October

Each week immediately after Thursday morning choir practice in south Hayward, we would have 45 minutes to race out to Livermore to join the weekly Intro to Speech Class. Here is Joshua presenting his persuasive speech on the 2nd amendment.

Biology class continued with the boys making good use of our high powered microscope. We viewed amazing creatures both in the microscope and online.

October 24 brought David's 49th birthday. Liz had arranged to take David on the Hornblower yacht for a San Francisco Bay cruise in honor of the 25th Anniversary celebration for First Resort, a local pro-life ministry we support and have been involved with for many years. We couldn't have asked for a more spectacular day! The sun was shining and countless sails could be seen on the water that day.

After our time in San Francisco, we joined the kids and Nancy, David's mother, in Berkeley for a wonderful Thai dinner and some hot apple pie, David's favorite.

Shannon has been praying for a while now that the Lord would provide her with her very own pet. The boys each claim a cat, and everyone considers our dog Sugar to belong to Mom & Dad. Shannon has wanted a pet of her very own to love and care for. Her prayer was answered in September when a beautiful little Florida White rabbit appeared in our yard two days in a row. We were able to capture her the second day. Even after putting out notices all over the neighborhood and in neighbors' mailboxes, no one came forward to claim the bunny. Shannon had proved herself highly responsible in her caretaker role, so after a month we purchased a great indoor bunny cage (more like a rabbit penthouse!) and officially adopted Olivia who now lives in Shannon's room. Here are some pictures of Shannon with Olivia in the backyard wearing her harness, which allows Shannon to safely take her for outdoor adventures.

The boys really got into the Superhero theme for our annual Harvest Festival. John dressed as Clark Kent in transition to Superman, David doubled as Mr. Incredible, and Joshua showed up as Neo from The Matrix.

As the children have more intense and time-consuming classes, our opportunities for field trips become more rare. However, we took time out at the end of the month to visit the UC Santa Cruz Life Lab once again for another great tour of their Organic Farm. The children enjoyed pressing the apples they picked in the small orchard and drinking the sweet juice, tasting freshly picked vegetables from the farm, and learning about the different parts of plants. Shannon was the model for the plant parts talk.

After our day in Santa Cruz, the kids and Liz drove up to Rocklin for an overnighter at a Holiday Inn with our friends the Williams. The next morning, Shannon went back home with Betsy and Titus, while Luke and Lydia joined Liz and the boys at an all-day seminar to prepare for the SAT Essay Writing test. Here are the techie boys preparing for the 2-hour drive home.