Little Teachers

Today after lunch, I was going to lay Michael down for a nap, but David insisted that I shouldn't, because Michael was busy. I asked what was going on, and David pointed to his Big Green Book of Books (3-ring binder of his artwork) and said, "I am helping Michael expand his vocabulary. See, he knows all the words in this book! Moon, Baby, Ha Ha Ha..."

Tonight, when Michael was getting ready for bed, he picked up Sarah's realistic baby doll, laid her down on his bed, grabbed his B alphabet book, and started reading it to her. "Oh no! There Zoe ball! Bounce baby, big balloon."

We found a great deal on the Sesame Street alphabet books on ebay last week! Now we have the entire set (for the price of one book). The kids really do like them, and we have said that with 26 books to choose from, there can be no arguing over them!

Fire Truck!

Last night the local fire department hosted a soup supper with rides on the old 1923 fire truck for the kids.
We had a great time!

Enjoying Spring!

We've spent much of the last two days outside, enjoying the springtime weather. The little flowers that David calls bluebells are all over the yard, just starting to bloom. The cat escapes at every opportunity, running around in the bushes and rolling in the garden dirt.
The tulips are coming up all around the house and sidewalk, and the lillies are starting to peek through the dead leaves in the rock garden. We've been watching the dark pink peonies come up. They look like space creatures!

Here is a picture of Sarah cheering for spring.

The Clean Team Strikes Again

The Clean Team tackled the boys' room last week, and it really looks better now! Here you see members of The Clean Team hard at work, and the results of their work. They followed their Clean Team Checklist, which lists what they need to do to make a room Really Clean.
Someone reads each item, and they yell, "CHECK!" if it is done. If not, they hurry to work on it.
The items are:
1. Remove anything that doesn't belong in the room.
2. Pick up everything off the floor and put it in its spot.
3. Dust the flat surfaces with the fuzzy duster or a sock and spray.
4. Sweep the floor with a broom and dustpan.
5. Shmop the floor with a damp Shmop cloth.
6. Spray nice smell into the air (Lysol or Oust) and celebrate!
Finishing this list usually takes a day or two for us, but we all enjoy the celebration at the end. We may even get our house cleaned once a month if we keep working on it. :)

We're Going Where?

A few weeks ago, our ladies group from church was going to Vermillion for a fun lunch out. The kids came along to Bible study, then were going to go home with Dan while I went to the restaurant with the ladies. When someone suggested going to "Little Italy's", Sarah became very interested and started asking if she could come along ("I will be very good!"). We decided that she could come along for our all-girls lunch.

Dan took the boys home, and Sarah and I rode down to the restaurant with one of the other ladies. On the way there, she was talking about how she has always wanted to go to Italy for lunch. She said that she remembered seeing a TV show about Italy, and it looked really neat. I was feeling quite proud of her geographic knowledge until she finally said, "Will our food be served by an animal?"

That puzzled the grownups. When she started asking about the talking coyote and the ball pit, I was pretty sure there had been a misunderstanding. It turns out that when we said "Little Italy's", Sarah thought we had said, "Gigglebee's", a local restaurant like Chuck-E-Cheese's! Looking pretty disappointed, she asked forlornly, "So our food will be served by a human?"

Despite the lack of animatronic waiters, we all had a good time, and Sarah enjoyed her chicken fingers with ranch dressing.

Easter 2008

We had a great Easter 2008! Holy Week was quite busy, with a nursing home program and Maundy Thursday communion service on Thursday, another nursing home service and Good Friday service of Gradual Darkness on Friday, swimming/dance lessons and the city Easter Egg hunt on Saturday, then Easter services at 7 and 9:30 a.m., with breakfasts at both churches on Sunday. These pictures are of our family, with Auntie Emmy, after we arrived back home late Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning, Emily played her trumpet at both churches, I played my violin with different people at both churches, all of us (even the kids!) sang with the choir at First English, and Dan, of course, did a lot of preaching. He also chanted a psalm during the stripping of the altar Thursday night and sang the litany with the choir on Friday night. Needless to say, he has been tired this week!

Thanks to Auntie Emmy's help, the children did a great job of getting ready for a 7 a.m. church service and behaving for 4 hours of church on Easter!

The Hokey Pokey Chefs

We have been baking more lately, thanks to a handy cookbook from our friend Gretchen. Here are our homemade from scratch cupcakes that the kids made to take to a nursing home with the ladies from the church in Hurley. Sarah and I made green frosting to go on top. They tasted pretty good!

Here is our new favorite

cookbook!