Handicrafts

Pocahontas received a latch hook kit for Christmas in 2007. She worked on it a couple of time over the past year and half. She had less than a quarter of it finished. This week she determined to finish it. Spending most on her free time working on it, she finished it in 3 days!



Here is the finished product. It turned out great!

Splish, Splash

We went to a local "spray park". It was so refreshing for the children to get wet on such a hot day. We met a friend whose son loves to play with our children. He is so fun to watch. He was adopted from Russia a couple of years ago and has made WONDERFUL progess in his social and langauage skills. It is amazing!

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

My "oldest" friend and her mother came to visit on a trip from the east coast. They were here to visit her brother who lives in the area, but came one day for lunch and the free entertainment. Ha! Thomas Edison put on a magic show, and Pocahontas played the lap harp. For the grand finale, Davy Crockett and Leif Erickson put on a puppet show.

We have been friends since the summer before we started Kindergarten. We try to keep in touch at least once a year. I had not seen her since 1996 when my father passed away. It was great catching up on each other's lives.

Rain and More Rain

We have had so much rain!

Here are some photos that Thomas Edison took with my camera.

Cabin in the Woods

Yesterday, my Dh headed up to the mountains at about 5:30 am to replace the roof on the extended family's cabin.

The rest of us followed up a little later in the day. It was a fun time, despite a couple of thunderstorms that forced everyone inside either a leaky cabin or the "bunkhouse."

Davy Crockett found this old hat that his great-aunt said was at the cabin when her parents first bought it. He wore it all day long!

The children had a wonderful time playing with their cousins. The 2 year old LOVED this huge mud puddle.

Life is full of Bumps and Bruises

This has been a bumpy summer so far.

Leif Erickson had his top two front teeth bumped loose on a dining room chair two weeks ago, but the dentist is hopeful that they will be fine. Thankfully, they are baby teeth. He bumped them again a couple of days after the initial fall, but they seem to be doing well now.

He had a stomach virus this week for two full days this week and was ravenously hungry the day afterward.

Today, Davy Crockett fell off his bike and hit his head on the cement. Thank God for helmets! He hit hard enough that it knocked the visor off the front of his helmet, and he has quite a goose egg on his forehead! He doesn't want a picture of his head posted on the blog, for some reason. :- )

"Crocodile Dock"

All 4 children have had a great time at Kidz Day Camp at a neighborhood church this week. The theme was "Crocodile Dock" which was a Louisiana Bayou theme. It is the fourth summer that we have participated in this day camp, and it was great fun. There were 737 kids who participated! They had over 200 teachers/helpers.

Thomas Edison was a helper in the preschool classes and he had a great time. He was responsible for checking the preschoolers in each day and making sure the parents got their claim tags for their children. He aslo had a small group of preschoolers that he led through the day's activities. The other three had a fun time as campers themselves.

It has rained almost every day this month, so they spent some of their days playing games inside. We are thankful to have the grass watered for free though, despite the sporadic times that we can play outside.

Blessings and Birds

We had quite a commotion in our cul-de-sac yesterday. Pocahontas and Davy Crockett called me over to see a small yellow bird sitting in the middle of the cul-de-sac. It wasn't moving and looked injured. It let us come right up next to it and did not move. We thought it seemed strange for a bird to do this. We decided to pick it up out of the street so it would not get run over. The neighbor boy, R, ran to get his mom so she could see the bird.

As we were standing there, the corner neighbor came home. I stood my ground by the bird and the neighbor drove around me. He got out of his car and came over to see what all the excitement was about. Meanwhile, R's mother came to out to see the bird. As we tried to scoop the bird up with a piece of cardboard, it flew about 3 feet ahead of us. As we followed it, trying to capture it, we realized it did not seem to have a "bad" wing. The neighbor commented that it, perhaps, was a pet bird - not a wild bird- whose winged were clipped. This would explain it only being able to fly short distances and not very high off the ground. Everyone concluded that this seemed to be the most reasonable conclusion.

We ended the evening by taking the bird into our house, placing it in a guinea pig screened cage over a cardboard box on the coffee table. The sweet little bird began to chirp when Pocahontas would talk to it.

We put up "Found" signs on two mailboxes and then called the vet to get an idea of what to feed it. We gave it water and millet and it began to eat hungrily. It semed perfectly contented in the house and used to normal household noises.

Looking it up on the internet, it looked most like a wild canary, which is a common pet bird.

It was safely delivered to the humane society this morning, where they confirmed it was definitely NOT a wild bird. The main traits being: very calm bird, overweight, and long claws.

The children all wanted to keep the cute little bird, but their mother had to deny this request!

Soon after we brought the bird inside, there was a downpour! We have been greatly blessed with rain almost daily for the past several days. Then the sun came out and we found this beautiful double rainbow in the sky.

Awana Awards Ceremony

Last night was the final night of Awana for this school year. The church always has a special awards ceremony to celebrate the hard work the clubbers have put into completing their Awana handbooks.

Thomas Edison worked very hard this year! He had to catch up because, last year, he did not finish his handbook. He had about half of the book left to finish. He completed that; then went on to the current year's book. He finished that early, so he was given extra Scripture to learn. He memorized the entire chapters of Proverbs 16, 26, 27, and 28. He has an amazing memory!


Here he is with his "Excellence Award" for completing the first 2 books for the T & T (Truth & Training) Club.

Then another photo with his Third Book Award.

He tied for first place for "Clubber of the Year" for the 5th and 6th grade boys.


Pocahontas earned her "First Book Award" ribbon for T & T. She was awarded second place "Clubber of the Year" for 3rd and 4th grade girls. She finished her book early as well and memorized the same chapters in Proverbs.

Leif Erickson finished out his time in Cubbies with his Second Book Award and he will move on the the Sparks Club next year.

Davy Crockett worked very hard on his second book in Sparks, but did not quite finish it. He had a great time in his second year in Sparks and had wonderful leaders who enjoyed having him in their group. Can't find his picture on my vast amount of photos on my memory card, but will add it when I find it!

Awana Grand Prix

Tonight was the Awana Grand Prix. It was a great challenge.

The three oldest participated, but little "Leif" will have to wait until next year when he is in Kindergarten.


Davy Crockett made a Mini-Cooper.


Pocahontas made a sporty car of her own designing. Her car made it to the final three cars, but was then defeated.



Thomas Edison won first place for design. He was very excited. He worked very hard at the clinic that our Awana has for the clubbers to make their cars.

On to the "Happy Pepper Patch"

Pocahontas experienced a great loss when her guinea pig died last night. He lived for 5 years, which the vet said is good for a guinea pig. It was sudden and unexpected. Pocahontas was crushed and her brothers were very sad too.

I was so glad we had taken time to take these pictures at Christmas time so we can remember sweet "Toffee".



He was such a sweet and beautiful guinea pig. His coloring was unique. We have not seen any other guinea pigs with this coloring and long hair.


He will be greatly missed, but Pocahontas is looking forward to loving another guinea pig in the near future.



We recently read in By the Shores Of Silver Lake about Jack going to the "Happy Hunting Ground", so Thomas Edison wondered if Toffee went to the "Happy Pepper Patch" as red peppers were his favorite treat.

Crazy Hats

Tonight was Crazy Hat Night at our Awana Club.

Thomas Edison used his electrical ingenuity to make his hat.

Pocahontas worked very hard to do all the paper mache on her hat.

Davy Crockett and Leif Erickson had more traditional "crazy" hats.

Christ the Lord is Risen today! Alleluia!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. We started the day with our family traditional Easter egg hunt. Then we headed off to church. We drove out of town to our friends' church to celebrate the baptism of their newest baby. He is such a sweet blessing.

After church, we headed off to Dh's aunt's house for her annual Easter potluck dinner. It was a good time with cousins and friends. The children had a fun time playing with bendaroos after eating their fill.

Easter Egg Fun

We had a great time dyeing eggs. Thomas Edison came up with a new technique and the eggs looked great.

Leif Erickson did not remember last Easter, so this was a whole new activity for him.

He loved it!

The trick: Loosely wrap masking tape around the egg before dying.

Tie-dyed eggs are the results.

Davy Crockett Turns 7

Today was Davy Crockett's 7th birthday. It is hard to belive that he is 7 years old. He had a fun morning playing with his new Lego kits.

It was a beautiful spring day and the first day of Soccer for Fun. Davy Crockett enjoyed his turn as goalie.

Welcome to My Blog!

I have been contemplating starting a blog for a long time. Today I am beginning a blog about our family's adventures and ordinary days. I am hoping it will be a good way to keep our memoirs and allow our friends and family to keep up with the happenings of our life.