picture of the week

Small Fry has been really into Dr. Seuss lately. We own a couple of the books, and recently got a big stack of them from the library, one of which is Green Eggs and Ham. We’ve read it several times, and he’s to the point where he can finish a few of the lines now. So the next step, naturally, was to make this dish for him for breakfast. So that’s just what we did one day earlier this week. (I don’t know of a way to make just the yolks green, like in the book, so every time one of our children gets to this stage, I just make green scrambled eggs.)

Blessings,

Munchkin’s birthday was about three weeks ago; he’s 9 now. We did our traditional “birthday dinner with the grandparents” the night before (his birthday landed on a Sunday), and he chose taquitos with rice and homemade refried beans for that meal. He and Seahawk helped me prepare the food about an hour before everyone was expected to arrive. This made it much less stressful for me! I was glad to have their help, and they learned some valuable kitchen skills at the same time.

About two weeks before this party, though, my dad came over with Munchkin’s birthday present: a new bike! He (my dad) bought the boys bikes for Christmas two years ago, but the problem with children is that they grow 😉 A seven-year-old is much smaller than a nine-year-old, so it was definitely time for a new bike for Munchkin. Will and I had been debating the best way to make this happen for him, and now we don’t have to!

Happy (belated) birthday, Munchkin!

Small Fry loves to drum. A lot. He’s constantly looking for (and finding!) pencils with which to hit something. Anything. Usually a chair or the rim of a garbage can.

He also likes to play Seahawk’s imperfect child-size guitar (imperfect because it’s missing 3 strings, but it was a hand-me-down gift from a neighbor five years younger), but his real passion is drumming and singing.

Every Sunday at church, he finds pencils in the back of the pew and heads over to the aisle at the end of “our row” (not assigned, just wherever we happen to be sitting on a particular week) to drum on the seat with his pencils while we sing our worship songs. It’s adorable 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Last weekend, one of the local grocery stores had their official “grand opening” after having been through a lengthy remodel. They were open the entire time during the remodel, so there wasn’t a big reveal or anything, but they still had a little party with loads of samples, cake walks throughout the day, and clowns making balloon creations for free for any kid who wanted one.

Well, being children, my kids did, in fact, each want one. But they weren’t sure what they wanted, so they essentially told the clown, “Surprise me.” Two of them (plus Will) got swords, and Seahawk (who went to a different clown) got a fishing pole with a fish dangling from it. Because of the nature of balloon creations, by the next day they were already beginning to shrink down. So Seahawk, creative boy that he is, untied the swords and made dogs out of them. It was quite impressive from a mom’s perspective.

Blessings,

When Small Fry was getting ready for bed last night, we suddenly heard a blood curdling scream. Fortunately, Seahawk was with him and able to comfort him while he brought his little brother up to see me for additional cuddles and comfort. Will headed downstairs (where the boys’ bedroom is) to investigate what might have caused such a reaction from our three-year-old, and found this guy crawling on Small Fry’s pillow:

We were afraid it might be a brown recluse, so Will caught it to examine and do some research on before just killing it straight away. Fortunately, we were able to eliminate brown recluse as an option (those guys are really dangerous). After about an hour of internet research and comparing photographs of our spider vs those online, we’re comfortable in knowing it’s a hobo spider. They’re venomous but not aggressive or deadly to humans. Just really frightening due to their size – this one is easily 3 inches in diameter including the legs.

The plan is for Will to take it to an exterminator later today for a more precise identification.

Have you ever found super scary bugs in your house?

Blessings,

 

Berry picking no. 2

A photo posted by Wendy (@ladybugdaydreams) on Jul 4, 2015 at 9:56am PDT

I posted these pictures on Instagram earlier in the week, but I want to put them up here as well. Last week (or maybe it was the week before…) I took the boys berry picking. The last time we’d gone was in 2013, and while we were successful in bringing berries home on that trip, the boys didn’t enjoy the experience. It was really hot, and they were too young (at 6 and 9) to do very well at it. It took us hours to bring home just a few pounds of berries.

 

Berry picking no. 3

A photo posted by Wendy (@ladybugdaydreams) on Jul 4, 2015 at 9:57am PDT

Fast forward to this year. Now that they’re 8 and 11 – and Small Fry is almost 3, so old enough to help instead of just sleep the entire time – we had a much more positive experience. Small Fry and I shared one bucket, and Seahawk and Munchkin shared another one. Within half an hour or so, we’d nearly filled both buckets, putting us about $4 over what I’d budgeted for the trip. But that’s okay; who can say no to additional fresh marionberries?!

 

A photo posted by Wendy (@ladybugdaydreams) on Jul 4, 2015 at 9:55am PDT

Blessings,

The two big boys spent the week at VBS. Seahawk was a helper (how did he get old enough to help instead of attend?!), and Munchkin was an attendee. The theme was “Everest,” and the kids learned that God can help them in a variety of ways, including helping them to help others. I didn’t attend or help along with them, but from their excitement each day I could tell that they were learning a lot. And both got rave reviews from their group leaders (Seahawk joined the youth group in leading the preschoolers in outdoor games) on their good behavior.

This picture was taken during the closing ceremony. Each group (called Crews) took the stage to perform a song for all of the parents. Munchkin’s group performed “The Hippopotamus Song.”

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

This picture is actually a few weeks old. I’ve had some phone trouble lately, including the inability to get pictures off of the SD card until I could get a new phone, which happened earlier this week. So I hope you like this picture that Will took back in January.

It’s no secret that my kids like bugs. They are, after all, boys. Outside our house the other day, there was a box elder bug (commonly called “stinkbugs”), and the kids got Small Fry to hold it. Will went out there with them and got this series of pictures of him. I love how intently he’s looking at the creature. Ah, the innocence of young children. 🙂

Blessings,