Watch Out...That Smile is Contagious!

This has been a challenging week with a lot of sickness in our home. In the midst of tiring days and restless nights, my kids manage to keep me smiling. Baby Boy has a special gift for spreading smiles wherever he goes. He came out with a few funny lines this week...

Seeing Mommy step out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her head, "Wow! You look like a PRINCESS!"

"Daddy, we went to Taco Hell for lunch!"

"Mommy, I'd like to nurse from your elbows."

Daddy asked Baby Boy how he was doing. He answered, "I guess I'm doing well."

Yesterday he climbed up to put some snacks on the entertainment center. When I asked him what on earth he was doing he replied, "Oh, I'm putting this out of someone's reach."

A Handful of Summer Pics...

Is it "Back to School" Already?!

Treasures from Grandma

My grandma and Aunt Jinny and Uncle Jay visited this past month. We enjoyed some special time with them in our home. I made a lemon mousse cake and set out my pretty dishes for an afternoon tea party. Then we brought them down to our "classroom" where they patiently toured the kids' school library, listened to a recitation of "Paul Revere's Ride," and provided the kids with an enthusiastic audience for an hour of show and tell. It meant the world to me that they would engage so wholeheartedly in all of the kids' excitement over what they are learning. They also gave me a large dose of encouragement in my homeschooling efforts. Floods of wonderful childhood memories came to me as I saw the kids' interaction with these dear members of my extended family.

My grandma presented me with a very special gift. It is an heirloom soup tureen that belonged to my great grandma, filled with family recipes. I have put it in a place of honor in my kitchen and can hardly wait to use it. Would you believe that it matches my new dishes perfectly?!

Reptiles on the Move

I brought my camera this year!! When our town hosted its Old Home Day and reptile show, I was prepared. Check out Sis' face. You'd think she was snuggling a baby instead of a python!

The End Of Summer By: Sis Age: 8

We have had a Fun Summer :) It's been fun we've done a lot this Summer although it seemed pretty short :) We can't wait to start school September 2! We plan to do the Hopkinton Fair on September 1 just to do on last thing before we start school and the Enrichment Center :) We also can't wait to do the Enrichement Center where we will be doing a Music Class, and a Cooking Class, I will be doing an Art Class, and Buddy will be doing a Animal's In Their Habitats Class, we are going to have a ton of fun this Fall and going through the school year! We have a ton of fun books that we are going to read :) My favorite Subject in School is Reading :) I also recently went to a fun birthday party where we made Hula Skirts, (including one for my Uncle Mark to finish off The Crepe Paper) :), we also did obstacle courses, running through the sprinkler, jumping through tubes, and playing fun, fun games, eating ice-cream cake, drinking punch, and much more fun things! We also went to the Ocean one time before the end of the Summer :) The water was OK, but a little cold also :) And we also climbed trees, collected seashells, walked along the beach, and we played hide'n'go'seek,' in a BEAUTIFUL rose garden :) I also went to Grandma's house and we had a sleepover, we played pin'the'tail'on'the'donkey' :) We had waffles with whipped cream watched the movie, 'Old Yeller' and had a ton of fun :) That was our sleepover! :) So we have had a fun fun Summer and I can't wait to write about our fun Fall soon :) :) :)

By: Sis
Age: 8

Final Days of Summer...

The reddish leaves on our trees indicate that fall is just around the corner. The closing of our public pool hasn't slowed us down one bit. We have still found new and creative ways to squeeze the last bit of fun from this summer. August has been jam-packed with special plans including 2 summer/beach birthday parties, some local community events for the kids, a belated celebration for Adam's 21st birthday, a delightful visit with my Grandma, Aunt Jinny, and Uncle Jay, an enjoyable dinner and visit with a family from our church, a fun swimming date with Kathy and family at Steele Hill Resort, a luncheon with my college roommate, movie dates with Stephen and our teenage nephews (in our personal home theater :), an afternoon at the beach with Grandma P., Aunt Sharon and kids, some relaxing trips to the lake, wild-bluberry picking and the beginning of soccer... Tomorrow we plan to use Stephen's last vacation day for the summer and take a family field trip to Castle in the Clouds.

Since the reality of fall schedules is just around the corner, Stephen and I have lined up a babysitter this evening so we can plan our new schedule together and goals over Chai tea. Not the most romantic date, but I am thoroughly excited about it anyway! Stay tuned for a whole lot of summer pictures and stories about our first week of school...

Vacation Bible School By: Sis Age: 8

I have not told you about VBS, although it finished last month, we have had lots and lots of fun! It was a detective theme, which I really like books like The Bobbsey Twins which is a whole series of detective books which are really cool :) And so here's what happened . . .

This had been July, 14-18 which was a four day thing, what the dectective part was was, searching to find the point that Jesus really is God, and nobody else,
:) :) :)
!
And so, I'll start out talking about the first day . . .

The first day quite a lot of people that we had known from last year were there and also my little cousin was there too; she is just one year older than Buddy :) And so we sat down in seats pretty close to the front and started out by singing songs, my favorite song was One Way Jesus, and I could tell that it was a favourite of other kids there too because when Mr. Foss, said, "This is one of my favourite songs, and it is called . . ." "ONE WAY!" All of the kids shouted! And then after that we all had skits, which was based on an old man, (Mr. Foss) and his son and daughter. He could not even remember what he had for breakfast or which socks he had on and then he thought that he had some secret recipe out there and so he hired a ton of detectives who searched and lots gave up, but one finally found proof so that it looked like it could be there and in the end he found the secret place where it was and then when he brought it back, the old man had it and he didn't smell plastic flowers anymore :) and he didn't need a wheelchair and he gave out the special recipe for free to people who had been just like him :) It was a good set of skits this year, and also after that we prayed and then we went off to our groups, and our group which was 2-3 went into art first, and the first day we made sun catchers, they were in shapes of crosses or Bibles. What we did was we took little tubes that had paint in them and filled them in the cracks and they were pretty! The second night we made shirts with spray paints and markers! And the third night we made picture frames! We took little shapes and we took stick-ons and then we took glitter and then we put it in a little stand and glued it in, Then I, for a finishing touch, put little drops of glitter all around the stand :) The next night we took plastic cups and colored Bible story pictures to put them in the cup! The first day we went to gym next where the game we played were crab soccer where we put our hands behind our back and used our feet to play soccer! And we played a game where we started at one end of the room and ran with a potato on a spoon and if you dropped the potato you had to go back, your team had to get the potato back first :) That was fun! Then we had snacks, which we had rice crispies, fruit roll ups or other things! Then we went to our Bible time where we talked about Jesus and the wonderful things that he did! On the last night all of the parents, came and saw what we learned and we had a slide show and lots of other things! We had sodas and brownines and yummy things! And through VBS we also learned a memory verse,

But as many as received Jesus to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name :)

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name :)

We have had a wonderful time :)

By: Sis
Age: 8

Our Garden

Our garden has been a huge success this year. I LOVE cruising right by the produce on our grocery trips and saving money while enjoying the freshest of vegetables. Nearly every day we have a harvest of either green beans or zucchini. We have enjoyed fresh lettuce and cucumbers and are eyeing our harvest of tomatoes and broccoli which are nearly ready to be picked. It looks like we might have a prize winning pumpkin as well. I've made sauce and herb bread with our fresh basil, oregano and rosemary and am looking forward to trying some crazy new recipes from my friend, Lois. Stop by to try some zucchini jam or fried green beans with wasabi ranch dip.

Australian Wildlife Encounter By: Sis Age: 8

Recently Dad, Mom, Me, Buddy, Baby Boy, and Papoose went to an Australian animal show. It was tons and tons of fun! The people who set all this up designed it to be only for the Libraries of New Hampshire, and the theme was based on Australian Animals, and so the theme was called G'day For Reading. And so along the way we got prizes as I wrote in an earlier blog entry, I told about all the prizes and ice-cream tickets, and so for a closing, today is the last day, August 9, 08, on August 4the, The Wildlife thing did a cool Animal Show! :)(Australian Animal Show!) :) We had lots and lots and lots of fun there! Here's what happened . . .

When we all got to the library, I hurried out of the car and into the building, and we went upstairs to the room where all of the Australian Animals were being showed, and there we met our cousins who also live in Boscawen :) And so we waited about 15 minutes so everybody would be there and the we got started . . . :)

There was only one man doing it, he introduced himself and then he got started ;) It was an hour long :) The first thing we saw, was an opossum and he took out a little bag and we heard a strange sound coming from the bag :) and then he took out the opossum :) It looked really cute :) And he explained that it 'flew' from tree branch to tree branch, and it was soooo cool! He said, that it could curve its body in a way that made it able to 'fly' :) And one gross part was that, we, us actually eat hundreds of bugs in our lifetime while we are sleeping because our mouths are open :( YUCK! :) (And actually he said that you can eat even more if you are like on a motorcycle and you open your mouth, the bugs fly right in . . .

The next animal he showed us was a Australian Tree frog, which the guy said it was really slimy and one girl volunteered to hold it for him, and so she did while he talked about the tree frogs which were interesting, they really are purple even though they look green!

And then the next animal that the guy showed us was a bird, the bird was called,

'The Alarm clock Of The Forest'
And it was like a siren! It kept squawking and squawking while he tried to explain it! :) Everybody laughed SO hard :) Then finally he explained that those birds are almost extinct, and they are VERY VERY rare. And so then we went on to the next animal . . . ;)

A SNAKE! I can not quite remember the name, but anyway it was very very cool! It was big and the guy said it was really really strong! Now the next animal was awesome . . .

AN AUSTRALIAN WALLABY! It was SO cool! And the guy said that it starts out the size of a piece of cooked rice, goes up to its Mother's pouch, (which, the man said, would be like us blindfolded climbing on our bellies for ten MILES! WOW! And then the Wallaby just hopped of the table and out of the room, pulling the man with him :)
Then after that he said that the mother pukes a couple times a day for the baby to get the bacteria needed to be able to eat grass . . . YUCK! And he said that if the mother started having another baby she could stop the pregnancy, and if she lost a baby, continue it and then have another baby! :) This was it and everybody LOVED the ending of the library program! ;)

By: Sis
Age: 8

Conversation with Buddy and Sis

The other day Buddy said out of the blue, "Mommy, when I have a wife, I'm not going to let her work unless she doesn't have any kids."

Sis was indignant and blurted out, "Hey, that's MEAN! You can't tell your wife what to do." Genesis 3 passed instantly through my mind.

Of course, I had to redeem this teachable moment and launch into a discussion of the biblical roles of husbands and wives. When I finished, Buddy commented, "Wouldn't we make that decision TOGETHER, Mommy? Like when Congress gives something to the President and he can veto it?"

Family Reunion

Papoose and I recently had the privilege of joining my extended family in West Virginia for a delightful reunion (and celebration of my grandpa's 88th birthday). My Aunt Faye and Uncle Steve planned a fun-packed weekend and some special surprises (including a massive, inflated velcro wall for kids of ALL ages and a jousting ring). I'm awaiting pictures of my crazy uncle and cousins in their velcro suits as they landed in all sorts of contortions against this wall. You've gotta see it to believe it!

It was a privilege to see Grandpa hold my new baby and to enjoy poolside chats with cousins I haven't seen since my wedding. I will treasure the memories we made together and look forward to bringing the rest of my family with me next time.

Papoose is Nearly 4 Months

Some Recent Photos...

Baby Boy was ecstatic to finish the summer reading program today. His big brother and sister read diligently to him, allowing him to fill in 5 charts and earn his prize! I think we have another book lover on our hands...