Party Crashers

 Victoria's Lego Friends were having a beach party one day. So the boys (Jared and Kaleb) decided that they would crash the party with this motley crew.

You have to look closely to see all the details.

They even showed me a 6-pack of soda hidden under one of the seats.

The crew included a steward with a pineapple, a pearl diver, a navy officer, a scuba diver, a surfer, an oil driller, a life guard and a treasure hunter. The contraption hanging off the back next to the shark is a lobster cage.

Just when you would think that Victoria would have opposed the boys crashing her beach party, she actually welcomed the extra party goers.

I am always interested in what they come up with next.

I like the huge speakers on the side of the vehicle.

It brings back memories of the 80's.

I Admire.....

 The girls and I went ice skating the other afternoon while the boys were off doing their thing. As I was watching the girls ice skate, I was thinking about the conversation that we had in the van in route to the outdoor rink. We were talking about Victoria's new Leadership class. She is supposed to be thinking about someone who she admires that is not a family member, and write a letter telling them why she admires them. In her short little life of 9 years, she admires mostly family members. So I will be helping her think of someone in this next week or so. I got thinking about someone who I admire as I watched Daphne shuffle across the ice avoiding any possible unseen hazard. Which for Daphne, could be just about anything.

I realized at that moment, as I watched her start scraping her left foot forward at an extremely slow pace that not many would call ice skating,

I admire Daphne.

There are not many people who will attempt to do something that they can barely do. Daphne will just shuffle along, trying to pick up her feet as she attempts to glide on the ice. Victoria scoped out the raised areas of the ice and warned Daphne, just in case she didn't see them in the low lighting. She loves to ice skate even though she gets passed multiple times before she has made it around once. Victoria will constantly do a "fly-by" and almost knock her off balance until I threaten her to stop. I find myself keeping an eye on Daphne and grabbing her arm from time to time to steady her so she can pick up her pace with ease. One side of her body doesn't work as well as the other but yet....

she perseveres.

Daphne will continue to plug along at her own pace, not caring what other people think. I rarely hear her say that she can't do something even though we all know what she can and cannot do. Most things exhaust her requiring a nap. I love that she still wants to participate with activities that I find fun to do. I admire Daphne because she doesn't let her special ways stop her from being the person that God has intended her to be. I am proud of who she is and how hard she works at things that are so simple for the rest of us.

I admire her perseverence.

Happy 14th Birthday Kaleb!

This boy, covered in sawdust is making me feel old. I guess it would technically be a choice to actually feel this way,  but my little Kaleb is making me feel old.

He isn't little.....anymore.

His shoe size stretches beyond mine, he is almost taller than me.

This is the boy who was my velcro baby. I would often lose him when he was tiny, searching high and low only to realize that he was on my hip! It was a little embarassing when that happened in front of friends. He was so light, I would often forget that I was holding him.

This is the boy who weaseled his way into Larry's art class as a five year old.

This is the boy who as a baby would be crying and then start laughing hysterically. Freaky!

This is the boy who idolizes his big brother.

This is the boy who brags about having ADD and embraces his differences.....sometimes.

This is the boy who loves to camp in the snow!

This is the boy who will jump to help me carry something in the door.

This is the boy who could eat 5 apples in a day if you let him.

This is the boy who has a tender heart.

This is the boy who is growing into a wonderful young man.

I look at Kaleb and see the very traits that I fell in love with his Dad. And sometimes I see these goofy traits and can't believe that, that is what I loved about Kirk. But yes, I did fall in love with him and I still do, goofiness and all.

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

 

 

 

Snow Day!

We had an official snow day. We usually don't get real snow days, where school is cancelled. Not when you homeschool. 

Today our co-op classes at Star Academy were cancelled due to the snow.

We were very sad to be missing all our friends, BUT.....

we had an awesome day watching it snow heavily and doing some sledding!

 I ventured out to see how the sledding was going and immediately thought of Calvin and Hobbes when I saw Victoria catch air on this little jump that they had made previously. They were very pleased to discover that it had iced over and was a little more solid than it had been before.

 I continuously missed the shot on Kaleb. He would get to the bottom and I would say...Uugh, I missed it again! I kept making him run back up to the top and try again. He would walk past me making eye contact with a little grin on his face. I think he was wondering if he should object to one more picture or not. He continued every time.

 Some guy backed his truck right up to the sled ramp that the kids have made. Thankfully, no one slid backwards into his tailgate.

My little daredevil.

 Victoria always makes it well known when she gets tired....dramatically.

 It still amazes me that we live here and how much we just love the snow! I love how it just piles up and covers everything. I don't necessarily like the patch of ice that forms under and around the tires of the van. I have to be careful getting in and out of the van. I almost slid under it one day. I am willing to put up with that. I love how invgorating the cold feels. It doesn't zap my energy.

It feels good!



Playmobil Zoo

We have a house full of creative kids.

And bored at the time too.....

Victoria hounded Jared with what she called an "awesome" idea of building a zoo. He finally gave in and took it far above her own expectations. A perk to having an almost 18 year old brother who still pays attention to you. I absolutely love that. He has a big heart for her.

So here is their creation, along with the help of Kaleb who got in on the adventure.

This was all sparked because we took the Christmas tree down. It was like this open, free space was beckoning to be filled.

 Every exhibit had a story. I think I liked the monkey exhibit the best. They looked like they had hijacked a helicopter.

 There were gift shops too...  and bamboo pencils....

 One of the people fell face first into Shamu's tank......yikes! He is literally in he splash zone.

 It was fun listening to them tell me about each place that they built and what the people were doing at each exhibit.

 Evey zoo needs a farm site and petting zoo.

 Getting the grand tour of this zoo was like taking a short trip in this cold weather we have been having. As a child, I know I would have been lost in here for days wandering through, playing with the animals.

And at the end of the day, I would probably have felt like this too. Laying on my back, watching the clouds go around in circles......