Children's Choir - This Is My Father's World

I love leading our children's choir. They are such a sweet group of kids and a joy to work with. Periodically, I've combined the little tykes and the older children for a two-part choir number. Such was the case on Father's Day when the kids did this arrangement of This Is My Father's World.

Reading Contest - Check-In #4

Well, it's week 4 and Marshall and Shaylen are still reading strong. Marshall is currently in 4th place with 448 links (29 books) and Shaylen is in a close 2nd with 1125 links (37 books). The little boy she is chasing had 1138 links this week. She's hot on his heels! I'm thankful for the competition. It encourages them to read (especially my little competitive Peanut).

I also signed the kids up with our local library this week for their summer reading program. I wasn't planning on doing that, but when the librarian asked me if I had signed them up, I asked what was required of them.

She said, "They just need to read 6 books."

"Six each week?" I asked.

"No. Six for the summer."

No problem. Might as well kill two birds with one stone...or a hundred or so books.

I love these pictures of Shaylen totally engrossed in her book. She had been reading it out loud to me, but when I had to take a break to do something, she couldn't wait to find out what happened. I love it so much that the twins love to read.

Nubble Light

This past week, we were able to finally get Mom out to do something "touristy." It was going to be cooler Thursday, so we decided to go and see the Nubble Light. It had been years since I had been with Taigen (pre-twins in fact).

The Nubble Light, built in 1879, is nestled on a little island (Cape Neddick) in York, Maine. If you didn't realize it was there, you might just drive right by it. It was misting and breezy, but we were able to get in a few great shots before the weather completely destroyed the hair-dos.

Summer Reading Contest

I'm such a slave-driver, that once school was over, I signed Marshall and Shaylen up for a reading contest. Why let their brain rot over the summer, right? For this contest, it's not just the number of books they read, but the amount of words per page and number of pages within a book that count. Also, they cannot just read the book to themselves, they have to read it out loud. I must admit, I'm really enjoying the extra snuggle time.

So far, we have "checked in" for three weeks. It's been good to have the competition to spur them on to read more and more and more. As of this last week, Shaylen was in second and Marshall was in fourth. I'll be sure to keep you all posted!

The Multi-Tasking Instrument

Marshall got the idea of making a homemade banjo during our music unit in school. He's been waiting and watching our paper towel tube for weeks now, eagerly awaiting the end of the roll. It finally came this week and he was able to make a banjo AND a violin...and all with the same materials. Who knew that instruments could multi-task?

Speaking of instruments, Shaylen piped up today telling Marshall that "the tuba is the most hardest instrument to play." She must associate size with difficulty level. I got a great chuckle listening to her explain this to her brother who believed every word. I'm greatly relieved. I cannot imagine lugging a tuba back and forth to lessons. I'm sure our neighbors would be relieved as well since they would undoubtedly hear every note of every practice session too.

A Bit of Little Laundry

Yes, you read that right. I didn't mean to say "A Little Bit of Laundry," but "A Bit of Little Laundry." You see, that's because Mom brought an old suitcase (which happened to be my great-grandmother's overnight bag) full of old (many handmade) doll clothes. Mom used them for her Barbie doll and my sister and I used them for ours. While Shaylen's Only Hearts dolls aren't made quite the same way, some of them will still work for her. They smelled very musty, so I handwashed them. I didn't want to throw them in the dryer (didn't want them to last for 30+ years only to be destroyed by me), so I figured that I would hang them up to dry. When I got done I laughed at how funny it all looked to have itty-bitty dresses, skirts, cardigans and hats hanging on my laundry line.

The Peanut Rides Solo

Many of you may remember that last summer, Marshall and Shaylen were given "new" bicycles. We got them bike helmets, adjusted the seats and were prepared to take off the training wheels. Marshall was able to pick up on it fairly quickly, after his first try in fact, but poor Shaylen wasn't quite ready. She vowed to try again after winter.

She was true to her word. Yesterday, she finally mustered up the courage to try again. Taigen called to me from outside. When I looked, she was riding around the yard all by herself. I quickly grabbed the camera and videotaped her second try. Taigen, Mom and I were so excited to see her finally accomplish this milestone.

Blast From the Past

Guess who is in town? My mom! She has made her yearly pilgrimage from Alaska. This time when she came, it took her 16 hours from Fairbanks. That is one long day! It would be faster to fly to Paris, France (and probably about the same price too). She finally got in at 4:30 on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, we had received a package from Mom. The box contained some treasures that Mom had played with when she was a girl and then my sister and I played with them when we were girls. What's neat is that now that these treasures have come to New England, my children can play with them. We unpacked everything onto the kitchen counter yesterday and Mom explained everything to the kids.

What are these treasures? Well, some of the things were delicate pieces of furniture that were in my dollhouse when I was a child. (The kids aren't ready for those, but they enjoyed looking at them nonetheless.) The other items were part of a set called a Dream Kitchen. Mom said she and my aunts (pronounced "ants" not "ahhhnts"...tee hee) probably got the dream kitchen back in the early 60's. The kitchen has a fridge, a stove, a sink, a dishwasher and lots of cupboards to store stuff. There's pretend food, itty bitty plates, silverware, cups, teacups & saucers, pots, pans, and boxes of pretend products that stock the cupboards.

Stephanie and I both remember playing for hours with these and it's neat to see my children take delight in them as well. Mom sent them specifically for Shaylen, but I think Marshall is enjoying all of the tiny details as well.

Pastors/Wives Memorial Day Fellowship

Two years ago we were able to have some pastors/wives and their kids over to our house for a picnic. We had such a great time with all of them. For some reason, we were not able to do it last year, but earlier on in this year we determined to do it.

We had a smaller group this year (only 32), but the day was beautiful and I think everyone enjoyed sitting in the shade and talking. The teens threw a football and frisbee around and the little kids were running around, playing freeze-tag or entertaining themselves in whatever way they deemed best.

I promised the pastors and wives that I would not post any incriminating photos of them (especially the ones of them playing a silly relay game that Taigen came up with), but I did NOT promise to not post photos of their kids!

We're so thankful for the wonderful day we had and the encouragement from our friends.

Homeschool International Fair

Marshall and Shaylen wrapped up school in early May, but one of our last school functions was to participate in a homeschool international fair.

The kids had to get a tri-fold display and report on a specific country. After thinking a bit on what all was required of them, I decided that the kids would do Zambia since we had so many artifacts from there (thank you Auntie Janellee). We also had outfits that were made from Zambian material (thank you Auntie Janellee) and easy access to quick answers (thank you Auntie Janellee, Missionary Phil Hunt and Google).

Marshall and Shaylen were super excited to work on it and find the answers. We couldn't just report on any old thing. We had a list of specific questions we had to answer. That made things more interesting! Once those were answered and displayed on our board, we could also add other information we deemed worthy of display. (The kids were really excited to put up a picture of a dung beetle. They think his job is really, really interesting!)

Since Marshall & Shaylen have limited abilites with the computer, I would look things up and then they would help find the information and pictures. They were so cute writing things down on paper and then telling me what to type up. It was a ton of fun and they were super researchers. Obviously, by looking at the pictures, you'll know that there was a ton of help from me (how could I not help, right?), but they really did get in on a bunch of the action. The kids also had to internalize a lot of the information so that they could be familiar enough with Zambia in order to answer the questions of those that would visit their "booth."

The kids enjoyed visiting the other displays and looking at their interesting artifacts. There were displays of Afghanistan, Austria, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy & Norway. That equals a lot of work by our homeschool kids (and a lot of work involving their Mommies)! Reports, costumes, displays and food usually don't just appear without a mom somewhere behind the scenes.

After we were all done taking our tours and filling out our passports, we enjoyed an international meal. It was delicious! The kids and I made ndiwo and nshima. That's Zambian for stew and corn meal mush. It was really good and we liked it. I used chicken, spinach, tomatoes and onions for the stew. That was my favorite part. The kids really liked the nshima. I'm thinking it wasn't necessarily for the taste, which was quite bland, but for the mere fact that they got to eat it with their fingers. It was a successful night, mostly in part due to the planning and organization by one of our homeschool moms, Jane (Ellen's mom). It was her idea and I'm so glad she spearheaded it all. We loved it!