Second star to the right . . . .

Carra Grace has always loved to color, but just recently her love has taken on a new form - drawing. She is getting as bad as Brice in the fact that I find paper all over the house with drawings all over them. I may be prejudice, but I think she does a great job. Of course, I have absolutely NO drawing ability (even my stick people are a joke!), so I admire a 5 year old who can draw better than her mother (even though it isn't asking a whole lot). Color and detail are very important to her. Sometimes too important.

Last night I found this picture laying on the table and it made me smile. I'm sure you can tell the theme . . .



I would love to know what else she sees and can draw!

Milestones

This has been a week of milestones for the kids. It is weeks like this where I keep thinking, "When did they grow up?" and then I feel this desperateness that time is slipping through my fingers and I have so much still to teach them! Those of you with grown children - does that ever go away?

Mikayla and I did some "girl" shopping this week. Of course, shopping like that leads to related conversations. I am trying to recall when I had these conversations and I am fairly confident that it wasn't when I was 11 years old! The conversations are good and her response is encouraging. She still doesn't believe me when I tell her she WILL care someday what a boy thinks about her. Today I will treasure her innocence and naivete.


Carra Grace read her first "book" today. It didn't seem strange to me when she turned 5, but the thought that she turns 6 next makes my head spin. She pulled out the book "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and declared that this was the book she was going to read first. I admired her positive attitude, but thought maybe we should start a bit smaller. Since we have been doing some phonics together, I gave her a BOB book that had a whopping 4 words in it and told her I would give her a dollar if she conquered that one first. She sat right down and suffered her way through that book. I gave her the dollar, but we will be reviewing the book again. I was so proud of her endurance - not that it should have surprised me. If she puts her mind to it, she will do it! Of course, money helps.

We were fixing lunch today when we heard the toilet flush and the lid drop in the bathroom. I looked up to find Owen tearing out of the bathroom declaring that he had done stinky all by himself in the bathroom! Success has never smelled so sweet . . . okay, it actually stunk - but we did celebrate! If nothing else exciting happens this year, I think I will still consider the year a success! To be diaper free in 2008 . . . what a dream! Now if I could just make it rhyme . . .

Brice hasn't hit any major milestones this week. Right now we will just be glad when he actually learns his colors. Of course, it is only Wednesday.

The color . . . indigo???

We were reviewing the 7 colors of the light spectrum (i.e. the colors of a rainbow) in science class today. I asked the kids to tell me what the seven colors are in the order they appear in the spectrum. We use the acrostic Roy G. Biv to help us remember the order.

R - Red
O - Orange
Y - Yellow
G - Green
B - Blue
I - Indigo
V - Violet

I would give them the letter and they would yell out the color.

When we got to the letter "I", Brice got a little stumped - after all indigo is not a common color. He thought for a second then got very excited as the answer came to him.

"Oh, I know, "I" is for . . . ignorant!

He has no idea how right he was!

The real kids

I was uploading my pictures off my camera and found some real treasures.

Here is a peek into what our children REALLY look like on a normal day. The children you see on Sundays and out in public are not reality. There are many more pictures I should have taken but for some reason never did. You'll, of course, notice who seems to have the biggest imagination in the house.

I'm not quite sure what she is intending with this get-up but the face kind of freaks me out.

A beaver, of course, with a little left over lunch.

It's official.
Owen has crossed over to the dark side (which explains a lot).
He calls himself Dark Mater.

Here's what you get when you cross a swimming suit, a snow hat, and Sunday dress.

Just for fun!

I came across a fact or fiction quiz recently but I can't find it online to share it with you. Instead I found this one from the show MythBusters (which I have never watched due to the lack of cable or satellite tv - but I have heard about it.) I have no idea how reliable the information is, but it makes me curious if nothing else.

I took the Bug quiz - and failed miserably. Apparently I am rather gullible and believe most of what I hear.

You have lots of quizzes to pick from - have fun!

Kid quips

The kids amused us with some interesting insights these past few weeks:

1. Owen was introduced to his Great Grandma over Christmas.

When his cousin walked into the room, Owen felt it was his responsibility to introduce him to her.

"Hudson, do you know who that is? That is Big Grandma."



2. Carra and Brice don't always see eye to eye and can waste a large amount of energy squabbling.

After one such frustrating banter with her brother, I was helping her put on her boots and she seemed lost in thought. After a few moments she asked, "Mom, where did we get Brice? Did he lose his family or something and we took him in?"

Somehow it must explain things and bring her comfort to hope that maybe he is from somewhere else . . .




3. In light of our whole potty training ordeal, I passed through the room and smelled a foul odor.

Assuming the worst, I asked Owen, "Are you stinky, Owen?"

He stopped playing and seemed a bit frustrated at my accusation when he replied, "No, I not stinky, Mom. Everybody has butts, you know. It's not me!"

He was right. It wasn't him. It was the donkey. (I'll explain later . . . )

4. I was sharing the exciting news with our kids that good friends of ours were pregnant with their ninth child. The kids were excited and without missing a beat Mikayla turns to me (Tina) and says, "Mom, you could never do that. You couldn't handle nine kids could you?"

Hmmmm. Apparently, it shows a bit too much some days . . . .