First Pottery Creation

My son created his first pottery creation, a candlestick holder. He is now moving on to create many other wonderful pottery. Soon my house will be filled with all sorts of wonderful pottery that I will look at lovingly and recall my son laboring tirelessly over his pottery wheel.

The next picture is of my 2yr old after she tried her hand at brothers pottery wheel when he wasn't looking. See the clay on her face and hands. She wanted me to come help her wash it off. "Look, I dirdy." She kept saying.

This is my 5yr old in her latest costume she created. I especially like the fireman hat complete with the crown. She was interviewing me. I thought I was having flashbacks to my old MTV watching days. ;) She would have fit right in with that outfit.

Nine Years

Nine years ago I held a big beautiful baby boy in my arms and gushed with love over my blessing. You had healthy lungs and a voracious appetite! We knew you were determined when you escaped out of your crib after just learning to barely crawl. I have watched you play and imagine and dream. Your imagination is fueled by rocket fuel and takes off with a blast. You are so creative and I love watching you plan out your next big invention or idea. You have wonderful ideas and I am trying to get better at letting you fly. You are also the comedian of the family and love to make us laugh. Your favorite audience is your 2yr old sister who never ceases to giggle and guffaw at her silly brother. You have an ally and partner in crime who is your biggest advocate and I pity the one who crosses you in her presence. This adorable sidekick is you 5yr old sister who is convinced you are the best brother and defends you better than any defence attorney money could buy. You also have another partner in crime in your cousin whom you have been getting into mischief with for 8 years! You are our only boy and surrounded by all these girls you have learned to somewhat understand the feminine ways and this is proved in your many girl "friends" at school. We love our little man and wish him a very happy birthday and look forward to watching him grow, explore, create, and laugh.

Here he is with his birthday present. He cannot wait to open it up as he is convinced it is the pottery wheel he has asked for for a few months now. It was. I will post his first creation once he has finished painting it.

We had a mad scientist party complete with science experiments, a jello filled with creatures, and this "brain cake". My oldest would not eat it. The boys loved it. They also loved the experiments and made outrageously loud mad scientist laughs, each trying to out due the others. I saw some real theatrical talent at this party. I can no longer hear due to the volume level of their talent though! :)

pictures

Here they are giving me my bouquet of flowers.

This is what happens when a 5yr old finds a piece of black charcoal.

This is my sweet pea playing in one of the little houses at our local park. This park is such an awesome park. It has the play area with swings and slides, ect., it also has a river with a walking trail by it, a pond that is loaded with frogs and turtles and other wildlife, and fields for flying kites, playing soccer, baseball, a basketball court, and last but not least little wooden log play houses made from real wood nestled amongst pine tree's to create a Little House on the Prairie effect. These little houses are where my little ones spend the bulk of their time playing all sorts of make believe games. In the summer we literally can come in the morning and make a day of it. It is just the most awesome park! My oldest loves to swing and when she tires of that she grabs her books and settles down on one of the benches scattered all along the trail and throughout the park and reads the day away. It is truly a magical place.

Lazy afternoon walks exploring

Yesterday I decided to equip the kids with journals, binoculars, and pencils before we took off for a walk down to the river. We got to the end of the driveway and they took out their journals and the fun started. They sketched the ducks they saw, a big hole in the bottom of a tree, waterfalls, cows, anything and everything that caught their attention. Even my 2yr old got caught up in the action and demanded a pencil and notebook so she could draw. It was very fun and the walk turned into quite the adventure. They really stopped to notice everything around them and talked and asked questions in detail. They asked if they could take their journals with them every time we go for our walk. I loved watching them get excited over things they may have otherwise missed. They would intently study things, then began filling up page after page of their discoveries. When we got back home they were dirty, tired, and very happy. They picked flowers after we got back. My 5yr old asked if they could give them to someone who was not married so they could use them as a bouquet. Then when we were laying in bed reading last night she interrupted with "I don't know what the boy is called when they get married, I know what the girl is, but I don't know what the boy is?" I informed her the boy was called the groom. "Oh thank you," she said, "Now I know what he is called!"

Springtime

With all the semi warm days, flowers starting to blossom, trees budding, you feel the wake of nature all around you. All these changes in nature tend to awake an urge for changes in me. Whether it be a rearrangement of my furniture (which I have done in 2 of our 3 bedrooms), or something more personal, I think it is just natural for these feeling to occur. How can they not when you see nature changing on a daily basis all around you. I am more observant of the changes in my children, how they have grown, blossomed, transformed right in front of me. I marvel at how quickly time passes and how swept up in day to day living we can get and not notice all these subtle yet significant changes. Springtime is a time when I stop and quiet all the outer distractions around me and take the time to be more aware of everyone and everything around me. It is a time for inner reflection and outer observations. I take time and grasp it and hold onto it and marvel at life. A time when I thank the Lord daily for my blessings and praise him for his wondrous creations.

Yeah the Sun!

Finally the sun has come out and I am so glad! I know we need the rain, but after a week of it I was ready for some sun. The kids have played outside every waking hour they are home from school. It is good seeing them ride around in their barbie jeep and riding bikes. It means spring is finally here I hope. Today we made an easter egg out of paper. My little one loves to glue and cut and paint. She had a blast doing it. I know that when my 5yr old gets home she is going to want to make one too. Whenever she comes home and sees what we have done craft wise she always wants to try it. Yesterday we made bread. Ever since I found this no fail recipe I have been making it once a week. I remember making bread with my mom when I was this age. I also remember taking the dough and sticking it behind our floor model TV and forgetting about it. My mom searched all over the house for it and finally gave up. I did not remember what I had done with it. Two weeks later when my mom was dusting she discovered the dough. The heat of the TV had cooked it onto the back of it and she had to take a knife and force it off. I remember her fussing a bit, but mostly laughing when she told my dad when he got home from work. My dad made some comment about the fact that I had created a new kind of TV dinner. Needless to say she never let me take the dough out of her sight again. Luckily my little one does not have the urge to cook hers TV style. :) She just loves kneading it and then eating the dough. She always leaves enough to bake though. They all love the little rolls they make. They eat them fresh out of the ofen with butter smoothed all over them.

Here she is kneading the dough. Notice the tell-tale flour on her face from her sampling the dough.

Here she is just before we are putting it in a bowl to rise.

Here is her easter egg she made.

Tired

Today I had a lot of helpers in the kitchen. I keep a 4yr old and a 5yr old. They have not been coming as their dad was out of work, but finally after 4 1/2 months he has found some. Today I had them help me make chocolate chip cookies along with my 2yr old. Anytime I cook with toddlers/kids I get wiped out because all my senses are on high alert the whole time. The cookies came out great, the arguements were kept at a minimum, no one got hurt, and the mess we won't talk about. Then tonight is our regular pizza night. A good friend of mine sent me a pizza dough recipe that is ready to use in 20 minutes. It turned out great! It was the best I have ever made! I had help making it by my 5yr old and 2yr old. By the time I was through I was ready for bed! They of course are not.. I need about a gallon of coffee to get through the rest of the evening!! On a fun note, my 5yr old and 8yr old had a bunch of fun making this marble run in our hallway. It kept them busy for over an hour! They had such a blast deciding how to position the cardboard, then trying it out to see if it worked. They finally got it configured and running smoothly. Now they want to leave it up so they can play with it. I figured they would enjoy it. They love to go out onto Discovery Kids and create online marble runs. Here they are with their creation.

The 2yr old thought it was a lot of fun also and laughed and laughed at the marble rolling alone.

He is so proud of his creation! "This was awesome mom!"

Finally Over?

It has been a crazy few weeks. We have spent most of the time feeling yucky. Literally I have had a child home sick each day for the past week and a half! UGH. But we did get better and finally this week calmed down and we seem to be back to "normal". The upside was that the weekend was beautiful. Warm and sunny and just what we needed. We spent most of the days outside enjoying the beautiful weather. The last of the nice days we spent at the playground along with the 50 other kids and their parents that had the same idea. It was crowded but the kids had a lot of fun. No pics though as it was a last minute decision to go once I picked them up from school. I did get to work at our school's book fair which does not sound very exciting, but when you do not have much adult interaction it was fun! The other fun thing we did was the fashion show. It was extremely fun for my 13yr old. She enjoyed dressing up and parading around. My 2 and 5 yr olds were so happy to see all the girls dressed up, but they were especially happy about the desserts. It was a "tea" party with dessert only and drinks. My son cried and complained that he did NOT want to go to a TEA PARTY and he did not think that I should make him and it was so unfair and STUPID! Once he got their and found his friend whose mom made him go too he was fine. They enjoyed stuffing their face with all kinds of yummy desserts and chasing each other around after it ended. I on the other hand got to eat 2 bites of dessert and then began the fun game of trying to take pictures while keeping my 2 little ones under control. Not a fun time. I would have to get up and go over to the "runway" area to take a picture which meant the 2 and 5 yr olds would rush over with me and then once they figured out that mommy only had one hand to capture them with since I was trying to take pictures with the other hand they were like a pair of unleashed animals. Needless to say we left as soon as it was over as I had been wiped out trying to control them and keep them in their seats. They were cute though and I understood their excitement. It was like a huge princess party to them. They gowns were beautiful and the big girls looked all grown up. The little ones oohed and ahhed over all the pretty gowns and proclaimed that they wanted to do that when they get big. Here are the pic's of the event.

Do you see the exitement in my 5yr olds face. Do you also see the desserts???

She was soooo excited!!

Here is my star of the show. She looks so grown up in her gown. Beautiful.

Snow Day!

Another snow day. This time we have a significant amount of snow. It snowed all day yesterday and most of the night. We ended up losing power at 11:00pm. Luckily all the children were asleep in their beds. It came back on at 3:00 something then went back out. I was able to keep our fire going all night which was great because without it we would have been very cold! I was so thankful that we had it. We only use the stove when it gets really cold as the monitor heat does not do the job of heating this house as well as the wood stove does. Needless to say I LOVE OUR WOOD STOVE! I am such a cold natured person that I constantly feel cold with our other heat source. With the stove I fell all warm and cozy and do not mind the snow as much. It's a wonder what heat will do for you! I was also glad because with my 2yr old being so sick she did not need to be without heat. We did make some yummy cookies. They are molasses and the favorite thing to do is to lick off the sugar. The house sure smelled good! I found the recipe here: http://www.4boys2luv.blogspot.com/. This is my sister's blog so I am a bit partial to it. She is right in that they did remind me of mom's cookies when we were little. Today we are baking bread so that should be fun. I am thinking that with this much snow they will not have school tomorrow either. The good news is that this weekend it is going to be in the 70's! Whoo hoo! What better way to celebrate the time change than with spring like weather! Unfortunately, my luvs will have school again this Sat. to make up for the snow day. Good thing it is only for 4 hours. That afternoon my oldest has a fashion show to do as a fund raiser for the class trip. I am looking forward to it. Her favorite item that she will be modeling a prom dress that a local dress store donated for the event. I will take pictures. Speaking of pictures, here are some of the cookies we made and our snow.

I had help sprinkling the conf. sugar on them. Actually my 5yr old did the sprinkling. :)

What you cannot is all the birds in the tree. I took this picture because this tree had about 20 robins in it. I cannot see these birds without thinking about the time last summer when we were coming back from swimming and I noticed a large robin in the field. "Hey guy's, look at that fat robin." I said to my kids. My five year old looked around and said, "Where's the fat robber?". We all busted out laughing. It still makes us laugh thinking about it.