Passover Haggadah

Last night was a great night~ We had 64 people from the Chapel come for a Seder Supper on Holy Thursday. It was a LOT of work getting it organized and set up and preparing the food. I sent out a MAYDAY call to Tabitha and DeeDee first thing in the morning and they helped SO MUCH!! Sam has been working hard putting the program together, studying the symbolism of the elements and refreshing his Hebrew! :-)

Our family was at the head table. I said the prayers the Hebrew wife would have said. Collin and Kaitlynn stood and read the questions the Hebrew children were supposed to ask. The Seder meal had certain elements (horseradish, eggs, parsley, salt water, charoseth, and chicken bones) that were explained and some were eaten.

Every table head (the man) started out by a hand washing.

Sam explains the meaning of the matzeh as it is broken several times, hidden several times and eaten several times.





As we were to drink 5 glasses of liquid at various times, grape juice was used instead of wine.

Towards the end of the Seder part, a real meal was eaten. Roast, potatoes, salad and cheese cake.

The line was full of HUNGRY people!

It was a really great night. All the symbolism was great to learn and the history was fascinating.

When Sam sang the Hebrew prayers (in Hebrew) the children around the room giggled a bit, but I think even the older kids enjoyed the whole meal and were able to learn some things.

Now, an update on our FCA group.....

While we are talking about ministry, here is GERMAN NIGHT with our FCA group last week.

There is no RSVP, so we never know how many are going to show up. Which makes it difficult to know how many to prepare food for! We usually have between 10 and 18 show up. We had some extra show up last week so the first few to arrive were put to work in the kitchen! :-)

Here is Katy frying up more German potatoes!

And Dan peeling more potatoes for Katy to fry! ;-)

After dinner, Sam leads them through a study and then it is game time. Tonight, was a new game called BAMBOOZLE. Very fun!

The airmen are very good at letting our kids join in and play too.

We really enjoy this group. It seems to ever rotate, as members deploy, move or join. But this is part of the reason we are here. This is an important part of our ministry here in Idaho. The bonus is we enjoy them so much.

Soccer Time for Tiff!

After years of being taken to ballet lessons and recitals, and soccer games, baseball games, roller hockey and basketball games, it was FINALLY time for Christopher to start his first sport! Needless to say, he was VERY excited! The Youth Center offers "Start Smart Soccer" for 4 year olds. They learn the basic terms and rules and practice all the moves for 12 weeks. Parents must participate with them and I am learning some things too! As expected now, we are getting some comments from the other parents. Here is our son, standing with all the 11 other four year olds, and yes, imagine how surprised we were to see that he is the tallest in the group. (read with some intended sarcasm). :-)

"Um, this class is supposed to be for 4 year olds only."
" Is he really only four years old?"
"How old is he?"

We are used to it by now. :-)

Now, notice an interesting thing that he does. See anything in common with all these pictures?? :-)

Mom..... Dad....... any thoughts on this "tongue" thing? :-) :-)

Tiffer Time

Every Sunday night we have the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Airmen) group over for dinner, a Bible Study and games. Tonight, they were playing scrabble. As this was a bit over Christopher's head, he found another way to amuse himself. He was standing on Collin's chair and saw that he could see himself in the large mirror on the opposite wall.

In his new sleeveless jammie shirt, he decided to do some posing and show off his "muscles"! :-)

He saw me taking some pictures and then proceeded to REALLY ham it up!

Family.... Get ready for a month of Tiffer in June! Start taking your vitamins NOW!!!! :-)

Question?

What do you get when you mix 50 mile per hour winds for 2 days with living in a high desert?

Tumbleweeds that can take over!!

This is a housing unit on base just down the road from us. Roads were closed! And giant bulldozers are out clearing the roads of tumbleweeds. We just stayed inside. To bad it happened during Spring Break week!
Isn't March supposed to go out like a lamb?
:-)

Homeschooling Hair Line

What better way to spend a spring break afternoon!?!? A HAIR LINE! :-) I looked out the back window this afternoon and this is what I saw. Naturally, I HAD to take a picture. Two of the new girls are our new friends who moved in 2 houses down this week from Alaska. (Their other 2 sisters were on the swing set). And yes, they are another homeschool family. That makes 26 homeschooled children in our neighborhood.
Notice the GREEN grass! Still no leaves, but now there are leaf buds!!
Storm coming in tomorrow. Snow expected. :-(
Freezing temps again.
It is just CRUEL to get us all used to being outside and then force us in again.
Hopefully, this will be the LAST cold front!!
But remember last year, it snowed all day on Easter!!!!!!!
Crazy crazy Idaho.

Sweet Buddies

Even the little ones are thankful for the sunshine!

Kaebrie and Lauren are still small enough to BOTH fit inside their favorite car. Hearing their giggles was so cute!

I just finished tucking 4 exhausted kids into bed. They all have pink cheeks from SUN EXPOSURE!!! How wonderful is that?!?!?!?! :-)

JUMPING FOR JOY!!!! SPRING IS HERE!!!!

Just 10 days ago we were shoveling snow and wearing three layers just to get to the driveway. Now, afternoons are reaching the 60's!! (Though the mornings are still in the freezing 20's). The kids can leave the house and go play outside! I honestly do not know who is more excited, mommy or the kids! Because after a VERY long winter with 4 kids in 1100 square feet all day, we were ALL ready to explode! It is still very cool in the mornings, but by 3:00 in the afternoon when all the other kids get home from school, it is PERFECT!

I have mentioned before, that the girls love to play horses. You can hear them "whinny-ing" to each other, see them ride each other; they are either playing with plastic horses or pretending to be horses. Sam built them some "horse jumps" in the backyard and Kaitlynn (aka Comanche) and Anna Brooke (aka Belle) had a blast jumping and jumping and jumping. And they do not "run", they gallop!!

The audience was distracted by Christopher and his enjoyment of the first popsicle of the season. :-)

Still not ONE leaf on any of the trees, and not even one leaf BUD yet, but there are green sprigs coming up in the grass, so hopefully it will be soon!!




Here is Kaebrie, who popped her cute face up in front of the camera. Poor thing, she tried to jump, but she is just to tiny right now!

Ba-la-la Kaebrie

We haven't had a picture of Kaebrie in awhile, so here she is with her banana (ba-la-la) sticker on her face! Sam said when he was growing up, he wore his banana stickers all the time. JuJu, this picture is for you!!!!!

In like a lion.......

All the girls were playing horses (as usual) in the snow. When they started playing, they did have hats on! I guess they decided that horses don't wear hats!

Well, the old saying for March sure was true today. It snowed ALL DAY!

Here are the boys getting ready to play this afternoon. What happens when Tiff forgets to put his bike under the overhang!

How fun is eating snowflakes?
The forecast this weekend is sunny and in the 50's. We will see!

It was fun to watch it all day, though I had to go to town today and I do NOT like driving in it!

The kids sure do enjoy it though!