Funny things I found out

For about a year now, Junior has insisted on having the tags cut out of all his shirts. Most of the tags are out now, but once in a while he will come up to me and say, "Mom, why does this shirt still have a tag?" Like I am falling down on the job or something.

This weekend we went to Grandma's house. She showed me something interesting: most of her shirts and Cindy's shirts have the tags cut out of them. So there you go. That explains quite a lot.

Junior just walked in and informed me of something else. Easy Off BAM is much better than Lime-A-Way. This is because it cleans your kitchen much better, and also if you put a dirty penny in Easy Off BAM for just a second, it will come out all clean and shiny. I need to go turn off the TV!

S is for Sun

Junior's school lessons this week center around the letter S, and the topic is "The Sun." Today he was supposed to draw a picture of the sun. He didn't exactly follow directions, but if you see the picture in the encyclopedia that the kids have, it really is similar.
Junior's artwork

Picture like the one in the encyclopedia

Latest drawings

Here are a couple of the kids' latest drawings. I got Peanut a new drawing book from a garage sale last weekend, she loves books like that. This was her most colorful out of a few she drew Saturday.

Here is one that Junior brought to me today. I am glad that he is actually drawing, and this is a big improvement over his last one. That may not be saying much, the last time he really drew anything was probably 3 or 4 months ago. He is more of a writer, I think. He only wants to practice making letters.

He looks kind of wild, huh? He was just in that kind of mood today. He started real "school" this week, since Peanut is busy with camp. He is doing very well. I am very proud of him, he really likes it. I read to him and he pretends to not be listening, but he can repeat everything back to me. He is making a "Creation Book" this week, and we'll try to put some of it on here when he is done. It is more of a "crafty" project that I thought he would not do, but he is doing very well. It involves coloring and cutting out with scissors, two activities that he would rather not do, but he acts like he is having fun. Who knew?

Sports Camp

Peanut is going to VBS this week. Our church has been doing a sports camp with Uncharted Waters for the past five years. It is a pretty neat thing. Covenant (our church) is the kind of their summer training camp. It is a group of mostly college athletes who spend their summer traveling to different churches putting on sports-oriented programs that are similar to VBS. They work with kids on their sports skills and also incorporate character building, Bible teaching, and evangelism into the program. Peanut is really enjoying it. She picked cheerleading as her sport this year. She likes all the coaches that work with them. All of them that I have seen, seem to be really good with kids. One little girl at church on Sunday pointed to one of the coaches and told me that she met her that morning, and said, "I can't believe I already made a friend and camp hasn't even started yet!"

When they first started doing this I was a little disappointed, but it is not really that different than a normal VBS nowadays. They end up spending 3 hours there, instead of 2 hours, and that extra hour is mostly sports. They still have music and Bible stories, a Scripture to memorize, and even some homework. I can see why they are doing it. VBS around this area is getting to be just a fun thing for kids that already go to church. The idea of a sports camp really appeals to a lot of kids that would normally not come to a regular VBS. And they do bring them in. I think there are three churches in this area (counting ours) that are having sports camp this week.

I will try to get a few pictures this week. Junior is just hanging out with me, he will be old enough to go next year. He got to meet a couple of friends at the park today while Sissy was busy with camp. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow.

Happiness!!!

Yesterday was our big ultrasound. We have a little face picture, but it is not the best quality, so I won't put it here. It looks a little like a spook, and I'm not having a ghost-baby. We went to a specialist, he was very nice, and he assured us that this is a very healthy baby, right on target for everything, and weighing 8 oz. which is the perfect weight for 18 weeks. Praise God! He is so good to us! I'm glad that it is not already too big, but don't worry, it'll get there.

So you might be wondering if we were able to find out if we are going to have a girl baby or a boy baby. Alright, I'll tell you....






IT'S













A


















BOY!

Woohoo! A new brother!!!! And Peanut is very happy. She decided at the last minute that she didn't really care, after hoping for a girl for so long. I told her that makes her the one and only Princess, so that's a good thing.

We had a party for Junior on Saturday. He had a great time. Here is a picture of his cake. He had a "Cash Cab" cake in honor of his favorite show

Afterwards, Dad and the two grandpas worked on the backyard playhouse. It looks great.

Congratulations Todd!

Todd just got his Ham Radio License! Woo hoo! He studied hard, took the test, and made a 100% on it. That was a couple of weeks ago, and they just gave him his license last week. His station is KE5IRG.

Way to go, Todd!!

Baby birds

We have baby birds in our backyard birdhouse again this year. This time has been better, as they are sparrows and no other birds have decided to mess with them.

There was some worry on Saturday as the mama and daddy did not show up for a long time, and we wondered if something had happened to them. The babies were still alive when we got home from church Sunday, so I thought that was a good sign. I sat at the kitchen table for a long time Sunday, and in about an hour and a half, the mama came back for like 5 seconds, but I guess that is long enough to feed baby birds. You know, I try not to pass judgement on other parents who are hopefully doing their best, but still...

But on Monday, the mama and daddy both were very busy coming by to feed them just every few minutes, and yesterday was much the same. The babies are much louder now. You can hear them all over the yard, they are very cute. Peanut has figured out how to hush them, I didn't know you could do that. She just makes a long "shush" sound and they hush right up.

There are at least three and maybe even four, it's hard to tell. I tried to get a picture, but it is impossible, the little camera can't get it.

The picture is from All Posters

Our new car game

Junior has found a new favorite show, Cash Cab. He really gets into it. The "three strikes and you're out" rule is very interesting to him. He acts really worried when someone gets a strike, "Oh, no! If they get three strikes I'm gonna cry!" But I think he really is living for that moment. And not that many people get kicked out, but it's just enough to hold his interest.

So today we had to play it in the car. I'm the driver, but we turn the tables so that I'm actually the contestant and he is the host. Let me tell you, his game is much more challenging than the one on TV. Today it went like this:

Junior: Ok, Who built China?
Mama: Ummm...ah...The ancient Chinese?
Junior: No, that is incorrect! The correct answer is: China Guy!
Mama: Okay, wow, that was a hard one.
Junior: You have One Strike!
Mama: Alright, one strike.
Junior: Next question: Who invented numbers?
Mama: Umm....Arabic...Guy?
Junior: That is correct! You got it RIGHT!!!
Mama: Oh, good.

But he is very fair. He wouldn't let Peanut count an answer wrong because I got it right, just not the thing she was thinking of. Even though she insisted that I needed to be able to tell what she was thinking, that was the rule.

See what I mean? It is a hard, hard, game.

Mothers' Day

I had a very nice Mothers' Day. The kids both gave me cute cards and Todd fixed lunch for me. I didn't have to lift a finger!! He even cleaned up. Wow! Oh, and Peanut made me a craft, which is very nice. It is a pretty sand art bottle. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow.

The kids even went to bed early! That doesn't happen too often. I got to listen to Riverwalk Jazz, I finished up our homeschool yearbook pages, and now I'm just waiting for my BritComs to come on TV.

Here is a very nice article I read this week, called The Pursuit of Happiness. It is a bit long, but really good. And I just love the picture she has of the seashell candles. We went to Hobby Lobby this week and they were selling bowls of seashells. I was so tempted to get some and try to make those candles, then I thought better of it. I don't know how to make candles, and I have enough projects backed up because of my lack of energy the past couple of months.