Dreamy B&W

It's been a while since I've linked up to the L.E.N.S. photo challenge, so here goes. The challenge is Dreamy Black and White. I have gazillions of photos in b&w, it's my favorite look, which is why I wanted to jump back in to the challenge, but I honestly didn't have any certain picture in mind. I browsed my albums and decided to reminisce on The Boy. He just turned 10 months a few days ago and the time has absolutely flown! It'll be his first b-day before I know it! AHH! So here a few of my favorites from his very first photo shoot at home. He was 8 days old.

I'm a Lazy Bum!

You see this adorable, Minnie Mouse themed, Happy Birthday banner? I made that! Yup, complete with Disney font and Minnie Mouse heads. Isn't it cute? I thought so, too... for a while. Funny Bones' 2nd birthday was back in November, 6 1/2 months ago, and I took this banner down from our kitchen wall yesterday. YESTERDAY! After a while I just didn't notice it anymore. I seriously didn't notice it, it just became one with the wall. In the last 6 1/2 months the thought of taking it down crossed my mind maybe 4 times.

I'm a lazy bum.

But it's finally down!

And has been replaced with this one I made for the big girls slumber party tomorrow!

If it weren't for the Boy's 1st b-day coming up in August, this banner would probably last just as long as the other one. But soon it will have to make way for a more macho banner (I'm really looking forward to giving the boy thing a try, it'll be a first for me)!

I do so solemnly swear to try harder at getting these things down in a timely manner and to not be a lazy bum.



Madame Prissy Pants

Two days ago my oldest child turned 7 years old. SEVEN! I've been a mom for 7 years! It just seems impossible to me that we've come this far. If I'm this blown away about 7 years, I can't imagine how I'll feel when we hit double digits! The years that have gone are what stun me, the actual age doesn't, if that makes any sense. From the moment she was born she has been beyond her years (or, er, moments). As a baby she always seemed like an old soul. Content, quiet, observing the world without much expression at all. She was, well, bored. At least when we watched her watch us, she seemed bored. Our futile attempts at making her smile and laugh were met with an "are you serious?" look from our small baby girl. It wasn't that she was an unhappy baby, she rarely fussed at all, she was just serious... or mature as we liked to say.
Today she is a fun-loving girl, passionate and COMpassionate. Still, she has hung on tight to that old soul over the years. She's always had a deeper understanding and awareness of situations and surroundings than what her age would normally produce. She wants to know and learn things that sometimes I'm not sure I'm ready for her to know! I let God guide me in what I explain to her and what I tell her is for talking about in the future. If we discuss the topic further, whether it be about God, an event in the Bible, death, or girl/boy matters, she listens intently (you can really see those gears turning up there) and once I've explained everything I can (or am willing to) she's happy and ready to move on to the next subject. If I tell her the topic is something we need to save for when she's older, she's always said "OK" and moved on without any complaints. She's always been so easy to converse with, and I hope it stays that way!
She is an incredible big sister. She's always so willing to help and often "helps" without my permission! She will make one terrific mommy some day! I am honestly a better mommy to the 3 younger ones having PP here with me. She's taught me so much about being a mom. What is important and what isn't. I just wish she didn't have to be the "guinea pig" for us at each new stage. But God has made her a strong and loving girl, and she is quick to forgive us when we've messed up. She's a babysitter and an entertainer when I need her to be. She's a maid, a paperweight, a closet rod, a fetcher of items, a cook, a teacher, and many other things when I need her help, and she's always so happy to help out. Unless it's a chore of course!
I've found in the last few months she's getting to the age we can really connect on a new level. We can share interests (she wants a sewing machine!) and find things in common. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm looking forward to her getting older! I'm looking forward to this new phase in her life!
Thank you Lord for my amazing oldest daughter! He knew exactly what He was doing when He put us together!

Green Day

So it's been ages since my last post, our whole family was struck with some sort of sickness for about 6 weeks, one right after another, strange coughs, the flu, allergic reactions to who knows what, then the boy decided to do a number on my tata's, I won't go into detail but recovery is slow and painful! Ugh! There are times where holistic, all natural ways of healing are best (which is how we handled our colds and flu's) and then there are times where nature can just move over and make way for the drugs! Thank God for great Dr.'s and Pediatricians! Needless to say, the past few months have been solely about day to day survival. No fun.
I decided to make St. Patrick's Day our motivation for returning to the land of the living. I planned some fun themed things to do throughout the day (broken up by a trip to the Dr) and the day ended well and everyone was even willing to do chores this morning! What a reward for me!

We started the day by having Green Monster smoothies for breakfast, I found the recipe here. Z and FB love all smoothies, PP won't drink them so I just put a drop of food coloring in her milk to make it green and she was just as happy.

Then we all got dressed in something green, obviously. How beautiful are these guys?!?! And you know I can't post just one!

Next we all got comfortable in front of the computer and watched the Veggie Tales short story about St. Patrick. We actually own the episode that's on VHS but have no working VCR's. Go figure. This is where we watched the story, you can also find it on YouTube here. I'm pretty sure by the time the day was over it had been watched a good 8 times.


After that we had a rainbow scavenger hunt. I let the girls use the little point and shoot digital camera and find something of that color in the house to take a picture of. They took turns finding and photographing the items nicely! Until I left the room. We actually skipped indigo, it was tricky, we just stuck to the easier colors. Here's what they found.


Little Red Riding Hood cape

Orange (extremely loved) fairy wings

Yellow clock

Green pieces to the stacking toy



Blue tissue box



Purple crayon bucket

  

 At the end we took a picture of our bowling pins that make a perfect rainbow!

Lunch Time! We ate spinach quesadillas and guacamole. You can't be a part of this family and not love guacamole. It really deserves to be its own food group! One of the best parts is the baby being able to eat it with us!

This is where our day was interrupted by a trip to mommy's Dr. At least the girls were able to go enjoy the park with their Grammy until I was done. We stopped at the store on the way home for some yummy stuff to make the greatest. cookies. ever! Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies! If you know me at all you know that I'm a sucker for mint. Thin Mints, Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream, Mint Oreos, York Peppermint Patty's, Blue Bell even makes mint choc chip ice cream, covered in chocolate, on a stick now! THIS is the way to my heart! So back to the cookies, YUM! They will now forever be in our rotation of goodies! This was the part of the day I looked forward to most! I found the recipe here.

We wrapped up the day with a green bubble bath. This is the part of the day the girls looked forward to most! I was a little worried about Z's hair turning green if, scratch that... WHEN she got it wet, but all is well, it's still blonde! They splashed around and squealed until the water got cold, then we bathed in clear water, got PJ's on, prayed, did our girl devotional, and everyone fell asleep pretty quickly! Nothing like putting your kids to bed happy!

I hope your green day was a great one!



LENS Photo Challenge - RED

The LENS photo challenge this time is RED. This picture came to mind pretty quickly. It was taken a few years ago by one of my girls. The Man and I got new phones and gave our old ones to the girls to play with, they immediately went to work taking pictures of everything around them. I LOVED seeing the world through their eyes, and seeing what things they considered important enough to photograph. The pictures ranged anywhere from self portraits, to My Little Pony toys, to items at the store they wanted to buy! This particular picture was taken during a trip to Target, from inside the basket.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures taken by the girls...





L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge- Physical Education

This post is for a Photo Challenge, but it's also a great topic for homeschooling families. Making sure the kids stay moving is important! We have our share of running around the house, and our share of backyard fun, and if the girls aren't dancing from room to room then something is terribly wrong. But in addition to our at home "P.E.", we also like to put the kids in different sports. Our goal is to help them find the one they like best (if any) and stick with it! They did gymnastics last spring, T-ball in the fall, and will do soccer this spring. Out of all the great shots of them participating, I still think my favorite is of PP not participating in T-ball. In her defense, it can get pretty boring in outfield, especially in T-ball! This pose she has here screams "Prissy Pants", and she doesn't think the title fits her!

Here are some other T-ball pics. Their absolute favorite was hitting the ball and running. Z would be happy running all day. That's why I think they'll enjoy soccer! I'm so excited to start next month!







It was impossible to get good pictures of the girls in gymnastics because of the gym lighting, I tried and tried for weeks, and since parents had to stay in the bleachers I just couldn't get any good shots. Sadness. Here are the girls getting their medals at the end of the semester!

I can't wait until FB is old enough to join in, she hates having to sit on the side with me and watch the big girls have all the fun!

So what do you homeschoolers do for "P.E."? Head over to Home is Where You Start From and see what others are doing!



Death by Chocolate and a Half Birthday

If we had a choice in the way we left this world behind, mine would definitely be death by chocolate - if there were such a thing. Yesterday evening the girls helped me make the greatest chocolate cupcakes in the history of cupcakes (at least at our house). We added chocolate pudding to the mix to make them extra moist, sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top, then iced them in chocolate icing! Mmmmmm! You can't see the chocolate chips in the picture, but they are most definitely there! When Intelligent Man took his first bite I think he choked on the richness. He said it was chocolate overload. PULEEEEASE! Men just can't hang when it comes to chocolate.

A bit before that, while icing them, The Man walked up behind me and asked what the occasion was. "Ummmm..." I replied. I was quickly scanning my brain for an appropriate answer, I never stopped to think that I needed a reason for indulging myself, but to justify the baking I searched for an answer. I blurted out, "It's the boy's half birthday tomorrow!" and then smiled. And it's ok that he can't enjoy the sweets, because this celebration is actually mine! I'm the one who (completely naturally) hiked a 10 1/2 lb mass of chunky little boy from my gut, so I deserve all the celebration I can handle! I'll have my cupcake and eat it too! I may even inhale one while no one is looking so I can eat another one later, without getting the "Are you seriously having another one?" look, piercing my face. Mwahahaha! So all you health nuts go ahead and scoff - meanwhile I'll be sitting on a cloud in sweet tooth heaven! Mmm, chocolate bliss!

Oh, yes, and happy HALF birthday to my son! I can't believe it's already that time, the girls first 6 months didn't go by nearly this quickly! Here's a yummy treat for you - feast your eyes on this hunk of a beautiful male, all 19lbs 10.5oz of him!