other Christmas festivities

Arden and Esther had a special Christmas class for ballet.  They got to wear reindeer ears and prance around with jingle bells.  They also got to "skate" with Christmas muffs and dance with candles to "Silent Night," giving praise to Jesus.

Arden and I joined other families from our homeschool community to go to the First Coast Nutcracker in Jacksonville.  It was a special treat to see Ms. Tamara, a mom and tutor from our community (who also happens to be a beautiful ballerina!) perform!

Arden and Tiffany after the show

Esther's VPK Christmas party

Her school has a drive through light show set to music each year and also a huge tent set up   like Santa's workshop.

Esther showing us the ornament she made hanging on a tree decorated by the VPK classes.

"Mary and baby Jesus"

Christmas Eve was spent downtown at the plaza where our church has "Carols by Candlelight" each year

a happy 4th

The 4th of July has become one of my favorite times of year since living here.  Our church has a cookout and then we all head over to the fort for fun and games before the fireworks begin.  This year we got to be a part of the scouting team with Brittany and her family to go ahead of everyone and reserve our spot-such fun!  We stayed right up until the fireworks began and decided to head out since we weren't sure how Chloe would handle things and because Esther did NOT like the stray fireworks that were going off over the water.  She kept crying, "I want to get in the car and be safe!"  We did manage to see a little bit of the show on our walk back to the car, and all in all, we had a terrific time!

the girls

the annual cake

Katie and Chloe

Esther had just finished a blue pop ice...look at all those teeth!

Arden on the run

Chloe had fun pulling up on whatever she could.

chasing bubbles

our view

At one point in the evening, Esther climbed in our wagon and curled up like she was going to fall asleep!  Woody got her playing peek-a-boo.

Easter

Easter Sunday we enjoyed a brunch with our church family, as well as an egg hunt for all the kids.  The girls had a blast hunting for eggs.  Resurrection eggs were hidden along with all the eggs.  The kids came together afterwards and were led through the Resurrection eggs to tell the story of the good news of Jesus Christ-He is Risen!  

I had to post this second picture of our family...the girls' faces crack me up.  Chloe is showing off her "scrunching the nose" face, also known as the bulldog face!

That afternoon we had to get out and enjoy the beautiful day God had given us... we thought it appropriate to visit the mission.

As we were down by the water, Woody said, "Is that a bald eagle?"  And right after Woody said that, we watched as he swooped down and caught a fish and then took off... it was an amazing sight!  It all happened so fast, but I was able to get some shots of him...I had the camera on a manual setting though and didn't have time to switch it, so they aren't the best pictures.

good friday