Learning to Sew

She wanted to learn to sew. We put it on our list of things to do this summer. Since school is out, this was a great day to get started. She's making a whale (like the ones I made) for her brother. I don't think 6 is to early to start learning. I think I started to sew around the age of 3 or 4. But I started with embroidery. I remember my first project, an elephant on a tea towel. I think I still have it somewhere. I'm starting her on the machine. It takes a little practice to go slowly, but she's doing great.

Letters to my Son ~ May 2014

Dear Little Mr.

     You are the silliest of all the silly boys I've ever known. You sir, love to laugh and make others laugh. You put on crazy faces, tell silly jokes, and use different voices. Then you tip back your head and just laugh and laugh. 

     I love that you always want to play the movie that you are watching. If you watch the movie of Jesus' arrest, you play Peter cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Yesterday, you watched one of the Toy Story movies. Immediately, you wanted me to get out your toy story figures so you could play it. What fun it is to hear you reenacting different movies.

     Nearly everywhere you go, you have a sword stuck in your belt or down the side of your pants. You love to use our vacuum attachments to store your knife in too. 

     I entered uncharted waters when God gave you to me four short years ago. It was with some nervousness that I entered the world of boys. I didn't know what to expect or how it would all turn out, but after all this time I just don't know what I'd do without my sweet, sweet boy. Love you to Heaven and back.

~Momma

Scavenger hunt

A Sabbath afternoon walk.
Two little babies.
Two nature explorer bags full of tools for capturing bugs, looking up close and holding their finds.
One point and shoot camera to share.

Graduating from Kindergarten

So proud of your little girl, who graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. I just have to say that little kids in caps and gowns are the cutest. And our little girl just shone in the spotlight. She was all smiles and was beaming from ear to ear. She sang her songs well, played Jesus Loves Me on the bells with gusto, and also said her parts of the Bible ABC's without forgetting one word, despite the length. It was a great time watching her. We sure do love that baby girl.

Six things I love about my 6 Year Old Girl

There are of course a million and one things, both big and small, that I love about my little girl. I am so blessed and so thankful that God placed her in our home. This week, she turned six, and I am going to share 6 reasons why I love this little girl like crazy. Ready? O.K....here we go...

1. This girl is amazingly thoughtful. She seriously loves to put a smile on your face. She offers us back rubs, brings us glasses of water, and looks for ways to help us. The other day, she saw my (large) pile of clean laundry that was taking over the couch. Without even asking, she took it upon herself to fold everything ...and she did a really good job! Sometimes she sweeps our laundry room, or gets food and water for the cats. Whenever she gets a treat, she thinks of brother and tries to get him one too, or may even save  a piece of her own for him.

2. She has the best belly laugh ever. Her eyes light up, her head tips back, her mouth smiles wide and the most beautiful laugh in the whole world, bubbles up from deep inside. It is so contagious. I just love to hear that little laugh. She laughs loud and laughs often. With all her silly ways, she has plenty to laugh about. She is just so happy.

3. I love that she is always making art for me. I love her drawings. She draws pictures, mostly of our family. And her little stick figures are so fun and cute. Sometimes she gives me curly hair...and sometimes she gives Daddy his spiky hair. Sometimes she draws us outside. And sometimes, she draws us in Heaven with Jesus. I love those the best.

4. She is a little teacher. She just cannot help it. It oozes from every pore. I just KNOW that someday she will be running her own classroom. She loves to come home from school and play like she is the teacher. She has her own teaching set and has a Little People school play set too. She likes to help me at Sabbath School, but I think she'd rather I sit down, and she take over the whole thing. She'd probably be able to handle it pretty well, too.

5. Her sense of adventure is awesome! She dives into everything easily, without fear. She runs fast, plays hard, and jumps high. She's not afraid to get dirty. She is full of fun and enjoys attempting new and exciting things. She doesn't hang back at the edges, but gets right in, involved. I just love that about her.

6. She is a great little writer. She loves coming home after school to write pages upon pages of words. Sometimes it is a list, sometimes she copies songs, but I love it most when she writes her little stories. She could go on and on. She writes just like she talks, without coming up for breath. She even won the writing award for her kindergarten class. Can't wait to see what her stories are like when she gets to my third grade class. 

And there you have it...just six, out of the one million things, I could have said about my baby girl. 

Birthday breakfast. She just knew she was going to have something special for breakfast. I heard her tell Little Mr. the night before her birthday that they were not going to have cereal (as usual) for breakfast, but that it was going to be something special for her birthday. She had a giant blueberry muffin (one of her favorites) with a candle, orange juice, and red raspberries. She was beyond thrilled.

 I make her a special candy rainbow cake. The icing was covered with sprinkles and there were little candy jawbreakers lining the border and Dum Dum lollipops and some swirly ones too. And there were lollipop candles and some polka-dot candles too. She loved it. Her classmates loved it too. The hard part was keeping them back from the lollipops until they were served.

 

 Inside, the cake had 6 different rainbow colored layers. I loved the ooh's and aah's as I removed the first slice. It's the little things that make a big difference. It was so easy, but they loved it with all the colors inside.

 Baby Girl wanted pizza for her birthday supper. And she wanted to eat "Al Fresco". And I could not deny that sweet little face. We also had watermelon, pineapple, and lemon ice. And we chose Frozen plates to serve it all on. It was a near disaster. Just as I was getting ready to lay out the picnic, I could not find those plates we had bought a few days earlier. I looked everywhere. Finally, I said a quick prayer that we would find them and not disappoint our little girl. (Earlier, at school, she had accidentally broken the foil balloon I had gotten her. And she pulled the feet off of a pencil topper that came with her balloon and pencil. She was sobbing.) I had Rhett search the car in case it had not gotten brought in. And there they were, still in the trunk.

 At home, we surprised her with her first store bought cake. A princes one. There weren't any Frozen princess ones, but she loves all the princesses, so I chose this one. Of course it was a big hit!

 Making a wish. I bet it was for that Frozen (Elsa) dress she wanted. We just could not make it happen. It's just one of those things. There aren't any to be had, unless we wanted to spend hundreds to thousands for one on Ebay. But we had to explain to her that we will get her one after the craze dies down. There's no way I'm paying for that!

 Blowing out 6 candles proved harder than it looked. I'm not sure how many puffs it took, but it was several.

Opening presents wrapped in My Little Pony and princess wrapping papers.

 More presents. She got clothes, hair things, and Elsa (Frozen) crown, some princess perfume, and....

 an Elsa doll.

 Trying on her Elsa crown.

Six is a fun age to be.

What April Looked Like

April was a busy, busy month around here. Here's a look at what April looked like.

April looked like a trip to the gym for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles birthday party. It looked like Baby Girl running and jumping and swinging and flipping all over the gym. It looked like Little Mr. scared to participate in the fun activities, but eventually warming up enough to do some other activities on the outskirts of where everyone else was. It looked like turtle masks in red, orange, blue, and purple. It looked like a fun time celebrating a classmate's birthday with friends. It looked like getting both cake and a cupcake. It looked like pizza and a Capri Sun. It looked like parachute games and two goody bags each...filled with candy, and a pen, and a skateboard.  It looked like a balloon for each of the littles. It looked like one balloon not being held tight enough by Baby Girl and floating off into the sky. It looked like little girl crying as she watched her balloon getting smaller and smaller and eventually disappearing. It looked like Daddy telling little girl he'd buy her a new one. And then later telling her she could get another balloon or a slush. It looked like little girl getting the slush instead of a balloon.

April looked like a fun day to splash in the sprinkler for the first time this year. It looked like Baby Girl running and dancing in the sprinkles of water in the warm afternoon sun. It looked like Little Mr. mostly watching from afar. 

April looked like a trip to the shoe store. It looked like new shoes for our two littles. Rainbow ones for Baby Girl and matching ones for Little Mr. but in blue and red like Spiderman. It looked like two new pairs of shoes for Daddy....you know we can't pass on a buy one get one half off deal.

April looked like a bake sale for Baby Girl's class to raise money for graduation. It looked like Momma staying up late and getting up early to prepare a couple of Pinterest-worthy treats. It looked like lemonade cupcakes complete with a lemon slice and a straw. It looked like dirt desert complete with a gummy worm and flower spoon. It looked like the dirt desert being such a hit that it sold out in minutes. It looked like Baby Girl's teacher asking me to make "just" dirt desert for their next bake sale in a couple of weeks. It looked like me telling her I could do that, but that I also already had stuff to bring minion cupcakes.

April looked like a trip to Epcot. The first one, for the littles. It looked like making a mad dash to see Anna and Elsa and thinking we were in a great spot. It looked like us finding out that our "good spot" actually came with a 2 1/2 hour wait. It looked like us finding out that it REALLY WAS a good spot when 10 minutes later we heard the workers telling other people joining the line that there was now a 4 1/2 hour wait. It looked like  a little girl thrilled to meet Anna and Elsa. It looked like a day of meeting lots of characters. It looked like a meal at the best (and authentic) Italian restaurant in Italy at Epcot. It looked like a fun ride under the sea with Nemo. And a ride through the famous Epcot ball. It looked like a boat ride through both Norway and Mexico.It looked like a lot of fun.

April looked like Easter activities. Like an egg hunt with friends. It looked like baskets overflowing with eggs that were found. It looked like bunny bottom pancakes...how fun! It looked like Easter crafts and a resurrection garden. It looked like a new sailor dress for Baby Girl and a suit with a bow tie for Little Mr. 

April looked like singing in church with the choir for Education Sabbath. 

April looked like Little Girl riding her bike for the first time without training wheels. It looked like lots of falling, but  progress being made. It looked like high-fiving and hugging. It looked like Baby Girl not getting discouraged by all the falls. It looked like Daddy running behind her, holding her steady while she got started. It looked like wobbling and crashing. 

April looked like field trips. It looked like a field trip to the farm. It looked like a horseback ride. It looked like baby chicks. It looked like a picnic. It looked like Little Mr. joining Baby Girl's class on the trip. It looked like another field trip to the strawberry patch. It looked like picking eight quarts of strawberries for only 50 cents. It looked like another trip to the same strawberry patch a few days later to get more strawberries. It looked like a counter filled with strawberries that were just cleaned. It looked like strawberry jam being made and strawberries being put in bags to be frozen. 

It looked like overdue pictures being taken for Mr.'s birthday.  It looked like a million tiny moments that I don't want to forget.  It looked like a lot of activity all rolled up and shoved into the 30 days of April.