Things I want to remember about Gabe...

Gabriel is now three and a half. It's a magical age :)

For the last month he's been catching wooly worms. He sticks them in his pockets-several at a time- and then he carries them around. He takes them out to feed them every once in a while. He sets them on some grass and says "He's hungry" (he's usually squished and dead). After a minute he picks it back up checks it to make sure it's wiggly and sticks it back in the pocket.



Last week he cut his own hair. He laid the scissors flat against his forehead and opened and shut them over and over again till he had a nice wedge taken out of his hair. It looked like a mustache on the top of his head. It's now buzzed short.



Thursday we took our first homeschool field trip with a local group to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Gabriel was completely independent. He was best friends with the elderly docent, leading her around by the hand. He talked to all the adults and most of the children. He'd wander waaaay ahead and behind of my place in line with Elizabeth and Nathaniel (Asher did not attend and Micaela stayed with a little girl named Charli). He dropped his shades in the water garden and when the teacher helped him pick them up he was so grateful he told everyone thank you. He tried catching goldfish and tadpoles with the other students, but he just wasn't long enough, so he rejoiced over every one's catch.

1, 2, 3 somping

A few weeks ago I was bribing Nathaniel to count by offering him as many animal crackers as he could count. He managed six or seven I think. Anway, ever since then Asher has been counting for food. Any and all food. He has been saying random strings of numbers and standing at the pantry for the last couple of weeks. Last sunday at Nana's Asher begged for a piece of lemon ice box pie- "more somping, more somping." Two nights ago at dinner we had ice cream. As it was coming the table Asher says in an ecstatic voice- "1,2,3 somping!"

Micaela is Six!

Last night Micaela talked to Ian on the phone before bed. "Daddy, did you know that this is the last day and the last night that I will ever be five? I can't believe it!" She's so cute when she's dramatic. Well, sometimes ;) Anyway, today she turned six. She got up EARLY and daddy made her a special breakfast before he left for work. I declared a school holiday and renewed our aquarium membership, so the kids and I went to the aquarium at 10:00. Elizabeth was an angel and slept in the sling through both buildings! Asher was almost as good riding in the stroller. By 1:15 we were done and starved. Micaela opted to go to Olive Garden because she LOVES their soup and salad. Nana and Papa met us for lunch and treated us to a nice birthday cake there. Afterwards we came home as quickly as we could to make cupcakes. Micaela is six, so now she can make cupcakes she tells me. She did. She read the instructions, and all I had to do was preheat the oven, put them in, take them out and set them on the plate. She measured, cracked eggs, mixed, put them in the pan and iced them. I didn't even have to help her with the fractions! She even decorated them with sprinkles. She proudly carried them in to children's choir tonight to share with her friends. When she got home the boys were asleep, and we made a sun catcher (because she LOVES crafts) and played Sequence (because she LOVES games) and I read her a story (because she LOVES to read, and now that she can, I don't read to her enough). She said this was the best day ever.

I think it was a pretty good day too! I'm tired though, so I'm going to curl up under my blankets and read Nehemiah. Did I mention I got stuck in 1 Chronicles? I'm eight days behind, but I hope to catch up this weekend.

This week

is not a normal week. Ian usually works in the office from 8 till 5:00. This week and next week he's leaving at 6:30 and coming home at 8:00 or 9:00. Saturday and Sunday too. I'm lonely for him. The kids are missing him. The grass and weeds need him. And I need him too! Anyway, I want to post pictures of our new kitties (born yesterday morning from their almost six month old mommy), Micaela's ballet, Elizabeth growing, and Asher being a mess. It's hard to do during the day, and I'm just too exhausted to do it at night! My computer needs RAM. It's running so slowly that turning it on, loading the internet and going to the first web page takes about 25 minutes. So posting pics takes FOREVER. Well, I'm exaggerating-it takes about 30-45 minutes to load photos after I get to the blog. Tonight I'm using Ian's work laptop which feels like lightening, but it has no photos. Apparently, I feel the need to justify my picless posts again :)

Anyway, who knew that kitties needed to be spayed at 4 months? I had no idea. The kittens are precious. There are five- one orange and four black. Three black ones are going to be mottled with orange and brown I think. The other is going to be striped. Two of them have a white/grey mask on the face so far. I don't know that I've ever seen kittens so tiny. Gabriel says they're "cute as baby Lizabet." Micaela says we're keeping them all, but I'm giving them away when she's not looking :) Want one, Chas?

Things really aren't that interesting- except for the kitties. We're just plugging away at school. Addition is finally clicking with Micaela. She no longer has to count on her fingers. We're about 2 weeks and 5 or 6 lessons into MUS Alpha. Nathaniel loves Primer. Some days he can count. Some days he can't. Gabey is doing Proverbs for Preschoolers, and he likes it. We're studying Greece, and we've just parked it on myths and heros. They're fascinated. And Micaela and I are discussing how they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So many of the stories have an element of truth that's been twisted! We're learning to classify plants and draw and label their parts. I think that's fun. Nathaniel's really doing well forming letters within mazes or by tracing. Micaela's handwriting is like Nathaniel's counting- creative at best.

I'll post before I go insane. I just keep reminding myself to do one day at time. And then I look at the number of days ahead before he'll be home again for a day or an evening and I get overwhelmed! If I can take five kids five and under to Walmart and buy two carts worth of groceries, I can do anything, right?

Back hoe Boys

We had our septic tank replaced a couple weeks ago. We thought we wanted a 1500 gallon tank, but we couldn't get the hole deep enough. We went with a 1000 gallon instead. That's ok, because it replaced a 300 gallon tank! Daddy stayed home from work to watch, so the boys were out almost all day watching the tractor make a mountain of mud. He let the boys ride with him which they LOVED.


Ian also had him dig up and bury some giant stumps that were in the garden/orchard area. So we're excited to have that done. Afterwards the four older kids were covered head to toe in dirt and clay, so they all took baths and went to bed early.

Jaspers

Yesterday was Micaela's ballet recital, and we were all ready to go an hour early. So I let them watch a movie. They watched Wee Sing's King Cole's Party. After a while I hear Nathaniel say, "What are those ears on him?" Micaela responds "Those aren't ears, that's just cause he's a jasper. And jaspers are funny." Take a look at the jasper here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uogrErtRCU&feature=related I've not taken time to figure out how to load a you tube video here, so you'll have to click the link if you want to see him :)