The Ryals Family

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pinedale HSF May Service Project

MORE STRAWBERRIES!

For our May service project we decided to go strawberry picking and then visit some of our shut-in friends. We put together baskets of fresh strawberries to deliver during our visits

It turned out to be a beautiful day...

We ended up having a great turn out for the service project...

Seth found this unique strawberry... it looked like an ant... see the eyes, nose and the pinchers at the bottom?... This is one of my favorite pictures of Seth... He looks soooo sweet!!!

What a blessing to be having fun with friends while also showing love to others. We ended up visiting 3 different homes, but I forgot to take pictures while we were there. Oh well, maybe next time! One of my favorite things about home schooling is the time I get to spend with my boys. I really do enjoy being with them as much as possible. (except for a few times when I threaten to put them on the yellow bus that comes right by our house before they are even out of bed!!!) The service projects that we do with our home school group are great because we are working together to show the love of Christ to those we are helping.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Friday Seth, Noah, and I went strawberry picking with some friends. (Zenobia and Ezra).

Goofy faces... Ezra got a kick out of this...

Ezra trying to steal Noah's strawberry... boy, did she love her some strawberries!!

Look at all the strawberries we picked...

Last but not least... You know those really cute notebooks and cards you can get that have close-up animal faces on them? Well, have a look at this picture that NOAH took all by himself!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Another Weekend in Roanoke, VA

Last weekend we went to Virginia. While we were there we went to the strawberry festival down at the Market. The boys really enjoyed their strawberries over ice-cream topped with whip cream. I missed some great pictures because I left the camera back at mom and dad's house. Oh, well...

We also visited the new art museum. Here are some pictures... (I remembered the camera this time, yeah!) :0)

This is the outside of the very modern looking art museum. Later we found out that the building was designed to look like the surrounding mountains.

The H&C Coffee sign and the Dr. Pepper sign looked really cool from inside the art museum.

The Star

New Friends... "Packing Tape Guy" and "Purple Fuzzy-Furry Guy"... They didn't have to much to say though.

Oh, come on guys, give me a smile.

That's much better!

That's my man!

Here we are leaving the museum.

We like visiting Virginia. There are a lot of fun and educational things to see. It has many museums to visit and many other neat places to go.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Mock Trial

Well, as we come to the end of another school year, it's nice to look back at all we have learned. Challenge B was "challenging" but Joshua is glad he was able to be a part of the class. Although he was stretched beyond comfort and at times felt like he was being put into the fire, the experiences and knowledge gained shine like little golden nuggets. Lord, I pray that we never waste the opportunities you give us to learn more about you and the world you created. Thank you for blessing the work of our hands. (and minds!)

One of the things Joshua got to experience this year was participating in a Mock Trial. The class spent 15 weeks working on the trial. They each were assigned a part (character) in the trial. It was a murder case and the wife of the deceased was the main suspect. The trial was held at a court house with a judge (who is a defense attorney in real life) and a small panel of jurors. All the local Challenge B classes compete against each other. Joshua was a defense attorney. He had to do the opening statement and a cross examination of one of the witnesses. Even though their class lost in the first round, it was amazing to see the kids actually conducting a trial! The judge said he was blown away by what he saw and that if this was the future of the judicial system then we would be in great hands. He also said that he was seriously going to consider home schooling as an option for his children. WOW!

Click here to see some pictures.

Look at that tired face... It was about 10:30 by the time we got home. (the trial lasted about 3hrs!) Then I suddenly realized that I didn't have any pictures of Joshua by himself. He was not very happy with me about having to take more pictures (especially because he had already changed clothes!)... but he did manage to squeeze out a few last smiles!!! (well, with some coaxing) :0)

Monday, May 4, 2009

April HSF Service Project

Last month our Home school groups service project was a clean-up day at Park Springs Christian Camp. My boys have enjoyed going to this camp for a few years now. Joshua will be going for a week for the middle school session and then he will go again as a camp volunteer with the 2nd and 3rd graders. Seth will spend his first week at camp and Noah will go for 3 days.

We decided to help the camp clean-up before the summer sessions start. Park Springs is located in Providence NC. It's about an hour and thirty minutes away. I have been there several times and I just love it. Check out the family day that is coming up, it's free and sounds like a nice trip to take with the family. You can find out more about the camp here.