Catching up- Ellie's Birthday

Ellie still loves reptiles. She chose this turtle cake
from a book for me to recreate. Finding turtle
decorations was another story!

We don't have any photos of it, but Ellie also chose to go
to Wee Bounce. She decided to take Philip along too, since
he had never been.


Amazing! We found a turtle princess crown to
go with the theme.

Catching up- Karrigan's Birthday

Karrigan choose to go to Wee Bounce again.

She doesn't think much of cake but loves pie.

We had 5 different kinds and Key Lime Pie was

Karrigan's favorite.

The dolphin pinata Philip made for the occasion.

Catching up

October and November are our family's busiest months. So, why did I schedule all the children's physicals, dental and eye appointments in those months? Well, umm long story. But if I've ever even thought of reaching Super Mom status, these 2 months make we very willing to hand that trophy over to someone else. Also, while we wouldn't trade the last 2 months for any amount of peace and quiet, it has confirmed to me why we don't go at this pace all the time. Manners and suppers around the table have slipped. With a slip in those two areas, other things follow. The children are fussing at each other more and are much more high strung and hyper. It confirms my thinking about the effect of over stimulation on children. There's only 1 thing on our schedule for next week. Yeah!!!

I do have so much catch up on here, to get the photos up I've promised. OK, it's been so long I don't remember how to make the photo uploading process work backwards, so I'll do them as separate posts.

Oh, above the children were drawing or painting, using their mouths only. First we looked at some of Joni Eareckson Tada's artwork. We have enjoyed her writing and singing around our house for several years( Hymns For a Child's Heart is one of our favorites), so it was so much fun to look at her art and try Joni's "special" technique. Thanks mom2cherubs for this great idea.

Photo Shoot

Ellie - 9 soon to be 10

Silas -12

Abigail - 13

Karrigan - 8

Philip - 11

My Mom came for a visit a few weeks ago and had these photos taken at Walmart.

Philip's Birthday

No, this picture doesn't make sense. It's obvious I haven't done this in awhile. I can't get the pictures to move around and I uploaded some in the wrong order. With dial-up, I'm not about to redo all these uploads to get it right. Sorry. OK....
Philip chose to go to Wonder Works in Pigeon Forge for his birthday. That WAS his birthday gift and he was very pleased with it.






Yes, this picture is correct, WonderWorks is made to look like a building that's been turned upside down due to an earthquake or such. In the first two pictures listed you can see that the entry is made to look upside down too. The place is full of fun things to do.

Philip and Karrigan gearing up in the roller coaster simulator. This was the biggest hit of all. The thing spins, tips and dives while you watch a video.



It's amazing that this is indoors. I call it an air bike. The faster you peddle the faster you spin.

Steve, Philip and Silas preparing to go.

Abigail testing her grip, something she's very proud of.

This is really what it looks like it is.

The puck for this game is virtual, it's a bouncing light that you control.

Philip on the climbing wall.

Philip isn't mad, he's concentrating very hard while he control a robotic arm that is like the one used at the Space Station.

There was lots more to do and with coupons I found, we were able to enjoy a game of laser tag at no extra cost. Everyone thought it was a blast and to top it all off, Philip won.

If you should choose to go, take a pair of earplugs, the background noise is very loud and gave us a headache after being there all evening. A positive thing is they are open until midnight and the ticket price gets you in for a whole day.

Full Life

A favorite game here- dwarfs or dorfs as Ellie says

We've been so busy the last 4 months that I haven't had time to journal it. More for our family's journal sake, because I'd say my readers have given up on me, I'll recount some of our adventures. Sadly, I can't include many pictures right now, because they disappeared on me. I'm trying to not freak out!

Here's a few sneak peeks of our summer so far:

We've been to NC once a month for the last four months. This last time the girls and I stayed home and let the fellows make the trip. We had nice trips but I've become a hermit over the past few weeks, trying to recover. I know some of you go all the time, but we have melt downs, me included, if we are constantly on the go.

Trip 1 Birthday Surprise for Aunt Lib

Trip 2 Sister in law's birthday

Trip 3 Family reunion

Trip 4 Altapass Campmeeting

I've been wrapping up our Keeper's of The Faith club, because I was sick last year but the dear girl's were very patient with me until I was well. I taught them cake decorating and we all had lots of fun, in spite of me having to make 12 identical cakes for one meeting and pounds of icing for another. Then we did a cupcake benefit for our local homeschool chapter. I hope the pictures can be retrieved because the girls really did an awesome job.

One day Ellie and Philip were playing on top of the playhouse. Philip jumped off but when Ellie went to jump, she fell. She dislocated her elbow and broke it at the growth plate. After several weeks in a soft cast, the results didn't look hopeful. Her arm wouldn't straighten out and the Dr. gave us no hope of it doing so, but wouldn't order physical therapy for it (said pt wasn't good for children). The only thing he gave permission for was swimming. Swim lessons were the following 2 weeks for them (every day for 2 weeks, with us being gone at least 4 hours every day! But a really great program) and with prayer, Ellie's arm is now straight!! Praise you Lord!! Her Dr. is skeptical and wants to see her in Aug. because he says elbows like to freeze up, but we're not worried.

We've enjoyed 3 great camping trips so far this year. We had bought our tent last year, almost two days before I became ill. So, the children didn't get to do any camping in '09, except for in our back yard. For Mother's Day I requested a camping trip, not because I love it so much, but because it makes great family memories and I've determined to spend that special day each year enjoying my 5 blessings. Our second trip was during the reunion, because there was no place for us to stay, and the last time was with Aunt S, Uncle S and the boys. It was a lot of fun!!

Back to swimming. Abigail is such a beautiful swimmer. She graduated the swimming program this year. She wants to do a refresher course next year and then see about getting her life guard certification after that. I think it would be wonderful to have a modestly dressed life guard! We've found that lifeguards are required at more places than pools, and then she could always teach later in life if she chose.

Everyone in our house, except for me, has adopted the stray that showed up here. They think he's beautiful. I still have Cody in my mind and heart and this dog doesn't come close. I'll be walking to the clothes line and suddenly feel something wet and warm on my hand at my side. He licks me, Yuck!!!!!!!! And he must be tied up when we leave or he, oh I keep forgetting, she wanders. OK, I'll be nice and stop at that, but I want to state for history I'm afraid she'll be trouble and I voted no, more than once!!

Silas is growing daily, I mean it!! We have to keep a stash of pants because he constantly needs a new size when we head out somewhere. He would eat constantly, if allowed, and claims rarely to feel full. The current height ranking here is Steve at 5'11", Abigail at 5'4", Silas at 5'3" and then me at 5'1" with the others still staying in there place behind me.

Silas' Birthday

Silas turned 12 on Sunday. He surprised me by asking for a decoration birthday. At our house the choices have been a decoration birthday- meaning you choose a theme and mom decorates for it or we can do a special family activity- like ice skating. Silas asked for a Narnia themed day. I wasn't sure I could pull it off.
Let me digress for a moment and talk about our family's view of the Chronicles of Narnia. I have good friends and family that will not read these books and I respect and even understand their reasons for this. For Steve and I, this series has a lot of meaning. I cannot listen to one of the audio versions or a movie and not weep. Every time I come in contact with this material, it brings me to my knees. We are not into the magic books and movies that have taken the youth culture by storm recently. Narnia fits with our family values because the witch is evil, there isn't a good witch. C.S. Lewis does liken the moving of the spirit as a deep magic. I can understand where that could be bothersome. If you aren't looking at the whole story as an analogy, it will be just a mythical story. We have great in depth discussions and studies with the children using the analogies in these books. It is my understanding the C.S. Lewis wanted to present an analogy of the kingdom of God, with a story that would engage children. I would never encourage someone to go against their convictions on this subject, I just wanted to give a reason for what our family does.
So, back to Silas' birthday. A visit to our local Goodwill turned into a treasure hunt, looking for decorating materials. We found perfect scraps of material, lots of "gold" ware and goblets for everyone. With half price items from there, we did this birthday for less than ones that had lots of disposable decorations. Steve took Silas out to for awhile and we went to work. It worked!! Silas was speechless when he walked in. All the children dressed up and it didn't take Silas long to get into character. I really enjoyed this, as I don't think my growing boy is going to be into dress up and pretend play much longer.


The grand desert table.
Yes, the grapes are real and they're all in one cluster. I've never had grapes come out of the bag that way until now.
The decorating crew.
( The coat of arms plaque was only 40 cents!)

The pretty ladies.

Sir Silas during our grand supper feast.

Philip drew Aslan on this bag and we put candy in it for a pinata.

It's been so long since I emptied our camera! Here are old photos.



Philip copied his dragon onto my white board.

This is the horse pinata Philip made for Abigail's birthday. Abigail chose to just have a quiet day at home for her birthday. She's our homebody.