My Birthday Surprise

This morning when I went to get dressed, my mom told me to put on some nice clothes because she and daddy had a surprise for me. When it got close to lunch time, mommy curled my hair and had me get my coat on. Everyone wondered where I was going - including me! Soon daddy came home on his lunch break and off we went! The big surpise was that daddy took me out to eat! We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Daddy gave me my choice of dessert and I picked apple pie. I had such a nice time with my daddy!

Happy Birthday, Soph!

We want to wish Soph a very happy 8th birthday! We had a marvelous dinner with our family, grandma, and two uncles. In our family, whoever's birthday it is, they get to pick out what we have for dinner. For the past week or so, Soph has been telling us that she wanted hot dogs. We finally convinced her to have pizza instead! We love you, Soph and are so thankful that God gave you to our family!

Viv-isms

Tonight at dinner, Viv turned to me and said, "Mommy, can I have a tambourine?"

The first thought that went through my head was, "Just what we need around here - MORE noise!" Instead I said to her, "Why do you want a tambourine, Viv?"

She replied, "Because I really like to eat them!"

"Viv, what are you talking about?"

"Those orange things in the bowl on the counter, mommy!"

Ah, tangerines!

Last night I needed to take something out to the garbage. I carried Viv out with me and as we were walking back up to the house, I pointed up into the sky and said, "Look, Viv! See how bright the moon is?"

"Yes," she said as we gazed up into the sky in wonder. Turning her head to see all the stars above she questioned, "I wonder where the Little Nipper is?"

(p.s. the above picture is Viv's clay girl)

Sculpey Babies

This week we are on winter break and have been doing different projects that we don't normally do (such as ironing and mending - my mom's two biggest goals :). But today all of us kids (save Sam) made little baby animals out of clay. I made the yellow duck, Si created the butterfly, Chris made the frog, and Soph shaped the bear. I helped Lil make a white kitten and Viv was trying to make a girl out of the clay but she ended up with a big lump of red clay with two black balls of clay stuck on top! So, mommy came to Viv's rescue and transformed the three lumps of clay into a face of a girl. Viv was happy about that and couldn't wait until the clay babies had baked enough for her to hold her little girl. This was such a fun project to work on and we all enjoyed it.

Greatest Invention Survey

This week in math, I have another survey assignment. Because my mom brought me home books from the library on inventions, I thought I would make my survey on the greatest modern invention. Please leave me your comments on which you think is the greatest. At the end of the week, I will give the results!

1) airplane

2) automobile

3) computer

4) telephone

5) electric light

6) other

Cakes and Corn

Tonight I made dinner for our family. The menu included salmon cakes with lemon herb sauce, seasoned rice, corn, lettuce salad, and chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream for dessert. Making it was a lot of fun and Soph helped me debone the salmon (which is a big job and I was grateful for her help :). So, in the end, all of my family thought that the meal was delicious and Si said it was the best meal he had ever had! This is a picture of the salmon cakes.

Winter Snowflakes

These are snowflakes that Soph, Lilly, Viv, and I made the other day. Aren't they pretty? A dear friend had given me the materials to make these snowflakes when I was recently overseas. Since now seemed like the perfect season to make them, I got the materials out, and instantly the girls were by my side wanting to help. So, sitting around the kitchen table, all four of us made snowflakes; each one different than the others. Viv especially loved doing it and couldn't wait until it was dry enough to put it on the window!

Winter is Here

Well, it has continually gotten colder here and finally it snowed. Now I love new snow, but then it rained a freezing rain which covered all of the new, clean snow. Anyway, it made some really fun slipping on the driveway and the bushes were completely iced over. Some of our plants outside looked so neat covered in ice! This one is the rosemary plant that I got my mom for her birthday this past spring. The proper winter care is for it to be inside and misted lightly. I'm not sure that this qualifys!

Survey Says...

Last Friday in Math I was learning about taking surveys. My assignment for the weekend was to survey people on their favorite movie. Since we had a reception at church yesterday for Mr. and Mrs. Tim, it was the perfect time to get a lot of people's response. The results are in:

Facing the Giants won with a whopping 22 votes!

I'll tell you the rest of the movies and how many people voted for them:

The Chronicles of Narnia = 7 votes

The Sound of Music = 6

The Passion of Christ = 5

Princess Bride = 5

Fiddler on the Roof = 5

Pride and Prejudice = 2

Chariots of Fire = 1 (my good friend, Ike's favorite!)

Other = 7

If you didn't get a chance to vote on Sunday but would like to, leave me a note in the comments.

Baking Cookies

Yesterday Hanna and I made some cookies; she made chocolate chip and I made oatmeal scotchies. My sisters were watching Little Women and, I have to confess, half the time I was mixing the dough I was also watching the show. Mommy was a little worried that I would forget something, but in the end the cookies turned out pretty well (except for one batch that cooked a little too long :( Anyway, which kind of cookie is your favorite? Chocolate chip or oatmeal scotchie? Si

My Haiku II

Here's my latest English assignment:

Spring blossoms, fragrant

Petals of creamy yellow

Above verdant grass

Chris

Organization 101

This morning mommy and I (along with a little help from the boys :) undertook cleaning and organizing our basement schoolroom. Now, let me tell you, I am always collecting ‘junk’ (papers, pictures, yarn, stencils, pens, markers, I could go on and on) as my mommy calls it. So when we were cleaning, I found quite a lot of my ‘junk’ all over the place! The most astounding item of mine that my mom found was an old Russel Stover's chocolate box. Needless to say, the chocolate box is now in the garbage :( The cleaning took quite a bit of time, but in the end, I looked at our schoolroom and saw a major difference. Our overcrowded shelves filled with school books, art supplies, pictures, and a bunch of daddy's stuff are now neatly organized with extra space leftover. Viv and Lil’s books that were just thrown on the shelving unit with lots of extra papers and coloring books are put away in two orderly stacks. All in all, the entire schoolroom is much more pleasant to be in. Hanna

Soph's Poem

Soph's English assignment today was to write a poem about her favorite month and set it to a nursery rhyme song. The following is her poem set to the tune of Row, row, row your boat.

Spring, spring, spring is here

It's the month of May

Robins chirping in their nest

On a sunny day

My Haiku

Today in English class, I learned about short poems called haiku. The Japanese wrote the first haiku poems. Each poem has three lines and does not usually rhyme. The first line in a haiku has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five. This is the poem that I wrote:

Wintertime has come

Hopping rabbits leave their tracks

See them in the snow

Chris

Out West

What a great weekend! Our whole family traveled to Nebraska - it was a terribly long drive but I was glad when we finally arrived. While there, I saw my friends, Erica, her sister Merrill, and Lydia, in Nebraska and had a lot of fun with them. Our family was preparing to leave on Sunday afternoon after church but Merrill and Erica asked their parents if I could spend the night with them and then leave the next day with some other people who would drop me off at my house. My parents gave their “yes” and what a lot of fun we had! I had never been to my friends’ house in NE so this was very exciting! They live on a farm complete with cows, riding horses, draft horses, a dog named Mollie and two cats. Oh, and not to mention a pet hedgehog! That evening turned out to be very interesting since the family had quite a lot of other people in the house for dinner. After we ate, most of us kids trooped down to the basement to play a few card games. We played a game called Apples to Apples (which, by the way, is a very fun game in case you have never played it!). This kept us laughing the whole time. When the game was over we all decided to go outside and play Red Rover, Hide and Go Seek, and Fruit-basket Upset. When every one had gone home, we girls slowly made our way to bed at midnight and promptly fell asleep! The next morning I expected that we were going to be leaving only to find out that we would have a whole other day there! Yippee! That morning we all took turns riding the horses that they kept there. Out of all of the horses there, I would have to say my favorite was Jackson, a dark brown horse who was skittish when first brought out of his pen. He was so pretty when he started running and his mane and tail blew freely in the strong wind! The rest of the day was spent leisurely, most of us feeling pretty tired. Later on in the evening we had a ride on a wagon down the road and I even got to have a turn riding in the front seat! The next morning we left and I was very sorry to leave my friends but grateful that I had the opportunity to stay another two days and have tons of fun! Well, now I am back home and must leave off lest I should not be able to get up in the morning! Hanna

Viv's Toothbrush

On my birthday, I got a new toothbrush. It has a battery in it. My toothbrush wiggles and tickles my teeth. When I put it on the table, it moves. Now my toothbrush needs a new battery.

Toby

Today I played assistant vet and dog groomer to my mom as we gave our dog, Toby, a bath. Toby is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and fairly small - about fifteen pounds. He is a sweet, cute little dog who will keep intruders away by licking them to death. Anyway, today was Toby's time to take a bath and he also needed some stitches taken out. Mom and I trooped down to the basement and proceeded to start by taking out his stitches. Let me tell you, that was not an easy task! Toby was a little apprehensive and did not like what we were doing to him. My job was to restrain Toby and mommy took the stitches out. Once finished, we proceeded on with his bath. Lots of warm water, calm reassurances, and nice smelling shampoo made for a clean dog. After we had semi-dried him with a towel, we took the brush and blow drier to him. By this time, Ri had come over to visit and ended up helping trim some of Toby's hair. In the end, the white of Toby's fur now looks very white and he smells much more respectable. Hanna

My Tooth!

The most exciting thing happened to me last night! My first tooth fell out! I have been waiting for this to happen a very long time. I am so happy! Soph

A Dream Come True!

Hello! Just to bring you up to date, our whole family is visiting our Grandpa and Grandma who live in Iowa. The main reason for our trip was to attend my mom’s cousin’s wedding. Our whole family went to the wedding last night, but after that we came back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house and Miss Susie and Miss Debbie watched us while the adults went to the reception. After dinner Miss Susie and Miss Debbie had a surprise for us! They had brought all the American Girl dolls that they and their sisters had while they were growing up, plus a whole box of outfits! We were all totally delighted as they have almost all the dolls in the series: Molly, Addy, Samantha, Felicity, Josephina, Kirsten, and my favorite, Kit. Soph and I have never seen all of the dolls before, except in the magazines, so this was a fun for us! It was like Soph's dream, to see all the American girls! When it was time for Miss Susie and Miss Debbie to go, they left us with Kit, Kirsten, Felicity, and Molly to play with until tomorrow. What fun! Soph and Hanna

Story Starters

As part of school, every Tuesday at eleven o'clock, Si, Ri, Sim and I have a writing class. Mommy bought a book called Story Starters and it is full of stories that are only half finished. My mom reads us the first half of the story and then each of us write our own ending to the story. Often times the results are very humorous (especially Si’s endings!). We all really enjoy doing it, so when Ri saw a 'finish the story contest' in Clubhouse Magazine, the prize being $50 in cash for the first prize, we all decided to enter. The past few weeks have been spent writing our outlines, first drafts, revisions, and then our final drafts. The one problem has been that your story is limited to 600 words or less. It was no problem for the boys to keep their stories under the limit but with Ri and I it has been a different story! My story's word count was above 900! Oh boy, did mommy and I have to do some serious cutting of my story and it was the same with Ri. Finally, I ended up with 591 words! Close call! Well, all of our stories are ready to be mailed off today. Hooray!

The Great Pumpkin

Yesterday we went on a field trip to an Amish community. They had a humongous pumpkin patch that has a corn maze and two mazes made out of hay bales. They also had a small petting zoo with pot bellied pigs, loop eared rabbits, regular rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and a whole bunch of varieties of chickens. Some of the chickens were very unique - several of them had feathers on their legs and feet. They looked really funny - not at all like the chickens we are used to. I collected 18 feathers and am planning on making a headdress out of them. At this farm they had lots of squash and pumpkins for sale. They grow all different kinds of varieties of pumpkins; green ones, gray ones, white ones, and even the traditional orange. Some were little, some big, some round, and some flat. They even had one pumpkin that weighed 440 pounds! I bought some gourds and a small pumpkin, along with some Indian corn to decorate our table. Mom bought a Jarrahdale pumpkin to make pie with - until she does, I get to use it with my other decorations. After that, we went to an Amish grocery store. It was so cool. They had all kinds of things there. Sim, Gabe, Nate, and I loved the knives. They also had two different sizes of double barreled rifles that were lighters. When we were leaving the store, we saw lots of Amish children on little carts drawn by horses. Because it was 3:30, we supposed that they were going home from school. I waved and said "Hi" to each one that passed.
So long for now, Si

The Big Sleepover

Wow! What a weekend! Let me start at the very beginning... my uncle and aunt went out of town to attend a wedding and all five of my cousins came over to stay at our house for three whole nights! My brothers, sisters and I were very excited to have them and when Thursday night rolled around, it found our bedrooms ready and clean (an unusual thing for me :). Our first night together was great except for the boys waking us up at six-thirty in the morning by having pillow fights with each other. The rest of the day was spent out at the farm helping pick produce for the farmer's market and playing with the adorable kittens out there. All too soon our second night was here and it was my turn to sleep with Ri, who happens to not only be my cousin, but also my best friend. We talked with each other for half-an-hour and then rolled over to go to sleep. Saturday morning arrived with the boys up even earlier - five o'clock this time! I don't why it is that the boys always want to get up real early - and of course they are not very quiet either! Anyway, we had lots of fun together having a picnic, playing football with the boys, and watching Sense and Sensibility with Ri, Rach, and my sisters. It seemed to me that the weekend flew by fast and already our aunt and uncle were home. It was a very interesting experience living in a family of ten kids for 3 whole days and I am so glad that they could come stay with us!

Apples and Goats

Guess where we went today? We went to an apple orchard with two of our aunts, lots of cousins and some friends. At the farm they have goats (really cute baby goats) that you can pet and feed along with chickens and kittens. There was also a fence maze that you could run through and that was fun too - especially when I would have races through it with my cousins and brother,Si. The little kids liked the play houses that they have there for little kids to play in and the teeter-totters. Even Ri and I had to have a turn on the teeter-totter! But I think the best part (for me anyway) was when we got home and had Apple Doughnuts for dessert after eating lunch. Boy, were they good! Well, I will sign off for now. Until the next time, Hanna

Greetings!

Hello to all of you! Thanks for checking out our first ever blog post. We wanted to share something funny that happened while we were setting up our first blog. The front door in our living room doesn't latch completely shut, and unless it is locked, all you have to do is push on the door and it will open. Well, Sam loves to go outside and so he went up to the door and as he was pushing it open to head to the great outdoors, Vivi loudly exclaimed, "Hey, the boy is escaping!" We all thought it was pretty funny!

Mom has a surprise for us for tomorrow so stay tuned to find out what it is!