Happy 8th Birthday Betsy Grace!

It's hard to believe our first baby is 8 years old!  She is a sweet, kind, loving, helpful, smart, beautiful little 8 year old girl.  She has a love for her baby sister (the other siblings too, but the baby usually gets the most spoiling), reading, horses, drawing, all animals really,nature, catching lizards, and telling jokes.  She just started piano lessons and art lessons, so she's excited about that.  Of course, she is a blessing to us and we are thankful God gave us the privilege of being her parents!
We love to plan birthdays around here and there's been much discussion in the last year about what theme Betsy Grace wanted for her 8th birthday.  I think half the fun of planning birthdays is brainstorming ideas and jumping from one to the next until finally a few weeks or maybe month or two the theme is finalized!  We went from an elephant theme immediately after her last birthday, to dogs, to a few other things I can't remember and finally she landed on a horse theme.  Of course, I loved that idea because it was easy and I also love horses!  We weren't doing a big party this year since we did that for her 7th birthday, so we invited our two sweet neighbor friends for a little vintage horse birthday party last Friday, which was her actual birthday.
The first thing we did was paint some cute little bobble head horses.  Andrew insisted on painting too.  Don't have a clue why I didn't get him a horse to paint...he painted a birdhouse instead.

Next came presents.  She got a Little House on the Prairie craft book from her sister.  Mommy and Daddy gave her a new 18 inch doll book and dress to match the book character, the Lady and the Tramp DVD, and her very own purple bible with her name engraved on it.  I'm happy to say that was the thing she seemed most excited about.  She has been reading it every night before bed and is taking it to church to follow along with her Sunday school teachers and during worship.  Haylee gave her a very special present which was a shirt she sewed herself.  It was actually her very first sewing project and she made it for Betsy.  Very sweet.  Hannah gave her some play horses and a Littlest Pet shop pet.  What a blessed little girl!

Time for cake!  We had so much fun making this cake.  We did a strawberry pound cake (so it was pink inside!) with cream cheese frosting.  The bottom two layers are 8 inch rounds and the top layer is a 6 inch round, I think.  I made the horse out of fondant using this tutorial.  Betsy Grace wanted an aqua cake with some pink and yellow thrown in, so we did the frosting in aqua and used fresh flowers to make it girly and colorful.  The grass is coconut dyed with food coloring.  I did the fence out of large pretzel sticks.  Of course, I used my adorable chocolate mushrooms from World Market and just had to add a few tiny little yellow chicks as a surprise for Betsy.  She loved it and I think it might be one of my favorite cakes!

I have sort of evolved into this tradition of doing a special tablescape for birthday parties.  We don't decorate with streamers or balloons but we do the table up right!  For this tablescape I used  2 yards of aqua calico fabric as a table runner (no sewing involved), and 1 yard of pink gingham as a place to center the cake.  We then used Betsy's Breyer horses to decorate as well as the small bale of hay from Andrew's cowboy room.  A few of the tiny yellow chicks make a nice splash of color.  I filled some mason jars with pink, aqua, and yellow jellybeans and stuck the pink and aqua old fashioned candy sticks in one, and the very pretty flower "cookie pops" (which became favors), I found at the dollar store in the other.  We then used the extra flowers to make a sweet flower arrangement.  Pretty, pretty!

This face says it all!

And then the sugar rush began!  Cake and ice cream and more cake and ice cream!  They definitely enjoyed themselves.

Then they spent some time just playing together.  Betsy Grace, Scarlett, and Hannah dressed up as prairie girls and Haylee and Andrew cuddled Juliana.

Betsy Grace stamped some pictures of horses on brown paper bags to use for treat bags and then filled them with pink, aqua, and yellow jellybeans, and some chocolate mushrooms, a little toy horse, some horse stickers, a pink and yellow "cookie pop", and pink and aqua old fashioned candy sticks.  Forgot to get a picture of those.  You can tell they had a great time in this picture or at least that they are still on a sugar high!  :)

One last picture of me and my girl.  I love making her little dreams come true.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

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Baby Cowgirl

Just a few cute pictures of our baby cowgirl. She's obsessed with shoes and whenever we are missing some shoes we know who the culprit is! Here she is very proud of herself because she snagged Andrew's cowboy boots and put them on the right feet by herself.

She also loves to color and draw. I caught her drawing on the magnadoodle with a cowgirl hat on. How cute is that! Much cuter than the times I've caught her coloring or drawing on the hardwood floor, fireplace, playroom chairs, walls, and my curriculum guides...

She's a bossy little thing and won't let her big brother get away with anything she's not allowed to do. She will fuss and tell him, "No! No! No! I said no!!" Then she will come to me to tattle in her baby babble with a bunch of "NO's" mixed in.

She is extremely affectionate and her #1 favorite thing to do is to cuddle up and read a book with someone. Everyone in the family reads to her at some point during the day and we all love to get that Juliana cuddle time.

**If you click on the picture collage it will enlarge so you can see it better.

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Date Night, Explosions, and Babies: TMI Alert!

Yesterday, Ryan and I had the chance to have a date afternoon/night. The first one in a long time. It was sort of unexpected and just worked out at the last minute, thanks to Miss Linz, so we headed out of here at around 1:30 and went to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping, (aka: walking around aimlessly, actually holding hands with someone older than 7, not yelling at someone as they get dangerously close to running out into the parking lot, not pushing a stroller, and no diaper bag!)

Woohoo! Felt a little strange. We really didn't know what to do with ourselves and since I already have most of the kids' Christmas shopping done, we were killing time until we could go to the movie we chose. Have you ever noticed movie times are NEVER convenient? At least for those of us with kids. So anyway, we had a good time. Saw a 3D movie for the first time and then believe it or not it was time to head home.

We walked in to find the charming scene of Miss Lindsay sitting on the couch drawing pictures with Andrew and Betsy Grace. Scarlett playing the piano, and Juliana toddling around with a book in her hand. All is calm, all is quiet, all is happy. And then.....CHAOS!!! As I'm trying to talk to Lindsay and get the report, Andrew and Scarlett are fighting over who is going to bounce up and down on Ryan's legs. Betsy is interrupting every few minutes to explain her drawing, Juliana is whining to be held. I find rotten oranges in our fruit bowl, Ryan is trying to pass out medicine and vitamins in preparation for bed, then a wrestling match ensues in the playroom, someone is running in the house and careening around the Christmas tree. And believe it or not, Lindsay says they were good minus one small hitting incident involving Andrew and Scarlett's face.

After Lindsay is gone, we sit down to do our advent reading for the night which was thankfully, rather calm. Then, bedtime routine begins. Ryan puts the baby on the floor to change her diaper only to find that she has exploded out the back. There isn't much that rattles Ryan, but poop on the floor just about puts him over the edge, so I change the baby (on the changing table!) while he cleans it up. That disaster is over. Phew! Once the baby is in bed, I turn to my little man. He is potty trained now, but we still put a diaper on him at night. So, after his potty trip we get his diaper on and not 5 minutes later he's running to the toilet yelling, "Gotta stinky! Gotta stinky!" Really, we couldn't do that 5 minutes ago when he was on the toilet? I take his diaper off and he takes care of business, runs off to play. Less than 5 minutes later, he's running to the toilet yelling "Gotta stinky! Gotta stinky!" Seriously? Am I stuck in the movie Groundhog Day? So in the rush, I rip his diaper off as he runs. I follow him in order to help him take care of business and we return the living room to put the diaper back on, only to find that, without getting too graphic, I guess there was an "escape" into the diaper, which landed on the floor right under Ryan's propped up feet in our mad dash to the bathroom. Really?? Two poop incidents on the floor in one night? Not one hour after we got home from our blissful day out without the kids? Talk about a harsh return to reality! As Ryan was cleaning up the second poop incident and I was putting yet another diaper on my little poopin' machine, I could only laugh. I've always said that the last almost 8 years of my life have been about poop and snot. Wow, did they prove that last night!

As Ryan and I were getting ready for bed I was still laughing and made some comment about him cleaning up two "incidents" in one night. Then he said the most romantic thing. He said I was the only one he'd want to be cleaning up poop with. Haha! Is there something wrong when I think that's romantic!? He also wondered if Lindsay might have given them some chocolate Ex-Lax as a little joke. Just kidding, Lindsay! We know you wouldn't do that! Right?...

And just think! We're going to be cleaning up poop for at least another 3 years! #5 is on it's way! How do you like that for an announcement? Too bad you had to wade through the mucky TMI to get here! No pun intended....well, maybe...

April 21, 2012: Due Date for #5 and the continuation of my 8th year of diaper changing.

And just when I think it's all about poop, the Lord lets me see some fruits of my labor. My sweet Betsy Grace gave me this picture today. I think it's going in a frame! It says, "Thank you Mama for doing so many things for me! Love Betsy Grace" with a cute little penguin. Doesn't get better than that!

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Birthday Blessings

So, today's my birthday but I really don't want to talk about that. :) Turning 38 kinda stinks from the "I'm getting old" perspective, but when I think about how blessed I am, I'm thinkin' that 38 is just a number and my life is full of numbers every day, every hour, every moment, and I'm really thankful God has given me the gift of getting to 38!

Thirty-eight just gets lost in:

*The 10+ diapers I changed today.

*The 4 times I had to drag Andrew into his room kicking and screaming over who knows what!

*The 53 times I had to remind the girls to finish their chores (slight exaggeration). Sigh...

*The 47 squashed peas, 89 Cheerios, and at least 18 pieces of squashed banana that have to be cleaned up underneath Juliana's high chair, multiplied by 3 meals which makes that....Ummm....Well, I don't have a calculator handy, but you get the idea.

*The gajillion times I said things like "Stop it!", Somebody's gonna get hurt!", "Don't hammer the baby!", "Why are you crying?" "Don't hit your sister!", Don't hit your brother!" "Pinching is unacceptable!" "You can't sit on the baby!" "Don't run in the house!", "Smacking your brother in the head is not allowed.", "Say you're sorry!" Yikes... I better stop. We sound violent. It's no joke. I said all these things today plus much more. Moving on...

*The 12 times I lifted Andrew in and out of the shopping cart at Target because he was crying in, he was crying out. Which leads me to:

*The 5 or 6 times I stared straight ahead while zipping through the Target aisles, so I didn't have to meet the annoyed/sympathetic/pitying looks from fellow shoppers, while Juliana was literally screaming while trying to throw herself and everything else she could get her hands on, out of the cart. Including the toy I grabbed in the toy aisle in the hopes that it would keep her happy for 15 minutes. Sorry Target.

*The countless times I have been asked (not all of these today) "Are they all yours?" "You have your hands full don't you?" "Wow! You have 4 kids?" "Don't they go to school?" "How do you do it?"

So instead, I will choose to think about all of these precious numbers.

*The dozens of hugs and kisses I got today by 4 of the sweetest children around.

*The 2 little princess figures that Scarlett gave me this morning for my birthday from her own collection.

*The 3o minutes Scarlett spent in my room telling me not to come in because she had a surprise for me. She made my bed for me because as she said, "You work all day long and I wanted you to have lesser chores."

*The 7+ tears that escaped my eyes after that!

*The 3 times I heard Betsy Grace reading a book to one of her siblings.

*The time that Betsy was unselfish and gave her sister the first ice cream sandwich.

*The at least 3 times that Betsy Grace made one of the little ones happy by playing a game with them or distracting them out of their crying fit, knowing that she was helping her Mama.

*The time that Scarlett told me she was going to have 7 children and they were all going to go to work with her at the zoo and help her take care of the monkeys.

*The 589 times I have smiled and giggled thinking about Scarlett having 7 children that help her at the zoo. All I can say is, "Honey, if you have 7 children you won't have to work at the zoo, you'll be livin' in the zoo!"

*The moment today when Andrew asked Betsy what something was in the playroom and I heard her saying, "That says Jesus. Do you know what Jesus means? It means the Lord saves.", and the extra heartbeat I felt when I heard Betsy Grace teaching her brother what I had taught her today.

*The 5 or 6 times Andrew came to me and said one of a few things: "I want to wuv on you, Mama." "You can hold me and snuggle, Mama." "I need to kiss you!"

*The 99 times Andrew ran around the dining room table with a blanket on his back screaming, "I'm Super Bangie!" Don't ask...The Bangie story is for another day.

*The many hysterical squeals and giggles from all the girls (me included) at the dinner table when Andrew passed gas and then said, "That was a woodpecker!"

*The handful of "Yes mams" I got today. They'll get it one day!

*The 4 cute little teeth that Juliana has painfully acquired.

*The 2 times that Juliana stood and bounced up and down "dancing" to Yankee Doodle Dandy.

*The 3 steps that Juliana excitedly took today.

*The 2 hours of precious nap time when the 2 little ones take a nap and the 2 big ones play quietly so I can take a few deep breaths before I start folding the 2 or 3 loads of laundry. :)

*The many prayers uttered by me and the children for Ryan who is out of town this week and greatly missed.

*The thousands of hours my most unselfish husband has worked so that I could stay home in this beautiful house and witness this blessed chaos firsthand.

*The millions of giggles and smiles that happen in a day around here.

*The dozens of friends and family who have wished me a happy birthday.

*The one whole chocolate ganache cake that my sweet friend brought to me today knowing that I was husbandless on my birthday.

*The one piece of Key Lime Pie I have left over from Saturday that my mom made for me for my birthday since they left town yesterday.

*Oh and I can't forget the 1/2 gallon of Heavenly Hash ice cream in my freezer! I think I'm renaming it Mommy Survival! Yes. My name is Jennifer and I'm an emotional ice cream eater. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

So, what's 38? Just a number among countless numbers of blessings in my life. Day to day blessings, that remind me of God's goodness and mercy. Day to day blessings that are teaching me that love is patient and to be patient and to really love, I must be grateful for what IS.

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Tooth Fairy Adventures

The Tooth Fairy is a bit annoyed tonight because she bought some special magic fairy dust a few months ago from Hobby Lobby and when she needed it tonight she could not find it! The Tooth Fairy is organizationally challenged, but very optimistically creative. She did finally find the magic fairy dust and stealthily sprinkled it on the bedroom windowsill, dresser, and pillows of two sweet little girls who left notes for her.

Betsy Grace's note said:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost my 5th tooth! I want to know your name.

Love,

Betsy Grace

Scarlett's (she wanted to write a note even though she has not lost a tooth and contrary to what her note says, she has no loose teeth) note said:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I want to tell you that I have a loose tooth!

Love,

SLM

Scarlett was already seeing sparkly lights out her windows in anticipation of the Tooth Fairy and Betsy Grace was sure she heard the tinkly sound of a magic wand. They were quite excited and a bit trembly. Soooo cute!

The Tooth Fairy left both of the girls notes and 4 quarters and a gold dollar for Betsy Grace. She was a bit perplexed at the name question but after a quick Google search quickly decided in LilyBelle Pearl. Pearl as in "pearly whites"! Haha! That Tooth Fairy cracks me up! Personally, I'm just thankful she didn't forget again...I hate having to explain her flighty behavior. Ha ha! Flighty! No pun intended! :)

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Snail Kissing

Leave it to a boy to be so excited about finding a "Daddy and Baby" snail that he kisses them! He asked Betsy Grace to find him a "Mommy" snail. I guess he's trying to reunite the family. Soooooo sweet!

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Learning About Archaeology

By pretending to be archaeologists from 500 years in the future and digging for artifacts from the present. Love homeschooling!

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Back to School

With water exploration day! We're using the experiments in this book. Science with Water. Andrew is running around screaming "I soakin' wet!"

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Easter Eggs and Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny came! See his Easter Bunny Magic Dust tracks?

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Tot School

Andrew says, "I'm makin' T's!!!" Mommy's so proud!

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Perfect Day

For leisurely reading on the front porch.

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Spring/Summer Wreath

With a little help from the girls we recycled an old wreath, some old silk flowers, some butterflies and birds bought for previous birthday cakes and made ourselves this spring and summer wreath for our front door. Don't those colors cheer you right up? I love eye candy!

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My Little Indian Girl

I took these pictures of Scarlett the other day in her Indian girl costume for her 5th birthday party invitation. She is having an Indian Princess party. Not sure how we're going to pull that off yet, but I love that she wants something different and soooo Scarlett. She's always been fascinated by Native Americans. Not sure why, but Pocahontas is her favorite "princess" and she loves to do an Indian Rain Dance for us.

Scarlett is our happy girl. She is a glass is half full kind of person. I love that about her. Probably because I tend to be a glass half empty. I wish I were more like her, but her example is helping me. Amazing, huh?

She also loves to pose for pictures. The only one of my kids who do, at this point. It was her idea to do this pose. She wanted one of her walking silently like an Indian. Precious!

Notice the large plastic gemstone ring she is wearing? That's her ring. She wears it all the time. Every day. Doesn't forget it. That's another thing I love about her. She loves pretty things just like me, even if they're plastic, tacky, and cheap! ;)

My little Indian girl. Isn't she something?

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Yogi Bear, Family Visits, Winking, Chalk Snowman Family, our Joy named Juliana, and Riding Bikes

A few of our daily blessings around here in the past week:

1. This is the campground we were supposed to camp at this past weekend. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. In fact, the weather basically said, "You want to camp this weekend? I'll show you how much you want to camp!" And then the weather proceeded to dump all the rain it's been holding back for the last several weeks in which it was beautiful (perfect camping weather). So, we decided not to go. I mean it's not too much fun being stuck in an extremely small camper with 4 kids for two days. No reason to risk it, if we could avoid it, know what I mean? It's been raining ever since I think... Oh wait, there was one afternoon this week where it wasn't raining. More on that later. So, here's why not going camping was a blessing.

Coincidentally, some of the McCabe cousins were coming to the zoo on Saturday, so we were able to meet them there and then they came over to the house afterwards for a visit. We don't get to visit with these guys very often, so it was a real treat to have them and so much fun. Those McCabes and Holladays are hilarious!

Taylor, who is 13 now (gasp!) I met him when he was barely 3, did his best to get Andrew Waveland to warm up to him. It didn't take long. The next day Andrew was asking, "Where's Taywere?"

Aunt Melinda and Juliana talking to precious Ethan.

Of course, there were lots of gunfights and coonskin cap wearing. Wouldn't be a McCabe event without that! ;)

Scarlett did her best to get a smile out of Ethan by tickling his arm.

Success! That smile lights up the world!

Landon and Mary Esther were too fast to catch on camera except when we made them sit down for the group shot, and I didn't catch Uncle Geary and Aunt Adrienne but we all had a blast, and let me tell you it was LOUD in our house last Saturday! A very good loud.

Moving on to Sunday. Remember the Yogi Bear picture up there?

So, we decided to ride out to the campground to check it out on Sunday after the rain let up for a little while. Yes, we were going to camp there sight unseen. It is close to where we live, about 45 minutes away. It's a Yogi Bear campground which is supposed to be kid friendly and have lots of activities, etc. Since we were there, I had to get a quick picture. (Excuse some of these pictures. The ones that are a little blurry were taken with my phone) We let the kids out of the car for about 2 minutes. Long enough to snap a picture with Yogi and long enough to spark a serious tantrum thrown by none other than Hurricane Andrew! You can see the beginning of it here. Don't ask me what it was about, I don't remember. Take it from me, it was completely irrational and that seems to be his MO these days...Love him though, who wouldn't when...on to blessing #2

2. Yep. That's my boy. Winking at me. He has learned to wink. He can only do one eye and if he tries to do the other eye he holds it down with his fingers. Why, you ask is this a blessing. Well, I'll tell you. It's a blessing because he knows just how to charm his Mama with his little wink. I'll turn around and there he is out of the blue looking at me and winking. Or he's sitting at the table eating breakfast, catches my eye and winks. Or he walks up to me, winks his precious eye and then puts his head on my knee and says "I wuv you, Mama!" Where did he learn this stuff? I'm putty in his hands, which leads me to blessing #3.

3. It's hard to tell from the picture but that is the snowman family I drew on the driveway with sidewalk chalk on the afternoon where we had no rain. See, little man and I have this thing. We sit on the driveway and he asks me to draw him a snowman. He asks me to draw a Daddy snowman, a Mommy snowman, and a baby snowman. He is very specific and they must have eyes, noses, mouths, and "feets". Yes, "feets" So, I draw stick feet and he laughs and laughs and thinks it's wonderful. He doesn't even care that I can barely draw snowman families! And that brings me to blessing #4.

4. This little joy named Juliana, who was watching Andrew while he was watching me draw snowman families. This is her spot while we're playing outside. She is crawling everywhere, so she has to be confined to her car while we're on the driveway. So, she was watching Andrew and laughing because he was laughing. She pretty much laughs at anything and she smiles so easy. She's a happy, happy girl, but with an Irish temper, let me tell you! "We won't talk about that now. We'll talk about that tomorrow. After all tomorrow is another day" (inserting Scarlett O'Hara wisdom here). On that note, on to blessing #5.

5. Look at me! Riding a bike! I haven't ridden my bike in about 7 years! Between pregnancies and babies, biking hasn't really been on the priority list. I mean I can't exactly say "See ya later kids, I'm going cruising on my bike!" Notice it's a beach cruiser. I love that bike. Ryan got it for me before we had the kids and I had been wanting it for a while. It's so much more comfortable to ride with the wide handlebars and can you see my little hula girl on the wheel? Yeah, I'm cool, I know. Not... Well, now that both the girls can ride without training wheels, we can ride our bikes together, at least when Ryan is home to watch the other two. So, this picture is of us right after our first ride around the neighborhood. How could I have forgotten that riding bikes is a lot of fun! At least until you get to the hill around the corner. I'm sad to say that I had to get off and walk the bike up the hill a bit just like the girls do. The one bad thing about a beach cruiser is it has no gears, so unless you get a seriously fast start at it, a big hill is hopeless. Well, hopeless for me anyway. The girls were so excited to be riding with me. I think they were amazed that I could actually do it! They are too cute while riding and have gotten pretty good at it in a short period of time.

5 little snippets from our week. 5 little blessings. 5 million more I could tell you about, but I must get some sleep! My 4 little blessings will be up bright and early for another day of trying to make their Mama crazy! Hee hee!

I didn't post this last night b/c I was waiting for permission from our family to post the pictures of the cousins on the blog, but I'm glad I didn't. It's April 1st today! Ryan's and my wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married on April Fool's Day 2000. That way we'd never forget it! ;) We've been married for 11 years! Yay us!!!! He is still the most unselfish person I know, a wonderful husband and father, and the best thing about him is he puts up with me! And he still loves me no matter how crazy I am sometimes. He is a real catch and I'm glad I caught him 11 years ago.

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The Tower of Babel and My Father's World

I went to a homeschool conference this weekend in Greenville. It was really great and I appreciate my sweet husband who stayed home on Friday and Saturday to take care of the kids so that I could go. When I came back I heard that sometime during the two days and one night that I was gone they had Moes, Papa Johns, and Krispy Kreme. I decided I didn't want to hear anymore. I don't know what they ate for lunch, but I can only imagine it had something to do with McDonald's, Burger King, or Chick Fil-A...

Anyway, I went with a few girlfriends and it was a great girls time as well as a motivating, encouraging, and fun time at the conference. I always come away from a conference re-energized and excited about the privilege of teaching my children. everyday. I'm probably in the vast minority when I say this, but walking through the vendor hall at a homeschool conference must be what it's like for my children to walk into Toys R Us! It is curriculum, literature, and educational tool heaven!

I won't bore you with anymore details from the conference except one. I was excited that the creator of the curriculum I'm using was going to be there and even speaking at several of the workshops. When I was choosing a curriculum a few years ago I was thrilled to find My Father's World which not only had a strong emphasis on the Bible in addition to the obvious subjects, but it has a unique and easy way of combining all subjects except for language arts and math with all age groups. So, all my kids are learning the same Bible, history, and science but doing it at their own levels. Here they are making their own Tower of Babel using toothpicks and Play-Doh. Obviously, they all have different interpretations and abilities but they're all making a Tower of Babel and having a great time doing it! Learning how to problem solve as their towers can't stand up to the weight of the Play-Doh, or when the toothpicks come up short.

After hearing the speaker from My Father's World at the conference, once again the Lord confirmed to me that we are on the right track when it comes to curriculum and I can't wait till next year when we begin Adventures in My Father's World where we'll be doing American History along with our Bible History.

Betsy Grace's Tower of Babel

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Happy St. Patrick's Day from the McCabes

I had to do a St. Patrick's Day themed layout for Scrap Girls, so I used this sweet picture of Juliana at 2 days old and an old Irish Blessing.

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Juliana Rose McCabe 6.6.10

As seen in the Scrap Girls newsletter here.

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It's tough being the baby!

Silly me! I forgot to attach the photo to my post. "When am I going to be able to play on the playground with my brother and sisters?" Juliana: 9 months

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The Beginning of Wisdom

So, I was fixing lunch and Betsy Grace was on the back porch drawing on the easel. Well, I thought she was drawing. She told me she had a surprise for me. After putting her off because I had to change a diaper, finish lunch, etc., I was finally ready to see the surprise. She was so excited to show me. I figured it was just another drawing of a house and some flowers, clouds and sun. I was wrong! And wow, was I excited to see this when I walked out there!

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

We have been memorizing the verses from the book of Proverbs all year. This is one of them. She remembered it, wrote it from memory and even spelled almost everything right! Now, we write the Proverb of the week, every week. We practice them every day, and they even recite them spontaneously here and there, but this was the first time that Betsy Grace took it upon herself to write one down from memory on her own. I am so proud of my girl and that she is learning to love God's Word, hide it in her heart, and apply it to her life! THAT'S the beginning of wisdom!

Betsy Grace: Age 7

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Homemade Pizza and Game Night

Making homemade personal pizzas tonight. They loved it. Then each one got to pick a board game for us to play. Andrew could NOT stop popping the popper thing on the Trouble game. He needs a few more lessons on game night! Taking turns being lesson number one...

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