Big box of fun

I had Fashion Plates when I was a girl. 
Amazon offered them to me for about $18.
We got our $18 worth of fun in the first few hours.

Pioneer Girls

We had a few bumps in the road in September as we awkwardly recognized that American Heritage Girls was not where we were supposed to be.  On a whim one Wednesday night at 6:10 P.M. I asked the girls, “Do you want to go to Pioneer Girls tonight?”  Pioneer Girls is a program that meets at our church and one we had never participated in for a variety of reasons.  Two of the girls quickly agreed and we were ready to be there by 6:30.  Marie was a hold out; she wasn’t ready to embrace something without some time to think about it. 

As I dropped off the girls the woman who would be Marie’s leader said she’d actually prayed THAT DAY that our girls would go to PG.  Mind you, she and I had never had a conversation about such a thing and until 6:10 P.M. I’d never considered it. 

The following week I made Marie go.  I said she had to go three weeks and at that point she could decide what she thought.  When I picked them up at 8:00 P.M. the first words out of Marie’s mouth were, “You were right, Mom.  This is great.”

It is by far the least structured evening programming we’ve ever been a part of, but it is working well for them.  I’ve been helping once a month and have gotten to be in different classes.  I’m not sure what next year holds, but it has absolutely been perfect this year. 

There was a little awards ceremony tonight. 

Most of the girls loved it.

Aren’t they sweet?

Braces off

Stewart was all set for his appointment to get his braces off.  Then the office manager called the morning of his appointment to say the doctor had an emergency and would have to reschedule his appointment!  Stewart took the news like a champ; the new appointment was only three days later and after two years with them on what is three more days?

About 2 hours later she called back to say the doctor was coming back to the office and they wanted to get him in.  Yay!  Nan took him for the big event and he was eager to take his own photo when he got back home. 

He’s grown so much since November 2013!!!!

Swim lessons 2016

We had to rearrange swim lessons for Nigel and Marie now that they are involved in rehearsals for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  But Tabitha, Johanna, and Katriel started lessons this week.  Wonderfully enough, Stewart was lifeguarding at the same time.  (He is also in the production, but had already been scheduled to work before he knew the rehearsal schedule.)
Katriel wasn’t too excited about the whole thing.  She isn’t quite three yet, but they let her in.  Although she was floating around the pool like a champ back in September, that was a long time ago in baby minds.  She was stiff and uncomfortable today.    Until she looked up and saw her BIG BROTHER right there next to her.  Be still Mommy’s heart!

 

Johanna had NO problem getting back in the swim of things.  She LOVED her teacher and we could see her mouth chattering a mile-a-minute from where we stood watching.

She did eventually go down it.

Tab also swam.  She is always in the deep end, however; far our out of iPhone camera range.  Nigel and Marie switched to Monday evening lessons.  I did offer that they could skip them this year because of how busy we all are with the rehearsals for the Finney play.  But they did NOT like that idea.  Seems both of them are excited about maybe being lifeguards themselves one day. 

A little bit of snow

They decided to give the white stuff a try. 
It didn’t last too long. 
That stuff is cold, you know.

She’s no dummy

But she really enjoyed learning basic life saving at Pioneer Girls club.  This club has been such a blessing for our family this year.  It’s our first year doing it, and they are having a blast.

I love these smiles

These two little ones bring so much energy to our house.  It takes my breath away when I think about how but for God’s abundant mercy we’d never have known these darling little ladies. 

Running errands with Tab.

Of course we stopped for a picture. 

It’s not really THAT cold in the house!

Katriel’s haircut

It was a busy Wednesday.  She’d needed a cut for quite a while.  It’s just so hard to fit that kind of thing in.  After we dropped off Marie, Tabitha, and Johanna at their program and Stewart at choir we headed to our friend’s salon.  Only we didn’t know our friend didn’t work there anymore.  Oops.  And I didn’t know Katriel would fall asleep in the van on the way there.  Oops.  But as I scooped her out and gently woke her, she was intrigued by the idea.  She sat so still and silently took it all in.  Then when we went to pay she was offered a lollipop.  And she found her voice.  And she chatted all the way home about the experience. 

Hitting the ice

The girls had so much fun last year with skating lessons they wanted to do it again.
The boys got to do free skate on the girls’ last day last year and they asked to do it this year.
It makes busy Wednesday even busier; but with Nan’s help we are making it work.

Bedroom re-do. Nine years later.

When we first closed on the house, we expected that we’d get the bright blue carpet out of our bedroom right off the bat.  They we learned it was High Quality carpet, and it was in excellent shape.
We almost changed it last year.

Things lined up for us to approach this project again this year. 
It’s all about timing.  Moving all that furniture out and storing it in our already full house is half the battle.  Then there is the time to paint, and the living in limbo.  But, it worked out this year.  So here it is.

The before pictures.  The folding table is where we do lots of school.

What it looks like when you move a trunk.

Nigel was a champ helping Daddy pull up the carpet. 

This was our model from the old house.

 

Let the painting begin.

It went SO quickly.  I would have been done in two days…

 

If I’d painted it the right color.
Really.

Then I found the right color.

And our WalMart’s paint machine broke.
We got our first snow of the season that night keeping me from checking out the next closest WalMart then and there.
But I was there early the next morning, only to find out they don’t DO Glidden at that WalMart.
So I went to the NEXT closest WalMart.  And eventually got started with the right color.

Oh yeah – not much different. 

Then they called and said the carpet was ready a full two weeks before we expected it.  Woooo hooooo.

So we camped out on the floor.

And made a few marks on the subfloor.

And they brought the carpet.  What a fabulous smell.

All put back together.  Nigel put the bed back together. 

Love it.

So worth the wait.

New Year’s Eve

Food.  Family. Friends.  Fellowship.

Looking forward to 2016