Happy NOT Back to School Day

I was just introduced to homeschool group from our church.  I had no idea there was one, and I am seriously elated to have discovered them!  They actually discovered me.  I feel special.

They had a NOT Back to School Fun Day at a nearby splash park and playground.

 Yes, it is a very large group and we know some of the kids a little bit and some of the moms a little bit.  I hope we get to know them all a lot more.

Here's my kids' NOT back to school picture:

Owen is missing from both pictures.  In #1, he was tired and clinging to me.  In #2 he was taking a nap.  He's getting some molars in!  Poor baby.

We had a blast at the Splash Park.  And I'm really excited about all the upcoming opportunities and events this fall may bring!  We have a class at the seminary for both big kids called "Motor Skills," which I guess is just like a gym class.  And Moms don't have to stay so I plan to walk the track or something with a few friends and former neighbors (Elise, Bekah, Stacy, Sarah) and their babies, and Owen.

We are also teaching a Cubbies class (Josiah's Cubbies class) on Wednesday nights.  And the kids will be tagging along with me to Women's Bible Study on Tuesday mornings.  So that's a busy two days and then hopefully Mondays and Fridays will be relaxing days where we stay home.  Thursdays will be grocery and errands day.  Yippee :)

Fun in the Sun!

We are trying to enjoy every moment of summer even if that means getting eaten up by mosquitoes.  The mosquitoes are mutants now and resistant to my homemade repellant.  I put OFF on the kids today and it worked well.  :-/ I'll have to invent a new formula of my own soon!

Someone spit sand into Owen's hair...

Covered in sand and popsicle juice!

Popsicles and homemade Clif bars!

Owen, when did you get so big?

Throwing water balls at each other.

This picture is from today.  What beats apples, peanut butter and sidewalk chalk?

Strawberry Patches

Owen missed me while I was at VBS Monday night.  The boys stayed home with daddy because it runs rather late (9:00!!) and I volunteered for only two nights.  Thank goodness :)

  

 This is how I found my boys when I got home.  Owen had cried for an hour and half straight.

 I nursed right away, and Owen was then happy as a clam and went right back to Daddy and laid on him again.  I think their bonding time was needed and special.  :)

In other news.  For the last two days the kids have been wanting to do school.  I don't know what they think school is, really, but it basically means they want to follow our "summer schedule."  It's pretty basic and this was about the third time we've done the summer schedule all summer.  Maryn does SOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER on a structured routine.  And they get a lot of choice in the matter.  For example, 9:30 is Arts and Crafts time and Maryn decided we should make something having to do with strawberries since that was their favorite thing from the farm last week.  We went strawberry picking at Huber's.  So I just googled for some strawberry activities, and we made these cute strawberries out of paper plates.

 Here's our own strawberry patch!  We mixed strawberry scented soap into the paint to make them smell like strawberries.  The scent wore off, unfortunately.  I read that strawberry Jell-O works better.

It's very good to experiment with a school schedule right now, as I get used to doing things around Owen's naps and such.  Man oh man, I don't know HOW I will do this school thing 5 days or whatever a week.  It's ex.haust.ing!  But really we have had much better behavior.  It's a challenge--I kind of have to let the house get messy and hope I'll get to clean it at quiet time.  Which I normally do. ;-)

Sprinklers, Smiles and Painting :)

The kids love these new sprinkler toys from Mamaw and Aunt Cathy!

Morning smiles :)

Pasta night!

Morning painting project, under the skylight...so pretty.

She's painting a portrait of her favorite stuffed animal, Alice.  

Josiah's painting.  Grass, sky, sun, trees, and Lightning McQueen :)
I was helping Josiah with this one as I was showing him how to make up and down and
back and forth brush strokes.  And I helped him make the sun, too.

Our friends the Seelyes gave us this awesome easel.  

"Alice"

Maryn's second painting of the day, her bear that she won in the pumpkin decorating contest a couple years ago.
I didn't watch her do this painting at all and I thought it was the best!  I love how she's really using the whole paper now, and she's getting better at taking her time on each painting.  I think it'll be a good kindergarten year.  :)

Josiah and the Elephants

Today was the biggest day of little Josiah's life.

He got to see elephants for the first time (that he can remember)!

 Elephants are his favorite animal.

Here was his initial expression upon seeing the elephants:

 Then they started an elephant show, and the elephants got really close.  They held each other's tails and walked around the circle.  They showed how they can lay down, stand up, and almost climbed a tree!

 Here he is, really trying to figure them out:

 He clapped when they did their tricks:

 Maryn had a great time, too!

 This is what Owen did the entire time we were at the zoo (yay!):

 I could not figure out why the kids were not cooperating for this picture, and then Maryn said, "It's hot!"  And duh, the iron clad elephant sure was blazing hot.  I almost unknowingly burnt my kids legs off because I wanted a picture of them on an elephant.

 The kids are having a great time with Grandpa, who is with us for the weekend!

It was so hot, we had to keep spraying the kids with a spray bottle.  Here's Josiah getting sprayed!  He's such a cutie pie.  He has been incredibly, incredibly whiny the last two days.  We are having a lot of communication, discipline and other two year old issues.  He turns two in less than a month.  I honestly don't know if I'll make it through the next year... :)

Without Maryn!

We have been without Maryn since Tuesday!

The first day or two was pretty nice.  I got some great one-on-one time with Josiah and running around to appointments was a lot easier.  Maryn just doesn't do well in places like that.  We also went to Kroger, and it actually went very well.  I've been getting Owen on more of a "routine," and it has really helped his belly, which means he's taking some nice long naps.

But now we kind of miss her.  Although if she was here, I'm pretty sure I would not be blogging right now.  I've had some awesome quiet times the last few days, and have read half of a novel!  I've been working hard on our new cooking blog (cookingwithmaryn@blogspot.com) and have been trying to clean up a good bit after our sickness.  Today was packing day.  We are going to leave in just a couple hours to go get our baby girl!

I can't wait to see her!  I hope she will let us cuddle with her and give her lots of hugs and kisses.

But all in all, I think this little trip to grandma and grandpa's house was really good for all of us.  I'm so proud of her (mostly I'm proud of myself, haha!), and I know the relationship between her, my parents, my Aunt Cathy and all the Ohio family has really gotten stronger.  She will remember these trips her entire life.

Happy Summer!

PS:  It's 102 degrees here.  No joke.  John's a/c in the Santa Fe doesn't work.  So let's pray he makes it home safe.  Maybe he'll buy a tank top to drive home in.  :-o

Vacation Bible School 2011 Topics and Crafts

Vacation Bible School in our neighborhood has begun!  Since I have spent about 50 hours this month organizing these crafts, I figured I'd share them all and maybe someone out there can  use these ideas--for something in your own home or with a group.  

The challenge with our VBS is that we really needed crafts that didn't need to dry (so no paint, no glue) and could be done in about 15 minutes.  We also just did crafts as a station, so it has to all be cleaned up and ready for the next group immediately (nothing too messy) and all the crafts were for kids THREE to TWELVE.  So, I made crafts slightly different for the little kids without being too complicated, and here is what I came up with.  

So I pretty much hated my life last week as I tried to get this all together with my seriously obsessive crafty two year old pulling at my skirt, begging (BEGGING) for this and that and everything else.  But now that VBS is here, I love seeing it all come together and am not stressed at all about whether or not the kids really love it...or if it's all going in the trash as soon as they get home...or if doing coloring sheets would have been just fine....etc...not stressing at all about that.  Not.  At.  All.  ;-)

This is me.  This is what I do!  I came up with crafts that I thought were going to be pretty lame-o, but really, I am very happy with these!  We figured in 100 kids for each day, and I only spent $230 on ALL this stuff--paper, card stock, contact paper, tissue paper, blotters, millions of stickers, lots of yarn and ribbon, markers, crayons, the pretty crosses and sand art, etc...for 100 kids, for 4 days--that's 400 crafts!!

Thanks to Target, where I got most of our craft supplies.  Who knew, right?

And Jo Ann's who had the stuff Target didn't have (yarn and ribbon).

And a BIG THANKS to our neighborhood people who sponsor it all!

So, here it all is...sorry for the errors and funny fonts and colors, whatever.  :)  

Monday:  Who is God?

 Deut. 6:4  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

Trinity craft supplies:  popsicle sticks (write Father, Son and Holy Spirit), crayons and markers, Elmer’s Glue All, yarn

3-4 year olds:  pre-glue triangles, write Father, Son,  Holy Spirit

Directions:  Introduce craft, discussing the Trinity.  In school we learn that 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but God is 1 + 1 + 1 = ONE!  He is one God who makes himself known in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We make special note to the children that none of the crafts we make hold special powers or are holy in anyway.  This craft just helps us remember that God is ONE God.  And there is only one true God.  

Each child finds a Father stick, a Son stick and Holy Spirit craft stick, writes their name on the back of one stick, colors and glues them together to form a triangle.  Then we tie the verse Deuteronomy 6:4 to the triangle.  

                               

Tuesday:  The Law is love.

 Deut. 6:5  “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Materials for 3-6 year olds (Heart Door Decorations):  pink, red, purple, white construction paper, stickers, labels, blotters, glue

Materials for 7-12 year olds ("Stained Glass Hearts"):  large thick paper, contact paper, tissue paper

 Above is the little kid craft which is a door decoration.  We made a hole punch at the top of the heart and made a little hanger with yarn, glued the verse for Tuesday on the back of it.  Then, the kids can decorate the heart as they wish with stickers and "blotters."

Below is the big kid craft, which would probably work well for any age, really.  We used contact paper for this rather than glue--very easy and surprisingly cheap.  Cut the black heart out of some extra posterboard we've had in the closet for ages, cut out some contact paper hearts, stick the contact paper onto the black side, and stick the tissue paper squares all over it, hang it on the window and voila, a beautiful sun catcher.

Wednesday: Salvation through Christ

 Romans 10:9 “…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

3-6 year olds:  Fuzzy Crosses, Crayons, Thin Markers, glue (for verse)

7-12 year olds:  sand art kits (put sand in bowls with baby spoons)

Above you see our little kid craft for Wednesday, which Maryn was happy to make a sample for.  I love these, which we found at Oriental Trading.  I think each kid is going to be able to make two.  Super!  I think they are beautiful.  We bought them 12 for 3.99.  Not too shabby.

The big kids will be doing little sand art pictures.  I am really excited because sand art pics were one of my favorite things as a child.  I hope it doesn't create too much of a mess.  I haven't made a sample yet, so I'll try to come back and post a pic later.

Thursday: God’s Word is for life

2 Tim 4:16  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…”

3-6 year olds:   Jesus is Lord bookmark (verses, Romans 10:9), labels, stickers, dye cut shapes or foamies, blotters

7-12 year olds:  Heart Pockets:  twine, yarn or ribbon, thick paper, label w/ psalm 119:11, plastic needles, index cards

The big kids will put their memory verse cards in these heart pockets on Thursday to take home.  I am so impressed with how these turned out.  They really look beautiful.  We got some really colorful quality card stock and several colors of ribbon.  I wrote Psalm 119:11 on each heart:  "I have stored up Your Word in my heart, so that I might not sin against You."

The little jeweled stickers were only a dollar for a sheet of 100 or something.

 Below, the little kids will be making a Jesus is Lord bookmark--pretty simple!  They'll get to use the blotters again and, believe it or not, kids love these dot stickers that are SO cheap and easy to peel.  Plus kids can mark on top of them easily, create their own faces on them, etc.

Neighbors

 It is such a beautiful day!  Here are some of our  neighbor baby boys, Elias and Nathan.  So don't be deceived.  It may LOOK like there are nothing but girls in our neighborhood, but there will be plenty of little boys for Josiah to play with, too!

 From the left, we have Micaiah (Elias's big sister and little sister to Gabe), Lilia (Nathan's big sister and Chloe's little sister), and Bella and Kaley (who are big sisters to Zuzu (2 1/2) and Sebastian  (age 1)).

Here's a pic of Maryn the other day, reading Narnia in a laundry basket.  ???

 Maryn, Lily and Micaiah.  Lily also has a baby brother, Drew.  So the three girls below are all around the same age and they all have baby brothers around the same age, too!  Ella Grace, our other little 2 1/2 year old friend, is at her Grandma and Grandpa's house this week.

 If Josiah was a super hero, his special power would be his adorable-ness.  :)

We are so grateful for our friendly neighbors!