end of the week!

Rob has been gone all week at a school shooting match. We've been busy, but we've been missing him and are looking forward to Rob getting home tonight!

I've been working on some sewing projects including a quilt for Mr. S's birthday.

Miss E helped me with some meals, and Miss J helped her!

The kids took turns sleeping in bed with me. We started the tradition of them sleeping in bed with me the night before their "special helper day" when daddy is gone. It went like this in no special order-

 

One puked in the bed

One went to their own bed since there was so much excitement going on in their own room, but the baby sister ended up in bed with me that night anyways.

One had an accident in the bed

I had deep conversations with two of them.

Miss C joined us most mornings.

I had special time with all of the kids!

*pardon the bad pictures, Rob had the good camera all week. I used my phone to take these pictures.

Outdoor school

The weather has started to get so nice here, and we're all tired of being inside for school. Camp didn't help that feeling either, we had so much fun learning and playing together. So, I've decided we will be doing as much of our school outside as we can.

Today we went to the park down the street. I did a reading lesson with Mr. M, helped Miss E and Mr. R with their speeches, read to Mr. S and Miss J and pushed kids on swings while Miss C napped. Then we headed off for a walk. Miss C woke up so we stopped for a snack for everyone.

We stopped to visit with some old friends, the kids played together and the moms chatted. Then the kids spotted a new friend!

We went to another park where the kids got to play. Miss E and Mr. R did some of their daily reading and then they got to play some more. Miss C got a chance on the swing and then I held her for a while.

On our way home we stopped for a picnic lunch.

 

The kids found a lady bug on our way home.

When we got home I put the little ones down for a nap and then we went out on the front porch to read our book about Hudson Taylor. Then we went inside to get some math and laundry done.

Bible Quiz

Miss E was on our church's Bible Quiz team this year, she had a great time reading and memorizing God's word as well as practicing with her team mates. The competition was on Friday, the day after we got home from Family camp. Rob got to go up too, while I stayed home with the other kids and we all worked on unpacking. She had a great time and the team did well, they got second place! There were only three teams this year, but I'm told the first place team was AMAZING, Miss E's team was behind them by only one question. Good job Miss E! Good job team!

Spring family camp

We just spent this past week at "Spring Home School Family Camp"! Yes, I said spring. No, we did not travel to Colorado for camp, we were in the Sierra Mountains. It snowed almost the entire time we were there! Thanks to the heads up from the Jenness Park staff and Rob checking the weather as well, we were prepared for the snow.

While the snow did limit the outdoor recreation

activities that everyone had hoped to do, we still had a wonderful time. The kids thought the snow was just wonderful and spent as much time as they could playing in it. They had fun building snowmen and there were snowball fights breaking out all over the place! Miss E enjoyed making some snow angels too.

 

The staff at the camp was great! They kept as many of the outdoor recreation activities as they safely could going. Miss E and Mr. M got to do the zip line and they loved it! Mr. R was not to sure about it, so he passed on it. Mr. S just could not make the hike up there in the snow, so he had to skip it.

Our speaker for camp was Dr. Tommy Mitchell from Answers in Genesis. He did some wonderful talks on Creation, Genesis, Noah's ark and similar subjects. We all learned from him, right down to Mr. S (maybe Miss J picked a few things up too?)! Music worship was led by The Wintons who do gospel bluegrass, we were so blessed by their music and their testimony!

CVP put together this camp and did a GREAT job. They had so many crafts, activities and learning stations going, we had plenty to do while inside keeping warm. We got to make an ark, dinosaur fossil, ark in a jar, and paint rocks. Some of their older youths from CVP put together a great running skit about life on the ark that was truly a highlight of the camp experience.

 

We were blessed to meet so many wonderful families at camp and we all made some great friends that we are looking forward to seeing again soon! We also had some nice time together just hanging out playing games and enjoying each other's company.

One of the moms brought a face painting set and painted faces during a

down time.

The last night we were there they did a talent show. Mr. S asked if he could be in it. He wanted to show off his trick thumb and tongue! He was so proud of himself and was asked by many kids to show it off over and over again. The kids volunteered Rob to be in a skit, he got to be a police man and show of his "whistle".

Though the snow made things a bit harder with the little ones I sure enjoyed my time at camp. I was able to relax and enjoy my kids without having to worry about cooking and cleaning (by the way the food was good)! I enjoyed the fellowship with other moms and their families.

 

Miss C was not so sure about camp and was a bit fussy, but I'm sure she loved being held nearly the whole time! Miss J was often heard saying "like camp". All of the big kids had a great time and can't wait to go back. Miss E was wishing they had a summer family camp so we would not have to wait until fall to go back!

This was our first time going to camp, and the whole experience was such a blessing to us! We are looking forward to going back this fall. Maybe we can skip the snow though?

A savings account!

Miss E got her first savings account this week! We split the kids' allowance into five categories each week and one is "investment" that they can not have until they are adults. Miss E's reached $100 a week or two ago so now she gets her very own bank account. She is very excited, and her brothers are looking forward to getting their own some time also.

*This picture was taken last week-end at the community center down the street. They were having some sort of Family/Troop morale thing. The kids had fun on the huge bouncy slide and checking out the animals there. Miss E is getting so tall and looking so much older recently. She sure is growing up!

Tea Party!

No, no! I did not pull out the fine china on tax day! We had a government/civics/economy lesson today, and we even managed to get art in there too (they made their signs)!

The kids had a great time, and were quite the encouragement to others too! People were so happy to see children there learning about government/politics, and parents caring to include their children in this. Several people asked to take their pictures including a few news agencies.

By the way- Miss C was on my back with a little sign that said "I didn't read the bill either".

Oh brother!

It is silly hair night at AWANA tonight. The boys are getting hair cuts tomorrow. They talked me into some fun with the clippers (or did I suggest it?). Need I say more?

ice cream rewards

Yesterday was errand day. As always I reminded the kids of what behavior I expected. They were so very good, which was amazing since most of us are getting over colds. The kids got a couple of very nice comments while we were doing our shopping, but the last one topped them all!

An older gentleman that we have seen and talked to before at Costco saw us at Safeway yesterday. He talked with the kids as I picked out produce and then he went on his way. A few minutes later we passed by him again. He handed me $10 and said "I'd be obliged if you would get the kids an ice cream cone" boy did that make their day!

We tell the kids regularly what a blessing they are to others when they are well behaved and

friendly, that it encourages people to see them being so good and happy. It was so nice for them

to be rewarded in this way.

super J!

Its a mom! It's a maid! It's a cook! It's a nanny! No! It's super J!!!!!

And what is her super power? Helping!

Complete with a "La La" cape she goes about the house finding anything she can to help. She loves to vacuum, fold laundry, throw things away for us, cook, and take care of the baby! Yesterday she spent about 15 minutes vacuuming, it was just too cute to watch her work so hard and she really did a very good job!

four months!

Miss C had her four month well-baby appointment this week (yes, I know it was a month late!). She is doing very well, she is 15 pounds 4 ounces and 26 inches long! She seems to be growing at about the same rate all of the others (except Miss J) did, and should start slowing down a bit in the next month or so.

She is regularly rolling over now and grabbing at all sorts of things. She is getting interested in some of her toys, but mostly she just likes to be with someone. Lucky for her, she has five siblings that absolutely adore her so she is rarely left to play on her own (even in the play pen, someone is always sitting next to it or looking in to talk to her). She expects and leans in for the kisses she knows I will give her after changing her diaper and laughs and smiles as she gets them. Miss C is such a joy and quite the blessing to our family!

When we got home from her appointment the kids spent some time outside. When it was time to come in for lunch they all asked if we could do a picnic. The warm sun and the green grass looked so inviting and relaxing I had to agree it was a great day for a picnic. They all set it up and even cleaned it up! I'm so glad it is starting to warm up around here!

Lego gift

Mr. R received quite a bit of birthday money from family and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it.... Legos! He had a good time looking on-line to see what his choices were and then he picked this Atlantis set.

He had us order it from Amazon for him, once it arrived he disappeared for a couple of days to work on it in his free time! Oh, and since the box arrived at bed time....He slept with the box in his bed that night!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter time, remembering our Savior and his love for us!

We also had some fun coloring Easter Eggs. The kids got into it more this year, and Miss J got to try it for the first time. The eggs get more and more interesting every year!

The big kids did an egg race during nap time on Saturday, and they also did an egg toss. The eggs did not want to break when they fell on the grass so they had to move the fun to the street later to make it more interesting!

We did a small basket/egg hunt on Saturday afternoon. We did not put much candy in their baskets and we just hunted for the hard boiled eggs since our church was doing a hunt on Easter and we knew they would be getting plenty of candy there. Don't feel bad for them though, they were very excited about the Starbucks cards we put in there!

 

Easter morning just before getting in the van for church!

Look at all the eggs!

Happy Birthday Mr. R!

We've been quite busy around here so I just did not get around to blogging some things....

Mr. R celebrated his birthday last week! He received a few small gifts from us the night before his birthday. Among them were a book about the moon, an orange water proof box, and his first pocket knife! His "big" gift was his party.

We don't usually do big birthday parties, but we make exceptions when appropriate. Mr. R asked if we would take him to Chuck E Cheese's, and we decided to invite some of his friends along! We ended up taking 12 kids to CEC's and we all had a GREAT time! Who would think that taking a dozen kids there would actually be a relaxing experience? Well, it was!

 

The other six kids we took were from two families and all of the kids played so well together and watched out for each other. Many of the kids pooled their tickets they won to get Mr. R some extra big prizes.

I left the cake at home (oops!), so we had his lego ice cream cake after dinner. By the way, Mr. R seems to be the master at choosing junk food. On birthdays the birthday boy/girl chooses all of the meals for the day. He chose eggo waffles, CEC's pizza, drinkable yogurt, bagel bites, boxed mac and cheese (instead of homemade like we usually have) and hot dogs. His cake was an orange lego brick with chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

April Fools!

I could tell my poor kids were disappointed when I did not produce an April Fools trick at breakfast this morning. How could I do a trick on them then though? They were looking for anything out of the ordinary and would certainly have spotted my trick!

So I got them at lunch!

I gave them what looked like perfectly normal glasses of apple juice with straws. (but wait... not a single one of them seemed to notice that I always give them water at lunch and we hardly ever have apple juice!)

Ah, but that morning I had mixed in unflavored gelatin and their "juice" was now stuck in their glasses!

Boy where they happy to find that I had planed a good trick for them!