May. 11, 2008 - Flowers For Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers and grandmas! We hope you all enjoy a lovely day of rest with those you love. And a very special "Happy!" to our own beloved moms and grandmas: Grandma Karen, Grandma Anna, Grandma Pat and Grandma Berneta! We love you so much, and are so thankful to God for you all!

Now for some Mother's Day 'flowers' from the girls:

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May. 7, 2008 - Odds N Ends

You know you've been reading old books when your five year old comes up to you and says "Mother, may I have my water, for I do thirst?"

Hannah continues her habit of making us smile with her choice of words.  She loves coloring pages, and upon inspecting one particularly lovely one, she announced that it was "enormous pretty!"

Hannah also seems to be having a hard time figuring out the word chiropractor. I had an appointment one day, and each time she mentioned it, the word came out differently. Our two favorites were "are you going to the firecracker?" And "what doctor is it? The piletractor?"

Tonight, I wasn't feeling very well. I started to get a little woozy at the table (think I'm fighting a bug), and I turned toward Matt and said something to the effect that my head felt heavy, I thought I was getting a fever, and I felt like I was just going to flop over. Isabelle, who was sitting next to me, stared at me intensly.  I asked if she thought I was getting sick. She stared yet more deeply into my eyes for a moment, then a big grin spread across her face as she announced, in all confidence, "Allergies!"

When I'm feeling better I've got to post about our new school books for Autumn. I'm so excited about school this year! Instead of a package I hand picked everything out and we just can't wait to dig in!  But for now I have some pictures to catch up on, so enjoy:

Juliette found a blanket in the hamper, so she just crawled right in to rest!

Alyssa's graduated to a big high chair, and she's making it clear she'd much prefer "big girl" food to go with it - "no pabulum for me!"

Our good friends Matt and Hilary came out for a little visit - we were so thrilled to see them and had a wonderful time together!

Isn't it so sweet to catch up with dear friends?

Isabelle just loved Hilary - how could she not? She's beautiful as well as sweet and kind!

Ok, so I may have posed the hug, but I still thought it was cute.

Daddy picked these flowers out for Isabelle after her dance recital. She loves them so much that they are still in a vase by her bed, even though they're now completely dead and dried out! We've got to rescue them from the vase and find a good place to hang them!

We finally have some spring flowers bringing color to the yard!

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May. 2, 2008 - Belle's Movies

I shall let Belle be a blog star on mommy's blog today. Sorry for any repeat, but I think I finally figured out how to get these videos to work and keep working. Here's a fun "last year and this year" of reading, as well as what Isabelle described as her "beautiful moment": her very first little dance recital. We were so proud of her, because daddy and I each gave her a particular piece of advice about a part of her dance, and she worked so hard to remember them both! And she smiled the whole time - she's third from the right.

PS. Please do be cautious about clicking on any video links that may pop up at the end of the videos - these are hosted on youtube and I have no control over what other videos they may have one their site!

Ballet/Irish Dance Recital

Reading St. George Last week (we LOVE this book - this was the day it came in the mail!)

Reading a Bob Book around a year or so ago

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Apr. 30, 2008 - Fixed

To all of you firefox users, I think I got the blog to work correctly. It may not be quite as pretty as it looks in msn or explorer (though they look a bit different now, too), but the words should all be there! Please let me know if it's hard for anyone to see, and I'll try to tweak it a bit more! I never realized things looked different in various browsers!

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Apr. 30, 2008 - My New Blog Look

  Many thanks to Ali from Mission Field Designs for making my blog look so beautiful. It's lovely, Ali, thank you so much!

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Apr. 30, 2008 - Fresh New Reader

We officially have two little readers in our home! I have been teaching Hannah letter sounds, but didn’t really try to have her decode any words, as I didn’t figure she was quite ready to do it. Well, she sure proved me wrong! Today I told her to try just the first sound of the letter and see if she could figure out the word. She read all of these: sat, at, in, is, man, and a few other similar words. I guess I’ll get out the Bob books – such fun!

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Apr. 29, 2008 - Speech Therapy

Here's another of our "homeschool electives": we took Naomi in for an evaluation and discovered she has a moderate to severe speech delay, which was more than we had expected. We're still trying to figure out things that may be causing or contributing to it, like food intolerances, but for now she's started a little speech therapy class with a couple of other three year old girls.  She's so thrilled with it! It's funny how basic it is, and one of the big reasons we have her in it is simply to guide us in what we can practice with her at home. But it seems to be good in all sorts of ways other than just speech improvement. Naomi is so thrilled to have a little class that only she goes to. She proudly hops back in the car afterward, holding her prized paper projects. The older girls beg to be the first to see what she made! In fact we still have the first little booklet she made there, and when she "reads" it to us now, she actually uses an ending sound for each word - a big deal for her!

When we have schooltime in the morning, we all start out at the dining room table. The girls each get to pick a "school game" (anything from teeny plastic horses and riders, to special blocks, stacking pegs and memory games) to use when it's not their "letter lesson" turn. I practice Isabelle's TATRAS phonics and read alouds with her, Hannah's Penny Primer and letters, and Naomi's speech sounds with her. Of course, Juliette has a turn, too, and we work on speech sounds as well, since she's not an early talker by any stretch. It really works quite well, despite the necessary reminders to play quietly so sister can think! I do hope it is helping Naomi to speak more clearly, but at least I'm pretty sure it is helping her feel special and be excited to learn!

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Apr. 23, 2008 - Doggie Homeschool and Rent A Dog

Recently we had another one of those days at the park. I'm sure we all have a different definition of those days, but for us it meant that I took all the girls to a park and there happened to be a dog there. No matter if the dog was on a leash and not really that close to us. You should have heard the wailing that ensued! If I've failed to mention this, I had three little girls who were terrified of dogs, one big girl who loves them (interestingly the only one of our girls who was around when we had a dog) and a baby who doesn't think much more of them than perhaps, "hmm, that's a gooey sort of kiss". Hannah at least has pretty good reason for her fear, and even if she didn't she's good at inventing reasons. Naomi and Juliette just have fear! After trying to console, calm, bribe, and threaten, and finally plopping the wailers on a park bench (whatever it took to stop the hysterics!), I came home and told Matt I was quite certain we needed a dog! I didn't really care if I wanted a dog (although many days I think I do),  I didn't try to remind myself we may not have the time for a dog around here (pish, posh), and didn't think at all about doggy potty on the floor (our dog would be perfect!). All I could think was "I must be able to take my girls to the park, where there is ALWAYS a dog!" And the fact that I wouldn't have to vaccuum under the lunch table was nice, too. 

Well, as my husband wisely reminded me, until we actually have a fence around our property we can't get a dog. So I invented doggie-homeschool. We have some friends who happen to teach a dog handling class by a park near our home. So with their kind permission, every Wednesday evening we put dinner in to cook late, and we head to the park for just a few minutes. Then it's on to doggie school. Oh, this has been such a delight! I made the rule that no matter how afraid anyone felt, no one was allowed to cry! They can stick by me like glue, clutching my hand, but they can't wail! Then we asked if the class minded us dropping in each week for fifteen minutes. Thankfully, as we are trying to train our children not to be terrified of dogs (wise, yes, but not terrified), many of these people are trying to train their dogs not to be afraid of little children, so it works quite nicely. I'm happy to report that a month into it, I officially have two big girls who LOVE dogs (Hannah being one of them!), two small girls who tolerate dogs, and one baby who still thinks no more than "hmm, that's gooey". Daddy got to come today and see Hannah and Isabelle "train" their favorite dog. The dog's kind owner lets the girls lead her around on leash, feed her, and tell her to sit. These dogs really tower over the girls, so it's pretty funny to see Hannah saying "Kalina, sit, noooooo, sit, noooooo SIT, hmmm, oh, you laid down, good girl . . . . Mommy, I TRAINED her!"

Today this wonderful lady managed more than I thought was possible and had Naomi leading the dog on leash. Nao kept dropping the leash, and the lady would say "Pick it up, or she'll run off" - all I could think was "I'm sure that's what she's hoping for!" But she did it, she was so brave! And Juliette wanted to try, but without help (this is the girl who says little more nowadays than "I do it myself"), so she stood there, looked this dog in the eye and said (in a cute and stern voice) "Doggie, walk! No, no, walk doggie! Doggie walk!" We finally convinced her she'd have better luck if she started walking!

Our next step is borrowing a dog for a week. We're really looking forward to seeing how that goes, but hopefully by the end we shall have no trouble visiting any park we'd like to! Isn't homeschooling great? Who ever heard of doggie school electives otherwise!

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Apr. 21, 2008 - Fun Happenings

We've come up with some things this week which have thrilled the girls, particularly my five year old. One is a small bit of (I think) actual creativity on my part. The girls accidentally broke my exercise band, and I found some curved branches. That probably sounds like a really weird combination, but with the two I was able to make a couple of very passable bows. We then spent the morning hunting for twigs we could use for arrows - all in all it was quite fun, and we're very pleased with our bows and arrows. We've spent a good amount of time having "archery contests" and are just loving it! Isabelle may be my girliest girl, but she is also pretty fascinated with certain weapons, bows and arrows topping her list! And if I do say so myself, they're pretty groovy - even daddy and I didn't want to put them down!

Daddy made all the girls happy by finishing the bunk bed he was painting for them. It looks lovely, and they are so happy with it! We now officially have four little girls in one room. Juliette is so proud to be in the big girl room. She's funny- potty training is harder with her than any of the others, yet going from a crib to a bed is a delight! They're all so different, go figure.

Next we discovered this fabulous new printing of the Narnia series - large print for reading aloud. Isabelle can read these herself, but it's still fairly slow going as she's only five, and it's a long book! So I put on our audio Narnia CD, which we LOVE, and she was able to follow along in the book for the whole chapter - it was wonderful!

The last exciting thing for Isabelle is that we created her very own blog. Yes, my five year old has a blog. I thought it might make for a fun and different way to do her oral narrations, and boy does she love it! She got to pick out her own template picture and all of that good stuff. I had no idea how happy this would make her!  If you'd like to see a five year old's blog, feel free to visit little Belle.

Here are some pictures of our week:

Belle with her new "archery set"

Mommy and Belle having an archery contest.

Isabelle reading Narnia

Me and my Juli Bunny:

Miss Alyssa

Isabelle actually took this picture of Alyssa- didn't she do a great job - a little budding photographer!

We were all outside enjoying the one warm spring day we've had this year!

The bunk bed daddy painted:

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Apr. 16, 2008 - Mission Work Suited To Toddlers

Years ago I had this strange feeling that God had either called me to work on the mission field, or to stay in the states and marry a cop. Weird, I know, but it turned out to be true. He has called me to serve Him right here, loving my husband and teaching my girls. I love the work He's given me - even on the days when it doesn't feel lovely. But it certainly hasn't erased my desire to serve others, particularly those of other cultures. I suppose that's one way He led us to adopt Naomi, for which we're forever thankful! I also love to read books for the girls of stories from around the world, so they don't grow up thinking our little spot on the planet is the only one.  But it's hard to figure out what this service can look like when I'm at home all day with the girls. Lately I've felt that we are lacking in teaching our girls to serve others. The girls do plenty of service around here, of course - chores to help mommy, holding a bottle for baby instead of playing, etc. But I was longing to allow them to use their gifts to bless others outside our family circle as well.These things must start in the home, but we desire for our family to be the aroma of Christ to others, too! Yet each time I hear about a ministry I think "how could a family with five toddlers do that?" Then God showed me something, through little snippets here and there, which reminded me of something my wonderful mom was faithful to teach me and my sisters to do- in fact it comprises my very first memory at around three years old. My mom used to take us to nursing homes to visit neighbors, relatives, and even people we didn't know who needed love. I realized at once how perfect this could be for our family right now - a ministry that toddlers really are just right for. There are so many lonely older people languishing in "homes" where they don't see the smile of a baby, hear the laugh of a toddler, and yes, even listen to the incessant (yet endearing) chatter of a five year old. There is a whole, rich culture of people that our society largely would forget, who should be the honored elders of our land. And our church does regular visits to a nursing home in our town. Why I didn't think of this before, I don't know, but I'm so excited to try to become a part of those visits or find another time our family can do this! We were talking about it at dinner tonight, and while I did dishes the girls all started drawing and coloring little presents to take to some "grandmas and grandpas" they don't know yet, but who might enjoy some cheerful little visitors.  God has blessed us with the chance to care for orphans - both by visiting and by adopting, and I am so thankful He's shown us a way we can bless our older neighbors, too! Hopefully soon I'll have some stories to post, but for now I was just excited that God gave us an idea of something our family can do here and now. He is so good to answer the prayers of our heart, stateside or abroad!

PS. Ok, I'm bummed because I just found out we definitely can't do the visits when our church does - the schedule just won't work! So it may be a little while before I have some stories to post, as I'll have to make some calls and figure this all out. But I still wanted to post this now, as I really think it can be a great way for us to minister to others alongside our little ones. I'd love to hear any of your stories about blessing others as a family!

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Apr. 15, 2008 - Check It Out!

Well, some of our dearest friends are getting all famous! Remember Christine? She blogs over at From Dates To Diapers and MommiesUnited now. She and her husband, Ray, are flying out to New York as they were invited to appear on The Morning Show With Mike and Juliet tomorrow. They'll be part of a finance section, discussing budgeting for their family with six little ones, groceries, saving money, etc. Please pray that God would use this to glorify His name through His people. And go check it out if you have a TV - I don't, unfortunately, so I need to find someone to record it for me!  I'm sure it will be well worth watching!

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Apr. 10, 2008 - Pictures Galore

Here's your warning: this post will probably have a ton of pictures, because I took about a million over the past week! Next time I'll actually write a post using words . . . for now it will just be captions! Warning number two: many of these pictures are probably similar to one another, but I can't help it: I'm a sucker for each little unique facial expression my girls make!

We took the girls to a horse show to celebrate Hannah's birthday . . .

Naomi has so *perfected* the art of the cheesy smile, that I get really excited to have a picture like this: her lovely real smile!

The "fence horse"

This is Gandalf, one of the horses I take lessons on - isn't he a handsome fella?  Note the very suspicious look upon Naomi's face upon being this close to an animal!

 A few steps away and she's all smiles!

Ok, this isn't my kids obviously, but I thought it was the goofiest horse smile!

Hannah, proudly riding Gandalf - no fear for that girl - she LOVED it!

Note the entrance of dark clouds - the wind kicked up and the temperature plummeted! Thank the Lord for Walmart, clearance sweatshirts and bobby-sock mittens! They saved the day!

Here's Isabelle riding Dreamer, my instructor's horse. She was so sweet to share her horses with the girls! Belle was a bit more cautious, but loved it just the same!

Naomi and Juli say "no thanks for riding horses!" Actually, Juli wanted to ride (mostly, in my opinion, because she wanted to wear "that pink hat", but it took her about three seconds of sitting up there to politely request to come down. She then firmly stated "Jooey no more ride horsey".

Missed Isabelle's head, but go the smile!

Have I mentioned how much I love this man? Yes . . . the one sticking his tongue out at me! And that cute little baby, too . . .

We took care of some excess energy with some races in an empty field. I don't think that smile left Hannah's face all weekend - she loved her birthday celebration!

The progress of a good roll in the grass:

Later came the inevitable presents . . .

One thing I love about our "multi-generational" church (we don't have Sunday School for the kids- we just all worship together as families) is that when I asked Hannah who she'd like to have over for her birthday dinner, she wanted some friends her age:

And some friends our age just as much. In fact, here's the lovely lady that Hannah wanted to sit by for dinner:

It was good fun! We all laughed a ton - I'll have to find some pictures of the kiddos. They disappeared, and as Hannah said: "we were busy watching pink panther cartoons!"

And here are some odds and ends:

sleepy (or perhaps grumpy) Naomi . . .

I'm so happy to see Naomi enjoying books more lately. And I enjoyed twisting her hair again -it's been awhile!

Whew - that was a lot of pictures, wasn't it? Well, you can't say I didn't warn you!

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Apr. 7, 2008 - Little Penny, Not So Small

Well, my little Hannah turned four yesterday - such a big girl! We took her (and all the girls) to a horse show this weekend to celebrate. They just loved it - especially because my kind riding instructor let the girls ride both of her horses! I'll get some pictures up soon, but lately Alyssa has been sleeping in the room with my normal computer and pictures! Anyway, it was all good fun, and Hannah loved her weekend of celebration. In honor of her cuteness, here's yet another conversation (as best as I remember it) with her which made me laugh:

Hannah, crying: Mommy, I was trying to cut out my coloring page pretty, but I ripped it! (a huge trauma to my currently-obsessed-with-coloring-pages girl!)

Mommy: Oh dear, well maybe we can fix it. I'll cut it into an oval. See . . . now it looks like a vignette, those are very pretty.

Hannah, with a serious look of pondering on her face: What's a vignette?

Mommy: Well, a vignette is a kind of faded picture which looks lovely, and it's often shaped like an oval.

Hannah, yet more pondersome (is that a word?): Hmmm, is a vignette like a cognac?

Mommy: Huh? No, honey, I don't think it's like a cognac.

Hannah: I think it is.

Mommy: Well, they both are spelled with a gn (nya) sound, is that what you mean?

Hannah: Umm, yes, that's what I mean.

Mommy: Ok, then yes, a vignette is sort of like a cognac.

Hannah, after pondering for yet another moment and now with a look of epiphany upon her face:

Oh, so then it's like a car wash. . . . .

And out of the room she scooted, holding her vignette/cognac/car wash coloring page!

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Apr. 1, 2008 - Pretty Girls And Pretty Coloring Pages

In our ongoing effort to make Sunday the favorite day of the week, we now have some special toys, games and coloring books which we save for Sunday afternoons. Isabelle and Hannah (and mommy and daddy) are really enjoying our new "for Sabbath only" stained glass coloring books  - these look really pretty hung up in windows:

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Apr. 1, 2008 - Book Review

You all know I sometimes enjoy reviewing books and products I've been able to try out. Here's another one. I know this will apply more to some of you than others, but lately it's definitely applied to me. My dear husband recently encouraged me to start taking a few horseback riding lessons so I could have a couple of hours out of the house doing something I've always wanted to do. Well, I love it, and am thankful for the "time off", and the fact that I finally get to do something I've longed to learn for 28 years! But lo and behold, after five babies I have HORRIBLE balance, and I promptly fell of the horse I was trying so hard to ride! My midwife assures me this whole lack of balance thing is normal, but of course that didn't make me feel too much better. Since I can't ride very often, I started reading all I could (in those quiet evening hours) that might help me improve. This, in case anyone was wondering, is what convinced me (a very couch potato-ish person), to finally start exercising.  I've found that pilates is quite helpful to one's balance and posture (another thing I've needed desperately to improve for quite some time.)  I came across a little book called Applied Posture Riding, which is largely a book applying pilates-type exercises to one's riding. I contacted the author to obtain a copy, and she was kind enough to let me post about it here. The biggest drawbook to this book is the price, and I would have an easier time recommending it if the price were substantially lower, but as promised I wanted to share the points of this book I most appreciated, for there were definitely things I enjoyed:

1. It is simple - it's one of the shortest of the books I read, which at first put me off a bit. Later, however, I realized this was one reason I liked it more than others, as the longer books really tended to overwhelm, and by the time I finished the book, I forgot all the recommended exercises! This book and exercise program is simple enough to remember and do without getting bogged down by a million exercises!

2. It made use of the fitness ball. I've had a ball for years, and never really knew quite what to do with it besides sit on it. Again, the short book was much more helpful than the really big gym-ball workout book I borrowed. With the big one, I had no idea which of the seemingly hundreds of exercises to choose! This little Applied Posture Riding book made ball exercises simple by explaining (with pictures) the choicest ball exercises for my purpose.

3. Uniqueness of the exercises. There are some exercises in here that I haven't run across anywhere else, such as a bunch for the arms - being a fairly weak armed person, I think these will be of help to me.

4. I really liked all of the photographs - it's easier to see an illustration in a full color photo than in a rendering. While there are plenty of schools of thought in riding, and Wilson's is not *perfectly* in tune with all of them, the photographs nonetheless gave a bit of a mental picture of what one is going for. And the pictures of the exercises themselves were quite helpful while trying to learn to do them.

5. Simple equipment - some of the books I looked into made use of quite a bit of high-end gym equipment that really isn't available to me. This book simply uses a gym-ball (which my kids love owning anyway) and some exercise bands (I think these only cost a few dollars - I don't quite remember, as I've had some for years - just haven't used them much yet!) The rest of the exercises don't need any equipment at all. Just makes the exercise routine a bit more approachable at home.

All in all, I've been gravitating toward the pilates video that my sister sent me, but as I get more comfortable with exercise in general, I'm hoping to make more use of this book to good effect.

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Mar. 23, 2008 - Baptism

There was a baptism of three babies in church last week - always such a delight! Then we as the congregation said this lovely little excerpt from a French Reformed Baptism rite. I thought it was just wonderful, and I wanted to post it:

"Little children, for you Jesus Christ came to this earth, struggled and suffered; for your sake He crossed Gethsemane and went through the darkness of Calvary; for your sake He cried: 'It is finished,' for your sake He died and for your sake He overcame death; indeed for your sake, little children, and you - still - know nothing of it. And thus the word of the apostle is confirmed: 'We love God, for He loved us first.'"

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Mar. 23, 2008 - Happy Resurrection Day!

Here's a fun little Easter poem we love, and some Easter pictures (you'll have to forgive the ton of baby pictures - however high maintenance that sweet little girl might be, she sure takes a lovely picture!)

Happy Easter to you, my friend.

This day's light shall have no end.

For Christ did rise

in the golden morn,

and by His life are we reborn.

Happy Easter to one and all!

The night is over, the sun is tall.

The day did break with a tiny beam

and flooded life with Light supreme.

-Holly Pond Hill, A Child's Book Of Easter

So many pictures in one day! Here are the girls hunting for some Easter eggs:

And a cute little baby I know, who learned to sit up - she does play so much more happily now!

More egg hunting - in the rather chilly weather, I might add!Here's Naomi playing with one of their Easter presents - a mini doll which came with bottles, spoons to feed, etc - quite possibly the best $5 I've ever spent as far as keeping my two littler ones busy and happy at the table!Miss Isabelle, in one of the lovely Easter dresses they were blessed with!Penny Bear - silly as always!

And Miss Juliette with some good post-nap hair going on!

Our Easter plans changed last minute so we enjoyed a lovely Easter at home. For our Easter Feast, we went with the not-so-traditional meal that daddy's been asking me to try making - sushi! He was thrilled!

And I've saved the baby for last, as I just couldn't decide between all her cute little facial expressions, so I decided to post them all! Here's Alyssa in her almost-eight-month old cuteness:

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Mar. 13, 2008 - Drippy Days

Today is a drippy sort of day. The sky is dripping - in a refreshing spring way. The eyes of my girls have been dripping, in a not-so-refresing, but much more emotional way. There was enough fussiness today that I actually started taking temperatures, almost hoping to find fevers that would explain it!  It's been a long week with Matt out of town for work. It's actually gone quite well, but I definitely miss his company and time with the girls! Alyssa's won the prize for fussiest baby, but this morning as she chomped on my finger I think I figured out why - there was a little tooth in there! Her very first one at seven months! Believe it or not, that's really early for one of my girls to get teeth. I guess that explains at least some of her fussiness, but I don't know where the other girls got theirs. And I can't say I've been a chipper chicken myself. Though there have been quite a few lovely moments today, there have also been plenty of stressful ones! We got a late start on school (the little school that we did) , as with the outdoor (and "indoor") weather the way it was, I decided to start with a rousing, if not so educational, game of hide and seek. That was fun, and the girls LOVED it. I have to admit I'm terrible at playing with my kids - great at reading, terrible at playing! So this was good fun for all of them. After this a big package of diapers happened to arrive, which provided two big boxes and a whole bunch of butcher paper to play with. It's funny, these girls have a playhouse, but it's so much more exciting to them to pretend a big box is a house! Then just as we all snuggled up to read on the couch,Alyssa playing on the floor with toys, two rather dreadful things happened. One was that Alyssa began to wail her discomfort and annoyance to the world, and refused to be comforted. The other was that I got the hiccups. I don't know if you've ever tried to read a story about a magical three-legged stool over the sound of a baby crying and interspersed with your own incessant hiccups, but I quickly decided it was just not worth it, much to Isabelle's disappointment.

I decided the day needed a fresh turn. So into the tea room we went. I set Naomi at the table with a fun magnet flower garden toy, Juli at the table with a flower garden peg stacker, Hannah at the bar with her playmobil farm, and Isabelle at the bar with a draw write now page. Alyssa went into the bumbo with some cheerios - her favorite companion lately. On went the NIV  Kids Club, a movie of kids singing Bible verses, and I made some peanut butter sandwiches (on white bread - mmm, they think it's such a rare treat!) After lunch, and after a generous helping of my cookies (I almost prefer giving cookies over any other snack when they're made with freshly ground flower and natural sugars!) I tried an experiment that worked perfectly, and is now my recommendation for creating smiles on rainy days. I put my broiler on high, lined a cookie sheet with foil, and filled it with marshmallows. Three minutes on each side later, we had some perfectly roasted marshmallows, with no bbq necessary! Oh, they were grand! We even stuck little pretzel sticks in them to make "trees". I'm sure that was the highlight of the day! It definitely cheered everyone up. Not that it made the day perfect or anything. After lunch, I ended up rocking two fussy little girls - one teething, one just plain pooped two year old. After a couple of lullabies, they were so happy, and gladly went to sleep. I came downstairs, hoping I hadn't caused the three older ones to fuss with eachother by being gone so long. It was totally quiet (not usually a good sing!) and I had to hunt through the whole downstairs before I found them in a rather odd spot! One girl was using the bathroom, and the other two were standing in the bathtub reading the "learn to poopy book" aloud to her! But they were happy, and so was I.  Now, of course, instead of napping while they did like I probably ought to have, I've been blogging. Silly me - this is why I don't blog very often anymore (a bit of sleep usually sounds more necessary!)  I'll just make a cup of coffee - ooh, would you like one more "recipe"? I think I've settled on how I like making my coffee: one shot of espresso (one ounce), one shot of pure maple syrup (again, one ounce), and 8 ounces of steamed, frothed milk -  yummy (and the caffeine doesn't hurt this tired mommy)! Well, now I've officially chronicled our day, and here are some photos to finish it off - the outside ones were from the other day.

Naomi finally named her dolly, after months of insisting that her name is Dolly. She named her Annie, which I love since it was her name when we adopted her! 

One of the aforementioned boxes - still not sure how Isabelle managed to bring Alyssa in there with her!

Hello Kitty!

Fun with friends, picking non edible berries to play with.

Hannah very much wanted me to take her picture, so she forced a smile

boxes are such fun!

Golden marshmallows - although they had deflated a bit before I decided to get the camera;

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Mar. 9, 2008 - Almost Spring

Isabelle is the official First Flower Finder for this Spring (well, a little early!)

Now, since we're flower-ignorant, anyone care to tell me what this is?????

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Mar. 4, 2008 - Little Bunnies. . .

So today I was lying on the couch, "resting my eyes", as my dad used to say. I was awake, listening to Isabelle read aloud. Hannah was getting ready for nap, and I had just sent Naomi to potty before bed. And I was tired . . . very tired! So I closed my eyes for a moment or two. Then, out of nowhere, I felt the oddest sensation and had to think very hard to decide if I was dreaming. It felt like a bunny rabbit had softly put its little nose on my lips and was sniffing determinedly. It stopped, then a few seconds later it happened again. No dream, I was relatively certain by now that a little soft nose was indeed gently lodging itself between my closed lips. So I reluctantly opened my eyes to figure out why such a thing had occured. Leave it to Hannah . . . there she was with a sheepish little smile on her face. "What are you doing, Hannah," I asked. 

"Well, I thought I smelled some gum, and I wanted to know if you had it in your mouth."

"Yes, dear, I have some minty gum."

"Oh, I wanted to smell it, and see it."

So if you ever come to my house, perhaps chewing minty gum, do beware that if you choose to rest your eyes, someone might sneak up to investigate the source of minty gum smell with their nose!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, so here are a bunch of photos to make up for it:

Potty training a unicorn . . .

Daddy has way too much fun with this new pacifier!

Still sleepy . . . with bedtime horsey and blanket, of course . . .

Beautiful smiley girl!Isn't that better with no Billy-Bob paci?Isabelle looking lovely and growing so fast! I had no idea five year olds could read Narnia books to me!

Hannah thinking very hard . . .

Hannah, being goofy of course . . .

More goofy Penny!

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