This week has been a lot of fun with as snowy as it will probably get this season. The children have been outside playing and discovering what is hidden under the snow.

Now, with all of the snow pretty much defrosted and disappeared, we were surprised to find some treasures still remaining.

Some value rare finds…

While others get a little bit mischievous and, well…

just have to be a little bit different.

After putting a little bit of weight on the sheet of ice, Lily was able to break it.

She found more later and held onto that piece a little longer, so that she could savor the flavor. You know, I even took a bite off of her sheet of ice. No. I have absolutely no idea where she found the piece, but decided to live dangerously. Some things are better left unknown.

I tried to stay awake, but that would have put me sitting for several hours in the wee hours of the morning, so I never got to see the snow fall. Although I am sharing many days of snow pictures, we only really had decent snow on Monday.

Tuesday, it stuck, but by today, it was pretty much gone and we were back to normal. Public schools were closed for three days, but we plugged away. After all, there was no snow keeping us away from the classroom. I did give the children a break on Monday.

That is when we got to see the snow fall. If you look very closely, then you will be able to see it too.

Okay. So the snow fell and at first there was a lot of standing around. A lot of it did have to do with me.

You many notice that many of the pictures are taken from the same angle. Uh, I was a little bit too cold to come completely outside, so I stood in the doorway while they played. I eventually made it outside for a fast run to the shop that had eggs or milk that I needed to make something to eat.

Other than that, I stayed pretty close to the inside.

They did not need me anyway and seemed to figure out a lot of ways to have some fun.

The arrival of the sheriff’s deputies always let’s us know that the parade is beginning. This was our second parade of the season.

This shot was strictly for mommy. I think that my children have smiling for pictures down to a science.

Santa’s workshop helpers.

There was a lot of Santa going on.

I had never seen dancing Christmas trees until we moved here. I’m not sure if I was missing out or if it is something particular to this area.

I just love Christmas lights.

Santa and his reindeer (and his bodyguards) closed out the parade. The parade was just long enough for a tired and very cold mommy who was ready to go home.

We had dinner at Subway before the parade and their sandwich bags came in handy for collecting candy. Do we get credit for recycling the bags? See some of what they caught.

I’m not sure how you do Christmas wish lists in your home, but River recently came up with a unique way to remind me for the cazillionth time of what he wants for Christmas. I guess, since I hadn’t given him an answer, he figured that I had not made up my mind, which I hadn’t.

So, he put together a LEGO version of what he wants. I think I get the picture.

Man. It would be so hard to say no to his request after this creation. I’m going to have to get on the telephone with my Dad, so he can make sure one of these appears under the Christmas tree or at least a few days later. It is presents like this that grandparents are made for :-).

Strategically placing bulbs is the key to excellent Christmas tree decorating.

If you are really pretty, then you can also look good while decorating the tree.

Deep concentration is necessary for the correct placement of ornaments.

If you’re really talented like some, then you can watch television AND decorate the tree at the same time.

Sometimes, redirecting your focus can make the difference.

This is where the decorating can take a scary turn. Lily was determined to use as many of the decorations that we had.

Sometimes, mommy stepping out of the way, not directing Christmas tree decorating and allowing the masters to work results in the perfectly decorated Christmas tree.

We headed to Arizona to meet-up with family for a reunion. Yes, I’ve got a lot of relatives and there were quite a plenty there even without everyone being able to attend. Okay, I first will say that Arizona is beautiful country, but never, ever, never, ever, never, never, NEVER will I visit that state during the summer months again. Fortunately, we had access to a wonderful swimming pool, air conditioning, good food (a bit over-priced at the hotel – I know) and blue sky, but it was as hot as hell – or how I would imagine it to be sin.

When we returned home, we visited the Clement Railroad Museum and had a wonderful end to a great vacation. I like planning ahead, so I made sure that we had some fun before heading back home on an almost three hour drive home.

We haven’t been ice skating since we moved. Is was fun to get back out and not on (no falling here) the ice. It was cold, but considering it was hot outside, it was a nice reprive.

We bought a house. Ah, well, not really, but we got to live large for just one day as if it were ours.

The children and I got to hang out with Governor Bill Haslam. Who would have thought that he would think our town cool enough to visit. I sure could have thought of so other more exciting places in Tennessee to go to, but it’s all politics.

Even though he is still kindergarten/first grade, Canyon graduated at church and received his first grade Bible.

We have visited this before; children of the corn. They may be sweet and innocent looking, but you may notice they are standing in front of the corn. We had a successful beginning garden last year. There are a lot of things we learned and will do and not do this year, but it was nice being able to grab more than herbs from our garden. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy any of the corn before the bugs got to it. We’re looking for ideas, so that won’t happen again.

Theatre was alive and strong during the summer as the children rehearsed for Charlotte’s Web. The production went on without a hitch, except Lily had to step in for River during the last performance because he got sick. She had pretty much memorized all of the lines in the play of all of the characters. Lily played his parts as well as hers.

We met Bud Cason of Bud’s Best Cookies at a promotional event. Yes, Bud’s teeth are actually that white and yes, the cookies are good. They are the addictive kind (plus $1/bag), so you know they have a lot of stuff in them. My favorite is Butter Flavored. Bud was waving around $1 bills handing them out, so we could purchase his cookies.

These pumpkins are part of our summer crop. We plan to plant more this year (not by accident) a little bit later in the spring, so they are ready in October instead of August.

Lily, Canyon and I went prom hunting because I had to take some pictures of local children out for the night. They scouted and I shot. All three of us made a great team. We may come together again this prom season and hunt more.

We enjoyed one of the many nights of music on the square in our small town. We literally danced the night away.

River, Lily and Canyon completed another year of AWANA. Awards were received and Lily was promoted to T&T. If there is an AWANA program near you (find AWANA), then I suggest you check it out for your children. It has been such a blessing for my children.

River was able to connect with one of his best friends when his family finally relocated to this side of the map. It was such a special treat for River and it was a pleasure for me to see their faces when they saw each other. Here is to a lasting friendship.

We finished up the school session with a field trip to a golf and game park with golf, games, race cars and bumper floats. It was the perfect day of fun for a lot of hard work.

Our church held it’s annual revival and we again helped deliver the invitations. This year, every residence in our city received an invitation to the revival and a can of Coke inviting them to come and learn about the “Real Thing.”

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art opens its doors for free, fours times a year to homeschoolers and this was one of our many visits. We toured the Soul of City exhibit, which featured collections of African American Art.

River, Lily and I entered our first photography contest. Although none of us won a ribbon, it was fun deciding which of the many pictures we have taken to submit. Lily is standing in front of her picture “Ageless” (the Bible) and River’s picture “Rose of Life.”

We got back to our weekly family walks. I truly missed them during the colder months as we are having again now. Come on March.

Once again, we started a garden, BUT this year we were more successful than we were last year. Darling D joined us and we had a great bounty this year; carrots, radishes, pumpkins (that was by accident, but we’re doing it again this year), a variety of herbs, tomatoes and corn (the bugs enjoyed the corn). I’m looking forward to our harvest this year.

We were finally able to use the compost that we have been creating over the past two years in the garden to get it started.

The annual spring concert was held with all three children singing and Lily’s class also performed with hand bells.

Our old pool met its final days, but it was the best money ever spent. This is our new pool when we first got it. We are going to have to replace (ALREADY) it this summer.

Amazing Wonders was the theme for Vacation Bible school. Again I taught missions. The kids always have an amazing time during this week at church.

I took the children on a visit to a prison. Do you remember Scared Straight? Well, consider this option the next time your children give you a hard time (just kidding).

We attended a book signing by Memphis author Nancy Gentry, who was promoting her new book Little Blue, Little Gray. If you are looking for children’s books about the Civil War period or early 50s-60s, then take a look at her books. We added Rebel in Petticoats, The World of Ivy and The Secret and the Sunday Rose to our book collection.

Canyon got his first foot-long sandwich from Subway. It was exciting for him, but now he prefers a beefy-five layer burrito from Taco Bell.

Oh, please come back because we are only half way through the year of 2012. You can see what we did from January-February and March-April of 2012.

As the months continued, there were a few long awaited experiences and some that were unexpected. I wasn’t really sure how to take them other than to just enjoy the moment as well as the memories we had.

A brief storm full of dark clouds, pouring rain and winds rushed through our town for about 20 minutes and then disappeared leaving blue skies and this…

Our reading tree, which we have enjoyed sitting under and reading so many books during the spring and summer days was damaged and had to be trimmed. We also used to enjoy our annual fall pictures of leaves like here with the leaves that fell from that tree. Now, it is half of a tree, but we still love it. At least raking leaves this season was easier, but we didn’t have enough leaves for our pictures.

I finally got to fill my “homeschool convention” fix and attended the Mid-South Homeschool Convention. It had been about five years since attending my last convention and I was so excited. I spent an entire day in the vendor hall because it was a one-day opportunity for me because of the long drive. Sadly, the convention is skipping our area for 2013.

Since being a member of the TOS Crew, I was familiar with so many of the companies that were there having reviewed a lot of their products. It was such a different experience. I made a list ahead of time of the companies I wanted to see in person. Along with meeting other TOS Crew members, I also got to meet Andrew Pudewa (IEW – love, love, love) and Dwane Thomas (Visual Latin – I like him too). I was a regular groupie with both Mr. Pudewa and Dwane. I believe they didn’t know what to think of me. Just like a musical artist who creates a great song, I get excited meeting authors who create great homeschool material.

I had the best time and actually bought only what was on my shopping list.

I took this picture of Canyon, because I knew that it would be a matter of minutes months and these cute and perfect set of teeth would soon start loosing its pieces. It wasn’t very long after this was taken that he lost the first one. I did the mommy wimper and realized my baby was growing up.

I wasn’t sure if Canyon’s new set of teeth would leave him looking like this. Believe me, she looks better when she smiles :-).

The season finally arrived for strawberries and we were there. I got so excited in the moment of them picking and me taking pictures that they had picked more than 20 pounds of strawberries before we were done.

Lily made a friend and was in heaven. His name is Jude and he let her ride him all day long. She had an exclusive opportunity to hang out w Jude and the other horses that were on the ranch we visited. A quick visit turned into a wonderful afternoon of fun for her and a pleasure for me watching her enjoy herself.

AWANA meetings continued to be educational and at times very, very funny. On one game night, River and other TNT members tried to move an OREO cookie from their foreheads all the way down to their mouths without using their hands. River won this round. I’m not really sure if I should be proud or concerned about his table manners. Oh, there was no table.

Eggs were dropped from the sky from a helicopter at our church and the children scattered early Easter morning. I’m surprised nobody was hit from the sky.

The annual spring concert was held. All three children sang. Lily’s class also played the hand bells and the boys’ classes played other hand instruments. After the performance, the older children were awarded a copy of one of the books from the Then Sings My Soul hymn study series. I love those books and we’re using them in school this year.

We enjoyed a few more field trips, which as I said, I will share more about later.

All this week, I will be linking up to the TOS Crew Blog Cruise where we look back at 2012.

So everyday this week or until I finish, I will share our months to bring all of you current as to what we have been doing. I will only go back as far as January. Don’t worry. That is January 2012.

River was one of the youngest and one of the shortest (first time) players on his team. The boys were older, more skilled and faster. It gave him a taste of what playing with the big boys would be like in the upcoming years.

This was the final score of the final game. Lily managed to earn 12 of those 22 points, but of course it was not without the assistance of her teammates. Height didn’t matter as much on her team — the girls “got game” — some of the shorter players managed to keep up and make several baskets.

I don’t know how it is w/older girls, but these little girls are quite competitive (and passionate). They definitely played to win.

I broke my favorite bowl. It was a stove top mishap. Between placing it on a warming eye, cooking and simply not paying attention, this is what I got. I even considered trying to salvage it because it was such a great bowl.

I tried to AGAIN complete my Sewing to Summer project and didn’t even make it into the first month. Well, I did finish something, but never posted the clothing. Believe it or not, I am going to try it again this year because there is absolutely no reason that I shouldn’t be able to finish this project.

We had a lot of cold weather. That seems to be the norm here during that time of year. These are the only three people who I know who would eat Popsicles on a very cold day and outside. I’ve got some true characters. Without mentioning any names, I’ve got one who has to be reminded to put on his coat and would rather be wearing shorts.

We got to meet Craig Campbell when he dropped by our tiny town to film an episode of Great American Country’s (GAC) Day Jobs. He used to work as a correctional officer before becoming a country music star. Even after a very long day of filming, he accommodated us by taking a picture and even had a smile and some kind words to share.

Our year was full of a lot of field trips, which I will share in the upcoming months.

All this week, I will be linking up to the TOS Crew Blog Cruise where we look back at 2012.