Snow Day!

The boys have been so anxious for snow, since long before Christmas. There was a tiny bit on Christmas Eve night, but it was just a wee flurry that didn't accumulate or anything. This week had been nothing but cold icky rain, but then on Thursday afternoon we started getting snow. A LOT of snow (especially for us). And it came down quickly. Huge, heavy wet flakes. Plus it was thundering! This is what we saw first:

Then less than an hour later, it looked like this (and yes, that is our red wagon in the background - try not to judge):

And since Chris had work to do, we weren't ready to get out and play in it until it was just about getting dark. So we decided to wait until Friday to play in the snow, since co-op was cancelled anyway. We got up yesterday and the snow was all still there, AND it was sunny! We hadn't seen the sun for so long. So we went out and enjoyed the snow day, and here's the proof:

Josh was so excited, he flung himself down in the snow, face first.

 

He loved his face full of snow.

 George immediately grabbed the sled.

 Blake was at least smart enough not to put his full face right into the snow.

 He made a snow angel instead.

Josh went right to work making a tiny snowman (in between bites of snow, that is).

Chris got in on the fun - snowball fight!

We decided to make some snow people. This is the his and hers set.

George made his even bigger than mine!

Blake made a teeny tiny one.

Jaz loves the snow. It brings out friskiness that we rarely see anymore, being that he's so old and gimpy. He didn't stay out the whole time, but he did have fun.

Our 13-year-old neighbor boy saw us having so much fun that he decided to come out and join us. More sledding and snowball fights ensued!

I made some colored water spray for the snow people, and used it to write Blake's name in the snow.

We had a great time out in the snow and sunshine, and once we were finished we came in and had some hot chocolate. We were thankful not to lose power, or get a vehicle stuck somewhere, and that we were all healthy enough to go out and enjoy the play time.

A Year+ Later...

I can't believe it's been 15 months since I've done anything on this blog. And it's not that there haven't been blog-worthy events going on around here. There have also been family trips, cute pictures, growing (like weeds!) boys, and homeschooling. Not to mention Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest. My total obsession. I think I could write a blog just about Pinterest. But I digress. I am going to give this blog another go. Mostly because I have been horrible about correspondence to relatives, who would like to know about the doings of the kids and whatnot. But also because I would like to have some documentation myself, you know, for when I actually get around to doing the boys' scrapbooks. Ahem. Moving on.

They say when you are really behind on something that it is best to start with current information. So I will start with what we did this evening. First let me say that I have been loving Groupon, Deal Chicken, and Living Social. We have gotten some amazing deals with these websites, not least of all tonight's adventure: Christmas in the Cave, at Cherokee Caverns. Half price on the admission tickets, plus Blake was free. Score! We had a great time, with one exception - the parking situation was AWFUL. Way too narrow, and scary when you have 3 small children in tow. It was even worse when we were leaving. One of the worst parking experiences ever (and I am not a fan of parking lots anywhere to begin with). The only other negative might be that it just wasn't long enough - we would have loved to spelunk for at least an hour, but you could get through this in about 15 minutes. But a very nice way to spend 15 minutes, it was (we may have lingered to stretch it to 30, but that's still 15 minutes less than the time it took to get there). They had many treats for sale, but we resisted (we brought our dinner with us to eat on the way home), as well as a few crafty items. They had a couple of other things for kids, including a machine that was generating smoke bubbles, and we all enjoyed popping some of those (coolest bubbles ever!).

It also piqued an interest in the boys to further study caves, and as it just so happens, I have a unit study on caves in my arsenal. So we will definitely be doing this study sometime within the next semester, and we'll be taking a field trip for more spelunking as well. I have been spelunking in my youth, but it was very neat to see a cave all festooned with Christmas lights and decorations. There was even live music, and a Santa Claus with whom to get pictures taken. The boys ended up getting 4 pieces of peppermint candy along the way, which they loved, although it definitely had an effect on bedtime (especially for Josh, who is, as we are finding out, sensitive to food additives - especially red food dye, which of course is in candy canes!). Anyway, all in all, it was a very fun time, and I would do it again as long as I had another Groupon (I don't think I'd pay full price). Have a look:

Pretty neat, eh?
So hopefully I can get back into some sort of blogging routine, as I think about it a lot, and I really don't have any excuses not to. So if you are a reader, welcome back! My hope is that you will be delighted with the exploits of my children, entertained with our stories, and possibly even informed every now and again.

Angry Doh

Once in a while I get an a-ha idea, and it provides several hours of entertainment for the kids. This was one such idea: PlayDoh Angry Birds.

Blake and the blue bird.

George wanted the yellow bird.

I started with the red bird (pictured above), and gave it to Josh. He pretty much immediately altered it and ran with the idea. So here is his first little flock.

And the next day, he went even further, creating his own birds, eggs, nests, and the like. George also created some birds, but seemingly I failed to capture those in a picture. But they were cute.

As we're mildly obsessed with Angry Birds here, I have plans for more AB-related crafts and such in the future. And I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Encouraging Their Passions

Having all boys, we naturally own a variety of toy vehicles, construction equipment, and sports gear. It is easy to cater to their natural play instincts, but I have also made an effort over the years to try and include things like baby dolls, a play kitchen, and other such "girly" toys. And I have encouraged them to pursue their interests, being careful not to label things as girly (though they have picked it up at school already, and are quick to point it out at the store). Joshua, in particular, has always loved things that are tiny and/or shiny. For Christmas he received a set of Squinkies, and LOVES them. Nevermind that I could only find them in the pink aisle at Toys-R-Us, or that George told him, "That's a girl toy!" Josh didn't care if it WAS a girl toy. He liked it and it doesn't matter to him what anyone else thinks about it.

So it came as no big surprise to me that, while at the Homeschool Convention over Spring Break, a book about paper dressmaking caught his eye. It had sparkly things! It had shiny things! And it had the tiniest hangers ever! He ooohed and aaahed over it, but when I looked at the price, I told him we couldn't buy it. He cried and cried over it, but I gently reminded him that his birthday was coming up and that maybe that would be a good gift for him if he still wanted it. I found the book on Amazon.com for a lot less, and ordered it for him for his birthday. He was overjoyed when he opened it and saw that he got the much desired gift. I told him it was something we could do together, as it is recommended for ages 8 and up, and he would most likely need assistance.

He wanted to dig into it right away, but as we've been booked solid the past few days, we weren't able to open it up and work on it yet. While my parents were here preparing a fish fry dinner for us, Josh asked if he could use the book. I let him get out one of the tiny hangers (the whole reason I believed he wanted the book in the first place), but told him that we couldn't do a dress yet as it was nearly dinner time. So he asked if he could use regular paper and crayons, and I said sure. By golly if he didn't create his own dress AND purse with them. And he did a really great job! He even fashioned a way to get it to stay on the tiny hanger (the stenciled patterns in the books have tabs to hold them on). I was blown away by his ingenuity. That's Josh though - if he wants to do something, he doesn't let anything stand in his way.

This is what he created.

This is just to show the size of his tiny fashion creations. That's a quarter.

So now we're all excited to begin making dresses together, with all of the accessories as well, using the real paper and materials. I told him that if/when he ever designs real clothes for women to wear, he'd have to come up with some modest but stylish clothing (not that he knew what I meant, but we can talk more about modesty as we go along with this particular craft time).

I could have easily steered him away from this book. I could have said - this is for girls, honey -and left it at that. But what if, in doing that, I were suppressing a talent the likes of which the world has never seen? Who am I to stop him from using his God-given talents and abilities? I will not. I will encourage him to follow his passion to the fullest, and I won't think of him as any less manly for it.