Archive | December 2014

The Yellow House… a Book Review With Gavin

So today is the day for another joint review… We are on our THIRD Boxcar Children book… The Yellow House by Gertrude Chandler Warner. We have dwindled down to TWO readers: myself and Gavin.

I am finding more and more that this is a definite feel good series of light reading. Even Gavin is finding that the books are not too challenging. Though he does take a substantial amount of time to read the books. I, personally found it an afternoon read, but an enjoyable one.

I did find that you really do need to read these in order. Each book refers back to the previous adventures so far… so you CAN enjoy the four children (with dog) and their adventures without doing so but you would be left with questions when they speak of a past experience.

In this story the children have been wondering (still) about the empty yellow house back on the island from book two (Surprise Island).Of course, there is a story to hear about the little house that led to a whole new adventure. This time with their cousin and guest along for the excitement.

There is an interesting discussion about camping and portaging complete with storms and mountain men. The imagery is fun and the people they meet along the way interesting. Definitely age appropriate for our 10 year olds and fun for the younger crowd.

And now for Gavin’s opinion… beware of possible spoilers!!

It was good, I liked the mystery. It is a book I would read again. I am already on the 4th book. My favorite character is Watch the dog. I like him because he is cute and he helps. He wasn’t in the book a lot but he was still in it. I think lots of people would like reading it. It is sad that they talk about some people having died but they solve the mystery. I want to read the whole series!!!

So if you want a good family book to read together or have your child read. This could be the series for you! Be sure to check out our other reviews on the previous books (Boxcar Children and Surprise Island).

Our Christmas Pageant

Dec15

This is our second year at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. The kids are loving Sunday School and choir. This year our choir director planned out a rather fun and musical 30 min program called ONCE UPON A STARRY NIGHT. This is the first year all 5 of our kids are involved in a program. We had 3 stars, a shepherd and a wise man with a solo. In fact, all but Echo had speaking parts as well! So much of our December and a bit of November was spent with lots of practicing.

The girls both wore their special Christmas dresses. This is the second time wearing these as we dressed up in our best for Santa earlier in the month (that picture to follow as well). Miss Echo was especially proud of her blue dress and star!

I was very proud of Trinity. She used learning her lines as a way to improve her writing and for the first time ever was willing to stand at the front of the church AND say something into a microphone!

Emanuel was a wonderful shepherd though his headgear did not make it down the aisle for the procession in.

Gavin was a wonderful star and helped Trinity along with her lines.

Zander was loud and clear and sang beautifully!

We even had guests come! Not only Nana and Baba but Renee, Nathan and Evan! Talk about exciting. Being able to share our pageant with friends was great fun. We go to Evan’s musical night on Tuesday which just happens to be at the huge Catholic church literally down the street a bit from here!