Kaitlyn's 4th Birthday

One week after Alan's party, we celebrated Kaitlyn's Birthday. She will be 4 on Monday, but this was the best day for the party. Needless to say, Tom and I are exhausted, but the kids are happy. We had a lot of fun today. Kaitlyn's party had an animal/zoo theme. Including our 3 big kids, there were 8 children there. It was the perfect size.

I thought the invitations for her party were so cute that I made a big Happy Birthday sign by scanning one onto the computer and turning it into a big poster.

To capture the children's attention, I asked them all to sit in a circle and tell me which animal they would like to be. Then I told them that the animal they want to be is hiding around the room, and that they can go find it. One by one they told me which animal they wanted, and I let them go get it. I had cut 13 different chunky animals out of some of my scrap wood for the kids to pick. Once they picked an animal, I had them hold onto it and we played "Zoo Upside down" which is the animal version of our favorite game growing up called, "Fruit basket upside down". They had alot of fun. One mom was so impressed with the game and the animals that she wanted me to cut her some animals and print out instructions to the game and sell it to her. I told her that I would just cut her some animals for free since it only takes me a few minutes. I thought that was kind of funny. Anway,... this picture shows just a few of the 13 different animals I cut this morning before the party.

We also played pin the tail on the lion with a picture of a lion I got from Kaitlyn's invitations. Notice how many of the tails aren't even close to the lion? One even ended up on the refridgerator in the kitchen to the right. The kids thought it was hillarious to laugh at how badly each other did in placing the tail.

We ended the party with the old favorite, smashing the heck out of a poor unsuspecting pinata animal. This party's victim was a brightly colored Llama. Here Sarah is laughing as she smacks

him.

Here's William enjoying the animal glasses that all the kids got in their goody bags:

Alan's 9th Birthday

For Alan's 9th Birthday we took 5 little boys + Alan and Sarah to see the animated starwars movie "The Clone Wars". They met at our house at 3:00pm, and we drove them all to the theater. Then we got 7 little children popcorn and drinks, then filed all 7 into see the movie. They had alot of fun. The movie was pretty decent. Lot's of action, which is just what a bunch of little boys want to see. William didn't want to sit on my lap for most of the movie, so I was in the back watching with my wiggly little one, while Tom sat with all the kids. After the movie we drove them back to our house for presents cake and ice cream.

Notice the light saber cake? It is a chocolate cake I made from scratch since I had no chocolate cake mixes in the house. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

I also made wooden light sabers for each of the boys as party favors. I bought a thick wooden dowel and cut and sanded it down into light sabers. I painted the "blade" part with glow in the dark paint. The boys loved those too.I made the boys go out in the yard to play with them so that I wouldn't have any thing broken in the house.

Little Piano Man

I found this little piano at the GoodWill store for $5.95. That was so cheap that just couldn't resist buying it. It has two octaves and it sounds like a little tinkling music box when played. William loves to stand at it and bang on it.

Preparing for the winter....

I've been working on my puzzles for the Christmas season all summer, but I haven't been able to really get going until the kids went back to school. I have a goal of having 50 ready by October 15. Last year I made them as people bought them, and it was quite stressful at times, especially when I had orders for multiples. And of course, I did have a baby last November, one puzzle even sold the day he was born. (I just love ebay)
Here's my stack of 10 freshly cut still needing alot of attention.
Here's my scroll saw after I've cut a few puzzles. Look at all that sawdust!! You can also see my protective glasses, ear plugs, wood mineral oil, and plans for new puzzles on the bulletin board behind it.

Yesterday I was able to get 6 painted, now I have to lacquer them.. But two of them have already sold this week, so technically I only have 4 toward my goal of 50... I have a long way to go.

Watching Hurricane Fay...

William loves to sit and play at our front door and look outside through the glass. (We have an all glass storm door). He will pull himself up on the glass and tap on the glass and laugh. Today it was particularly interesting outside because we're getting some serious rain from Hurricane Fay. We're so far inland that we hopefully won't get anything too terrible. But we are on a "tornado watch" all day today. You can't tell, but on the ground outside the front door there's around an inch of rain already, and it only just started raining about 5 mins before I took this picture. Do you see how dark it is out there? I took this picture this morning at 11:30 am.

Bath time fun...

William says, "I just love bath time!"

" There's just so much to taste!"
"Gimme that camera!"

Kaitlyn's bread people

Kaitlyn has imaginary friends. She has many of them. She talks about them as if they are real. Some days she even insists that we say "hi" to them. A few of them are Cici, Jakin, and Cheney. Those are the three we hear the most about. Today, I decided to let her create some bread people. She says these two are Cici, and Jakin...

So, I'd like you to meet Kaitlyn's friends, Cici and Jakin.

The Cool Kid's Club...

Lately, our kids have been making up "clubs". This afternoon was no exception as they started a new club and crammed themselves into the little "pooh bear" tent with story books and a bucket full of grapes to eat. Sometimes when they make up their clubs they think of funny names. Last week they made a "Salamander Club" because of the little salamander Tom caught running around our family room. (It is common down here for salamanders to come up through the pipes and into houses) In order to be in the club, Sarah and Alan required everyone to give themselves a new name-even Tom and I. The names had to start with "Sal". Tom thought of "Saladdy" and I thought of "Salami" We were quite proud of ourselves for those names. :)...
Johnny, Ben, & Mark; Just wait until your kids are old enough to make you think of Goofy names.

William on the trampoline

This is the first time I put William on the trampoline without holding him. He seemed to enjoy it, but we couldn't bounce too hard of course. If you'll notice, he keeps steadying himself and looking down. I think he can see the grass underneath, and he might be a little worried or confused.

Little Soldiers

Official Toy Testers....and tasters...

Every time I make new puzzle for sale or for fun, Kaitlyn begs me to be able to play with it. (And William is always anxious to taste it). Here they are officially testing and tasting my latest Noah's ark puzzle.

Kaitlyn's song...

As promised in the previous post, here is video of Kaitlyn singing her own composition. She sings some sort of version of this every morning in the van on the way to school. The one line we hear in every version is, "when you know my name..." It's very cute, but I can't figure out why she sings those words all the time.

Child of God..

For those of you who aren't familiar with what she's singing, here are the words:

"I am a child of God, and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do to live with Him some day."

She still hasn't gotten some of the words down yet, but she just loves to sing! Soon I'll post the song she makes up every morning while we're driving the "big kids" to school.

Making Playdough

Kaitlyn seemed a little bored without big brother and big sister around yesterday, so we decided to make some playdough. Here she is stirring the ingredients in the pan before we put it on the stove to cook it into dough.

Favorite Play Dough:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tspns cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 Tablespoon salad oil

food coloring

Pour all ingredients except food coloring into a pan. Stir together, then add food coloring. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until soft, lumpy ball forms. It happens quickly! Knead a few minutes until dough is smooth. Store in airtight container. Dough can be frozen and refrozen several times.

1st Day of School

Alan and Sarah started school this morning. It was a cloudy 80 degrees outside when I took them this morning at 8:30 am.
Here they are in their school uniforms. Notice how tan they are? Especially Sarah. I'm so jealous... anyway...Alan entered the 3rd grade, while Sarah entered the 2nd grade. Alan seemed happy and ready to get back to school, while Sarah was a little apprehensive. When we finally got to Sarah's class she started to cry. Her new teacher, Ms. Owens, talked to her to help her get more comfortable, and I left while they were talking. I'm sure they'll have a great day.
Last night, Tom took each of them into their rooms and had a "Daddy talk" with them about school and anything that they might be worried about. Then we all went in the living room and he gave them each a Father's blessing. I think it made them both feel happy and ready to get back to school.