Creative Children

The girls have wanted a dog for awhile now. I think Hannah said she's been praying for a dog since she was eight or something like that. Years....anyway, recently they decided to take their campaign to a new level. They made up little cards and put them all around the house. Here are some pictures of what they did.

Grass mowing

We have over two and a half acres, which takes a bit to care for. There is one person who is always eager and willing to mow.

Hannah has thoroughly enjoyed getting to use the zero turn. She does a great job. I don't have her edging yet, but considering I may have gotten stuck in the mud pretty much every time I've mowed around the pond I think that might be safer for now. :-) 

Vole!

June 25th when Evie went down stairs to cleanup she saw something in the window sill. We thought it was a mouse, but after a little more research I'm pretty sure it was a vole. It got stuck as the window sill was too deep for it to get out. The kids managed to catch it and Hannah fed it and kept it clean until we left for vacation on the 29th, then she let it go. It was kept outside.

Here it is when the kids first caught it. 

Curled in the corner of the cage. 

Isn't it cute?

Soccer

Hannah and the boys played spring soccer again this year. Hannah had the same coach she had last year and her team did super well. The boys had a different coach who was very engaged including a number of practices along with the games twice a week. They all had a lot of fun playing, although when the season was over the boys decided they wanted to try different sports next time, namely one wants to do baseball and the other basketball.....we'll see about that....

Here are some action shots of Hannah playing

I unfortunately didn't get any of the boys....the boys and Hannah's games were often at the same time and I kept forgetting a camera....or forgetting to take it out and use it! Damen is number 7 and Kaleb is 8. 

On the way home from one of Hannah's soccer game I saw a turtle on the road and called out "Turtle" as Hannah likes to do when that is the flavor of the day at Culvers to make everyone look for a turtle. And Hannah was like what?! We have to turn around and go help it! 

So we did and Hannah helped the turtle cross the road :-) 

Hannah's birthday

Okay, I'm going to try and catch up on blogging this week. We'll see how far I get, but we'll start with Hannah's birthday (only six months behind, but you know...) We kept it simple for Hannah's birthday this year, she had two friends over for a sleepover and made some horse cupcakes. We had a giant cake at home group the day before her birthday (also known as my birthday).

Here's the giant cake at homegroup

Here are some pictures of the cupcake horses!

Here's Hannah

And Hannah's horse

Hard at work on horses

Another horse

Hannah's friend with her horse

Nathan gets really into this projects

And here's his finished project. 

Everyone enjoyed making and eating their horses!

Hard Parenting the good, the bad and the maturing

Happy New Year. It is already late January and the year is off to a crazy start. Christmas wasn't quite normal in our house this year, and I feel I should probably document some of the end of year craziness in our house along with the life craziness that has started the year. The Friday before Christmas Hannah may have went into my bedroom and taken some nerf darts that she was given two of and told that was all she was getting. She was busted for this, made to return all the darts and given the consequence of not opening gifts on Christmas, Evie, hearing the consequences assumed it applied to all and immediately went and told her brothers there would be no gifts on Christmas. Evie tends to rely things to her siblings in a not accurate way so I used this opportunity to hopefully help her learn not to do it again by giving her the same consequence as Hannah. Christmas wasn't as fun as it could have been if all had been allowed to participate fully. The girls were allowed to open gifts the next day, but had to wait until Nathan was home and after we had eaten dinner. I'm still not sure if this made any impact on the girls or not, because the Sunday following Christmas they were telling people about Christmas and how wonderful it was.....I'm not sure if that's good or bad or if they learned anything from it.....time will tell if the lesson has sunk in.
Hard part number two, Hannah had the opportunity to go on a retreat with church next weekend, we had been having issues with certain behaviors so we told her she could go as long as she followed the contract we gave her. The contract involved following house rules, like no use of lights of any kind for reading after bed, no sneaking food items (candy has been a big problem) and asking for wants she wants (she feels we always tell her no, so she doesn't think to ask, even though it's not true at all, so we're really trying to teach her to ask for what she wants instead of just taking it). As long as she kept the contract she could go and we'd pay half the cost and give her a way to earn the other half. She had almost finished earning her half, but unfortunately she decided to "go to the bathroom" for 45 minutes starting at 10 pm one night and brought a book with her. After receiving birthday money in the mail she got the rest of what she had in her room, brought it all to me and gave it to me and said "here's the rest of the money for the retreat" it was so painful to take that money, if felt so wrong. But hopefully she learned. She gave it to me without prompting or complaint. I am very proud of how she handled it. And since Christmas things have been going more smoothly, so maybe, just maybe she is learning and maturing.
That's the hard parenting of the past month. Here is some of the maturing. Three people in our church died the week of January 7th - 12th. And one died in December. The girls (and boys a little as well) have taken up the ministry of watching younger children while the funerals are going on. This has allowed people to serve (one on piano, another on slides and video stuff) who otherwise won't have been able to or would have been hard pressed to find someone to watch their kids. At the last family another person showed up with a one and a half year old and I told them we had child care and they were excited because they figured one of them wouldn't be able to sit through the funeral, but this allowed them to together. Hannah has become quite the babysitter, changing diapers and everything. The kids have also been serving as greeters most Sunday mornings, the people coming in love it and it's helped keep them out of trouble. In general the kids enjoy. Hannah does nursery once a month as well, which the adult in there with her raves about how well she does with the kids.
That is a peek into our last month or so. We got to enjoy some time with my parents over New Years as they braved the snow and cold and visited us, getting in just before a major snowstorm. That's it for now.

Drum Set

Hannah started drum lessons in September........I didn't think Hannah would need a drum set for several weeks after starting lessons, but her teacher has done things differently than when I took lessons forever ago. So she started right out on a drum set. With the move and vacation and craziness of life I was unable to go anywhere to get a drum set (I figured buying used on craigslist was my best best and all the drum sets were hours away). Hannah, being the incredibly creative child she is made her own drum set and all I had to do was go to the thrift store for some pot lids, which are super cheap for some strange reason ;-)

Here is her original drum set she made, hanging the pot lids from the ceiling in the basement

As you can see it by the boxes it was very well loved......

Yesterday we drove an hour and a half to pick this set up (it was a ride cymbal as well, but it was missing a nut to hold it on, so we have to get one before we'll let her use it).  A slight upgrade I think :-) She's been loving it! 

Camp!

Hannah and Evie went to Lake Ann Camp this summer. It was their first time at a sleep away camp and they both had a lot of fun!

Hannah with her counselor at the beginning of the week

Evie with her counselor

We went as a family to drop the girls off and took a look around the camp, they have a huge water slide and a blob!

There was octoball which Hannah apparently won six games one day and had all the boys chanting her name to win :-) 

I went to pick the kids up at the end and got some pictures of their friends from camp. Here is Hannah with her friend Skyler 

Well looking for Hannah's Bible which she had left somewhere the night before and hadn't tried to retrieve and was just planning to leave camp without......I gave the camera to Evie to have fun with here are her pictures:

This is a picture of a picture of Evie's cabin

The kids from our church who went to camp

Kayaking, snakes and turtles

The last Friday in June our church had a youth and family kayaking event. It was for youth group kids, but the whole family could come if they wanted to. We were the only family that went along with the youth, but that was okay, it was Hannah's first youth group activity and Nathan was giving the devotional for the night. It was hosted by a family that lives on the "big lake" (Huron) and we all had a lot of fun.

Evie was excited to catch a snake!

It was a pretty big one!

Hannah, of course, enjoyed holding it as well!

The boys enjoyed seeing and touching it.

See the dark spot in the middle? That's a snapping turtle Nathan found. It was pretty cool. 

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the kids kayaking. There was a nice bay to kayak in and everyone went out. Damen went with Nathan, Kaleb was all up for trying it by himself and he did great! Evie went out into the lake with the group, but came back in pretty quick order as it was apparently quite choppy and Hannah enjoyed padding around the bay as well. There was a bonfire and games as well. A good night overall! 

Hair!

Evie has been asking for me to do braids in her hair, so I finally. I did it last Friday, but then she said she wanted beads on it and the braids weren't thin enough for braids, so I had to redo it over Monday and Tuesday.

And 121 braids later she was done! 

Hannah also decided to cut her own hair this past weekend.....

This is what she cut off the top of her head. I don't think she understand the full impact of how long it will take to grow back.......I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but she I think was frustrated because Evie took her hair style...she wouldn't let me do beads this week......