Getting Ready for Summertime ---

The family has taken up bowling as a pass-time. Eliza started last June in a local league and Mommy and Daddy followed suit this winter. Currently Mommy and Ella Grace are in a league and Eliza will be joining her second one this summer.

Now that the weather is warming the family has been having cook-outs again at Lala's and Fubbie's. Yard work has begun again. Eliza and Mommy have started seedlings and they've done their own flower arrangements this year. For the first time Eliza has gotten her hands dirty, planting her seeds this year without gloves.

Happy passed away the first week of September. Shortly after we adopted Greyhound, who's turned out to be a monster of a cat, over 20lbs at this point. We also adopted two more kittens, Cuddles and Cierra. They are very active and full of life and have brought a lot of joy to the house.

We are currently making preparation for Ella Grace's graduation from the Magnet School. She will next be going to the Dual Language Arts Academy in New London where she will be taught in Spanish every other week to help her learn the language. She continues to study Chinese as well.

Eliza is reading very well and even reads some of her books all by herself. She'll be switching to a bilingual class at the start of the next school year.

Preparing for School Changes ---

While the end of the school year is still a long way off, Ella Grace has had some decisions to make since this is her last year at RMMS. Ella, Mom, and Dad went to an open house at the Isaac School, but it seemed to be the Bilingual Academy for the Arts that caught Ella's attention. At the open house Ella handed her application in without any prompting from Mom or Dad. Next Eliza will also no longer have big sister around. She seems to be okay with this and both children remain social creatures.

At the Bilingual Academy they alternate each week between teaching in English and Spanish. They also put on performance art shows to show the other students what they've been learning. By turning their studies into works of art the students are better able to retain the things that they have learned. It's a small school in New London, only about 70 students, which means the students all know each other and all of the teachers.

The family has been entertaining Emily and Dillon on the weekends and have been going out for activities as weather has permitted. We've spent time at the Mystic Aquarium as well as Chucky Cheese's. The kids have also enjoyed playing the Wii.

Working Together ---

Ella Grace has found a new interest in cooking. She's been making us deserts which we've been enjoying. Today she made a chocolate mousse cake and later some grits for lunch. Eliza helps as long as it holds her attention.


On 11/15 the whole family enjoyed a Family Game Night (hopefully the first of many) with our Bookstudy Group. Mommy and Daddy got to introduce more of our friends to the Apples to Apples game. It wasn't too popular the first round, but after people got into it everyone enjoyed it greatly. Ella Grace had a great time playing with the adults and Eliza spent time taking orders and serving drinks, something she likes doing.

Ella Grace and Eliza had their first parent/teacher conferences and both are doing very well at school. Eliza is taking to reading with ease and enthusiasm and is already sounding words out as she sees them in day to day life. Ella Grace will soon need to decide where she would like to go for Middle School. Teachers have already invited her to come back to the Magnet School in her spare time to teach, particularly some Chinese words.

We have been over-run by cats! Each family member now has their own cat. Eliza adopted Greyhound, who has grown from kitten to Goliath-cat in about a month and a half... and he's not done growing! Ella Grace adopted Cuddles, who looks like Greyhound's kid brother, and Daddy adopted Cierra, Cuddles sister. It's all worked out as the cats have plenty of company to play with and Cuddles and Cierra engage in epic day-long kitten battles all over the house.

Daddy took a short trip to Florida this week to see Grandpa Erik and Grandma Liz and had a wonderful time. It was raining the first half of the day he was down, but he didn't mind as just being able to relax and have no worries for a day was better than any good weather. Grandpa
Erik says that Daddy looks a lot like Grandpa Karl which made Daddy happy. Daddy also saw a picture of Grandpa with a look on his face that Eliza has all the time. Very cute.

The tough economic times are, of course, having an effect on the family, however it's teaching all of us reliance on Jehovah, as we know times will get much worse before they get better. He has well trained his servants and in many ways the difficult times are only serving to draw us closer to one another.