April 20, 2010 6:33 p.m.

I truly want to share some of the highlights of the past several weeks /  months here, and have included some photos here.  Having said that, I must add that there aren't as many photos as I would have liked to include.  Most of the pictures included friends' children, and I don't post pictures of other folks' kids on my blog (unless they are generally unrecognizable in the picture).  So that left me with few photos to use, and I shall have to paint the remaining photos in your mind with words alone.

We had two birthdays here in our family.  Sweet Girl turned seven in March, and we had a quiet and peaceful home celebration for her.  This is the cake that Chips decorated for her.  Our children have a custom of treating each other like royalty on their birthdays.  When it is time to open the gifts, the non-birthday child sets up a type of "throne" for the birthday child to sit on while opening presents.  The throne may be outfitted with cushions, signs, a parasol over it, and a special gift opening table covered with a brightly colored cloth or blanket.  We capture it all on video.  It's pretty funny!

Chips turned ten earlier this month, and this is a moment from his bowling party.  He invited sixteen friends, and they were all able to come.  Chips had an ear-to-ear grin the entire time!

Back to February, now.  Here are the children watching the Olympics, complete with flags for the team members they were rooting for.  Notice Sweet Girl's handmade Korea flag. 
For any new readers, yes, we are a TV-free family, but over the seven years of not watching, we have made exceptions for the Olympics, for Presidential inaugurations, space shuttle landings (there was one here just this morning), and hurricane / tornado coverage (because our internet is the first thing to be knocked out).

Uh, yes, that's Self-Reliant Man teaching Chips to shoot targets with his air rifle.  Goodness, but what has country living done to me?!  Chips was still just nine in that photo.

We had a "field trip" for our homeschool fellowship group at our home.  One especially skilled mom led a terrific class on DNA, complete with hands on experimentation, and then the "field trip" morphed into frolicking in the field.

The children were in a musical production at church, singing "Do-Re-Mi" as the von Trapp children, and "So Long, Farewell".  It was a great show, but alas I cannot show it here...

Sweet Girl made a profession of faith at church on Maundy Thursday and became a communicant member.  She was one of eleven such children, and I have a sweet photo of all those children, too, but darn, I can't show it.  Sorry.  They really are cute, too.

Finally, our dry erase board in our school room doesn't owe us anything.  It has been used, and used, and used, and will need to be replaced rather soon.  But what can you do to thank a dry erase board that has consistently passed along to me such priceless messages?