Lessons Learned

Today we all went to LAMBS (the Ladies AM Bible Study at church). We are studying Genesis, and Kellen and Addie have their own classes and are learning right along with the moms. In the car on the way home Addie announced, "we learned about God!" I asked what she learned, and she said, "we learned about God's rules. We have to obey God." I asked her where we find God's rules, and she answered, "in the Bible." Then, of course, I asked her what some of God's rules are. She said very emphatically, "we can't eat apples off the tree." So I prompted her a bit and we talked about Eve being tempted by the snake and eating the apple, disobeying the one rule God gave to her. To conclude our mini lesson, when I pulled into the garage and let the kids out of the car, Addie turned to me and said, "if we get hungry, we just eat apples in our kitchen." :)

The things kids bring for show & tell...

Today was Kellen's first day to bring Show & Tell to school. All the kids in his class were to bring a special something that would help the children learn about each other. Kellen chose to bring his drum sticks, since he has a great love for drumming. I was quizzing him on his day in the car on the way home, trying to have him remember what the other kids brought for show and tell. There was a princess frog, stuffed lion, a purple car, and then he said one of the little girls didn't bring anything. I said, "oh, did she forget to bring show and tell?" Kellen replied, "no, everyone brought something, just some of the kids brought air." What great perspective that little one has!

Who Wins this One?

This morning Geof stayed around to help me get everyone ready for school (school picture day), and he let me sleep in a bit. I woke up to some whining and crying and heard "Addie, get away from me, I just woke up." Geof said this is what he found: Kellen was laying in his pjs on the rug by the front door, and Addie was standing right over him, practically on top of him. Geof asked Kellen why he was laying on the rug. "Because I am tired." Geof then asked Addie why she was standing there right on Kellen. "Because it's a rug." They both made a good point. :)

A Grand Morning

During her first 2 weeks of school, Addie has been learning about grandparents, and her teachers ended the unit with a Grandparents Tea. Addie invited her Great Grandma and Great Granddaddy Motley to come to school for a special tea party. Addie was very excited! She and Kellen love to have tea parties at Great Grandma's house, so it was a special treat to have them come to school and have one. Her class made special applesauce muffins and gave their grandparents cinnamon-scented ornaments they had made. Addie is looking forward to finding it hanging on Great Grandma's Christmas tree!

Trying the applesauce muffins and opening their gift

When we got home, Kellen and Great Granddad played with Lincoln Logs until it was time for them to go home.

Bits & Pieces of You

This week Geof is out of town, so I'm managing on my own with the kids. K&A are at school this morning, and Ellary is tucked into bed, having her morning nap. I could be cleaning their playroom, which is a disaster after a long day of play yesterday, but there's always something that needs cleaning, so I'm letting it wait. Instead I am working on pictures, one of my favorite things to do. Right now I'm doing Ellary's "baby bits" collage, just as I did with Addie (inspired by a collage I had done professionally with Kellen). I'm not totally satisfied yet with the pictures, but I wanted to go ahead and put together a draft so I can see what "pieces" need to be worked on before Ellary starts getting too big! It shouldn't be too hard to finish, since I think she has very cute pieces to work with!

You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
~Psalm 139:14 (The Message Bible)

This is for Heather :)

Cailey came over to play this morning, and here are a few pictures of what the kids did. We colored the kitchen windows with window markers, played with moon sand, got soaked in the water table on the deck, played outside, made sun prints, played Little People, played Strawberry Shortcake, made funny faces, watched Curious George go bowling, and oh - we ate lunch! A very full morning!

Coloring on the windows - definitely allowed!

Playing with moon sand and making lovely faces

All wrapped up after soaking each other on the deck

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of preschool for 2007-2008. We've been waiting for this all summer! The kids, especially Addie, were much happier about going this year than they were on this day last year.

Much happier faces this year than last year!
It's amazing to see how much they've grown!

We had reports from their teachers that they both had good days. Addie's favorite parts were finding her partner - Jack - whose orange puzzle piece necklace matched hers! She also liked snack time. They had bumble bee cookies for snack, but she said, "they didn't sting us because they were just pretend." Kellen was back to his old ways playing with his buddy Robert on the playground. They are in different classes this year, but thankfully they share playground time and the boys were hard at work fixing water mains, just where they left off last spring. As for me, I got to clean Addie's room, blow dry my hair, play with Ellary and have lunch with Geof at Ben's Place. Ellary did NOT sleep during the time they were at school, so we'll have to work on that if I hope to get anything done on school mornings!