Use the force!

For the past several months, we have been watching all the Star Wars movies, one by one (I know there are only six of them, but we're kind of slow). Add in the fact that Lego has a whole series of Star Wars kits and the result is that Jared has become obsessed with Star Wars. So it was no surprise that when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday party he said "Lego Star Wars." On Friday night, Oct. 16th, Jared had his friend, Connor, over for a sleepover. We watched Star Wars Episode 5 and the boys stayed up late playing Legos. For breakfast in the morning, I made Star Wars shaped pancakes. Here are Connor and Jared with their Tie Fighter and X-wing pancakes.

Rather than planning games for the party, we just had Jared's friends bring their Legos and build Star Wars spaceships. Then, they played a game in the basement with their creations.

Krystal and Amber set up a popcorn picnic to watch the show as the big kids flew their spacecraft back and forth.

Jared was so pleased with his spoils, lots and lots of Star Wars Legos.

Finally, pizza and chocolate cake to finish off the party. It was possibly one of the easiest birthday parties ever and the boys had a blast!

But, as usual, when our family gets into something, it doesn't stop there. The kids collectively decided that for Halloween this year we should dress up as characters from the movie Star Wars. So with a few borrowed pieces of costumes, a trip to goodwill, a little bit of sewing, some permanent markers, and a yard sale find - we are the Star Wars family.

Chris is Anakin Skywalker (whom later becomes Darth Vader), I am Padme Amadala (married to Anakin and mother to Luke and Leia). Clarissa is Princess Leia, Jared is Luke Skywalker, Amber is R2-D2 and Krystal is C-3Po. On Wednesday night, the 28th we went to our church Trunk or Treat party and on Halloween night we went to a party at a friend's house with Trick or Treating afterward.

Here are Princess Leia and C-3Po all ready to go get some candy.

Earlier in the week, we had painted pumpkins. This is Krystal hard at work on her masterpiece.

These are Clarissa, Jared, and Amber's pumpkins. We did carve the pumpkins eventually, but don't have pictures of the carved side. All in all, it was a fun Halloween. Personally, I think Halloween gets more fun each year the kids get older. I can't wait until next year!

Happy 10th Birthday Jared!

Jared at his Aunt Kara's wedding in 2004.

Jared has really grown. Still, it's hard to believe 10 years have gone by. We love Jared's huge smile with dimples. Jared is really into Legos right now, especially Star Wars Legos. He will spend hours building star ships with details like escape hatches and lights. He also still enjoys art in any form and has recently created a whole nature series with oil pastels. Lately he has spent a lot of time talking about what he wants to be when he grows up and he can't decide between a Lego designer, an architect, an artist, or illustrator. He has been making up his own comic books, usually involving Legos somehow. Jared also enjoys anything funny, especially Bill Cosby and Abbot and Costello. He can recite most of their acts word for word. We love that Jared still thrives on hugs from Mom and Dad, is a huge help with his sisters, and loves to spend time with his many friends at Cub Scouts and workshops.

Humanitarian Yard Sale

After confiscating many clothing and toy items from the kid's bedroom floors, we had a family meeting to discuss what we should do about this problem. Part of the discussion was that there are many children in the world who do not have nice toys and clothes and after the recent disasters overseas, there are many children who do not have anything. While trying to decide how we could give some of our things to those children who have nothing, Chris suggested that we could have a yard sale and give the money to them instead. What a great idea. Our church's humanitarian services are known world wide and the church always responds to give aide after natural disasters, so we decided that we would give the proceeds from the sale to the LDS Humanitarian Fund. We made that decision on Sunday night. Monday, I set out to find a location for our sale as our home is off the beaten path. On Tuesday, we still didn't have a location so I sent an e-mail out to several of our friends inviting them to join us and asking for ideas for a location. Someone suggested the church and on Wednesday I got permission from the Bishop to use the church. Thursday and Friday were spent going through all our clothes, toys and household items to see what we could sell as well as hanging up fliers at local businesses. Saturday morning we woke up before the sun was up, packed the Suburban and headed to the church. The event was well attended by the community even though rain threatened the whole day. Several families from the church also donated items to sell, brought baked goods to sell, or helped to run the sale. We are so grateful to all those who helped and happy to say that we made $171.80 that will all be donated to the humanitarian fund.

The kids helped to set out all the donated items and then stuck around all day to help with clean-up too.

Finally, a Monarch!

Two years ago for Christmas Aunt Kara gave the kids a butterfly house. With the house, which is a net-like cylinder, came a card and instructions to fill out and send in the card to receive monarch caterpillars and the food with which to feed them. Shortly after having received this wonderful gift, I discovered that one of the girls had eaten the card (Yes, our girls eat paper). No sweat I decided, we have plenty of milkweed in our yard, we will just collect the caterpillars off the milkweed in the summer, feed them milkweed and voila! monarchs, right? Wrong. I searched and searched, but to no avail. Not a monarch caterpillar in sight. While digging for the garden in the spring we discovered several moth pupa and put them in the house. We did enjoy watching them wiggle and hatch. In the fall, we came across many wooly worms which we also put in the house and enjoyed as they metamorphed into cocoons and then moths. But still no butterflies. So this summer I was determined to find a monarch in some form or another. As it so happens, while we were down in Florida visiting Aunt Kara, there were monarch caterpillars devouring her milkweed plant. Would you believe, we actually put two of them in a plastic container and drove them all the way from Fort Lauderdale back to Virginia. When we arrived home there was only one left, but that's better than none. Now, I would have loved to have put the little guy straight into the butterfly house, but over the last year and a half, the house had developed a hole in it (thanks to our cat). I had to settle for putting the caterpillar outside on our milkweed in hopes to find his crysallis later. Periodically, I searched, but with no luck until finally one day when I was working in the yard I found this... Isn't it beautiful! And not three feet away was a second one. Naturally I collected them both and carefully moved them to the butterfly house. We weren't sure how long it would take, but a couple weeks later the first butterfly hatched. About a week later, so did the second one.

Here is one of the monarchs in the butterfly house, drying his wings.

We didn't get to see either of them come out of their crysallis, but we thoroughly enjoyed it just the same. We let them go as soon as their wings were dry and we love to watch for monarchs flying in the yard and wonder if they are ours.

A Smarty Party

Krystal turned 5 on September 27th. On Saturday, (the 26th) she had a birthday party. Inspired by the candy (Smarties) and the abundance of school supplies that I bought on sale, what a better party for a budding Kindergartner than a Smarty Party! The first item of business was getting all pretty for the party. Krystal did her own hair, she's really into that right now, and had me paint her nails.

Amber was not to be left out of all the fun, with pretty nails and wearing her sissy's sunglasses.

Once the four students arrived, they were directed to chairs that had the first letter in their name and they each decorated their letter and then cut it out. We found out that for Pre-K and Kindergartners, some letters were easier than others to cut out, but they all did a great job.

Jared wanted to be the teacher's aide for the party so I gladly put him in charge of the games. He came up with three games. The first of which is Musical Apples, like Musical Chairs but with apple pads on the floor instead.

The next game was Pin the Glasses on the Teacher. Jared drew the teacher and the babysitter helped the girls make the glasses. Here is Clarissa trying to peek while putting her glasses on the teacher. Silly girl.

The last game was Teacher Says, like Simon Says, but well...Jared was a teacher instead and made the girls do all kinds of funny actions. They loved it.

Finally it was time to open presents. Krystal loved all her cards and gifts. This is a game that one of her friends gave her that went along with the school theme of the party. It is pretend school and the kids absolutely love it. I think I might retire as their teacher and just let them teach each other. Just kidding.

Krystal wanted chocolate cake, which turned out to be brownie cake because I got the wrong mix, but she loved it anyway. This picture is actually of her blowing out the candles the second time because the first time Amber got so excited she blew them out before Krystal had the chance. We thought it was funny, but Krystal didn't. After cake, the girls all went to Krystal's room and played Barbies for the last 30 minutes of the party while Chris and I enjoyed a blissful moment of looking through the ads in the newspaper. Then, we sent them home with goody bags full of school supplies and Smarties and I give each of the students an A+ for perfect party behavior, including my four teacher's aides.

A Civil War Tale

We started this school year with a Unit Study on the Civil War. First off, we studied slavery and the Underground Railroad. The kids really enjoyed reading about real life heroes like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. They especially enjoyed reading the book "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and making their own star maps and drinking gourds (made out of some over-sized squash from the garden). On Friday, the 11th we drove for 3 hours up to the New Market Battlefield for a field trip with our history group. The girls loved Miss Stacey's (our tour guide) period dress. The first thing Miss Stacey did was to organize the troops into battle formation and make them stand at attention while she explained the rules for the museum. Notice how straight Krystal is standing.

Once in the museum, Miss Stacey organized the groups by dividing families and age groups up so that everyone was with a new family. She then sent them on a scavenger hunt to find things in the museum that would answer the questions on the sheet. The kids really enjoyed this approach to looking at a museum. Jared and Krystal ended up in the same group, but are working with another Mom.

Next, Miss Stacey talked to the kids about what equipment was needed for soldiers before they could enter into battle. Some of the kids got to try on uniforms as we discussed the different types of unifoms and their fabric.

Next we took a tour of the battlefield and the Bushong farm on which it took place. Luckily, the farmhouse and outbuildings were not damaged in the battle. However one of the rooms had been used as a hospital for the wounded. This room was set up as a replica, complete with blood splattered on the walls.

Here is Krystal in the kitchen building (separate from the house), the kids were excited to find an actual drinking gourd hanging by the hearth.

After a picnic lunch and watching the film about the battle, we made the kids pose for a picture in front of the battlefield. The Bushong farm is in the background and the "field of shoes" is just to the left. Apparently, the day of the battle was rainy and the freshly plowed wheat field turned into thick mud and many of the soldiers lost their shoes. The most touching part of this battle was that a troop of 250 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington (about 90 miles away) got called away from their studies to come help the Confederates in battle. They fought bravely, but 10 of them lost their lives in this battle. Jared was touched by this story and as we talked about how young the cadets were, we were reminded of the story in the Book of Mormon of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Jared wrote a compare and contrast between the two and presented it for Family Night on Monday. He also wrote a verse of song about the cadets to the tune of one of the Primary songs from church and he played it for us on the piano.

This is the verse he wrote (to the tune of Book of Mormon Stories):

Once there were some young cadets who fought for slavery.

They were asked to march and fight with lots of bravery.

Rains did fall into the field which made a lot of mud.

They fought hard, lost their shoes, but they won.

After the lesson we reenacted the battle through a game of tug of war.

On the 18th, I woke up with an itch for another field trip, so we packed a lunch and drove for 15 minutes to a little spot just outside of Dublin where another Civil War battle took place. There is no museum here, just a little wayside with a sign and a single grave. A Captian Cleburne was killed in this battle and buried here.

Jared is making a crayon rubbing of the engravings on the tombstone.

This is the sign that tells a little about the battle. Apparently there is also a farmhouse and barn nearby that is privately owned, but where you can still see the bullet holes and blood on the floor. I love that our nation's history runs so rich in Virginia.

After some time talking about the events that took place, we enjoyed our lunch and some play time on the lawn. Here is Amber enjoying the day with two of her friends.

A Busy Day for Old Bluebell

Our 16 year old Suburban, named Bluebell for the cow-like sound it makes when the ABS kicks in, has seen some action in it's life. This car's favorite thing to do is to take long road trips, filled to the brim with family, animals, and luggage. Although we did not go on a road trip today, Bluebell performed grandly in the face of 12 different passengers. See if you can follow me on this mathematical adventure. The day began when I loaded up the kids into the car (1 adult + 4 kids + 3 car seats = 5 passengers and 3 carseats). Then we picked up a friend and the one year old she babysits (+1 adult + 1 child + 1 carseat = 7 passengers and 4 carseats). Then we dropped Jared and Clarissa off for piano (- 2 children = 5 passengers and 4 carseats). Next, the remaining crew went to the library for storytime (- 2 adults -3 children = 0 passengers and 4 (empty) carseats). After storytime, Krystal and I went to pick up Jared and Clarissa from piano, leaving the others at the library (+1 adult +1 child = 2 passengers and 4 carseats). We picked the kids up from piano (+ 2 children = 4 passengers and 4 carseats). We drove one street over to drop off Clarissa and Krystal for writing workshop, threw two carseats in the back to make room and picked up four more children to take them to writing workshop for the older children (-2 children + 4 children - 2 carseats = 6 passengers and 2 (empty) carseats). After dropping off all the children for workshop, I drove back to the library (- 5 children = 1 passenger and 2 (empty) carseats). I picked up my friend, the boy she babysits, and Amber (+1 adult, +2 children = 4 passengers and 2 carseats), then dropped my friend and the boy off at his house (-1 adult -1 child -1 carseat = 2 passengers and 1 carseat). Amber and I then ran errands until it was time to pick up kids from workshop, the older kids first (+5 children = 7 passengers and 1 carseat). Then, we dropped off four of the children at the younger kid's workshop and picked up Clarissa and Krystal who had to re-install their carseats and (-4 children + 2 children + 2 carseats = 5 passengers and three carseats). Next, we drove one street over to pick up Connor and Jared who were dropping off Delaney for piano (+2 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we crossed the street and got out of the car to go walk on a trail while we waited for Delaney to finish piano (-1 adult - 6 children = 0 passengers and 3 (empty) carseats). Once our walk was through, we got back into the car (+1 adult + 6 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we picked Delaney up from piano (+1 child = 8 passengers and 3 carseats). Finally, 6 hours later, we drove back to my house and unloaded the Suburban (-1 adult -7 children -3 piano books -3 grandparents day cards made at workshop -1 bin of legos -20 or so library books -1 bag of chips -2 pair of shoes = 0 passengers, 3 empty carseats, and a crust of bread from someone's pb&j sandwhich). Whew! What a day.
But, the best part is that the kitchen fairy came while we were gone (probably on his lunch break) and cleaned the kitchen (which still had dirty dishes from the night before) and dinner was already cooking in the crockpot (that one was a result of my own genius) so that's why I had time to sit down and write this post, which is a good thing because I know by tonight I wouldn't have remembered it all.