I got this idea from a Pinterest list on “how to show your kids you love them”. The idea stuck in my head and I did it last night. Oh my goodness, the kids said that I was the best mom ever, AND this was the greatest idea ever, AND we should always do this…
All I did was put their robes and towels in the dryer when they started their night baths and showers, so they would have a toasty warm towel when they got out. That’s it! The reaction was HUGE!
Kaylee’s team had a tournament in Virginia last weekend. Stephen nor I were able to go, SO sweet Becky took and helped Kaylee. I am so grateful to Becky. Kaylee has said that Ms. Becky feels like an aunt to her. :)
I am also grateful for this experience for Kaylee. I feel that it is so important to take trips without family. Responsibility and independence are learned. Then it’s not so scary being on your own when you have to because you have had glimpses of it before. It would have been fun to go with her, but with a big family sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
ANYWAY, Kaylee’s team played awesome and WON the tournament. They are really playing well together and beat some tough teams from New Jersey and North Carolina to win.
Kaylee LOVED her trip! She enjoyed the soccer games, sightseeing in DC, talking with friends non-stop, the fun dance competition they had one night, making videos on the plane with her friends, and of course her new, quite heavy medal was a hit.
I smile at the bags under her eyes. The girl was exhausted when she got home, BUT filled with such a great experience and so many fun memories. I think she talked for three hours straight when she got home.
I wanted her to know how proud we were of her and how much we love her, so I had all of the family write a little note on an index card and then stuck them throughout her stuff. Nathan’s note made me smile because he always acts like the only reason Kaylee is good at soccer is because of him.
I wrote with a Sharpie on her shin guards and taped a note on her water bottle. She was going to have us there in spirit no matter what!
I tucked Steve’s note in her cleats and thought it was such a sweet note.
Kaylee also made little notes for her teammates…..
ANYWAY, great experience for our Kaylee Girl! We are so proud of her!
I don’t ever remember celebrating this as a child, but EVERY one of my kids have loved their 100 day in Kindergarten and pre-school. Ash was no different.
We had to create a shirt with 100 items on it. Diamonds were a go for Ash. Mix in a crown and her name on the shirt and it was PERFECT. She made me smile the night we sat with the fabric glue gluing the diamonds on.
Love that Kindergarten, toothless smile!
I had signed up to help with 100 day and was exhausted when we got home. We made 100 long Fruit Loop necklaces, made 100 booklets with the kids’ answers filled in, 100 sticker headbands, snack bags with 10 different treats that had 10 of each in the bag (marshmallows, m&m’s, goldfish, pretzels…) we played 100 games and Mrs. Lee read stories with the 100 theme that were so cute. I’m sure that I’m missing something, probably because my brain is still on overload from counting to 100 so many times.
Nathan came home last week announcing that one of his pieces of artwork from this year will be hanging in the Classical Academy’s president’s office.
Jacob and I went to the Denver Art Museum luncheon on Saturday because his self portrait is hanging IN the museum.
It was a fun afternoon with Jacob. He has such a sweet personality. We enjoyed wandering around the museum after the luncheon, and meeting new people.
When we got home Rebecca had this letter in the mail….
I wish I had pictures of all three of these pieces, but I don’t. I guess as soon as we get them back I can take pictures of them to my heart’s content.
I’m so proud of my kids and their creativity. Art is such a great outlet to express yourself.
We have birthday traditions here at our house. We alternate years of family and friend parties. We let the kids pick out their meals for the day. Some kids like breakfast in bed, some like certain restaurants, and some like favorite home cooked meals. We usually make a home made cake.
One thing that we ALWAYS do is decorate the night before the birthday.
We send the birthday person off to bed early. Then we grab the birthday box filled with balloons and streamers, AND decorate for the birthday. It’s fun for the birthday person to wake up with all the decorations, setting the tone for their day. We try to wrap the presents and have them set out as well.
Anyway, I went to put the birthday box away today, but thought about how this little box is a part of our family and our traditions. It needed documented! :0)
Some photos reflect seasons to me. This one from today is Spring…
The sun, bare feet, park, blue sky, no jackets, just spring outfits…. SPRING!
Loved this quote because my life is FILLED with others doing little things for me that are sooo greatly appreciated!
(I couldn’t resist fancifying it in Photoshop so that I could print it for our fridge.)
My little Kaylee is ELEVEN. I can’t believe it!
This year was not a friend party year, much to her dismay. I asked her how she wanted to celebrate her birthday and being a “foodie” like her dad, she requested Subway brought in for lunch, and then a dinner date with Stephen and I to “My Big Fat Greek Restaurant”. It was soooo delicious!
Kaylee is the sweetest girl. She is quick to pick up a toddler or help a little sister. She has lots of friends at school, church and on her sports’ teams. She has a funny sense of humor. Kaylee LOVES sports and plays so intensely. Soccer is her favorite right now (until I convince her that basketball is better). She also enjoys running and volleyball. She is a great pianist and sings with such a cute, raspy voice. She also enjoys cooking, baking, sewing and craft projects.
We are so lucky to have you in our family!
Happy Pi Day!
The big girls celebrated at school…
AND we celebrated here at home, WITH pie….
The big girls and I just finished reading this ….
Our eyes were opened from our sheltered, little life here in America. We are sooo blessed and take so many things for granted. Can you imagine not being able to leave your house? Can you imagine being a young child and not able to find your mother in public because all of the women are covered and not distinguishable? Can you imagine trying to provide for your family at the age of ten?
My girls and I are so blessed and are so grateful!
Ashley had Henry as her coach. I think he has coached all of our kids when they were little. She loved him. Ashley was incredible at defense. She shuffled around and had hands flying in her opponents’ faces. Basketball was serious business for her. She would practice her dribbling constantly.
The kids are all given a wristband and then they guard the person from the other team that was given the matching wristband. They were so fun to watch at this age.
Rebecca had an amazing team mom that made a video with clips and photos. We were lucky to get her coach as well. Such a great guy! At Thanksgiving time they had all the girls bring a frozen turkey for Care and Share, at Christmas all the girls brought wrapped toys for Christmas Unlimited, and then for their coaches gift they asked just for donations that we combined to be given to a YMCA youth that needs funds to participate in basketball. Just really incredible people! They also had a fun pizza party where they watched their video. Such a cute team!
Kaylee played against her school team and was awesome. Mom and I LOVED watching her play defense on her best friend from school. Kaylee is just so intense when she plays sports. We have been blessed to have Sheena coach Kaylee, sharing her intensity.
Jake had a sleep over Friday, but we snuck him out for an hour to play a make-up basketball game. His coach asked if Nathan could play as well because they were short players. It was so fun to watch the boys work together on the court.
Anyway, it is all OVER. Well, maybe not. I did just hand out these at FHE tonight…
The winner from our family pool will get $20.
It was fun hearing Stephen help Ashley fill hers out. He would say the team names and she would chose which name she liked the best. She chose UNC “Ashville” to win it all because of the “Ashville” name. :)
Oh how I enjoy basketball! So excited for March Madness to begin!
Stephen came home after being gone for a week, VERY glad to see him! My parents also came for the weekend to see the kids’ games.
Love sitting with my mom at the games and analyzing the kids with her. We couldn’t stop laughing in one of the games. It was then fun to go out to eat with them after the Friday evening games. Life is wayyyy better when your husband and parents are here going to games with you!
I haven’t shared a FHE on my blog for a while and thought I would share this week’s. I need to share the “Clues in Scripture Reading” that we did a while ago. The kids loved it, and keep talking about it.
Anyway, this one is an oldie but goodie. I needed to talk about a few of our chores and details to some of the jobs that weren’t getting done, (socks not being unscrunched when laundry is brought down and sorted, baseboards being neglected….). Sooo I pulled this lesson out.
I had one of the kids choose a few of the scriptures from the lesson list to share with the family. I had another one practice and give the story of the Little Red Hen…
I talked about work and how proud I am of what hard workers they are. Then I went on to discuss little details of their chores. I talked of how work makes us happy. I compared Cinderella with her step sisters, and even talked of those who are unemployed and don’t have work. Work truly is a blessing!
One of the big kids hid all of the notes for the scavenger hunt. The last note was found in the van where we all drove for a treat.
The reminder for the fridge was one of my favorite work quotes that I put on a poster with a little red hen graphic.
Love that quote and soooo love family home evening. It’s such a perfect teaching time! I can already tell a difference since we had the lesson.
Loved this quote that I found on Pinterest.
The cute girl HERE made it.
I hope I can print this into the minds of each of my kids now. :0)
The girls have been contorting their bodies in all kinds of positions lately. They practice their splits and stretch their limbs to their limits.
Ashley is by far the most flexible. She does these positions with ease…
And then casually turns to us and says, “you guys can do it too, if you just believe in yourself”
My favorite is when the boys humor the girls and try to do these. The girls get so tickled seeing the boys do it. We all started laughing today until are cheeks hurt.
Kaylee is little, but she sure doesn’t let that impede her in sports.
Here is the size of the girl playing defense on her, Kaylee was about to her shoulder…
BUT, Kaylee didn’t let that stop her from getting up. Take a look at her leg tucked up in under her giving her more height.
She made the basket, but was more excited about the goals she scored in her indoor soccer game.
She is just so fun to watch!
I love when I’m coming home from running kids around and see this…
That light is the piano room light, and that head is someone practicing their lesson. I like trying to guess who it is. It makes me proud to see them in there without me home, nagging them to get it done.
Jerrica is labeling everything that is hers. She will put out a stack of books and then run write her name on a paper to put on the stack. I came into the kitchen to find Jerrica’s mini smoothie sitting out thawing with a spoon that she had taped her name around. I asked her what she was doing, “this way the kids won’t eat mine because it has my name on it” :)
We enjoyed Dr. Suess fun on Friday. Ash wore the “Cat in the Hat” hat to school for their Dr. Suess day. (I don’t know why Ash has on the glasses and cloak in the picture, that’s just Ash) Then I loved seeing Kaylee and Jerrica snuggled on my bed reading their favorite Green Eggs and Ham along with a slue of other Suess books. We did a couple other Suessy things on Friday, one of which was a bookmark that I printed up from Pinterest for the kids. It took two seconds to print up, but oh how the girls loved it.
Friends were also over on Friday afternoon. I sure love how happy friends make my kids. Rebecca was beaming all afternoon with Neely here. Those two could be sisters. We made donuts. I had to take pictures of the cutting and rising, but I was too busy eating to take pictures of the finished product. They are soooo yummy!
It was a long week, but friends helped in so many ways. What would I do without my friends?!?! I sure love ALL of you! On to a new week….
I have had so many friends ask why my kids do jobs without complaining. I think it all boils down to a rule in our house. We have had it for years now. If you complain at all, you get an additional job. You complain about that, and you get another. Stephen and I have always been very consistent on this.
In the world you can’t complain to a boss about your workload or else you would get replaced by someone who IS willing to do the work. You have to do it to keep your job. You can’t complain to a coach about participating in drills or sprints. That doesn’t show that you are willing to work hard for your team. You can’t complain to a teacher for an assignment or not do the assignment. The teacher would fail you. You have to just DO IT! Complaining does nothing but make the situation worse.
I feel like with the rule we have had in our home, it helps the kids in the real world. Sure they can complain and freak out in their head that they have work to do, but don’t complain out loud to me. Sometimes they will start to say something or give me an upset face, and all I have to do is ask them “if they are wanting an extra job after they are done with the first” and they are VERY quick to say they aren’t complaining at all. They know I will enforce that.
The extra job is usually something easy, but it takes up time that they could have had.
The important rule as with most rules, is consistency.
Kaylee had a special day where they rotated through classrooms talking about three different countries and their cultures. They were able to taste foods and hear speakers from the countries.
I had been a foreign exchange student in high school and had went to Japan. SOOOO I had the perfect outfit (shoes and all) for Kaylee to wear. Let me just say that the girl knows how to work a kimono….
Kaylee did NOT care for the wasabi or sushi. I guess she is not her father’s child. :)
Friday was a fun day for Kaylee because she also got to go to her school teacher’s house. Mrs. Thruston had the kids over for dinner and games. What a sweet teacher! Kaylee had a blast!
I got this text yesterday afternoon….
Jacob’s school art teacher sent one of his paintings to Denver for an art competition. It was a self portrait, Andy Warhol style. Jake received an honorable mention ribbon for it. A person from the Denver Art Museum attended the competition and chose a handful of the works to be put in the Denver Art Museum. Jake’s was one of them.
When you have a work of art on display at the Denver Art Museum you get to attend a fancy, little luncheon. He is sooooo stoked to have a piece of his work in the museum. I think it makes it even more exciting because we “know” the Denver Art Museum and how huge it is and how many hundreds of people go through it daily.
We are so proud of him!!!!
