mystery solved

Ethan told me to watch him one day as he came racing down the driveway, slammed on his brakes and skid across the driveway... and then it all became very clear - the bald spots on his tires, the skid marks in the driveway, his tires needing to be filled quite often, etc.

just because...

...he loves me.

sparks-a-rama

Today Ethan's Sparks club had their big game day called Sparks-a-Rama. They had 3 separate Saturday practices and Ethan was counting down the days since the beginning of March. We got up at the early hour of 7am so we could get over there by 8am...which included stopping for a cup of iced coffee so I could stay awake. But with all of the screaming and cheering, falling asleep wasn't a problem. I loved seeing how they worked as a team, encouraging each other and not putting down someone if they failed to win a competition. So in the end his team got 1st place. As we were walking out I told Ethan how fun it was that they got 1st place. And he replied by saying that they didn't get 1st place because they were the last ones called up to receive their reward. So after trying to explain how they start with last place and then 3rd place, 2nd place, etc. to build suspense, I finally just had to show him the 1st place on his ribbon before he finally believed me. Funny kid...he still had fun even when he thought they came in last.

pig-tails

Ansley's hair is getting to that point where the bangs are starting to get in her eyes...but she's not keen on clips in her hair because it takes her all of about 20 seconds before she pulls them out and hands them to me. So a friend of mine suggested little pony tails and to my surprise she didn't try to pull them out. Plus I think she looks pretty cute with her fountain of hair sticking up on top of her head. Only 1 year olds can pull that look off and not look ridiculous.

paradise?

Looks like a science experiment you say? Nope. Actually this is part of the cost of living in a place people sometimes call "paradise". After we called our property manager and asked if she would send out an exterminator, her response was "It's a waste of money. They will come and spray and you will still have ants." Because of our "rainy" season in the winter, the grounds become too soggy for the little pests and these little critters decide that indoors is the place to be. We've had ants before but nothing this bad before. So the solution? Someone told me the other day to put a bowl of water out with an upside down cup in the middle. Then set your covered food on top of that. You would think a sealed Tupperware container would be enough...but it wasn't. So as weird as it looks to have these bowls of water sitting around, it actually works. The ants drowned before they could reach the cupcakes sealed inside.

our spring break in a nutshell

This past week was our Spring Break. And all those great plans I had to catch up on other things or accomplish things I normally don't have time for...never got done. I am really looking forward to tomorrow and starting up school once again. I realize the structure does well for all of us and we seem to get more done than when we have "time off". So I will just give a quick update of our spring break and I'll put the few pictures I did take of our "break".

Monday - was our only down day and we were just basically lazy.

Tuesday - Jason had hernia surgery so our day was spent picking him up from the hospital, going to get some pain meds, being quiet so he could rest, etc.

Wednesday - We had a field trip to the Aquarium to attend the "Ocean's Alive" class with some of our friends. There were crafts, scavenger hunts, obstacle courses through the "reef", and looking at all of the underwater animals and all of their habitats.
Ethan watching the sea lion feedings.
Jude watching the fish in the outdoor aquarium.
The boys had a chance to hold a live hermit crab in their hands in the outdoor "hands-on" aquarium.
Tropical fish are so colorful and unique...the boys were mesmerized by them.
Jude's favorite part was watching the "shawks". He had at least 20 questions that he asked the aquarium guide

The outdoor obstacle course......where Ansley was glad to finally get out of that stroller and use her legs a bit.

Thursday - Our next field trip was another aquatic experience (surprise, surprise). We went with the homeschool group to Sea Life park where we got to see the dolphin show (we got totally wet even though we were in the no-splash zone), the sea lion show, the stingray exhibit, and the touch-pool where the boys were able to touch a sea cucumber and a baby sea turtle. I forgot to take my camera to capture the memories but I must say that there is nothing like seeing your children light up over a new experience.

Friday - we had a friend over for lunch while the kids played and that night had some new friends over for dessert.

Saturday - Jude learned to ride a two-wheeler bike...WITH pedals and enjoyed feeding a wandering duck our green St. Patrick's Day bread. We live near a canal but rarely get a visit from these interesting creatures...they're a cross between a turkey, duck and peacock. Not sure what breed they are but as you can see are very friendly...especially when you have bread.That night we had a babysitter for the kids and went to a friends house for dinner to celebrate a birthday.

Sunday - Jason preached a great sermon on Revelations (our pastor is out of town and Jason is filling in) and had our small group over tonight. Sweet fellowship, challenging discussions, encouraging words, joy in the gospel...what a great way to end our spring break and refresh us for the coming week.

birthday party

Party for a 4 year old.

• Theme: Trains

The party started off with a ride on a historic train on the south side of the island. The dads and boys enjoyed the ride and met the moms and babies back at the house for dinner and cake.

• Those in attendance: 7 kids ages 6 and under...the majority under the age of 4...and the 6 adults.
• Cake: Thomas the Train cake made by a dear friend...with lots of blue and black icing.


• The birthday boy: Jude
  

the big 4

It seems to me that we have skipped a year in Jude's age...what I'm really trying to say is, how can he be 4 already? Wasn't he just 2? Today is Jude's birthday. This content, inquisitive, silly humored, cuddly, observant, speedy, serious, easily distracted, really looks up to his older brother, loves his little sister, gives his mama great smooches and his daddy great big bear hugs little boy of ours is growing up way too fast these days. God sure did give us a great little kid. Not that he is perfect but he's great because he is our Jude. As Jason always says "We've got the coolest kids."I must say it is really hard to get a picture of Jude where he is smiling and looking at the camera all at the same time. So these are the best of the best.
This is the pre-party to the main party which will take place on Sunday afternoon. More to come...

funny kids

A couple of funny things said by my kids this week:

Ethan was singing Jesus Loves the Little Children to Ansley and this is what I overheard:

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red, GREEN, yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight..."

I think he is following in his daddy's footsteps because I see a future sci-fi fan forming in our house.


Jude has developed a love for puzzles lately and he has outgrown the wooden puzzles where you can easily predict the shape that is needed for the space. So I think he is quite surprised by himself when he can put together a cardboard puzzle where you have to match up the picture to figure out what piece goes next. So earlier this week he went through all of our "harder" puzzles and came to me with much excitement proclaiming "Mommy, I did these puzzles all by myself!!!" To which I replied "Wow, Jude! You're such a good puzzle maker." (not the smartest sounding comment but I was a bit distracted by cooking dinner and that was all I could think of at the moment). To which Jude replied "Yeah, I want to be a puzzle maker when I grow up!" Do colleges have a B.A. degree in Puzzlemaking?

And not to leave Ansley out...this week she has learned that if she says very loudly with her mouth open very wide "Ta-taaaaaaa" (translation "ta-da") with her arms way out to the side, she can get everyone within hearing distance to look at her, smile and laugh. Not sure who taught her that one.

science experiement

What do you get with two 2-liter bottles, a 1-inch washer, some water and a little electrical tape? A tornado in a bottle...or a hurricane depending on what you're studying. We just studied about Jupiter this week and talked about The Great Red Spot, that is basically a storm of swirling gases...kind of like a hurricane. Only this storm has been constant for the past couple hundred of years. We've learned many fascinating facts about Jupiter. Such as, did you know that Jupiter is not a terrestrial planet and if you tried to walk on Jupiter you would sink right to it's core? Or that Jupiter has over 60 moons? Do you know why? Okay I won't get started cause this could turn into a really long post...

speed, I am speed

Our neighbor has a little bike that is called a Skuut bike and it is made without pedals...in the hope that the child riding it can learn to balance without having all of the other things, like pedaling, to think about. And as I've held onto the back of many bikes (okay really just Ethan's) the balancing part seems to be the tricky part of learning how to ride a bike. Well thankfully our neighbor doesn't mind Jude riding the bike around...which he does all the time...because her daughter doesn't like to ride it anyway. So I had to video tape him speeding around on it because he's quite fast. It makes me laugh to watch because it kind of resembles those cartoons where the characters feet are spinning in circles while its speeding away. As you can see it has helped Jude with the balance thing and maybe riding a bike WITH pedals is in his future.

tsunami

Don't worry, the reason I have been absent from the blog isn't because we got swept away by the tsunami last Saturday. We get tsunami warnings usually about once a year and they usually end up being nothing, maybe a little surge of water that no one even notices. Not that we shouldn't take the warnings seriously but I'm kind of over the media lately and their gross exaggeration of the facts. As we were watching the news at a friends house (where we evacuated because they live up on the "high" ground and we live in the coastal region) we were watching the live camera footage on the Big Island (where all the damage of the tsunami was supposed to hit first) waiting to see this wall of water come and wash out the park the camera was focused on. We did see the sea getting sucked out some and then the water rising again. Kind of like what the ocean normally does when the currents go out before a wave rolls into the beach. And the newscasters (trying to create the drama) were shouting (as if they were sports commentators at a game) "Wow, look at all the turbulence" and "There has definitely been a rise in the water levels" and "Remember, it's the not the first wave that is the biggest". Until finally the newscasters gave up and realized there wasn't really anything that exciting going on and they switched back over to the Olympics. So we packed up, said goodbye to our friends and went home. Kind of a crazy day.

So other than that I thought I would give a quick run down of what else has been going on...and I'll even throw in a few pictures.

- We are still recovering from our "thick as molasses" snot sicknesses. Thick snot is pretty miserable for kids that don't know how to blow their own noses yet. So we let the beach and the swimming pool drain our noses for us. I know the boys swim teacher loved that.

- On to other things less gross...I hit a baking/cooking mood this week. I think it was due to the fact that we took last week off (from school, MOPS, Bible Study, swim lessons, Awanas, etc.) to recover from our before mentioned sicknesses and it gave me a little extra free time. So my greatest accomplishment of the week was making three different meals from the same leftovers...and it all tasted really good! I got a huge package of boneless pork chops from Costco which I had intended on splitting into smaller portions and freezing. Well for some reason it all got frozen together and I was trying to think of how I could use it all up since it would take a couple of weeks for our little family to get through them. So my first meal was to marinate all of the pork chops in a Citrus/Basil marinade, then grill them all. The next meal, I cut up the grilled chops and made Pork Fajitas with a splash of lime, green peppers and onions. And the last meal, I put the rest of the grilled chops into a crock pot with some bar-b-que sauce and let them cook all day to make pulled pork sandwiches. So I thought I would document this amazing phenominon because it will probably never happen again...okay maybe I've been stuck inside for too long. I think I need to get out of the house before I start posting on how much I love my bread machine

- To keep ourselves occupied this week...being somewhat home bound so we didn't spread our germs...we made some playdough. I love fresh playdough and the fact that it keeps my kiddo's happy and busy.

I love you too Ethan!

- I did a bit of sewing to make a bear, bib, burpie set for Jason's school auction. It was fun to do and hopefully it will raise a little bit of money for them....if no one bids on it, I don't want to know. :o)-We rediscovered the water table...Ansley's first experience. This girl loves water (you can't tell that by her very serious expression) which is why we have learned to keep the bathroom doors shut. One time splashing her little hands in the toilet water was one time too many.

-The full moon was back and we hung out at the beach until the sun set so we could see the beautiful moonscape again. I love the beauty of God's creation! Because of Ethan's Astronomy study this year I am more in awe of the amazing detail of our universe created by God...I don't get how others can believe that it was all an accident and that it all fell into place with such great detail by chance.

- Lately we have had some winter/windy/rainy weather. You know a high of 78 degrees and a low tonight of 69 degrees. That calls for socks during the day and an extra blanket at night. I'm such a wimp.

Okay that's enough. I could keep going on about nothing but laundry is calling...taking the week off doesn't mean the laundry stopped piling up.