Gearing up for some indoor shop class

It's been a busy couple of months.  We moved amidst a huge amount of snow, thanks to some very dedicated friends. :)  This old house we are temporarily living in is quite drafty and with record lows we have been wearing a LOT of layers.

We got our new school room up and running (Such a big room. I am loving the large, albeit drafty, windows.) and then Todd brought in something I never expected.  A lathe!  This is a current picture of our school table:

Why a lathe?  Well, the kids are participating in their annual pinewood derby race for Awana and thought it would be fun to make the cars into shapes. My husband rocks!

Each of the kids chose a theme (okay Sadie didn't really choose hers.) and Todd helped them pencil the shape onto the wooden block.  Then they each got to be helper while he worked on their car. ie., They ran the shop vac. ;-)

Here's a pic of the cars so far.  Left to right we have:

Ellie:  Hello Kitty

Silas:  Race car

Avrie: Boat

Evelyn: Minion

Sadie: Baby bottle

They will get to sand on them and paint them up at Awana.  I'll post finished pictures.  Evelyn was so excited when I told her we had a googly eye that would be perfect for her one-eyed minion!  Sadie has been carrying her bottle around all over the house.  Avrie has already painted a bit on her boat and Ellie and Silas are ready to begin painting next Awana. I can't wait to see what each of them do to create their vision!


Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

The Butcher, The Baker and The Pancake Maker

Wow we have been busy!  I have lots of posts in my head but none on here. woops! I figured I had better get at least one done before the end of June. LOL

We had VBS last week. The kids were super excited because we haven't participated in VBS for the last couple of years. We were getting ready for the second day. When Avrie learned that we were going back for a second day we had the following conversation:

Avrie: I hope when we go to VBS tonight that I don't have to sit by the pancake maker again.

*At this point I am trying to figure out who in the world sat by her that talked to her about pancakes.  Poor thing.  Being reminded of a food she loves so dearly while we are grain free.....I truly believe we need to be grain free right now but sometimes I just feel terrible about it.*

Me:  Who is the pancake maker?

Avrie: You know. That little girl that kept sitting by me. She would sit by me in the pew and sit so close that she would squish me flat up against the side. Just like a pancake!



Thankfully I have learned to keep things simple when talking with the children. There are often times that they are not thinking along the same lines as we are. I am so glad I didn't tell her how sad I was that we weren't eating grains. ;-)


Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

Gators and Monkies and Birds Oh My!

We went to a fun little place called Jungle Gardens.  They had all sorts of animals for us to see.  We tried to grab a quick family picture here. Not the best, but at least it's all of us.

I thought this huge giraffe statue would make a good picture. I've really got to work on my photography skills.

 

They had several different types of birds. Forgive me for not knowing what type. I think they are all some type of parakeet. ??  I was too busy making sure the kids stayed together to listen. They did let us hold a bird on our arm for free though.

Silas was first. Such a strong arm! The bird hopped right on.

Ellie chose a smaller bird. They put a bit of food in her hand to feed it.

 Avrie chose this sweet little thing.  It wouldn't turn around to smile for the camera though.

They gave her some food too and that got its attention!

Now we're ready to smile. :)

"Oooh! That's pinchy!" is what she was saying.

Evelyn was right there with the others and wanted to have a try. Interesting how animals just "know". The volunteer worker said that they won't always step onto the arm of a smaller child because they sense they are not strong enough. They helper asked me to hold Evelyn's hand so maybe the bird would commit but it wouldn't step onto Evelyn's arm. She got to see it up close and was happy with that.

Todd wanted Sadie to have a picture too. :)

Another attempt at a group shot. I tell ya what....group shots are hard.


You try to get five children to look at the camera, at the same time AND smile.  I figured I would just put them all on here. Between the three pictures everyone looks decent at least one time ....... I think.

Ellie and Avrie thought it would be funny to pretend they were being eaten by the crocodile. Goofy girlies.

Young man Silas wearing his hat that matches Daddy's.

I spotted this plant and grabbed Avrie for this shot. The coloring matched her dress so well.

Then of course Ellie wanted a photo shoot for her. :)

This last one I had to grab. Avrie's flip flop broke.  Not a big deal, but it was a bit ironic. On our last little family vacation to a theme park, she lost her flip flop while boarding a log ride. It fell into the water never to be seen again. So this has now become a tradition.....go on vacation and buy Avrie some new shoes!

This concludes Part 7 of our Florida trip.

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

What is it about scissors?

What is it about scissors that make children want to cut their hair?   I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. I'm pretty sure Ellie and Silas both cut their hair at an earlier age.  I was thinking maybe Avrie was learning from their mistakes. Apparently my soon-to-be six year old girlie would rather learn first-hand why it's not such a great idea.

Sweet Avrie found a small pair of scissors from a sewing kit and lopped off a 6 inch long hunk of her hair in the front. Of course not exactly in the front where we could incorporate some bangs. Nope. Sort of in the middle/side/ish part of her head.  I admit it could have been worse.   Like when Ellie cut her bangs down to about 1/2 inch long. I really should look those pictures up.

Here she is in all her glory.

Thankfully you can't really tell when it's down. Sadly I can't pull it back in the constantly-asked-for-all-up-pony-tail that she loves. Her bangs had just gotten long enough to make it work.  Poor thing. As soon as she did it she knew it wasn't too smart.

Live and learn. 



Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

Tape comes in handy

The kids had  been outside with their daddy while he was working on some things around the house. Avrie came to us before bed and said her fingers hurt and that they were sparkly.  She really wasn't too upset about being sparkly. (Sparkly seems to be a word that comes up more and more often here.) 

Simply put:

  Sparkles = Good              Pain = Bad   

We finally figured out that she had touched some fiberglass that Todd had been cutting and gotten small shards in her hands.  Daddy to the rescue!  Todd put tape on her hands and it pulled the shards right out.

Being the smart little girl that she is, Avrie was not at all upset that her hands were no longer sparkly.


Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

Plural nouns according to Avrie

Avrie comes up with some funny thoughts. Today she was playing and said, "Mom? Do you know what an audience is called when there's only one person?"

Of course I had no idea what she was talking about. "Ummmm an audience?" I replied.

"Nope! If there's only one person then you have an audient." Then she giggled at her new found knowledge and continued playing.

Funny thing is, that actually makes sense if you don't know how to spell the word audience. Gotta love 5 year olds.

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

Orange Juice Drinking Contest

We are having an orange juice drinking contest!  Or should I say NON-drinking contest? 

We thought we would teach the children about self control.  Todd found some nice size orange juice bottles on sale. Each child got one.  Sunday night we told them that starting on Monday they could drink as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted, but they would not get anymore until Friday.  Todd marked Evelyn's bottle to help her out a little. Then everyone wanted their's marked.

I didn't think to take a before picture, but here they are on Monday at 12:30 p.m.

L to Rt: Ellie, Silas, Avrie, Evelyn

It looks like Silas is in the lead, but I am pretty sure he got into the large container of juice and added more to his bottle. I know that Evelyn asked for more and Ellie poured some into her little bottle. Of course she already drank that too.  I'm thinking at 3 years old this whole self discipline thing is a bit difficult to understand.  Evelyn is already asking for more orange juice.

This is going to a be a long week. LOL



Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

How do you walk on the ceiling?

This is what sweet Avrie asked me during our stay at a hotel recently. She took me by the hand to show me the crazy thing she saw at the end of the hallway. The stairs were on the ceiling!  How funny!  She laughed and laughed at the absurdity of it! 

I explained to Avrie that we can't walk on the ceiling. Her next question - Then why did they put stairs up there?

We then played a little game. I had Avrie go to the left side and stand. I went up and around the corner and knocked on the steps for her to hear. Then Avrie wanted to try so we switched places.  She thought that was the neatest thing ever. Aren't five year old's fun?

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

When did THAT happen?

It's funny how we can always seem to remember when something started, but never seem to notice when it stops.

My sweet Avrie had this cute word she would say often.

kweeps (aka keeps)

Avrie from a couple years ago. She "kweeped" looking so cute!

"Moooooommmm!! She kweeps taking my food!"

 "He kweeps kicking my foot!"

Okay, so the phrases aren't all that cute, but the word is adorable. Avrie spoke fairly clearly and only had a couple things she said incorrectly, so we didn't try to correct this one word.

Just the other day I noticed that she is no longer saying it wrong. :(  Sweet girl is growing up so fast!

A quick pic from today.

I'm sure there are so many other things that I have forgotten. One of these days I'll do a post with a few I can recall.