Steppin' on Sticks

Henry (coming in from the back yard): I need to put some shoes on because my feet just keep steppin’ on sticks!

Later, trying to get Henry to repeat his comment to Daddy …
Mama: Hey, Henry, tell Daddy why you had to put shoes on.
Henry: Oh, yea.  Tennis shoes.
Mama: Right.  But why did you have to put on tennis shoes?
Henry: Because … I don’t have to wear socks with them.

Oh well.

Future Richard Scarry?

We started back to “Tuesday School” this week.  During the fall and spring, we have a women’s Bible study at church.  During this time our Pastor’s wife proctors a homeschool “study hall” so the older kids can get some of their school work done.  They love having her for a teacher!  When they finish, she has some fun free-time activities for them.  This is what Luke did with his free time on Tuesday.  Click on the image for more pictures including close-ups of individual sections of the scene.



Matt is in favor of using chalkboard paint to create a chalk wall in the school room.  Luke is now solidly on board (pun intended) with Daddy’s idea.  However, in the absence of that option at the moment, Luke taped a large piece of white paper to the wall yesterday and returned to it again and again to fill it up with all kinds of interesting happenings!

The True Telling of the Thing

Henry came running out of the bathroom closet and said, “Mommy, I was in the bathroom.  And then I was in the closet.  And then the door made me dark.  And then I could not see anything!”

Vowel Power

Robyn was working on a workbook page in which she needed to circle pictures that had the long “O” sound.  She had circled a picture of an elephant.  Over the years, I’ve learned my lesson – there’s often a very good reason for the way children answer, even if it would not appear so to the adult observer.  Sure enough ..

Mama (pointing to the elephant): What is this one?
Robyn (very matter-of-factly): An OH-va-lent.

The New David

Cousin David got his haircut at Miss Paige’s yesterday.  He looks so much different!

Today when Auntie Donna, David and Ellie stopped by, I overheard this conversation.

Henry: Are you David?
David: Yes, my name is David.
Henry: Oh.  Yea.  And now you have hair like me and like Lukey!

Ha ha.

Recent Funnies

Henry likes to add the phrase “…or something like that” (which actually sounds more like “… or some-sing yike dat”) to the end of his comments and requests.
Examples: “Please my I have a book … or something  like that?”
“Please may I get down from the table … or something like that?”

Matt showed Luke an old Laurel and Hardy episode on YouTube.  The next morning, Luke was describing it to the girls.
Luke (describing the setting): It wasn’t like Pride and Prejudice time, but it was like England time.

Riding in the van, we passed a UPS truck.
Robyn: Look!  A S-U-P truck!
Ruth (in a condescending tone): No, Robyn.  It’s a U-S-P truck.

We were learning about carnivores in science.  I was getting ready to read to the children about the special characteristics of this type of mammal, such as their sharp teeth, powerful jaws and claws.
Mama: If you were a carnivore what do you think it would be helpful to have?
Ruth: Some meat!

You can tell that the family has been immersed in van shopping for a while.  Today in the car, we were telling a fortunately/unfortunately story.
Mama: Once upon a time, a family bought a fifteen passenger van.  But unfortunately …
Emma: It didn’t have cruise control.  But fortunately …
Luke: They knew a shop that could add it on for them …

Our Surprise Adventure ...

Today I had some errands to run and I took Emma and Robyn along with me.  We went to the bank, made a returns at Lowe’s and dropped a box off at the UPS store.  At Kohl’s, we needed to get Luke a new pair of church pants, but with returns, minus the 50% off price and my 30% off coupon, we ended up spending $0.81 for $34.00 pants and a $36.00 dress for Emma!  In my opinion the day was already a win, but for the girls, it was still pretty average.  We needed to run by Wal-Mart, and I recalled that we had some gift cards to the SweetFrog in the same shopping center, so we grabbed a free treat.

While in the SweetFrog, a lady dressed as a clown came in handing out flyers to announce a store opening which was in the next parking lot, so we decided to check it out.  After free hot dogs and chips, free snow cones, face painting and balloon animals, the girls spun the Lite98 prize wheel and didn’t win anything, but were given a board game as a consolation prize!  I’m not quite sure how that worked out, but maybe it was just because they were both super cute rabbit sisters.  We stopped by Nana and Papa’s on the way home where they took a few pictures of the girls.  The only thing not quite in tact by this photo are the “teeth” on the girls chin.  It’s also not obvious, but everything pink was full of glitter, too.  In their opinion, this was a banner day!

What's Bugging You?

Ruth: Mama, is a luna-tic the bug, or the person who has the bug on them?

Tim and Megan's Wedding

My cousin Megan asked Emma and Ruth to be flower girls in her wedding, so last Sunday we got to drive up to a lovely part of Maryland for an outdoor wedding at a gorgeous venue.  The ceremony was on a hilltop in front of a little pond (complete with frog chirping!) which one reached by going up a little flight of stone steps and across a wooden bridge over a little creek.  The reception was in a nearby barn, behind which was a huge field, perfect for antsy little folks to run free!  I didn’t get many pictures with my camera, so I’m anxiously awaiting the official wedding photographer’s shots, but here are just a few of ours.

Matt likes the artsy/nature/candid shots, so he got lots of the non-wedding-party kids while I was with the girls for the after-ceremony pictures.



Here’s Emma joining in the wedding party dance with the gentlemanly ring bearer.  I sure hope the photographer’s pics of this moment are better than mine!



This is our family table.  In Matt’s opinion, having enough children that your family takes up a whole table and you don’t have to be seated with strangers at a wedding is just another blessing of having a big family. J



And finally, here’s a family shot my Dad got for us outside the barn.  All in all, a lovely day!



Click on any image to see the full album.

Metro Richmond Zoo!

Today we joined some other home schooling families from church on a “field trip” to the zoo!  As you can imagine, there are loads of pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Click on any image to see the whole album.  (A very special thanks to Mrs. Baird for organizing the trip and to Nana, Papa, Cousin Lauren and Cousin Kendall who joined us an were an invaluable help!)