Last week we went to the Treehouse Museum. It is geared to mostly younger kids, but our older ones found things they liked as well. We were supposed to go with all of Mr. T's family who are in town visiting or just live nearby, but his parents ended up sick, so the thing was cancelled. But, we had already bought our vouchers a month or more earlier when we found a deal on line for half price, so we decided to go ahead and go anyway. Here are some pictures of the fun we had that day! Apple was so much fun, I love the joy and magic that little ones bring to everything they experience.
She didn't know quite what to think of all the dolls. And the fact that she couldn't touch any of them made it so that it wasn't as fun as she'd have liked.
She LOVED to gather all the 'horses' and thought it was great that she could carry them.
Here she is gathering the horses.
A great team building activity that required many hands to make it work!
Fabulous building and bonding time with dad! Love it! Mr. T loved all the planks to build with.
And dad wasn't the only one loving the planks. Dad went for height, Ginga' went for style!
This is the drawing station. They were creating their own eggs.
It's a bit bigger and almost done...
getting closer...
Finished! Wait til you see what happens next...
What baby can resist a tower? Especially when her favorite game is, Timber?
She thought this horse was so cool..and she loved the hat too!
It's not very often we can capture such a great smile on her! She was in heaven on this horse, obviously. Isn't she adorable? Love this picture!
It was a fun day which we ended by having lunch at Tony's Pizza, which is a place Mr. T used to go get pizza when he was little. The kids thought it was a bit strange to actually be able to go in and sit and order a pizza, instead of having it delivered. :) Over the summer we had reading goals, and we said that if everyone met their reading goal, then we would do something fun as a family. We decided that this would be it, it was a fun time together.
Last week, I told the girls that their room had to get cleaned up, big time. It was such a mess, huge, gigantic practically falling out of the door messy. Well, after a bit of grumbling, Nutmeg went in and took care of most of it, while Squirrel was the errand runner. This is typically how it works during clean up, Squirrel just can't figure out how to deal with big messes. Even Nutmeg was challenged by this one, but they prevailed and got it back to a somewhat passable state, not clean by my standards, but much improved. They have also divided the room into sections, and Nutmeg tries really hard to make sure that Squirrel cleans her part. However, Squirrel's way of cleaning her section looks more like shoving everything under her bed, into the closet, under her pillow, or into her drawers. After she stated that she was done, I quizzed her about those areas, and she grinned sheepishly, and I told her that she had better go back and try again, or that I'd be coming in there with a garbage sack at some point in the near future. I knew I couldn't do it that day, so I told her it would be with in the next three days that I would do it unless she got to it first. Of course, she didn't choose to go do it right then, she wanted to go play. I mentioned it again the next day, and she just smiled like she didn't really believe me, and off she went to play some more. Well, the next day I decided that I had time to tackle that room, and told her that during naptime, I was going in. She looked at me and said,
"Well, just don't throw away my journal, okay? Those are really important."
And off she went to play in the snow. I am sure glad she knows what is really important. :) And now there is actually room in her bed for her to sleep. And she can find the important stuff (like her journal) in her drawers, since I cleaned them out for her. I took out a kitchen sized garbage bag full of papers and other things that she generally insists that she can't live without. Boy she sure made us laugh around here at that one though, what a fun girl she is, so glad we have her!
Sienna update: We took it to a transmission place, they ran a bunch of tests on it, and it would seem that a good flush and refill has fixed the transmission problems. Hmm. I hope so. That was much less expensive than a whole new transmission. :) It just makes me wonder about the multiple mechanics who said that there was a problem with it. It's been a couple weeks now, and it seems to be running well. So, I guess we will just keep an eye on it. Mr. T says I'm hypersensitive though to it now because I get nervous about any little out of the normal movement that it makes. :) I've recently come to grips with the fact that I really like being comfortable and having a nice predictable life, so cars that malfunction, sort of stress me out. More on all that in another post though.
Lately, Apple has been so clingy. She is just fine if I sit down and don't move from that spot. (Real practical, I know.) She will then go and play, and wander all over the house, but as soon as she returns to find me somewhere other than she left me, she flips out, comes and finds me, and then won't let go of my legs. Ah...I'd almost forgotten how annoying that can be. I kept thinking that maybe this time, I'd get a baby that didn't do that. I have friends with babies that never seem to get clingy, they just wander around in their happy go lucky way's, and my friends get to do whatever it is they need to do at that moment. I'm sure that it's not always that way, but it seems that way to me. It has made me wonder why is it that these precious little souls of mine, (and yes, all 5 of them have been this way for a period of their lives) are like this. Is it really just them, or have I created it somehow in the way that I mother? I guess I'll tell myself that it's them, and they needed a mom like me to coddle and love them through it, since I don't know how to be a different kind of mom. :) So, in the meantime, I will just ignore whatever it is I think I need to do, and hold her, and sit in one place, (with a book in hand of course!) and help her feel secure in her growing up time. I know all to well how fast she won't want me anyway. She is such a fun baby, and growing so fast, the fancy meals, and areas of my house that really need my attention will just have to wait.
I recently discovered on some other lady's blog, this awesome DVD/CD.
Here's a link too. Zack and Zoey explore the Articles of Faith I decided to get it for Squirrel, because she has been dying to learn them all, and those of us around here just sometimes get a bit tired of trying to keep up with her need to be 10. :) (She wants to do everything that Nutmeg does, it's just not fair that she can't yet. ) Anyway, I thought, she's a visual learner, and although I don't love my kids to watch a lot of TV, a DVD about this can't be a real problem, and then we will also have something else that is Sunday appropriate as well. Win-win. Now I know that the church has the official songs, but the really cool thing about this DVD is that it helps the children learn what they actually mean, not just learning the rote memory of them. That is what did it for me, that she could memorize them, AND know what they mean. Plus, they are really pretty catchy tunes. She memorized #4 in just a few days. (She's already learned the first three, and wanted to pass off the fourth one in primary last week, she did!) We keep the CD in the car, so she can listen to it there. Anyway, we like it.
Yesterday, we went to the May birthday party with Mr. T's siblings. It was so fun to see all of them. It isn't very often that all six of them and their families are together, but they were all there this time, love it! Anyway, we were all outside eating dinner, and I turned around to look at what Squirrel was doing, and I saw her sitting on the swing, swinging; when all of the sudden she gets this thoughtful look on her face, and quickly bows her head and folds her arms. Obviously, she was saying a prayer, but then just a moment later she opens her eyes and starts swinging again. Then, just a second later, she repeats the whole thing. It was so cute. I wish I had a picture, but of course, things like that happen so quickly. I asked her a little bit later what she was doing, just to see what she would say, and she said, "I was saying a prayer to Heavenly Father, because I wanted to talk to him, and the only way that we can talk to him is when we pray, and you said that I could say a prayer anytime I wanted to, so I did, because I wanted to talk to Heavenly Father." It was the sweetest little statement of faith. I just love my little ones, they are so sweet, and grow up far to quickly.
It's been awhile, and where to start. Hmm..well, we'll start with the "new" van. Back in March, we decided it was time to try a decent and small-ish vehicle for me. We almost always buy used, and have never had much trouble with that. (At least with the Beast, we knew what we were getting into anyway) So, we found a car, nothing fancy, but much smaller Toyota Sienna, and figured it would also be good for Ginga' to learn on. Well, three weeks into owning the silly thing, it starts acting up. Big time. Long story made much shorter, we discovered it had been in a wreck that had been unreported and covered up very well. The mechanics we took it too both said that they had to really get in there to see what work had been done and what problems it had. Basically, it will need a new transmission and there's no guarantee that would make it work fabulously. So, now we are trying to figure out the best way to lose money on it. Fix it or trade/sell it. Hmm...yuck. For now, it mostly sits in my driveway. Fabulous. And I'm back to driving the temperamental Beast.
On to much more positive notes-Choir has just wrapped up, and the kids had a blast. Here are the two soloists from their performances. Rock and Nutmeg didn't have any close ups, when they were singing, they were usually blocked by other people. What to do.
The little girl in red-she's the same age as Squirrel. Crazy, huh? She got tall genes and Squirrel got short ones. Funny thing though, Squirrel never would look at her choir director to know when to come in on the song. She performed it four times, and every time was unique. But she loved it!
My phone had a new camera on it, and I couldn't figure out how to make it so that it wasn't so glaring. Oh, well. Ginga's on the right, and sings first. Just in case you can't tell due to the white out. :)
Aw, still cute. Love that girl!
Rock. It's been a harder year for him as he has been transitioning in his studies. Growing up can be hard to do. He started our scholar class this year, and I've said so many prayers on his behalf that he could catch a spark and get excited about the things we were doing there. I don't expect him to be like his brother, they are complete opposites, but I do want to see him excel in his way and get excited about what he is learning. As the year has come to an end though, I was still thinking and wondering what to do with him. I finally thought that perhaps he should see how another Vanguard class worked. He went to a class, and enjoyed it, but in his Rock like fashion, didn't say very much about it at first. He tends to think on things for a while before sharing what he's thinking with anyone else. He finally came to me and shared that he just didn't feel like what we were currently involved in was working for him. He didn't really feel like he had any really bosom buddies in the class, and that made it hard for him to want to push himself there very much. So, we decided to let him attend another class at the other Vanguard again, but this time he looked over what was being taught the day he was going to go, and he did the work to attend so that he would be able to have a more meaningful experience and understand what they were talking about. (He has done all the work for our group all year too, so at least he knew what was happening, but he never really got excited about what we were learning.) Anyway, the mentor of the class had assigned each youth a letter from the Hebrew alphabet and they were supposed to come prepared to teach the others what they had learned about their letter. At first, I thought, yea, he's not going to want to do all that she has for them to do. But I handed it to him, watched a couple videos on Hebrew with him, and off he went. Like crazy. He got super excited, made a power point presentation, and worked through most of what she had put on the assignment to help them prepare for the day. He was having fun, and was excited to go. Then I thought that he might not really want to give the presentation to a bunch of kids that he barely knew. (He knew a few pretty well, but a lot of them he didn't.) When it came time for his letter, the letter tet, he got up there and did it. It was awesome! His eyes were dancing, and he was smiling, and having a fun time. I could tell he was a little nervous still, but he pushed through and did awesome! Afterwards, I talked to the mentor and told her that at first I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, and told her that he hadn't done anything like that in our class all year long, and she was so surprised to hear that. She thought that he'd been doing things like that. When we got home though, he was happier than I've seen him in a long time, and he couldn't stop talking about how it felt, and how much he enjoyed being there. (Okay, so he didn't talk very long about it, but for him he talked about it a long time. :) After seeing his excitement to them and that experience, I knew that we needed to make some changes, no matter how hard they would be for me personally. In the home school world, it's easy to get attached to these moms and their families, and so when changes come, as changes always do, it can be hard. It's a bittersweet thing, I love all the mom's from both groups, so although it's sad to be moving on from some of them, it's happy to be able to spend more time with the mom's from the other group. Talk about mixed emotions. If only all our kids needed the exact same things, then we could all just work together forever! :) (keep dreaming, girl, kids in the same family don't even need the same things, let alone kids in different families!) I just hope that these mom's know how much I care about them. (yea, I know that some of you read this, but I really do want you to know how much you've helped me grow and learn through the years. Thank you so much! And I'm glad that our paths will always cross, even if it's not as often as we would like, and thank goodness for technology to help us stay in touch!)
As this school year is winding down, I am grateful for all that I've learned this year, about myself and about those that I am here to serve and grow with. Changes sure can cause growing pains, but I am grateful for the opportunity to stretch myself and become better than I was before.
Please forgive any typos and such, if I have to proofread this, it may not get posted for another three months!
Have to remember this one. So, we have this rule at our house regarding bedtime. The kids have one free pass to get out of bed and come ask for whatever it is they think they need. This mostly applies to the younger kids, since as they get older, they can get up whenever because they will just go back to bed when they are finished. That means that this rule is for Squirrel at the moment. I should add that she knows that coming out to use the bathroom doesn't count as her one time. The one time rule applies to her coming to ask me questions, and just trying to not be in bed. Tonight she came out and said to me, "I really want to get more books, so could you just pretend that I haven't come out yet? I still want to be able to come out one more time." She had the most adorable little face when she said this. Melt my heart. Such a sweetie. I just love the way she thinks and phrases things. Love, love, love her. Of course, I have to pretend this time. :)
Squirrel's birthday is coming up at the end of February, and she is already planning. At our house we have the tradition that the birthday child gets to request what meals mommy makes on their day. So the other day, she realizes that she gets to choose! I think this is really the first year that she has fully grasped the concept. So she is bouncing around really excited and trying so hard to figure out her favorites foods. (That's a BIG deal right now, since she is having to eat lots of things she doesn't really like now that she is growing up.) Breakfast she said really fast, waffles. Then she thought some more, and said, "For lunch, I want....I want....PANCAKES!" Then she thought some more, "For dinner, I want....(you get the picture, she has to think about it), FRENCH TOAST!" I busted up laughing. Apparently her favorite things are anything covered in syrup. Did I mention the need we have had to break her sugar habit? Yea, I guess we need to keep working on that. Waffles, Pancakes, and French Toast. I told her that maybe we should talk about some of her other favorite foods and pick some things that have a bite more diversity. I don't know that all that sugar and carbs are that wonderful for the rest of us. I guess we'll see what happens. What a funny little girl. We sure love her.
That's right. She bites her fingernails something fierce. And when there isn't any fingernail left, she goes after her skin. Ouch! Her poor little fingers look just awful, and look like they should hurt. I can't think what to do about it. That's tape on her fingers, it's not really helping. She does it all the time, you can tell she isn't even thinking about what she is doing. Grrr. So, any of you out there have any good ideas? Please share if you do. In the meantime, sweet Nutmeg is trying to show her what pretty fingernails look like and is setting a beautiful example for her little sister. Maybe she will be able to inspire Squirrel to think before she bites.
I seriously need to figure out how to make this work better for all the funny things she says. I mean, really, how many posts am I going to have with this title? I'll have to work on that. Anyway, here's the latest.
Squirrel is sitting on Grandma's lap, and Grandma starts coughing. She's been sick, and when she gets a cough, it lasts for weeks. When she finishes coughing, Squirrel says to her, "Grandma, I like it when you cough, it makes your tummy go in and out, and that bounces me!" What a funny girl. We sure enjoy her thought processes.
What a beautiful day we have had. It was a smaller Christmas, and very low key, just the way I have come to love it. In days gone by I would have spent a lot more, and gotten caught up in all the latest and greatest. I am glad that I have gotten past that in my old age. :) As our family has grown, I have found that we really don't need a lot of things. I am glad that I can say that for our family, less is best. Each of the kids got something that they were excited about, and they got some things that they needed. Everyone is happy with the day, and it feels so great to focus more on the real meaning of Christmas, rather than what all the companies want us to focus on. My father in law made the comment after all the gifts were open, "Well, Walmart didn't make any money on you guys this year, did they?" That is mostly true, although I did shop there a little bit, since I had gift cards. Mostly food type stuff though. Here are a few highlights:
Ginga' received a Kindle Paper white. He loves reading, and lately he, Rock, and I are all trying to read the same thing, so the Kindle has become a very useful item in our home. He also got that bottle of green hot sauce that is sitting on the desk behind him. He loved that. If you notice, his pj's have hot chilies and hot sauce on them. The more spice the better, in his book.
Rock keep asking for night vision goggles. Yes, he always seems to want things that are a bit off the beaten path. Well, we looked at them, but decided that they cost WAY to much, and the long term usage of them would be rather short. We figured that the novelty would wear off pretty quickly. So, Mr. T (aka the Genius) found instructions on line on how to build your own night vision goggles. So, for a fraction of the cost, we bought him the components to build his own. Watching him open his gifts was hilarious, since he couldn't really figure out what all these strange looking parts were for. It isn't easy to stump him, so it was pretty fun. I'll have to check back after he makes them and let you all know how they worked out. The upside to this is: when the night vision gets boring, he can take it apart and use the parts for other things. At least that is what Mr. T tells me, don't ask me, I'm not the tech master.
Last year Nutmeg got a violin for Christmas. Then she grew, a lot. So much so, that she needed to go up to the full size violin. So for Christmas number 2: she got another violin. That's okay though, she was excited for it to be more comfortable. It already sounds so much better than the smaller one. She just couldn't get her fingers in the right places anymore. She also got another crochet book, this one:
and is already planning which animals to make first.
This is a super fun project that I did for the girls for Christmas. This is the process of dying play silks. You use kool aid. It smelled really good. I felt so strange buying all the kool aid for it though, since we don't drink it here. These two pictures are about all I have of the process, after I cleaned off my black hand, I wished I had gotten a picture of that too! Oh well. The silks start off white, then you mix different kool aid packets together to make different colors. Here's a link to the one I used: http://www.gerberadesigns.com/triedandtrue/?p=390
Here are the girls, loving their new play silks. Seriously, hours of fun here. I can't wait to see what else they will come up with. I also made hankerchief sized ones for them to use to dress their dolls and stuffed animals and whatever else they can think of to do with them. Say good bye to all those dress ups! Woo hoo!!
Apple didn't really need anything. I mean really, baby number five. With two older sisters. She got a few teethers, like the one she's chewing on, and clothes. Since I thought we were done after Squirrel, I had gotten rid of most of the baby stuff. Oops. :)
We also got a family pass to the zoo. I couldn't decide how to 'wrap' that one up, so I put a bunch of their stuffed animals and animal figures around under the tree, and told them that they all had something in common. They couldn't figure it out. Some of the guesses were great though. Here's a few I remember: Rock guessed, "I know, they are all vertebrates!" Well, yes, they were, however not the answer I was looking for. Nutmeg guessed, "They are all God's creations!" She is so sweet, true statement though. We finally had to tell them. They just couldn't get it. But they are excited to go. The first thing Ginga' said after that was, "We have to go with the Halls', they have a pass too." Why, yes, they do. I'm sure we will do that. Their aunt has one as well, so I'm sure we will go with them as well. So, if any of our other good homeschooling friends have passes, let us know. It would be fun to meet up there.
I am so grateful for my family, the gospel and all that I have been given. I am so blessed. What a wonderful day. Mr. T and I didn't do much for each other, we got shoes. We both needed them. He got rechargeable batteries, and I am a proud owner of a food steamer. My old one broke a few years ago, and I am excited to have one again. I received a wonderful Christmas email from my dear friend in Hungary, and it just finished my morning off wonderfully. I am so blessed to have wonderful friends. I am excited for the upcoming year to see the growth that will come from my children. I love homeschooling for many reasons, but that is one of them. I get to be with them so much that I see how they are growing and learning. Fabulous.
She was so excited to do this! She went around singing her solo and driving her siblings crazy. I didn't even know that she was trying out for a solo, she just stayed after practice and did it. I went looking for her wondering what in the world was taking her so long, and there she was, singing her little heart out.
Our little Squirrel is so funny. Some of the things that come out of her mouth, crack us up. I sometimes feel that she is an old soul in a little body. I have been wanting to do this blog, mostly to keep up on the funny and cute and sweet things they all do. But especially for her, someday, we will all have a good laugh about all the things that she says. So, the most recent thing she said is this.
We were watching Looney Tunes the other day, just the girls and I. The boys were gone to Arizona, and the girls wanted to do something out of the ordinary, so I went to Amazon and searched around for something free we could watch, since we have Amazon Prime. Well, we are pretty particular around here about what we watch, and mostly we only watch documentary type things, unless the movie is just supposed to be amazing. Especially for Squirrel, she has a very active imagination, and we learned the hard way that if she watches something at all disturbing, she can't even eat, she gets so worked up about it. And it takes a long time to get it out of her head. So, I wasn't interested in having that happen again, especially when I was the only parent in the house for a few days. So, I found Looney Tunes. It has been forever since I saw it, and I figured it was safe. Anyway, the episode was about when the Martian guy is trying to blow up earth and Bugs Bunny ends up in a rocket and blasted to Mars. Well the whole time, Squirrel is sitting next to me, sort of huffing and grunting and obviously having an issue of some sort. Finally, she blurts out, like she's had a revelation, "This show must teach kids what they should not do! Blowing up earth is bad!" Funny girl. But smart, blowing up earth, would be bad. Apparently, she watches TV to learn something from it, she sure was trying hard to find a moral in that cartoon.
After watching a few more episodes, I realized that there is a ton of blowing up and shooting things in Looney Tunes, I had forgotten how violent it could be. But since it's so unrealistic and bright and colorful, defying all laws of nature and physics, she didn't have any bad dreams and hasn't seemed to have had any side effects from it. Yippee!
