what will seven be?
And thus, explains my absence the past several days! We are so excited about this new little blessing being knit together! The kids are beyond thrilled and Ace told us, when we told them about the baby, that he had prayed the night before that God would give us another baby.
I’ve got to do a major photo dump but sleep and nausea are my friends for awhile.
But, pictures they are a comin’!
Stay tuned.
Bryant likes blueberry coffee cake. See???
We’re here but blogging will be sporadic this week as we are enjoying some time with our dear friends from another state! Ten kids 8 and under all in one house! We are having a blast.
For now, enjoy Bryant’s sweet blueberry face. Yeah, we know we should have used a bib!
Yes, I know I’m two days early but I didn’t want to forget as we have friends who will be here all week! And I’m one happy camper.
So, for the 4th we will be joyfully busy.
And my daughters will be decked out in the most adorable outfits. At least I think they are:
Yeah, it’s still keeping the pictures turned. I’ll show how I made this skirt in a sec…but first, the youngest from the Bunch…
This was my second attempt at a pillowcase dress and, I must say, it succeeded!
So, here’s how I made Zoe’s skirt. After making the pillowcase dress, I didn’t have enough material to make a twirl skirt for Zoe. So, I brainstormed. And remembered that I was holding on to two blue jean legs that I had cut off last year to make shorts for Zoe. I knew they would make a cute skirt but wasn’t sure how to use them. And then this project came up:
I cut the legs apart and then folded them in half.
I placed the denim on the fabric on the fold and cut out two more panels to match the pants panels. I also made sure they had a bit of a triangle shape to add to some twirl (which is a requirement from Zoe).
Then I just sewed (actually serged…woohoo…I have a serger now) the panels together, made casing for elastic and then sewed the ribbon on the bottom. Tada!
And my wonderful “critic” and “advisor” loved it!
The week of Josiah’s Big Cut did not end with just a mere scratch but with two…yes, two, black eyes! At least they were on different people. The Thursday after the cut incident, I was dropping Zoe off at Dance Camp and had left the other kids in the Crimson Cruiser while I ran in to see if there were any last minute instructions. I was gone, possibly, five minutes at the most and every single child in the van was strapped in and the a/c was running. When I got back to the car, Liam was screaming and holding his eye. In between sobs and as I raced to get gas for our mammoth vehicle (the light came on as we pulled out of our driveway and stayed on…it was very low). I got the story:
Ceili Rain wanted one of Bryant’s hard plastic toys (it looks like a remote control). Ace was in the front middle seat with Bryant and thought he’d toss the toy back to Ceili Rain. Apparently, Ace isn’t very good at throwing behind himself and the toy landed directly behind him. It just so happens that Liam occupies the seat directly behind Ace and it just so happens that Liam took a direct hit, in the eye, from the projectile.
When we stopped for gas, I got Liam out of his seat, cleaned the blood and then tried to get witch hazel on it (to help keep it from bruising). It was quite beyond witch hazel help though and he still got a black eye.
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| Wear that shiner with pride my son! |
That very same afternoon. I’m not kidding it was that afternoon! The kids were all playing in the boys’ room while I got supper ready. Ceili Rain decided she wanted something down from the very top of the boys’ dresser and pulled and pulled. And she continued to pull until she pulled a ceramic piggy bank down. The best we can figure is that Zoe broke the banks fall causing it to smash into pieces and one of the pieces cut and hit Ceili Rain. On the eye. The opposite eye of Liam. I was praising God that she didn’t get a piece in her eye.
And Josiah, well, his finger is healing wonderfully! He lost some of his fingernail but not much. The day of the black eyes, I decided to give the kids a bath and to keep Josiah from getting it wet, we did this:
He wanted to take a picture to show Daddy. Daddy was so proud.
Now, I didn’t get a picture of our last black eye, but will tell that Bryant has had his first black eye recently. Last week, he was in the living room and I was listening out for him while working on the computer. I apparently wasn’t fast enough because when I heard him at the steps, then he was on the floor of the bonus room. This is why I’m very grateful we live in a ranch house with two steps down into the bonus room. Somehow he hit his eye and got a nice shiner on the way down. Needless to say, we are all much more cautious about the steps with Mr. Bry. As we should be…that kid can climb up on toilets, stepstools, and whatever else he finds. The trouble is he can’t get down.
We’re all praying for an accident free July!
Our pastor’s wife planned a trip to a local blueberry patch and when the owners said the more kids the merrier, we signed up! Some of the local u-pick places do not like having children running through their land (understandably). But these people didn’t mind. And they didn’t seem to mind after we finished picking and eating blueberries and making multiple trips to their toilet and drinking up all their water.
I apologize, in advance for all these sideways photos. I’m not sure what is up with blogger. I have checked, and double checked, and I have rotated the pictures and saved them but some how they flip when I upload them. So, just turn your head.
A beautiful pond, and because they have 16 grandchildren, there is a nice big fence all the way around the pond! Woohoo for grandparents!
She actually did pick more than that…but she was amazed at how well she did at the start!
Yes, I made them wear the yellow shirts…even though our group was the only ones there. I never had trouble spotting them.
All their hard work earned great rewards though. We got one large bucket of blueberries and about half a bucket of blackberries. And they were all yummy too! And still are. I froze most of the blueberries and we take out as needed!
Zoe decided she wanted to try dance again this year. A few years ago, she took from a great ballet studio here. We were going to sign her up for that when we got an email about a dance camp at a different studio. This studio is fairly small, works primarily with homeschoolers, and does only praise/worship dance. Something different but the more we prayed and talked about it, Mark and I both realized that she probably was not going to be a professional ballerina but that our primary goal was for her to learn how to worship through dance.
So, after Zoe watched videos of the instructor doing praise dance, she was hooked! She took a dance camp recently and is looking forward to starting up on a weekly basis in the fall!
And the boys enjoy climbing all over the studio!
So, for the past ten months we’ve been crammed around our six foot table. Okay, well, it hasn’t been ten months. Bryant has only been eating upright for around five months or so…so it’s been five months. Even so, we were a bit crammed before he joined us.
See?
Yep, Bryant’s off in the corner. Mark’s squeezing in for space with Ceili Rain. I squeeze in with Liam. Zoe fights with Josiah for elbow room. Dinner time was quite interesting.
We were blessed with our last trip to Ge and Granddaddy’s, however…with an auction find of a table!
Yes, it looks small, but it has two leaves and with the sides out, it’s seven feet long and a few inches wider than our previous one. And, we also got the chairs that match it. Six to be exact! And, we found two more very sturdy chairs to replace our kitchen chairs that were falling apart. I was excited! And the style was perfect. All the larger tables I had looked at (both new and used) were way too formal. We have an eat-in kitchen. That’s it. Formal just doesn’t go with an eat-in kitchen area. At least in my opinion.
Now, please, don’t freak out. The table and chairs had a beautiful stain on them, but it was peeling in places and something had to be done. After researching the furniture (it’s Heyword Wakefield, c. 1989), I realized that, given the proper facilities and if I chose for children not to be anywhere near it, I could sand it down, refinish it and sale it for a lot of money. I know this. And after sanding it down in upper 90 degree weather, I still knew it. But I also knew that I had not the time nor the place to do that.
So, I did the next best thing. I painted it.
And I got help too:
Those are paint shirts…please don’t think I let my boys run around in shirts with extra head holes.
In my quest to find the perfect colors to paint it, I discovered a great idea.
Tinted chalkboard paint! I know it’s cheesy but my kids love to draw, write, and talk! What better way than to have a chalkboard table top. Yes, it’s a little messy but it cleans up well. I’m sure at some point we’ll have to recoat it.
To make the chairs match the table, I painted the slats with chalkboard paint. So, when company comes (and I remember), I can give assigned seats!
We also added a checkerboard (okay two, I misread the google post and made the board twice as long as it should have been). That checkerboard has already been the scene for many a battle! Do you see my jars? Old glass food jars (cleaned, of course). The jar on the right has buttons…aka our checker pieces…and they work well too. The other is full of chalk. Note to self: When using a light colored chalkboard paint do not use dark black or brown on the chalkboard…it’s the dickens to get up.
Confession time: I was really iffy about the tan on the top. However, we’ve had a white table top before (see above) and it is not pretty when it comes to stains. So, I went with the tan. And, as it turns out, I really like it.
Ceili Rain is enjoying it too…she just has to learn that chalk, and only chalk, can go on the table!
Here’s some FYI: There are a few types of colored chalkboard paint. We used the tintable that Rustoleum makes because I could purchase it locally. To do the tabletop and chairs, I used one can of paint with a little left over. It can be tinted in thirteen different colors. Not sure why you can’t pick from a color swatch, but that’s something for a seasoned veteran of chalkboard paint to ask, not me. Oh rolling it with a small nap gives the best finish.
First off, just gotta say that if you haven’t used Groupon to get daily deals you are missing out. If you are like me and have totally given up on scrapbooking because of sheer time consumption, then groupon is a great deal. I’ve got a few groupons out right now to use towards photo books and I bought them for more than half the price! Totally worth it to just throw pictures in, choose backgrounds and get up to date on our memories being recorded. I know you scrapbooking purists are choking on your hot tea (who drinks hot tea in one hundred degree weather), but desperate times call for desperate measures. So, please don’t guilt me into scrapbooking again, I’ve got enough guilt of my own. Besides that, I get swagbucks for my Groupon deal which is a double rock.
Anyway, we had a groupon for Edventure in Columbia, SC set to expire at the end of June. We looked at, scrutinized, and finally figured out that the best time to go would be at the first of the month.
So, without further ado, here’s our trip to Edventure in pictures.
And, please note, we are standing on the other side of the room. Didn’t realize there was sound proof glass in the music room. But I do know why!
Did you notice my kids attire? I finally gave in and at 8 o’clock the night before, was scouring Target looking for matching shirts. I decided safety was the best way to go so everyone is in yellow. How can you not spot a Bunch of Characters in yellow shirts, especially if one has strayed? If you’ll notice, Ace is in a striped yellow shirt because, at 8:30 that evening after searching and changing my mind one hundred times, I gave up and let him wear a close-to-matching shirt. However, that weekend I found a matching yellow shirt and now, all is right with the world. Look for our bright yellows everywhere. It’s going to be big people!
Zoe was part of our local homeschool speech and debate club this year. She’s too young to do debate, but they offered classes in public speaking, apologetics, and community platform for children her age.
Community platform presented opportunities for the children to effectively share the love of Christ in our community. Around Christmas, she helped present a Christmas program and she was Curly Sue and Violet from Charlie Brown. I, personally, thought she did a great job. She loves being on stage and performing comes easily to her (no stage fright whatsoever, of course, she’s very outgoing). This Spring, their last performance was in the public schools doing various books. I was a coach for this and as such, I pulled from my favorite children’s books…Southern folk tales.
So, Zoe got to participate too. She chose to do Brer Rabbit and Three Foots. Both are deep southern pieces and she learned a lot about speaking dialect and how that should be portrayed to an audience (so they can understand you). She, again, did a wonderful job! We’re so proud of her!
Ge & Granddaddy have the best spot for outdoor play! Big yard and lots to run around and do! And they have a swing that spins around really fast. If you have a sibling willing to spin you. I like the wicker swing to work on crocheting (I’m still working on that blanket…ugh…blankets).
