Harvest Party

We spent the evening of Halloween at a Harvest party, hosted by a family from our church, the Alexanders. It was a great night!

As you can see, there were a few children there.

(You can find our kids by looking in the front for Addie's orange butterfly wings, and Scotty is the little round ball of a bee on the right)

Mr. Alexander taught the kids about the Reformation and Martin Luther.


We also had a big potluck dinner and other fun games.





Scotty and Benton- the bees. We decided Brenton was a zippy little honey bee and Scotty was those big, slow bees you sometimes see.







Mike Channell and John Kiningham with their little girlie-girls.

India Day

Yet another awesome day with our TEACH homeschool group. The ladies planned a day to learn all about the coutry of India!

We were especially helped along by several families from the church: two who have visited and are planning to return there as missionaries, and another family who met in India- he is a native of India and she was a short-term missionary there. A HUGE extra bonus for we Spanglers? Our dear friends Karen & TJ live in India as missionaries but are in the States on furlough right now, and they just happened to be visiting the Dallas area during this time, so Karen and their daughter, Chaya, came to join us too. Addie was especially happy to be with Chaya, who was a good friend back in California.

Heather Worsley, planner extroidenaire, shows Karen some of the plans for the day.

Hather taught the kids all about the basics of the country, including neat maps and posters. Then another Heather- Heather Zeller, read the kids a great book about India and showed them some neat toys and things.

Addie and the other girls make bangle bracelets (the boys made tiger masks).

Natalie Kotak teaches the kids some words in Hindi.

Karen teaches the kids a children's song about a fish.

India Day Part 2

Thanks to contributions from several families, there was enough "Authentic Indian Garb" for each kid to dress up. They loved it! Addie sported a bright pink outfit and got mommy's rare approval to show her belly button (when in Rome, ya know?). Chaya brought her own clothes, obviously.

Karen taught the kids some Bollywood dance moves, great fun!

(notice in the background the mantel had been decorated with huge maps and posters of sights from India)

Natalie made Indian food for lunch and the kids crowded around to see and sample. It was delish!

There were so many neat new things to see and do and learn about. What a cool day!

First Day of School (For Real)

Well, even though we had started participating in the TEACH home school group, I have to confess that we hadn't actually started Addie into her Kindergarten curriculum yet. I'm using the move as my excuse.

So last week Addie and I had our first REAL day of school, and it was great!

Here we are, getting started!

Addie working diligently.

This picture is more like it- look closely. Addie is less than enthused about mom STILL taking pictures, and Scotty has seized the opportunity of mom being busy to open the cupboard and start getting into my cookbooks. Nice.

Fire House Open House

Our neighbors, the Worselys, let us know that there would be an open house day at the local firehouse, which is just around the corner from our apartment. They invited us to join them, and we happily obliged!

Addie with 3 of their 4 kids, ready to walk over.

Upon arrival, we found bounce houses, safety demonstrations, free hot dogs & popcorn, all manner of games and giveaways, fire trucks to explore, and a woman in a giant "Cell Phone Sally" costume, teaching the kids about dialing 911.

Scotty wasn't sure what to make of the giant talking phone.

Addie tries out the hit-the-target-and-try-to-ring-the-bell game. She was a little lacking, so Greg helped.

We enjoyed meeting the firemen and other personnel, especially this investigator who eyes twinkled like my Papa Don and made me reminiscent.

Showing Off

The fire department showed off some of their nice toys for us.

They used a wrecked car to demonstrate the Jaws of Life, which was fascinating. Here they are removing the windshield.

And removing the top off the car!

(That's our apartment complex behind them, in case you wanted to know)

They also landed the helicopter in the field across the street. We all enjoyed watching that....

here Scotty and I check it out.

Fire Truck

Too good of a photo opportunity to pass up.

A cute family photo, except for the bad humidity hair Greg and I were rockin'. Notice his poofy fuzz and my not-curly-not-straight mess? We still have a lot to learn about Texas beauty secrets.

Spraying

The Worsley girls got a chance to use a fire extinguisher to put out some flames. Addie did not want to try this out- she deemed it too dangerous. :)

She happily took a turn spraying the fire hose though!

In fact, by the time Greg was able to spray the hose with her later, it was old hat to her. She was more interested in her sucker! (But notice Greg had as much fun as the kids!)

Field Trip to Nash Farm

I had temporarily "misplaced" these pictures of our first field trip with our "TEACH" homeschool group. These are from last month.

We went to a nearby farm, called Nash Farm, that is actually smack in the middle of Grapevine. It's a historical site, and was really interesting.

Addie and Scott, rearin' to go!

The little ladies lined up, listening to the farm host explain the Nash family traveling by covered wagon.

Katie, Addie, Acacia, Isabelle, & Julia.

More Fun at the Farm

Addie is all set for the tractor ride. It was great!

The kids each got a turn to pick up a chicken. I thought Addie would be a bit skittish about it, but she did great!

Can you say "Kentucky Fried"?

How Southern are we now? Addie up to her neck in a field of cotton! With new friends and neighbors Isabelle and Acacia.

Farm Work

One of the highlights of our farm trip was learning about the cotton plants and getting to pick some cotton!

Here are the kids and moms, milling about next to the cotton.

And Addie proudly showing the cotton she picked.

The kids also went inside the farmhouse and learned about churning butter.

There wasn't a butter churn to use, but the kids got to take turns shaking a jar until the cream inside turned to butter. Here is Addie, shaking diligently.

We loved our trip to the farm and had such a great time!