Smart Kids

Another busy week at our house.  The kids just like to go and go.  I don’t know how mother’s with more kids keep up with it all.  Friday I enjoyed going to play group and being outside with Caleb and some friends.  Then I took Caleb to the doctor for a well child visit.  He is doing great.  He did a vision test using a letter chart and did perfectly.  I thought it was great at 4 he can say all his letters.  They also did a hearing test that he liked because he thought it was a game.  Then he had some immunizations.  That was hard for him and me, but he was brave.  He is a big boy and growing up fast.  He is 3 feet 7 inches tall and 42 pounds.  Yesterday I measured the boys and found that Caleb and Spencer are the same waist measurement, Spencer it just taller.  Caleb is wearing size 5 clothing and has things in his drawer now that Spencer can still wear, but I told Spencer he needs to wear the larger sizes to get the length.  I am sure it wont be much longer and they will be the same size.  Caleb is catching up quickly. 

Caleb has been cute this week in his prayers.  He will be thankful for many things, he will list some toys and then he has been saying he is thankful for his “cute big mommy” the first time he said it I almost laughed.  It is so cute that he remembers me in his prayers.  Saturday I took him to ToysRUs to pick out something with his birthday money he received.  He picked out two new train engines and a cute stuffed puppy he has named “Ice cream.”

Caleb and his cute puppy

Andrew had saved his money and wanted to buy a toy roller coaster.  We bought him the set and he has almost put it all together.  I am sure he will finish it this afternoon.  He is very excited about it.  He is a hard worker.  Saturday he earned some money by cleaning the blinds and windows in the kitchen.  Andrew has also started making his first pinewood derby car.  He really enjoyed cutting it Saturday and working on it with Neal.

Andrew working on his roller coaster before school today, he almost finished and will have it going this afternoon I am sure. 

Andrew lost a tooth on Monday.  He was pleased that it happened at school because he got to go to the nurse and get a little tooth fairy treasure box to put the tooth in to bring home. At bed time that evening Andrew asked “what does the tooth fairy do with the teeth?”  Before I could answer Spencer said “she recycles them.”  Neal laughed and asked if that was what dentures are made of.  We all had a good laugh about it.

Saturday I was able to put some tomatoes and peppers in the garden.  I also replanted a few other things.  I don’t know how they will do.  The first batch of seeds that I planted in February didn’t ever get going because of the cold weather we had.  I hope that it really is going to warm up and help the plants grow.  I am happy to see that the leaves are starting to come out of trees.  I always enjoy spring time seeing things wake up.

I have enjoyed working with Ruth.  She is a good help in the kitchen and it is nice to have conversations with her about what they are studying in school or anythings else she is thinking about.  She is planning a birthday party for friends.  She is very excited about doing it.  I am letting her plan it all. We found a web site with traditional party games and she picked some out.  She made her own invitations too.  I hope it all turns out well for her.

Last night was a Relief Society dinner.  I enjoyed helping get things ready and also enjoyed being there.  It was a nice evening and I enjoyed visiting with the sisters at my table.  When I came home the kids were all still up.  Neal had taken them to the park to ride bikes, so they were late getting baths and ready for bed.  They really enjoyed the time at the park though.  It was a beautiful evening for it.  I am glad that Neal is willing to do things with the kids.

At the library story time today the Fire Department came to talk to the kids.  Caleb loved seeing the big trucks. 

Happy Birthday Boy!

We now have a 4 year old in the house.  On Monday morning, Caleb’s birthday, he came into the kitchen and yelled “I am 4 now!”  It was so cute.  He has been so happy this week and just seems to have grown up over night. 

We had fun finishing off our spring break last week.  Thursday we went to the park to play.  The kids had fun digging in the dirt and making a little castle.  After we were at the park I decided to take them to lunch at Jason’s Deli.  We had four coupons for free children meals there.   It was a lot busier than I had expected and it took awhile for us to get our food but the kids did great.  They were so excited to be at a restaurant and were a little loud.  They all loved the fact that we got ice cream with our lunch, they have a soft serve dispenser in the dining area.  Lunch took longer than I had anticipated and I was getting tired trying to keep them in line, so I was glad when we got to go home.  We just had a restful afternoon after that.

Happy Spencer

Friday was our big adventure day.  We started off visiting the Waco Suspension bridge.  In Andrew’s cub scout book it said to visit a historical place in your city and tell why it is important.  We had fun looking at the bridge, reading the historical markers and seeing the statues.  It was a toll bridge built in 1870 to help get cattle across the Brazos river.  We have been there before but every year they have added more statues and there is getting to be a lot of them.  While we were there Caleb tripped and hit his face.  He got a bloody nose and was so sad.  What a fun way to start our day.  

We then went to the Mayborn museum at Baylor, our favorite museum.  The kids had a lot of fun in the traveling exhibit on the United States.  There were lots of fun little things to do there.  We spent all morning in that room.  Then we ate our sack lunch we brought.  We had some time to play in a few of the discovery rooms.  Then we went out side to the pioneer village to see a blacksmith demonstration.  The fun part with that is that both Ruth and Andrew were chosen to be helpers.  It was interesting to learn more about branding animals.  This went along with our bridge trip too.  It was fun too that we met up with our friends.  It was good to have some time with them since they are moving at the end of the month to Idaho.

Ruth had fun with things, even though most of it was geared to smaller children

I had fun getting some profile pictures while they played

I was taking this picture of Spencer and Caleb ran into the view right as I clicked. I thought it was cool it turned out like a ghost Caleb on the side.

Andrew was so excited about buying these shorts.  I wasn't so sure about the color, but he has worn them whenever they are clean.  Now we just need to work on getting him to match shirt color with them. 

We enjoy the pioneer room.  Spencer had fun pretending to be a cowboy.  I wish this one was in better focus. 

Andrew had fun playing with Ollie

Ruth was chosen to help the blacksmith brand the goat skin.  

Andrew also got a turn helping

They had baby ducks, geese and chicks to look at

Saturday everyone was healthy so we invited friends over to play.  It was a bit crazy having three extra boys in the house, it was raining so they couldn’t go outside, but it was fun.  I am glad that they could have friends over.  

That brings me back to Caleb’s birthday on Monday. He was so excited about it.  After we got the kids off to school I took Caleb to get a donut.  He has been talking about donuts for awhile now, but we don’t eat them very often.  I took him to a donut shop and let him pick what he wanted.  He was so cute with it.  The ladies working there commented on how excited he was to get a donut, so I told them it was his birthday and that made it fun.  Then they surprised me that they didn’t charge for his donut and said it was a birthday gift from them to him.  So sweet.  He was cute while he ate too, he kept saying how delicious donuts are and when he was done he got up and was jumping up and down laughing.  We left and I got him buckled in his seat and then a lady called to me from her car.  She commented on how cute Caleb was and how it made her day to see how happy he was.  Then she gave me a dollar and asked if she could give it to him for his birthday.  That was sweet too.  I told Caleb he got a gift from a stranger because he had made her happy.  We then went to the Mayborn museum, again.  That was Caleb’s choice of what he wanted to do on his birthday.  We had invited friends to join us and many came.  It was a fun morning playing.  He was pretty tired after lunch so it was good we had some quiet time.  In the evening he was so excited as we ate dinner and did things to celebrate him.  For dinner all he wanted was cucumbers and grapes.  So I added a casserole he likes.  I made him a train cake and he loved it.  We had fun looking at some baby pictures of him and doing things with the family.  We were getting late and the other kids were already in pajamas when he finally got to open his gifts.  He was so excited about it all.  I didn’t know what to get him so I had got small things, new paints, play dough, chalk and foam letter stickers.  He was so excited about it all. 

Caleb's train cake for his birthday, it took a whole package of oreos! Caleb wanted to have monkeys riding the train.  We settled with seeing the monkeys smiles in the end of each car. 

Caleb opening his gifts

Some video of Caleb's birthday.  I tagged on the end a short clip that Neal took a few weeks ago showing Caleb playing with trains. 

Tuesday I taught the preschool class for Caleb.  He was happy to have his friends come over.  We did the letter S and Caleb wanted to do things with snakes, so we did.  Andrew had helped me gather things that begin with the letter S and found a big bag full of things, he had about 25 objects in the bag.  The kids thought it was so fun to take turns pulling things out and seeing what it could be.  I think it was fun for Andrew to think about what he could put in the bag.  

Spencer has been so happy this week.  Like this morning when he got up he came bouncing and giggling into the kitchen and gave me a big hug.  It is fun to see him so happy.  The kids have enjoyed the fact that I have been letting them use the computer more to play games to practice their spelling and math.  Caleb loves to watch them too.  Interesting thing is that it is helping Caleb learn his math facts better and he is spelling many words now.  (He loves his new letter stickers.)  Caleb has even taken turns with some of the games.  

Ruth had to decide what fine art elective she wanted to do next year in 6^th grade.  We talked about it and she decided to put down art as her first choice and then band.  It was actually hard for me to fill out the paper and sign it because I really wanted her to do band.  But it was a good learning experience for me too, to realize that I can’t have my kids do my expectations but I need to let them explore their interests on their own.  I will continue to encourage music in her life and maybe she will still learn the clarinet.  I think I needed to learn this lesson that I can’t make her do what I want her to do.  I am sure she will enjoy an art class.

We are hopeful that spring really is here.  It has been cold some days and we even had a frost again last week.  Our garden isn’t doing well.  I don’t know what we will get this year.  I plan on planting tomatoes this week end.  Our peach tree lost most of the blossoms in the late frost, but does have a few opening this week.

I have lots of pictures this week.  I hope you enjoy seeing them.

Spring Break

This week is spring break from school.  It is like a touch of summertime in the middle of the school year.  The kids are loving all their free time.  Today the weather is windy and cooler.  They have put together a little pioneer type “home” in the garage.  They are so cute working together and their imaginations are fun.  I am glad that Ruth is still young enough to play with the boys.  Sometimes she acts older.  Like this morning when we went to a story teller at the library she wanted to sit on a chair by me and not on the floor with the kids.  It was a fun activity and it is nice that the library sponsors so many fun things. 

The big thing for this week was that Neal took a trip.  He drove to Robinson Illinois to celebrate Grandma Hubbard’s 90^th birthday.  He left early Friday morning and made it to Robinson by dinner time.  He enjoyed lots of time visiting with the family.  He enjoyed talking to his cousins and getting to hear what they were doing.  I am glad that he was able to go and spend that time with family.  He drove back home Monday.  The kids were so excited to see him Monday evening.  They were begging for attention and literally jumping all over him.  

I had a busy week end keeping up with the kids.  I had a really bad head ache Saturday, so that was difficult.  We still went to help clean the church building, it was our assigned week to clean.  The kids did great helping with gathering garbage and wiping things down.  We did our normal Saturday things with cleaning and music lessons.  We all went to bed a little early so we could get up Sunday, since it was Daylight savings time change.  Early Sunday morning Ruth woke up and threw up.  I was so frustrated with her being sick.  Initially I was going to be the only one in the Relief Society presidency in church this week.  But Saturday the president contacted me and said her trip plans changed and she would be in church.  I was still planning on conducting RS and playing the piano in RS.  Then Ruth was sick and Neal was gone.  I felt overwhelmed.  I decided I wanted to go to church. (I am thankful I went.  It was a spiritually uplifting meeting for me and helped me get through the day.) I got ready and got the boys up.  At 8:20 I asked Ruth if she wanted to come with us or stay at home alone.  She said she didn’t want to be alone but that she was feeling well enough and thought she could go. So maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do, but I took the family to church.  After Sacrament meeting I decided I needed to take Ruth home.  I had her sit quietly to wait for me.  I turned over my RS responsibilities to the president.  Then we went into Primary so Spencer could give his talk in the opening time.  When he was done I gathered up the kids and went home.  It was a hard thing for me, I really don’t like missing my church meetings.  The boys were upset they had to miss Primary too.  Ruth went to bed and slept a few hours.  Andrew made a little game to sing primary songs.  So I took time to do a little Primary sharing time/singing time with the boys.  We had some fun together.  The rest of the day passed well enough.

Monday everyone was well and we had some fun at home playing.  We also got out the guitar and clarinet for the kids to try out different instruments.  Spencer has had fun making silly hats and masks.  Ruth lost a tooth and is glad that it is out because it had been sore. Yesterday Ruth and I made a skirt for her doll.  Caleb is trying to spell everything and asks how to spell words all the time.  Andrew has had fun with games.  He got Ruth to play Risk with him Sunday.  Then I played it with him yesterday.

Things were going pretty good until Tuesday morning when Andrew woke up and threw up.  He was pretty miserable for a few hours, worse than Ruth was by far.  He rested all day and by evening was ready to eat something.  Today he is running around feeling fine.  I hope no one gets sick tomorrow.   I am glad that everyone is doing well today.  They are happy kids.  I am thankful for their resilience. 

Neal with his grandma and dad

I stepped outside to get a few pictures of the kids play.  They had moved their house to under the tree.  Caleb was babysitting Ruth's doll while she was organizing things.  They are having fun together today.