Total Eclipse of the Moon

Yes, we stayed up until after 3am to watch the lunar eclipse last night... did you?? If not, you missed a great show. Down here, it was cool and clear and visibility was prime. Andy told me he has never seen a more beautiful night- I had to agree! The stars brightened as the moon dimmed, and by the time the moon turned a copper-red color the stars seemed almost 3D in appearance!


We took a few pictures, just to prove that we were up to see it :) By the way, our girls got up to see it, too! The boys just turned over in their beds and went back to sleep...

Here's the beginning of the eclipse... I took this with regular exposure, so you can't see the dark side of the moon turning red....

Going, going... almost there!

At full eclipse, Andy tried to get a few shots with night exposure, but he couldn't stand still enough to get a good shot. You can see the colors, even if it is a little fuzzy :)

Recycled Christmas Ornaments-Homeschool Crafting!

It was a rainy day yesterday, and the kids and I took full advantage of it. We recycled some old Mardi Gras beads into Christmas ornaments for a home school ornament exchange on Friday! To make these pretty, shining ornaments all you need is a little hot glue and some imagination :)

My boys opted out of the actual crafting, but they provided some good ideas for colors and decoration. Gabe even hot glued an ornamental candy cane to the top of his before running off to play!




Here's Annalee with the first step of ornament-making! We used styrofoam balls and stuck plastic loops in the top, secured with hot glue.



Noah enjoyed his Gummy Lifesavers as we worked...

Elena dug deep into our old bags of Mardi Gras beads to find just the right colors...

Annalee chose gold and purple, but she let me do the finishing touches!

Elena was very careful about choosing coordinating colors... Papaw would have been proud!

Here's the final product of our afternoon of crafting! From left to right, we have Elena's, Annalee's, Noah's, Gabe's, and mine :). It's too bad we won't be keeping any of them!

A Christmas Carol

Our home school group put on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for a fairly large audience this past Saturday! Most of the moms of the kids involved in the play were busy giving cues, changing scenery, sending kids backstage and rearranging props on the set, so it was surprising to see so many people actually able to watch the play in its entirety! The cast and crew included kids of all ages (from pre-school to high school!), and I must say, the kids did a fantastic job :)

Here's Elena and other young actors getting ready to go onstage. There were many kids who had costume changes as well as lines to remember and dances to perform!

Here's Annalee performing a tap number with her dance crew...






Here's most of the cast singing "Here We Go A-Caroling". Annalee is behind the "window" in the front, and Elena behind her on the left.





Annalee and her dance crew performing a ballet routine. She is second from the right.

Elena was a caroler for the Fezziwig scene in a Christmas past.

Noah, in addition to helping with the scenery, was the spirit of Christmas future. Mamaw Northenor made his costume, and it looked great!

Annalee and Elena are on again, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!"

Curtain call! The kids enjoyed lots of applause after the show... Here's Annalee and Elena waiting to exit the stage.

Here's Noah on the other end of the stage... He's looking forward to the refreshments afterwards :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Baby Turns 11!

How did my baby get so old!? It seems like yesterday, I was a naive and very young mother bringing home my first-born... now, he is 11 years old. He has grown into a loving, strong, smart young man, and it's been my pleasure to watch him mature and develop his own unique personality.


For the big 1-1, Noah planned a party with about 15 friends. The kiddos had a Nerf gun war, played Ghost in the Graveyard (old school rules, but with glow sticks), and had lots of good food including made-from-scratch birthday cake and ice cream! The moms stayed warm indoors and drank herbal tea while the younger crew got red-cheeked in the cold (it got down to the high 30's last night!!). I believe everyone had a blast, and we are already planning another get-together to do it all over again... :)





I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures... I couldn't locate the good camera in time, and the old one we used took some fuzzy pictures!








Here's Noah's ginormous homemade cake! He wanted devil's food, but I followed the wrong recipe and made him vanilla. Hahaha! Then, I topped it with a homemade butter-cream frosting- yum.









My big guy, waiting to blow out the candles...









Noah got all the candles out in one big breath.








One of Noah's gifts was a Santa butt that farted Christmas carols. Very appropriate!









Here's part of the crew... There were too many friends here to get in one picture!







Happy 11th birthday, Noah!!