Birthday Celebrations

Micah, our first born child, turned eight years old on Friday. Amazing how quickly the time has gone by. In three and half weeks he will be finished with school for the year and will officially be heading into third grade! We are so proud of Micah ~ the precious boy he is and the young man he is becoming. He brings such joy and a lot of fun and energy into our family! How blessed we are!

Last Sunday we celebrated with David’s parents. I made a cake and grandma made terriyaki chicken and rice for dinner, at Micah’s request. Spiderman is still a big hit and he seemed to steal the show this year! Spidey was everywhere!

On his actual birthday, we started the day by visiting the aquarium. This is always a favorite for Micah. It is amazing to me to see the strange and incredible creatures that God has created! You definitely have to watch out with things in the sea. Things aren’t always what they seem…

This little guy (a puffer fish) had the most incredible teeth! He flashed me a big toothy grin a couple times, but I couldn’t quite catch the full effect.

Upside-down jellyfish ~ aren’t they cool?!

For some strange reason I have the most difficult time getting my children to cooperate in front of the camera. Here is the result of my attempt at capturing something nice in front of that lovely rose bush…oh well. They’re cute anyway!

After the aquarium we came home to open gifts. It didn’t take Micah long to break into the Legos.

For dinner Micah requested the following:

• Grill-Roasted Whole Chicken with BBQ Sauce
• Broccoli and Cauliflower
• Baked Beans
• Watermelon

 Not your typical 8-year-old birthday dinner, but I’m not complaining! It was quite tasty.

Saturday we headed to the Dallas Zoo. They had a great new exhibit called Stingray Bay where we were able to feed and touch the stingrays. It’s a travelling exhibit so it will only be there through the summer. We were so glad to be able to see it.

It was such a fun weekend and I think Micah enjoyed it. Anytime he is able to see the animals is a fun time for him! Our (not so) little animal lover!

Happy Birthday, Micah! We love you!!

 

 

What WAS I Thinking?

Yesterday the kids and I made a trip to Super Target. Micah and Abigail both had a little money to spend so I let them pick something out. And even though Isabel didn’t have much to spend, I let her pick out a little something too. After wandering up and down the aisles for about 20 minutes I finally told them they had to make a decision or wait for another time. As you can imagine they quickly found something they just couldn’t live without! Isabel picked out a little puzzle, Micah picked out an Indiana Jones Lego set, and Abigail…dear, sweet Abigail…picked out a microphone. Reluctantly I said it was OK and she proceeded to hug the package and loudly declare, “Now I can be a rock star!” Oh, boy…

Considering the microphone, or microscope as Abigail keeps calling it, was only $7.99 it is not half bad. It is cordless and tunes to the FM radio frequency on our stereo, therefore the sound comes out of our rather large speakers. I was seronaded all afternoon by all three of the kids. David is going to be so happy when he comes home!

This morning we began the day with homemade donuts. This was a new adventure for me. Micah is reading Homer Price at school and one of the stories is about donuts. There was a recipe in the study guide for donuts and Micah has been begging me for a couple weeks to make them. The first batch burned to a crisp since I heated the oil too hot. They were literally black in about 4 seconds. Don’t they look appetizing?

Once I got the oil cooled down a bit (and by a bit I mean about 200 degrees!) they cooked up quite nicely. I dipped them in sugar and cinnamon and we enjoyed a sweet breakfast. They really weren’t the greatest donuts. They were kind of heavy and without the sugar on top would have tasted like fried biscuits. But I think the kids thought they were fun and Micah ate all of his, which I’m thankful for since it was his big idea!

It’s been kind of an out-of-sorts week. David is out of town starting his new job (yes, we are moving soon for those of you who don’t know already…I’ll talk about all that in the days to come) and will be home on Friday. We’re not used to having daddy out of the house! But we’re hanging in there and looking forward to the weekend! For some reason the house has fallen apart and I am hoping to get it back together before David’s homecoming. There were tornado warnings last night and although they said nothing touched down in our area, I am pretty sure one of them went through my house!

 

Let’s Play Ball!

Saturday was Micah’s first baseball game…his second season playing for the Rangers. It was a beautiful day and we were all kissed a little by the sun. I need to get back into sunscreen mode! Micah was up to bat twice and got a hit both times. 

Gettin’ ready to run…

He played second base, right field (I think…I can’t remember exactly), and catcher. The catcher’s equipment was so big on him and he looked like a robot when he walked! He said he felt like Darth Vader! I wish I would have taken a picture. He looked pretty cute! That’s Micah in the center of the photo.

We played at a different park than we have in the past. It was a beautiful park and had a little play area near the baseball fields so the girls could play while we watched the game. Abigail and Isabel were on the little merry-go-round for most of that time. I don’t know how anyone can spin for over half an hour and not get sick!

For those of you in my family or who know my family well, take a good look at this next picture and tell me…who does this child look like? As soon as I took the picture I looked at it and someone very familiar (other than Isabel) was staring back at me. David didn’t see what I saw, so maybe it’s just me!

 

My Girls

God has blessed us with a beautiful beginning to spring. Last week was windy, but warm and sunny and everyone wanted to be outside a little bit more. When Micah was at school last Thursday Abigail wanted to fly her kite again, so out we went to fly the kite and blow some bubbles. I know I already posted some kite-flying pics recently but here is one of Isabel that I just could not resist sharing. She was having such fun!

The girls are doing amazingly well flying the kite on their own. They look so cute running around the yard, kite in tow! We have two rather large trees in our yard though that keep the wind from blowing too steadily so soon we will take it to the park to see what it is capable of.

Another of Isabel’s favorite activities is blowing bubbles.  While sissy was flying the kite she would blow her bubbles and then they would switch activities. Isn’t it lovely when the kids take turns without too much fuss? Here’s a few more shots of my sweet girls…

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Flying Kites and Shooting Arrows

Abigail has been begging me for quite some time to fly her kite. The winds were a blowin’ today, so out we went for some kite flying fun!

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Soon Isabel joined in the fun!

While the girls were busy flying kites, Micah was honing his archery skills. Last week he borrowed “Robin Hood” from the library, so he has been itching to get outside and practice.

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Isabel helped out by collecting the arrows and bringing them back to her big brother.

Micah has enjoyed this bow and arrow set, which is an actual set and not a toy…therefore requires close adult supervision! Today he was shooting them quite far and is becoming more accurate all the time. Sometimes I still can’t believe that it was my idea to get this for him. I am generally the more cautious parent, but this has turned out to be a great activity for Micah and I’m glad we went for it!

 

Meet Micah

This is the third and final interview of our kids! In the first interview we were introduced to Isabel and a few days later we learned all about Abigail. Now let’s meet…

Micah James
Age: almost 8 (on April 18th)

His name means: Who is like Jehovah?

Some of his favorite things:

Book: any animal book

Bible Story: Joshua and the wall at Jericho (For school this week Micah’s journal topic for handwriting was about what Bible character he would like to be. This is what he wrote: “If I could be a Bible person, I would have been…Joshua because…He fought many battles. He destryed Jarico. He destryed another. He was cool. He died at the age of 110.”)

Color: Green

Toy: Green Transformer from his friend Charles

Song: “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”

T.V. Show:  “Teen Titans”

Movie: “Star Wars”

Animal: “That’s a hard one. Spiders.” (I was a little surprised he said spiders! But Micah loves animals and is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to his knowledge of all kinds of animals and insects.)

Snack: Granola Bars

Food: Chicken and Bow Tie Pasta

Subject in School: “I have a lot! History, Literature, Lunch (gotta love that!), Math.”

Superhero: Spiderman

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Australia and China

What do you want to be when you grow up? Police Officer

Up until recently Micah wanted to be a Crocodile Hunter like Steve Irwin (which means he wanted to protect and rescue animals, not actually hunt them). I still see him working with animals someday, but we’ll see. He has lots of time to get that all figured out! Micah is definitely our animal lover and has an extensive knowledge of many types of animals. I know some of you have heard this story before, but I get a kick out of it everytime I think about it. When Micah was about four years old he was talking about an aye-aye. I asked him what that was and he said, and I quote, “It is a nocturnal lemur that lives on the island of Madagascar.” It’s always fun when the mom gets to learn something from her four year old!

Micah the Meerkat…

 

Micah is our imaginative child. He loves to act things out and is extremely creative at finding props for his adventures. The warrior with his sword and shield…

 

 

He is interested in history and enjoys reading. Every night when he gets into bed we allow him to read for a while and on non-school nights sometimes he will read for 2-3 hours in bed, often falling asleep with an open book across his chest.

Micah also loves baseball, both to play and to watch. Next week he begins his second season playing for the Rangers. No, not THE Rangers, but maybe someday!

Micah brings us such joy and amusement. He is beginning (too quickly for me at times) to transition from little boy to young man and although it is sometimes hard to see him leave behind little boy things, it will be exciting to see what kind of young man he becomes. David and I pray that as he continues to grow that he would grow in his knowledge of and relationship with our Lord.

Perfect words for our Micah from the prophet Micah:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ~ Micah 6:8 (ESV)

 

Winter Fun

Even though it has not felt like winter lately, we certainly had a taste of it this week! Monday a winter “storm” rolled through, leaving some areas blanketed in several inches of fresh, white snow. We however, were not one of those areas. Round two hit yesterday, quite a bit heavier than the first, but alas, again no snow; we saw rain most of the day. I was slightly surprised by my disappointment since I am not a cold weather person, but my Pacific Northwest roots run deep and part of me can still appreciate the beauty of fresh fallen snow…at least in small amounts! What should await us this morning, but a lovely, light dusting of pure white snow (that was gone by about 11 am so that made it even more enjoyable)! You can imagine the delight of our children when they looked out the windows. They immediately began scurrying about the house in search of appropriate winterwear.

 

It’s fun to watch our kids in the snow; they are never quite sure what to do with it! I guess that comes with living in the South, but it didn’t take them too long and soon Micah was throwing snowballs at his sisters (I use the term snowballs loosely as the snow was quite dry and not great for that sort of thing).

 

Our little snow angels! 

 

 

They had a great time…for about 10 minutes! Then it was in to the house for hot chocolate. And what did Mommy do to warm up? I went to Starbucks, of course!

 

You Know Your Child is Classically Educated When…

Yesterday after church David was making some comments on the passage we discussed in our Sunday School class (Acts 7–Stephen’s speech just before he was stoned). He commented that Stephen was Greek and Micah asked, “Are you talking about Homer?” For those of you who do not remember your ancient Greek literature, Homer wrote the epic poems the Iliad and the Odessey. How many seven (well, almost eight but still…) year olds do you know who would ask that question…and not mean Homer Simpson?

 

All About Abigail

Here is the next interview of one of our kiddos (sorry it took so long, Mom and Dad)! We introduced Isabel a few days ago, now let’s learn all about… 

Abigail Grace
Age: 5

Her name means: My Father Rejoiced

Some of her favorite things:

Book: “Strawberry Shortcake” (we have many of these around the house!)

Bible Story: Moses

Color: Pink

Toy: Barbie

Song: The song from “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” (a Barbie princess movie)

Movie: “Barbie Nutcracker” (are we seeing a pattern here?) – Mommy side note: I must admit (although I don’t like to) that many of these Barbie movies are pretty good. This version of “The Nutcracker” has the actual music from the ballet and follows the story fairly well.

T.V. Show: “Clifford” and “Super Why”

Game: Zingo

Animal: Strawberry the Pony (this is her Webkinz)

Real Animal: “A real horsey”

Snack: Green Apples, Grapes

Food: Chicken

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Princess : ) 

These next two categories she came up with:

Clothes: Dresses, Princess Shirt, Rainbow Pants (I’m not quite sure what she is thinking about here!), Pink Skirt (I think Abigail would wear a dress or skirt every day of the year if she could)

Place: Washington (State. She didn’t actually say Washington but she pointed to it on the map. She knows this is where her cousins-in particular Caleb who she talks about all the time-aunts, uncles, and Grandma and Papa live!)

Abigail is our creative and artistic child. She loves to draw and color and is quite particular about how it looks. Don’t let her fool you…even though she said her favorite snacks are apples and grapes, this girl has a sweet tooth! We regularly hear, “What is for dessert?” If not during the meal, then immediately following.

One of her other favorite delights is taking sips of Mommy’s coffee, especially if it is a Frappacino (and trust me, they are not all that sweet…I like them strong)! And once in a while she gets her own little latte, decaf of course, at grandma’s house!

A girl after my own heart! I forsee many fun days of sipping coffee together while we shop or just sit and chat.

Abigail is a quick and eager learner and is looking forward to Kindergarten. Almost daily she asks if she can “do her homework.” She has learned to write her letters, her name, and can read a few simple words.  She is definitely a mama’s girl these days. Wherever I am, there she is!

Although she may never grow up to be a princess, she is our little princess and we are so proud of and thankful for her!

 

Introducing Isabel

I thought it would be fun to “interview” each one of the kids, so you can learn a little more about their interests and personalities. Since it seems she hasn’t had as much “face time” on the blog, let’s begin with Isabel!

Name: Isabel Faith
Age: 3 1/2

Her name means: Consecrated to God

Some of her favorite things:

Book: “Marlin” (I had no idea what she was talking about, so I asked again a little later and she said “There’s a Cat in God’s Tree.”)

Bible Story: Jesus

Color: Purple and Pink

Toy: Pig, Little People, Pony

Song: “Wake Up, Isabel” (This is from a CD of songs her grandparents gave her for her third birthday. Each song has her name in it…very cute!)

T.V. Show: ”Arthur because he has one girl in the house. D.W., that’s her name.”

Movie: “Marla” (Again…have no idea what she is talking about.)

Game: Candy Land

Food: Animal Crackers (she happened to be eating these at the time I asked the question!)

Snack: Cereal

Dinner: Kiki (what?); after giving a few suggestions she came up with Noodles and Pizza (I don’t think she means together!)

“Talk about breakfast”: (this category was her idea) waffles

What do you want to be when you grow up? A make. (What’s a make?) You know, like you and daddy make. (Make what?) Pizza. (Oh, do you mean you want to be a cook or a chef?) A cook.

Isabel does love to be in the kitchen. I’m sure someday she will become an excellent “Make!” Anytime I am doing something in the kitchen she grabs a chair or the step stool and brings it over to see what I am doing. Here are some pictures of her on Christmas day. David’s mom found this adorable chef’s hat and apron and bought a set for each of the girls along with cookie mix, a little rolling pin, wooden spoon, and cookie cutters. Isabel made some sugar cookies while the older kids went out to try Micah’s new tennis racket. She was right in her element!

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Ah…sweet success!!!

Isabel is our fun-loving child, full of life and drama! She loves to be silly and uses funny voices, faces, and hand gestures when she talks. Even though she didn’t mention it, she likes to watch Barbie movies and Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (much to her siblings’ dismay). She enjoys books, puzzles, and playing games.  And, of course, she loves to do anything her big brother or big sissy are doing.

Our sweet girl…