Happiness

Recently, while Ted was off galavanting around this fine country, I took the kids to the mall for dinner at Chik-Fil-A. Now, mind you, my decision to go here was not without significant consideration. It's a bit of a challenge to take FOUR kids to a self-service restaurant when you're flying solo. Just getting the food to a table can be harrowing, but the Chik-Fil-A staff was AWESOME and virtually waited on us. That rocked.Notice their ice cream cups--we had a lot of fun pretending the ice cream was The Whistler from the Olympics--we made half-pipes, slalom courses, downhill courses...it was fun. Kids--play in your food! After eating, Riley wanted to do some shopping (what girl wouldn't?). The child has been saving her allowance for months, now, and had quite a bit in her wallet. So, we went to the Lego store. While I'm preoccupied on the phone with Ted, Riley and the kids are having fun looking at different sets--we're currently excited about City Legos. Or at least I assume they're just looking. However, after I hang up, I notice that each kid has a Lego set in his/her hands, and no sooner than I noticed that, I realize Riley has offered to buy all of them. Warms my heart. So, she purchased the Legos, we hurried home, they quickly got in p.j.'s, and they were soon opening their sets and all playing in the middle of the living room.

Happiness.

Chef Lu

Lu spent one school morning making "lunch" for her sisters. At one point she came to me with the chef's hat asking me to put it on her head. She was pretty darn cute.

Riley thanking Lucy for a delicious meal.

At about this point she got embarrassed by all the attention and the moment was gone. She took off her hat and wouldn't play anymore.

Going, Going, Gone...

Another tooth is gone. This is a cute smile, for sure!

But just to reminisce a little...

what happened to this boy?

Hoops

Another season of sports is coming to a close. This was Mary's third season of basketball and Cory's first. Ted volunteered to coach Mary's team, after he strong-armed our friend Katharine to assist with him. Their team was the Blue Wizards.

Not being a big fan of playing basketball myself, I find it fascinating to see how much Mary, in particular, enjoys playing. She just seems to have a lot of fun out on the court. This past Saturday she scored two goals!! I was so proud.

She continues to be a defensive force as she was in soccer this past fall. She has a staring technique that's quite effective--this guy in particular seemed almost mesmerized by her hypnotic stare. It was a crack up.

Cory's team name waffled between the Gold Fish and the Tigers. At one point I think he said they were Tigerfish. Who knows. He had a lot of fun, though. Smiling the whole game, hustling up and down the court, and scoring.

We were impressed with Cory's enthusiasm and confidence on the court--especially considering how shy and stand-offish he can sometimes be.

Only one game remains. Then it will be time for trophies and pizza parties. And only a few short weeks before spring soccer is in full swing and we're unable to sleep in on Saturday mornings once again.

Fitting Session

We've just finished up studying Colonial America through our readings of the Felicity series from American Girl. I think it's been a highlight of the school year for all of us, and I am eager to get us to Williamsburg, VA, for a field trip. Until then I am finding other fun supplemental activities. It turns out that a sewing friend of mine is a gold-mine of a guest speaker. She happened to bring a corset or two to a recent evening gathering, and I immediately knew I needed to have her come demonstrate these to the girls. We set up a time, and she came today to share her knowledge of the time period's clothes, and a corset or two! Children (both boys and girls) began wearing soft stays, or corsets, around 2, and girls would wear stiff corsets beginning at around 11 or 12. Below, the girls check out an adult corset before we began trying them on...

Riley was the first to give the soft stay a try. She says, "It felt really stiff. It was hard to move around"

Who wants to go next? Look at those eager hands shooting to the sky...

Elisabeth helped tighten Mary's fitting. Mary says, "It felt like I had rope tied around me, and it was tight."

And then, Mommy got to try on the stiff, adult corset. She might have commented that it was squeezing the living daylights out of her, but it was all she could do to breathe, let alone talk.

After trying them on, we attempted to bend down, touch our toes, reach out straight in front of us, sit down...all these things felt quite different. I imagined having to get things in and out of the oven or mop the floors on my hands and knees in one of these--whoa. The girls think that stays/corsets would make gymnastics, playing capture-the-flag or hide and seek, tree climbing, and curling up with good books a lot more challenging. This is a great interactive website that shows different elements of a Colonial lady's clothing for those of you who might be interested. In one of Riley's writings on the subject, she described Colonial clothing as an art and a chore--sounds pretty accurate.

Valentine Fun

The homeschooling group had a fabulous Valentine's Day party for the kids last Thursday. We came armed with decorated boxes and handmade Valentines to share with all of our friends. And then we played games and did activities loosely based on the Fruits of the Spirit that Paul writes about in Galatians: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. For example, the bingo game required older kids to patiently and gently help younger children. It was very sweet seeing one of the big boys (who is a dear family friend) partnered with little Lu and watching him help her. One of the favorite activities was the one that required self-control--eating a long string of licorice without your hands. And of course, the fruits of love and joy were everywhere as best friends spent time together having fun.

When we returned home they could hardly wait to sift through their boxes and look at all the cards and beg me for candy. Notable were the Star Wars cards--somehow this doesn't surprise me.

Random Thoughts on Super Bowl Sunday

1. I know I'm a successful parent because...after church today Lucy asked if we were going to 'poat-lay' (meaning one of my favorite restaurants...Chipotle). She was disappointed when I said no. Must be doing something right.

2. True NFL fan...in a discussion with a buddy the other day I told him, "Yeah I want to see the Colts win. I'm an AFC guy." (You know the Titans are AFC). Kristi later on quizzed me about who I would root for if the Patriots were in the game. I had to respond with yeah I guess you are right - that whole AFC thing breaks down at that point. Smelly Pats.

3. Apparently I only exercise on major holidays. I followed up the Turkey Trot Fun K run on Thanksgiving with a Super Bowl Shuffle today. My buddy said I could not come over for the Big Game party unless we went on a 3 mile run to burn off the calories we plan to ingest. Temp was well below 32. What was I thinking - I'm from Arkansas!

Wearing Titans gear of course. But also have a Camp Bucca T-shirt on underneath to remember those who have to miss this glorious holiday defending our nation (like I did in JAN 08 - at least I was able to miss a Pat's Superbowl).

Go Colts.

What's the Point?

One of my favorite magazines arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. It's the same magazine that I have to hide from Riley the day it comes in the mail, lest she read about my fun plans before I can execute them. I flipped through the pages and came across some great ideas for art activities for the kids. These activities imitate famous artists and their styles. Our first project was based on Seurat's pointillism technique. I quickly latched on to this one in particular, having once been completely enthralled by his painting at The Art Institute of Chicago many, many years ago. This painting is HUGE--considering it's all painted with dots! So, let's do it kids.

First, they each picked a design or scene to paint, and we penciled the design lightly onto the canvases.

Then we used the erasers of unused pencils to paint hundreds of dots onto the canvases.

While our paintings weren't as big as Seurat's, Cory was a little overwhelmed by the 16 x 20 canvas, so I helped him out.

Can't leave Lucy out, she will have none of that! She is busy painting one of the idea sheets. She also painted a canvas with her bingo daubers.

Our finished projects look really great. I need to find an empty wall now to display them. If the kids will let me have them...

Moments in Time...

Riley does a little work in the kitchen...

Lucy tries on some great boots...

Cory has the camera and takes a slightly blurry picture (he took a lot more pictures blurrier than this one, and other pictures of very random things)...

Cory gets ready to shoot a basket at his "game." We're usually at the basketball courts for a couple of hours on Saturday mornings for games...

When Mary's not playing basketball, apparently she's meditating...

Two handsome guys...

And this, my friends, is why they wear hats...