School started at the end of August, and Lily has the same teacher that Josiah had last year for second grade.  We’re pretty thrilled about that!  I already wrote about Grace starting fifth grade, and Josiah was too eager to run off and play soccer with his friends to get a first day picture in third grade.  

Meanwhile, Gil started off a new term with this incredible bunch of people.  

His birthday came up while he was teaching, and when I showed up with a cake, I discovered that the students had already brought him one!  

We invited Gil’s students over for a birthday party, where we introduced them to Jenga and Spoons, which they took just about as seriously as the exam Gil had given them earlier that day.  This is a competitive bunch!

Fifth graders at HOPAC get all kinds of leadership opportunities, including running for Elementary Student Council.  The students ran in teams of three, so Grace ran for vice-president along with Angelique (president) and Muchahi (secretary).  

We had a campaign day at our house, which meant that an explosion of markers and poster board and bottle caps (for buttons) blew up all over my living room.  But hey–it must have worked, because Grace’s team beat out five other teams and WON!

Johnny’s big recent success was that he started riding his bike without training wheels–much to his extreme excitement.  

Visiting one of our students and he and his wife’s beautiful new baby girl.

Josiah’s first-term third grade assembly.

Daddy is reading through Pilgrim’s Progress after dinner these days, but even the children’s version is just a little too exhausting for this five-year-old.