Dinner time!

Sunday night I was not feeling at all like fixing dinner.  I had made fajitas for lunch, and I really don't think it's necessary to have more than one big meal a day.  But we had used up most of the leftovers and I didn't think of it soon enough to pull a meal out of the freezer, so it was either sandwiches or fajitas again. Then in a flash of brilliance, I figured out how to get a meal like this on the table with little or no effort from me.

Get the seven year old to do it!  I have never been a big fan of kids in the kitchen, mostly because I am not a very patient person.  But on occasion I do let them help.  And Chloe is beginning to be quite a big helper.  She is big enough now to even do the stirring on the stove which makes her feel pretty big and special. 

And this works out really well for me because all I had to do was give her instructions and supervise the process.  She made the entire tatertot casserole from start to finish!  She even chopped the onions!  I did have to put the casserole in the oven, but that was definitely worth it to me. 

Check out the tongue! She was really working hard! Chloe was so proud of herself she even thanked me afterwards for letting her do it.  She's such a big girl and I am so proud of her.

A Big Girl and Daddy School

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids out to the park for a family photo shoot. Chloe was very eager to have her 7 year pictures taken, but I wanted to wait until I had my new camera. So the day after I got my camera, we headed off to the park together. Isn't she sweet.
Anyway, we thought we'd take the opportunity to get a family photo taken if we could. Not the easiest task to do with a tripod and a timer. But I think it went pretty well, don't you?

Here's a shot of my three munchkins together. Pretty soon it'll be four. Just two months left to go!!

So after our photo shoot, Kevin took the kids off for a lesson at the lake.

Boys can never resist going under and through the brush rather than around, but I'm not sure my girl was really thrilled with that idea.

Nine times out of ten, Daddy's lessons involve fish. I have no idea what they are looking at and pointing to, but the kids are definitely thrilled with whatever it is. They just love it when we have field trips like this when Daddy's home from work.

Chloe is 7!!

In honor of her seventh birthday, Kevin took Chloe out fishing tonight. He kinda spoiled the dinner that we had planned, but she seemed pretty okay with that.

So how about a look back over her last seven years instead?

I love this girl!

I love homeschooling Chloe. Despite the fact that we have not been so great with the schedule lately, we're really having a great time together. It's so much fun to be such an integral part of her learning experience. Chloe's reading has been great ever since we started, but reading for fun has, for the most part, been only preschool books or reading to her little brothers, Jadon in particular. I do love that she enjoys spending that time with JJ, but I so want her to enjoy reading for pleasure. Compounding her lack of pleasure with reading has been the headaches she seems to get from reading for long periods of time. Over the last few weeks, she has learned to recognize the onset of the headaches before they get too bad, and that has definitely helped her a lot. Yesterday, we picked these up to help with the headaches too. Aren't they sweet! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that maybe neither of us was really doing a good job of picking out fun chapter books for her to read. So I spent about 1 and a half hours online, trying to come up with a reading list for her, mostly from Sonlight. She started with Felicity, from the American Girl series, and loved it. Anyone who knows my girl, knows that a good horse story can get her into anything.

From there I gave her a "Little House" book, written as an early reader. She actually threw a fit. So I told her she was to think of it as schoolwork if she had to. Apparently, despite my great pick with Felicity, my book judgement was not to be trusted. So, during our drive to Jadon's ENT, she read the first two chapters as required and then asked to read a "Little Critter" book. I proceeded to agree, but first ask a few questions about the book. After a couple of minutes a question stumped her. She had not gotten that far in the book yet. I asked didn't she want to find out. "No," she says, and puts the book down. She had barely picked up the other book, when she said, "Or maybe yes." That was it. She was hooked.

She finished the planned readers so quickly, that we had not made it back to the library for more yet. I had only intended read-alouds remaining. What else is a girl to do but try those too? So she finished The Boxcar Children in about 3 days. Now she's onto the real "Little House" books. I may have created a monster, but I love to see it!

Not my week

I think it's about time for me to start my week over entirely in the mothering department. If you count Saturday, I have locked my kid in the car with the keys, done only 1 full day of school(that's why you have to count Saturday) and yesterday I was completely baffled by disciplining my daughter.

Let me back up a minute.

Remeber this girl with the missing tooth? Well she has since lost another and has several more wiggling around. The problem is she's never actually had a dental checkup. It kinda slipped my mind for a while when I was having babies and putting tubes in their ears.(If you're healthy, you apparently don't get enough attention around here) So when she started kindergarten I just signed her up to get her teeth checked at the school. Then I forgot about it. And didn't remember to talk to her about it a month later when the fateful day came. Anyone who knows my girl can imagine her reaction when a stranger tells her she wants to mess around in her mouth. Not good. So the nurse called Grandma Ellen (I have no idea why she didn't call me) and Grandma let her watch the other kids, but that girl was getting nowhere near a dentist's chair.

So I eventually got around to making her an appointment with another dentist. Yesterday. She was really excited. Ready to let them do what they could to keep her teeth healthy. She sat very still and calm for the cleaning and the first part of the sealants. That's where things got dicey. They did sealants on one side but when the stopped to change sides, Miss Chloe decided she didn't want anyone to do anything else inside of her mouth. AT ALL. She screamed and cried. She clung to the arms of the chair so she couldn't be held back. To my shame, I even tried to bribe her. All to no avail. That girl would not be moved. So we made another appointment for today when Daddy would take her.

The thing of it is, this is not my girl. Never have I seen her admit what she is doing is wrong, tell me what she should do and then tell me that she will not do it. After stubbornly refusing to tell Kevin if she would obey him or me yesterday, she was sent to her room until she made a decision whether or not to lay down in the dentist's chair and obey. The girl was resolute. After about 10 minutes, she called to Kevin... just to tell him Jadon was in the room with her. Her obstinance still evident in her demeanor. Some time later, she called for him again. He fully expected her to remain in the room the rest of the day based on her previous behavior. But when he entered, it was as if Chloe had returned. She was no longer a disobedient, unrecognizable child. She was our girl. She apologized and told him he didn't have to take her to the dentist, she would obey for Mommy and the workers.

Now, we were very impressed with this change of attitude, but we are also not stupid. Daddy will be less than 5 minutes away from the dentist's office when we go today. But we will be praying it is an unnecessary precaution.

You know, the funny thing is, Chloe herself admitted several times that nothing hurt. It didn't even taste bad. She just decided she didn't want to do it anymore. I think that's the thing that scares me the most: how strong her will is, for no real reason other than asserting it. So anyway, if you find yourself with a spare minute this week, please pray for me. I think I need it.

She's 6!!

So, as promised, I'm here to tell you all about Chloe's birthday. Her actual birthday was on Father's Day so we had to have it last Tuesday instead of on the actual day. She wanted a "horsey party" of course. So we got some horse themed decorations and a piñata and set up at the park near our house. We had it in the middle of a work day so not everyone who was invited could attend, but parties wear me out so that was just fine.

We had hotdogs and chips and punch, pretty usual junk food party stuff, but the best part was the cake made by my dear friend Amelia . They were gorgeous!

The kids loved the piñata, although some of them had some difficulty waiting their turns. Andy couldn't figure out why he had to go last, but as you can tell from this picture, he demolished the poor thing. As soon as I snapped this picture I was pelted by a downpour of candy. Doesn't he look scary going after this little horse?!

Anyway, Chloe had a great time and everyone had plenty of time to play at the park. I love that about a birthday party at the park. There really isn't much need to keep the kids entertained. They pretty much keep themselves happy.

Until next time, enjoy the pics!!

In Daddy's Footsteps

As most of you already know, we are a baseball/softball devoted family. Kevin plays on three softball teams every week and in various other tournaments throughout the summer. Basically wherever he is invited to play, that's where he goes and we all trek right along with him. But this year, Chloe is old enough to play tee ball and she asked to play. So we signed her up and bought her a pink glove and a shiny new helmet. Of course we had to get some pink tee balls, too. She had a couple of practices before her first game and although she was a little shy at the first one, she has really seemed to enjoy it.

Last week was her very first game and we all walked down to the park to watch. We got there a little early, so Chloe had to watch the girls playing before her. She was giddy with anticipation. When it was finally her turn to play, she hesitated just a little until I got up to go with her. I went out into the field with her during the first inning, but she did it all by herself during the second. I'm sure you're all aware of how long a tee ball game can seem for parents and siblings watching, so I won't bore you with too many details. But Chloe did hit the ball without the tee both times she batted and she even got to field the ball once and throw to first (narrowly missing the head of the girl running to second) I did get quite a few good pictures of her and some other girls that I will email the link for if you email me or leave a comment with your email. But here are a few that I really liked.


Despite a few nerves, Chloe stepped up to bat. After just a couple of swings, she hit the ball and ran the bases with a huge grin on her face. Look at my girl go!!Chloe has seen enough softball games, that she had no trouble knowing when or where she was supposed to run around the bases. She's an old pro.


By the time the girls were ready for their second time at bat, it was 85 degrees and humid and they were exhausted. They perked up in the field, but you'd never guess they were having fun by those expressions.

She's Growing Up

I had a meeting at the church today. I dropped the kids off at the nursery, just like any other day. But when I came to pick them up, they had a surprise for me. On top of the counter was a plastic baggie with this in it.

Chloe has been talking about her loose tooth since her cousin lost her first tooth a month ago. At first it seemed she was just trying to be more like Claire, but then she started talking about it wiggling and hurting. And it actually wiggled! Now, when I was a kid and my teeth were loose, it totally grossed me out, but I tried to be supportive and excited for her. At least for the first few days. Then I told her I was very happy for her, but she had to find someone else to talk to about it. Once it fell out, it didn't bother me quite so much. Its just the wiggly thing that's creepy to me. And now my girl is so proud of herself. You just hate to squash that feeling you know.Look at that grin. Isn't she pretty, toothless gap and all!

New Horizons

Our family recently decided to save a little money by eliminating cable tv from our household. It has only been two days, but man, can that leave a lot of time on your hands. Rather than using that time for something productive like, oh I don't know, dishes or laundry, I've found myself at the computer more often. So now those of you who look forward to emails with pictures of my young 'uns can really find out what we've been up to, and those of you who don't can ignore me. I'll still be adding albums to my sharpcast account, but you can check me out over here for photos too.

I'm afraid that this newfound time may eventually catch up to me as we've decided to homeschool my girl next year, but for now, it's summer break so we're up to a lot of fun. Last night was my girl's first tee ball practice and it went pretty well all things considered. She cried a little and refused to go play with the other girls for the first few minutes. I was a little surprised at this because tee ball had been her idea. She asked me about two months ago if she could play b/c her friend was playing. Neither DH nor I had ever even approached the subject with her. But refusing a new situation, despite the excitement she had about going is pretty typical for my girl. After a few minutes of playing catch with Mommy, the coach asked my girl to come play a game with her friend from school. A few words of praise from the coach and my girl was grinning and laughing and jumping around. I find it amazing what a little bit of praise will do for a child.