Merry Christmas

David had a great Christmas this year. Santa brought a new Kindle and we exchanged gifts. He also has a new chemistry set, a science set, BB-8, books about Neil Armstrong and Thomas Jefferson, a globe puzzle and lots of Legos!

Piano lessons

David wanted to take piano lessons this fall, so we found lots of friends and family members with pianos that we could practice on! His goal is to play Beethoven and he's getting there. During the recital he heard another student play Mozart, so that's his new plan. It's good to know where you're headed!

He played great at the recital and memorized the three songs a couple of weeks in advance! Now if he could just remember the spelling words as quickly each week. :-)

Happy Birthday David!

David had a great birthday with friends. This year we decided to ask classmates to the Muncie Children's Museum to spend the morning playing and having fun!

Summer Travel

It's getting easier to travel now, so we wandered Indiana and a little bit of Illinois this summer. Here are pictures of our adventures.

David is a big Civil War fan. He likes to learn about Abraham Lincoln and this time in the nation's history. He is amazed by the Underground Railroad and was really excited to visit Levi Coffin's house. He enjoyed hearing the stories about how their family hid runaway slaves on the way to freedom.

Then we ventured to Chicago for a short stay to visit Legoland.

But the real star for vacation was seeing the Museum of Science and Industry. We were both AMAZED! We liked the Tesla Coil that shows electricity (it was originally in the building when it housed the World's Fair. David liked the tornadoes, and everything else!

Here's the Zephyr

And the plasma ball

And the train layout

And the steam locomotive

And the doll house

And the U boat

Back to School

More than a month ago, David went back to school. He attends EWA and is a first grader this year. He really likes school and is doing great! 

Here's the first day of school picture...in the dark. If you've watched the headlines, we were part of the group who never saw the bus the first morning of school. And the bus stops at our house so early (6:15), even for two early risers after two weeks we became car riders. :-)

What did you do this summer?

The summer was an absolute whirlwind. It was my first summer off in almost 30 years, and I'm afraid that we overbooked. Between speech twice a week and all the other activities, we hardly had a chance for a summer vacation!

David was named "Superhero of the Month" at Cole Academy where he takes gymnastics lessons.

David also participated in our church's SERVE Week, which for now is Vacation Bible School. Mom was a teacher for the week too. Here the entire group sang for the celebration night. When they are big kids they work on service projects in town during the week and have fun and fellowship. David also did a second week of VBS with friends at a different church.

David also completed two projects in Mini 4-H. Here's pin cushion for Sewing and the next image is the poster for My Pet and Me.

He also participated in Math Camp. His cousin Katie did too for her grade in school. This is the "after party" picture at the water park.

And finally there were swim lessons. Somehow we got it all done! Goodbye summer!

Tidy Up

We've been busy the last several months trying to get organized and clean up. There have been a few projects that have needed to get done, and now we are happy to say that they are complete!

Here's what we've been working on:

David wanted his bedroom to be painted in his favorite color...orange!

David also asked for a play gym in the backyard. A friend gave us a slide they were no longer using a couple of years ago, so we are putting it to work now. David also has two telescopes in the "treehouse" section.

He spends a lot of time on the bar, swinging back and forth with an occasional flip.

And we had this table repaired and refinished. The top had a 1/4 inch split down the middle and it looked pretty tired. It looks better than new now!