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.

Happy in the swing...

We went to a birthday party this afternoon. It was a pool party, but William enjoyed the swings more than the pool.

Chuck E Cheese's

Tom came home last night from his two week trip visiting family. He took the three oldest kids to Chuck E Cheese's today while I went grocery shopping with William, because frankly, I don't care for Chuck E Cheese's. He will often take them there when I need a break. At any rate, it was a fun way for them to spend some time with their Dad. They came home with tales of video games they played and cheap prizes they won. They had a good time, and Tom was happy to take them.

I've been tagged...

SO, I just logged onto my blog this morning and found that I've been tagged by my blogging friend Katie Brown, and I tried to take all the "required" pictures this morning with no preparation.
If you are reading this post, consider yourself officially tagged. (That means you Uncle Johnny, it's about time we saw the inside of your new little apartment :) I know these pictures aren't very big, so you'll have to click on it to enlarge them and see them more clearly. The 10 things to take pictures of are

1. The refridgerator

2. The bathroom

3. What the kids are doing

4. Self-portrait

5. Your favorite shoes

6. Your favorite room

7. A closet

8. The kitchen sink

9. A place you want to go

10. The laundry

All ready for swimming...

William says, "What's that you say? You're taking me swimming?" "That sounds like fun!!"

"Whoah!! I just found out that mom bought my swim gear at the Dollar store!"

Slip N' Slide

We bought some painter's plastic today for the sole purpose of creating a "slip n' slide". It worked pretty well. I even went down the slide a couple of times. Don't worry, you will NOT see any video of my slipping a sliding. :)

8 Months Old!

Dinosaur Grasshoppers

We were in the house when Sarah saw this outside in the middle of our driveway at least 20 ft away. She went outside to look at it, and then I heard her say, "Whoah! It's two giant grasshoppers! One is carrying the other one!" As you can see, these are no ordinary sized grasshoppers. I had the kids put their hands next to them to show you how large they are. I'd say at least 3 inches long, and at least 1 inch wide. Only in the south can you find Dinosaur sized Grasshoppers.... Lucky us..

Shoes

I walked into the family room this morning and found this: Ever since Kaitlyn could walk she has loved shoes. She puts on everyone's shoes and walks around in them. She will put on shoes before she puts on her clothes in the morning. Many mornings she'll be clomping around in someone else's giant shoes while still wearing her little night shirt.... Apparently this morning she thought her teddy bears needed shoes.

Wrestling with Daddy

Tom left for a two week trip to see his family and especially his brother Chris who just came from Iraq. The night before he left, he and the kids had another one of their favorite wrestle sessions.

Title of Liberty

For Family Home Evening tonight, we talked about Moroni's "Title of Liberty". Sarah was in charge of the lesson, and she wanted us to make our own titles of Liberty. We read the verses in Alma 46 as Tom acted out what Moroni did. We had a really big white t-shirt that he tore or "rent" like Moroni "rent his coat", and he fastened it to some PVC pipe we had. Then he tore the shirt into little flags for each of us. It was a neat way to reinforce the scripture story.