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