Highly recommended. Again, a reread for us.

Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh are also often read at our house. The stories in these books are so rich and beautiful.

A fun sidenote is that "Five Little Peppers" and "Beatrix Potter" were both given to us by Oma (Miriam's mom). She has blessed us with so many classic books that she finds at thrift stores.

This past year we finished reading the Anne of Green Gables series. After reading the last book in the series Juliette said "now what are we going to do?" "Are you sure there aren't more? Is Lucy Maude Montgomery still alive so that she could write some more?"

Ella is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia Series. We have read through most of these as a family as well. Excellent.

This year we added the "My Book House" series to our library. My Book House is a series of books published from 1920-1971. The series is a collection of literature for children that includes wonderful stories, poems, and biographies.

Each of the books is graded by age from nursery to early high school. These have been great to add to our morning time and I usually read from Volume 1 so that it is geared towards Peter. He has many of the Nursery Rhymes memorized and enjoys acting them out with his siblings.

Ella loves the Mandie books. She has read the entire series and is now rereading them. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading one of the Mandie books with her and she commented "Mom, I am so glad you are getting to know my friends."

Juliette loves the Sophie Mouse books. She has also read most of the series, except book 9 which we have on order from the library. 

Karis loves to read "Little Bear" books by Else Minarik

And Peter loves it when we read Corduroy to him. This is probably his favorite these days.

In other news, over the break I reorganized our morning time corner. So now it looks like this. And during this next chunk of school before Spring Break we are going to be studying paintings by Giotto di Biondonne. I don't know much about him, but we are going to be studying 6 of his prints over the next number of weeks. The one we are currently studying is called "the Resurrection of Lazarus". It has already provided for some great discussions.

Our morning basket (which we use during morning time) is also filled with great books. A couple of our favorites from the basket are "Paddle to the Sea" by Hollings and "The Burgess Bird Book".

We are continuing to enjoy using "Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization". Some of these poems have become a part of our daily lives. When our kids see a worm, they are likely to recite "Ooey Gooey" or when they go on a swing they break into "The Swing" by Stevenson. It's kind of nerdy, but we like that around here. 

And our favorite poetry book right now is "When We Were Very Young" by AA Milne.