Hasty pudding

Ever wonder what it was like? Well wonder no more...here is what it looks like.



and as you can see the kids gave it a thumbs up. I7 said it tasted like cream of wheat-which he loves!

Tea Time

I received an invitation for Tea yesterday afternoon. Here was the hostess.

We all enjoyed our tea and crackers. I think we will look up some recipes this week and have a real tea time. Although the boys enjoyed the crackers and invisible tea. Well, all but one. Daddy just doesn't enjoy tea and kept doing wacky things with his cup. We had to have a 'talk' with him about manners around our 'table'.




I6, lost another tooth friday night. It was so tiny, you can hardy notice it's missing! Her teeth have always looked nice a straight, it makes me sad when she loses them and gets the crazy adult teeth. Now when I7 losses his I don't mind as much because I'm hoping they come in nicer!

ironic, isn't it

the night after I had a visit to the doctor, L and I get sick. Poor guy was the first to go down...it's so hard to see such a little one get sick. He didn't want the sick bowl shoved in the face anymore than I wanted him to puke on the bed. The next day I thought he was getting better but that night he started again, as did I6 and J. Such a happy house this week. I thought I7 and dad may have missed it but it seems daddy isn't feeling well tonight-hopefully resting today will help him fight this bug! I'm still not feeling quite myself-I guess a few days of not eating so much will throw your body off balance.
I let the kids go to awana's tonight since they had been wrestling around and seemed pretty much themselves today. They had a great time, they are so excited to have their little vests and handbooks now. We did get some school stuff in this week, mostly just a little history reading and we made these tricorn hats. We've been talking about George Washington this week.


Now they have been calling them crowns, I guess tricorn hats just doesn't' sound as cool. The crowned me queen earlier, queen of what I"m not sure.
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Christmas is getting nearer(gasp did she say christmas?!?)
If you are looking for that perfect gift for that hard to buy for person I must plug my friend Jera. I am so excited for them! Really it is the best idea, check out the link! It's cooler to see in person then have me stumble over words to explain.

and FYI cool is the word of the day!

40 minutes

that's how long it took me to find a parking spot at the hospital today....which caused me to be 15min late. I was lucky and they were still able to get me in. But wait, I get to do that again because I have to go back for blood work and to fill and new prescription. Oh joy I can't wait! I"m hoping it will work out that James will be able to drop me off and pick me up next time so I don't have to visit the parking insanity again. After 2+hours there I picked up the kids and we got groceries. They did great considering it was lunch time, or maybe it was the behave and you'll get to pick a special lunch today, nothing like a little behavior incentive. I6 and J requested cereal and milk. I7 a roast beef sandwich. L slept the whole time, the sling is so nice during times like these. Although at the same time it is hard to reach down in the deep carts to retrieve groceries while wearing a child. Got home just before 2 and had a enough time to enjoy our choice lunches and have a little school time before we had to hit the road to pick up daddy. Now I sit here wondering where the day went?
kid thoughts for the day: We have a nature notebook in which we get out once a week and the kids can draw something they see when we our outdoors. We were discussing how we can take these on our trip and as we drive through different states they can draw what they see since it may look different from home. I7 said yes, I can draw a desert because we will go through Texas. J says Oh, I want to see camels in the desert! Think we'll have any luck seeing camels by the US roadways?

Good Morning

Ahh, nothing like a nice, rainy quiet morning. Got my cup of tea and bible and little time alone. Well the alone part just depends how you look at it. J is up but he's doing a very good job of sitting quietly waiting for me to get done with my Bible reading today....Then I7 walked upstairs and started reading quietly the children's bible to J...and now well everyone is awake and it is not so quiet! But it started out that way and it was a great start to the day! Nothing like a good recharge to get you going. I want to share this quote with you today.

Ultimately, faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be found in any other way.

Thomas Merton-American Trappist monk and author of Then Seven Storey Mountain

The older 2 have been busy making things this week. I've heard mom can I use this to make a canoe, a pirate ship etc. They are going to town with the creativity this week! I7 has also been practicing writing in 'Indian code' We checked out a book from the library that tells what each picture means so he's be drawing pictures and writing us 'coded' messages.

It took J a half hour after awana's started to decide he did infact want to go to class. He seemed to have a good time afterwards but when we got to church friday, he started screaming that he didn't want to go. He is excited now, as he got his cubbies book and I told him we could do his school during the week like the big kids. I need to copy some preschool type things for him as he wants to do school like the big kids.

Yesterday we got to watch James play softball,they won again yay! It was fun to watch and we went out for lunch afterwards(ouch on the pocketbook!) Then we went to do some shopping. Sears was having a good sale so we were shopping for daddy who needed some nice clothes. So now he is set for awhile(thank goodness he doesn't outgrow his clothes! and why is it he's drawn to the most expensive of the sale items? hmm, it's never a great idea to shop with him;) )
I had picked up a few things the week before for the kids. I think we are almost ready for our trip now. Need to find a jacket for Isaac, otherwise we are pretty good. I think I am realizing that warm climates might be best for a larger family, because then you only have one season of clothes to worry about!
L is walking more and more. The other kids are still really excited and everytime he walks they talk in real high excited voices MOM look he's walking!

birthday, camping con't

Our Birthday girl got sang to at the chapel. This was hard to get a picture of as the sun was so bright in the windows. But as this is apparently a special memory of hers from camp I had to share. This is her and Pastor David.

I7 went crab hunting. When he came back he was telling me how his group caught four crabs but only one had pincher's. When I asked how come only one had claws he explained how well they all did but only one was big. So I guess he wasn't worried about getting pinched from the smaller ones as much!
James only stayed for one session on Saturday and then he headed back for town. He had a softball game that afternoon. I suppose it's a good thing he went because as it was the team was one man short, but they managed to overcome the odds and win the game. This is the first game he's been able to make as he has worked most Saturdays of the last month.
I'm always amazed how the kids seem drawn to male figures when daddy is away. I wonder if it's the same when I'm away. I am glad we have some good male role models that they can go too when they feel the need. I spotted I7 playing scrabble several times with different men of the church. Which makes me think we need to start using this game to work on our spelling words! Grammy Mary dig out that game for when we visit! I7 informed me that Mr. Tim won the game but that it didn't upset him. Can you tell we've been working on good sportsmanship LOL!
James picked us up at lunch time and we decided to go to the beach some more. The kids had fun finding rocks.


Now what I didn't get a picture of was I6 floating around. She amazed me. She has never been one to want to get splashed or our head wet. She was out there just floating on top the water, looking for rocks underneath like it was nothing. Has she ever come a long way!

Here's a wacky picture of the trio of rock collectors.




The little guy was sleeping during our beach adventure. But he woke up in time for snack.



ok, back up a minute. Something I forgot to mention. The camp was across from a small airfield where people tended to jump from planes. So we watch a lot of people land like this...
Here are some more random pictures from the weekend.






We did have a fun week of school last week. I have some blurry pictures of the canoes and modeling dough the kids made. I must pull out the camera manual sometime soon and study it! This week we are talking about Ben Franklin, How Jesus is Our Rock and Rocks and Minerals. We are starting to learn about Tchaikovsky. Although we all stumble over his name We do recognize some of his music!

camping, birthdays, recovering-oh my!

We went camping with church Saturday and Sunday. We had a great time although as I'm still finishing up the laundry that this one over night created I'm not so sure I'll be quite as enthusiastic about the idea next time. As I unloaded the bags I realized that we brought a lot of sand home with us,joy more laundry than I thought!
But on the plus side of things we were right on the water. My room was to the left in the photo and the kids were right next to me although their room jetted out to the ocean a little more.


This is from my room Sunday morning. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise.



As per birthday tradition, the little boys and I blew up some balloons to go surprise the birthday girl. Well, they tried anyway;)

Here is our birthday girl! She was so funny, she came to me Saturday night saying mom the ocean is too loud I can't sleep. Then she ran in the room Sunday and said "mom, I forgot that the ocean was right here!"
Just a little side note, the room the bigger kids used was also the nursery during camp so all those toys stacked behind are not ours, no I didn't over pack like that!

part 2 will come later.