Evie's 8th birthday

Our sweet girl celebrated her 8th birthday this week! She was extra excited because that meant no more booster seat in the van! She was spoiled with three separate parties... one with her girl cousins (and a violin cake), one with her boy cousins (and a yummy carrot cake) and one at home on her actual birthday. She decided that she wanted a horse cake for her third party. She also decided that she wanted to make it herself! And so she did. We googled horse cakes and found this one...
The reins are made out of bubble tape:)



Some of her birthday gifts included a baby doll (she plays with dolls more now than she did as a toddler!), Melissa and Doug wooden doll, Gigi movies, awesome new clothes (she's starting to love fashion like her daddy!), boots, shoes, nail polish, and some $$.

We are SO BLESSED to have this little girl in our lives. Can't believe I've been a mommy for 8 years! She's blossoming into a beautiful young lady:)

First Snow:)

These three were thrilled about the first snowfall! The flakes were HUGE! Evie and Elijah scooped as much as they could and put it in jars in the freezer to show daddy.

Halloween

Hello blog:) It's been a loooong time! Summer was crazy busy and the last thing I felt like doing was sitting in front of a computer. Here we are again, back into a Fall routine and learning lots at home! Last week we were invited to a Geography/social studies club and learned about Holland. This week we'll learn about India... and this time I'll remember my camera (I hope!). Anyhow, here are a few pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes. We had a great time at Sweets Corners Church... playing games, going through a cardboard box maze and eating LOTS of candy!

Here's my pirate... ARRRR!!


And one of my ballerinas! (The other was too cold to pose for me:)

She's got a looooonnnggg tongue!!

The pictures say it all, lol!!

Sketch Tuesday

This week's Sketch Tuesday was to draw something you'd find in an airport. The kids were excited about this assignment, they LOVE drawing airplanes. The green grid thing beside Elijah's name is supposed to be a # sign (meaning he's number/age 5!).

At it again...

This girl knows where to find markers!

Lego Store!

Ronny couldn't wait to take the kids to the Lego Store in St.Jacobs. Evie and Elijah both LOVE lego. The store has all sorts of life- size figures made out of Lego... very cool! The kids were most excited about the stations where you can build your own race cars and then race them down the ramp. Ronny spent forever making his Ferrari. The kids waited for him patiently and finally got to race. The Ferrari came in last nearly every time, lol!

Sketch Tuesday

We thought we'd take up the challenges on this great blog to get us drawing more every week. Every week, Barb puts together a slideshow of all the artwork people sent in for the assignment. This week's assignment was to draw a castle or something you'd find in one. Here's Evie's castle!

Living books...

I'm reading, "With Nothing but our Courage" to Evie this year as part of our history program. It's a "Dear Canada" book, written by Karleen Bradford. In the story, the mother is depressed because of her many hardships. Evie and I were discussing this depression and Evie said, "That mom should read Joshua 1:9- 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God will be with you'." I was absolutely amazed to hear that come out of Evie's mouth! She couldn't have chosen a more appropriate verse! She just memorized Joshua 1:9 for Awana- this is exactly why I send her there. Thank you Awana! Uncle Wes would be so proud... he's always encouraging us to memorize the Bible:)

Evie's come a long way with her reading this year. She reads over my shoulder while I type. On road trips, she's always calling out what the signs say. For readers this year, I wanted to use something "living"- as Charlotte Mason would call it. I've probably written the Simply Charlotte Mason's quote on Living Books before, but here it is again:

"Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive.' "

The Little House on the Prairie books were the perfect answer. They are exciting to read and challenging enough to keep introducing new words for her to learn. She only reads about 3-4 pages in a sitting but sometimes the story gets so exciting that she just can't stop at four pages.



I sometimes catch Evie reading the Dr. Seuss books to Elijah. I absolutely love that. I'm just dying for the day I catch her reading a novel for her own enjoyment. When I was around Evie's age or a bit older, I got hooked on the Ramona books. My mom bought me one after another. I can't wait to see what series she likes and I'll be sure to buy her one after the next too! I've got all the Ramona books just in case she likes them the same way I did. Um, not sure if they're considering, "Living" though:)

Dis and Dat...

Dis and Dat is Elijah's way of saying this and that! We're trying to get him to realize the "th" sound:)
When we started Math U See at the beginning of the school year, I started Evie in grade one all over again. She hadn't memorized her addition facts with the other math program we were using last year. She just finished grade one a little over a month ago and we're into second grade now. She's almost finished with memorizing all the addition facts now but she still has to pick up speed. I love it that she add it all in her head without using her fingers!
Yesterday she used the math u see blocks to show all the combinations that you can use to make 9. It's just so cool to me that she's able to figure addition facts out on her own. It gives her ownership and makes the facts actually mean something to her. Have I mentioned that I LOVE math u see?? I didn't even tell her to write down the combinations, she did that on her own. I was hoping that this year she'd outgrow her letter and number reversals. Another goal for next year, I guess:)

Letter to Savanannanh Savannah

Our little night owl, Evie, was up late again the other night. I heard the shuffling of papers and just knew I'd find a stack of artwork in the morning. As I sifted through her pictures, I found this letter that she wrote to her cousin, Savanannanh Savannah.


I like how Evie darkened the tooth that she just got a silver cap on and left a space for one of Savannah's missing teeth:)



Evie sure lov la luve lvie loves her cousin!

Wipe Out!!!

Our family bike ride today did not go so well. I wiped out with Eden on my bike!! We skidded across the pavement... ouch! Poor Eden was terrified and bleeding from her nose. Her lip was instantly swollen and her finger had a big chunk of skin hanging off of it. Thankfully Ronny was with us and biked home and grabbed the van. After a nap and some tylenol, she cheered up and is back to her cute little self. Not sure if she's going to let me take her on a bike ride any time soon!

Cracking the Fast Language Code:)

Last week we had a great visit to the town of Elora. We hiked a few trails and had a picnic. When we were heading to the little river, Eden repeatedly kept saying, "Bah-doe, Bah-doe". I finally realized that's her word for "water". We're constantly trying to crack the language code with her. "Book" is "Book" but it also means, "Milk"! She puts an "L" in front of a few words... "Head" is "Lead" and "Uppy" is "Luppy".
Elijah and Evie have a few funny words too.. Evie says "Thinger" instead of "finger" and Elijah says, "Dis" instead of "This".



This picture was taken in Elora. I saw a guy with a fancy camera walking around so I asked him to take our picture:) We're definitely going to head back to Elora in the near future and do some more exploring, I love it there!!

Easter

In preparation for Easter, I bought the Resurrection Eggs and a sweet book called, "Benjamin's Box" to go along with them.



The kids had so much fun opening the eggs! I'd borrowed my friend Teri's set a few years ago. It was so funny, Evie was about four years old and when we got to the last egg (which is empty to represent the empty tomb), Evie started looking around to see if something had fallen out. I explained to her that it was SUPPOSED to be empty, just like the empty tomb. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that and then exclaimed, "Don't worry mom! I'll find something to put in this egg!"

The kids are going to hear the Easter Story thousands of times by the time they are grown. In the constant repetition of it I hope that they never lose sight of how amazing it really is.

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather hit record highs... around 24 degrees! We were able to celebrate with Ronny's side on Saturday and my side on Sunday.



The bigger cousins collected a pail full of frogs at our family gathering on Sunday. They convinced Eden to kiss about four or five of them- right on the lips!


Ronny's Opa died on Easter Monday (yesterday). How beautiful that he died on a weekend full of promise. Because Jesus rose again, we will be reunited with Opa in heaven! Opa loved Jesus and now he is face to face with Him:)

Happy Easter!

Thoughtful little boy...

Elijah was enjoying some smarties and decided to share with his mommy. He gave me three and said, "I'm only giving you three because I don't want you to get too chubby". So thoughtful:)

Timmy... the escape artist

This week, Timmy found a way out of his cage in the basement. Of course, there were lots of tears from Evie. Everytime she cries, she could fill a bathtub with her tears- it's crazy! Actually, in the midst of her crying episode, she reminded me of our recent science lesson on how our bodies are made up of 2/3rds water. I told her that she must have a little more than the average person causing the overflow in tears! Anyhow, I was certain that Timmy was gone for good and told her that I'd buy her a new hamster. She was devastated... no hamster could replace her Timmy! She said that she understood how I felt when I lost my hamster as a child. She also mentioned that my loss was much worse since I watched a cat run off with my hamster! Thankfully, the same day Timmy disappeared, Ronny found him again. He switched the basement light on at around 11 pm and found Timmy in the middle of the basement floor. Evie was so happy in the morning to find her beloved hamster fast asleep in his cage.

Pray for Daniel Bigu

****UPDATE**** (I copied and pasted this update from an email I just received)
"Let's start with the GOOD NEWS! Dan's kidneys as we have been praying are now working wonderfully - THANK GOD! His lungs are doing much better and yesterday he was able to remove the oxygen tube from his nose any time he wanted - another answer to prayer!!!
The right chest tube is draining ever so slowly which is a great sign of healing within the lungs and the fluid - they will be able to remove that soon!! The left tube is also slowing down but not as quickly!!
Danny is still strong in spirit, but as you can imagine -laying in a bed for 3 weeks can damper you! We are working to stream our Resurrection morning service into his hospital room via the net and the hospital is working with us on that - THIS WILL BE A GREAT LIFT TO HIS SPIRIT!!
So here is what we need to pray and if you are not familiar or have never prayed - just whisper in your heart on behalf of Dan - God will hear you!

That all works out for the streaming (how cool would that be)
Still in a lot of pain
complete healing and restoration to the lower limbs
The numbness in his pinky and ring finger in right arm
Continued Strength to the family
Financial Blessings as his father lost his job to due bankruptcy of the company he worked for."



I started this blog as a way of journaling my kid's lives but I want to take an opportunity to ask for prayer. A sweet, young boy from our church recently fell three stories and hurt his back. His name is Daniel Bigu. This happened during a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

He needs prayer specifically for the healing of 1. His lungs- they were punctured during surgery in the Dominican 2. His kidneys- the strong medications have caused damage 3. His body- that he will be able to walk again!

God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think!

Wink!

One of our daily homeschool drills is going over our A Beka "Special sounds" cards. When we get to "Ink in Wink", Eden never fails to give us her best wink!




(and yes, we do live in our pajamas!)

A Little Princess

We finished reading "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett- what a great book! To celebrate, we had a party with Cassidy and Maggie who also just finished the book. We met together to watch "A Little Princess" movie and have a Victorian Tea party.

Angie had a great idea to start off the party. In the book, Sarah Crewe had hard living conditions and imagined her surroundings to be lovely. Angie thought we should begin by having the girls go into my parent's old, dark basement. We gave them a kettle of water, tin cups, and plain bread. They had so much fun acting out Sarah Crewe and imagining that it was a fancy tea party!





Then they came upstairs to an actual fancy tea party!








Elijah was determined to join in on the fun! He figured he could sneak in as a knight in shining armour:)



Drinking tea like a real lady!



Cassidy, the comedian, demonstrated how a lady should NOT behave at a tea party. Funny girl!

I didn't do it!!

This house had really nice, freshly painted walls when we moved here a couple of months ago. Eden has managed to colour on nearly all of them. This sort of thing never happened with the other two. Now having older kids WITH the toddler, things have changed. The older ones leave the pencils/markers within her reach.

All in one day last week, she managed to find a marker (after I put them all away) and coloured herself and her dolls while I was in the shower. She hid the kid's DS games. I found one so far. It was in the hamster cage (glad I found it before Timmy the hamster did!). She cried the entire time I cooked supper.


Two year olds are soooo much work. Soooo cute, but so much work!

For Sale:

Evie was complaining that she can't shut some of her overflowing dresser drawers. I asked Evie if she wanted to sell some of her clothes on Kijiji. She ran to her room and came back with an armload of clothes that she wants to part with. Then Elijah disappeared. He came back with only one thing that he was willing to part with. The item in the photo. Evie and I had a good laugh... picturing the old thing for sale on Kijiji. Elijah had no idea what was so funny! Oh, I love my boy!

Sniffle Sniffle...

When Elijah has a cold, like he does now, he carries the tissue box wherever he goes. I don't know why but I find it so funny to seem him playing with his toys on the floor with the tissues right beside him. He panics if they aren't in arm's reach!



This morning, Elijah and I were discussing how God made every part of us. Our discussion went like this:

Mommy- "What did God make your eyes for, Elijah?"

Elijah- "For seeing!"

Mommy- "That's right! What are your feet useful for?"

Elijah- "For walking."

Mommy- "Good! What about your nose?"

Elijah- "For blowing"

Yep, that sums it up for him right now! Can't wait until cold season is over!

I had to laugh when Evie brought her paper home that she made in Sunday school. I think she's gettting sick of the sight of snot too!
She drew herself and Eden. She's crying as she's looking at Eden and the caption says, "EWWW mommy... I see Boogers!"

Daredevil!

Last week we went sledding again (with much better success!).
Of all the kids, we weren't sure how Eden would like it... turns out that she loved it the most! The other two seemed to get bored of it quickly. Eden couldn't get enough.

Ronny even sent her down on her own! She kept letting go of the wheel and falling back. She wanted to do it over and over.




Mmmmm... hot chocolate:)