Our Joyful Life

What Do You Do When Your Kids Love Science?

2012-01-22T20:19:00.000-05:00

You roll with it!

We are a very science-centered family. Maybe it's in our genes?? I mean, when the dad in the family is a doctor, there's a ton of biology floating around in many of our conversations! On top of that, he's been studying for his diplomates in chiropractic neurology and clinical nutrition. Biology, chemistry, bio-chem...makes for very interesting conversations! And he isn't the only one...

Brandon's obsession is chemistry. He reads books about it. He watches chemistry videos. He just can't seem to get enough of it to satisfy his curiosity! So it was only fitting that he was gifted chemistry related goodies for Christmas :) Here are a few of his goodies; hopefully the links work!

and from Kristen:

And other fun things:

The Element's Vault is a book with the most beautiful pictures of the elements. And it has 5 elements included inside! This was a selling point for me because Brandon has been working on collecting as many elements as possible for his own table of elements:

He drew that himself and has been working on collecting elements bit by bit. And his favorite so far:

That's pure gold which came with that book :)

He and Todd have spent some quality time together working on that thing! They're so close!

And the chemistry sets look like this:

in our basement/chem lab ;)

And our kids have pretty much looked like this:

since Christmas ;)

Our New Year's Eve

2012-01-18T08:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it was over two weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it!

New Year's Eve has never been my favorite. I can't tell you how many I've slept through only to wake up the next day and it was a new year even though I didn't stay awake to greet it. But...

it's important to all the other people in my house!

So a few years ago, I set out to make a bigger deal of it than I had been...which was nothing at all ;)

And you know what? It's become a favorite night for all of us! We start the evening with Todd's family recipe of paella. It was/is the meal his parents serve every New Year's Eve and he wanted to continue the tradition which is a win-win for me since I LOVE paella and I also LOVE when someone else cooks dinner! (The recipe I linked is not the one he uses but it's the closest I found. The nice thing about paella is you can toss in whatever meat you wish so our meat choices are different than the ones in this recipe).

Saffron is the key! It makes it that nice yellow color and tastes amazing!

After we eat, we play some board games. Santa added several new games to our stash this year and we couldn't wait to play them! Uno Attack and Scene It Harry Potter were the games of the evening and they were tons of fun!

Brandon kept getting the attack card that says you can't talk. He got it so often it was almost like a running joke!

Our desert for the evening is fondue. That has now become a tradition as well :) This year, because we are gluten-free, we made our own homemade angel food cake to serve with our chocolate. I was worried about how it would turn out using gluten-free flour but it was perfect!

Doesn't it look yummy?? It was perfect angel food cake! This is the recipe I used and just substituted my gluten-free flour blend in place of regular flour. We love Alton Brown! If you don't watch his cooking shows, you should :)

Fondue yumminess:

Kristen goes to a party thrown by a family we know well. I hate the thought of her out on New Year's Eve but it isn't far and she doesn't have to go on any main roads to get there so it works out nicely. They have a theme every year for fun and this year was "Bling in the New Year":

Doesn't she look blingy? Jon added his bling later...

I'm so proud of my gansta daughter and her gansta boyfriend! ;) Wait, that arm looks awfully bare...maybe I'll get her a tattoo for her birthday! ;) hehe They had a really good time :)

Meanwhile, here at home, everyone made it to ring in the New Year!

Megan could not take her eyes off the screen. She was watching that ball drop for the first time in her life and was so afraid she'd miss it! I love that I caught that moment.

It was great fun and a great way to start a brand new year!

A Favorite

2012-01-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

This year, we made a Christmas "to-do" list in the form of our Advent calendar. It was really a great way to be more intentional with our month! Now that I've gotten my feet wet with it, next year, I'll be ready with even more fun things!

One of the favorites this year was sleeping under the tree. Kristen really wanted in on this one so I scheduled it for a night when she didn't have plans. The kids were surprised when they opened the Advent calender that morning! They looked forward to it all day long! Once night finally came:

Kristen grabbed her laptop and put in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Then they all went to sleep. It was so sweet to hear all the whispering and giggling. Good, sweet memories :)

The Rest of the Day

2012-01-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

The gifting did not end on Christmas morning. There was more fun to be had! Russ and Judy come to our house on Christmas Day to have lunch with us and exchange gifts. I love that our Christmas Days are so laid back and relaxing. We usually need the rest!

To "get" these pictures, I have to give you a bit of background. Recently, during a visit with Russ and Judy, the conversation turned to food. It went from there to food we ate as kids that we absolutely HATED! Just for full disclosure, mine was/is oatmeal. I will not eat it and I think I may have sat at the table for quite a long time as a child because of my aversion ;) I have issues with food textures.

Anyway, Todd's "special" food was/is canned mixed vegetables. He hated it when that was served for dinner, so guess what his Christmas gift was?

I love the look on his face in that first picture!

Punk'd!

We all got a huge laugh out of it! That was, of course, just a prank and not his actual gift :)

We all really enjoyed our time together.

No, Kristen did not get a stuffed dog...she's just a good big sister helping Megan get that cutie out of it's packaging (what's the deal with packaging?!?) Kristen's gift was smaller! Mine was too! And we had so much fun spending them ;)

Russ and Judy, thanks for coming to our house and gifting us with your presence as well as presents :)

Christmas Day

2012-01-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas...

Santa stuffs their stockings and brings each of our children one gift in addition to a basket (or two!) of "family" gifts; things like books, movies, and board games...things we all use or do together as a family. The kids are always very excited to see what gift Santa chose for them and they LOVE looking through the family baskets.

Then each child takes a turn passing out the gifts they chose for their siblings and for Todd and me.

There are so many hugs!

Then the rest of the gifts are passed out and the gifting frenzy begins! Nick asked everyone he knew for the new Skylander Spiro game. I think he was a bit excited ;) Truly I think if that was all he got, he would have been just as happy!

When Megan saw Nick's excitement, she was not to be outdone so the next gift she opened..a fuzzy blanket...got this response...

That kid cracks me up! Actually, the more authentic excitement happened over this:

And it's still her favorite a week and a half later!

Number one on Brandon's list was a chemistry set. He actually got two!

Lucky guy :)

Kristen's favorite was an Express gift card. She's had a great time this week shopping with all her various gift cards! Yay for after Christmas sales!

After the opening frenzy, the kids started busting their new things out of the packaging:

I had whipped up a breakfast casserole the night before so as soon as the kids were awake I headed downstairs before they were allowed, put the casserole in the oven, poured two mugs of steaming coffee, and grabbed my camera. The casserole was finished just about the time all the gifts were opened making our morning very relaxing and low-key....just the way I like it!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve is spent every year at my mom's house. We have a nice dinner, then head to the Christmas Eve service at our church, then back to Mom's to exchange gifts. It's a fun evening!

I had all kinds of trouble getting our Christmas card picture this year (to all my friends and family that visit here, thank you for your cards! I loved them and I'm sorry I didn't reciprocate. I already have a plan for next year so that doesn't happen again!) but right before we left for Mom's house, I snapped the perfect picture:

Now why didn't any of my earlier attempts turn out that good! Oh well, I'm glad I have that one :)

The evening was a flurry of fun:

Brandon loves this game book! Great challenges!

Megan's favorite of the night:

She had that on her wish list and I new it would be the perfect gift to come from Grandma ;)

And here's another perfect gift! ;)

More gifting...Sour Apples to Apples! Have you played that? It's awesome!

Nick's favorite...can you tell?!

This little robot thingy (which is named Willa, so appropriate since that is my late aunt's name and it's kind of crazy just like she was!) was a big hit!

Apparently there's a learning curve figuring out how close you need to be for it to hear your voice ;)

It was a very fun evening and the perfect prelude to the main event of Christmas morning!

A Little More Party Fun

2011-12-22T09:07:00.000-05:00

What happened around the dessert table...

Meemaw Judy gave Brandon a handful of whipped cream...

Then as he lifted it to his mouth for a nice big bite of sugary cream, she "helped" him a bit...

Then this little guy decided a handful of whipped cream sounded good...

So he got a bit of "help" too ;)

And STILL they perused the dessert table!

The Beginning of Our Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-21T10:01:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Todd's family had their family Christmas party! It's always a good time with a fun group of people that we don't see nearly enough. Food and Family! Oh, and presents! What a good combination, right?

Earlier this year, Russ and Judy had their porch enclosed. It's become the perfect hangout for family gatherings!

We all gathered in the living room, though, for our gift exchange game.

Everyone's eyeing a newly opened gift....

because in this game, you can steal!

These two came late, but don't worry, there was plenty of food! ;)

This little (big?) guy made his way in the frame of my camera many times that evening :) Love that cutie!

And there was a new little guy at the party this year! Aunt Carol and Uncle Wayne are great-grandparents! It was weird that someone else had the toddler and the party. For once, it wasn't us!

As always, it was a wonderful evening!

Starting Our Day

2011-12-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Nicholas has a new passion....geology. Over summer break, Brandon did quite a bit of reading on this subject and shared it with Nick. They spent so much time looking up gems found in Ohio and learning about the different rocks and minerals in our area. This is what sparked the little trip we took to go gem mining earlier in the fall. It was one of the best family field trips ever! Since then, Nicholas has nearly become obsessed in his new-found love of rocks and all things related! He almost always has a rock of some sort with him or one he's trying to identify. He loves discovering something about a rock and then telling whoever happens to be around what great new fact he found out!

A few weeks ago, on a trip to the library, Brandon found a book on geology for Nicholas. Brandon hangs out in the science section of the library attempting to fuel his own chemistry obsession ;) but he happened to see a book about rocks and minerals and grabbed it for his brother. So sweet! I love it when they do things like that! Not that it happens all that often...

So yesterday, we were getting ready to head to the grocery store and Nicholas asks if we can also go to the library. Why? He wanted to see what other geology books they have. How could I say no to that?!? :)

He spent all evening with the books he found and was even reading through them in bed last night. There was an experiment in one of them that he could hardly wait to do...rock candy :) He was awake shortly after me this morning, so we got started early:

As soon as we got that sugar water all mixed up, he was back to the books.

One of my favorite parts about homeschooling: doing science experiments before the sun comes up, then watching my kids curl up with a book about rocks :)

Craft Stick Ornaments

2011-12-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Pinterest and the Crafty Crow, I have so many cute Christmas ornaments and DIY decorations to do with our kids, we'll be busy all month long! And it's been fun for me to look for and pin cute, easy things complete with tutorials. Love that part!

Here's one I found on Whatever. (that link goes to all her Christmas crafts posts from Christmases past) I just love Meg. She is so creative and funny! And also a great photographer :)

I quickly hot glued some craft sticks together while the kids were playing.

After they dried, Megan got to work decorating them.

I asked her if she wanted to paint them first, but she just wanted to embellish :)

I think they turned out great!

I noticed this year, our tree we have with only homemade ornaments has a lot of undecorated space. We'll be changing that ;)

Party for Two

2011-12-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the day we've been waiting for all month...our friends, the Miller's, annual Christmas party. This seems to come early enough that it sort of kicks off a nice long string of Christmas festivities for us and we look forward to it every year.

This year was a bit different though. Nicholas has a cold. This complicated things as we do not take sick kids anywhere they might easily pass those cold germs to others. We basically avoid close contact places like church, co-op, and friends' houses. Another complication is that Todd is out of town right now so I've been on my own this weekend making splitting up to take the kids who are not sick to their party while leaving the sick one home impossible. I waited until Saturday morning, hoping and praying that Nick would wake up better, but he didn't. He was coughing just as much as he had been. UGH. I had to tell the kids we weren't going. This was not a popular decision and I totally understood Megan's and Brandon's frustration.

Lucky for them, we've known the Miller's forever! I sent Margot a text explaining the situation and asking if Brandon and Megan could come parentless. I never would have done this is any other circumstance (and I did tell her if she thought it might cause her stress to have kids there unsupervised to tell me and I would totally understand! This party is HUGE and I didn't want to add to the stress of hosting such an event), but like I said, we've spent so much time with the Miller's and Margot has spent so much time with our kids that we all seemed comfortable with this arrangement. So after ~~threatening~~ lecturing our kids on what I expected of them, I took them to their party and left them with their friends and mine. I'm so glad I did! They had a great time! I can't wait to see pictures from their afternoon.

As for the sick one, he had the opportunity to have some time with Mom :) He wanted to get his Christmas shopping done so that's exactly what we did...after a quick stop at DQ for a milkshake ;)

This is my only picture of our afternoon. Can you see how sick he looks? And that little raw place under his nose where he blew his nose all week? This little guy is really under the weather. But he was a trooper! He didn't complain about not being allowed to go to the party, not one bit! I'm so proud of him for that! He was completely worn out by the time we picked up Brandon and Megan, and still, no complaining! That means the rest of the evening was video game time ;)

Hopefully, he is on the mend and no one else gets this thing! We're ready for our fun!

What I Found Under the Tree This Morning

2011-12-10T07:42:00.001-05:00

Is there any sweeter gift?

Our Christmas Count Down

2011-12-10T07:34:00.000-05:00

We are doing a few things to count down the days to Christmas this year. One thing is our new Advent calender! I picked this beauty up a couple of years ago at a yard sale for a steal but we've never used it.

All the ways I'd read about included either putting a treat or small gift inside each drawer for each kid....daily. That's so not going to happen here! We don't make it a point to have treats daily nor do I want to give the a small gift each day in December. To me, that kind of takes away a bit from the actual Christmas Day but also I feel Advent is about more.

Finally, I found something more along the lines of what I wanted! This Advent calender was what started the whole thing! Along with her gorgeous calender, she posted a list of things she puts inside. That was all I needed to get the wheels turning in my own mind of things I could put inside!

Some are treats:

But there are also crafts to do, books to read, places to go..the list of things you can include are endless! I worried for a bit about keeping up with it. What if I put something in there that wouldn't end up being a good idea for that day? For example; planning an outside activity on a day that is extra cold or rainy? My solution was to make a "master list" in my personal notebook that way I always know what's coming up so I can shuffle things if needed. Or make sure I have all the supplies ;) It's working out great!

Another thing that has been fun this year is something I ran across on Pinterest:

So each day one of the kids gets to open the drawer in the advent calender and also snip another line off Santa's beard! Kristen asked me why I didn't start the numbers at the bottom with 25 that way the number on the beard would represent the number of days left. Brilliant! In my defense, I followed the directions ;) but I think I'll be giving Santa a new beard soon!

Bettering a Family Tradition

2011-12-09T07:25:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, we decided all our kids were big enough to shop for a gift for each of their brothers and sisters. It was a success! They LOVE picking out gifts for each other! Last year, we slowed Christmas morning down a bit by having each of them in turn get the gifts they bought and wrapped from under the tree and give it directly to the person who was to receive it. They had gone to so much trouble picking out gifts for each other, I didn't want them all to be lost in a big unwrapping frenzy and no one ever would know who got them what.

The order on our Christmas morning is this: Santa's gifts first (Santa gives them each one present, plus there's a "family basket" filled with family oriented fun like books and games, then he also stuffs their stockings full of treasures. Santa doesn't wrap their gifts so they come first by default ;)), then each child, in turn, gets the gifts they bought and wrapped and starts handing them out (the kids really look forward to this part!), then the gifts from Todd and me. After all gifts from under the tree are opened, we open stockings. We come down the stairs and they go crazy over their Santa gifts, rummage through the basket pulling out things they can't wait to read or play, then they all want to go in handing out their gifts. I love that they get to experience one of the best parts of Christmas: giving .

This year, I was thinking about their gift-buying and decided to make it a fun afternoon with Mom too :) So yesterday, when I was heading out to run a few errands, I decided at the last minute to take Megan with me to get her shopping done. Best decision ever! Yes, my errands would have gone alot faster if it had been only me, but spending the afternoon with our youngest was way better than running errands efficiently.

First stop was Target where she chose wonderfully for her sister and brothers :) Then a treat for her:

Her first Starbucks ;) Actually, I went back and forth about getting her a hot chocolate. We still had a few stops and I wasn't sure it'd cool down enough for her. I was in for a big surprise: not only does Starbucks have child size cups (YAY for less sugar!!), but they also have CHILD TEMPERATURE hot chocolate!!! SCORE!

Next up: the library where I had reserves waiting (Christmas books!) and she wanted to choose a couple of books as well:

Happily reading her choices on our way to our next stop which was a quick grocery trip.

I loved my afternoon with this sweet girl! And I love taking this special little family tradition we've started and making it a bit more special :)

Trimming the Tree

2011-12-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the stars aligned so that we were all here to put up our Christmas tree! (Actually, I went around with my calendar for several days earlier in the month in an effort to pin down ONE AFTERNOON OR EVENING that we'd all be together ;)) It was a wonderful evening spent with mugs of hot chocolate, digging out ornaments from Christmas' past, and reminiscing.

Last year, I picked up a wonderful idea from another blogger:

I used whatever boxes I had and put each of our kids' ornaments in their own box! I had forgotten I had done that so when I opened the first box of decorations and saw this, it was like getting my first gift of the season :) I handed out the boxes and the party began:

After they hung all the ornaments, they decided to sing a few Christmas carols:

Another gift to me!

Thanksgiving part 2

2011-11-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

Most years, we have three Thanksgiving dinners/celebrations: one at my aunt's in Kentucky, one with my mom, and one at Russ and Judy's. I've already mentioned that we did not get to make our traditional trip to Kentucky so this year we were down to two. We are so blessed to have so much family, and so many dinner invitations, and so many opportunities to be thankful! Sometimes I get a little crazy with all the running, but I do really and truly know how blessed I am :)

Part two was at my mom's house.

Aunt Doris and Uncle Raymond came too. So good to see them!

Mom and Kristen right before Kristen left for work.

Then one with me :)

Mom had her tree up and wanted the kids to put their ornaments on. Some are the ones we've given her over the years with pictures of the kids in them and some she had painted with their names.

They loved digging through the boxes and finding their ornaments!

Then finding just where to put it ;)

Another great day of yummy food and great company AND a new tradition :)

Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T07:21:00.000-05:00

This year we broke from tradition and spent Thanksgiving with Todd's family. Usually we head to Kentucky to see some of my relatives that we only see once a year but this year, that gathering didn't happen. My grandmother fell last August and broke her hip. She's doing well, but really not feeling the travel bug ;) so she wanted to stay home in West Virginia this year. That being the case, her house is too far for a one day trip so we crashed Russ and Judy's party this year ;)

Family:

Todd and I with his brother Scott and his wife Barb:

Kristen is always ready for a picture with me :)

Scoot, Barb, Russ, and Judy:

Russ and Judy and our gang:

Kristen and Jon:

Russ and Judy have a nice, big backyard and that's where Nicholas wanted to be most of all. First, out with Todd, then later with Megan:

That little guy always finds sticks to play with, no matter where we are!

I must have had some sort of food coma because I didn't even get my camera out until Kristen mentioned that she and Jon had to leave in order to make it to their next Thanksgiving meal. I missed the super-big Uno game we had going! Not to mention getting a couple of pictures in of Scott and Barb's sons who had already left by this point. UGH!

It was a really nice day! The food was yummy, the weather was fantastic, and the company was sweet and wonderful and funny :)

Our Date Night

2011-11-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Actually, it wasn't technically a "date night" but more of a "date day"....a couple of weeks ago, my wonderful husband took me to a Bengals game! We've had season tickets for several years now but for many reasons, I've not gone. The first year, I was very pregnant with Megan. Crowds? NO THANK YOU! The next year, I was still nursing. Todd started selling some of our tickets at that point because driving all the way to Cincinnati for every. single. home game was getting tiring. We have a busy life! And even though I'm a Bengals fan, I'm not the biggest fan in this house ;) I felt guilty going to a game knowing how so very much Brandon enjoyed them so I always gave my opportunities to him.

But this year....I went! Brandon already went to a game earlier in the season so I took the opportunity and went. And I'm so very happy I did!!! Here's my recap:

Tailgaters!

The view from our seats:

Happy and excited!

Who-dey came out on a Humvee and there were lots of servicemen and women there that were being honored for Veterans Day.

Fireworks when the players came out!

Bengals versus Steelers...it was a sold out game:

Number 1 fan...this guy cracked me up!

We had so much fun! Would have been better if they'd won, but it was so nice to be there and watch the game together :)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

The kids stayed with Russ and Judy for the day and had a great time too! Thank you Russ and Judy!

Showcase: Nicholas

2011-11-21T07:40:00.000-05:00

Nicholas surprised me this year. Our little guy, who says he doesn't like music and he doesn't like to be on stage, chose to take the recorder. He really liked it too! There was no grumbling about going to class even after the newness wore off. And he practiced at home! I was stunned!

Mrs. Fisher chose "Have Yourself a Merry, Little Christmas" for this class to perform and it was so good!

Getting ready:

They ahd to wait for one of the girls in the Addy play to change out of her costume so I took advantage of the moment for a nice group shot:

There were a couple of flutists on the right side helping out. Can I just say again how grateful I am to have such a wonderful co-op? I love that the big kids show the younger ones such love and are such good role models. I see it all the time and it truly blesses me.

Playing his piece:

Watching those flutists playing their part:

Finishing up:

He was nervous but he had fun! I'm so proud of him for getting up there and for all his hard work learning to read music and play this instrument. Good job, Nicholas!

Showcase: Megan

2011-11-21T07:11:00.000-05:00

Brandon isn't the only one bitten by the acting bug; Megan is right on his heels! She was so disappointed that she didn't have a performance for the talent show our co-op hosted a few weeks ago but she more than made up for it at the showcase!

First, let me just mention her growing love of American Girl dolls. Kristen gave her the first one as a sweet, big-sister hand-me-down and Megan adores that doll. She may have loved her TOO much as her hair will never be the same ;) And after waiting so very long, she was gifted Kanani for her birthday. She was very excited to hear that there would be an American Girl class at co-op this session about the doll, Addy. Addy's character is a slave who, along with her mother, escaped during the time right before the Civil War. Even though the class was geared toward the slightly older girls, my friend Margot was the teacher and since her daughter, and Megan's dear friend, Erin, was in the class, she welcomed Megan in too. And then we found out they were doing a play too. Megan was thrilled! She finally had an opportunity to be on the stage at showcase! And with her good friends, Erin, Paige, and Lindy!!

She and Erin both had parts as children in the classroom...so cute!

Then they had a speaking part in the spelling bee! Megan worked on her words, both the one she was supposed to spell right and the one she was supposed to spell wrong all the time ;) Everyone in this house knows how to spell "friend" and "account" now ;)

Next up was her little music class performing "Jingle Bells". Megan loves her music class and Mrs. Fisher :)

She also had a small part in the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" play as a horse in shadow ;) She was very excited about doing her horsey sound effects ;)

I guess we have another performance junkie in the house ;)

Showcase

2011-11-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, we had our homeschool co-op's showcase night. It is a night the kids in our co-op get to show off all their hard work of the session and it is a night everyone looks forward too. Lots of excitement! The teachers did a great job this session with saving projects to display for their class at showcase. We had a gym full of tables with all sorts of really cool projects!

I can't believe how many times our kids were up on that stage tonight! It was so fun for me to see how much they love this kind of thing, especially Brandon and Megan (Nicholas is a bit on the shy side but he still had fun).

My bragging order today will start with Brandon ;) Our Brandon has been bitten by the acting bug. He looks forward to the "play" class maybe more than any other class. He chooses which role to audition for and prepares diligently. Then he memorizes his lines....lots of lines! This play was an adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Brandon had the part of a negro slave. He did so good not only memorizing his lines but saying them with a slave-from-Kentucky accent! And his body language... hilarious!

It was a wonderful experience. Everyone worked so hard and did a great job!

Megan's Birthday

2011-11-16T20:01:00.001-05:00

Seven:

She started her day by getting showered with gifts from her family. No girl ever felt more loved :)

She took cupcakes to share with her Addy class before they practiced their play. They sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was glowing :)

We sang "Happy Birthday" too and she made a wish. I hope it comes true.

Our baby is growing up...

Still loving on her favorite gift at the end of the day.

She said, "This is the best birthday ever!"

Seven

2011-11-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

Today is a very special day. Our baby, Megan, the last in the line of children here, turns seven! Unbelievable!

A few words about Megan:

Megan loves:
*her family
*Jesus
*animals!
*American Girl dolls
*chocolate cake
*sunshine
*her friends
*pink

Megan is:
*sweet (the sweetest!)
*loving
*so kind
*beautiful inside and out
*smart
*tender-hearted

We are so blessed by this little gift from God! Megan, I hope you have a fantastic birthday!

What a Gorgeous Fall Day Looks Like

2011-11-08T08:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekends bitter cold snap had me believing we were in for only cold days; that winter was here. Then I saw on a friend's blog that we were in for some warm days! Hallelujah!!!

We finished up our school work, some of which we did outside (!), then we played :)

I love the angle of the sun in the fall and winter. Hate the cold that's a result of that angle, but I'm focusing on the positive ;)

They wanted to rake leaves. Finally, most of the leaves are off the trees and it wasn't freezing!

Megan watched, waiting for her brothers' labor to create a lovely pile of leaves ;)

They worked quite a while.

Finally, it was big enough!

and they jumped...

and they played...

and they smiled sweetly in their completely fall bliss...

Brandon came in after a while, but Nick and Megan stayed out there all afternoon.

They laid in the leaf pile talking a playing. I love all the leaves in Megan's hair in this photo. That's a sign of childhood :)

Then they saw me...

More sweet smile! Thank you, God, for the blessing yesterday was to me!

Saturday Morning Football

2011-11-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the last football game. I'm going to miss it! I won't miss the cold though. It was so cold yesterday I hardly took any pictures at all. I didn't want to pull my hand out of my pocket! The cold actually hurt. I'm so not looking forward to winter.

Anyway, it didn't matter that I didn't take many pictures because I hadn't blogged last weeks yet! So I still have plenty to share ;)

I love Brandon's smile here. He loves this game so much.

He caught it just as I snapped. Great timing cause right after, I nearly dropped my camera cheering!

He's a little flag-puller ;)

Nick's smile. I love capturing how much fun they're having out there. Even in the bitter, freezing cold. They love it.

We're already planning for next year. I can't wait!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, we had a great time on a very interesting, historic field trip (which I have yet to blog) and on the way home I asked the kids if they wanted to visit a pumpkin patch so we could do some carving that afternoon. We STILL hadn't gotten pumpkins! It was cold and cloudy so I told them we could also go to WalMart and just pick some there, it was up to them. They picked the patch hands-down ;)

There's something very fall-like about visiting a pumpkin patch. I wish we had been able to make it on one of the sunny days, but I had spent those doing yard work in preparation for winter (I'm really so glad I did! I hate mowing and whatever in the cold!) so we had to take what we got.

Nick picked his right off the bat.

Megan did too! We're on a roll!

Little pumpkin-picking cutie :)

Brandon, however, searched the area for just the right one...

and searched...

By the time he found one, my hands were frozen and in my pockets, so no pictures of that! As soon as we got home, we started carving:

Megan drawing her design for me to copy onto her pumpkin.

She did some of it herself but a six year old wielding knives isn't my idea of a good time so I intervened as much as she would let me ;) However, Nick and Brandon both did their own.

Completed pumpkins!

It was a very nice activity for family night. Afterward we watched Spooky Buddies for a little Halloween treat. It was good!

Last One of Trunk-or-Treat

2011-11-01T07:17:00.001-04:00

I've blogged the trunk and the petting zoo, but there was much more going on there! Like I said, I've not been to one of these before, but now I'm hooked! It was actually a big party!

Todd took the kids to the bonfire to roast some marshmallows while Brandon and I handled the van.

When they came back, I took Megan inside for the carnival-style games and such, She painted pumpkins:

Got her cute face painted:

She wanted cat whiskers AND a pumpkin ;)

Then we took a hayride!

Truly a fun night!

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T21:07:00.001-04:00

We've been up to so much in the last five days that I'm blogging fast and furiously to keep up so it doesn't all get shoved aside and eventually forgotten! Because that's just how I roll ;) I shove it aside then a few months later I see it again with a wistful thought that it should have been blogged.

I'm skipping ahead to tonight. Because it was trick or treat! Our kids have thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year especially with all the extra little things we've done. Tonight was the icing on the cake (and tons of candy in the bag...UGH!) so tomorrow it's back to business as usual around here ;)

Megan switched hears and decided she wanted to be Simba at the last minute. That's a girl for ya ;)

We decided to put our spider web from Trunk-or-Treat up to add some spooky to our front porch. It was a great idea! Kristen and Jon took the job of candy passer-outers :)

Off they go! I let them troll the cul-de-sac alone then I take them out into the rest of the neighborhood. We saw some really cool, spooky stuff tonight!

Cute candy passer-outers ;)

It was a really fun night! Actually, it's been a really fun weekend! So many fun things! Hope eveyone else enjoyed their Halloween!

Megan and the Pets

2011-10-31T09:12:00.000-04:00

There was a petting zoo at our Trunk-or-Treat, need I say more?? Our little animal-lover was delighted! While Todd was busy assembling our web and the boys were off looking for friends, our little punkin was lovin' on some cute animals ;)

Cute! The bunny and the punkin ;)

After she trunk-or-treated she rushed right back over there. We were so lucky to have been parked on the same side of the event as the petting zoo. I could let her wander over there to her hearts content and still keep an eye on her. This is zoomed in from my spot at the van:

She was over there so much the lady who owned the animals told her she was her little helper ;) Megan was glowing ;) She took her "job" seriously too:

I swear, if that girl doesn't have a career in some sort of field having to do with animals, I'll be beyond shocked!

Trunk or Treat!

2011-10-30T20:01:00.002-04:00

This afternoon, we participated in our first-ever Trunk-or-Treat! I'm not sure what kept us away last year. Before that, we went to a different church and they didn't have a Trunk-or-Treat so we just hadn't ever gotten around to one.

But we did tonight! And we loved it! Because we had signed up last minute (always...ugh) we didn't really have a plan as to how to decorate our trunk so I hopped on Pinterest (!) and looked up a few simple ideas. All I had to do after that was give Todd a brief description of one I thought we be fun and he took it from there!

A spooky spider web! Our Mad Scientist was caught in the web so he did what any Mad Scientist would do...pass out candy!!

I took this one just as it started getting a bit busy:

Todd took Megan around while I stayed with Brandon. Nicholas took off to do his own Trunk-or-Treating ;)

It stayed like this behind our van for the better part of an hour:

Nick had a turn behind the web after he made the candy rounds and then ate enough of it to kill something ;)

I also snapped a few of my favorite trunks:

Pac Man! Love it!

A cute ice fishing pond. The kids got a home-made fishing pole and cast it over then a treat miraculously appeared on the other end ;) Fun!

It was chilly outside this evening but we had so much fun! We'll definitely be repeating this next year. And I already have a pins on Pinterest for fresh ideas!

Celebrating the Big 5-0

2011-10-30T13:30:00.000-04:00

No, not me! Not yet anyway :) God willing, one of these days though ;)

It was Todd's cousin, Carla! Her parents had thrown her a party complete with yummy food, lots of family and friends, and a gorgeous cake; so yesterday, after football, we headed down to Lebanon for a quick visit and to give the birthday girl happy wishes.

The birthday girl:

Cake!

Megan and Nicholas with Meemaw Judy:

Brandon and Meemaw Judy:

Brandon is officially taller than both his grandmas ;)

And Papaw Russ with the gang:

Snuggley Megan :)

Megan and her great-great aunt Kathy:

Our gang with Eileen, Todd's step-grandmother:

Go Bengals! Who-Dey!

If there are balloons around, our gang is goofy ;)

Megan and her uncle Scott:

Todd, his parents, and our gang:

We had to head back for a bonfire last night so it was a whirlwind visit but fun!

Halloween Party

2011-10-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

I need to get a quick post up here because we're right in the middle of a crazy, busy weekend that started on Thursday! So many fun things going on it's making my head spin! It's going to be a challenge to get to everything but we're going to give it our best shot :)

After co-op on Thursday, we picked up my mom for the little Halloween party in Pickerington. She's a member of the Lion's Club in there so she usually has to work at the party but this year, she just wanted to see the sights. And boy did we see some sights! It started with a live pumpkin!

Then we saw the mad scientist who had animated her!!

"My creation!"

We had to BEG Nicholas to put his costume on for one quick picture. Immediately after, he removed it and put it back in the car ;)

Our kids never just smile for the camera ;) My mom's surrounded by crazy people! (and loving it!)

The first thing we did was so on a "Ghost Tour". I didn't take any pictures of that but they led us around town to stations where a "ghost" told us their story. We ended at the cemetery! It was good and spooky but not too bad at all. The kids loved it!

Some businesses passed out candy and some had a little haunted house to walk through:

Everyone's favorite was the haunted house done up at the historical society:

They had station of "monster parts". You could stick your hand in there and check them out...if you dare!

Of course, our kids had to check out the gross stuff ;)

There was a fortune teller too. Truth be told, I hesitated letting them participate. We do not have anything to do with occult-type stuff. I don't believe it should even be messed around with. But I let them in the end because I knew she was only pretending and not "really" telling their futures. She was really sweet to them telling them she could "see" that they like school and reading and that they should try really hard to do well.

It was a fun haunted house!

Then we had to snap a quick picture at the prime photo-op in town ;)

Nicholas was thrilled ;) We had a great time!

At Least Someone Around Here is Motivated!

2011-10-25T09:16:00.000-04:00

I'm very much NOT ready for Halloween. We don't have pumpkins. We don't have costumes. We're participating in our church's Trunk-or-Treat night this Sunday and I have no idea how to decorate our trunk. Obviously, I'm not the motivated one!

It's Kristen! Over the weekend, she and Jon headed out to a pumpkin patch to pick up their pumpkins. They got there a bit on the late side so there weren't any wagon rides out to the field, but there were several already picked pumpkins to choose from and so they did. Last night was carving night for them.

Awwww aren't they cute? :)

Jon is a very common sight in our home. I love that he's here often. They do homework together, or watch a movie, or just sit and talk. I feel it's so important to know the people in our children's lives. Especially people that are important to them ;)

The finished product:

I love that they hang out here often. So does everyone else!

Fun!

2011-10-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

This weekend was food for my soul! Of course that means our house now looks like a war zone! I'm sure I'll get to rectify that situation at some point ;)

Friday was a teen night with our co-op friends for Brandon hosted at a fantastic nursery where they took a hayride, played in a corn maze, and had a bonfire. He had a great time! Meanwhile the rest of us had our usual pizza and icecream and settled in to watch "Hocus Pocus" for a little Halloween fun.

Saturday morning was football! I just love watching our guys play. I like football in general, but I really love watching our guys out there! Saturday afternoon there was a very cute dress-up birthday party for Megan to attend:

Can you tell she was excited! She had a great time!

Saturday evening we decided to have a little bonfire ourselves! One of my favorite fall things to do! It was the perfect evening for it too, not too cold, gorgeous sky. We lingered out there for a very long time :)

Nick was cracking us up all evening!

Mmmm hotdogs ;) Brandon's tongue sticking out in this picture is proof!

It really was just a perfect evening:

Megan's mouth was full of the biggest marshmallow ever!

Nick's was too!

Then they did skits they learned at their scout camps :)

They had a ball!

We had so much fun out there that we did it again on Sunday :)

Saturday Morning Football

2011-10-23T15:37:00.000-04:00

It was another great football morning for our guys! The weather was so very fall-like too. Plus we weren't getting blown away with crazy wind! Chilly, but not too bad, and beautiful :)

Brandon was first (his team always goes first) and they won! This was their first win of the season and those boys were so excited! Me too! I'm a big supporter of playing for the fun of it but it's so hard to get crushed week after week and still enjoy yourself ;)

I love this picture. Brandon was quarterback for a quarter!

Brandon's team won by one point in the very last second of the game. Talk about a nail-biter!

Nick was up next.

He played center.

His team also won by one point :) What a great morning!

Two more games. I'm going to miss these mornings.

Photography 101

2011-10-17T07:57:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to learn more about taking good pictures. I thought I'd do some exploring with different settings throughout the summer but since most of my pictures are outside in the summer and my camera takes pretty amazing pictures with all that gorgeous sunlight, I put it off ;) Now, though, it's fall and our daylight hours are much, much shorter not to mention it's to cold to hang out outside all day! So there's that desire, once again, to learn more about photography. I found a cheatsheet online and set on the bench in the front yard watching my cute, photography subjects play ;)

Pretty good! I was so encouraged!

Like I said though, my camera takes pretty amazing pictures outside ON AUTO. I quickly found out that I should have been working on the kind of pictures I have trouble with: indoors and movement. Blurry or oddly colored pictures, that's what I wanted to learn about. As I tried to continue to use my manual setting for inside pictures over the next couple of days this is what I got:

Brandon playing piano in our co-op's talent show.

Dinning room in the Kelton House during a field trip.

Megan bouncing on a ball.

Oh. my. goodness. I could not figure the settings to save my life! Throwing out my cheatsheet and heading back to the internet.

I follow several very good photography blogs. Some give tutorials but the language is way over my head; I'm sure they are meant for other photographers. I needed something simple! And I found it and I want to share it!

http://thedailydigi.com/ is actually a scrapbooking site but in her sidebar, one of the categories is Photography Class. Her tutorials are amazing! She uses pictures...of the camera! and simple words like aperture =the hole that lets light into your camera. I love it! She does have some tutorials that are over my head still but lots for a beginner. I took two pages of notes yesterday and can't wait to try them!

Saturday Morning Football

2011-10-15T17:46:00.002-04:00

It was really hard to get up this morning. I'm drained. I practically had to drag the kids out of bed too. And we got to bed at a normal time! I'm blaming it on a busy week and too much sugar lately. Pumpkin bread might sound healthy but you might as well have a big, frosted cupcake! Good grief...

Anyway, Brandon's team is always first which means we leave here at 8am every Saturday. Ugh.

Brandon's team is really struggling. There are only two teams in his age group and they are supposedly divided according to skill level, but Brandon's team loses every game. And not just lose...they get annihilated. It's so bad that last week the coaches of the teams got together and swapped out two players. The coach on Brandon's team was always playing his own son and quarterback and the boy threw one interception after another. Someone must have said something to him about his nepotism because his son got traded to the other team. I wish it had been Brandon. They lost again this week.

The teams in Nick's age group are more evenly skilled. They win some, they lose some. Today, they won :)

Hiking the ball:

I love Nick's face in this one as he goes for the flag!

I caught him leaning into the wind more than once...such a funny boy!

And who ordered this wind?!? It was crazy windy out there this morning! This guy is actually holding down the inflatable tunnel the teams run through:

When he walked away the tunnel lifted right off the ground many times threatening to blow away, then it did this:

Yep, it just collapsed! And this is poor Megan:

She was completely covered in that blanket most of the game. We were freezing! We had an hour to wait from the time Brandon's game ended and Nick's began so we warmed up in the car and when Nick's game played out Megan and Brandon watched from the car (we can park nearly on the sidelines) while I stood closer to cheer and snap pics of our little guy :) We're all hoping next week is warmer and NOT WINDY!

13

2011-10-05T11:14:00.001-04:00

We had a big birthday here yesterday! Brandon is now a teenager!

He had a great day! It started with a breakfast out and a trip to Barnes and Noble with Kristen. Such a fun "big kid" morning :) They specifically went for The Son of Neptune, the second in the new Percy Jackson series, which was Kristen's gift to him, but they also just enjoyed the book store together for a while without Mom saying, "Keep an eye on your little brother and sister for a minute." ;)

Todd came home for lunch and we let Brandon open the rest of his presents then. We new he'd need the rest of the day to enjoy his new stuff ;)

Nick and Megan went first, gifting Brandon with a new Bengals jersey and hat.

This box arrived at the end of last week with instructions to wait until his birthday ;) Oh boy did he ever want to open that early! So yesterday, he could hardly wait to see what was inside:

Wii Party! Let me just say, this game is a big hit! (see pics below ;))

Shaking his present from Todd and I:

Yes, there was only one....

A Nook Color! As these kids get bigger, their stuff cooler....and pricier ;)

Now everyone wants one ;) (including me!!)

Lemon cake...of course!

Nick snapped this one; I know it's blurry, but it's the only one I have with the birthday boy so it's also precious :)

Then Megan wanted one too ;)

After dinner and cake, we hit the family room for some "partying" hehehe

One of the many games that had us laughing our heads off!

The kids played Brandon's new Wii game for most of the afternoon plus the time we all played last night. I think it's a hit! We ended the night with a tent in the family room, a "sleep-over", and a great movie (The Mummy 2). The kids were up until around midnight, very, very late for our gang, but it was worth the bleary eyes we all have today. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our newest teenager :)

Sushi?

2011-10-01T16:21:00.000-04:00

Hehe not quite but the kids had an interesting day at co-op this past week ;) It all began last week when they made those fishing poles. Their assignment was to go fishing. That is usually a very easy thing for this family to get around to doing, but not last week. Our schedules are a bit packed right now so between that and the miserable weather we've been having (which we are supposed to get a break from this week!) we just didn't make it out.

But their nature teacher did ;)

And guess what she brought to class?? FISH! Not live fish....fish for eating ;)

But first they had to scale them...

Carole gave them a sharp piece of flint and told them how to scrape it from tail to head, against the scales, to remove them. Nicholas did a great job! Then she told them how to take that sharp piece of flint and cut into the fish then slide their fingers in to remove all the ....insides.

She's such a good teacher!

Some of the kids did not want to touch that fish ;)

These three, sweet friends of Nicholas' were cracking me up.

Especially Rhyse. Angi, look at those crossed arms! He was not about to touch it.

I'm pretty sure Colin and Max did most of that kind of work, but he did cook it!

And so did Nick! After each group cooked their fish, they each were able to eat some. I heard lots of good reviews from kids who were surprised that they actually liked it! What a great lesson for them!

Nicholas wanted to hang on to that little fish's skelley. No idea why, but he was pretty proud of all his work and very excited to show Todd the evidence of his cooking adventure ;)

Brandon and Megan also take this class and they also cleaned, cooked and ate fish, but I'm teaching at the same time as their class so I can't hang out with them, photo-journaling their survival skills like I can Nick's, but I can tell you this: they had a great time too!

Happy Feet

2011-09-28T09:09:00.000-04:00

Megan is taking dance again this year. And while that is not a surprise, the type of dance is....tap! Yep, she switched from ballet to tap this year. And even though she has mentioned taking tap before, I was still surprised. She really loves ballet so I thought tap would be a second class if we could work it out. It didn't work out this year and when it came down to choosing, she picked tap.

And she loves it! She had taken it as part of a ballet/tap/gymnastics preschool class a few years ago so she has some knowledge of the basics and she's moving right along with learning the steps. It's also fun that she has one of her bff's in class: Erin!

Our tapper:

It's been a very interesting fall around here. One where I can almost see our kids growing and changing. This is one of those examples. I hope the ballet skirt isn't gone for good, but if it is then so be it! I want her to enjoy what she is taking and come away from the experience learning something that she wanted to learn.

On Her Way!

2011-09-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

Last week, Kristen started back to school. My baby (they'll always be that, right?) is a JUNIOR! I just can't believe how fast it's going! I'm afraid she might not have been feeling the same way; that is until she got to school last Wednesday to a very encouraging surprise:

Her Associate's degree!!! Of course she isn't stopping there. I'm not sure an associate's degree would get her very far in her field. But still, receiving something tangible for all her hard work was VERY encouraging to our girl. It was just the thing she needed to kick her junior year off right :) You go girl!!

My Little Flower-picker

2011-09-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

Last night Nicholas had flag-football practice. Both boys usually have practice on Monday but last Monday it rained so practice was postponed. I definitely didn't mind! I take Megan to dance practice and Todd takes the boys to flag-football practice on Mondays then hustles out to drop Brandon off at his boyscout meeting. Our Mondays are just crazy right now so it was a nice break!

It was absolutely gorgeous outside yesterday evening, so perfectly fall, so it was a joy to be outside. It was also a joy to watch one very sweet, little girl play:

I couldn't decide on the editing for this one! Warmer colors:

Or brighter:

Not sure which I like better. Maybe both!

Bringing her treasures to Mommy :)

I had fun just watching her :)

Picking the Pears

2011-09-20T08:53:00.001-04:00

I realized, when I was posting our apple picking pictures a couple of days ago, that I had forgotten to post our pear picking pics! Where did we pick pears? My mom's backyard! My mom called one afternoon and said her pears were starting to get ready and asked if we'd like to come over a pick some. Um, yes please! We all love fruit around here and picking our own for free is a very nice treat :)

Kristen had some errands to run but she was already there when we got there. The ripest pears were up high (naturally) so Mom brought out her ladder.

Cute pear picker!

Nicholas wasn't too sure about this...

but he gave it a try anyway.

Brandon too.

Then he ran off to check out the garden ;)

Megan climbed up there too :)

Kristen is so busy these days that when she's able to join us, it's a sister love-fest!

It was a nice day to be out and so much fun picking (and eating!) some yummy pears :) It reminded me of a favorite book for fall: Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears. We love all the Mr. Putter and Tabby books but that one is great for fall. Enjoy!

Saturday Morning Football

2011-09-19T09:16:00.001-04:00

It was a football weekend around here! Brandon and Nicholas had their first flag football games of the season Saturday morning and we all had a great time!

Megan still has a couple of soccer games which are at the same time so I wasn't planning on being able to see their first couple of games, but she had a bit of a sore throat (everyone has some sinus stuff going on right now) and didn't feel like playing so we decided to bundle up and watch the boys!

And I do mean bundle up:

It was chilly! And the wind...brrrr! But we were happy to be out there. I love the location of the church that hosts their Upward football. It's a gorgeous drive!

Praying before the games. I love Upward!

Brandon was up first.

Then it was Nick's turn.

They both looked good out there and had a really good time! Looking forward to a football-filled fall :)

Apples Anyone?

2011-09-17T13:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, I treated the kids to some apple picking! We almost didn't go because of this little cold snap we're having but they wanted to so bad I couldn't say no. Not to mention the sound of having some very fresh, very locally grown, very yummy Jonathan apples sounded really good....good enough to brave the cold ;) No wonder they wanted to go! We love our apples!

YUM!

They couldn't wait to get started!

Nick kept saying things like, "Look at all the apples!" and "I've hit the mother-load!" . He was cracking me up!

Doesn't he look like he's contemplating eating that one?

And this is why we go during the week:

There were other people here and there but NO CROWDS! I'm all about sharing but I really like it when we aren't elbow to elbow with everyone else trying to get our apples ;)

We had a great time! And, of course, we had to have a treat after all that work so I made a gluten-free apple crisp for dessert :) No wonder they really wanted some apples!

Leavin' on a Jetplane...

2011-09-16T14:32:00.000-04:00

So yesterday, Kristen had another grown-up first....

First flight without a parent.

Yep, she and Lydia (one of Jon's sisters...the one that could be Kristen's twin ;)) bought their own tickets, packed their own bags, made ALL their own arrangements to go to Georgia for another visit with Liz (one of Jon's older sisters) and her husband Brad before school starts back up for her next week! GAH!!!

Of course, I photographed the entire airport experience ;)

These girls were so excited!

Checking her bag:

Traveling girls!

We said our goodbyes at the security check area. This was as far as I could go with them.

But I still snapped a couple of her after she was technically on her own going through security ;)

The flight was fun and uneventful...at least this is what she tells me. If she told me they almost crashed or something she knows she'd be riding home in the van with me so she might not be 100% truthful on this! I'll get the real story when she gets home ;)

On Being Joyful

2011-09-16T10:53:00.000-04:00

When I named our family blog "Our Joyful Life" I wasn't thinking of the kind of joy that means "happy" I was thinking of the deep joy that comes from knowing Jesus. The joy that we have no matter what.

But earlier this week, I was reminded of the other joy. The one that means "happy".

I was at Megan's soccer practice. She was practicing with her team, I was sitting on the sidelines half watching half reading a book when it was time to run laps. Now let me just say here that there are only two girls on Megan's team. Originally there were three but one broke her arm so she's out for the season. The other girl missed last weeks game (along with most of the team, to the point where we had to "borrow" players from the other team or cancel the game entirely. I don't even want to go into my total frustration with Megan's soccer experience this year.) but she also missed practice this week which means Megan was the only girl there.

As I watched her do her laps, she started weaving in and out like Dory....

Just like Dory, she started out with purpose then forgot what she was doing and was just....joyful. I couldn't stop watching her. So joyful! It didn't mater to her that she was last (by far at this point!), she just enjoyed the moment.

I didn't snap any pictures, although I had my camera. I didn't want to miss a second so I just watched :)

But....I had been meaning to post these anyway, what better time??

And a couple I took on picture night:

She reminds me that although my joy is in the Lord, there is also joy in everyday moments :)

"A House for Hermit Crab"

2011-09-10T16:09:00.002-04:00

Megan and Nicholas have been studying the Apologia science book, "Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day" for science. Really, it's mostly Nicholas; Megan will occasionally sit in but usually I read related picture books and/or do a more hands-on craft or project with her. (Or head to the zoo! Which is coming up now that fall is here.)

For the last two weeks Nick and I have been reading about crustaceans. We have had so much fun reading about some of the amazing creatures God made! For Megan, I chose "A House for Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle and found the cutest craft to go along with it! (I've been harboring a secret...I'm a Pinterest addict. For anyone not yet aware of this new "site", it's an online pin board onto which you can "pin" ideas from other sites into categories. It's the very best way to organize all those great ideas I find on other blogs. I heart Pinterest :) It is by invitation only so if you'd like an invitation to this fabulous site let me know and I'll send it!)

I Heart Crafty Things is the blog that has the original and more detailed instructions. Check it out!

My condensed version:

In making our hermit crab, the first thing we did was paint a little hand red and smoosh it onto our paper for the crab:

Oh Megan... ;)

Next, I got out the cheap paper plates, the ones that aren't good for anything except crafting ;) then we cut out a small section along the edge (sorry, I didn't photograph each step, but you can click the link above to see each step or you can kind of see it in our finished pictures). With a permanent marker, I drew the swirls for the shell, then the kids used watercolors to help the shells look more like the ones in the book.

I drew the stem for our sea anemone, the coral, the snail, and the starfish free-hand and they cut them out and decorated them. For the sea anemone , we used strips of tissue paper to finish it up. For the lantern fish, I printed off a clip art fish then they colored that and cut it out.

We used pipe cleaners and googly eyes for the eyes. I had to hot glue them on, everything else stayed on with Elmer's.

We made a mess but it was a very fun project! And it holds a bit of truth too since hermit crabs will often stick a sea anemone on their shell! When they outgrow their shell and need to move to a bigger one, they take their sea anemone along!

Co-op!

2011-09-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

Our co-op started back up yesterday. To say our kids were excited would be an understatement ;) And they were not disappointed! They all LOVED their classes and getting to see their friends again (some of which they hadn't seen all summer). It truly is a good group of people that we are in this home schooling journey with and we wouldn't trade it for the world!

Todd and Kristen are both teaching at co-op this semester! Neither of them are there all day long but it's so sweet to be able to see them both there sharing in our day with us :)

Todd's class is called "The Dangerous Class for Boys" and they are doing some of the projects in the book "The Dangerous Book for Boys" as well as others he's found along that same theme. (That would be the theme that these projects appeal greatly to most boys but not to many girls ;)) Nick is in there and is really loving the fact that his dad is the teacher ;) They made a battery out of quarters for the first week and it seemed to be a big hit! He has big plans for the rest of the semester. I think he's having as much fun as the kids!

Kristen is teaching "Learning Through Picture Books". She has ten kids in there but none of ours since her class is 2nd-3rd grade and we don't have any that fall into that category. This is perfect for her as she is such a book fanatic! She's had so much fun setting up her lesson plans and checking out about a million picture books from the library! It wouldn't surprise me at all if she ended up writing picture books one day.

Brandon is taking: Civil War, Logic, Biology, Uncle Tom's Cabin (another class with a play), and Nature. At the end of his first day, he couldn't even pick a favorite! He loved them all! The had their auditions in Uncle Tom's Cabin yesterday and hopefully he'll get one of the roles he's trying for. He loves acting which is so funny to me considering how much "stage fright" he had only a couple of years ago!

Nicholas is taking: Recorder, gym, Nature, Dangerous Class for Boys, and Logic. Again, I'm shocked. Nick WANTED to take recorder. No, seriously. This is the same boys that complains if the radio is on in the car. I don't get it, but I love it! And you know what? He had a great first class and has practiced!! Speechless...

Megan is taking: Nature, art, music, Addy (a class about the Civil War based on the American Girl books about Addy), and gym. She also had a great first day and had trouble choosing a favorite! Addy has managed to emerge as the favorite though :) There's a play in that class too so we might have another actor (actress, whatever) in the house! Her teacher (my good friend, Margot) is trying to write in a few extra parts with a couple of lines so more girls can get parts if they want. So sweet and thoughtful!

It was so nice for me to catch up with friends too! Home schooling can be an overwhelming undertaking. Having such wonderful people in my life, people who I have so much in common with, truly blesses me. I thank God for our co-op :)

Megan and her Minions

2011-09-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

The only rough spot we have at these family events is that our children are by far the youngest....in both our families. There are no little cousins to play with, and that just plain stinks. Some of my favorite memories growing up have cousins in them and most of us are still close. I hate that our kids don't have that but that's the way it is.

However.....my cousins do have young girls. By young, I mean young adults. This doesn't matter to Megan. She charms them into playing with her anyway ;)

Poor Jessie had to run races....in 90 degree heat:

And swinging:

Hot and tired...

And Maddie endured lots of sweaty lovin'

And playing with Liv dolls...

Even Maddie's boyfriend was drug out onto the sweltering playground:

Those girls are always so sweet to play with Megan. She's a lucky girl :)

Jokes

2011-09-05T17:26:00.001-04:00

Whenever my family gets together, it never fails that there are lots of laughs. Those people are crazy! And they all love to laugh :) I happen to catch a few memorable moments:

Here Uncle Ralph is telling a joke ;)

Then he tells the punch line and here come the laughs:

And still laughing...

I love how much laughter there is at these family events :)

The next photo is a classic "Aunt Helen" look:

Her husband (Uncle Ralph) had just told her, "You know you're old when your kids are wearing bifocals!" Hey! Those kids of his are my age....

All I was trying to do was get a picture of my aunts and uncles and my mom...

This is what I got ;)

Oh, how I love these crazy people!

Family

2011-09-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

My family reunion was this weekend. Although my family lives close by and I see most of them on a fairly regular basis, there are still a few that I only see during these get-togethers.

I regret that I never got around to posting our reunion last year. I took so many pictures....I made lists and tried to organize them, but life got busy as it does this time of year and I put it off too long. It was the last reunion my Aunt Willa ever attended. Note to self (and anyone else reading this): don't put these things off. There are things in this life that we just don't know. I'm so very glad I have those pictures even if they never made it here.

So here is the first of my family reunion posts! I, once again, took tons of pictures and have been sorting them so I can get them up here before I forget ;)

My cousin Kathy, Aunt Helen, Uncle Roger, Renee, my cousin Eddie, and Uncle Ralph:

Maddie and Don (Kathy's family) with Maddie's boyfriend David:

Todd, Tony, Matt, and Jon:

I like taking pictures of everyone just hanging out enjoying each other's company:

My mom, my cousin Teresa, and Aunt Doris:

Brandon parked himself by the radio which was playing the OSU game ;) The men in my family do NOT miss an OSU game ;)

Kristen and Jon:

Mom and Megan:

I'm so thankful for my family and that we have time like this together.

King's Island!

2011-09-03T17:55:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was a great day! Very last minute, we decided to pop down to King's Island! I cannot even tell you how excited everyone was! It has been on our "Summer List" for the second summer in a row but for some reason, it never gets planned. And seeing as how we went on the very last weekend that King's Island is open this year (other than with the scary Halloween stuff), we almost didn't make it this summer either.

But I'm so very glad we did! We're still paying the price for going on such a hot day (exhaustion!) and for riding so many coasters (sore!) but it was worth is as our family just really had a great time.

Megan's first ever amusement park ride:

Nick's first ever roller coaster:

And they both loved them! Megan was terrified on the roller coaster (the small wooden one at King's Island is now called Woodstock Express) but she ended up riding it several times ;) There weren't lines for most of the rides...at all, so we walked up and right into the little loading stalls then hopped on the ride! I couldn't believe it! NO lines!

Megan also rode a few little rides all by herself:

Aren't they cute? :)

And more cuteness:

See all that sweat on Nick's head? After that we all headed to the White Water Rapids ride where we were then completely drenched (especially so since we rode it twice!) but majorly cooled off! We then split up one last time; me with Nick and Megan and Todd with Brandon, Kristen, and Jon. I rode right behind these two on the Woodstock rollercoaster:

Then Megan had one more ride by herself before we headed home completely exhausted but very happy :)

Some facts to remember:
*There weren't any lines! Mental note to always go when everyone is in school ;)
*Stow everything in the lockers right before you get on the White Water Rapids ride. We were so soaked we were literally wringing out our clothes! So glad we didn't have cell phones or cameras on that ride!
*Nick cannot ride anything that spins even ever so slightly or he has to lay down in the First Aid building. (least fun part of our day, although I must say, the First Aid building was nice and also air-conditioned!)
*Always pay a bit more for the closer parking. Water was $4.00 a bottle! Instead of shelling that out, we walked to the car and snagged our own from the cooler. We also had some snacks in the car so it was a nice, little break.
*Ride the Vortex with oldest daughter :) Fun, Fun, FUN!

It was a great day! I'm so glad we decided to brave the heat and just go!

After Mining

2011-08-30T08:43:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned, I chose that particular "mining" location because it is in close proximity to other wonderful places. Beautiful places we hadn't been to in a while, adding a bit more fun and adventure to our day :)

Cedar Falls! We actually had several choices though and I think we'll be heading back sometime this fall to see the leaves and take in another beautiful location.

We were blessed with a gorgeous day! I love these late-in-summer days.

It was a looonnngg walk down the hill.

Snapping turtles! We actually saw two.

I love this view.

At the bottom you can see the falls and there's a nice little pond of sorts to investigate.

They're checking out the other turtle...

Back up (that's the hardest part! UGH!)

Although we were short one (Kristen had a wedding to go to), it was still a very nice family day and we can't wait to go back!

Mining

2011-08-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Even though we were on a summer break, our kids did not stop learning. Do they ever?? I certainly hope not! Their learning was self-motivated and all I did was sit back and encourage and occasionally help by providing materials or opportunities to fuel their passions. Summers are exciting for us in that way. We can go on whatever learning bunny trails we want!!

Brandon has always been so interested in science. He was a very early reader and almost always gravitated to science books. I now have a lot of science-type books ;) Now that he's older, he's allowed to use the internet (somewhat supervised!) to help satisfy his unending curiosity about nearly everything science related. This summer has revolved around chemistry and geology for him :) I have to say that last one surprised me. Geology? Really? The study of.....rocks?? But oh how he loved it! He spent quite a bit of time this summer learning all he could. I love that!

A couple of weeks ago, Kristen gave me a brilliant idea. I got up at 4:30 in the morning to see her off on her vacation to the beach. They were leaving a day early to stop at a gem mine at about the half-way point. After she left, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I looked up gem mines to see where they are in Ohio and guess what I found?? A gem mining experience stuck right in the middle of beautiful Hocking Hills! There were others too and maybe we'll get around to visiting more, but this one is pretty close and has the added bonus of having other really cool things to see, which we took advantage of ;)

We didn't tell them where we were going, and you know what? They went anyway! Our kids LOVE to go places; field trips of almost any kind are always exciting and always are at the top of the things they want to be included in our homeschooling lifestyle. Even the old favorites like the zoo, COSI, and the park; they love them all! Anyway...they were so excited when we got there and told them what they were going to get to do!

We all went inside and the very nice lady took us to the shelf that has the different containers of sand/gravel to choose from. We chose the family bucket, then we headed outside to the sluice. They could hardly wait!

Todd gave each of them a scoop and they got down to business.

Beautiful gemstones already!

This is the way I saw them mostly: heads down, concentrating. Intense little miners!

Todd went through a scoop himself but quickly realized his job would be refilling their trays ;) and that was more fun for him anyway :)

And, of course, we spent lots of time delighting in their finds!

The lady inside told us we might have a geode in there, and we did!

As well as some arrowheads and other fossils.

Check out that loot! They were thrilled with their beautiful gemstones :) My favorite part of this picture though? The hands. They are Nicholas' and they are still little and soft with a tiny bit of "baby" pudge. I know it won't be that way too much longer so I'm loving this reminder that he's still little(ish). In the blink of an eye, his hands will be big, strong hands just like his dad's.

And, oh, the sweetness here! Loving that I still have a tiny 1st grader :)

Inside, the guy behind the counter put our geode in this and cracked it for us.

The kids are loving this ting!

The kids had an amazing time! As soon as we got home, they each took their bag to a table and sorted all their pretty rocks. The lady at the mine had given us a card with the more popular gemstones on it for identification purposes (brilliant!) so we spent time that evening looking at each stone.

And you know what? When they got up this morning, the first thing they did was pull out those stones :)

A Glimpse of Our Rather Unschooly Week

2011-08-19T16:33:00.000-04:00

Last week we started hitting the books again. I have so much to post about what we're doing this year! But this is not that post ;) Last Friday, Nicholas had a minor procedure done on his foot. He's fine! But we took it very easy over the weekend and that sort of continued through the rest of the week. We did get around to a few things...reading mostly, but most of the week was spent doing a few "chemistry" experiments. That means we made a lot of stuff ;) Here's some of our fun:

We made home-made bubbles. I wish I'd used the glycerin recipe, but I wanted to use up the corn syrup that's been sitting in my pantry for-e-ver. I think the bubbles would be a little tougher with glycerin though. Maybe I'll try to add some to our mixture.

We made play-do. I used a recipe from a book but there are many on the internet. I don't care for the smell so I usually add spices so it smells like gingerbread (yum!) but they turn the play-do brownish and this time we wanted colors. Vanilla essential oil to the rescue! Now it smells yummy again ;)

We made sidewalk paint. It's so easy! Equal parts corn starch and water then add food coloring. When you first add the water a really neat reaction happens. It becomes as hard as a rock! Very, very hard to stir. Basically, the mixture hardens if you are rough but becomes like liquid if you are gentle, so stir very slowly and it will calm down a bit ;) The kids were surprised that when they painted it on the sidewalk it was clear. They were so disappointed! But after it starts to dry, it darkens considerably. It only takes a minute or so.

And just to prove we did crack open the books a bit:

Wrapping Up Last School Year

2011-08-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

I have a confession: We started our 2011/2012 school year, which marks our 11th year homeschooling, before we wrapped up last year. In my defense, we started earlier than I was planning and much earlier than we ever have, but I was also procrastinating. Our shelves had become a landing place for every book, notebook, boyscout manual, and potential teaching tool that I ran across this summer so sifting through that hot mess was not something I was looking forward to. Finally, I just called our assessor and made the appointment. I knew with a deadline of sorts, I'd get it done ;)

And I did! We lugged all our stuff out to our assessor's house last week. Now we can finally put last year's work away and move ahead with this year!

Mary is so sweet. She been doing our yearly assessments since the beginning and the kids just love her! She use to come to our house, but last year she needed us to come to her. The kids had such a great time at her house, we decided to do it that way again this year. Here's why:

Mary has ducks! She doesn't just have ducks; she rescues ducks! Our kids love to see who she has staying with her :)

This beautiful girl was abandoned at a park. you can tell she was someone's pet because she is still so tame.

The gorgeous guy following her is her boyfriend ;)

He has the most beautiful feathers. This photo doesn't capture the iridescent quality or the stunning shade of blue on some of the tips of his feathers.

In the background, you can see the pond that Mary's house backs up to. Last year, one of her ducks went out for a swim and was attacked by a turtle. After that, she 's been concerned about letting them out there, so she built them their own "pond" with a swimming pool liner. Genius! They love their little "pond".

It was a sweet visit and the kids received lots of praise and encouraging words from Mary for the work they did last year. Now on to the next, our 11th, school year!

And So It Begins

2011-08-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Today was Megan's first soccer game of the season and also our first in a long line of Sports-Filled Saturday mornings. Even though I thoroughly enjoy our lazy Saturday mornings, I also love, love to watch our kids play!

Megan's team has been practicing hard and looking forward to their first game. At this age, you can't always see what they need help with until you start having games. I love that it's so laid back that they can learn during games as well as the practices. I think they really get the basics of the game that way. with not so much pressure!

(I edited the picture above in a more warm, vintage-y setting. I'm kinda liking it!)

She was goalie for a couple of periods!

The other team kept her hopping ;)

She did good and had fun!

Finally!

2011-08-04T15:25:00.001-04:00

We finally made it to one of our co-op's many scheduled park days! This has not been a very good summer for us to go. Either we already have plans or it's been a bazillion degrees. But today, we made it! It was great to catch up with a friend and make a new one!

When the other two families headed out, I took our group into the woods for a little nature walk. We didn't have our notebooks, but that wasn't a problem. We can still enjoy being out! The path led us down to a creek where we could sit on a bench, have a snack, and just enjoy the sights and sounds.

As we headed back to the path, we saw this little guy:

We're going to have some fun looking him up ;)

We swung by the library on our way home to pick Brandon up a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" so he can get a jump on one of his co-op classes. It's another historically-based play and he's so excited about it! When we got home, there were more surprises waiting for us.....school books! I'm not the only one around here excited to start our books:

Brandon's checking out his One Year Adventure Novel curriculum for Language Arts. He's so excited to write his own novel!! This is our first year using this so I'm hoping it's everything he's looking for. (yes, he was giving me his "my-mom-takes-pictures-of-the-weirdest-things" look but I just wanted something to look back on when they start giving me grief about their work in, oh, September ;))

Megan is SO EXCITED about her work this year! We used "Draw Write Now" last year too and it's great to teach writing (copy work) and drawing. I ordered her two new books from Amazon so when this one came in, she plopped right down at the table and got to work!

The park and books....what a great day!

Nature

2011-08-01T14:18:00.000-04:00

Last week, I spent my time planning our upcoming school year. I'm really getting excited about some of the things we'll be doing! One of our new additions is a real nature study. Every year I buy the kids a new sketchbook and make plans for nature journaling, but, although we make it out several times to specifically study nature, their sketchbooks usually have more cartoons drawn in them than anything else ;) I'm planning for this year to go a bit differently.

First thing I did was tell them, "This sketchbook is for Nature Journaling only!" (I couldn't really blame them for all their lovely cartoon sketches when I hadn't really told them it was a nature journal, now could I?)

Second thing we did was head to the park on a nature walk! It's amazing how many things you notice when you are purposefully setting out to notice things ;) Here's some of our day:

The bad part of our day was that every time we stopped to look at something, the bugs caught up with us! I didn't even know we HAD that many bugs in Ohio!

It was a good start to what I'm planning to be weekly journaling.

Beautification

2011-07-31T09:29:00.000-04:00

I hung some gorgeous art this week. Made by three talented artists ;) Yep, it's our kids!

It's been so hot (still, ugh) that being outside for any length of time isn't in the cards but....sun art is! We did this last year too and I had plans to frame them and hang them over my pantry. The problem was I had a very specific idea of what frames I wanted and I'm not sure they exist ;) Every store we walked through for months I looked at their frames and there were none that satisfied me. Finally, a couple weeks ago, I spotted some at Deals, of all places! They were not what I had in mind all these months but I thought if I don't get those hung soon they'll ruin!

I was right. When we got home I pulled them out and yes they were not in the best of shape. Not totally ruined but not "hang worthy" any more. That was fine because it gave us a reason to do another! And you know what? This year's turned out even better!!

I bought this sun-art kit last year from Amazon. They make it in all different picture sizes so you can easily frame any of them. I choose the 8x10 because I knew exactly where they would go.

Sun art is so easy. I sent the kids out to collect items from the yard that inspired them. While they were doing that, I set us up to make their design at the kitchen table and do the rinsing and drying outside. When they came in, they arranged their items on the special paper:

The kit comes with a sheet of plexi-glass to put over your design to hold the items still while the sun does it's thing. This one is Nick's:

It only needs to set in the sun for a few minutes so each child was responsible for watching their art. When the paper looked bleached out they quickly pulled it out from under the glass and put it in a tray of water for processing. When you first pull the paper out, the area where your items where is still dark blue and the rest of the paper has been lightened by the sun. When you put it in water, it reverses! So cool! It's like a little science experiment (which we've done many of this summer!) ;)

After they dried they sat on our kitchen table for about a week. Why?? Because it was at this point that I remembered how much I hate hanging pictures in groups! It requires so much measuring and leveling....lots of tools like this:

And a big ladder :( It took the kids no more then 20 minutes to make this gorgeous art and it took me a couple of hours to hang it. Not kidding. Of course there were wrong measurements. ugh

But it really was worth it! I love it as much as I thought! Here's Brandon's:

Nick's:

Megan's:

And my display:

I just knew I wanted something blue up there with all that green! Blue/green combo's make me think of the beach no matter what shade they are :) And even though these aren't the frames in my mind, I still love them and think they turned out fantastic!

Beating the Heat part II

2011-07-24T12:11:00.001-04:00

At the beginning of summer, we sat down and came up with our summer list. I never got around to posting it (of course not!) with all the busyness of June, but we have loved having it as our reminder not only of what we want to do but what we have done! Sometimes in the busyness, we forget to count our blessings.

Last Friday (we still do our Family Nights on Friday, best tradition ever!), we looked over our list to see if anything looked particularly appealing. We decided on......homemade ice cream!! We even took it one step further and made it with coconut cream making it dairy-free!

A couple of years ago, Todd's parents bought us this cute ball ice cream maker. Since it isn't electric, it's very easy for the kids to be involved with and very hands-on.

First fill with your ingredients. It comes with a recipe book but we chose plain vanilla so our ingredients were: 1 pint of coconut cream, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Oh so easy!

Yummy :)

The other end opens also so you can fill it with ice and a bit of sea salt.

Then you roll it, shake it, or otherwise mix it around until it's setting up, scrape it into a freezer container and place in the freezer until it is your preferred consistency. It reminds me of soft-serve ice cream when you take it out of the ice cream maker.

We wanted to do something special with it this year so...

Homemade ice cream sandwiches! Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and dairy-free ice cream, yum!

Beating the Heat

2011-07-23T17:56:00.002-04:00

We've been in the house for the better part of the week. It's been so unbelievably hot that going outside has been reserved for grocery shopping and errands! It's even hot inside as our air conditioner is struggling to keep up with these soaring temps. It's hot outside, it's hot inside and people are getting testy ;)

Our solution:

The sprinkler!

This girl loves it! :)

So does he :)

There's someone missing though...;)

Now everyone's wet! (yes including me!)

In these, my camera decided to focus on the tree but I love the way they turned out so I thought I'd put them up too :)

Ahhhhhh much better :)

Harry Potter...the end

2011-07-15T08:53:00.001-04:00

Harry Potter is kind of a big deal in this house. Not the kind of big deal that is all consuming or... obsessive but rather fun. It has been the topic of many conversations: finding hidden elements in the books or movies, things we like/dislike about the characters and storylines, parts we wished had been included (or left out of) the movies, the list goes on...

Today is opening day for the final movie installment. Todd and Kristen went last night for the midnight show and Brandon, Nicholas, and I will go this morning. This is the way it's been for a while now....a tradition you could say :)

In preparation for the final movie, we decided to have a Harry Potter marathon! Each day this week, we watched a Harry Potter movie starting last Saturday with the very first movie, The Sorcerer's Stone and ending last night with a double feature: The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows part I . We had fun watching them all together like that and seeing the actors grow up.

Not all of our family members could make it to every movie but we were all here the first night!

Because of work schedules, Todd and Kristen missed some of the movies, and Megan and Nicholas fell asleep during a few, but Brandon and I watched them all. We are so ready for the new movie!! Maybe this should be a new summer tradition??

Let the Games Begin!

2011-07-13T10:05:00.000-04:00

Megan's soccer practice started back up last week. We specifically choose the league that starts early that way when all of your fall things start up; football, dance, co-op, cubscouts, daisies, her soccer season is almost at an end. Works out perfectly for us! Plus she only practices one night a week and when games start in August it'll be one game and one practice a week. Easy!

Last night I remembered my camera and snapped a few of our little soccer player ;)

We have a nice break from sports in the spring but around this time, the kids get excited to play again. Perfect timing!

Needy Dolls

2011-07-11T09:11:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I was surfing YouTube videos on fixing American Girl doll's hair. Megan's doll, Kaya, had definitely seen better days ;) She used to belong to Kristen and since Kristen was older when she got her she was careful with her. When Kristen handed her down to Megan, that poor doll didn't stand a chance! Megan was too young to understand how to "be careful" with a doll and Kaya's hair suffered badly.

I found a really wonderful series of video's from Stephenswododancer (hope I spelled that right) on nearly everything American Girl and Kaya got a hair make-over! BUT....we also found a video (by the same people) on making a cute picnic table for your dolls!! Megan was in love. I showed the video to Todd, he made some improvements on graphing paper, and got to work.

Oh how I love it when he gets out those power tools! It feels like something's getting done around here!

He painted it and everything!! The changes he made were to attach the seats instead of having them separate. I'm so happy he did that! He also attached the legs differently than in the video. The picture I took of him marking them shows that they are not in the typical "X" style so they attach flat. Good idea!

Here it is all done:

From the side:

He did such a great job!! Megan is loving it!

These were taken last night and this morning it's filled with dolls and stuffed animals ;)

I'm thinking there will be lots and lots of little tea parties in the future :)

He's Back!! HE'S BACK!!

2011-07-09T15:15:00.001-04:00

Brandon came home from boy scout camp early this afternoon! We're all so happy he's back!! Even Brandon! He had a great time but there's no place like home :) My backyard looks like this once again:

Ahhhh that's better :) And tonight starts our Harry Potter marathon!!

Outside Randomness

2011-07-09T09:35:00.002-04:00

After dinner at Mom's, Todd went to work on her computer and the kids and I went outside. It was a gorgeous day and we took advantage of her beautiful yard :) While out there, I couldn't seem to take enough pictures! Pictures that I take outside always seem to turn out better plus I'm in love with all the lovely GREEN this time of year! Yay for summer!!

We first headed outside because the disabled man my mom provides in-home care for came down for some dinner. After we got him all settled on the porch, Mom took the kids around the yard on his golf cart. They had a ball driving that thing!

Of course, Nicholas would be the one to drive the cart into one of her many flower beds ;)

Can you see the raised beds we installed all filled with veggies? They're doing great!

After they tore around the yard for a while, it was time to play and explore. First place they go is always the water feature (which now has fish!):

Mom's dog, Lady, just had to join in ;)

Sisters:

Jon had joined in on our fun so when he and Kristen had to go, I managed to get a group shot:

We were minus Brandon (who has camp over a holiday?? ugh).

Megan and I took a walk to see the rose garden:

They are beautiful and they smell great!

Then she played:

It was a wonderful evening! I'll say it again....YAY for summer!!

A Little Surprise

2011-07-08T17:52:00.001-04:00

Part of our holiday weekend was spent at my mom's. We headed over on the fourth for a nice little dinner and to visit a bit.

When we got there, she had a little treasure for Nicholas...

What he has in his hand is my grandfather's (his great-grandfather's) pocket knife! Everyone who knows Nick knows how much he loves his pocket knife so my mom thought it would be something special for him. And it is! He loves it and keeps it in a little treasure box. Such a sweet, thoughtful gift :) Thanks Mom!

And since she knew she'd be gifting Nick, she had a little something for the girls ;)

A cute little locket for Megan.

And a cute 4th of July pin for Kristen.

So cute! Thanks for the little gifts and the dinner, Mom :)

The Holiday Weekend

2011-07-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

Don't you love it when a holiday is on Monday?? I do! We spent the whole weekend enjoying family and just casually hanging out. Of course there was the part about getting Brandon to camp (stuck right in the middle of our weekend)...

Before that though, we did lots of this:

We picked up that volleyball/badminton set for Nicholas for his birthday with the hope that it would encourage some outdoor family fun, and it did!

Sand art is a must for the summer :)

We wanted Brandon to be a part of the holiday with us so we lit our sparklers Saturday before we left for the Reynoldsburg fireworks.

There were lots of good things that didn't make it into my camera ;) A visit with Russ and Judy Saturday afternoon (Thanks for coming! We had a great time with you!), grilling out, wonderfully funny movies (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules is hilarious!), and lots of relaxing family time :) Loved this weekend!

Family Day!

2011-07-07T09:43:00.000-04:00

Last night was family night at Brandon's boy scout camp! He's on my mind constantly so it was really good to go see what he's up to. He's doing great! He's not too homesick and he's having a really good time!

So far, he's earned two merit badges. Going to camp seems to be the best way to knock those out ;) Up to this point, we've only managed to fully complete one ;) Today he has some requirements to complete to advance to the next level (first class? second class? no clue) then he's going to try to get the badge work done for two more. Way to go Brandon!

His tent:

There's two boys to a tent. They have cots in there which I would have got a picture of but their tent is a complete disaster ;)

These three where really happy to see each other :)

This is the view from their campsite:

Not too shabby!

The archery range:

Campfire view:

We walked to the chapel services and campfire together but I told Brandon he could sit with his troop. I didn't want our presence there to disrupt the flow of their patterns, that's not what we came for. I just wanted to see him, make sure he was enjoying himself, and of course, talk about the food ;) When you have food allergies in your family, food is a huge part of everything you do. ugh

I did manage to sneak a few pictures of him with my zoom...then he caught me ;)

Love that boy!

These two were so very good. We were there until 10:30 that night then had a two hour drive home...it was grueling for them but they were troopers! Megan is still sleeping and it's 9:30 already!

Brandon will be home Saturday and I think he'll be ready to be here again ;) I can't wait!

Sprinkling

2011-07-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

Now that our weather has returned to normal summer weather (WHEW!), our yard has seen more action ;) Especially the sprinkler! Megan LOVES playing in the sprinkler and I love capturing that ;) Some of my favorites from the weekend:

The sprinkler was left up all weekend long and will be up until it's time to mow again (which with all the extra watering may be sooner than we think!). The perfect way to cool off after a game of badminton (pictures on the way!).

Fireworks!

2011-07-03T19:32:00.000-04:00

Last night we made it to the Reynoldsburg fireworks!! This is the first time we've been in a very long time. The last time we went, fourteen years ago, there was some problem with the fireworks resulting in a fatal accident. We haven't been back.

But this year, I really wanted the kids to go. My plan included not being in close proximity of them ;) Todd thought it was a great plan! So we went!

We made festive t-shirts too ;)

They put fireworks on their t-shirts using pipe-cleaners dabbed in fabric paint! Here's the tutorial.

We parked in the Kroger parking lot nice view, not close, and although other people had the same idea, it wasn't crowded at all!

We even had entertainment ;)

The fireworks were awesome and the kids had the best time! We may have us a new tradition! Happy Fourth everyone!!

2011-07-03T19:09:00.001-04:00

Brandon left for camp today! This is a big deal here as we've never had a camp participant before.

But we do now!

Todd drove him down along with his troop this morning and said he did great! He's really excited and we think this will be a good thing for him. It helps that he's been begging to go since last summer so we know he really wants to have this experience ;) I can't wait to hear about all he does there!

Nine

2011-07-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

Nicholas turned nine yesterday!! We had a really good day just hanging around the house together.

Since Todd worked all day, we had decided to have a little party in the evening, but Nicholas ended up getting sprinkled all day with gifts :)

It started in the morning when we let him open the box from Russ and Judy. He and Brandon both played with that set all day! Next, Kristen gifted him as she was heading out to work and would miss the party.

Legos! Perfect! The little pocket tool/knife was a surprise from Todd ;) He just couldn't wait until evening!

Another one that couldn't wait:

Nicholas has been wanting a Pug puppy forever, so Megan got him one ;)

Apparently, our family isn't very good with the waiting thing ;)

Finally evening! Nick's dinner of choice was Uno's Gluten Free Pizza. Yum!

Todd wasn't quite home yet but I didn't want the pizza's to get cold so we started and he caught up when he got home ;)

Then the presents!

Sorry for the blurry pic but I had to post it! We saw lots of wonderfully surprised looks from our newly nine boy :)

Brandon had this shirt first and Nick loved it so much that it made an appearance in his gifts ;)

After the excitement, there was this:

Reading, building, just hanging together.

Then there was cake!! Toad is Nicky's favorite Mario character so....

Nine candles...

We ended the evening with a movie (Diary of a Wimpy kid, Rodrick Rules....hilarious!!!) and a sleepover in the tent! Nick said it was one of the best days ever :)

Nine! I can't believe it's been that long and yet I'm so very thankful for nine wonderful years :)

Starting the Day Right!

2011-06-30T08:23:00.000-04:00

With Birthday presents!!!

Earlier this week, UPS brought a nice big box addressed to our soon-to-be nine year old :) He actually waited very patiently for his birthday to arrive to open it! So I thought first thing this morning was long enough ;)

Think this will keep him busy?? I do!

Thank you Russ and Judy!! He absolutely LOVES it!! (and he was thrilled to have a package delivered just for him! ;)) See you guys soon!