Thursday, May 31, 2012

summertime! - May edition

a special visitor, passing through town. the kids and i had the privilege to have a quick breakfast with my step-sister and her husband, jacquie and jim, who i hadn't seen since their wedding in 2009. she is now a mommy and we got to meet her cute little mackenzie. what a treat to get to see them!


jacob feeds his lego addiction with a much-needed lego playdate with his buddy, john patrick. 
look at those smiles- i think we need to do this more often!


visiting the creation museum with our friends, the nordines. it's right down the road from us, and a fun place to go when we're needing to get out of the house.


memorial day picnic with friends. yay for bathing suits and ice cream and croquet in May!!


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

neighbors

i got to thinking tonight... 4 years ago, this memorial day weekend, we moved into this house.

in that 4 years, we've had a lot of interesting interactions with our neighbors. it started with the guy who lives diagonally across the street- blaring his rock music at 1 am the first week we were here. oh no you didn't.

that same guy came knocking at our door the following january, at 9pm on a sunday night. it was in the negative degrees outside, and we were baffled as to why anyone was out in that weather. he was having family problems and was looking for help. we called the cops.

then there's the single woman across the street, who has a teenage son. we saw him alongside the road one night, returning home from a date. it was 11pm, and his car was in the ditch. he had been doing donuts in the middle of the 2 lane country highway, and he spun off the road. kids these days! this is the same kid who used to scream "white power" when getting off the school bus in the afternoons, setting my dog into a barking frenzy, waking my napping children. grrrr. thankfully he doesn't ride the bus anymore, but i don't know if that has anything to do with it!

then there's lady to the east. i feel bad- we've met her twice, and i still can't remember her name. anyways. she is widowed and probably in her 80s. both times i've met her, she's complained about being old and alone. she has lots of negative things to say about anything and everything. she does have a man-friend who comes to pick her up for lunch, almost every day. she's told me she doesn't like his driving, and i laugh every time i see them leave her drive-way, and she is driving them in his car. can't wait to get old!

and that leaves neighbor lady to the west, ms. shirley. her husband actually built the house we live in, back in the 1940s. when they sold the farm to our landlords almost 10 years ago, they kept one acre and built a new house there. in the 4 years we've lived here, i've never met her. i've only ever seen her once. i don't think she has left her house. she has people that come stay with her, i think they're her kids. she has a guy that mows her yard once a week- mr. wayne. he's a celebrity here at our house- because he has a really nice, expensive, zero-turn riding mower that jacob just loves! jacob sits on our driveway an watches him for 45 minutes straight. :)

and our newest neighbors, (actually we should be charging them rent because they are living in a bush on our back porch), are 4 baby mockingbirds. they have one busy momma!


jesse built the kids a birdhouse on monday, to house future bird families on our back porch, and they finally got to paint it tonight. daddy was working late- my instructions were "pick 2 colors that mix well together, not 2 colors that make....brown."







Sunday, May 20, 2012

five

it was a 2 week celebration for jacob's 5th birthday...

it started with having friends over for cake #1


we covered the top of a cake with marshmallow fondant, and made some paints out of food coloring and let jacob paint his own cake. he was very serious about it, and did a great job! :)



and then pappy and gammie came to visit for the actual birthday weekend.
we started out his birthday with donuts made by gammie. we headed up to the lego store 30 minutes away. jacob was overwhelmed and thrilled all at the same time. after that excitement we headed to a nearby park for a picnic and a little hike. the weather was perfect!






and then of course, there was cake #2.


and then grandma and grandpa came to town the following weekend for more birthday fun. just about the same time they arrived, farmer gary started his work in the fields. this is like christmas day to jacob. he was in heaven! grandma and grandpa and farmer gary all in the same day! we didn't have to worry about entertainment for our guests- we spent lots of time watching the tractors and the hay baler working out in the fields. a big thanks to grandma who photo-documented the weekend better than i.


we also spent some time at the creation museum, and visited the local putt-putt course. it was a gorgeous weekend to be outside!



(for some reason, all the pictures i took at the putt-putt course were of the adults. this is the only one i had of jacob and he missed his swing) :)

we had lots of fun celebrating our sweet jacob!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

school is out for the summer


we just wrapped up year 2 of answers for preschoolers with jacob and his friend, isabel. we weren't die-hard or too incredibly strict about it, but we managed 2-3 (short) lessons per week for the last 2 years. it started with just needing something to do with the kids, because they were needing something constructive to do to pass the mornings. then by the 2nd year, we were more focused on the fact that it was great preparation for them for kindergarten. each "school day"consisted of a bible lesson, sometimes a science or social studies lesson, scripture memorization, math lesson, phonics (mostly identifying and writing letters), shapes and color identification, small crafts, and story time.


this past week was our finale lesson, followed by our final field trip. our last few weeks' bible lessons covered adam and eve, and noah and the ark- what better field trip place than the one and only creation museum?! we presented the kids with certificates last night and also gave them $1 to get an ice cream cone :)


(yep-that's my boy there with the upside down diploma)

and of course we made them say one more memory verse....



and now we enjoy the summer and anxiously await the start of real school....off to kindergarten!