For Daniel's birthday this year he said that he wanted a cockatiel. Our search took us to Fargo where we found two wild birds that bit and wouldn't sit on a finger. Though we didn't buy either of those birds we had a nice day with Aunt Laura and Whitney.
Then I went online and looked up "birds" in Bismarck and found the Bird House where they raise them. They are taken from the parent birds at a certain age and hand fed so they are very tame and nice. No biting and this little guy named Rico already knows a few commands. Perfect for this bird loving boy.
Of course cats have to be kept away from little birds. This has to be the nicest cat in the world. He loves Leah and seems to enjoy being her doll as he was purring the whole time.
About a week ago we got a nice surprise. My step-dad, Bob, wrote and said that he and Mary were planning to come up our way and spend a few days with us. Friday was a long day but much worth the wait.
The children have enjoyed the grandparent time. It looks like Mango, the cat, did too.
After church on Sabbath we had a full house. Bob and Mary were here as well as my sister-in-law, Laura and our son-in-law, Ryan. Ryan and Laura both left before we took pictures. Brandon had brought his friend, Nicole, who we got to meet for the first time. Leah became fast friends with her as Nicole was very willing to play games with her in the afternoon. Nicole is working at a day care while going to college.
The children were both enjoying Angry Birds on people's phones. I have Angry Birds on my Kindle but don't let them use it.
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| back row l-r: Brandon, Whitney, Dustin, Tim, Kimberly front row l-r: Mary, Daniel, Bob, Leah |
I couldn't let the time end without some family photos.
After a few groans everyone was a good sport about taking the photos.
We sure enjoyed having Nicole here.
The two Daniels were joking around.
After dark Granddad brought in a big box of goodies. Leah and Daniel loved their electric fly swatters.
And Daniel was ecstatic about adding these to his knife collection.
The day was great and I wish it weren't over. But I still have today to look forward to as Bob and Mary will be here yet. We have lunch planned and then swimming at the motel pool later in the afternoon. Tomorrow they plan to leave and travel to Canada going west maybe all the way to the coast. How exciting for them.
We don't have anything as exciting planned for our tomorrow but have been having great discoveries in our home school. It's hard to believe that we will start our 7th week already. But when I look at my teacher's planner I see that indeed it is the 7th week.
Again we have gone with My Father's World's deluxe package this year. We are in Exploration to 1850 and have been enjoying what we are learning. In fact for the first time Daniel told me he had a favorite subject, history. It made my heart glad. I, too, am enjoying the history this year. I think it is mainly because it is more about US history though we study what is going on around the world in the same time period.
The read-alouds have been great. We read Almost Home, a book about a pilgrim girl on the Mayflower. Now we are reading Amos Fortune, Free Man, which is about a slave brought to Boston in the early 1700's. Both are wonderful books that give a good picture into these time periods in our nations history.
In science for this semester we are studying animals. I like the main two books we are using which are both titled, The World of Animals. One of them is published by Answers in Genesis. They are both interesting and easy to learn from.
In Bible we are using Boy Have I Got Problems along with memorizing the whole book of James. We have learned 15 verses so far. You know who has the easiest time learning and saying the verses? The youngest person, Leah! She is just amazing! And Daniel isn't struggling at all like he did in the past. He is doing an amazing job at it, too. Now the teacher has a few more struggles in that department but is getting it with hints from her students.
I will have to write more about what we are doing in school this year but it will have to wait until another time as this post is long enough.
