Some fun stuff in November

Nana popped in for a fun 48-hr visit!

Some good old fashioned arts & crafts...

"Working together, we get the job done" (trim work around the fireplace)

This kid learned to start a fire with a flint and steel with his cub scout crew this fall:

More March

We had did a babysitting swap with another family; here we are having s'mores on our evening to host (girls only; boys were playing Legos inside)

Green oatmeal for St Patrick's Day. The girls were into it, but Monkey said: "It looks like throw-up" (fair point, especially since he had, in fact, spent the whole night prior doing exactly that. He and I were the two victims of stomach flu this month; Roo had pinkeye and strep and the littlest two had pinkeye. Quite a run of illnesses in these parts this month)

Roo's reading has really taken off. Here she is reading Biscuit books to Mouse:

The kids entered an art show in Federicksburg at the encouragement/organization of their teacher, Miss Debbie.. The number of entries was much smaller than usual because of all the snow days. Happily, this meant that all three of our oldest kids won ribbons. The goose was actually the only contestant in the 'pencil and pen' category for 4- and 5-year-olds; thus she won first and second place for her contributions.

In conjunction wit the art show they held an 'expo' with art/craft stations on Saturday, so we went back and participated in that. The girls were in heaven.

Monkey made several new friends this month, and we've benefited from having them come play. Here's a friendly chess match with Jack:

Valentine's, all around

Here's what Valentine's day meant for us this week: 20+ Valentines for each kid to make for classmates (about 70 for me to oversee). Three parties - one for the goose yesterday at preschool and two today for Roo (2 pm) and Monkey (2:30) -- with Goose and Mouse in tow of course. And gobs of sugar all around - gives Halloween a run for its money. Truly. But I was glad for the chance to get into classrooms, see class dynamics and teachers in action, and the like. And the kids were (needless to say) ecstatic.

The snack line at Roo's Val party. Best friend Mikaela is in the foreground

Monkey's party was ice cream sundae based

I had the kids hand-make the Valentines instead of buy them so we could learn some of the names of their classmates, which they generally still don't know, and so Roo could work on her printing (which she needs). Also good crafting activity for home time. Monkey wrote "I love you" on the cards for his classmates and they didn't get it. He had to explain he just meant, "I like you"... And said next year he will handle that differently. Sweet boy.

Maker of bags

I don't sew... but HF most certainly does. Not only does he patch our clothes when necessary, when they are too far gone to patch, he makes them into bags for our kids. Exhibit A: formerly-Daddy's-khaki's-bags. That's a cool dad.

While he had the sewing machine out, he also assembled our fourth child stocking for the mouse... He sewed the other three last year, and this one was cut and ready to go, but not yet done. But now it is. Seamster extradordinaire.

(And go, fab 4 at Yuletide...!)

Scenes from Christmas

We made finger paint and gave it to several family friends as gifts:

Annual Christmas dinner and carol-sing with the Scherreis! So fun (and special blessing that Kim was well enough to participate):

The "big kids" (Monkey and Roo) and I made angels from toilet-paper rolls. Throwback craft from my own youth:

Blowing out the advent candles following our Christmas Eve dinner:

Littlest gets help from siblings in opening a gift on Christmas morning:

The humble birth of our Savior, the timing and circumstances of which may have been surprised His mother, look a bit different to me this side of the mouse's birth. More amazing, even. Come and worship, this year all the more, our newborn King!

I'm dreaming of a California Christmas...

We're awash in Christmas activities over here and greatly enjoying it. The two oldest being 4 and 6 this year really gives the season some legs, and it's all taking off. This year for our gingerbread house, HF wanted to make it from scratch, so we tackled the 3-part project last week. True to form with him as the project-coordinator, it all went swimmingly and was a big hit. Thursday the kids and I made the dough, Friday the cut and baked the forms (using this recipe and measurements), and Saturday we assembled and decorated - using leftover candy from Halloween, I might add. Fantastic use for it. Big hit, and everyone was happy. Last year we decorated our house the day before our firstborn and I got the stomach flu, and every time he looked at the house poor monkey would say it made his stomach hurt. (I could relate.) He remembered that and was worried, but thankfully we've had no such trouble this year.

Friday I took the monkey and Roo, along with 22 other moms and young kids from our homeschool groups, to a one-hour long "community outreach" performance of Act 2 of the Nutcracker. It was somehow my first time ever seeing any of the performance, and I adored it (as did Roo for the first 25 minutes, after which she became a bit bored, as any 4-year-old might at a ballet.) Monkey, on the other hand, told me afterwards that it was "terrible," and "for girls," adding, "Mom, can I never go to the Nutcracker again?" Classic.

This year is our first having a full-size tree instead of one sitting atop our living room table. We got it Saturday, decorated it Sunday, and knocked it over today (for the first time, at least). Learning opportunity? Here's hoping.

Christmas crafting

I'm coming along in my crafty mom endeavors... Thank you Pinterest!

The kids had a ball doing these "stained glass" Christmas trees yesterday, even Goose, and it was super easy.

Easter prep and sand play

Since our baby girl is slated to make an appearance within the next week or so, we've been putting some early effort into getting focused on Easter - in spiritual and household-readiness terms. The kids and I did up an Easter banner and then decorated some construction paper eggs with cut-outs and glitter glue. Bit hit! Really enjoyable too, actually. I'm getting a bit better at this, and I can see how doing things like this with 5.5 and 3.5 year-olds really starts to pay off (certainly more so than at younger ages. The goose was not invited to participate this time around).

Yesterday morning HF participated in round two of his HAM radio-operator testing, a new endeavor of his that perfectly suits him. The intro test - which he took back in Feb - was pretty easy, but this advanced level actually required some attention and studying. Good news though! We now have a certified HAM radio operator on our hands... just in case you're in need of one.

Today we took a family outing up to the Sespe Wilderness which was lovely. Hadn't been up there in months, an

d it actually feels like real spring in that region. Little green buds on the trees and everything. We'd hoped to find a creek to build dams in (monkey's request) but the river levels were surprisingly high. We settled for doing some serious sand-digging at the water hole instead and had a great time. Very relaxing way to spend the day, and nice to have some fun family-bonding time with the current set before adding in our newest member! Whom we, of course, can't wait to meet! Interested to see when she chooses to make her appearance...

Improvements in mom-"craftiness"

Valentine's Day was Monday, and I was thinking that we've come a long way since the Valentine's playdate two years ago when I realized - and pontificated here - about my status as a non-crafty mom. We really are making some headway. Last week we threw a Valentine's party, as recorded, complete with decorate-your-own heart-shaped cookie. On the actual day of, we made chocolate cupcakes and sprinkled them with crushed-up candy canes left over from Christmas... Worked great for the red theme. Also I made cards out of construction paper for each family member with acrostic letters for their first names, complete with traits I love about each, for them to find when they woke up... a big hit. Our preschool co-op made bouquets of heart-shaped "flowers," pictured below... And we decorated cards for family members and mailed them out last week. All in all, it was a pretty crafty affair around here, and everyone enjoyed it a good deal (even me!)

In other news... On Saturday night we hosted our friends Grant and Sandi who moved to Pasadena with their two daughters (aged 8 and 12) from MA last February. He is a pastor and joined the staff of a church out here - ironically the same church where Uncle Dan and Aunt Rebecca attend. We'd been trying for months to coordinate a hang-out, and by the time it happened a full 12 months had elapsed since the last sighting. Hoping to do better...

Novelties...

Lots of new stuff in the life of the Pray Creek West crew over the past week or two; thought I'd take a post to report.

First we bought a new (to us) car, a black 1996 Toyota Landcruiser with an optional third row of seats so that it fits up to seven people. Love it! Proved very useful when Katie and her family were in town last week.

A few days later we bit the bullet and bought smart phones - the Sprint Evo to be exact. (Photo below is a stock photo, not my actual phone. Not in, nor have I recently been in, Las Vegas). The reason we did it was to facilitate HF's traffic-filled Los Angeles daytime hours, and it has proven very useful already.

Last weekend we found a used piece of furniture to help with organizing our new school room (former dining room) that we really like and fits the bill well. I went on a pre-nesting organizing rampage and, two trips each to Cost Plus World Market and Target later, have located matching baskets that fit well to populate the shelves with kid-related items that need homes. Glue, scissors, markers, paper - you get the gist. One day it may even revert to the china cupboard it was designed to be.

Finally, today the kids and I ventured down into Los Angeles to meet up with the San Diego Weld crew at a halfway point for a fun joint outing. Emily and I agreed during their Thanksgiving visit that we would trip to figure out some good meet-up outings this year to get our kids - and ourselves - together, so this one was our first iteration. Fun! We visited a Long Beach park that had playgrounds, scootering options, and a nature park that hosted a small, kid-friendly museum and a turtle-sighting pond out back (pictured). We lucked out with Friday LA traffic and encountered only a fairly moderate amount of traffic both ways; well worth the four hours we got to spend with them!

Birthdays and anniversaries of all kinds...

Independence Day today, and the kids and I did a little after-breakfast craft, making flags with cardstock and glue to celebrate America's birthday. They were very into it, and I was pleased as it was a last-minute, use-what-we-have endeavor. Results were cute (confirmed by dad).

It's been an intense few days. Thursday I was pondering the marker of our two-year residence in California and preparing for HF's and my 11-year anniversary, which was Saturday... when suddenly a much bigger event than either of these occurred early Friday. Our nephew, Samuel Robert, was born in the wee hours of the morning - 14 weeks early and weighing 1 lb 15 oz. My sister-in-law Gina had been in the hospital for two weeks because of early dilation, so she was certainly in the right place when he made his sudden appearance. Praise God for modern medicine, MA General Hospital, and the skill of today's neo-natal doctors.

The sweet boy, 13 inches head to toe, is doing well considering his circumstances, and he is surrounded by prayer, thankfulness for his life, and devotion. He has a long, long road ahead of him, and it is a supremely difficult and anxiety-ridden time for my brother and sister-in-law (the whole family, really - I have been rather a teary wreck myself). They are asking for prayers for their wee one, so please join us in holding him up before his Maker.

Easter season, here we come...

Trying to stay slightly ahead of the curve this year regarding preparing our hearts and house for Easter (unlike last spring)... Last night we started the season kick off. After dinner we opened up our first of the dozen "Resurrection Eggs" after dinner; great resource I'm thankful we found last year.

And I put on my "crafy mom hat" by googling Easter craft ideas and lifting the idea of a truly crafty mom. Thank God for the internet! Our envelope bunny easter craft was highly enjoyed by the kids (anything utilizing glue is, I'm realizing) and came out very cute. Three of these are now hung on the wall alongside some rockin' egg decorations - a start on decor. Go team!