Thursdays - my second favorite day

If I had to choose, I'd say that Friday is my favorite day of the week. Friday is the day when all my kids - minus Silas, of course - go to "school" at a church down the street. They all LOVE their class and come home with typical school stories - who was wearing what, who played with whom, what their friends had in their lunchbox, etc. That means on Friday I get to do whatever I want.

Sleep.

Shop.

Read.

Talk, uninterrupted, on the phone.

It's blissful, really.

But if I couldn't choose Friday, I'd say that Thursday was my second favorite day of the week. Thursday is when Abby goes by herself to "school" and Emma and Samantha stay home with me. Thursday is the day I can plan for fun projects, things I can't or won't attempt when Abby is at home. Thursday is the day for imagination, creativity, lingering over ideas and crafts, reading, spontaneity.

This Thursday was particularly eventful. First up was a treasure hunt with clues that took them inside, outside and all around the house. The "treasure" was finding the pumpkins we were going to decorate that afternoon.

Next up was an experiment from our Apologia Astronomy book. We finally made it to Chapter 2 - The Sun! The experiment involved using a magnifying glass to melt a piece of chocolate.

We only used one piece of chocolate for melting.

We ate the other three.

Yes, we did.

We've been learning about the power of the sun, and this was a perfect day for demonstrating the sun's power. It's been chilly in the early mornings recently, so the girls were very skeptical of the sun being able to melt the chocolate.

But we got out our magnifying glass:

We observed:
And observed some more:
And the chocolate really did melt! It was fascinating! (I obviously never did this experiment in school, or I might not be so excited about the results.)

After the cool science experiment, it was time for our "color lunch". The girls decided on a color for lunch and had to plan everything we ate around that color. The chosen color was yellow, but when it comes to food you can tell there's a wide variety of yellow:
Once the yellow lunch was over, it was time to decorate the pumpkins we'd found in the treasure hunt. My plan was to decorate my own pumpkin based on this very cool idea and just give the girls some paints and let them go wild.

Even though Samantha is wearing a different shirt than the science experiment pic, it still is the same day. We go through the outfits around here!


In hindsight, next time I'll give the girls a bit more direction in their painting. I felt like they were just diddling around without a clear idea of what they wanted to create. I however, had a very clear idea of what I wanted to create.

I thought it turned out great!
We proudly displayed our pumpkins on the porch and then scurried inside to finish reading/phonics/math before Abby got home...and voila! Our Thursday was already over.

And then came Friday... =)

Rachel 2, RedBox 1

I first noticed redbox when we came back to Oklahoma on vacation a few years ago. They were everywhere - McDonalds, Walmart, Walgreens. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was another redbox. And there were always people at them.

They seemed fun and convenient and very cool - and that was my first sign that redbox was definetely not for me. I'm never able to master the "cool" category (especially if "cool" involves technology of some sort) so I immediately disqualified myself from redbox use.

Furthermore, we were very happy with our itunes arrangement. Itunes provided an easy and legal way to watch movies in the copyright-infringement-rich land where we'd been living. If it was available on itunes, it soothed our conscience to rent movies that way instead of buying them off the street. At $4 a pop, it was a little pricey, but again...what price can you put on soothing your conscience? =)

Fast forward two years. I'm now living in America and the thought of renting a movie for $4 seems so...I don't know...1980's? Blockbuster, anyone? One night I took a gamble; I threw off my cloak of technological ineptitude and gave the redbox a try.

I loved it. One dollar. A buck. Uno dinero. For a movie - and new movies, too! Not those has-been, cheesy direct-to-DVD movies. New releases. Such a bargain - I was sold and very much in love with redbox.

Our first foray into redbox brought The Karate Kid into our lives. Can I just publicly state that we loved that movie? I was ready to pack my bags - again! - and get on a plane. Who would have EVER thought I'd miss the idea of lazy repairmen and dirty hutongs and obsessively inquisitive chinese people?! Josh and I both thought the movie was culturally accurate, and was accurate in ways that conveyed humor, not scorn. [The lazy repairman scene was my favorite - does anyone else remember that scene? Where the kid asks the repairmen to fix his hot water? And there was one repairman smoking, one sleeping, and the rest playing cards - CLASSIC!!]

Ok. I'm totally off topic. Back to redbox.

So, we loved Karate Kid. Score one point for Rachel.

Next was Legendary, which I rented as an act of love and sacrifice for my husband. It was about wrestling and had super-scary-buff dude John Cena in it.

I counted it as a Josh-movie because it was about wrestling, but in truth it probably fell more into the drama/borderline chickflick category because people fall in love and live happily ever after. We enjoyed the movie and were disappointed to google it afterward and find out that it was not based on a true story, even though it kind of pretended to be one.

We liked Legendary. Score one more point for Rachel.

A few days ago, still basking in $1-movie-rental-bliss, I stopped into walgreens to stock up on Coke. I drifted by the redbox and decided to pick up a movie for that night. The selection I originally wanted to make was out, so I picked up Sherlock Holmes. Cracked us up - we totally loved it. [I wasn't such a fan of all the witchcraft stuff that was involved in the plotline, but in the end, good ol' Sherlock shows everyone how it wasn't exactly witchcraft anyway...sorry for the spoiler while trying to justify my actions!]

The next day was Tuesday - crazy, crazy Tuesday when everyone has gymnastics and we still try to manage dinner and schedules and feeding babies in a span of a few hours - and I forgot to take the movie back.

I totally forgot.

Sidenote: Did you know that redbox tells you if you've kept the movie for more than 28 days, you get to keep the movie? (Obviously, they're charging you $1 a day, so by day 20 you've bought a pretty pricey movie!)

That must be the thing about redbox - they entice you, making you think you'll only pay a dollar for a movie. And there's probably a decent chunk of the population that returns their movies on time. But, if you play the odds long enough, eventually redbox will win.

I'm still ahead in the standings, but redbox has put a score on the board.

Rachel 2, redbox 1.

What should I rent next?

a little father-son bonding time

They share a knowing look.

Two boys. Four girls. Totally and completely outnumbered.

At least they have each other.

Apparently, more sports training is in order.

Let it be known - we are not a baseball family. I know there are many of you out there, and that's ok. I don't judge you.

However, Josh has been watching more and more baseball recently, and this little discussion came up while the San Fransisco/Philadelphia game was on tonight.

Samantha: Daddy, are those the Philistines? (she was seeing the partial jersey of a player at bat.)

Daddy: No, they're the Phillies.

Emma: Oh, I thought they were the Philippians.

Good little church girls...assuming all "Phil..." words must be coming from the Bible. Ha!

welcoming Fall

It seems like the air here is trying to get cooler, trying to convince us that fall is on the way...but actually, the most accurate way of determining fall's arrival is more expensive produce and - my favorite - the abundance of pumpkins popping up at the stores.

Pumpkins are so quintessentially fall. They're deliciously round and bright and they just seem to beg to be eaten, carved, or decorated. I especially enjoy doing fall-themed crafts with the girls and am ready to try some new stuff this year. My friend Rachel made totally cool pumpkins with her daughter and as soon as I replenish my craft cupboards (most of which got left in china), I'm planning on having some glittery pumpkins on my doorstep!

But...since we currently own no glitter, I was still in the mood for enjoying some pumpkin-ness the other day. We decided to compile lots of random things we'd been learning about in school and make a big project out of it. You know me; I love a good project. =)

The main idea? Making a graph. We've been looking at lots of graphs these days in math class, so I wanted to do something where the girls would have to gather and compile data. And it had to involve something fallish.

In the end, we stopped at a local grocery store that had a beautiful fall display in front, and were going to measure 12 pumpkins. I picked twelve randomly - it seemed like enough data to make a graph, and it was an even number so both girls would have equal opportunity to measure and record.

Plus, we had a clipboard. I LOVE using clipboards. I have no idea why I'm so drawn to them. It's a great mystery of my life.

I'm trying to pass on the love of clipboards to my kids, as you can tell here:

Measuring a pumpkin was tricky. At first, they wanted to measure it at the top because it was the easiest, but then we discovered that information didn't really tell us anything. They figured out on their own that measuring in the middle gave us the most useful information.
But measuring the cement just might give you some valuable information too.

Just kidding, of course...
There was this one HUGE pumpkin - I knew it would throw of all our data, so we just took a picture by it. [Truthfully, our measuring tape wouldn't even fit around it! We guesstimated it at about 67 inches across!]

We came home from the store and cut apart all our data and sorted it. We discovered that most of our pumpkins were between 32 and 34 inches across. [I'm including an extra "34" that I found under the table the next morning. Oops!] We put it in the form of a bar graph and can now officially welcome fall with our first Fall craft/activity!
So tell me! Tell me! What are your favorite fall crafts and activities to do with your kids? I feel like all my ideas are used up, old, and uninspired. Inspire me!!

Adios, Dora!

My kids are SO over Dora.

Ok, not really. They actually still really like Dora - I know, gag me. Does anyone else think that the years of Dora-watching are like a rite of passage into motherhood?

Anyway, since I'm the one controlling TV usage, we only watch Dora when I seriously need a break under very dire and unusual circumstances. But there is a new show we've stumbled upon, and it makes the schedule every day. Every day. You're all on the edge of your seats, huh?

It's Sid the Science Kid. This little guy here:

There are several reasons why I really, REALLY like this show.

• They talk about significant scientific concepts in ways that my kids not only think is fun, but actually understand. Last week was all about levers, pulleys, and inclined planes. Topics like friction, decay, and reversible change have strangely become dinner table discussions.
• The show is funny for kids and entertaining for adults. I sit and watch it with them. It's not Pixar-funny, but it's definitely something I can sit through with a smile on my face.
• They do experiments and projects on the show that are EASILY reproducible at home; plus, the footage they show gets my girls interested enough to pursue trying things out themselves. How fun! The little scientists!
• They mix real-life video with cartoon animation. They show kids in classrooms, videos of animals, time-lapse footage of experiments...it's so fun.

Ok, so now you know I'm totally hooked on the show. [If you live overseas, Sid is available on itunes! Woo hoo!]

But today - yes, today Sid reached down into the depths of my heart and tackled a subject near and dear to me like no other.

Today was Sid's birthday. And he wanted cake for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner.

Sid, I knew I loved you!!

[You'll just have to watch the show now to discover if he got it or not!]

What about you? What shows do you love watching with your kids?

Four minutes. Ten seconds. Totally unrelated.

So, I have this friend Sandra. She takes awesome and beautiful pictures. She preserves her memories well by blogging. Basically, she's got it going on. No wonder she entreated me to take four minutes out of my "cook-eat-clean-throwinthelaundry-homeschool-repeat" cycle and take a few pictures of Silas.

Actually, it was good advice because I will be sad later on if I only had a handful of pictures from his wee days. He was conveniently wearing his my-new-favorite Moose outfit (which I love because it's brown; I pretty much love anything brown) so I didn't even need to re-dress him. He's a little pimply at 1 month, 4 days, but other than that, he's just the cutest little man I've ever held. [Ok, truthfully? Other than my own kids, I haven't held that many babies. So...bad analogy. But he's cute, ok?]

Then, since I had the camera out already, I thought I'd pop out into the backyard and see what the big girls were doing. [In case you were wondering, Abby was with me as a photograhpers assistant, directing Silas when and how to smile: "Cheese! Si-as! Cheeeeeeeese! Siiiiiiiiiiiiii-assssssssss! Baby!! Siii-aaaaaaaas!"]

The older girls were in the backyard digging in the dirt playing happily. They love driving in the Cozy Coupe I bought at a garage sale last weekend for $7! We have had a few wrecks, but no major injuries yet. The rope swing has also been a big hit since we arrived in this home.

And, again...since I already had the camera out, I'd just like to post this to show you one of the many reasons why I miss my house helper:
I do that three times a day, folks. And my floors still look....ick. =)

In a completely unrelated note, we experienced 10 seconds of total panic today.

Not even kidding.

Today, this morning while we were at the breakfast table, I could completely identify with people in third-world countries and yuppies from LA, all at the same time.

We experienced a 4.5 earthquake.

In Oklahoma.

[Yes, I already said I wasn't kidding!]

The entire house shook and rumbled; I instinctively reached for my children and started pushing them toward the door. My heart rumbled in my chest and didn't quiet for nearly a half hour AFTER we discovered (via facebook and the news) that it was indeed an earthquake and not an explosion/bomb/terrorist attack.

Now I understand the fear and chaos and panic that always makes headlines when earthquakes happen. It was truly scary, and it only lasted for ten seconds. I'm SO glad we don't live in California! I wouldn't be able to deal with those shocks on a more regular basis!

Hope you liked the pictures. I vow, with all of you as my witnesses, to make more 4-minuteses come about.

Fourth Child Syndrome

I haven't been taking many pictures of Silas these days. I hate that, because it gives him all the evidence he'll need when he's older to accuse me of playing favorites or overlooking him.

Actually, that can't be farther from the truth. There aren't many pictures yet, because there are so many other things to pick up off the floor, put in the dishwasher, and take out of the dryer that my hands haven't found the free time to grab the camera.

BUT.

I've spent so much time looking at my little boy that I feel as though I've memorized every little pimple, every eyebrow furrow, every combination of moves his mouth makes when those gurgly baby sounds come out.

I've held him and snuggled with him so many times that I know he fits perfectly in the crook of my arm - legs drawn up and arms tucked in, like he was a baby cannonball jump off the diving board.

I've mastered the art of simultaneous emailing and snuggling - to the point that I know that he startles when I push the "Enter" key several times.

(like I just did.)

I've smelled him and touched him and held him and talked and sang and whispered to him so much that there's just no way he can ever claim he was overlooked.

Even if there no pictures, there are images in my heart forever.

I love this little guy.

this weekend, I...

It's been a weekend full of random events.

This weekend, I...

1. bought my favorite candles and a hot glue gun. It was the first time I'd lit a candle or used a hot glue gun since I came back from china, and it was a delightfully familiar feeling.

2. watched the Sooners win. Of course, if we'd actually bought tickets to the game and gone, the Sooners would have lost. That's just how it goes.

3. considered using my airline miles to head to asia and visit a couple friends. I'm not homesick (how can you be homesick when you don't really know where home is?), but I'm a little friendsick. [If I actually did that, I considered the issue of what I'd do with my kids and quickly realized this was not a workable plan. Bummer.]

4. got this report from Emma's preschool teacher:

Her: Emma, how are you so sweet? You are the most precious girl - I hope my kids grow up to act just like you!

Emma: Well, it's because God is working in my heart!

(this is me grinning from ear to ear)

5. found out that my family's show on Family Feud is going to start on Monday at 1pm Central Time. Tune in to channel 34 if you're in oklahoma city!

6. watched Emma score her first goal in the soccer game! She got the ball and dribbled all the way down the field and scored! Woo hoo! Her cheering section was going crazy!

7. heard Silas coo at me for the first time.

8. am praying for a friend who just had twins. Oh my. Twins!

9. ate Chocolate Pecan ice cream. And had a chocolate brownie. Ok, I had two chocolate brownies. [You can do that when you're nursing, you know.]

10. wondered what you all did this weekend?

Abby

I'm becoming much more ok these days with things not getting done. It isn't that I don't WANT them to get done, it's just that I frequently get interrupted and leave...

...piles of clothes around the house that were INTENDED to make it to the washer, but never did.

...ambitious homeschool projects neglected in the corner.

...half-full cans of coke that NEVER GOT DRUNK! That should tell you something - the day a coke doesn't get finished is a sad day for eggrollmama; we've been having lots of half-full coke days!

But, even though I feel scattered, unfinished, and a little more tolerant of messes these days, I feel like things are going pretty good. I'm hoping here in the next few weeks, Silas will start sleeping 5-6 hours at night (can you believe he's already three weeks old?!) so my sleep bank might start catching back up again.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post these pictures of Abby. Abby makes me laugh every single day. For as rambunctious and disruptive as she can be to my ambitious plans, she is the funniest little one you'll ever meet.

When she found out that Emma had been hiding this fabulous pair of sunglasses:

When she put clothes on OVER her jammies...
When she wanted everyone to know that Silas also had a belly button:
When she wanted to show some tenderness:
When she wanted to share her blanket with her baby brother: