cute boys

I think the best thing is to watch and listen to Alex and Nathan play together when they don't think I'm listening. Today Nathan was trying to get Alex to buy his pretend house and Alex said, "I don't want to buy your house! It's rotten!"

At dinner today Nathan spilled his water and when he got a bunch of napkins to put on it to clean it up. He said to the napkins, "please take a seat."

Why do we have Columbus Day??

I have been learning a lot doing school with the boys. We are learning American history this year. I study it first so I'm not in the dark when I teach them. I've been reading about Christopher Columbus today. I am baffled as to why we have a national holiday celebrating this man??

He sailed to a new land, not knowing where in the world he was, made slaves out of the natives and sent some back to sell as slaves, and his crew that he left ransaked the villages. Since he didn't know where in the heck he was, he made his crew sign an oath to lie and say that they had made it to China, and if they said anything different their tongues would be cut out. He was a know-it-all, and when he died, he still swore he found China, even though "by this time others had accepted the fact that there was indeed a new continent, Columbus never budged from his fixed ideas of geography. He had been to China, he insisted, and if he'd had more time, he would have reached Japan." And he wasn't even the first to "discover" America. The viking Leif (Eric the Red's son) sailed to America long before Columbus. And he only "discovered" America from a European's standpoint.

Because of Columbus, "the whole world was changed forever. Europeans considered this New World their own to explore, to exploit, to settle, to do with as they pleased. And the native peoples of this New World gradually lost their land, their peace, their freedom, and all too often their lives." (Quotes from Around the world in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz) Why are we celebrating a closed-minded, dishonest, slave-trading man who didn't even know that he had discovered America??

I think I'll write to the politicians.

PS From looking online for a short bit, I've learned that the Italian people here started celebrating Columbus Day because he was Italian, and then President Nixon decided to make it a national holiday.

PSS I'm finding out that other people in history who are "honored" were not so great. Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, a president of our country, owned slaves and started the idea of kicking the native americans out of "our" country--the very man who wrote about freedom and owning land etc. being self-evident truths. There are so many events in our country's history that are not noble. I told the boys when we started history last week, that our country has made many mistakes, that it's not perfect, but even still, it's the "land of opportunity" where we have so many blessings that we should be grateful for.

5 years ago

5 years ago Nathan was 18 months and Alex had just turned 3. They loved going to the Planetarium. This is when they could name the planets in order by themselves. Look how cute they are!

If you're interested in the nitty gritty of our homeschool, check out my homeschooling blog. I wrote about our first week of school-- it went really well! This second year is going to be a lot easier and funner than the first!

First Day of School and playroom chair

Today was the boys' formal first day of school (even though we've been doing school during the summer). They would not smile normal. This was the closest thing I got:

Then Baby Katie tried to escape:

Todd packed them a special first-day-of-school lunch in their spiderman lunchboxes with a nice note:

We had a great day of school today (except when Katie had 5 poopy diapers; and another time I was getting water for the boys' painting and Nathan called out, "MOM! Baby's eating the paint!"). I think this year will be great-- I am really excited about our curriculum and this year I feel like I know more how to do things.

I got my fabric for the ugly chair-- now it's pretty! I'm very happy with my $20 chair and $20 fabric!

How much is enough??

Todd and I have been talking all morning about stuff. Our talk came down to: how much money do you give away? How much is enough? Recently we saw a huge huge mansion in the area. We decided it was dumb to have a house that big and grand when there are people all over the world who are starving and don't have their basic necessities covered. Then Todd said, maybe they are giving millions of dollars each year to good causes and they have enough left over to buy that house. I said, then they are not giving enough. So, we talked about how much is enough? Then we talked about us-- we went on a trip to Disneyland a year and a half ago, even though there are people all over the world starving to death.

It's easy to buy things you want when you don't see that kind of poverty every day. But if I was the one living in Somalia, and I was starving to death, and I saw my children slowly dying of starvation, and there are people in America going to Disneyland so their fat children can whirl around in the air on fun rides, I would say that it was not enough. Or even someone like Todd's boss, who has a daughter born with a lot of health problems and now has $20,000 in health bills he has to pay. But isn't it ok to do fun things now and then? You can't save the world by yourself. But if your neighbor was poor and had starving kids who looked like this:

would you walk past them on your way to TGI Fridays?

And then we talked about how and who to give to. In some cases, it is ok to give "handouts." But the best way is to help people help themselves. And then, how do you know that an organization is putting the money to what they say they are putting it to? Maybe our family vacations should be visiting places of poverty so that our family can see the people who need help face to face, so that if I want to buy Baby Katie a new cute outfit from Gymboree (not on sale), I will think about how meaningless that is when a child in X place is starving to death or doesn't have a home, etc.

So, I ask you, how much is enough? If you were the mother/father in Sudan with starving children, how much would you say is enough money to give? And then, how and to who do you give? Then, do a google image search for "starving children".

So then, tell me this-- I really want $200 worth of stuff for the kids' school (books, educational games, educational dvds) which we can't afford, but if I suddenly got a check for $200 to get it, should I get the stuff, or should I send it to a charity that helps starving kids around the world?

the homeschool group campout

Last night we went camping in the Santaquin canyon mountains and it was so beautiful. We went with our homeschool group.

Alex is very good at cooking perfect marshmallows and cooked us all 500 each.

Storytelling:

There's lots of little boys in the group--lucky for Alex and Nathan!

Alex and Nathan with some of the kids:

Todd was the camp chef. He cooked a dutch oven dinner for all 80 people all by himself!

Baby Katherine is reaching up and stealing the boys' rocks they collected and put in this log crevice:

There was a stream by our campsite that was ice cold:

I gave the boys each a yogurt container to collect their rocks and things:

Katherine didn't know about the camping thing.

The boys, on the other hand, had the time of their lives:

The boys explaining how to roast the perfect marshmallows:

warning: could be disturbing

Before I show you the disturbing picture, I'll tell you that the other day we went to Discovery Gateway, took a tour of Welfare Square (highly recommend), ate lunch at the Lion House and took a tour of Brigham Young's house. I love old houses.



Now, the picture. This is what I saw when I went to get Katie from her nap:
(deleted it)

This is not the first time this has happened. I went to get her one morning and it was worse than this. Either she slayed a cat in her crib, or she has REALLY bad bloody noses. She gets them all the time. We're going to the dr. today to see if there's something they can do.

schoolroom phase II

I am doing a little more to the schoolroom. This weekend's project was to laminate and frame (with trim) a world map poster. I cut three of the 4 sides of trim wrong and went to Home Depot a total of 3 times, but it's done! I think it looks pretty good (pat, pat). I put it low for the kids to be able to see it, so I think I'll use allison's idea of using letters and spell the word "explore" above it.

I got this ugly chair on Craigslist for $20 that I am going to put this fabric (red with tiny white dots) over it. The fabric panel of the children playing ring-around-the-rosie is going to be a big pillow. I got the frames from the dollar store and painted them black and Todd made the kids' sillhouttes on the computer. We went on a drive to get the branch at a campground (trees are scarce here in Utah, not like AR)! I made the stuffed fabric birdies (4 more are in the making):

All I have left is the "explore", the curtains, and baskets for the bookshelf and I'll be done and show you the finished product!

another book recommendation

We just found this book at the library and we just loved it! We highly recommend you read it:

Meet Nie Nie tomorrow

Nie Nie of Nie Nie Dialogues blog is hiking the Y mountain tomorrow, Sat. at 7pm and she is inviting all to join her.
See here

pics

Katie likes to play with her dolls:

The other day the temp was about 70 degrees!! So we spent the day doing school at Thanksgiving Point gardens:

Before we did school, we ate lunch there on the patio. Here is Katie giving Nathan a hug:

Katie likes to put things around her neck and crawl (now walk!) so I got some strips of fabric for her to play with:

The boys have been selling and buying things with the neighborhood kids this summer. Nathan came home with this around his neck, that he bought from a neighbor kid. He told me, "He only charged me 5 cents for this!!" (the deal of the century!)

We picked peaches in AR and Todd made us peach cobbler- YUM!

Where are this kid's shoes?? And why does he have only one sock?

Ryan is having another "episode"
(we haven't found suitable medication yet)

Daddy and Katie in AR relaxing:

Daddy and Katie at cousin Violet's eating grapes:

cool kid:

Happy Birthday Alex!

Rhoman with his cape and utility belt:
I got the magic relight candles- hee hee:) All the kids helped him blow on them.

Singing happy birthday:

The kids LOVED seeing Batman's sword and batarangs:

Today is Alex's 7th birthday! We had an all-boy party for him at the park. It was a batman super-hero training camp. I thought it was going to be such a terrific party, one that no one would forget and the kids would tell their great grandkids about it.

The first activity was to practice flying on the swings and hanging upside down on the jungle gym like a bat. Swings- 30 seconds; jungle gym- too scorching hot.

Ok, next activity, a little game we got at the party store--paper Jokers that you try and hit over with batarangs. Batarangs--cool but only one kid at a time could do it because there was only one, paper Jokers--didn't stand up.

Ok, next activity was flying bats. I got rubber bats and cut a paper towel tube and glued the tube ring on top of the bat. The object is for one kid to stand on the picnic table, hold one end of the string and one kid to stand on the ground holding the other end of the string, and the bat flies down the string on the tube. I used the glue gun to hold the rings on the bats, and they promptly fell off in about 10 seconds flat. Ok, so I told them to just take some bats and run around with them, and they'd have to take turns because there were 11 kids and 8 bats.

Todd was going to come at this point dressed up as Batman and give the kids their capes, but he was still at the house putting on the costume. Hmmmm. I had to stall. Kids are starting to fight. I told the kids to run around the playground as an obstacle course. Then, I decided to go to the next activities that we were supposed to do after Batman came, but oh well.

I told the kids that Riddler had stolen their utility belts and left this clue. It was a treasure hunt, and that went over well (phew!) and the last clue was: Alex's mom is really Catwoman! She really took them! Chase her to get them!
I had on a mask and all the kids chased me and caught me. I gave them their utility belts: strappy material with velcro with a toy walky talky, grenade, binoculars, compass, real flashlight, and paper clips that held three batarangs (that I cut out of cereal boxes and spray painted black).

Then the next activity: I had some toy silver and gold coins that I had hid in a rose garden just beyond the park. I told them Penguin stole some money and hid it and they had to find it. Another mom told me that she had heard a group of girls by us say, "Mom! Look what we found over there! Coins!" and had taken it all. I had put it over there right before the party. The mom went over there to talk to the girls and she said they were very nice about it and hurried and put it all back secretly as the boys were over there looking. I'm glad for that mom, because at that point Katie had a poopy diaper and I was changing her.

Todd finally made it there, in full costume (he borrowed it from his brother Bryan) and walked over to the boys at the rose garden. The boys had wide eyes when they saw him! As he was walking over there, a kid just at the park ran to his mom and said, "Mom!! Is that the real Batman??" Here's the video of Todd walking up to the kids at the party and giving them their capes:

That was definitely the highlight of the flop party. Alex and Nathan said they had fun, but Nathan cried because Alex got lots of presents and it wasn't Nathan's birthday. :( I wish Nathan did not have his birthday the week of Christmas!! (Todd is right now taking Nathan to the dollar store to let him pick out something).

Well, I have learned from this, to do a simple, very low-cost party (like Nancy's pool), and take the money and time we would have spent on a party like this and give it to Alex for his birthday.

My World right now

I've been wanting to write about what my life is like right now. It's funny how there are things that are part of your life and then gradually fade away and you don't even realize that they're gone. Then I am reminded of that time and remember the way life used to be. For example, a few years back, Nathan had to always have his curious george stuffed animal. He couldn't go anywhere without it or go to sleep unless he had it. Then it kind of faded away, but I smile when I see this picture:

So, right now Nathan can't say his R's or L's and it is so cute! He is extremely obsessed with numbers--counting and math. He loves to play the computer game World of Goo and would play it all day if I let him, but they only get 30 min. of screen time. He still likes to sleep in our bed, and does somehow sneak his way in there most nights. He is scared of going places alone in the house, so he likes to take Rocket the dog with him, and good ole Rocket dog obliges obediently. He still gets his shoes on backwards and his pants and shirt on inside out, backwards or both. He is learning to ride a bike without training wheels. He still has a vivid imagination and spends a lot of time running around the house with some weapon, cape, or random object he imagines to be something extraordinary, making shooting and blowing up noises (which are really good, by the way). Nathan's favorite color is still orange, but it changes occasionally, but it's most consistently orange. He really loves to color. He is most definitely a night owl. He sleeps heavily and is the last one awake in the mornings. At night, he gets a burst of energy and Alex is always asleep before him. Alex and Nathan love to play with Katie and can make her smile. They are so sweet to her. Nathan really hates to go to church. I think it's because the kids in his class are a bit crazy, and because he has a short attention span.

Nathan always asks me, "will you play tag with me?" Nathan loves stuffed animals right now. When he goes to Build A Bear, he tells me when his animal will come alive (when we leave the store or the next morning). Nathan will make up with names for big numbers. Yesterday he said that a number as big as infinity is called "tank of fire". Dot-org is another name for a big number. The boys hate to wear jammies-- they can only be in underwear when they go to bed or they say it's too hot.

Alex is the sweetest child ever to be born. He always tries to be so sweet and please us. The other day we gave the boys the last of the bluberry waffles and Alex shared with me. Alex gave Nathan one of his tooth fairy dollars without us saying anything. He is always so thoughtful and sharing and caring. Alex is very good at reading. It came very natural for him. He likes to read at night and has a very good attention when I read to him. He is very good at spatial reasoning and can build amazing things with legos, follow directions I can't even do to fold paper airplanes and put things together that I can't (literally). He likes music like me and he feels the emotion in music.

Right now Todd is doing "oobie and Lanae" with the boys. One night Todd pretended his hand was a puppet and the kids were giggling their heads off. After doing that a couple nights, Todd went to the store to get stuff for all of them to make sock puppets, which they did. And now Oobie and Lanae are sock puppets that the boys keep in each of their night stands to have fun with Daddy before bed. Why this is so funny I don't know, but they love it and I love to hear their giggles and see them have fun with their dad. They love to hear stories and todd is the best storyteller. Lately Todd makes up "door stories" about Alex and Nathan in a hall of doors, and each door leads them to a different place in a different story. The boys will say "tell us a door story!"

The boys also love going to visit daddy at work because there is a candy closet there and daddy will get them a candy. Alex said he was going to work their when he is a daddy so his kids can visit him and he can give them candy.

Alex and Nathan always want me to lay with them at night before bed. Right now Alex and Nathan, but especially Alex, love playing with the neighbor friend Winston. Either he is at our house or they are at his house. I like them being here because I get lonely without them. Alex likes to play Lego Batman on the Play Station, but he's not as obsessed as nathan is with World of Goo. Alex and Nathan love playing imaginary games together, usually involving fighting bad guys. They are the best of friends and rarely fight.

Alex still wants to learn how to play the violin. Both boys like me to massage their legs, scratch their hands and face. With Nathan, if I scratch his face, I always have to say the colors. Scratch my face is called "paint my face" because a long time ago Nathan said it felt like I was painting his face. If I don't say the colors, he has to say them in his mind, and he doesn't like that, so he whines until I say the colors. The boys really hate to get their hair cut. I cut their hair and they scream and cry like I'm chopping off a limb!

Katherine is called Baby right now, but I'm trying to call her Katie or Katherine instead now, since she's one, and it was so hard to stop calling Nathan "nay-nay". She is lately WILD AND CRAZY. She gets into anything and everything and grabs at everything when I'm holding her walking around. She throws her food, her plate and her sippy cup. She gets out of her straps and gets on the table. She takes the books off the bookshelf and takes all the board games out and makes sure they get all over. etc. etc. etc. The day before yesterday she officially decided to be a walker! If she falls down, she'll get back up and walk instead of crawl.

I think she is going to be girly. She likes to put things around her neck and crawl around, so I went to the fabric store and got 1/4 yard of different colors of sheer type fabric for her to play with. She'll put it around her shoulders and neck and crawl around. Today I had a necklace out and she tried to put it on. Anything round goes on her wrist like a bracelet. She doesn't like her hair done, though. She screams when I try to do her hair and all bows, ribbons and hair things are out of her hair in 2 seconds flat. She likes to play with dolls. She'll find the dolls in the toys and hold them. The other day Alex was holding a doll (trying to find something else) and she screamed at him like he had taken it from her! She also likes to be in a blanket fort. In the morning I'll take her in my bed and she likes it when I put the blanket over both of us and hold up my arm so that it's a "fort". She loves it. She's is such a snuggly girl. She'll lay her head on my shoulder and also give real hugs, even patting my back. She is such a happy, smiley, playful girl. she loves loves loves her brothers and they play together. One thing they play is: at night when it's time for her to go to bed, I put her in her crib and before she has to go to sleep, the boys will go by her crib and she will stand up and push on their faces and they will pretend to fall down. They will do this for a long time and they are all laughing. She won't sit still for a book, but she will mimick me pointing to the pictures, and she will stick out her puggy pointer finger and point to things on the page. Before she goes to sleep, after she is in her crib, I read her nursery rhymes (so she can't eat the book). To sleep, she curls up her arms and legs under her body and sticks up her little diaper bum-- so precious! Speaking of sleep, she thinks she never needs to sleep. Things I read say she is supposed to sleep so many hours, but she doesn't think she needs sleep. Lately she's been waking up at 6am. Too early for me! She's a very light sleeper, too. maybe she doesn't want to miss anything. She loves rocket and other dogs. She goes over to Rocket and lets her lick her and she will hit him and pull his ears or tail or climb all over him. If she sees other dogs, she wants to go over to them. "Dog" is one of her first things she is saying and knows. She says "do.." she also says "mamamamama" when she's crying and wants me. sometimes she'll try and repeat what we say, but she's not really saying anything but babble yet. She loves tomatoes and her bottle and fruit and I don't think there's anything she doesn't like to eat. She still puts everything in her mouth, but she's finding out that she can explore with her hands, too, so thank goodness it's getting less and it's not the first thing she does usually. She is such a great, fun, lovable, happy baby!

a post

Alex's birthday is coming up...Aug. 12 he'll be 7!! He's is growing really fast. (too fast if you ask me!)

My favorite kids book is now: Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones.

Hillarious! and fun rhymes and pictures.



Also, we just got back from our week trip to Arkansas to visit my family. The drive is 24 LONG hours but worth it. The kids did great on the drive. We had a great trip. It went by too fast, as it always does. I've forgotten how HUMID it is there!!