The Arrow and The Song

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For who has sight so keen and strong,

That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak

I found the arrow, still unbroke;

And the song, from beginning to end,

I found again in the heart of a friend.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Lauren and her PawPaw spent a lot of time on the phone making big plans for our Alabama visit.  They planned to wrestle alligators, catch birds and coons, shoot rifles and arrows, and go fishing.  They managed to accomplish pretty much all of it during our stay.  They wrangled an alligator they named Gobbler, caught and released a raccoon, went fishing, shot balloons and soda cans with a BB gun, and spent hour after hour "practicing" with Lauren's very own bow and arrow set PawPaw bought for her.  She seemed to be a real natural and got better and better as the week went on.  No matter how hot it was, or how many mosquitoes there were, PawPaw was right there with her, instructing, monitoring, encouraging, and competing.  He's such a good grandpa and a wonderful father.  He's someone I would want to be friends with even if we weren't related.  The Longfellow poem seemed so appropriate as the time these two spent together placed an unbroken song in Lauren's heart.   She'll always remember this time with her PawPaw.  Who knows?  Maybe she'll be an olympic archer someday.  When we made it back to California, I tried to enroll her in a local archery camp but was told she was too young.  If only they knew our Lauren, they'd see she would have fit right in.  Tomorrow is my dad's birthday.  We wish we could be there to celebrate with him.  We hope he has a wonderful, spectacular day!  XOXO!

100th day of school

Goodness, that 100th day of school seems to get here fast, doesn't it??  Next thing you know, we'll be at spring break and then it's summer.  So far, both girls are having a really good school year.  I'm very thankful for that.  For Lauren's 100th day project, we decided to make a few pinwheels.  They're so easy and fun.  Originally, I wanted to adhere them to the board in a manner that would still allow them to turn.  In the end, it was much easier just to cut them, fold them, and glue them on.  We didn't even glue the folded edges down in the center but I think it turned out really cute anyway. 

Lauren seems extra jolly in this picture, doesn't she?  Wanna know why?

Jacob was in the background trying to pull my pants down!  Let me explain.  My kids are up by no later than 0530 each morning.  We started the pinwheel board around 0600 Sunday morning.  I was still in my pjs when it came time to take the picture.  Lauren started out with a sullen face.  Jake came over and grabbed the leg of my pants and was saying, "Milk, Mommy."  He tugged a bit too hard, my pants went south, Lauren began to laugh and it was all over from that point.  He thought it was hilarious and kept following me around tugging.  Thus, the giggles from Lauren and the blurry picture from Mommy.  Hehehe.

Gracie's Round-Up

This summer the girls attended a drama and music camp at a local church.  The week long seminar culminated in a show called "Gracie's Round-Up".  The girls had so much fun and made a lot of new friends.  The kids were divided by grade and there were about 66 kids in all.  Anna was chosen to be one of the three Gracies in the production and Lauren was picked as "kid #2".  As they both had speaking parts, I was so incredibly nervous that Sunday morning.  They both pulled it off and acted like it was no big deal while their mom was a melting lump of worry about to pass out in the audience.  It was amazing how relieved I felt when they each said their lines and I could go back to just enjoying the show.  

Beau:  Ms. Gracie?
Anna (as Gracie):  Yes, Mr. Beau Vine, one of my favorite cowpokes of all time.

Beau:  I, uh, I uh seem to have lost about 1,000 of your cows.
Anna:  Oh my, 1,000 cows!!
Beau:  I'll do anything, Ms. Gracie.  Be patient. If I save my money for a year, I can buy a cow.  That cow will have babies and then those babies will have babies.  In just 122 years, I'll be able to pay you back.
Anna:  Here's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to tell myself, "Gracie, Beau here is a man in need of a second chance." Then I'm going to tell myself, "Self, it's true alright, here's a man in need of some help and you're the one who is going to give it to him, Gracie Goodheart."  Then I'm going to have a laugh with myself and say that you can go Beau, your debt is forgiven.

Beau:  What??  You mean, I don't have to pay back the 1,000 cows?
Anna:  How could you ever do it?  No sense even trying.  Just see to it that you spread some of this kindness to your fellow cowpokes, that would make things better around this ranch of mine.

Next scene:
(Beau is asking the sheriff to arrest his cousin for not paying him back a dozen eggs he borrowed.)
Beau: Tell 'em Ms. Gracie, we don't steal around here on the ranch!
Anna: You good for nothin' cowpoke!
Beau:  Heehee!
Anna:  I'm talking to you, Beau.  Couldn't you have forgiven Luke his debt of a dozen eggs, just like you were forgiven 1,000 head of cattle?  If you won't forgive your cousin, I won't forgive you either.  Sheriff, take this man away until he's had a change of heart.

Singing "Yahoooo, this is Gracie's Round-Up."

Lauren's class:
A different Gracie:  What do you want to be?
Lauren (as Kid #2):  I want to be a police girl (it was police officer but she improvised. :)

Later in the same scene:

Kid #4:  They certainly are a good looking group of people.

Lauren:  They might even get other people to come to your ranch. 

Singing "Please don't make me a hobo!"

We were so proud of both of them.  They just blew me away with their confidence. ( Public speaking is not one of their Mommy's favorite things to do. )  Daddy had little vases with flowers for both of them for after their performance.  We'll definitely try something like this again next summer.  It was a ton of fun for the girls and I had a week's worth of free mornings to complete our 2009 family album.  Win-Win for everyone! 

Pretty in Green

Snow Time

Yesterday we took the kids up to the mountains for a little sledding.  It was the baby's first time in the snow.  He seemed to be okay with the idea as long as he was being held.  Don't even think about trying to put him down though.  Overall, everyone had fun...until we lost Lauren.  She had already discovered a small river next to a snowbank and given me a heart attack in the process.  She rounded out the day by disappearing when we were on our way to the car.  One second she was there and the next she was just...gone.  I retraced our steps expecting to find her right around the corner but she wasn't there.  I began to call for her and asked if anyone had seen her but with no luck.  I went up to the balcony and made a frantic visual search but still no luck.  I looked over to see Doug standing at the corner of the building still without her and I panicked.  I began to cry.  I walked back down to the lift area and noticed that Doug was no longer standing there.  I began to run over (as well as I could in snow boots and carrying a 1-year old).  Thankfully, as I rounded the corner he had her in his arms.  She was bawling and so was I.  Apparently she went to the back side of the first-aid station and got stuck up to her waist in snow.  She couldn't get out but didn't bother to call for help.  Needless to say it scared me to death.  Life comes at you so fast.  I'm just thankful it all worked out.  She was pretty funny when we got her back to the car though.  She told me, "Mommy, tell Daddy that I NEVER want to come to this place again!"  So much for our plans for a family day in the snow!!

The Party

We had a great time with family and friends this weekend at the kid's circus birthday party.  I truly feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful and loving people.  Happy Birthday Lauren and Jacob!

**EDITED to add: Several of you have asked for a tutorial for the circus sign. I really wish I had taken pictures. Thanks so much for the nice comments! Unfortunately, my husband stuck it in with some items for his mother's estate sale and someone took it home for $7. It broke my heart. I'll do my best to explain but most of the work on the sign was handled by my husband, dad, and stepdad. It's good to have family in town for parties!! As far as I remember they lined the letters (papier mache purchased at JoAnn's) up on the piece of wood where we wanted them to go and traced around them. They removed the letters and drilled holes through the piece of wood inside the lines, spacing the holes evenly. They laid the letters back down inside the lines and drilled from the bottom of the board up through the holes they had already made and into the letters. Of course, the hole into the board and into the backside of the letter can be as big as you need it to be to get the lights in. When they drilled through into the top of the letter, they carefully punched a small hole in the top part of the letter just to mark it. They then used a smaller drill bit and made the hole look nicer from the top side of the letter being careful to make it just big enough for the tip of the light to poke through. You want it fairly small/tight as this is what holds it in place. You don't insert any Christmas lights at this point as you still need to paint everything. After this, they painted the board and the letters, and we used hot glue to attach the letters to the wood, stuck the strands of lights in through the larger holes and individual lights in the smaller holes, and used duct tape to attach the Christmas lights to the back of the board for support.

Was that totally confusing? I hope it helped. Let me know if you have any further questions and I'll do my best to answer them! I can bring my husband in to consult. Haha!

Come One, Come All!

Lauren will be turning 5 on Saturday. It's hard to believe how quickly the time has flown by. She has certainly kept us on our toes during her little lifetime but I'm thankful for every minute with our fearless, strong, bull-headed, loving daughter. We're having a joint circus birthday party for her and our sweet little 1-year old. Family start arriving today! I'm so excited and just can't wait!

Yahoooo!

It's official....the kids are on their Christmas break!! Now if we can just get Grandma home from the hospital and Tyler can catch a flight here (he's currently stuck in Denver), it will finally feel a bit more like Christmas.

Lauren had her Christmas show at her preschool this past Wednesday. Doug was unable to make it and Anna was in school. So, I was there by myself with our very squirmy little boy. Needless to say, my attempt at getting a decent video of the show wasn't so hot. For this particular song, I was actually nursing Jacob and holding him with my right arm and holding the video camera in my left hand. The only way for me to zoom in was to drop the camera into my lap, make the adjustments and then try again. So, when you see the scene go black for a moment...don't leave...there's more a-coming. Lauren is in the third row up from the bottom with a cream flower and headband.

Fruit of the Spirit

Little Lauren, don't you know? You need to some fruit to help you grow. Apples, bananas, and grapes are yummy but fruit of the spirit is for more than your tummy.

One of our favorite books is by Mindy MacDonald and is called "9 Fruits Alive". I immediately thought of this book when we got the newsletter from Lauren's preschool that said this Tuesday would be Fruit of the Spirit day. I panicked a bit because I didn't have a fruit costume and everyone was supposed to wear something "fruity". I figured I would work on it but then we went to Monterey for the weekend and I didn't think about it again until 4:30 am Tuesday morning. It was one of those "Oh SHOOT!" mornings. All I could come up with was an apple hat made out of felt and batting. So, I plundered around in the dark and found what I needed. When the girls woke up, I started sewing. Lauren said she liked it but, of course, refused to wear it. Her teacher was dressed as a bunch of grapes and I saw only one other kid dressed up...he was a pear. Other than that there were a lot of teachers wearing hats with fake fruit hot-glued to them. So, it would appear in the future, I shouldn't worry too much about Lauren being the only one not "fruity" enough. I still think it turned out cute though.

No stinky toes!

Lauren had her first soccer class this past Wednesday.

Her coach told the kids there were only three rules in soccer:
1) No hands!

2) No stinky toes. Kick with the inside of your foot.

3) Have fun!

Lauren was the only girl out of the 6 kids there. I'm proud to say that she held her own. One little boy must have thought they were playing football as he tackled Lauren three times. Finally, after the third knockdown she got up and yelled at him, "STOP KNOCKING ME DOWN! And STOP kicking my ball!!" He continued to mess with her and I was worried for a while she was going to take him out for good but the coach finally put a stop to it. They learned a few techniques at the beginning of the class and then divided into teams for a little action. Lauren was on the red team and she told me later they called themselves the "Bully team". She said it was their job to take the ball away from the nice kids. I heard her tell one of her teammates, "That blue team sure is fast!"The kids kept taking water breaks and during one break she told me she was upset because she hadn't gotten a goal. Only one little boy from the blue team had managed a goal during the whole practice period. I told her she was doing great and to keep up the good work and she would get there. Finally in the last few seconds of her lesson, she got the ball and was making a good run of it. I thought she was going to get it in but the coach blew the whistle to end practice. She had a lot of fun and I can't wait to see her play some more!!

Trust in the Lord and Do Good

You all know that Lauren started preschool this month. You may or may not know that it is a Christian preschool which means that in addition to the regular curriculum, there are also bible studies and chapel. Lauren's been coming home singing bible verses and handing out "church" stickers. She gave us all some to wear this past Sunday that said things like, "Sing His Praise", and "God Rocks!". We were having breakfast the other morning and Lauren said, "Do you know what my teacher keeps saying?" I told her I didn't. In a high pitched voice, Lauren said, "Trust in the Lord and Do Good!". "Oh really," I said. "That's a nice thing to say." Lauren shook her head "no" and said, "Well, I'm not going to do that." Obviously, she needs more time in chapel.

She did get in trouble for the first time last week. Her teacher mentioned that Lauren had shoved a little girl and had to go to time out. When I asked Lauren about it, she told me, "She wouldn't get out of my way even though I asked her nicely. I told my teacher I was sorry but she told me I STILL had to go to W-time out." Apparently the class has an alphabet carpet and the "W" is the time-out spot. I am very proud of Lauren though. She seems to be doing really well overall. She loves class and her teacher. I think being in class is building her self-esteem and I'm impressed with how much she's already learning. So far, so good!

Lauren's Big Week

It's been a big week for our little Lauren. On Tuesday, we got to visit her new school for an open house. We met her teacher and some of her classmates. We also completed a little scavenger hunt to find different parts of the classroom.
Her class raises money each month to buy food, clothing, and medical treatment for a child the class adopts from Africa through the Rescue African Children Ministry. Here she is painting her "piggy" bank so she can bring it home and save a little money.


On Wednesday, she rode her bike with NO training wheels for the first time ever!


On Thursday, she started preschool. I had been feeling a bit bad that she was only headed into preschool while her friends on either side of us were headed to kindergarten. Since her birthday is in January, she missed the age cutoff. Doug made me feel better though when he commented, "This will be good for her. She needs to work on her social skills. At least this way if she's pounding people everyday and gets expelled, it won't be as bad as if she were expelled from kindergarten." I love that about Doug....he's always finding the silver lining!
Here she is signing herself into class.

She also adds her own "animal" card to the cubbies to show she's in class for the day.

Congratulations to our baby!