Dad's Birthday

Today was Dad's fifty-first birthday:

Of, course, Daniel had to send Dad on a treasure hunt for his gift! =D

He wanted fish for supper and vanilla pie (an old Byler favorite) for dessert. He's getting his mush tomorrow! =D

A Day at Sandy Creek

Yesterday our homeschool group, and several other people from our church, went to visit the old meeting house of the Sandy Creek Baptist Church, established in 1755 by Shubal Stearns and a small group of believers, and from which hundreds of other Baptists church sprang out of, creating the southern "Bible belt."

We met first at our church building and Pastor gave a short history lesson about the place, and how, amazingly, it all tied into our own country's independence. Really quite fascinating, and sad that it's rarely taught today. Baptists have a rich history that is little known.

the old meeting house

We went inside the little building and sang several hymns, and Pastor presented a short devotional. It was neat to sit in there and see how little they had, in our modern minds, and how much they did.

Daniel

Beth, Elaina, Leah, and Lauren

Daniel and Caleb

Megan, Me, and Amber

Tabitha must be cold =D

Lauren and Megan

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we, of course, had to pull out the cameras and get a ton of pictures!! =D

Me and Megan

Meg

Amber

Love this one of the three of us!

Spelling Bee

Last Wednesday was our annual Spelling Bee. It was a little nerve-racking, as always, but fun as well. Everyone did very well. Daniel placed first, Mason placed second, and I placed third.

President's Day/Annual Family Get-Together

     Every year on President's Day we get together with Mom's family at her brother's house. We had a total of twenty-three people there. Gram & Pap; Aunt Jane, Uncle Tim, & little Andrew; Uncle Tom, Aunt Jeryl, Lincoln, Caleb, Abby, Jaala, & Micah; Debbie, Rebekah, & Joshua (Aunt Jeryl's mom, sister, and brother); Melinda & Andrew; and us. (Paul and Priscilla weren't able to come)

Me and Rebekah (Aunt Jeryl's sister)

Deep discussions... lol

solving the world's problems =D

Lindy and Beth with Missy, Andrew and Lindy's little chocolate lab

isn't she cute??

the guys had a good time wrestling, and making a lot of noise... =D (they also went to a range to shot their guns, but I didn't get any pics of that).

 Making lunch and washing dishes...

     Lunch was delicious, as usual. We had (let's see how much I can remember): Ham, turkey, green been casserole, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing, and rolls. And many, many scrumptious desserts including several pies, apple cake, almond butter balls, and Oreo & Peanut Butter Brownie cupcakes (which, btw, are absolutely heavenly!! Look here).

Come and Get It!

Then we had "Chinese Christmas" which was a lot of fun. Mom at first got a nerf gun, and Nate at one time got two little matchbox cars, but you're allowed to "steal" in this game, so neither one ended up with them. But it was funny. =D

And some of the usual family pics...

Yes, Missy got to be in the pictures too =P

Hope you all had an enjoyable President's Day, without getting too depressed thinking about our current President!

How does it feel to be 17??

    It seems like every time my birthday rolls around, I get asked, "Do you feel any older?" Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I never do. And this year was no different. Being seventeen feels pretty much the same as being sixteen. Life hasn't changed much.  =D

Although by birthday wasn't until Wednesday, I had a sleep-over with a couple friends Sunday night because it just worked out better that way. We tried not to stay up too late and set out with good intentions. We all laid down to go to sleep, and ten minutes later someone had to get up for something, and before we knew it we were up talking about something or other! =D But we did manage to get some sleep!

Amber, Me, and Megan

Meg and I

Beth and Amber

Amber and I

and of course we had to take some crazy pictures =D

After a late breakfast Monday morning, we played games...

... and played instruments (Amber on the piano, and Beth, Me, and Meg on violins)...

...and made funnel cakes, which were pretty good!

no comment...lol =D

      Wednesday was busy with chapel and church, and I did school since I took Monday off. In the afternoon, on the spur of the moment, I decided to use some of the money my grandparents had sent me to go get my hair cut! Got quite a bit cut off, but I like it. =D When Nate came home that evening before supper, he asked, "Is this the new 'seventeen-year-old look'?" lol =D

     I opened gifts after church that night, and since I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head that I wanted (always have that problem, except when it's not my birthday!), they just gave me money, and some candy. =D  So I'll have to go shopping sometime soon. But for Daniel's gift, I of course had to go on a treasure hunt for it. =D

Isn't he sweet (most of the time)? =D

Let's not forget the cake...

no, we didn't have seventeen candles!  =P

Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, and
Moose Tracks and Cookies & Cream ice cream. Yum!

This Week's Activities

On Monday we took the day off school to go visit the science museum. When we go there on field trips with our church's homeschool group, we often have scheduled activities and don't get to tour the whole museum much. (It's also hard to when you have a bunch of little kids). So we just decided we were going to go for the day. We needed a break from school anyway. Our friends, the Hutchins, were also able to go with us, so that made it all the more enjoyable!

Us and the Hutchins (minus the dads)

Elaina, Beth, and Lauren

Daniel

We were able to go into a laboratory, I guess you'd call it, and do some different experiments.

Lauren and Daniel are practicing using Micropipettes (I doubt I spelled that right)

Here (and below) we're trying to figure out, by using water and corn starch, which unknown substance is Iodine.

Studying the fish...

You need a white coat to be a real scientist!

Tuesday evening we had a cookout for supper. We had planned to have one a couple weeks ago, but the weather turned cold on us, so it had to be postponed. We got a few warm days this week and took advantage of the nice weather.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows...

...and made pizza mountain pies!

Yum.

What have you all done to just relax this week?