Is at least one front tooth…it’ll be two in a few weeks or so though!
Liam joined the tooth loss club on November 5th. Lots of screaming before hand but it was all pride after that. He’s still running around holding his lip down and showing his gums.
Ever since I’ve known Mark (which would be high school), he’s had a love of planes. I don’t know how he does it, but he can spot a plane way up in the sky and tell you what kind it is and more. He loves them! He’s always had a dream to get his pilot’s license and while, right now it’s a bit out of our price range, God did allow him to take an introductory lesson.
Our local newspaper ran a deal with an aviation company that offered introductory lesson/flights for a good price. A really good price. I didn’t even ask Mark. I just bought it for him for Christmas. We had to tell him early though because the coupon expired November 1st. He was excited none the less and really enjoyed his flight.
It was a small airport so the pilot allowed us (meaning the kids and me) to hang out right outside the airport. They taxied out in front of us and landed in front of us. And in between those two times, the kids found things to occupy their time.
Mark’s Christmas Flight 01 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.
And landing!
Another day in October found us at a dairy farm. A local farm (meaning about 20 minutes away…that’s the closest dairy farm too), has started an agritourism business both to promote their farm but also so that they can eventually purchase a creamery and sell their own milk. This is the second year for their Corn “Maize” and it was just as much fun as last year! The kids had a blast as always. This was a field trip day and the only set back was that they had the maze marked off so that it was just a simple walk through instead of an actual maze. That was a bummer. Other than that, we learned a lot more about dairy farming that I ever knew. For instance, cows are milked just like we pump milk off our selves. Except the machine is a bit more high powered! I know everyone wanted to know that.
Here’s some more pictures before I embarrass myself any further.
Twas a bit nippy and I forgot to bring Bryant a coat. So, we found one of Zoe’s jackets in the van and wrapped him up. He was snug as a bug but very tired on the hayride.
Petting zoos are awesome. Bryant called everything a “goggy” (doggy) but he loved watching the animals!
They had a wonderful play area that included a huge slide, a bunch of wooden structures (like a ship, castle, and the like), and a jumping pillow. Five kids pretty much dispersed across the whole play area so it was hard for us to get pictures of everyone.
My goal, for the blog at least, is to post once every day this week (during the week). Wish me luck!
The kids took a field trip to the fire station. As always, it’s a blast to go to our fire station. The firemen are always good with the kids and very excited to educate them!
It’s been awhile since we have been. So, for this trip, I gave Ace the camera. Here’s the field trip proof straight from Ace’s eye!
That’s just a tidbit of what Ace caught. I thought that might be all you could handle in one post. He has a great eye for details! For the record, Josiah was there. He just opted out of the photo opportunity (which was done by Mark…obviously since Ace was in the picture).
September and some of October was spent frantically trying to get costumes made for five anxious children. It wasn’t for Halloween, though. Last year, we had attended a local living history park event called Colonial Times. We left with a very anxious older daughter asking sweetly if she could have a colonial dress to wear next year. And of course, if one wants one, they all do.
And I was happy to provide. Although Mark and I were a little tired as we sewed (yes, we, Mark finally revealed his secret talent of sewing) buttons on to vests at 11:30 at night.
But the results and the smiles were so worth it!
Aren’t they adorable??? Ceili Rain put her dress on and said, “I a princess.” She saw Zoe in her dress and made the same declaration. Guess what? They don’t make boys’ colonial costume patterns unless you want them to look like a mini version of an adult George Washington. Which I didn’t! So, I had to get creative. The knickers are pants bought at Goodwill. I cut them off and put elastic in the bottom to make them poof and look like short pants. The shirts are Goodwill too. I cut the folded over collar off and serged it. The vests were a lucky find of a pattern of multiple vests. I had some old looking buttons that we sewed on (Did I mention we did that at 11:30 at night?).
The rat catcher. He was trying to recruit new workers for himself. The sweet little boy in the yellow shirt took him seriously. He turned around, looked straight at me and in all seriousness announced, “I’m going to go look for rats.” And took off while his mom was talking. We quickly got her attention and she called him back and had to break his heart. So sad.
M. LeFarceur de Villeverte, And if you can translate his name, you’ll get a good giggle. This guy has actually won awards for his lace making. But he’s not a lacemaker. He’s a lace merchant! Lacemakers are all the poor people…like us. He was quite the entertainment and after Ceili Rain stopped freaking out over his make up, she enjoyed him too.
There’s a group in our area that does English Martial Arts. That includes fencing and other things. They were there and this year, they let the kids hold their swords. Can you see the look of utter excitement spread across Liam’s face? Ceili Rain thought it was cool, although she couldn’t hold it up by herself!
Mark and the kids really enjoyed the blacksmith this year. They stayed there while Bryant and I got a bit of drink. They saw him make a nail. That’s all I know about that.
I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I posted pictures. So here’s enough to make your eyeballs bleed. These are from the first of the month after the kids spent a week with Papa & Grandmere and had a blast!
It’s been awhile since I posted a pillow diving photo time, so we’re all due. Aren’t you all excited? Mark, of course, is responsible for these awesome action shots!
We took advantage of the change to not so humid weather and went bike riding in the not too far distant past.
I’ve not kept it a secret that Liam is a challenging kid to work with. He’s set in his ways and knows what he wants to do. And he gets very upset when what he wants to do doesn’t comply with what I want to do. I say he’s passionate…about everything. And, well, it’s hard most days. We work really hard at focusing our heads and hearts on God. Sometimes we work overtime with Liam. He’s an amazing kid and is going to do some amazing things.
But, it happened today. It all started with Liam waking up, getting dressed, grabbing his clean clothes and putting them up. It continued with Liam starting school with a joyful heart and only needing a few reminders throughout the day to have a joyful heart. It was so odd that I called Mark at work to see if something happened last night while I was out to have him change his attitude. He said nothing.
And he’s not sick! Woohoo!
And I praised…and praised…and praised. We talked a lot about how his attitude was effecting everyone else today. We talked about how we please God and others with joyful hearts, etc. So, as we were talking, I asked him if we could keep this Liam.
He replied, “You have to!”
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I continued to talk to him and then he just popped up, “I love you mama!”
And that’s more than my hormonal heart can handle and I just cried.
I love this little boy dearly and I’m fully aware that tomorrow we may wake up and have to work harder than ever to keep joyful hearts and practice immediate obedience. But today, today I saw that God is working in his (and my) heart. We both are seeking Him and wanting to please Him. Today, God showed me that He is here and that He is in control. I’d love to take credit for his good day. But I can’t. Only through God’s love did we have a day like today!
Now on to rest for whatever challenges await us tomorrow!
It’s 5:30 am on Wednesday. Yeah, I’ve been up since 3:30 due to being hot, bathroom run, itching (more on that later), and sinus infection. I have to be up up by 6:15 and ready to get kids up because for some reason I scheduled their dentist appointments for 7:45 in the morning. My brain is totally fried.
So, I thought I’d post, seeing as how I missed yesterday, have read all my facebook statuses, and am now up to date with blogs I don’t follow. Priorities you know.
Liam and Josiah are using a new phonics curriculum. I’ll post more about our homeschool stuff later but I wanted to share this first. The curriculum suggests using different tactile things to encourage writing letters, etc. One of the suggestions was finger paint.
So, I grabbed a box of pudding, mixed it up and sent the kids outside with it, plates, and swimsuits on. They enjoyed it for about ten minutes and then wanted to play in the sprinklers! They barely even ate the pudding (more for me…yippee!). As you can see, Liam got a lot out of the tactile letter writing and made a guy. With a sword.
Josiah made a river and mountains.
I think we’ll just stick with the whiteboard and paper from here on out.
Ceili Rain thought it’d be fun to just smash her hand in it. And lick. I wholeheartedly agreed with her.
And Bryant, well, he still prefers a morning power nap and was down for the count when all the mess occurred.
Now that that is done. Let’s see if I can catch a thirty minute snooze before time to get up and go.
