Birthday Crowns!

Wow. What a night. Trey had croup last night really bad. He and I ended up spending a couple of hours in the Emergency room in the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully, that shot of steroids and breathing treatment appears to have done the trick and they ruled out pneumonia like his big brother has...

But on to better thoughts! Today is my lovely niece Evangeline's 1st birthday. In keeping with tradition I made her a birthday crown! I am so in love with it. It is girly without being sickly sweet pink. "Forest Princess" was what came to mind. Don't you just love the little bell?!?!?
Inspiration came from here and here!
ok, I'm off to go cuddle with my sick little boys...

Sick

It's a toss-up which one is harder - kids sick one right after another for weeks on end or all three at once...

It feels like we've been dealing with colds for the last month. Everything was fine for a few days last week and then on Friday, Xander developed a nasty cough coupled with a fever that would spike every 10-18 hours all weekend long. Keegan came down with it on Sunday. Treyton is just fussy and not sleeping or eating well, but I can't figure out what is up with him. All three want me at the same time. It is cute and sad at the same time. I need a third arm...

Needless to say, last night was loooooooooooooooooooooooooong. Xander was feverish all night and complaining of throat pain, Trey was up twice and Keegan was not his normal "dead to the world" asleep self.

Turns out, Xander has pneumonia and an ear infection. We are praying that Keegan's cough does not develop into pneumonia and that's Trey's fussiness is simply teething. (He's close to the usual 11 month window when the other two first sprouted teeth.)

Well, I'm off to catch some sleep in case tonight is a repeat of last night.

Monkey see...

...monkey do!

Of Stories and Snakes

One of our favorite haunts these days is Veteran's Oasis Park. I alluded to it in my post on the great outdoors over at Playful Childhood. Surrounded by a riparian preserve and stocked fishing lake, this has been a gem of a find for us. After a short 5 minute drive (which in Phx is a big deal) we can enjoy hiking trails, a beautiful waterfall, lake and story time!

The Environmental Education Center hosts all kinds of classes. Being the frugal mama that I am, FREE has been sounding mighty fine these days. So on most Thursdays, you'll find us enjoying Mother Nature Story Time. (It's free, but pre-registration is required online if you ever want to join us.) The boys love the animal or nature related crafts, books and games.

Today they made name tags. They were supposed to pick an animal name that started with the same letter as their name. I could not come up with any animals that started with 'X' so we reverted back to 'A'. Even with that we couldn't think of any desert animals except ants. Alexander the Ant. Keegan was a bit easier and became Keegan the Kangaroo Rat.

Mr Matt, the asst naturalist at the park, conducts the story times. With the education world pretty well dominated by women, it is so cool for the boys to see men who value learning and want to pass on knowledge of the world around us.

Finally, just as they have been sitting long enough, we wrap up story time with a game. Today we played Animal Olympics.

Competing with a hummingbird who can flap his wings over 300x in a 10 second period of time. Despite their best efforts, the hummingbird still won.

Trying to jump higher than a jackrabbit!

Did you know that lizards do push-ups to talk to eachother. The boys really got into this one.

Trying to jump at least 6 ft, like a Kangaroo Rat!

Feeding time for the kingsnake. YUM!

7 Random Facts Meme

I'm embarassed to admit that I was tagged almost a MONTH ago for a meme, by my friend Jen. In the craziness of the holidays and my frustration with Rich's laptop, there was very little posting going on...

But it is January and I'm resolved to catch up on things!

So here goes it:

1. I'm a breakfast person, oh and a lunch and dinner person. ok, I pretty much love to eat ALL the time! As long as the food item isn't past its expiration date, I'll consume it. I'm extremely paranoid about spoiled food and won't touch it if there is any possibility that it's gone bad. The 10 second rule is a great one though.

2. I used to line my sisters pillow with dead crickets when I would get mad at her. It was a very effective way of getting revenge. And I usually paid for it the next day with getting grounded.

3. One of my favorite experiences in life was getting to scrub in and help with a hysterectomy during a missions trip in Guatemala! They even let me suture her up!

4. When I was younger, I always loved babysitting rambunctious little boys the best. I guess God was preparing me for my life now!

5. I can play the piano backwards.

6. I was obsessed with running away when I was little. I used to pull out an old atlas and map out how I would get from my house to Oklahoma so I could go live with Gospel Bill and his friends. sigh...

7. I gave my life to Jesus when I was only 2 years old. I'm so thankful that I cannot remember life without Jesus.

So that wraps up my very random 7 facts... I'm tagging Bethany, Stephanie and Christine.

Baby's Best Friend

Meet Duchess - the ONLY other 'girl' in the house. Rich is quick to point this out when I tell people that I'm the only girl in this boisterous sea of testosterone - although I'm sticking to my guns and insist that only people count in that tally.

Despite this, she is a much loved member of our home. She is so gentle and really loves on all of our boys. I think Rich and whoever is the baby at the moment happen to be her favorites - Rich because he takes her EVERYWHERE with him and the baby because she just can't resist those pudgy cheeks and sweet giggles.

Usually, I just close my eyes and pretend this isn't happening...

Metro's Out

On our way to ride the metro!
With standing room only, it wasn't the scenic, relaxing trip we were envisioning. From what I've heard though, now that you have to pay, it is much easier to find a seat!

Their favorite part was waiting at the station for the metro. I think they enjoyed seeing it from the outside far more than actually riding it.

We ended up taking it downtown where we had a picnic dinner in front of the baseball stadium and then taking it back to Tempe and finishing out the night with Zoolights!

Creating!

We've been having fun over here creating for the last couple of months. Our goal was to keep most of our gifts handmade - artistic and personal!

It has been fun to watch the boys embrace this!

ETA: Acrylics on art canvas was so much fun and super easy! The boys were really proud of their creation and it looked nice enough to actually put up as a piece of art!

Happy Birthday Mima! We wish we could have delivered your special birthday package in person!

Girl Time!

Being a mom and then being in a house FULL of boisterous boys makes those rare Girl Days a special treat. For the first time in over 2 years (if my admittedly poor memory is correct), my mom, 2 sisters and I had a special girl date to kick off the new year!

We had brunch at TC Eggington's and then drove around a bit before ending up at the Desert Botanical Gardens for the special Chihuly exhibit. It greatly exceeded our expectations. Not only did we have the opportunity to TALK alot, enjoy good food and our beautiful desert home, but we also indulged in another love of ours - ART!

We left refreshed and ready to rejoin the "boys"! Thanks guys for watching the kids!

Books I Love

Here are a few resources that I've found helpful:

Grace-Based Parenting

For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School

This is one of those 'wow' books that really helped solidify my vision for a wholistic approach to education and life in general!

The Hidden Art of Homemaking

In this book, Edith Shaefer talks about how, as believers, we are called to be creative and artistic in our everyday endeavors as a reflection of the perfect Creator God whom we worship. I love her wholistic approach to integrating faith into every area of our lives. It is easy to see how influential she was on my mom as I read and I'm thankful that I too can benefit from her writings. (I'm especially thankful for this book as it played a central role in changing my mom's heart on wanting kids. Three months after reading it, I came into existence!)


The Beautiful Fight: : Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God Every Day of Your Life  

A thought provoking book about surrender to God!


Curricula that We are Currently Using:
KONOS
Math-U-See