Fun with Friends

On our end of summer trip back to our former city, we had lots of fun with some of our favourite friends. I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did take.

This is Leia's favorite friend back home. She had a sleep over with us and the kids were all watching a movie together. Notice my girls can't take their eyes off the movie, even for a picture!

This little guy is Padme's buddy. They were playing with blocks in his yard. He is the 5th child in their family, just like Padme is in ours.

More playing with blocks

Yoda liked those blocks.

Padme goofing off

This is Yoda's future buddy. Right now they aren't the best of friends. They are both the 6th child in their families, and mostly they tattle on each other. Yoda calls him "Baby" and he calls Yoda "That Guy". It is funny to hear them tattle on each other. We are confident they will get to be good buddies as they get older, just like the rest of their siblings.

Next time I need to do a better job of taking pictures. I didn't get any with Luke and his friends and the oldest two boys mostly worked, so I didn't get any pictures of them either.

Bunny Love

We have some friends who invited us over to see their baby bunnies. My little kids love animals, and the bunnies were a big hit! Of course, they were ready to bring them all home. Good thing we were on vacation and bringing a bunny 500 miles in the car was not a possibility!

Padme especially loved to hold them once she figured out how to do it without getting scratched.

Yoda liked the bunnies, but was very concerned the entire time. He didn't want them to get away, and he wanted someone to help him. He did not want the bunnies to be taken away, just to have help with them.

Leia really loves animals and will love on anything. She is very sweet and motherly with animals.

Leia's 9th Birthday

Leia's birthday was one month ago today. That is how far behind I am with my blog. Better late than never, so here is her birthday in pictures.

She had a few friends over to celebrate. Here they all are after opening gifts. Nice girls who are good friends.

And after the nice pictures, they always want a crazy one. Sometimes I like the crazy pictures the best! Leia is horse crazy and wanted a horse cake. And she loves the color green. So this is what I came up with for her cake.

She loved it!

And the pinata is always lots of fun, especially when a big brother is holding it up and moving the stick every time the girls took a swing.

Our once girly girl is no more. She wanted a squirt gun/water balloon fight for her birthday. Which is what her brothers always had when they were younger. Here is a picture of the water balloon fight. There were no boys allowed, so there were no tears. If you have boys, you know what I am talking about.

The squirt gun fight was also a success.

Leia had a wonderful birthday. We are so blessed to have her as our daughter. She is a lovely little girl who is growing up way too fast. Blessings to her on the next year of her life.

Crazy Hair Night at Awanas

Last week Awana had Crazy Hair Night. Here are the girls with some crazy hair. In the past we have bought some fun colored hair spray, but they moved the week up by a week and I wasn't ready. Maybe next year. I have no idea what is the deal with Padme's teeth in this picture!

The look is multiple, random ponytails. It was all I could come up with.

She loved it!

Leia is sporting s very similar look.

We will plan ahead better for next year and try something new. The girls had a fun night!

Spring Worship Dance Concert

The girls had their Spring Worship Dance Concert was last weekend. Here are a few pictures of them. I have some video of all of Padme's dance and half of Leia's that I will post below this one so if you are interested in seeing the dance, you can watch that, too.

The theme of this concert was Heaven and the concert was called Come and Go With Me.

Padme's class danced to the song I'll Fly Away by Jars of Clay. I had never heard this arrangement of the song and I love it.

Leia's class danced to I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe. I absolutely love this song and have since I first heard it. It makes me cry every time I hear it and watching her in class and rehearsal didn't change that. I cried every time.

Leia is the dancer right in front in this first picture with her back to the camera.

After the dance the girls get flowers from us. I think they love that almost as much as dancing, which they love. I couldn't get a serious picture of Padme, she was being so goofy and had already changed out of her dance costume.

Leia with her flowers.

The girls are both sad that the classes are over until summer time when there is a week long summer camp. I am glad for the time extra time home, but I do love watching them dance.

Leia's Dance video

I messed up and only got half of Leia's dance videoed. And I am not the best at videoing either, so some of it is poor quality. ANyways, you can get an idea of what her dance was like.

Backwards Night at Awana

Last month Awana had a Backwards Night. Here are the girls with their backwards look. That is actually the front of Leia with her ponytail in front of her face! They are wearing their shirts, pants and vests backward. They thought it was very funny to dress like this.

And the back view...

Leia's ponytail came out shortly after she got to church. She said she couldn't do anything because she couldn't see a thing!

Family Favorites Friday: Leia's smile

Grateful for Grace is hosting a blog carnival every Friday in order to share our favorite family stories. Hop on over to her blog to read more fun stories.

In the summer of 2007, a good friend of mine lost her husband to cancer, leaving her a single mom of 5 children. This made my hubby and me want to look closely at our life insurance and see if we shouldn't get more. At this same time, Leia had to have two bottom teeth pulled because the adult teeth were coming through and the baby teeth had no intention of falling out on their own.

Leia is very afraid of anything medical or dental. She especially doesn't like needles. So one morning I took her to the dentist to get a cavity filled. Then while she was there, the dentist pulled her two teeth. This was a big deal for her and she was a bit traumatized. She came home, laid on the couch, and watched a few movies. Later that afternoon, my newly widowed friends' son came over to play for a few hours. While he was there, we had a life insurance salesman come by to talk with us. The kids were all outside playing and we were having a nice conversation with the salesman.

Suddenly there was a loud screaming coming from the yard and here came Leia with her hand up to her mouth with blood gushing out, crying hysterically, and the rest of the kids coming in after her. Someone said that the friend had accidently hit Leia in the mouth with a PVC pipe while they were sword fighting and knocked out two of her teeth! She was bleeding so much I couldn't even tell which teeth were missing. I was worried it was the bottom middle teeth which were permanent teeth. I finally was able to tell that it was her top two middle teeth that were missing, and they had been loose baby teeth. So, we got Leia cleaned up, cleaned up all the blood on the floor, and then tried to explain to the insurance salesman that things like this don't usually happen around our place. And that we didn't want to buy his very expensive insurance!


So here is a picture of Leia's toothless smile. And you wouldn't guess the crazy story that was behind it!

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Our October book for our Read With Me, Mommy book club was Island of the Blue Dolphins. When I first heard the title, I was a bit worried about the book for Leia. I had read this book to the boys in our school curriculum several years ago, and I wasn't sure if she would like the book. It is a bit of a sad book, with a girl living on an island alone, with a few animals for 18 years. The girl's brother dies at the beginning, which was also very sad. And Leia is very tender hearted.

Leia surprised me and really liked the book. She was sad at the end when the girl was rescued and wanted her to stay on her island instead of leaving it to go and be with people. That is exactly what her oldest brother thought of the book. I was glad the girl finally got to be with some people after living alone for so long!

The book is based on a true story, so at the club meeting, we discussed the real story, looked at the map to see where the island was located, and then the girls got mugs that they could decorate. And of course there were snacks.

Here is Leia with the book, a drawing she made of the front cover of the book, and the mug she decorated. She always has so much fun at these meetings. It is a very nice group of girls, and she looks forward to it all month.

Next month's book is the Boxcar Children. We love that book, so it should be lots of fun.

Memorial Stones in Words: Music in our House

Grateful for Grace hosts a Memorial Stone in Words carnival on the 30th of each month. From her blog: "In history, the Israelites often were told to make memorial stone pillars. These were piles of rock that were to remind the people (and tell others) that God had done something big in their lives. God knew (and still does) that people benefit from visuals. These memorial stones gave the people a chance to tell the story again, either to those who were there and need to be reminded, or to those who were not and needed to know what happened. It also was an opportunity to be refreshed in their faith."

I grew up taking both piano and flute lessons. And I didn't fully appreciate them, especially the piano lessons. And I can play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the piano. And that is about it. I have played my flute a few times for church events in the last five years. But, other than the radio or CD player, that is the only music that has been played in my house. I wanted my children to have the opportunity to take piano lessons, but it never worked out. We were too broke, didn't have room for a piano (once three different people offered to give us a piano in the space of a month!) , and finally, God just told me NO. I listened, and although I felt a bit bad, I trusted God in this. And let me tell you, it is hard being a homeschooler and not taking any music lessons. Probably about 99% of the homeschool population takes music lessons.

It helped that none of the boys wanted to take piano lessons. But as Leia got older, she was interested. Two Christmas's ago, we got her a little play keyboard, and she played on it. And continued to express interest in lessons. We told her when she was older.

Well, older arrived this summer. A homeschool mom, who is also one of the pastor's wives at our church, lives about a mile away and teaches piano lessons. I talked to her about piano lessons casually earlier this summer, but she wasn't sure if she had room in her schedule. I didn't pursue it. A friend offered the use of her keyboard for as long as we need. But the teacher part still wasn't there. I mentioned it to another friend, but still not sure if it was going to happen.

Well, this friend mentioned it to the teacher, and a Sunday after church, the teacher stopped by to give one of the boys their Bible he had forgotten at church. And she asked if we wanted her LAST time slot left. Now this teacher has never been to my house before. So, I took it as a sign from God that now the answer to piano lessons is YES! I guess when the teacher shows up to your house to offer lessons, you can know that God is in control.

So, Leia is taking piano lessons. And Obi decided that he would also like to take lessons, so he is taking them, also. Leia and Obi are sharing a lesson time, so Leia goes one week, and Obi the next. And they can both play a few little songs already, and are loving practicing. Let's hope it continues. But I think it will. I waited a long time for God to provide these lessons, and I am sure good things are going to come from them!

Read With Me, Mommy Book Club with Misty

This past week we hosted the Read With Me, Mommy Book Club at our house. Leia was so excited to pick the book, and have it at our house. She convinced me we should have it and we signed up to host it in July! It seemed so far away at the time! She helped plan the menu for the snacks, the craft, and the discussion. She loved it.

We read the book Misty of Chincoteague. We also got the book on tape from the library and Leia listened to it three times this past month. She is really horse crazy, and is praying that she can get a horse of her own. For now we will continue reading books about horses!

One of the ladies who came to the meeting had actually been to Chincoteague and gave all the girls a picture of some of the ponies they saw while they were there.

Here is a picture of Leia with the book, the picture of the ponies, and wearing the necklace she made for the craft. The necklace says "I love Misty and horses". It is hard to see the details in her necklace in this picture.

The book last month was Understood Betsy. That is a book that I had started to read to the older boys were younger and we didn't finish it as they weren't interested. This time we read further into the book, and we really liked the book. When it came the day for the book club meeting, Leia went with another mom and her daughter, as Yoda was sick and he had a Dr. appointment during the meeting. I didn't get any pictures taken of her, but she really liked the book and had a wonderful time at the meeting.

Next month's book is Island of the Blue Dolphins.

New pictures

When Han was just a baby, I started taking him to get his picture taken at the studio. We were very poor, but these pictures were so important to me. I always had a coupon, and bought the cheapest package I could. I have kept this up with all the kids. One year we just couldn't afford it, and I still regret no pictures from that year! Since we homeschool and don't have school pictures taken, I get all the kids pictures taken around their birthdays. That means summer is a big rush with 5 birthdays, and then Luke's pictures get taken with the Christmas pictures. I truly love these pictures and can't wait to get them back. I took the three youngest in recently, and here are a few of their pictures.