Arthrogryposis Awareness Day

Join us in wearing blue tomorrow (June 30th) for Faith to raise awareness of Arthrogryposis. 

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” -Francis of Assisi

“The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.” Helen Keller

Father's Day Drama

We were given the awesome opportunity to present a dramatic song as a family (Byron, Gabe, Selah and I) to our Married Bible Fellowship at church for Father's Day. Enjoy!!

What a neat and powerful way to minister as a family unit!! I'm sure this won't be our last time doing something like this! 

Last Day of (Home)school 2016!!

Friday, June 10th, was our last day of school for the 2015-2016 year!

We celebrated the completion of the kids last day and last assignments with a water balloon fight.

Baylor thinks he is one of the boys. Crazy dog!!

We were going to put a sprinkler under the trampoline, but the sprinkler wasn't working, so the kids took turns spraying each other with the water hose while the others jumped. 

 Baylor loves being sprayed and Faith thought it was more fun to spray him than her siblings. 

What a little beauty!!

Once Daddy got home, the kids presented their final projects to him.

The last six weeks of science this year we concentrated on the human body. Each kid made a life size body diagram. So for their group project, each child did a report on a body part. Faith told us about the heart:

Mig reported on the lungs:

Selah did an excellent report on the brain.

 Gabe modeled a brain cap for her to refer to as she presented her report.

Gabe's report was on cells and the difference between animal and plant cells. He used water balloons to represent the cell. The balloon is like the cell wall and the water is like the cytoplasm. 

Once the group projects were done, they each had an individual presentation. Faith recited her letters and how to spell her name. 

Mig read a book from front to back all by himself!

Selah presented a poetry book that she wrote.

Gabe made a power-point on the life and death of King Tut... 

Which included a choreographed dance to Steve Martin's King Tut in which Selah joined him.

After the presentations, Principal Daddy awarded them with their Certificates of Promotion.

Gabe is promoted to 6th Grade - a MIDDLE SCHOOLER!!

 Selah is promoted to 4th Grade.

Mig is promoted to 1st Grade.

 And Faith goes from "Preschool" to "Pre-Kindergarten".

I may be biased but I think I have the cutest and smartest class ever! (And the class pet is pretty cute, too.)

Principal Daddy and the kids.

What a full and success-"full" homeschool year!! We are now ready for the summer break and some rest!! 

The Serna Kids are ROCKIN WITH RHETT

Rockin with Rhett is a Christian Kid's Rock band. They are teamed up with a ministry called Eleos Operation Inspiration. At their shows kids get to "Rock" with Rhett!

They pull kids out of the crowd, put them in costumes backstage, make them part of the show, and then explain that just how the costume came to life when they got in it, they will come to life when they experience

God's very special role for them in their life.

The show is fun, the music is original and catchy (yet not at all annoying like some kid's songs can be), and the message is everlasting. (You can visit them at rockinwithrhett.com for more information.) 

Rhett and Nathan of Rockin with Rhett go to our church and this year, they provided the music for AWANAS. At the beginning of the month, they invited kids from our church to be with them in their new music video!  

It was a lot of fun for the kids to be a part of the video! They had a blast!! Here is Selah rocking her air guitar! 

The video turned out so great!! You can watch it below - you will see the camera zoom in on Gabe, and if you look hard you will see Selah and Mig, too. It was a little too loud for Faith, so she stayed with me for a lot of the shooting, but had a lot of fun in the safety of Momma's arms. 

I hope the video blesses you as much as it does us! It is a fun song that will run through your head for many days and reminds me of the power of prayer! We thank Rhett, Nathan, and Eleos Operation Inspiration for giving our kids this amazing opportunity!

Costume Piano Recital

This weekend was our Spring Piano Recital. 

It was a costume recital and so most of the students dressed up to match their pieces.

Gabe started the recital off (quite appropriately) with the 20th Century Fox Fanfare - you know the song that starts all Fox movies. 

Selah played Supercalifragilistcexpialadocious from Mary Poppins. 

And then she and I played Beauty and the Beast. She dressed as Belle and I wore Chip the teacup on my head. 

Then Gabe played the Imperial March dressed as Darth Vader. 

I also played a solo piece. Selah took a short break from piano this spring and during her break, I jumped in and took lessons for awhile. I took lessons in my 3rd, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade years, but I had never played in a recital until this weekend! So though it wasn't Gabe or Selah's first recital, it was mine! I was so nervous! 

Here is a video of the recital especially for my mom who really wanted to be there, but couldn't:

Here are the students in our recital. Our teacher, Karen Amberson had 2 other recitals that day as well. I was so excited to be on the back row! I am never on the back row for pictures!! :)

It was such an honor to share the bench with this princess!

And so exciting to play in a recital with them both.

Since it was a costume recital, the little Sernas also wanted to dress up:

Here we all are with our costumes:

Good job to all my fellow piano students, and especially my two very special pianists!

AWANAS Awards

On May 1st and 6th, the kids participated in their AWANAS awards ceremonies. 

Faith was up first!

I was really proud of Faith for doing AWANAS this year! She learned verses and learned that it is ok to do things without mommy being there! I'm sure it helped that two of her best friends were in the room with her!

She was so excited to receive her first book award and final patch for her vest!

And she was not at all afraid of the mascot - Cubbie Bear!

Mig received his first Sparkie award! Doesn't his mohawk look cool?!?

Selah is the youngest and by far the smallest T & T girl (they had to special order her club shirt, which is still quite big on her!). She got her book award and an extra patch for Bible Quiz! 

She LOVES the T &T girls group! 

Gabe received his final T&T boys award, an extra patch for the Bible Quiz and another extra patch for "Truth Trackers" - memorizing a whole chapter from Psalms! 

He also loves being a part of the T&T boys and is so excited to be moving on to Trek next year! 

We absolutely love the AWANAS program. These kids are committing to memory great life verses, but they are also taught what those verses mean. It is priceless. Gabe and Selah have said that they hope to continue on with AWANAS until they graduate high school. I hope they do!