Board Breaks

Maggie and Matthew earned their yellow belts tonight.  Here they are breaking some boards.

 

Merry Christmas!

This year was a busy year (apparently too busy for writing blog posts).  Our family did lots of things that I wanted to blog about, but I never got around to posting.  To make up for the lack of updates, I thought I'd write the highlights of our year here.

We started our year in Tucson, where we had been visiting my dad for the holidays.  While we were there, our kids got to see snow for the first time.  We went up into the mountains so they could play in the snow a little. Their impression of the snow? It was cold.  Even bundled up as they were, they were ready to come in and warm up after 20 minutes.

 

 

In March, we drove up to South Carolina for a Homeschool Convention.  Grandma and Grandpa graciously agreed to babysit for two days so that we could attend various lectures and workshops.  There was also a huge vendor hall where I spent lots of time looking at (and buying) new curricula. While I was shopping, Kevin was also able to squeeze in some time for doing homework. It was a lot of fun.

At the end of June, we made another trip to South Carolina.  Kevin took the scouts from our ward up to the Appalachian trail for a hike and a day of whitewater rafting, and I spent the week at Grandma's house with the kids.  The day after we got back from South Carolina was Sunday, and Kevin was set apart as the Bishop of the ward.  (We still get to see him sometimes.)

 

In September, we got to make another trip out to Tucson--this time for my dad's wedding.  We all adore his new wife, and it was a beautiful wedding.

And finally, we took one more trip up to South Carolina--this time for the wedding of Kevin's brother.  The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins while the adults were busy with wedding preparations. Even Katy still talks about the little 2-year-old cousin that she played with all week.

So the end of this year finds us all well, if a little bit worn out.

 Maggie is now ten years old, and in 5th grade.  She spends her spare time reading and making up elaborate games to play with her brothers.  She loves to play with words, and she can often be heard making up puns or filling in Mad Libs stories. She is still playing piano and taking dance classes.  She also started Tae Kwon Do this summer, along with her brothers. She and Matthew will both test for their yellow belts next week.

 Matthew is the jokester in our family. He always has a trick up his sleeve.  He loves to employ his talents in entertaining his baby sister, and he's always happy to take her for a piggy back ride, read a book to her, or play a game of hide-and-seek.  He turned eight this fall, which is a big deal for the kids in our church.  He was able to be baptized by his dad (and Grandma and Grandpa made a quick visit for that weekend). He also got to start attending Cub Scouts, which he loves. He's also going to Tae Kwo Do, and taking piano lessons (which he maybe doesn't love quite as much).

Andrew is our happy little morning lark. He cheerfully wakes up each morning to bounce off the walls and generally annoy all the non-morning people in the family (that is, everyone else). He is now six years old, in first grade, and he has learned to read this year. He has been racing through all the easy readers on our bookshelf. He is also participating in the Little Dragons class at Tae Kwon Do, and it's so much fun to watch him kick and jump with a big old grin on his face.

Katy is...well Katy is now two years old. I think that says it all.  She's currently hitting me over the head with a book, trying to turn off the computer, and making half a dozen other demands of me. But it's also a joy to watch her learn new things.  She sits through four to six Tae Kwon Do classes a week, so she's picked up on all the warm-up moves, and even counts to ten in Korean with the other kids. Her favorite activities are being read to and playing dress-up with her princess dresses.


Kevin is keeping very busy with his church responsibilities. He enjoys being Bishop and working closely with the ward members, but being a Bishop is like having a second part-time job.  December has been particularly grueling as he meets with each family in our ward (congregation). He took this Fall semester off from classes (he was working on a PhD in Optics at UCF), and it looks doubtful if he will take classes this spring as well.  There just isn't time for him to do it all. We are all looking forward to having him home for this week between Christmas and New Year's.

I spend my time homeschooling the older kids, researching curriculum and educational philosophies, shuttling children to their activities, and wrestling toddlers. Occasionally I take the time to read a good book or to take the kids to a park day so that I can talk to other moms. I am using my Christmas week to lounge around reading books and maybe I will make a trip to Ikea for some more bookshelves.

Merry Christmas!

Lost in Translation

Today, we went to the Annual Christmas Party for Kevin's employer. It is really a big collection of activities for kids. The kids' favorite activities are pony riding and rock climbing. On our way out, the kids also get to pick out a gift to take home. For the most part these are cheap toys from China. My favorite part of the day is when we get home and start reading the captions on the boxes of those cheap Chinese toys. It's obvious that someone who's never spoken English was handed a Chinese-English dictionary and set loose.

Today's hands-down winner in the toy-caption department was Katy's "Chickling Magnetic Board". It's a magnetic doodle pad in the shape of a chicken, with a magnetic pen and a few magnetic shapes. Here are my favorite captions of the day (there were so many that made me laugh out loud, but I'll try to limit myself):

• Baby enlightening expert, draw you a colorful life.
• Lovely chickling helps babies to understand things around.
  
• Magnetic painting brush can draw casually on the board;
• 4 shape chops, it can print out the love shape, star shape, round shape, triangle shape, etc;
• The Cock's hand is actually a magic eraser, you can wipe the board easily and you can draw the picture again. It can be recycledly used.

• Do not use in hot place for a long time to prevent deformation.
• Do not use other pens except the magnetic brush, otherwise the paint couldn't be clean up.
• Products can only be used by child under the guardianship of the adult.
  

And finally, the best caption on the toy truck that Andrew picked out (which was falling apart before we even finished unwrapping it):

• To rank first among similar products owning it is you best choice......

I can't wait to see what we get next year....

Bedtime

Fun at Home Depot

Tonight we went shopping for some new Christmas decorations since the tree we had was falling apart and barely made it through last Christmas. The older kids were busy at a movie night and pillow fight at their Tae Kwon Do school so it was just Katy and Mom and Dad. At Home Depot, Katy discovered that she could crawl under the shelves and explore a whole new parallel universe.

Later that night she started missing her brothers and sister. She said, "Mommy, I want my kids back!"

Fun with Model Magic

We got a package of Crayola Model Magic from the UPS guy last week (he's one of our favorite people these days). The kids couldn't wait to try it out. It's kind of like modeling clay, but with a lighter, drier texture.

Everyone gathered around the table to make their own creations. Maggie pulled out a craft book that included some ideas for making barnyard animals. Here is a chicken and a sheep that she made.


Katy pulled her clay into little tiny pieces, until I showed her how to roll it into a snake. After that she kept repeating, "Can you make a snake for me??"

Finally Matthew seemed to take pity on her and he said, "I'll make a snake. . . and it eats. . . CHICKENS!!"
That earned him a horrified, "NOOO!" from Maggie, as she rushed to protect her chickens.


Here's his big-mouthed snake eating a bird:


Andrew just sat on the table and made...I'm not sure what. But he had a lot of fun making them.

Bedtime Stories

Apparently read-aloud time ran a bit long last night.

But maybe I should do this more often. Katy stayed asleep and only woke up once during the night.

Swimming

The kids have been enjoying having our pool set up again this summer. I love that it is shallow enough for Katy to stand up in, so that I can supervise swimming from a (somewhat) dry vantage point.

On Funerals...

I attended another funeral yesterday morning. I feel like been to a a lot of those over the last few years. Part of that stemmed from the fact that I was the Relief Society President of our ward for a couple of years. One of my responsibilities was to help out with the funerals for members of our church. I hope I was able to be of some help and comfort to those families who lost loved ones.

A year and a half ago, I participated in the funeral of my son's best friend Sarah. She was 4 years old. I didn't post about it at the time because it was just too...personal. I'm still not quite up to posting about it.

Yesterday the funeral was another little girl--the 6-year-old daughter of a family that I did not know very well. She was born within months of Andrew and Sarah. I'm glad that I went to the funeral. It was good...in a heartbreakingly sad sort of way.

But...I'd rather not have the opportunity to attend any more funerals for little girls. Or little boys for that matter. Can we make a rule? From now on, only people who have lived a good, long life are allowed to die. Let's say 80. Or maybe 90...


ETA: If you are interested, here is a link to the story about the family who lost their daughter earlier this month. They have a long road ahead of them, and there are some links to the left side of the story with information on how to help them.

Our Budding Photographer

Matthew got a hold of the camera again. I think it's fun to see the kinds of subjects that he chooses to photograph...



This one wasn't taken by Matthew, but it's too cute not to include (I may be slightly biased).

Katy and the Guinea Pig

We are currently pet-sitting a guinea pig for some friends who are on vacation. Katy has really taken to this little creature. Several times a day, she runs in to see me and announces, "I patting geee-pig!"

And this is what I find--


All by herself, she totally dismantles the cage, then removes all the guinea pig's hiding places so she can "pat" him. She insists that she "be soft" when she's petting him. But I'm not sure toddlers really are capable of gentleness. Poor creature. Hopefully it will survive its owners' vacation...

Geocaching

Have you ever been geocaching? It's a favorite weekend activity with Daddy in these parts. All you need is a GPS loaded with geocache coordinates from www.geocaching.com, a bottle of water, and maybe some toys to refill the caches that you find. The GPS will take you within a few feet of your chosen cache, then you have to hunt around until you find it. Some caches just have a log for you to sign your name. Some have inexpensive toys that you can take home (but only if you refill the box with your own toys--this is a great way to trade out Happy Meal toys).

Several weeks ago Kevin took the kids out to hunt for geocaches. One of the caches was forty feet inside a drainage tunnel. They initially found their coordinates in the middle of an empty field. Kevin had seen a clue for the cache indicating that it would be underground, so they knew to hunt around for the nearest underground tunnel.


Inside the tunnel--do you see the little speck of light where the entrance was?


Sometimes you have to cover some rough terrain:

Checking out the goods:


They found a bird's nest while they were looking for one of their caches:


Sometimes you can't find the cache, but maybe you can talk Daddy into taking you bowling instead:

Hiking, Part 2

The local hikes that Kevin took his Boy Scout Troop on were in preparation for their High Adventure trip to the Appalachians. They spent 4 days backpacking and a day white water rafting in North Carolina.

The kids and I drove up to Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Carolina and hung out with the Boy Scouts for the weekend before they headed up into the mountains for their hike. It was lots of fun for everyone.

The mountains themselves are so beautiful. We all wish we could live in Western North Carolina.



Of course someone has to go around catching reptiles to play with.


Hey, I think I recognize this guy...


It seems like they spent a lot of time laying around,


and catching...things.


But here's a few more pictures of scenery: