Multi-part Easter Weekend

This year we ended up celebrating the resurrection of our Lord in various pieces with different family members each time.

Good Friday was a relatively uneventful day, with the exception of a service that some of us went to that night, and a gorgeous sunset. Then on Saturday the festivities began.

First we had a little backyard egg hunt with Kai, Addie, and Lincoln, who did not want to be pictured.

Then we loaded up our bikes and drove uptown to ride the greenway with the Dreschers and Mom and Dad.  Fun crew!

 My vantage point was usually other people's backs.  :)

We stopped at Mellow Mushroom for lunch, and my kids kept repeating, "You mean we actually get to eat HERE?"  Yes, we still don't get out much.  :)

Finally, on the Big Day, we had dinner at our house with the Clarks, Nonna and Poppa, and Mor-Mor in attendance.  Another fun crew!

It was a little tight, and a little loud, but we all love each other anyway.

Once again we were reminded about how the Resurrection changes EVERYTHING.  How good it is to live in these Post-Easter Days!

Proud mom

This year for Classical Conversations the kids have been memorizing a LOT.  

Each week they've learned a new history fact (this week's:  "John Cabot and Samuel de Champlain explored Canada and the St. Lawrence River.  Creation of the Hudson Bay Company in 1670 eventually led to war between Britain and France.  The maple leaf is the symbol of Canada."), a science fact ("Some types of clouds are cumulonimbus, cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and stratocumulus), and a math fact ("The associative law for addition states: (a+b)+c = a+(b+c). The associative law for multiplication states: (a*b)*c = a*(b*c)") .

Throughout the year they also have learned all of the prepositions in the English language (in alphabetical order), all of the linking verbs, and all of the helping verbs.  They've also memorized the U.S. Presidents and the endings for all 5 declensions of Latin nouns.  In addition, they've learned to identify over 120 different places on a world map (Baffin Bay, Orange River, Yellow Sea, etc).

And finally, most impressive to me, they have memorized over 160 historical facts in order, comprising a timeline.  (CC nicely provides songs for a lot of this, including the very long "Timeline Song.")

So, here is Rayna singing the whole history of the world in approximately 9 minutes:

And 7-year-old Miles does it in just over 7 minutes:

(I don't expect anyone to actually watch these videos all the way through, but I wanted to document that they did it!  Colsen also can do the whole song, but uncharacteristically shied away from the camera today.  :)  )

Spring and Snow in the Mountains

Since Wingate students are on spring break, Pete decided to take a couple of much-needed days off this week.  One of his colleagues gave him free tickets to the Biltmore, so after dropping off the kids at Nonna and Poppa's (thank you!!), we headed to the mountains for the day.

It was perfect weather for it!

 And I was with the nicest man:

The inside of the Biltmore was all decorated in a wedding theme, with original wedding costumes from various period movies.

The funny part of the day was running into friends from Spencerport!  Suzie and Mark were down visiting in Asheville for a few days, and the fact that the we all happened to be in the same courtyard at the same time is pretty amazing!  Unfortunately we were all fainting from either hunger or thirst, so didn't pause to take any pictures.



Then yesterday Pete took the boys (and Strider's friends) back up to the mountains to do some skiing and snowboarding.  We were worried it would be too warm, but by all accounts they had a great time!  Miles would like everyone to know he that got "7 inches of air on some jumps!"

Videos may surface and appear he shortly...

Junk mail {not}

Strider received this junk mail the other day...

.... and we were about to throw it away.... until we noticed...

...that Pete was quoted on the back:

 It's not everyday that you get mass mail with your dad's name on it!

Mini Time Capsule Day (Leap Day)

Leap Day in our family has been a good mile-marker each time.  This was really only the third Leap Day for the Frank kids, so the repetition of traditions has been minimal... but consistent anyway!

Each Leap Day I've had the kids lie down a piece of big paper so I can trace their bodies.  Now, they can go back and see their sizes 4 and 8 years ago.  I also write on the back of each drawing some of the things each child currently likes, and their predictions for what their lives will be like on the NEXT Leap Day.  It's fun to go back and read what they wrote 4 years ago.  (Strider's predictions were pretty accurate -- that he would be driving, playing sports, etc -- but also that he would have a personal hovercraft by now.)

This was their body-tracings 4 years ago (in Moldova):

And now:

They have grown a bit in the last 4 years!

Rayna checking out her 3 different Leap Day sizes:

 The kids all wanted to continue the Leap Day Leaping tradition as well:

(Colsen was at soccer practice)

On a sad note, this is likely the last Leap Day that Strider will spend in our home.  Hard to believe he'll be a man on the next one!

On a happier note, the kids' predictions included having another sibling or two by the next Leap Day...  I hope so!

Leap Day, 2016