She received our usual three presents from us.  This year we got her a table top loom, a crafting kit with four different small crafts and a new bike!

The table top loom.

Lyra apparently felt left out of the picture taking because she started saying “eeese!  eeese!”  (cheese!)   How could I help but take a picture of her?

We had our normal Birthday dinner with family and close friends.   Then, after dinner, Mom took the girls upstairs to change them into pink princess dresses and keep them occupied for a few minutes.    Kip put the finishing touches on the cake (we couldn’t attach the fondant spout and handle until immediately before serving) and I worked on the icecream, whipped cream and sprinkles in chocolate bowls.    Barbara, Meredith, Sarah & Mimi worked to help me change it into a surprise tea party.   We quickly cleared the table and reset it with fresh white linens, tea cups and saucers, china, bowls of mints, a borrowed tea set and flowers.      Mary was so surprised when she came back downstairs!

Mary’s Birthday Dinner:  starting with Mary and going around the table to the left.

Mary, My Mom,  Kip, Mr. Hicks (our piano teacher), Bob (Sarah’s new husband), Sarah, Mimi (Kip’s “mom”), PawPaw (Kip’s Dad), Savvy, Melodi (Kip’s sister), Tim (Melodi’s boyfriend), Nathan, Meredith (Barbara’s daughter), Barbara (long time family friend) and Lyra.

The Tea Pot Cake that Kip & I made.

Mary’s first sight of the cake!   She was so thrilled!

Opening presents!

Another gorgeous day- high in the mid 60′s & sunny.   That afternoon I took the kids out for a nature study on Moss.   Our neighbors have a very large patch of moss along the road.    As we headed down the driveway, the big kids took off ahead of Lyra and I.   She quickly realized she was being left behind.    The picture below is funny to me- Lyra has just realized that the big kids are leaving her behind so she took up running and hollering “Nay!   Nay!”  (Nathan!)

These are my neighbors flowers- not sure what they are.   Our daffodils and crocuses are already up and I saw a Bradford Pear Tree in bud the other day.

I brought along my copy of Anna Comstock’s huge “Handbook of Nature Study”, some other nature study books, magnifying glasses, sketchpads and colored pencils.     While they used their magnifying glasses to inspect the moss up close and then sketched it into their books, I read aloud to them the selections on moss in the “Handbook of Nature Study”.

The kids were mainly using green, brown and black pencils so Lyra made off with the other colors.

Auntie Fran is home!    Auntie Fran & Poppy live two houses down (Mr. Perfect Yard to my local friends!) and the children adore them.   We are so lucky to have wonderful neighbors.    We love each one of the neighbors that live around our cul-de-sac.

It’s high time I got this blog caught up.     I’m going to condense all the pictures from the last three weeks of January into one post.   Here we go!

January 11, 2012- Bowling

With the rising cost of living, especially the price of groceries and gas, it can be hard for a family of six to afford going out anymore!    I have discovered two great websites- Groupon and Restaurant(dot)com.    In November I was able to buy a four pass bowling coupon for $10!  That included a game of bowling for four and shoe rentals- the normal price is $30.   I set it aside until after the holiday rush quieted down.    Restaurant(dot)com sells gift cards to restaurants and they often have great deals.   I was able to purchase a $25 gift card to our favorite pizza restaurant for $2!     We had a great afternoon out- the kids enjoyed their first time bowling.  Kip is a great bowler- he had 2 strikes and 8 spares.   I did not bowl as I don’t really care for it- I enjoyed watching everyone else and keeping track of Lyra.

January 16, 2012- Morning Glories- sleepy girls in the morning.   Savvy, 4 years old and Lyra, 21 months old.

January 17, 2012- Park Day

I’ve lived in the South for 22 years and I don’t ever remember a winter this warm.   We have consistently had sunny days in the 60′s.    Consequently, we’ve been packing up lunch and heading over to the new playground 4 miles from our house pretty often.    Such fun to meet with other homeschooling friends for fellowship and encouragement.

January 20, 2012- More Park Days & First Pigtails

Lyra has had her first pig tails and oh my, she is SO cute!   Of course, she is also very busy so it has been nearly impossible to really get a good picture of them.  I made several attempts while she was eating lunch- they aren’t as good as I’d like but they’ll do.   She is also an absolutely WILD baby- she loves to rough house- you cannot throw her high enough, swing her hard enough- she laughs & laughs & laughs.   She is so fun!

Eating her lunch at the park!

January 21, 2012- Build A Bear

Nathan has been asking and asking to go to Build A Bear, probably for over  a year.    He was given $30 and a $10 B-A-B coupon for his birthday so off we went.

With the coupon, there was enough left over to do a second animal.   Nathan chose to make Lyra a soft bunny.   He is giving it to her for Valentine’s Day.   Sweet, eh? 

January 21, 2012- Black Eye

Lyra fell while playing in the living room and landed on the scope of Nathan’s rifle.   This is shortly after it happened.   There was almost a perfect circle around her eye.  It looked pretty bead the next few days but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it.

January 28, 2012 Sisters- Mary playing with and dressing up Lyra.

January 31, 2012 My Two Seven Year Olds

Because Mary & Nathan are exactly 11 months apart (2/3/2004 and then 1/3/2005), I always have one month each year where they are both the same age.     Here are my two seven year olds.    I know Nathan’s hair is atrociously long- I took him to get it cut a few days later.

I had to post a picture of Nathan and his “hicket”.  I am not sure what the proper name is for this tool but it is Nathan’s favorite tool of Kip’s.  He hauls it all around the yard digging stuff, etc. with it.    Every day he asks me – “Mom, can I take my hicket outside and play?”

Love this picture of the two of them!

Here is a snippet of today- I thought you might find it somewhat amusing to look back and remember how it was with little kids in the house!     Showered & dressed by 7:30am.  45 minutes to check my email, eat breakfast, switch laundry, monitor Mary & Nathan’s chores and do the breakfast dishes.  8:15 we are all heading upstairs for 30 minutes of getting the children dressed, hair fixed, make beds, clean rooms, etc.   8:45am Bible study with the kids.  9:00am- Lyra goes down for a nap.  I spend the next 1 hour & 15 minutes trying to get Mary and Nathan through their language arts, phonics & math and do Savvy’s preschool work.   Get Lyra up at 10:15 and spend the next 30 minutes reading history out loud (we are studying the 1850′s right now).    Then downstairs- send Nathan out to the backyard with Lyra.  Direct Mary & Savvy to clean the living room.  I start the bread for tonight.  Then they go outside & I bring Lyra in.  Lyra & I eat lunch.   Then I put her in the living room & fix lunch for the 3 older kids.   While they are eating lunch they listen to their Suzuki Piano Music and I read aloud to them from the Burgess Bird Book for Children (we are studying birds for Science).    While I pick up lunch I am supervising Mary & Nathan practicing their piano (8 songs each).    By now it is 1:15pm.   Put the younger two girls down for a nap.   Older two kids sent outside to play.   While they are playing I fold laundry, sort mail, check email, put spaghetti sauce & meatballs on the stove to simmer, sweep & mop the floor, get the rolls fixed and rising.   Call kids in for snack and to wash faces.  Piano teacher arrives at 4:00pm for lessons.  While they are having lessons I get the little girls up, make croutons from scratch for our salad,  assemble a salad and cook the pasta.   After lessons our piano teacher stays for dinner.  He leaves around 7:30pm.  I take the girls upstairs, put Lyra to bed, listen to Mary read to me & Savvy for 20 minutes and then put them down.   Then sweep & mop the kitchen floor for the second time today.  Meanwhile Kip & Nathan are out in the garage painting his pinewood derby car for the race on Saturday.  I just sat down and I never did get to cleaning the three bathrooms (maybe, hopefully, tomorrow?).     WHEW!!!

I gave Lyra a nice bath, got her freshly diapered, put on clean warm jammies.   She was all ready for bed.      I left Nathan in the bath tub while I finished  putting laundry away.   Lyra was (I thought) playing with Mary & Savannah in their room.   A few minutes later Nathan starts calling for me.   Lyra decided that she really hadn’t had enough fun times in the tub, so she climbed back in- diaper, pajamas and all.   She was allready wet so I just let her play with Nathan while the tub drained.   And of course, I had to grab my camera for a few pictures.    She is such a fun baby.

In our family we don’t do kid parties until the child’s 7th birthday.   Prior to that, we always have family parties- whoever is in town comes for dinner, cake & presents.   But finally, Nathan’s long awaited 7th birthday arrived and it was his turn for a party!     Several months ago I asked Nathan if there was anything special that he wanted for Christmas and he replied “Mom, all I want for Christmas is science, science, science!”.    With that in mind, we chose a science theme for his birthday party.    We decided to do four science experiments for his party- instant snow, baking soda & vinegar explosion, Diet Coke & Mentos explosion and making glow-in-the-dark slime.   I decided that messy, exploding science experiments + 10 boys was not something I wanted in my kitchen so we rented out the auxillary hall at the local fire station.  

We got to the fire station early and set up for the party.   All of a sudden Nathan turned very pale, clamped his hand over his mouth and said “Mom, I think I’m going to throw up!”   We rushed him off to the bathroom but he never did throw up.   When I questioned him about it a few minutes later he said “Mom, I’m just so nervous that I feel sick!”.   Poor guy!   I think he was nervous no one would come or that everyone wouldn’t have fun.    Of course, they all came and everyone had a good time.

Here he is before hand, ready & waiting!

His birthday cake.

The firemen allowed the boys free run of the fire trucks.

Blowing out his candles and opening presents…

The exploding Diet Coke & Mentos…  some of them went really high. 

1. Savvy came downstairs at 11pm last night complaining that she had “itchy biscuits”.    Kip and I rock-paper-scissored who was going to deal with this lovely issue.  He lost.    After a few minutes in the bathroom, they came out and Kip was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop.    Earlier in the day the children had gotten into several bottles of glitter that I bought at Dollar Tree.   Poured them all over the outdoor fort, in their hair, etc.   I really did not care- small potatoes as far as I am concerned.    But apparently the top of her head is not the only place the glitter landed.   Kip said her entire biscuit area was completely encased in glitter.    As in, you could hardly see the skin through all the glitter.   Good gracious.  Even after a thorough scrubbing in the bathtub this morning, the glitter is still stuck to her!  I have a feeling we’ll be finding glitter for quite a while.

2. Nathan came to me on Monday and said “Mom, if we could have another baby girl, I have THE PERFECT name picked out for her!”   me: what is it?    Nathan: “Mom, we should name her Charlotte Anne!  Isn’t that a beautiful name?!?!”    so sweet!  And I do love the name Charlotte!   (and no I am not pregnant for anyone who is wondering!)

3. Whenever the kids have their annual physicals I try to take just that child and we do some fun things.  This morning was Nathan’s physical.   We stopped at the toy store to order Mary’s birthday present and Nathan had a chance to play for a little while.  Then on to his appointment and out to lunch at Panera afterwards.  He brought his entire stash of coins and insisted on buying desert for me & him (which I would have bought).  It was very sweet.   He felt like a little man going up to the cash registering and paying for it himself.

4. Mary is the crafting QUEEN lately.   She is working on her potholders constantly.   She is working on knitting a baby hat with her knifty knitter loom.  And drawing, painting, etc.  I just love it.   She is such a treasure.  She doesn’t know it but for her birthday we are getting her a table top loom.    She fell in love with weaving at the High Point Historical Museum this summer and looks at looms longingly now whenever we run across them.   I hope she’ll love it.

5. Lyra is really enjoying her outside time.  Kip spent an entire weekend cleaning up our fenced in backyard and making it toddler ready.   Mary & Nathan have been taking turns with her out in the backyard.   She loves the slide & swings the most and it is wearing her out for naptime.  

7. (lunch time today, 1/12/12)  Mary just asked me (about cuties- those little clementines) “Mom, did you buy teenager cuties?” Me: (wondering what in the world she is talking about) No, I just bought regular Cuties, why? Mary: Because our Cuties are a lot bigger than the small ones we usually have. (Maybe she thinks Cuties are like baby oranges??? Hence the bigger than usual size equaled “teenage” cuties???)

9/2/2007-  Mary was 3 1/2 years old, Nathan was 2 1/2 years old and Savvy was just 2 weeks old!   It was a busy time for us with a new baby, etc. so Kip & I thought we’d do something fun with the two big kids.   We set them up with paints on the back deck and let them go to town.   Mary clapped her hand onto her forehead and then her cheeks, a la the kid in the Home Alone movie.   I snapped a picture in that one perfect moment!   I love this picture- it is so funny to me!

-He loves building sets.   He got an erector set, zoobs and legos for Christmas.   These should keep him busy for a while!

-He still prefers salad to almost any other food.    Although new favorites this year are Slim Jims and nuts- pistachios, salted almonds and especially my Mom’s spiced pecans.  He has also discovered fresh cauliflower dipped in Catalina dressing and added that to his favorites list.

-He is still very interested in Science.   Probably his favorite gifts this year were Science related- a Chemistry set, a primary scientist set that includes child size beakers, flasks, test tubes, etc.   He has gone wild for snap circuits and is building all kinds of circuits each day.    He is happiest when he has something to think about and something to do, all at the same time.  His favorite tv shows are usually Science related- Beakman’s World, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs although he does also like American Pickers & River Monsters (a show about fishing).

-Nathan continues to love & adore “his” baby.   He is very attentive to her & always concerned with her safety & comfort.

-He is learning to read quickly and loving it!

-He is 7 this year and in our family that means he gets to have his first kid party!    It will be science themed and he is super excited about it.

The kids always get three gifts from Daddy & Mommy for their birthday.  This year Mary & Nathan are both getting bikes!    (Mary’s birthday is just 4 weeks away)

Opening gifts from his sisters.

From Daddy & Mommy- primary science set, a make-your-own paper mache volcano kit & a bike!

Nathan’s breakfast of choice- those little white Sweet Sixteen doughnuts with orange juice and bananas.   Savvy was thrilled! 

It was only 30 ish degrees this morning so quite cold for North Carolina.  Nonetheless, he couldn’t get dressed fast enough- he was out the door & on his bike by 7am.

He wore his cowboy outfit for birthday dinner that night.  Cute, eh?  I bought a pair of jeans for $1 at a consignment sale & used a coupon to get the buckskin/fringed fabric for $4 from Jo-Ann Fabrics.  A friend of mine cut the legs off the jeans and used the fabric to make new legs & a poncho.   He already had the hat & I got the red bandana for $1 at Wal-Mart.    Kip got him a nice set of cap pistols to go with his outfit.   Such a fun gift for a 7yo boy!  (this was his Christmas gift)

Bubbling potions on the dining room table.   (We used colored water & dry ice)  His snap circuit set as the center piece.  And other science related items on the table.    For dinner he requested my Chicken & Sausage stew, salad & breadsticks. 

We have a family tradition of keeping their birthday cake a surprise.    I think he was pleased with the volcano cake Kip & I did!

Opening presents….    My sister & Alec, Kip’s parents- Paw Paw & Mimi, and our piano teacher, Mr. Hicks, all joined us for his birthday dinner.

LEGOS!

The kids all disappeared & were quiet while the adults were visiting.  This would normally be cause for concern so I went looking for them.   I found everyone on the couch with Nathan’s new hexbugs set.  I’ve since bought the girls their own, pink, bugs so they are all having fun with this!

Kip was born on Christmas Eve so we have a tradition of spending the evening with his parents.   We have Kip’s birthday dinner & cake, he opens presents and then later, after dinner, we all go in the living room and the kids open their presents from his parents.      This year, for Kip’s birthday, we did SEVEN days of birthday for the week leading up to the 24th.  The kids & wrapped seven presents in brown craft paper and numbered them 1-7.   Then each day he drew a number out of a jar and opened the corresponding gift.   It was very fun!

Two pictures of all four kids- wish they hadn’t come out blurry.

Opening presents from Paw Paw & Mimi.

December 25, 2011- CHRISTMAS DAY

The three big kids waiting on the stairs to be called into the living room.  (Lyra was still sleeping)

The tree & presents…

WOOHOO!

Mary, opening her special gift from Daddy & Mommy.  It was the long-awaited and much-desired American Girl doll, Kaya.

Nathan opening his special gift from Daddy & Mommy- a cowboy set with chaps, poncho, red hankerchief & a set of 12 shot cap pistols.   (Check his birthday post for a picture of the outfit!)

Savannah, opening her “Pop-Arty” beads.   They are beads that you can pop together to make all sorts of jewelry- rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc.

Kip is not thrilled that I am posting this picture but it is the ONLY one we got of Lyra on Christmas Day!   She was so busy running all around that it was impossible to get a good picture of her.   I hate that I missed getting a good one. 

Despite sickness (me, Savannah & Lyra) and our cat, Princess, dying on Christmas Day, it was still a really nice Christmas.   We stayed in our pajamas, ate our traditional Holiday French Toast for breakfast, played with toys, took naps… it was lovely.