It is finished!

Book club is over!   We finished all the Narnia books.   And let me just say that we are thrilled to be done.  While Abigail really enjoyed it all, the boys are happy it is done.   Abigail wanted it to continue, Josh liked this book the best, and Stephen is happy it is finally finished.

We are considering meeting in May for a book but we are not too sure.   We need to agree on this, and I think that some of the boys don't want it to happen.  Perhaps they will change their opinion if we select a book they are excited about.   Only time will tell.

What is your treasure?

Today was book club day and as mentioned in a previous post we are reading through the Chronicles of Narnia. Today's discussion was on Prince Caspian. In the book they mention a treasure room that they had in Cair Paravel where they kept the gifts they were given in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Anyway, I was leading the younger group and since they like crafts we typically have a craft for them to do that coincides with the book. I picked up some small boxes that they were able to paint, we called them treasure boxes. So it got me thinking "What is my treasure?" What is so important to my life that I would miss it if it were gone? Something to think about, especially since we are in the giving season. Are you able to give someone a "new" treasure? Did you lose your treasure and would like it replaced? Would love to hear your responses!

Day of Fun!

I usually like to ask my kids what kind of day they had. Sometimes I do forget and sometimes they tell me before I even get the chance to ask. Today was the latter. Stephen and I were cleaning up from dinner and he mentioned that it was a fun day.

What made it soooo fun - book club day. At first, Stephen did not want to go to book club. Last night he had his 1st basketball practice and he was exhausted from that, so he was looking for a day at home. At about 1 pm, I started feeling a little crappy and that is also when Stephen informed me he felt bad too! Oh NO! was my thought as I was leading the big kids group. I had the chance to lay down around 1:40 pm - we leave at 2 p. Those 20 minutes worked wonders. I started feeling better. Stephen said he still felt bad but we had to go. All went great. I do hope the boys will remember the discussion we had and how each of their lives parallels Shasta's and the gang in some way. Oh, in case you are unaware we are reading all the chronicles of Narnia. Today's read was The Horse and his boy. Not a bad one! But then again it is by C.S. Lewis, can it really be bad. These books are such a great way to bring out biblical principles in the lives of the young. After our discussion they got to play for about 30 minutes before we needed to head on home. While I was leading the older group, the young ones were off in their group making a gingerbread character from the book! Then they got to eat it!!!

After a yummy pasta pesto tortellini dinner, I told Josh to set up a game of hungry, hungry hippos. Little by little each of the other kids came over and we also played UNO spin and then Yahtzee. Some 2 1/2 hours later it was time for bed!!

I must say it was a day of fun!! :)

Book club delight

This is our second month of book club and it is going well. The idea was originally to be for older boys 10+, but since we have younger siblings we decided to have them listen in on the family read and then they can have their own group. The other decision was to go through the entire Narnia series. We are taking the books chronologically as opposed to when written. We have finished the first two. Next, we read A Horse and His Boy!

So we break into two groups and have two separate discussions during the 1 1/2 hours. Afterwards we have some time to fellowship and eat snacks. Today was my turn for snacks. The other Mom's got the idea to have Turkish Delight (Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe). There was a recipe I found and ventured a try. I failed! I am determined though, so next time I will try again. The kids did not know until today so hopefully all will go okay once I try again! I did also have other snacks with me.

Park Day

The children worked hard from 9:30-12:00 in order for us to be able to go to the park and meet with 4 other families.  The original idea for the meeting was to try and organize a book club for boys starting about 4th grade.  (There is a girls only book club here - which we have not attended.)  Luckily there was another Mom who felt the same as I  - why don't we include the girls.  So the compromise was to do the same book but we would separate the kids.  The older boys would have a book discussion.  The girls, aged 7-9, will have more of a crafty project and a little discussion pertaining to the book.  Oh yeah, we plan on going through the entire Narnia series.   There will be two younger boys aged 7 that we figured could start out just playing with each other.  If that doesn't work we might be able to do some things with them.  I was thinking of having them draw some pictures about the book that we will be discussing.  We shall see because we have decided to wait until September to begin.  I know why are we meeting now?!  Well we weren't too sure as to when we could begin but since we are finishing out the year it just made sense to wait.  I could see starting if we were not doing a series, this way get the boys used to a discussion because Stephen in the only boy who has ever done a book club.  But we came up with another idea, let's meet periodically throughout the summer for all to feel comfortable with each other!   Happy Day for Stephen, he met someone his own age!!!

So this park has a creek that is way cool.  I saw that the Fish and Game stocks it with trout and you are able to fish here.  I think we need to get some fishing licenses and bring back the fishing poles and have some fun soon!  Here are some photos:

This is where we Mom's sat.  But we were moving around a lot

as we were making sure the children we not floating down river.

This is how steep the bank was.  We thought sitting close

would allow us to see the kids. Not so much.

Stephen enjoying his time.

Picture upstream

Joshua exercising great caution.  View is downstream.

Abigail picking worms out of creek!  My nature girl!