Talk about fast progress!

Remember that six or seven weeks ago, she was barely able to walk three steps in a row!!

Hours of entertainment, right here in our living room

Gavin and Abby set up this 'train' in our living room, and they're busy making tickets for their train ride (Abby keeps asking me very seriously how to spell things, and listens intently as I say each letter, it's hysterical!). However, the one having the most fun with it is Rachel!!!

Take a look...

She's been doing it for about half an hour now...I took the toothbrush away after the first time or two :) and she's since figured out how to get down (more or less) and do it all again. Funny the things that will keep them occupied...

So what do they do all day long???

Well...today they seem to be reenacting the entire Olympic games in our living room. Gavin has a schedule of all the events, and he and Abby are taking turns participating (complete with uniform changes for each sport). We've had men's boxing (apparently women don't box?), men's and women's fencing, and we've just finished men's swimming. "I have some sort of sad news," Gavin reports. "I tried my hardest, but I finished in sixth place. It was a personal best, though." Stay tuned for women's swimming - Abby's getting dressed as we speak.

Some excerpts from the Men's Fencing competition (that's Abby cheering him on in the background)

Gavin getting ready for boxing (note the garden..ahem, boxing gloves!)

Back to school...sort of!

It's that time of year again - the leaves start turning, the weather becomes cooler, and the kids get ready for back to school time.

This year is a little different at the Clarks - the leaves are definitely turning (in fact, some were turning way back in July, what was that all about?), the weather bears little resemblance to the 30 degree temperatures we had just a few weeks ago...but Gavin's not going back to school so much as he's going to our dining room table! :)

After a lot of prayer and discussion, we've decided that for now, we will be teaching Gavin at home. He had a great experience for Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten at our local Catholic school, but we feel that for this time in our family, God is calling us to homeschool the kids.

Gavin has been really excited over the summer about starting school, and when our box finally arrived (we ordered curriculum from a company down in the States), we were thrilled to experience our first 'Box Day'! The curriculum we are mainly using is a 'learning through literature' program, so we get to enjoy all sorts of good books together.

'THE BOX' - we had fun tracking its progress online while it made its way here!

We lost Gavin as soon as we opened the box! I thought he would help unpack it and look at all the books, but nope, he grabbed the book right on top and off he went. ;)

Abby was my box unpacking helper.

Oh-0h...both of my helpers have deserted me in favor of the books!

All our goodies laid out on the floor (and then quickly put up on the table before Rach got up!)

We started school the last week in August - Gavin was really excited and we thought there was no reason to wait until the public schools started! We're almost three weeks in and having a great time so far. Gavin is a very eager learner and I love watching his brain figure things out and seeing his excitement learning about our world. We've already gone on one fieldtrip with the Grande Prairie and area homeschool fieldtrip group, and at their meeting last night I signed us up for a few more, so there are lots of exciting things to come! (And hopefully some trips to Edmonton too since we don't have to work around school!)