Parents vs. Team Paragon

Tonight was Team Paragon's final practice of the season. As in the past, a Parents vs. Team game was planned. Team Paragon sported their tan-colored shirts; parents and siblings wore whatever. Trent coached his team, while we parents fended for ourselves! We had to play the position(s) our children played this season, so Alex and I were supposed to play either forward or midfielder.

Heidi, Clint, and Alex prepare to begin.Team Paragon is ready and in their positions..... But first.....Mark, Alex, and Clint need to strategize.

And the game begins......Whoops, Clint, don't forget to take the ball with you :)

The parents. Carla's getting ready to kick the ball.

And....her cherry bomb!

Beau closes in on Alex.

Team Paragon's main goalie for the season, Moriah. She gets her goalie skills from her mama!

Here, she makes a great stop, ending Alex's drive!

Another great stop!

I don't know why, but I really like this picture: It's Megan #4, Grace #5, and Alex.

Grace defends her position.

Parents spent the entire 4th quarter at the offensive end of the field, but Team Paragon held them to el zippo number of goals. Go Team! I played defense this quarter and saw virtually no action!

Final score: 1 to 1, with Team Paragon scoring first. High fives at the end of the game.

The parents and siblings, a/k/a the cheerleaders of the season! We had a tailgate party after the game, and since you can't have a tailgate party without music, Alex and Gavin bring it out. Using a car battery, this cooler is rigged with a radio, antenna, and speakers. Pretty clever!

Friends, Grace and Moriah.

Some of the girls: (Hope, Honor, Megan, Moriah, Grace, and Abrey).

Dinner on the blanket.

What a great night! Thanks, Team Paragon, for an awesome season!

~Wee

Fall Family Fun

The girls and I went to my parents' over the week of my birthday again this year. Dad finished up with harvest the week before, but that was okay. On my birthday, we went to Peoria to visit my cousin and her kiddos. Here are the 2nd cousins (Leah, Anna, Megs, Grace, and Isaac)

These two are only seven months apart, so hopefully will be good friends like their mamas!

Helen took us out to their house in the country.

We enjoyed the beautiful autumn colors decorating the hills along the Illinois River....Just couldn't resist capturing some photos!On our way home, we stopped off and picked up a cake to later enjoy with ice cream.

~Wee

The Creation Museum

Alex has a patient that out of the blue asked him if he's ever been to the Creation Museum, and said we were welcome to use his guest passes if and when we wanted to go. This past weekend, we took advantage of this gentleman's generosity and traveled down to the Creation Museum.

A few years back for VBS, we went through the 7 C's of History, so as we walked through the museum, it was fascinating to journey back through those historical events.

Creation:
The girls in front of the Tree of Life.
Corruption:
Catastrophe: (see pictures below; blogger is not allowing me to move pictures around. Ugh!!)

Confusion: The Tower of Babel

Christ:
and Cross and Consummation are the last two C's.

After finishing up in the museum, we ventured out, around the pond, to the petting zoo and botanical gardens. In science, having just finished up our study of ungulates, it was cool to see animals in that family that we don't get to see at our local zoo. We saw llamas, a camel, a zorse, and a zonkey. Knowing the possible temperament and unpleasant behavior issues of the camel, we approached the camel's living quarters with caution. Mr. Camel was in the barn as we neared the fence, and seeing us there, he came out to greet us. As he approached us, we slowly backed away from him. Poor thing, he was just trying to say "hello"! Anyway, we (with the exception of Leah) did eventually get brave enough to pet it, feel it's fur, and hand feed it some food pellets. Alex tried his best to have Leah feed the pellets to the waiting camel, but, as you can tell from her resistance, she never did get close to him.She preferred the zonkey instead.
The zorse and the zonkey. The neat thing we noticed about the zorse was the mane -- part of it was like the horse and part was like the zebra. So cool!

(Catastrophe from above) In Sunday School right now in Leah's class, we are studying Noah's Ark, so to walk through the entire Noah's Ark portion of the museum was really cool!

The flood waters come. Can you imagine what those on the rock were feeling and thinking by this time?

Noah, during the voyage, with the raven and the dove.

The ark comes to rest.Leah with Moses and King David.

The girls at the archaeological dig. A fantastic place to visit!

~Wee

What will it be?

Today, after science, the kids began a three-week project of what will be a wall mural. Each one has their own 3-foot section to develop and blend into the next person's part. The first thing they did was draw the horizon line from one end of the mural to the other; then the individual drawings began!

Megan, Kayla, and Luke try to decide how best to blend their landscapes, while Grace and Moriah work on their portions.

Megan is making her part into a rain forest, and here she is adding her monkey to the tree. On the way home, she told me all about the symbiotic relationship of the monkey and the owl that will be in her drawings.

Grace's portion consists of a winter scene, complete with a ski resort. Here, she is adding in trees.

Can't wait to see the finished project!

~Wee