Shepherd River turns 4!

I can't believe my big chubby 20 pound baby is a 4 year old!  Has it really been 4 years since we brought this little guy home from women's hospital in Flowood, MS?  Although, he cried most of the first year of his life and refused to sleep, he has grown into such a sweet, pleasant young man.  (He's actually the best sleeper out of the 3 kids right now! Who would have thought?)
River has the sweetest heart and always makes us laugh : ) While I worried he would always be shy and clingy, he has proved me wrong by turning into a very playful, outgoing, fun-loving guy.  He is ALL BOY  (thanks to those Hawkins genes - Lord, help us!) but is also very sensitive and kind.  He and Scout are best friends (most of the time) and enjoy reading together, playing outside, pretending and making each other (and Ryder) laugh.  River is into all things super hero and has been planning his "Spiderman / Batman" ChuckECheese birthday party for months now. Here are some fun facts about River.  So very grateful for this precious blessing.  Thank you God for sweet River.

All About River:

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Food:     cheezits, oatmeal, bananas, granola bars
Books:   Whinnie the Pooh, Mother Goose, My letter books
Music:    Beethoven : )
Restaurants:  Chickfila and Noodles and Co.
Achievements: makes his bed, learning to read : ), learning to swim, tracing and coloring
Best Friends:  Scout, Paisley
Activities:    preschool, CBS, AWANAS, swim school

River is into:
Spiderman, Batman, Cars (still) playing with his siblings, playing with toys, being outside, letters and reading

The Story of Ping

A friend introduced us to Five in a Row and I can't believe I hadn't heard of it before.  It is prefect for the kid's ages (In fact I wish we had done this last year!) and it's fairly simple to prep and implement.  The curriculum involves learning by reading a classic children's book once a day for five days (in a row!) and making applications to geography, math, art, etc The Story of Ping was our first FIAR book and we had a blast with it! 

 On Day 1 we found China on the globe and map and then we looked up pictures of the Yangtze River online and talked about how big it was and how scary it must have been for Ping.

On Day 2 we talked about Chinese culture and ate rice with chopsticks.  I taught Scout how to prepare the rice and veggies in our rice cooker (a skill which she has used quite often since then : )

 Yum!  I couldn't believe how excited the kids were to be eating rice and veggies for lunchI let the kids dip their veggies in 2 different Asian sauces...

 Day 3 was our Art day and we talked about the illustrator's use of colored pencils and the use of the color yellow throughout the book.  They got to try out there own artistic ability.

On Day 4, while River was at preschool, Scout applied another Art extension; we studied and practiced techniques for drawing water.

Finally, we ended our week with a Math lesson.  We drew a model of Ping's huge family (including all 42 cousins!) then we used counting bears to represent each family member and discussed grouping and dividing.
We are looking forward to Five In A Row being a part of our curriculum for years to come.

"Tri" n Together

 Well you know what they say, "The couple that Tri's together stays together" ...or something like that.  This triathlon was a beast but we did it!  We learned a lot and are definitely looking forward to more triathlons next summer ( Tony's caught the tri bug too : ) Here are a few pictures - we were too cold to take many.  It was freezing at 6am...

 

 

Here are some of the lessons I learned about doing a tri in September:

1.  Dress warmer for pre race setup
2.  I should've worn the wetsuit!! It took me a good 4 minutes to breath normally - the water was so stinkin' cold!
3. From now on I'm biking on Quincy to train - those hills were monsters.  If I can bike there, I can bike anywhere.
4. We are definitely upgrading bikes for next summer. The bike really makes a difference (no more being passed by old people lol!)

Can't wait until next summer!!!