a Viking in the house

The mighty viking takes a moment out of his morning to "inspect" a book for his sister.  He later went back to perfecting his defensive stance with his sword.  (All this before 8am)

morning activity

I am not a morning person, never have been.  Even after almost 8 years of living with kids who are hardcore morning people, I have not adapted.  This makes for some very long days, especially as  they "Rise and shine and face the day". Usually, with a plan of action ready to go.

Sometimes that plan is nothing more then to curl up on the couch with a good book (more than likely you'll find N doing this), other times there are full on dragon invasions to defeat.  And then there are plans like the one from yesterday.  Yesterday, N and L woke up  and decided they needed to make pillow for their animals, both stuffed and imaginary (the animals, not the pillows)

They pretty much took care of it all themselves.  I heard the planning and the plotting through an early morning fog, after all it was only 6:45 and while I was headed to the shower, by no means had I actually started to "rise and shine and face the day" .   So, when L asked for the sewing basket I just handed it off to her, without much thought.  

Imagine my surprise when a little head popped into the shower a few minutes later asking if I could thread the needle for her!  "NO, I cannot!"  "Okay, I'll do it myself",  And off she went to do just that.

By the time I had finished showered and getting dressed Patrick ( who is a bit more with it in the morning, still does not have much patience for shenanigans until after his coffee)  had the kitchen table cleared off and the kids were getting ready for breakfast.   L was bummed that the sewing had to be postponed,  I assured her it could be finished after-school.

Ms L, never one to let an idea go, came home from school ready to finish what she had started.  (N, meanwhile had new library books to read and opted out of the sewing circle)  We had a to start over a bit, as Ms L was attempting to sew 5 teeny strips of fabric into a pillow.  With a little assistance, she cut out one bigger piece and figured out on her own that she could fold it and then just sew a seam.  And that's just what she did.  She sewed and stuffed her teeny pillow and proudly showed it off.  When asked what animal or Barbie she was going to give the pillow to she said, "Oh, it's for N's puppy.  She needs a good night's sleep".  And with that she gave the pillow to her brother and Bo (beau? Bow?) - "Like the puppy at the White House" - did indeed get a good night's sleep.

The return of the Costume Box

We have two boxes, one is the dress up box and ome the costume box.  Why they are different, I don't know. But they are.  The dress up box has hats, masks, wigs and various dresses, cowboy vests, chaps and so on.  The costume box has the Batman and Storm Trooper costumes and  witch's dress, frog and turtle costumes, as well as various capes and a leopard costume from 197?? (my mom made it)

baby turtle

Teenage Mutant Nija Turtle

The littlest witch

Clone Pilot 

Anyhow, the dress up box(es) live in the kids' room and the costume box lives in the shed. One is accessible at all times, and the other requires an parent to get it out.  Once talk of Halloween begins the   kids ask for the costume box. And I'm only to happy to oblige.

It's all the delivery my friends

Sombrero made in church to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day.

Yesterday was "Welcome Back" Sunday at our church.  This is basically the first Sunday after school starts and everyone decides that maybe it's time to quit skipping regular services and get back to it.  I'm a firm believer in Church/God is everywhere, particularly in the summer.  So, we tend to slack off the services in the summer and get out and find Him/Her in the natural world via walks and camping etc. 

This year as the kids gathered up front for Children's time I am delighted to see there are more kids and a new teacher.  (We have great Sunday school teachers, but they all could use a break from time to time)  He tells all the kids a story.  It went something like this:

There was a man who gathered enough sticks to build a fire in the cold evening air.  It was cold so he invited others to join him around this fire.  Everyone who came brought a stick with them.  Sticks that could be used to keep the fire going.  As the evening wore on, the fire began to die out, but no one was willing to put their stick on the fire.  One man, who was poor looked at the main across the way, who was clearly rich, and thought, "he should put his stick on, why should I be first?"  And the rich man thought, "Why should I be the one to take care of all the other people, the should put their sticks on."   Another man looked around and thought, "these people all have the same skin color, I'm not sharing my stick" and still another thought, "Why should I share with that man who's different from me".  And on and on.  You can imagine what eventually happened, the fire died out and all they had left was a pile of useless sticks and cold.

The kids all got the message right away, "they should share!" "Who cares what color they are!"  "They should have worked together!"  came the responses.  And then just as things were winding down and the kids were dismissed for class, N raised his hand.  "I know what that's called, " he said.  The teacher turns to N and puts the microphone up to his mouth and says, "Yes, N?"

SEX discrimination!!  (cue uproarious laughter from entire congregation and all eyes on Mom at the back of the church....)

Welcome back indeed my friends, welcome back...

hot enough for you?

I just never know who or what is waiting for me when I get home after a long day.

Jacks

Teaching the kids the fine art of playing jacks this evening.  So far we've lost a super ball and a jack.  Super ball went down a hole that went under the sidewalk.  I made the mistake of saying, "I hope nothing bites us in there".  Yeah, no one's going after that ball now.  Still have hopes that the sparkling light of setting sun will bounce off the missing jack and our eyes will catch it. 

(ilovemom.      I've been word bombed by the boy!!!)

photo of the day - big brother's rock

Having mastered tying his own shoes, N offers to show L how to tie her shoes.  This photo makes me very happy as I see a shining example of how much these kids love each other.  Nice reminder in the midst of a week of squabbles and quibbles.

Harvest Fest 2012

The calender may say summer, but if you stand very still in the early morning air and take a deep breath you can smell fall already.  I'm ready.  It's my favorite time of year in Oregon.  Well, truth be told I like August - October.  The dog days of summer that melt into autumn and keep on rolling until Halloween.  The days just seem ripe with promise.  Promise of a good harvest, promise of the new school year (I still buy a few supplies for myself every year. The smell of a freshly sharpened #2 pencil makes me smile every time), promise of warms days and cool nights, promise of blazing colors and of course promise of the upcoming hibernation.

John Deere tractor 

In honor of the coming months we piled the family in the covered wagon (okay, the beat up Suzuki) and headed out to Sauvie Island to the first Harvest Fest of the fall.  There was a hayride and the corn ma(i)ze. There was the cow train (ow, ow, ow.... those cows need to get some shock absorbers) and a hay pyramid.   There was a whole new set of memories to create, and I'm pretty sure we made more then a few.

checking the clues to get out of the ma(i)ze

That's right honey, give us a smile.

getting bigger!

Whoa, I'm almost 4 feet tall!

"Neema" always had fun.

Too cool for words.

Even Mommy climbed to the top of the hay pyramid

Imagination drives the day

I think we're lost...