This is a picture of a perfect school moment. I was in the middle of it and realized that all were busily doing what they were supposed to and so I wanted to document the moment. Because “a moment” is a good description. I was playing a sight word game with Lance and Ivy, the two younger girls were working on scissor skills and Iris was exploring her connecting blocks. It was a good moment and it’s going in my thankfulness journal!
Here’s a few fun things we have experienced recently!
Big Event – about 15 college students came and helped us move dirt, clear garden space and split wood. The kids kept them well entertained at lunch and the big guy on the left was Eden’s special buddy the whole time.
Livestock show: Cousin Connor was showing his meat chickens so we went to watch and experience the atmosphere.
We observed the cows
Said hi to the pigs and watched them get a bath…
And played in the sheep and goat scale. You can squeeze 6 kids in at once!
On Easter, we went to my parents church and enjoyed some beautiful music. Then everyone went out to watch a helicopter drop Easter eggs.
Here they come!
The actual hunt was a mob scene but that didn’t seem to bother the kids. The fact that they got to wear their most beautiful dresses that morning was an added bonus to the day. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch with my parents.
AWANA drive in movie night. Were given a cardboard box and told to create a car. Lance wanted a fast car with fire, found a picture online and we copied it. Ivy had a host of ideas and things changed as we went along until we ended with a sort of camper. Her car was awarded the title “prettiest orange car” while Lance got “coolest hot rod” – which in my thoughts is sort of an oxymoron.
New grass planting requires watering – a perfect spot for fun on a warm afternoon.
April showers bring…..muddy children! These two have some incredible leg muscles; they played in the squat position for over half an hour! Mom and Dad read a book while watching from the garage.
And this is what the big kids enjoyed during that time. This came after a walk where we saw the neighbors enjoying water on a trampoline and that made everyone “so hot” that we had to do the same!
Well, here we are, enjoying spring time and the flowers that come with the season. The morning was overcast so I thought we would gather ourselves together and take a few pictures.
Well, apparently it takes awhile to gather ourselves and it was sunny by the time we arrived at a bluebonnet patch. The kids were good troopers though and managed to pose a decent shot.
Iris
Eden
Flora – my little flower.
We then went shopping and were headed home when I passed another spot with better flowers and by that time the sky was party cloudy so I decided to try again.
Ivy
Lance
It was lunchtime and we had after shopping attitudes, but bribed with marshmallows, and coached by Aunt Katie we managed another few group shots.
Waiting in the shade for a cloud to cover the sun.
Cuties
My little clan.
So there you have it folks, yearly tradition checked off the list!
When a birthday rolls around in Brian’s family someone often creates a treasure hunt in order for them to find their presents. Brian had a special present for Lance, so the evening after his party, Brian sat down and made some picture clues to hide around the house.
They were everywhere – even in the attic!
The treasure was found in the crawlspace under our house!
The treasure was a leatherman type tool with “more things than you can imagine” according to Lance.
Brian gave a little class on proper knife use and etiquette while Iris sampled the wood shavings.
3 days later Brian was back to the drawing board, creating a hunt for Eden’s birthday! Here he helps the girls decipher a drawing. We realized that a ‘bird’s eye view’ drawing of an item is somewhat puzzling to a child under 3 ft.
Everyone gets in on the action – even Iris! Picking up on the excitement, she would happily run after everyone and manage to catch up right as they dashed off to the next clue.
Presents were found, though out of their hiding place and partially unwrapped. All denied having done the deed so Iris was made the scapegoat and pardoned on account of not knowing any better. Eden finished unwrapping and delighted in finding a maze book and a craft kit.
Fun times with fun kids!
Our oldest turned 7 today! He is full of imagination and boyhood; he loves weapons and dress up. His current hero is Robin Hood.
Today we all became the merry men of the forest…or maybe the merry women and their fearless leader.
We invited a few others to join our band and the festivities commenced!
First came archery practice – shooting arrows through the hoops.
I made bows out of pvc pipe and string. The arrows were dowel rods tipped with pointed erasers. Simple and very effective
The girls opted for a game of bean bag toss. I don’t think the boys even bothered with this game, they were too busy shooting.
Next, Little John (a.k.a. Aunt Katie) led the band through the forest. This gave Friar Tuck (a.k.a. me) time to prepare the woodland feast.
Bread and cheese, fruit and chicken nuggets were set out for the crowd.
We all dined happily among the green trees (on our back porch).
Lance had a target cake with an impromptu arrow made from a tootsie roll and starburst candy.
After cake was presents! I had fun wrapping this one. It says: To Lance, my mighty arrow. May you be swift to obey the Lord and always keep a straight and true course, May you always hit the mark and be useful in the Lord’s service.
Last activity was a treasure hunt. We had made two sets of clues – indoor and outdoor – due to rain in the forecast, so we split up the boys and girls and ran both sets. We had the boys running back and forth all over the place! Treasure was found and fun was had by all.
