Bowling!

Saturday night we went bowling with a few of our College and Career group. Katie has only been bowling once or twice, and Joe's never been. They loved it! Joe's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he got to roll the ball at the pins. Katie bowled mostly on her own, and scored a 41. Joe and I got a 44. Jeff bowled on his own and got a 137.

Katie and Daddy!


Mommy and Joe. Joe actually bowled a strike once!


Katie picked out a pink ball! She says her favorite thing was the pink ball and that we could be together.


Joseph playing with the blower-thingy.


Joe did a little dance after every throw!

Children's Museum of Art

My children have been quite prolific lately in the art department. Joe is getting to the point that he is drawing objects rather than simply scribbling. Kaity is beginning to draw more of what she learns about in school, and applying what she learns about art/drawing. The kids chose what they wanted on the blog, so here they are!

"Chinese House"
Artist: Kaitlyn Pittard
Medium: Magic Markers

Here, the artist brings out the curved roof-line architecture that is characteristic of the ancient Asian homes she has observed in her studies.

"Daisy"
Artist: Joseph Pittard
Medium: Magic Markers

Note the artist's attention to detail in the cat's whiskers, large ears, and many legs.

"Kaity"
Artist: Joseph Pittard
Medium: Magic Markers

Notice here how the artist has captured the most compelling feature of his subject -- her eyes and long eyelashes.

Lemon-Batter Fish

I am SO excited! I made a dinner tonight that everyone liked, and everyone asked for seconds. It definitely rated a post on the blog!

Lemon-Batter Fish
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup lemon juice, divided
2 pounds fish (perch, walleye, cod) fillets, cut into serving size pieces
Vegetable oil

In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; set aside. Combine egg, water, and 1/3 cup lemon juice; add to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Dip fillets in remaining lemon juice and flour, then coat with the batter. Heat 1 inch of oil in a skillet. Fry fish, a few fillets at a time, over meduim-high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Drain on paper towels. Yield: 6-8 servings.

College & Career Retreat

Jeff and I just had an amazing weekend with some of our Sunday School class. We went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and stayed in cabins. Two -- one for guys, one for girls. It was a whole lot of fun. The theme of the retreat was "A Life Marked By Wisdom" and we studied the book of Proverbs while we were there. The discussions were really insightful (to make up for the silliness on other occasions, I guess!)and one of the girls brought her guitar so we could have worship music, too.

I could go on and on about the trip and the fun we had, and the things we learned, but I'll just hit the highlights. One major highlight was Sunday night. The guys were responsible for dinner and though they strung the girls along all weekend that they would make cereal, the men came through! They met the ladies at the door of the cabin with a flower for each of us. They served us drinks, salad, baked ziti, and two kinds of dessert! We even had name cards at our seats. It was quite impressive.

Some of the other things we did were: go-kart racing; 4-D theater; shopping in Gatlinburg; Krispy Kreme doughnuts; freezing!; Guitar Hero; Wii; singing praise music; memorizing scripture; laughing; lunch at The Old Mill; staying up too late; miniature golf; breakfast at the Red Rooster; almost ice skating, and lots more!

We had a terrific time and can't wait to do it again!

SNOW!!

It snowed today!! The kids (and the adults, I admit it!)are SO excited. We went on to church, but I convinced our choir director to let us out early so we could all go play in the snow. It didn't take much convincing, I assure you -- Todd loves snow. That's his daughter, Lydia, (Kaity's best buddy) in the picture with our kids. The snow was coming down pretty hard and actually sticking. The children were throwing dirty little snowballs at each other. Kait is already plotting how to make a tiny snowman tomorrow.



Space ... the final frontier. I was surprised that this picture I took facing into the snow actually turned out.


Jeff said I looked cute with the snow in my hair, so he snapped this picture. He's such a smart fella!

Painting the Bug

I'm really not sure how all this got started ... At one point I think one of our College & Career group asked Jeff teasingly when he was going to let them paint his bug. Well, Jeff just thought for a minute and replied that he didn't mind if they all got together and did just that! They were floored, and before you know it Jeff had made the plans. He told everyone to show up at our house New Year's Eve (a beautiful day!) Everyone brought their own spray paint and went to work. Of course, Jeff took off the roof rack and prepped the Beetle by taping off everything he didn't want painted. About 9 or 10 of our class/group showed up to have a hand in painting the car.

A neat bit of trivia about the tag on the front -- It's a German tag from the eighties that our family had on one of our vehicles. Dad always saved license plates (a guy thing!) and they kind of passed on to my older brother, Stuart. Jeff has always been a Volkswagen enthusiast so when he saw that tag with his initials on it, he REALLY wanted it. Stuart said he could have it, and Jeff is thrilled to be able to use it now!

Joe's Black Eye

If you know our family at all, you probably know about our son's uncanny ability to hurt himself at any given moment. Jeff says that it's a good thing Joseph has a face, or who knows what he'd catch himself with when he falls. True to form, this injury occurred when Joe was supposed to be taking a nap and was out of bed instead. Katie caught him and he ran for the bed. Unfortunately, he didn't make it and when he fell against the edge of the bed, hitting himself on the cheekbone just below his eye. He wanted a mirror right away and looked at himself all afternoon. Isn't he just pitiful?

100th Post! First Day Back to School

It was really nice taking a Christmas break, but I was pretty ready to get back to the routine of school. My kids definitely need structured stuff to do each day. When they're left to their own devices they're more likely to argue with each other and generally run around crazy. So, back to school!

I don't actually do official "school" with Joe. I just have different fun activities for him to do that help him learn a skill, too. He has a baggie with pony beads and pipe cleaners to help him learn colors and patterns, as well as helping with fine motor skills. He also has a bag with colored glass pebbles that he uses to sort and count and make patterns. In the pictures here, he has out his scissors and paper to cut. I drew lines -- squiggly, straight, curved, jagged -- on half sheets of paper and he uses those to practice cutting. He starts at one end, and cuts toward the shape (flower, heart, cloud, star, etc.) at the other end.






Katie is doing her handwriting -- she starts cursive soon! And in the other picture she's finishing up reading Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea MacBride. She's also reading Aesop's Fables today, and learning a bit about Australia.

Happy New Year!

Here's a link to a blog that sums up exactly how I feel about the new year. Well, except for the part about Georgia football. I can definitely take a pass on that. :)Though Jeff certainly disagrees!