kids; fun

Sweet Six

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Jack Attack turned six last weekend.

We had a relaxed family day at Grandma Weldon’s.  While the rain poured outside, we enjoyed chocolate cupcakes and a warm fire.

A new game of Perfection made us laugh, with its power to startle every single time it exploded.

Betty loves to give kisses, and who is better to love than Daddy?

So now we have a six-year-old in the house.  Even though he’s still patiently waiting for his first tooth to fall out, he’s growing up.  He’s my own personal body guard and he’s my sweet little boy.    I do hope he always dreams big, like his walls that are covered in taped up wishes and dreams.  Pages of lego magazines and cars and toys.  Drawings he has made.  Cockeyed static stickers.  He has so many dreams of being a man.  One day he will be just that, and I pray that his heart will always be tender towards others.  I know that one day he won’t have playing cards duct-taped to his bicycle wheels to make it sounds like a motorbike.  He won’t always wear his shirts backwards or forget to put on his underwear.   He will no longer have a shelf full of shiny rocks, bottle caps, lego men, old keys, and special memories.  Or, maybe he will.

There is Always a Song

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She asked me if the word “flower” started with an “L”.  I said, No, it starts with an “F”, and then went back to what I was doing.  A minute later, she brought me the paper she had been working on and showed me the word “flower” written across it in neat four-year-old handwriting.  My jaw dropped.  Something clicked in that little brain of hers, and this week she started to read sentences like, I am Sam, and Mat sat.  Yesterday she was singing her ABC’s opera-style.  Infact, she sings more than half of her day away.  Her words tell stories, feelings, and funnies.  She recently hurt her big toe and I overheard her telling Nadine about it.  She was saying how her owie was “right on my big pinky.  It was SO much bleeding.  Mommy put a bandaid on it.  It’s a kitty bandaid.  It’s pink.  I like them.  Where did you get the hello kitty  bandaids, Mommy?  Wegmans?  I like that store.”  And on she goes until she falls asleep at night.  Even then, Nadine informs me she talks in her sleep.  Elsie, last night you said, ‘I want crackers!’ in your sleep!  When I told her to drink some more water she said, I’m going to lose my heart if I do that!  When we were outside, she was looking at her shadow and said, Look at the statue of my hair!  Her little pony tails were sticking out.   

This morning she told me, Mom, I want to go skydiving for our date.  When we’re driving, the inside volume of our car is usually on the higher decibel level.  If you can imagine two or three conversations going on, complete with sound effects, sometimes a baby squawking in the midst, and then to top it all off, Elsie is usually singing.  Songs about life.  Songs about Jesus.  Songs about her family.  It is so out of place sometimes.  Usually I just hear lots of noise.  Then when I separate the sounds, I can hear her little sweet song, oblivious to the cacophony around her, singing from her heart.  Oh, Elsie Rose.  What a beautiful song you bring to our lives.

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick

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The other day Jack tried explaining that he wanted me to take a picture of him floating away, just like he had seen in a photo once.  We had the sidewalk chalk out, and he had drawn a balloon.  So, I climbed the tree and tried my best to to capture the image of him being pulled into the sky by a single balloon.  Super fun!

Jack likes to say things like, “Oh, grateful,” instead of “Oh, great.”  When Matt asked him if he had a high metabolism he answered, “I forget.”  I purposely don’t really watch them on the trampoline, because their bravery exceeds my own.  However, when I’m hanging laundry on the clothesline, they are drawn to the black circle of bounce and I’m forced to watch their aerial flips and daring leaps.  He is a regular ninja when it comes to the trampoline, and it’s both frightening and exhilarating to watch him.  When he runs, he looks more like a gazelle.  Every few steps he flies through the air in a leap and keeps on going.  Higher is better.  Harder is better.  Pain is weakness leaving the body.  His legs are more bruised than not.  He never wakes up during the night, so when he came stumbling into our room one night I knew something was wrong.  Turns out he fell out of bed… which means he fell from the top bunk.  Ouch!  I have no idea how his wiry body slid out with the side rail on, but I’m glad he was okay.  He loves oats, life, and everything in-between.  For him, every day is about as exciting as being swept away by a single balloon.

Oh My Tacky Yard

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This week, our neighbor was cleaning out his basement.  The kids happened to be outside, and he happened to offer them bags of his old treasures.  I agreed to them accepting the gifts as long as they stayed in the back yard.

I haven’t seen so much excitement over plastic in a long time!  They went hog wild, hanging eggs on the trees, bushes, and my favorite: the alley fence.

Jack specially put up the black cat (not sure where that fits in the Easter theme going here), to scare away the ever-dreaded “Alley Cat”.  The very first day we moved here, I woke up hearing a meowing sound, only to find a black and white cat standing in our bedroom looking up at me.  I screamed, thinking it was a skunk at first.  Learning it was only a cat, I escorted it downstairs to the basement, where I shooed it outside through the outside doors which we had forgotten to close the night before.  Mystery solved.  Ever since then, however, we have spotted it here and there in our yard, and the kids get all in a tizzy.  I’m glad Jack came up with this idea.

Pretty scary!

So, even though I’m pretty much anti-plastic-decorations, I felt it was worth it to see the joy on their faces as they arranged each egg carefully throughout the yard.

Tacky to the enth degree, but perfect as well.

Highlights of Today

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Although spring has sprung, today the fuzzy sweaters and cozy moccasins were pulled out for another encore.

Elsie somehow manages without too many layers.  Her accessories of late include this prized necklace that Nadine bought for her with her Awana Bucks, and a sparkly home-made headband from Aunt Heidi.  Her motto is: never leave home without them!

There was a full-out battle today with bow, sword, marshmallow blaster, and old tv-video game gun cut lose from its wires.

I think we won.

Highlights included: chia seed pancakes at supper, vacuuming the living room, memorizing verses in Jack’s bed with him and Elsie, sitting in the sunshine, listening to Jonathan Antoine, soaking up Betty’s baby browns, and sipping some hot tea numerous times throughout this colder day.

Happy Tuesday!

Lemonaide Friday

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The outdoors calls me so loudly that I’m completely tuned out to the inside mess.  Winter coats still hang, abandoned on the coat rack.  Winter boots, sporting spring mud, lay on the laundry room floor, making dust piles as they dry.  Forgotten toys spill onto the living room rug, traded for much more useful objects like sticks, rocks and freshly plucked flowers growing in the crab grass.  I barely coaxed the two older ones to finish their school reports today, but they’re taking a break from the sweat of the wild to glue their bottoms to their chairs for one last time this week.  Pencils scratch quietly, Betty makes background noises, and the other two littles are busy with their own thing.  Jack colors in his book in a detailed manner.  Elsie talks to Betty and makes her laugh.  Betty wants to go outside, but Elsie tells her, “Betty, you’re going to be a grown up like me!  See?  I can reach this thing!” as she touches the door handle to go outside.  Betty is impressed.

Betty has done some of her own impressing today.  She learned how to crawl back down the stairs!  She is also into wearing necklaces and loves to get dolled up with hair bands and shoes and sunglasses.  Breakfast always includes saying hi to herself in the mirrored tray of her vintage highchair.

Elsie loves to read.  She “reads” from memory with great inflection and pronunciation.  When she was telling me her memory verse (which was Genesis 1:1), she said, “God created the heavens and the sun!”  (instead of earth).  It was cute.  She writes her name perfectly and loves to copy how to write other words.  Her eyes are bright and her smile is huge when she brings me the clipboard with the words she has copied, neatly sprawled across the white page.  She is on the verge of really reading, which is the earliest any of our kids have ever been ready.  It’s so exciting to watch.

Nadine has a pink little vest for her bunny, Toby.  He gets walked every day.  It is really funny to watch people do a double take on what they think is a dog… until they see it hopping down the sidewalk.  Between Toby and Jack, we go through about two pounds of carrots in a week.

To celebrate the first day of spring, Uncle Jon & Aunt Capri, along with Grandma Weldon, took us to the Philadelphia zoo!  We had a blast seeing all the animals.  I despise snakes, but couldn’t quite draw myself away from the rattlesnake, whose tongue kept hissing at me through the glass.  The hippos were also in on the action, giving us huge yawns with jaws that kill.  

We joked that Matt would have to compete with the turtle on how much salad to eat for lunch.  The otters were fun, but watching Betty grin and squeal and point at their antics was the most fun of all.

Elijah let me in on a little secret this week:  “You know what, Mom?  When you play nicely with Elsie she’s really fun to play with!”  I’m glad he discovered this so early on.  He truly is a great big brother.  Lately he would rather be playing with legos than eating, drinking, or sleeping.  Well, maybe not sleeping.  That boy likes his sleep.  He amazes me with his creations and makes a good convincing argument that to buy him more legos would be very educational!  This shot of him at the zoo in one of the play dinosaur eggs cracks me up.  No pun intended.

His outfits as of late are something to behold.  He & Elsie both have no qualms about not matching in public.  That means Mommy must also have no qualms.  I’m getting there.  I usually don’t notice until we’re getting out of the car at our destination, anyway.

Today Jack learned how to make oats all by himself.  He was so thrilled as he measured the oats into the pot, squished up the bananas in the bowl, stirred in the water and then mixed it all together.  “Now I can make oats whenever I want!” he told me proudly.  Of course, after you ask.  That boy is either munching on oats, apples, or carrots.  He is also usually airborne.  He is constantly learning new flips on the trampoline, and even though his skin may be tough, his heart is tender.  He is such a little boy at heart.

On the way home from the zoo, it being the first day of Spring and all, we decided to stop at Rita’s for some free water-ice! After waiting a half hour in line, it was pointless to drive away at that point.  So we stayed a whole hour until we cheerfully received our free treat.

 To be honest, I’m not a huge water-ice fan, and I had a splitting head-ache by the time the whole ordeal was over.  But, the kids were happy and we made a fun memory.

Well, the reports are finished.  School is done for the week.  The kids have squeezed the entire bowl of lemons to make lemonaide, and I’m going to go play outside.

A Growth-full Week

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It’s been the inevitable low after the high.  A great weekend, followed by some real-life hard times.  What better way to break up the monotony than taking a field trip to a local farm/veterinary clinic?  So, yesterday we headed out to some friends’ farm for some animal fun.

Nadine was in her glory, feeding the baby goats and petting the horses.  Betty wasn’t as sure about the goats at first, but soon warmed up to them.  She also got licked many time by one of the dogs until she giggled.  It was so adorable.

 

 

Jack was super brave to ride the horse bare-back in his crocs.  He’s brave in other ways too.  The other day I was watching him from the bathroom window.  He was outside, tying a karate belt to a tree branch.  Next, he climbed the tree and tied the other end to a higher branch.  Then he jumped down and grabbed hold of the loop he just made.  After a quick tug to make sure it was tight, he confidently hoisted himself about four off the ground and started to pull himself up by the rope.  All of a sudden, one end came untied and he fell flat on his back with a thud.  I expected tears, but he lay there for a second before brushing himself off and standing up.  I came outside to make sure he was okay, and before I could ask him, he said, “Mom!  Guess what?  I just made a trap and it works!”  Pause.  “I tested it.”  Oh, my.

I know the Lord has great plans for that boy.  When he’s not being tough, he is super sweet.  He’s been diligently working on his letters and numbers.  I found that counting to a hundred while pulling out a measuring tape is right up his alley.

Betty has been changing so much this month!  She still gives us “the look” with wrinkled nose, furrowed eyebrows and a loud squawking sound to accompany it.  We are working on our manners and today she learned how to give high fives.  Her favorite thing outside is to collect rocks, put them into something and give a high five after each rock.  She’s sporting seven teeth, with more popping through very soon.  She loves to talk with her hands and tell stories with much inflection.  Perhaps a linguist?

There is something satisfying about watching boys whack things with sticks.  Their language isn’t with words, but rather with loud noises and a mutual understanding of sounds and war-like cries.

They are very different than girls.


Girls are pretty and sweet.  Even with a drooly mouth, this one still looks beautiful.

So, even though I’ve been challenged to my core this week on wife-hood and mother-hood, I’m so thankful for the rewards each day.  Hugs, forgiveness, love, smiles, and little glimpses of growth in hearts and minds.

Pixie Dust That Glows

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Four years ago our little Elsie Rose was born.  On Sunday we celebrated that joyful day!

There was a constant sense of urgency throughout my pregnancy, and the doctors wanted her born by her due date or else they told me I would have a C-section.  Long story short, she was born on her due date, just after midnight, six hours before they had me scheduled for a C-section.  I wasn’t planning on showing up for it, but it was such a relief not to have to go through with fighting them about it.  She was born in a hurry… my birth record sheet says 3 minutes from 6cm to when she was in my arms.  It was intense and hugely powerful.  She has always been a super independent little girl.  Her curls have straightened out a bit this year, but her personality is just the same.  She still enjoys changing outfits throughout the day, coloring for hours on end, and playing princess with anyone.  Yesterday she got Jack to play princess with her because she let him wear her new birthday ring.  It worked like a charm!  That boy loves jewelry, sticks, rocks, shiny things, oh, and his new orange bandana that his Uncle Jon gave him this weekend.  He told me that he’s going to wear it forever. 
This weekend, while Matthew and I relished having two nights away at a marriage retreat with church friends, the kids had fun at Grandma Weldon’s.  It was awesome that Aunt Heidi and Uncle Jake kept a running list of funnies that they said.  The one that sticks out in my head is that when Betty was getting her diaper changed Elsie said she didn’t like poopy diapers.  Jack then reassured her that, “There won’t be any poopy diapers in heaven.”

  

This week Betty has been sporting a tiny Pebble-ish pony tail on top of her head.  The loud squawking sounds she belts out speak volumes, as do her brown eyes.


It’s hard to resist such cuteness.  She stood by the coffee table, and waited for someone to shell out the chocolate cupcakes.  She is an unashamed lover of chocolate.

 

One of Elsie’s presents was a specially made-by-Jack cardboard robot named “Elsie-bot”.  She was proud to hold it up in front of herself and be a robot.  I love their creative ideas.


I’m so thankful for my Elsie Belsie Rosie Tootsy Pooky Cutie Pie.  (Those are lyrics from a sweet song her Aunt Heidi wrote about her.)  In fact, I think I will close with that song.  It sums her up so perfectly.

Curly hair, button nose, big brown eyes and pretty painted toes. 
Oh, how I love my Elsie Rose.
Here she comes, there she goes, with  fairy friends and pixie dust that glows
Oh, how I love my Elsie Rose.

In polka dots and pretty bows,
Busy Town is where she likes to go. 

Elsie Belsie Rosie Tootsy Pooky Cutie Pie.  She’s my Elsie Rose!  I love you so!

China Tea Cups and DNA

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Thursdays are a highlight for us this year.  Every afternoon we get together with some super cool homeschool families and have a blast doing aspects of school that wouldn’t normally be possible at home.  Last week the kids learned all about DNA from their amazing Science teacher.  They extracted DNA from a strawberry and I couldn’t explain how… I just know that I’ve never seen a five-year-old stoked about DNA.  Then we had a valentines day party with mailboxes and cards and a snack that doubled as lunch!

Today, my friend Kim, from Sanderson Images, came up with this fantastic idea to make the kids’ school portraits really creative.  She and her husband took these amazing photos a couple of weeks ago, then today the kids made a collage around their picture of things they like.  I love how each one turned out so unique to their own personalities and loves.  (I got to decorate Betty’s… fun!)
On other school days, we often break for tea around ten o’clock.  It doesn’t take much to convince me that the teapot and fancy teacups need a little love.  A fine tea time will often bring out the best in children.  When real china is served into their sweet little hands, they feel special and of much worth.

It’s a precious memory that I plan on continuing for the rest of my life.

  There is something so sweet when I see two of our children pair up and sit as close as they can to each other.

Then there is the sweetness that is sleeping children.  Apparently socks on the hands are all the rage for sweet dreams.  No lie, sometimes I sleep with socks on my hands too.  It’s not because I’m trying to fit in, it’s just because they’re so cracked that I lather vaseline all over them and then cover them with socks.  In the morning my hands are soft again… at least for a couple hours.  After laundry, cooking 3 meals, cleaning up from 21 place settings, scrubbing hands besides my own, and a great many other things… my hands are usually dry as a bone once more.  I don’t mind, though.   I love my job, I love this beautiful life God has given me.  In fact, this thankfulness inspires me to try my hand at poetry for the first time in years:

Thank you, Lord for mailboxes and letters.
Thank you for china tea cups and DNA. 
Thank you for socks on hands and dreams so sweet.
Thank you for precious friends to grace each day.