Creationary

Jacob bought a new game with some of his birthday money. Have you seen all the new games from Lego? They all look like lots of fun...after much thought, discussion and deliberation, Jacob finally decided on Creationary. Like Pictionary, except you have to build things with Legos and get your team to guess what you're building. Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! For instance, imagine building a strawberry...out of Legos. Or a tree house. or a fly, or a log cabin...iceberg, cemetery, fishing pole, a pig, a shoe store, a hedgehog, etc. All of these AND MANY MORE are examples of things you may have to build with Creationary. The kids, of course, LOVE this game. While I think it is just a bit ridiculous to expect me to build a rolling pin out of Legos. But I digress. I am definitely improving in my Creationary skills. I was very challenged to think outside the box with this game. As one who doesn't spend hours each day building with Legos, as Jacob does, I just couldn't visualize building a camera out of Legos, which I recently had to do. I actually did a decent job and my teammate was able to correctly guess what it was. I thought I'd share a few of the kids' creations...let's see if YOU can guess what they are!

I love this next one that Jacob built.

Okay, you should have no problem with this one!

This next one was one of my creations...

This next picture is proof that I'm improving in my Creationary skills. I didn't build it. I had to guess what it is. The way we play is we only get three guesses. I only needed two for this one.

This next one, I know, is lame. I had to build it today and was at a total loss. To my delight, Jacob took into account my creative deficiency and tried to think like I do. He guessed it on the first try! Any guesses?

Here I am trying to explain to Caleb what it is he had to build. His expression probably duplicates my expression the first few times I played this game.

Toby, as usual, made himself comfy.

He is always right in the middle of our games.

Sweet boy!

The only reason I was able to guess this one is because it had been built before. Any ideas?

Bathing Toby

Do you remember the post when I told you how much fun Leanna had when Jon took the kids to give Toby a bath? It was the same day she saw the 'little ocean' (Lake Lanier) for the first time. Well, here are the photos from that fun afternoon!

O Christmas Tree - Part 2

I am so sorry for the delay...I know you've been on the edge of your seat waiting for Part Two of the putting-up-of-the-Evans-Christmas-tree saga. Here you go...if you haven't read Part One yet, you simply must. You just won't appreciate Part Two without first reading Part One.

Oh, happy day! Thursday was the 'put up the Christmas tree' day in the Evans' home and what a happy day it was! Aside from the, "Mommy, is it time to put up the tree yet?" about every 4 minutes from one of the kids, it was a pretty peaceful event. The tree was still heavy and awkward, and we still had to spend some time shaping the branches to make it look pretty. But how glorious it was to put it up, plug in the lights (that I didn't have to string myself) and VOILA! It was done! And the best part...IT'S IN THE LIVING ROOM!! Oh, it is just so pretty. I am so pleased. My mood was even good enough that I got out the camera...

Now, when it was time to put the angel on the top of the tree, we hit a little snag. Our beautiful angel would not stay on. She kept falling (headfirst) forward or sideways or backwards. Apparently our old tree had a much longer branch on the top and the angel always balanced properly. Our new tree has a shorter top branch making our angel a little top-heavy. Interestingly, we spent all week last week learning about balance and center of gravity in Science. So, like any good homeschooling mom would do, I turned this into a lesson (my mood was even patient enough to do this). The problem - our angel's center of gravity was too high, causing her to fall over. The solution - we must lower her center of gravity. How? Any ideas? Caleb's idea was to tape some rocks to the bottom of the angel. Her upper body is ceramic and her underside is just a sheet of plastic rolled into a cone shape. Her lovely dress hides this plastic cone. So Caleb thought we should just duct tape some rocks to the plastic cone. I guess it's true that men will use duct tape to fix anything! This would work, I told him, but what else could we do? Any other ideas? Jacob's brain was obviously still fried from school that day. He had a long week with Pre-Algebra (which means I did too), and his expression was completely blank. Abbi's idea was to remove the plastic cone from under the angel's dress altogether. What we did instead (after discussing the role the plastic cone played in the angel's center of gravity) was to cut about 3 inches off the plastic cone. This brought her center of gravity lower, and much to the kids' skepticism when I told them this should work, she stayed on top of the tree! YAY! But, of course, I'm too short (even standing on the top step of the ladder...the one that says Do Not Stand On Or Above This Step - YOU CAN LOSE YOUR BALANCE) to get the angel on our new, 9 ft. tree. So, it was Daddy to the rescue!

Our cat, Phoebe, had great fun while we put up the tree. Normally, this would've been a nuisance and I would've locked her in my room to keep her out of everything. Not this year! This year it was so cute how she snuggled right in underneath the tree. And how she thought she was little enough to fit in one of the boxes. Um, Phoebe, your rear end is sticking out. That is so unbecoming on a lady!
Toby was just content to be in the middle of everything as he gnawed on his bone.

The boys were obviously the first to get to the ornaments box. These were the first two ornaments to grace our new tree.

These are two of my favorite ornaments. The glass nativity above always goes front and center on the tree. I love to look at it and be reminded of the reason for Christmas!

The ornament below always goes somewhere near the nativity ornament shown above. It's another one that I like to have front and center where it can always be seen. This photo of the kids (taken in 2000) always makes me smile no matter how often I look at it.

The ornament below is another family favorite. We watch The Christmas Story at least once every Christmas season...it's a classic! I admit that before meeting Jon I hadn't even heard of this movie, let alone seen it. He was appalled, on our first Christmas together, that I had no idea what the movie was even about! And now, 14 Christmases later, it's a family tradition.

And this is the ornament Abbi couldn't wait to find!

And now...the moment you've been waiting for...

The unveiling of the 2009 Evans Christmas tree!

TA DA!

Jon's Stay-cation

So, Jon had to take some vacation time or else he was going to lose it. We talked about going to Illinois to visit his family (which we usually do over the 4th of July holiday), but I said, "Pretty please can't we stay home and do some fun things in Georgia that we haven't been able to do yet?" So, I talked him right into it! One of the things I really wanted to do was drive down to Lumpkin to see Providence Canyon State Park. It's also called the Little Grand Canyon of Georgia. I took over 100 pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them. Just my very favorites.

There are 9 canyons to explore and they're all numbered. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were very pretty (see above), but nothing really spectacular (I think growing up in the Northwest has raised my standards on natural beauty). The park website said the path is usually wet and muddy, but it's not normal mud. It's sand. But not the kind of sand that sinks. It was very pleasant to walk on and we didn't end up muddy at all (which I envisioned when I read that). We were the only ones at the park (truly) so we let Toby off his leash for awhile so he could investigate with the kids. He had so much fun! When we got into canyons 4 and 5, we were 'wowed.' Every corner we turned one of us said, "Wow! Look how beautiful this is!" It was really incredible. Just gorgeous! The kids and I needed a short break and Jon got bored...We explored in the canyons for over two hours and we still had to finish the 3 mile hike. It was extremely hot and muggy this day and we were all pretty gross, but it was well worth it. We ended up taking an unintentional detour that threw us off over a mile. Ugh. By the time we got to the last 4 canyons, some of us were ready to be done. Canyons 6, 7, and 8 were very pretty, but I think 4 and 5 were our favorites. The path to number 9 appeared to be washed out, so we didn't see it. But I don't think any of us cared by then.Clap your hands all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy! How awesome is the Lord most high, the Great King over all the earth! Psalm 47:1, 2For God is King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise! Psalm 47:7It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Psalm 48:2Like I said, we still had to finish the 3 mile hike after spending a few hours exploring the canyons. We were each almost out of water and little Abbi was just done in. So Jon scooped her onto his back. The last few pictures are of the view as we hiked out of the canyons. Beautiful! We all had a great day and couldn't wait for our beds...especially Toby!

God was so good to us this day! It had rained the day before and rain was in the forecast again. I prayed and prayed He would hold off the rain so we could enjoy the canyons. Because of other scheduled activities, Monday was the only day we could head to Providence Canyon. I had packed a picnic lunch for us to eat at the park before we started our hike. We could hear thunder in the distance the whole time we ate. By the time we were ready to start, the thunder and dark clouds had moved out. As you can see in the photos, the sun and blue sky came out for us! And then when we stopped for dinner on our way home, it was in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. Thank you Lord, for waiting to send the rain until we finished enjoying what You created for us!

Are you wondering what we're doing with the rest of Jon's stay-cation? Well, Tuesday we went tubin' down the Chattahoochee and had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. And yesterday we went back out on the boat with the Barr's. Today Jon and some other servant men from church are laying cable in our new building. The sheetrock starts next week so this week was their last chance to get it done. And tomorrow we'll be preparing for Jon's parents, 2 sisters and their 5 children to visit for a week. Never a dull moment around here!