imaginations...

Having Calla home from school for a week provides several new scenarios.

We can sleep in as long as our one-year old will allow.

We can stay in our jammies until crazy hours - all the while hoping nobody plans to drop in and surprise us.

The best part is having Calla and Amelia being able to play together for long periods of time.

Today they were in full imagination mode. They built a makeshift fort on Amelia's bed and proceed to make all kinds of stories as to why they had this incredible fort.

Princesses. Robbers. Secret far-away lands.

On our ride home from running errands, they played a rousing game of "shout-out-any-color-you-see." It was a great idea...until you enter in the fact that our trip home is almost all country roads. Amelia shouted out several colors while Calla kept shouting "brown.brown. brown. broooooooooooooooown." Then she looked to the sky and started into, "Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue." Ok. time for a new game.

At home, more books were read in the fort. Playdoh cookies were made. So much fun.

And there's another day filled with opportunity coming again tomorrow...

Harvest Program, 2010 style...

Every year, our fabulous-o elementary teacher (she is actually the reigning WACS teacher-of-the-year 2010) writes two programs for our school kids. One in the fall and another one for the spring. They are always amazingly written. Wonderfully thought out. Each child is showcased in different ways. We often comment that she could copyright these programs and sell them. They are marvelous!

This year's Harvest Program was no exception. She wrote two different dramatic readings and interspersed several songs for the students to sing. One highlighted the elementary. One had several girls doing sign language in the center of the stage (What a blessing to see my 7-year-old using a skill that is close to my heart!)

And then the clincher...a duet! A surprise duet!

Calla and her cousin singing a duet. It was beautiful. They were so calm. It brought tears to these eyes. I am thankful, and more often than just at Thanksgiving, for a teacher and staff that are helping to instill character traits and spiritual values in our daughter. What a tremendous gift to have a school that reiterates the morals we are teaching at home! What an outstanding blessing to have a daughter who already displays a heart full of talents being used for the Lord...

ouch, that's smarts...

Nora Kate is climbing the stairs now with reckless abandon. I still follow her up, because she has yet to master the trip back down the stairs.

I have always boasted that my girls have never fallen down the stairs. Now, they have had their share of bruised shins from tripping UP the stairs! So I am hoping my baby girl can master the stairs just as well as the other two did.

Their momma, on the other hand, still has some practicing to do. Yesterday, after waking the slumbering cubs, I went to go get breakfast assembled. My sleepy, sock-clad foot slipped out from under me. I didn't fall down the stairs. I flew up and landed straight on the step. I yelped and moaned for a few minutes. Boy, did that make the kiddos leap out of bed! I got dizzy and threw up. I called in the reinforcements to take Calla to school. The rest of the day, I gingerly walked around or sat on a heating pad. No food. A nasty headache. Lots of pain meds. I am feeling better today. Bending over seems to be the most precarious.

So maybe I'll have Cory be the the one to teach Nora how to master her descent on the stairs...

Snowflags...

Oh the signs of winter are all around us! I wish I could anticipate the coming season with as much excitement as my children. Calla started praying for snow weeks ago. She always gets a twinkle in her eye when she asks about the first snow fall. The girls have asked me numerous times, "When is it gonna be winter?" "I can't say. It could be anytime. It's almost here. One morning we'll wake up and it will be snowing," I answer in my best feigned excitement voice. Winter... That first snowfall used to bring such glee. It is beautiful. But I can't help but think of the dreary brown slushy snow days that follow. The long winter months of shoveling my way to the van to start heating it up and scrape the windows. Trudging through the snow every morning with a gaggle of sleepyhead girls and a bundled up baby on my hip. Long, cold days with no desire to take the wee lasses out anywhere. Mucky parking lots. Red, chapped cheeks and hands on my thumb-sucking baby. Winter... So I'll try to take tips from the girlies. I'll get excited to see that first snow. I'll try to get excited about sledding and snowmen. And I'll be thankful for the wonder of snowflakes, or snowflags, as Amelia has taken to calling them. Because I obviously need an attitude adjustment about winter...

an art project...

I had the students make a "blessings scroll" as part of our art project today. They made a rough draft on lined paper and then made a final copy. We were brainstorming about the types of blessings they could write about. Not a single student had any trouble coming up with a pretty hefty list of blessings. I was hoping they would be interesting and end up as "keepsake" material. With a little hot glue and some twigs, miniature pine cones, and acorns from my in-laws yard, they turned out so cute! Calla's list of blessings had me grinning. They are obviously in no particular order. I was glad that Cory and I made the list in front of the Playstation Move...

if I only had a horse...

Amelia spent the better part of ten minutes telling me how much she wants a horse.

I told her that we don't have room for a horse at our house anyway. She promptly let me know that she wanted to move.

When I told her horses cost a lot of money, she explained that when she gets older and has a lot, and a lot, and a lot (I'll spare you her 2 dozen "a lots") of money, she is going to buy a horse.

She'll feed it and clean up it's poops and braid it's hair.

"I really want a horse. Please, Mom, If you get me a horse, I'll get you a book. Or some flowers. Or maybe just a picture of flowers."

Deal.

a little too coordinated...

So she figured out where my Sunday School bag was hidden. She went straight for the candy bag, found her choice of flavor, unwrapped it and started enjoying her treat. Look at that smile and contentment! Stinker...