Unit Celebration

At last - our first Unit Celebration! We decided to have our feast at the Emmerentia Dam - which turned out to be such a perfect setting for our event. You might be able to recognize a few Medieval characters, such as Robin Hood, Little John, and King Arthur...
 


The girls looked beautiful in their long dresses and garlands. Among them we have Maid Marion and Empress Theodora...

 

 
 
 
Who can spot the joker?
 
 
 Rachel gave a speech on 'Living in a Viking family',



and Amanda told us all about Marco Polo and his exciting adventures.


The other kids also gave speeches on various Middle Ages topics, played musical items and played games...and we all enjoyed wonderful fellowship and fun together! I can't wait for the next unit celebration - who thought learning could be so much fun?

Unit Celebration Preparation

We were all hard at work towards the end of last week readying ourselves for our Unit Celebration - A Medieval Feast! Part of the fun was making decorations, costumes, preparing items to show and then preparing and presenting the food! Crazy as it may sound, I decided to add a roasted pig's head as a table decoration, but these things you have to do yourself, and so what started out as a nice idea, was actually quite a stomach-turning experience. Thankfully Glen bought the head, Rachel cleaned it, Amanda basted it, and all that was left for me to do was get all the praise for making it :-) Well, I did still have to watch it being cooked and make sure that it was nice and crisp and looked it's best!
 
 



 
 
Even though it was quite gruesome, it did make in interesting conversation piece, and a few people did kiss it's crispy snout! What fun it was indeed!!!

Middle Ages


This has been our first term of our new curriculum, Tapestry of Grace. Our whole family has traveled the exciting journey together of learning all about the Middle Ages. Here are some crafts the girls made along the way, to help them understand different aspects of art and culture in the day.
 
Here we have a Byzantine icon...
 

a stainglass window...

a mosaic of Empress Theodora...


geometric art which started with the rise of Islam...



a coat of arms...

a castle...

garlands...


diorama depicting the people of the Middle Ages...



and lastly, illuminations.


The girls have thoroughly enjoyed this first term, and after our last week we will have our unit celebration - a medieval feast, where we all have to dress up in appropriate attire...should be fun!

Jude is 1!

In typical Thompson tradition, we all sang 'Happy Birthday' to Jude early in the morning. He was already awake, but was so happy to have everyone fuss over him. The Martins were here, and although Craig and Lara stayed in bed...the kiddies celebrated with him...and had cake for 'first' breakfast. We had a proper breakfast when the adults got up :-)
 



What would a birthday be without the blessing of making a mess?


Here's the birthday boy on his cool bike!


Craig saying 'Happy Birthday'...or just pulling faces...not quite sure...but Jude was enjoying him anyway!

 
We had some visitors during the day...my older sister and mom...with Aydon, of course...who isn't in these pics...but he is getting oh so cute!
 


Mike, Stacey, Jono, Misha, Natasha and Candice also popped in to spoil my little boy - thank you all so much for loving Jude so much!!



 
 
Jude - we love you so much, and are so blessed that God gave you to us - our prayer is that you would grow up to love and serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that you would serve Him with gladness and with zeal all the days of your life! You are a joy to us all!

Nothing's changed!

As you can see, our beloved friends are over from Aussieland to visit! Yes, the kiddies are all bigger, and yes, we have a few more wrinkles...well at least the men do :-) but when it comes to some things...they just never change...notice the boys in the reflection!
 


God has truly blessed us with very special friends...and it has been a blessing to spend some time with them on their short holiday - thanks guys!!

Masked Maidens

10 points for anyone who can recognize these masked maidens! I'll give you a clue: The first one is related to me, and the second one isn't...well not by blood anyway :-)
 


If you guessed Rachel and Leah, then you are right! Well done!!

Emperor, Empress and Princess

The girls have been learning all about the Byzantine empire. One of their activities was to cut out a whole lot of Byzantine costumes and dress Emporer Justinian, and Empress Theodora in them. Here you have them modeling their beautiful attire.
 

Last week we were blessed to finally meet our little guard-daughter Misha. She is so beautiful - what a princess! I just wanted to cuddle and kiss her the whole time Mike and Stacey were visiting us. Of course Jono is just growing up so beautifully, and is such a good big brother. Our prayer is that they would grow up to love and serve Jesus, and that we would be a spiritual blessing to them throughout their lives.