More Comparisons . . .

Little Bit's starting to wear clothes (hand-me-downs) that the big girls remember wearing. When Lexie was gushing over Little Bit wearing "her" dress today, I thought it would be fun for Little Bit to see Lexie wearing it, so went hunting for old pictures. I didn't manage to find a picture of the dress Little Bit's wearing, BUT I did find this picture:

Ashlyn and Lexie riding the dragon ride at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, age 5 (Oct 2008)

Which is pretty fun to compare to this picture, from this post: 

Little Bit (age 4) and Ashlyn (10) riding the Dragon Ride at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Sept 2013)

Isn't that great!! Fun times!

Blogging Through the Alphabet: A is for Arctic

Marcy from Ben and Me is starting another round of Blogging through the Alphabet. I start this last time, or maybe 2 times ago . . . but didn't get very far into the alphabet before life got in the way and my "oh I'll just skip this week" became 2 weeks and 3 weeks and . . . I never got back to it.

So now she's starting another round, and I decided I'd give it another try. We'll see if I can stick with it better this time.

To kick things off, A is for To the Arctic, the Omnimax movie we enjoyed along with everything else at the Carnegie Science Center.

Rodney dropped the girls and I off there while he went to work, and we got to spend all day there. The Omnimax movie (like Imax) wasn't exactly what I expected from the description. I thought it would be more about the lives of polar bears, but it was about the Arctic in general. LOTS of breathtaking landscapes (and seascapes), and lots of arctic animals, not just polar bears, though the mama and her twins were awesome! It would have held Little Bit's attention more if it had been more about the polar bears, and less about global warming and such.

The rest of our day was awesome! As usual, we headed straight to the Sportsworks building. The big girls LOVE LOVE LOVE it. In the past, there hasn't been anything for Little Bit to do there, which is why if, at all possible, we schedule Carnegie on a day that Rodney can be with us at least part of the time, so he can take them to Sportsworks while I take Little Bit to other things, but that didn't work out this year (we tried, on Monday, only to discover that it was closed due to a Pirates game (they use the parking lot for Steelers and Pirates games, grumble grumble, the girls had many not-complimentary things to say about baseball LOL). BUT Little Bit's big enough to have some fun at Sportsworks now too! Actually she's "big enough" to do most of it, but too cautious to try alot of it. We tried to get her to go on the trampoline, and got her to get harnessed up, but that's as far as we got, before she freaked out. I'm not sure why, Lexie even showed her (during her turn) that you don't have to jump high, but she couldn't quite grasp that you only jump as high as YOU want. Maybe next year . . .

She DID enjoy the "You-yo" where you hold a bar attached to a bungee and bounce around. I wish I'd gotten a picture of her facing me, instead of the staff member, but you can kind of tell that she's grinning, even if you can't see it LOL.

The rock wall is another one that Little Bit COULD do, but won't try yet (can't say as I blame her on that one LOL).  The big girls continue to LOVE it though! And, as with the rest of Sportsworks, had it to themselves yesterday! We really had the whole museum to ourselves except for some moms and toddlers, so anything "big kid" related was dead, the girls LOVED it.

Both girls climbed most, if not all, of the climbs on the wall, some more then once, before the day was over.

After our time at Sportsworks we went to the Planetarium for "Big Bird's Big Sky" (or something like that). It was really cute, and a great way to introduce astronomy to young kids, while having enough actual astronomy that, while the big girls probably wouldn't have CHOSEN it, they didn't hate it either. I'm interested to see if Little Bit can "translate" it to our upcoming study of stars for circle time next week :)

Then we headed upstairs to the "Little Kid area", since it was so dead in the "big kid area" I just left the big girls there, where Ashlyn spent most of her time creating animated videos. Little Continues to love the water table. She also spent quite awhile playing "doctor" with their doctor stuff, and putting together the various body system magnetic puzles they have there.

After lunch, it was time to let the big girls choose again. As we'd gone upstairs for the Planetarium and Little Kid area, Ashlyn had noticed an "astronaut thing" that she wanted to learn more about. So we went to check it out.  It was pretty cool, they had a thing that simulated weightlessness and they harnessed you into it and had you "fix" the outside of the "space station".  The girls had fun with it, and were annoyed that he didn't let them stay up there longer, since there wasn't anyone else waiting.  It worked out well, because there was a "rocket" thing for Little Bit to play with while they did it. Plastic tubes that you could velcro various fins and such onto and then an air blaster to shoot the rocket up into the air. I think the "point" was to see how different fin configurations made it go higher or not as high, but she just had fun shooting them off over and over and over :)

We spent quite awhile in the robot area too. The big girls always enjoy trying to beat the robot at air hockey. This time Ashlyn showed Little Bit the thing where you draw a picture of dots on a computer screen and the robot "copies" it exactly using little beads on a grid. She spent quite awhile doing that over and over, and was fascinated that "it does it right EVERY TIME!" LOL.

The changing exhibit area was all about bicycles this time. and along with lots of bikes on display, and a big wheel for little kids to ride, they had a minibike for the bigger kids, and grownups to ride. Both girls spent quite awhile trying their best to master it. Little Bit did too, it was "just her size" but the fact that she can't ride a 2 wheeler was kind of an issue LOL. She thought it should have had training wheels so she could ride it LOL.  Lexie did manage to ride a few feet at least once. The staff member helped them with it quite abit, and "encouraged" them that it had taken him weeks to master it so they couldn't really expect to get it down immediately. He also pointed out, and I agree, that if they'd been wearing pants it probably would have been easier, with it being so low to the ground they had to make sure to have their skirts tucked up or they'd drag the ground and get tangled up. They had fun trying anyway LOL.

The Ominmax show and then more time in the Sports area rounded out our day, a great day! The girls all did great with having to "share" time between the big kids and Little Bit. It was fun. While we were there, Ashlyn noticed that something mentioned that there are 4 Carnegie museums in Pittsburgh and asked why we never go to the others. I replied that we're never there long enough, to which she looked kind of confused. So I put it this way "we only had today, if, this morning, I'd said "do you want to go to the Science Center or check out one of the other Carnegie museums, what would you have picked?" the lightbulb went on as she said "ohhh, this one!" SOME YEAR we really DO need to check out the others though, I'm sure they're awesome too!

Belated Weekly Wrap-Up

So, I already told you about our fun at the Erie Zoo, which kind of gives away where we were last week, huh?

Rodney had to be in Erie all week for work, so we decided to tag along.

Monday was spent driving up to Erie, prompting the girls to comment on the fact that Pennsylvania is a BIG state! LOL.  Yes, by East Coast standards, it most definitely is!

I had a whole slew of planned things to do in Erie (it's really an awesome city, has all the "necessities" that Reading is missing (like a Wegman's and a Krispy Kreme! (and yes, I see the irony of listing those 2 side by side)), and that great zoo, but it's not a "big city" by any means!).  But as things turned out, the zoo was the only full-fledged "field trip" we managed to fit in.

Instead we had time at the hotel pool, which Little Bit LOVED because she is finally tall enough to stand in the 3 ft section (at least at that pool, I did warn her that some pools might still be too deep), AND it had a LARGE 3 ft section, so she had lots of room to play without having to wear her floaties.


One afternoon Rodney got done early and told us that the treasurer he'd talked to had told him that it was concord grape season. Apparently Erie is a HUGE grape area, so we set out driving the back roads and found a stand to buy fresh concord grapes at. YUM!!!

We all LOVED them! Rodney's been talking about growing grapes ever since we moved last winter, and now the girls are SOLD on the idea too, if we can grow concord grapes. They also are very confused as to why they don't sell concord grapes in the grocery store instead of "grocery store grapes" LOL.

Something tells me that the girls will be lobbying for Daddy's Erie-area audits to ALWAYS be this time of year, so we can get grapes while we're there :)

Last spring when we went to the Sheep and Wool festival we got a needle felting kit to try out, and have never found the time to actually do it. So at the last minute, as we were packing for this trip, I grabbed the bag and threw it in "in case we have some down time".  The girls made SURE to find that "down time" and have discovered a new obsession. I haven't gotten to try it, because they won't hand over the needles, but I agree, it looks like a LOT of fun and SOOO easy!! Something tells me I'll be buying a LOT of wool at next year's Sheep and Wool festival if we go LOL.  The kit we got has the wool, and directions, for making gnomes, so that's what the girls are making for now. I'll have to post a picture of their gnomes once they get all 6 done. They're pretty cute!

One day, I decided not to try to drive as far as we'd have to drive to go to any of the museums and such, so we just scouted out a park, with a playground, near where Rodney was working and hung out there. The kids played for awhile, did some school, played, we ate lunch, played some more, did some more school . . . it worked quite well.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of all 3 girls industriously doing their school work.  Little Bit LOVES having her Fundanoodle workbook to work on when her sisters are doing their school. And can you think of a better place to do school then at nice picnic tables in a park, on a lovely fall afternoon?

Little Bit also did great at self-entertaining on this trip. As always, the iPad is a good source of entertainment when she needs something to do, but she also has spent hours (literally) playing with her lalaloopsie figurines. She looks bored in this picture, but that's just because she saw me snapping the picture and didn't want me to, or something. She'd been happily playing with them for a LONG time, making them talk, I think this was the time that she was using Lexie's shoes as amusement park rides for them . . . having a great time, just quietly, making up her own thing. I LOVE it!!!

So that was pretty much our whole week.  Friday morning we packed up and headed out. I was sad we didn't find time to go to the Maritime Museum, and Presque Isle while we were in Erie this time, but it was a fun trip just the same, and between doing school work at the park, and going to the zoo, and just generally learning through life, I'd say the girls had an educational week despite fewer field trips than some trips.

Schoolhouse Crew Review: Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose

Every year when I go to our state homeschool convention, I pause at the booth selling the Christian Heroes Then and Now books, and try to make room for them in my budget, but I've never managed to do it, I DO have them firmly on my mental wishlist however. So, when YWAM Publishing offered to let us review Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose and Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose Unit Study Curriculum Guide from the Christian Heroes Then and now series, I was thrilled!!!

We decided to read the book, and do selected activities from the unit study as our bedtime Bible study. I read the book aloud to the girls, and, while reading it, we tried to find the places mentioned on the map, and mark them on the maps included in the Unit Study Curriculum Guide.  After we'd finished reading the book, we went through the rest of the Curriculum Guide, and chose the things the girls wanted to do.

Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose is available for $6.99 and is intended for ages 10 and up. It is about Jim Elliot, a missionary to Ecuador in the 1950's. It follows his life as he prepared to become a missionary, and then followed his dream and was a missionary, reaching the native tribes of Ecuador until he was tragically killed in an attack by a hostile tribe that he was trying to reach.  All 3 of us enjoyed the story, though I'll admit, knowing the he had been killed, I was nervous about how the girls, especially Ashlyn, would handle the ending. I pre-warned her, but she still wasn't happy about it, she's very opposed to books that have a sad ending, or are sad, in general. When I mentioned that there's a book in the same series about Nate Saint, the mission pilot who was with Jim Elliot, and killed at the same time, Lexie excitedly asked if we could read it, but Ashlyn said no, she didn't want to read about him when she knows he dies too. So we're still undecided on it, maybe I'll get it for Lexie for Christmas and she can read it on her own :)

After we'd read the book, we dug into the Curriculum Guide ($7.49).  Rather then being "planned out" exactly what to do when, it simply provides a variety of things to choose from, grouped by category, and then provides some reproducible outline maps and such to use as needed. I decided to have each of the girls choose one thing from each category, and if they want to do more, after they've done one from each category, they can do additional activities as they wish. The categories included Essay Questions, Creative Writing questions, Hands-on Projects, Audio-Visual Projects, and Arts & Crafts Projects.  With all our travelling, the Arts and Crafts and Audio-Visual projects are "on hold" until we're home long enough to do them, but they did manage to fit in the Hands-on Projects of their choice while we were home between trips.

Ashlyn chose to do a salt dough topographical map of Ecuador. One thing I really wish was included in the Curriculum guide was a well labeled map showing where the mission stations and such that are mentioned in the book are/were located. I spent quite abit of time Googling, trying to figure it out, and never felt 100% confident that we'd figured it out. One reason I was excited to use this guide, was to give the girls a better understanding of geography in a part of the world that we haven't really studied at all, and I felt like it was just frustrating to them, because we had so little information. But other then that, she did great and had a blast making it!

Ashlyn's Topographical map of Ecuador

Lexie chose to make a display of small salt dough models of 7 things that represented Jim Elliot's life. She decided on her own, to write lengthy descriptions of each item too :)

Both girls had a blast with their projects and put a lot of time and effort into them, and they turned out great!

One thing that Lexie wasn't sure about was what a 2 way radio would have looked like. She wanted to include it, since that was the only way the missionaries had to communicate with each other and the outside world. So she asked Papa for help, and he described what 2 way radios of that era looked like, and she didn't do too bad (basically a black box, LOL).

Then last week, when we were at the Erie Zoo, they had a building set up like an African wildlife station, complete with a model of an old 2 way radio, that the kids could touch. The girls were excited to see the kind of radio we'd been learning about, especially since their planned audio-visual assignment is to write, and record a 2 way radio conversation between Jim Elliot and Marj Saint (the pilot's wife).  I took pictures of them pretending to use the radio :)

We enjoyed the book, and the girls are enjoying the hands-on activities in the curriculum guide. One thing I found challenging was that we had the Kindle version of the book, so when the curriculum guide refers to page numbers in the book, that's not useful to me. I'd say, if you're planning to use the curriculum guide, you'll want to buy the actual book, rather than the Kindle or Nook version, for that reason alone.  As I already mentioned, I would also have found it very helpful if a map showing the relevant locations had been included in the guide.

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed the unit study guide, and reviewing it "forced" me to find time to let them really dig in and do fun, hands-on stuff, so I'm thankful for that. If I were purchasing the book, I'm not sure I'd, personally, want to get the curriculum guide. Because it doesn't lay out specific lesson plans, or provide additional information like where "Palm Beach" (where the missionaries attempted to make contact with the hostile native tribe) was located, for me, I think we could have come up with similar activities on our own, and by searching for ideas online. If you don't want to think of ideas on your own, this is a great way to get the ideas all nicely organized by types of projects. 

Overall, I think we'll definitely be looking into getting more books from this series! It was a great, well-written book about an amazing man! 

Click the banner, below, to see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of this book, as well as the George Washington book and Curriculum Guide from the same series. 

All prices are accurate at time of posting.

Erie Zoo

I'll do a wrap-up of the rest of our week soon (we were in Erie, PA most of the week), but as I started to pull pictures together for the post, I realized that I wanted Erie Zoo to be it's own post, so that's what you get today.

When we were in Erie (Rodney travels there once every year or so for his job) in July of 2011, one place we went was the Erie Zoo (you can read about that trip here). As I was planning for this trip, I remembered a couple things, one, it was a nice, not-too-big, zoo, nicely shaded, with some hands-on stuff, AND, since we didn't currently have an active zoo membership, it's reasonably priced, and therefore the ideal zoo to buy our membership at, and then take advantage of the reciprocal benefits to visit other zoos in our travels. So I made it a priority on this trip.

When we went a couple years ago, in July, the parking lot was literally overflowing, we ended up parking on a grassy area they use for overflow parking. When we pulled in this time, there might have been a dozen cars in the parking lot! I honestly wondered if it was closed! Gotta love school-year trips :)

So, needless to say, we had the place to ourselves :) And, as we moved through the zoo, I realized how much the girls have grown since we were here last. So, for your viewing pleasure, some comparison pictures:

Little Bit riding the spring animals in 2011.

Little Bit (and Ashlyn) riding the spring animals in 2013

Penguin statue in 2011

Penguin statue(s) in 2013

And finally . . .

Wood bench in 2011

and . . .

Wood bench in 2013 (the little chair wasn't there this time)

Amazing what a difference 2 years makes, huh?!

So now, abit more about our day at Erie Zoo.  As you might have noticed, Ashlyn wasn't excited about the wood bench picture this year, so after taking the above picture, I tried to get one of her smiling by saying stupid things to her, it worked, sort off . . . this is Ashlyn trying not to smile/laugh, LOL.

Little Bit's favorite animal is the giraffe and, while the Erie Zoo has very few "large" animals, one of the few they DO have is . . . giraffes! She was thrilled to get to see giraffes.

All three girls are currently re-enjoying our Signing Times videos, so they had fun throughout the zoo seeing how many of the animals they could sign the names of, they did pretty well :)

The playground area is still a hit at the Erie Zoo, while most of it is "too immature" for my 10 year olds who insist they are all grown up, they did think the wood xylophone was fun, Lexie was especially excited when she was able to figure out and play a small part of one of her current violin pieces, on it. She wanted me to record a video of it, but by the time she asked me, my phone battery was REALLY low and I needed it to stay "alive" enough to get Rodney's text message when it was time to pick him up, so I couldn't.

While the big girls were enjoying the xylophone, Little Bit explored the rest of the playground area. Most of the time she moved too fast for pictures, but she had great fun on slides, climbing in a "tiger's mouth", the walking on a worm balance beam, climbing over and under some turtles, and digging in the dirt.

When we weren't at the playground, we explored the rest of the zoo.  The girls were excited to "catch" the otters playing when we went by the second time. They wanted me to get a picture of the "otters playing in the water" since that's one of our songs at Sabbath School, but of course, as soon as I got my camera out the otters got OUT of the water, sigh . . . I did, just barely catch them chasing each other, but what I like best about this picture is the genuine smile I "accidentally" caught on Lexie's face :) 

I think the hands-down favorite animal this time was the orangutan family.  The zoo has a father, mother, and 4 yr old "baby", and watching them was SOOO much like watching a toddler trying to get his parents to play with him. Ollie (the "baby"), would tug and wheedle, and beg his parents to play, and one of them finally would. We just couldn't get enough of it! We kept going back to watch them some more, it was awesome! 

Ashlyn insisted that OBVIOUSLY, while an orangutan might not make a good "pet", it would make a great member of the family! Well . . . yes, and no . . . LOL.  

My favorite part was when the mother took a big sheet (they must really like having blankets/sheets to play with, there were several in their cage, and all 3 orangutans seemed to always have at least one within reach, if not in their hand), and draped it completely over her head, as if to say "I've had enough of this parenting gig, leave me ALONE!" Then, when the baby went off to bother daddy, the mother kind of peaked out and seemed to be keeping half an eye on daddy and Ollie while they played, I'm telling you, it was just like watching people!!!

If I found it hard to catch pictures of Little Bit playing because she moves too fast, it was IMPOSSIBLE to catch any pictures of Ollie, so you'll have to settle for a picture of Little Bit watching the orangutans :)

And that was our day at the Erie Zoo. I'd definitely recommend it as a great little zoo if you're ever in the area! 

I'll write a "proper" wrap-up post about our week overall soon. 

Schoolhouse Crew Review: Homeschool Mom's Bible

Much as I love reviewing things with my kids, it's fun to occasionally get to review something just for me. So when Zondervan gave us the chance to review the Homeschool Mom's Bible, I was pretty excited. We were given the choice between the KJV and NIV versions, and I chose the NIV.

The Homeschool Mom's Bible - NIV is a beautiful hardcover NIV Bible PLUS 365 one page devotionals written just for homeschool moms, by veteran homeschool mom, Janet Tatman. These devotionals are dated, and interspersed throughout the Bible.

I have been using this Bible for my daily quiet time, and have enjoyed many of the devotions I've read. I love that, in addition to the devotions being dated so that you can use them as a daily devotional all year long, there is also a topical index, so if you are struggling with some specific area, you can go read a devotion on that topic. I think this could also be useful if you chose to use these devotions as a short worship reading for a homeschool co-op or mom's group.

A "small thing" that I absolutely adore is that the beautiful cover art is printed on the hardcover binding itself, not just the paper slipcover. It might just be me, but I hate, hate HATE paper slipcovers on books. They look pretty, but they slide around and annoy me when I'm trying to read, so I almost always remove them, and that means that I have many very plain books on my shelf because I haven't kept track of the "pretty" paper slipcover. When I got annoyed and removed the paper slipcover of this Bible, a few minutes into my first day of using it, I was thrilled to see that it's just as pretty without the slipcover!

While I love homeschooling, and think the benefits FAR outweigh the challenges, and homeschooling is much more "mainstream" than it used to be, it can still feel like I'm the only one doing this. Or at least one of the only ones. Especially since I haven't found a local homeschool community that fits well with our overall philosophy and lifestyle, sometimes a mom can wonder if anyone else understands our specific challenges. Having devotionals written by a veteran homeschool mom can be a wonderful reminder that we're not alone, and that, while God doesn't command homeschooling, and the word "homeschooling" isn't in the Bible, He DOES speak to homeschool moms throughout scripture, we just have to be paying attention to "hear it". These devotions can help draw our attention to God's words for homeschooler moms, WHAT A BLESSING!!!

One thing that I feel the website should have made more clear, is that this is a newly updated version of the NIV translation. Apparently, the "agreement" is that the NIV can be "updated" whenever it's deemed necessary and they can just keep calling it NIV. While I haven't come across anything . . . disturbing about this new NIV version, I do think the website should more clearly state that it's not going to be the same as the NIV Bible you already have on your shelf from several years ago.

Also, not surprisingly, considering our eclectic homeschool approach, some of the devotions assume a much more structured, "school at home" approach than we take, and similarly, there were some discipline philosophies suggested, assumed, or recommended, that I disagree with. Obviously, since one of the beauties of homeschooling is that each family can make it their own, it's not surprising that it would be impossible to write in a way that consistently speaks to each homeschool mom. Nothing that I disagreed with surprise me, per se, it was all typical of the beliefs and homeschool approaches that seem most common within the conservative Christian homeschool community, and wouldn't keep me from recommending the Bible. It does mean I'd want to pre-read any devotion before sharing it with a group.

This beautiful Bible is available for $34.99. Christmas is quickly approaching, and I think this would be a great Christmas gift for any homeschooling moms on your Christmas list!

To see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of both the NIV and KJV Homeschool Mom Bibles, click the banner below:

All prices are accurate at time of posting.

Weekly Wrap-Up - October 1

After all the fun and excitement of Williamsburg last week, we had a quieter week this past week. But quiet(er) is good too!

The weather has continued to be PHENOMENAL!!! Windows open, chilly enough to appreciate a nice hot cup of coffee in the morning, beautiful, sunny, I wanna stay outside all day, weather!!

But we HAVE managed to fit some inside school in between enjoying the weather :)

One of the "art" projects the big girls remembered fondly from when I did this preschool curriculum with THEM, was finger painting with chocolate pudding, and that was on this week's schedule.  I decided, since our table is a drop-leaf table, and therefore has cracks in it, to keep the mess contained by giving them each a baking sheet as a "canvas".  So basically I plopped a spoonful of chocolate pudding on a cookie sheet for each kid and told them to go to town. Then when they were happy with their "masterpiece" we laid a piece of paper on top of it and so that it was kind of a "stamp" onto the paper.  And of course, we had chocolate pudding for snack that day LOL.

It was a rather art-filled week overall. Ashlyn and Lexie both did salt dough projects for a mission unit study I'll be reviewing soon. And coincidentally, this week, one of the suggested art projects for Bible Road Trip was to make a camel caravan out of salt dough. So, while I read the Bible chapters to the kids, they worked on that, though I don't think we have anything even remotely resembling a camel caravan from any of them yet. It does seem to work pretty well to keep they quietly occupied while I read LOL.

My parents came up for a couple days this week as well. Dad helped us remove the window a/c units for the winter, installed a motion sensing light on the garage, did abit of rewiring so that their motorhome can be plugged in, on it's own breaker, instead of sharing a breaker with our washing machine. AND built the trundle for the girls' bed. Several trips ago, he built their bed, a double bed that the twin mattress can slide under, and we've just been sliding the mattress out on the ground, but this time he built the trundle, so now it's a little easier for the girls to slide it in and out on their own.

It doesn't look any different during the day, so I snapped a picture at night, after I'd tucked them all in. When we first moved, the big girls took turns sleeping with Little Bit in the double bed, but now they've pretty much settled on Lexie and Little Bit sharing the double bed, and Ashlyn on the trundle. It seems to be a win-win. Lexie says she sleeps better with someone, and Ashlyn gets too hot, easily, so doesn't like "cuddling".

The other HUGE project we tackled while my parents were here, and the weather was AWESOME, was reorganizing the garage!!! When we moved here, we stacked most everything in the garage, and my plan was to go through the boxes, put away things that I wanted in the house, and then store "extras" in an organized fashion in the garage. BUT by the time we got everything in the garage AND the tools Dad needed to put in the shower and all the other projects he's been doing for us, it was a sort of gridlock. There were boxes that I knew I didn't need right now, blocking the boxes I hadn't been through yet, but I didn't have anywhere to put them that wouldn't be in Dad's way . . . and then spring came and we had to have a place to park the riding lawn mower TOO, sigh . . . So all summer, I've just ignored that huge pile of boxes. Now with beautiful weather, and mom there to help, I decided to tackle it all. We pulled EVERYTHING out of the garage onto the driveway, sorted it, and then put it back in the garage in a way that the only boxes that are "blocked" are ones that are things from the candle business I used to have. The girls love the idea of doing something with that someday, and I'd love for them to, but it's not going to be today or tomorrow, so as long as I know where that stuff is, it can have other boxes in front of it.

In the process, I found a TON of winter clothes for Little Bit for this winter, she's having great fun trying stuff on. It amuses me how often, when she tries on something that was one of Ashlyn's favorites when it fit her, Ashlyn will, without me telling her that, and, without remembering it specifically, exclaim over how CUTE that is. So apparently, her "tastes" haven't changed LOL.  This batch of clothes also includes a few things that Ashlyn and Lexie remember, so they're having fun with that too.

To wrap up our week, the neighbor boys, E & J stayed with us all afternoon on Sabbath, while they're parents were at a wedding. I took the opportunity to try out a project that I'd had on my "fun things to do for school" list for quite awhile. I got out the water half of our old sand and water table and sprinkled it full of baking soda and glitter, with some glass "gems" hiding under the baking soda. Then I gave the kids each a spray bottle full of vinegar and let them go to town with it. They ALL had fun for awhile. The big girls decided it was more fun to encrust themselves with the glitter, then to spray the baking soda LOL.

Later, I added more water and some sea shells and bath toys and the three little ones continued to have a blast with it, for the most part without arguing or grabbing, YAY!!!! (I did supervise it pretty carefully, to make sure that vinegar didn't get sprayed or splashed into eyes, but all went well).

They had a blast, and the water table got cleaned in the process, woo-hoo!!!

While the little ones were all busy at the water table, I glanced up to see where the big girls had disappeared to, and found them both, reading, outside! I LOVE this picture!

For the past couple of years, in the wintertime, our Saturday night supper tradition has been popcorn and hot chocolate (made from scratch, I should add that recipe on here soon, shouldn't I?), and fruit, and, if anyone's hungry enough, sandwiches. Ashlyn has been itching to get back to that tradition so that's what we did for supper this week. AND the girls decided, on their own, to have E & J help them.  Little Bit was overly tired or hungry or SOMETHING and melting down at every.little.thing, so it didn't work to have her "help" too, but Ashlyn did great at finding ways for J to help her make hot chocolate, and Lexie found several things for E to do to help make popcorn. I think his favorite part was just watching the popcorn "bubble up" and spill over in the air popper LOL.  We also tried pumpkin pie popcorn (another recipe I should add here) this time, and that was a hit too. 

So, all in all a fun week! (and obviously, since I'm not getting this posted until Tuesday, THIS week is busy too!)