Occoneechee Indian Village Field Trip...

On November 30th, Riley's 1st Grade class took a field trip to see the Occoneechee Indian Village and to meet Chief Blackfeather. Chief Blackfeather showed them all kinds of tools the Indians used to use. Some of the tools they saw were "hammers," bows and arrows, spears, blowgun, and arrowheads. The children were fascinated everytime Chief Blackfeather shot his arrow with a bow. We also got to hear about some birds (owls) that had been rescued by a wild animal rescue center. The owls were beautiful and the children learned a lot about the owls.

 The whole first grade with Chief Blackfeather.

 Riley with her friends, Eli and Cody.

 Riley with her good friend, McKenzie.

O Christmas Tree...

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we got our Christmas Tree.  Tony's parents were visiting Joe and Abby and we went out to dinner with all of them that night.  They all came to our house afterwards and got roped into setting up the tree. :)  This has happened several years in a row now and is becoming a family joke.  We truly don't plan for it to happen but we definitely enjoy the help.  The men put up the tree and the women sat there and told them it was not

straight. :)  We finished the evening with some Wii and rough housing.

 Tony and his brother, Joe, carrying the tree into the house.

 How many men does it take to put the tree into the stand??  Apparently, 3 and then 2-3 women to critique it. :)

 Is it straight, now??

 Reece giving Papa Doug a new hair style. 

 Papa Doug was a good sport.

 Mama Cook was next...

 Regan helping her cousin, Lizzie, play Wii.

 All the Fernandez cousins by the tree.

 Time to let some stress out with some rough housing...

 And poor Uncle Joe always becomes the kid's jungle gym.

 My girls love rough housing with their Uncle Joe.

 The finished tree

All the lights a glow

Thanksgiving 2010...

We were very blessed to have my family come up to visit us for Thanksgiving.  This was the first time to have them all up at our house during Thanksgiving. The only thing missing was my sister, Kathryn, who lives in Australia.  We had a fun week filled with lots of Wii, lots of eating, going to the movies, watching movies at home and one day the boys and Katie went shooting.  It was a nice time just being together.    

 Riley playing baseball with her Uncle Jeff.

 Reece cuddling with her cousin Katie.  Reece adores Katie.

 The girls making placecards and setting the table for Thanksgiving Lunch.

 Reece and her cousin, Jonathon, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

 The girls were posing with Jonathon for a photo and they all fell down.  Jonathon found this very funny.

 One night I found Daddy, Regan and Reece eating chips and dip at the edge of the kitchen while watching TV.  They were having their own little picnic.

 At the mall after seeing the movie, Tangled.

 We took a stroll through the mall looking at all the Christmas Decorations.

All the cousins enjoyed the movie, Tangled.

One Little, Two Little Indians...

Riley had a Thanksgiving Feast at school and they got to dress up like pilgrims or Indians.  Riley chose to be an Indian.  Here she is before she leaves for school.

This is Reece at her Thanksgiving Party at school.  They were performing some Indian songs for us.  Reece's Indian name was "Fuzzy Bunny."

Danville Half Marathon Race...

On Saturday, Nov. 13, we ran a half marathon race in Danville, Virginia.  We had beautiful weather and the course was beautiful.  The course was along a river for most of the race and the fall colors were very pretty.  The course started out flat for the first 6.5 miles but after that we hit about 3 miles of major hills.  It was tough!  I was thankful that we had done so many hills during our training.  We were able to pass a lot of people on the hills so that was good.  There was no water breaks during the hills so that made it even more difficult for me.  I learned my lesson and will be running with a water bottle from now on.  Tony was a great inspiration to me.  He was strong and I could tell he could have left me if he wanted to.  He was feeling much better on the hills than I was.  But, he made sure not to get too far ahead and he kept encouraging me and calling out my splits at all the mile markers.  If it was not for him, I don't think I would have done as well.  We ended up finishing in 1 hr. and 57 mins.  We wanted to break 2 hrs. but did not think we could do it because we have been sick for 2 weeks with respiratory colds.  We were so excited to break our goal.  And better yet, I placed 3rd in my age group and got an award.  That was an added bonus.  Our friends from church, David and Christina, ran too.  Christina did very well and placed 2nd in our age group.  She finished 10 minutes ahead of us.  David also broke his time goal so it was a good day for all of us.

Tony and I before the race.

Christina and David before the race.

Christina and I placed 2nd and 3rd in our age group (35-39 yr. old).  We are showing off our etched

glasses that we won.  We were very excited to both place. 

A great race and hopefully we can eventually run a marathon together!

Shiloh Report...

Regan is enjoying the fact that 4th graders do literature circles at Trinity.  Literature circles are very similar to a book club.  The children will pick a book and then will be broken into groups based on the book they chose.  Then, each day they read a chapter or two at home and come up with questions they want to discuss with their group.  This past month the whole class read the book, "Shiloh."  Regan enjoyed this book a lot because it was about a dog.  After the class completed the book, they had a big "Shiloh" day.  They had a feast at lunch of all the different foods mentioned in the book.  It was a crazy combination of foods...Meatloaf, Fried Chicken, Hotdogs, Pancakes w/ syrup, Chocolate Cake, Popsicles, Vanilla Pudding, Soda, Peanut Butter and Crackers, to name many.  They also had to do a project for Shiloh day and present it to the class.  Regan made a diorama and did an amazing job.   

Regan with her diorama.  Regan had to choose a scene from the book and make a diorama of that scene.  Regan chose the scene where a boy named, Marty, was rolling around in the grass with his dog named, Shiloh.  And Marty's sisters were there too.  His parents were sitting on the front porch of the house watching.  There was a picture of the house in the book and Regan wanted to make it exactly like the picture.  She did a very good job creating the house out of boxes, foam, popsicle sticks and the glue gun - which I had to help her with that part. 

I am now seeing the benefit of having so many craft supplies in my house.  Regan had a great time sorting through all my supplies to figure out what to use.  She used pipecleaners for the trees; popsicles, boxes and foam for the house, clay for the people, coconut dyed green for the grass, and construction paper to cover the outside and inside of the shoebox.  I thought she did a fabulous job and the teacher gave her the highest grade she could receive.  Good job Regan!!!