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

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

Quite disturbing.

Last night we were resting in bed before actual bedtime. Silas was in between me and Todd and we were talking. Here's part of the conversation:

Silas:    Mom, I was gonna play a trick on you but I decided not to.

Me:      Really?  What was the trick?

Silas:    Well, I found this dried up lizard.

            Dried up lizard??!! 

Me:     Yes. And?

Silas:    I took it and squeezed it with my pliars. It was so cool! I squeezed all its guts up to its head.  Then they all squirted out.

          Ewwww!

Me:     Where did you do that?

Silas:    In the bathroom.

          At this point I recall cleaning some type of gooey substance off of the toilet lid. I thought it was a worm.

Me:     Okay. Well, let's do stuff like that outside okay?

Silas:   Okay mom. So I was gonna put the lizard on your pillow. I thought it would be funny, but then I decided it probably wasn't a good idea.

             My pillow?

Me:     Very good job!  Great decision buddy. You are right, that would not have been a good thing to do.

Silas:    What would have happened?

Me:      Mommy would have screamed and then you would have been in trouble. It would not have been worth it. Believe me.

Silas:    Oh. So I made a good choice then?

Me:      Yes.

Oh my!  I am so thankful he had second thoughts. 

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

But I thought it would work!

 But I thought it would work! 


This is a phrase we hear often from Silas.  He is a thinker.  When he sees something, he wants to figure out its full potential.


The most recent item was Evelyn's dollar store flashlight.  Silas had seen his Daddy use a flashlight under water, so of course he wanted to see if Evelyn's would do that too.

You know the old adage, "You get what you pay for"?  Her flashlight did come from the Dollar store ya know.

Here's a quick pick of Todd explaining to Silas why it........ummmm.......didn't work so well.

 

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

Carob Cake

Our family has basically been grain free since September.  We were invited to a birthday party for our nephew and I didn't want the kids to have to watch everyone eat birthday cake, so I decided to make my own!  I got the recipe from a wonderful support group for the SBP diet we are following. This recipe had carob powder, mashed baked sweet potatoes, eggs and some other ingredients.

Lovely farm fresh eggs, separated.

I beat the egg whites until stiff and then added the other ingredients.

 

Here is a  picture of the batter.  Notice the two little dollops of batter in the center?  I have never smoothed my cake batter out before.

Baking with no flour has a learning curve. LOL  Here is the cake when finished baking. The batter didn't settle. Woops!

Apparently Silas didn't mind that this was a flourless cake. ;-) 

Licking the bowl clean.

We did enjoy the cake but not at the party. After all that work, we went off a forgot the cake at home.  Thankfully, the kids didn't seem to mind.  It probably had something to do with the yummy homemade popsicles that we did remember.

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

My Son The Inventor

Silas loves to create things. To build things. If he wants something he will try to make it before he even asks for it. A week or so ago he wanted to sew. I don't know why honestly, but he wanted to. Instead of coming to me and asking for a needle he took Todd's wire cutters and tried to make a needle from a safety pin.  When that didn't work he asked me for a needle. He then proceeded to sew anything he could get his hands on. His first project was a rip in the arm of the couch.

Yes, those are the wire cutters.

 Then he fixed a hole in one of our many baby dolls.  I think he got a little carried away on this one.

He went on to sew some holes in his jeans. When he got tired of cloth he resorted to paper. He made a book and a calendar!

Ellie got a clipboard for her school this year. It's small and pink and she keeps her to do list on it. Silas decided he wanted a clipboard. Did he ask me for one? Nope. He made one.

Yes that is a chip clip on cardboard. If you are wondering how he got the clip to stick..............he used JB Weld. Seriously. He didn't realize it was a two step process so it didn't dry properly at first. I had no idea it was JB weld at the time.  The "glue" (as he called it) wouldn't dry. He came to me asking when I would be putting another load in the dryer. I immediately told him that he could NOT put his clipboard in the clothes dryer. He said he wasn't doing that, he wanted to put it outside in the bushes right by the dryer vent to make it dry faster! His mind is always working. Todd came home and we figured out Silas had used JB weld but had not added the second compound so that was fixed in a jiffy.


Next we have a rocket ship out of cardboard with a drop open hatch for his stuffed animal to come out in a parachute (aka trash bag w/yarn)

-a pirate ship
-a "good guy" transformer


Here is a buzz light year suit for his little sister complete with the wings that fold out buy pulling a string. It didn't fit Evelyn and he decided Sadie would tear it up, so he put it on a doll instead.

-a picture frame made from sticks and yarn with a lovely drawing he made attached.


An earlier creation is his bear trap from wooden train tracks and yarn. (The boy really likes yarn. Thankfully I picked up a slew of it at goodwill.)  After discussing it  he figured out it wouldn't catch a bear but it might be able to catch a baby bear. He tried it out and he was able to catch a stuffed flamingo.

We have his astronaut suit, complete with straws to breath through.

He made a church to put in the window so the sun could shine through his stained glass windows.  The little one beside it is from a certain little sister. :)

Did you notice the vacuum in the background of the rocket picture?  That is used daily. Sometimes a few times a day. This is what it looks like after a very simple project.

This is only a small portion of the room. If all of the children are working on various projects we have little bits of cardboard and paper all over the place. Part of the reason, I admit, is because I don't let them have scissors unless I am supervising closely. We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt.





Speaking of hurt! The other day he killed a mole in our yard with a bow and arrow made from pvc pipe and heavy string.. (We are wondering if the mole was sickly or something.)





Don't look if you don't like dead animals.

By the way, Todd asked Silas how the mole got on its back and he said he moved it with his arrow.




Yes it drives me crazy, but he is going to be a great provider one of these days!

Oh and if anyone reading this is looking for gift ideas.........I'm thinking duct tape, packing tape, masking tape, glue, cardboard, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls........ you get the idea.

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy