Silly Face!

We've been letting the girls help more and more with meal preparations lately. This week, just for fun, we made toasted peanut butter sandwiches. We used banana slices to make silly faces on them. The girls both loved making the faces and adding odd shaped chunks of banana for noses.

Tonight Danya cooked dinner with only a little assistance from us. She made spaghetti. It was delicious! She's quite the little cook. I asked her if she was going to be a chef when she grows up. She told me later that she was very worried that it didn't seem likely that she was going to be an artist like she dreams of someday becoming. She felt frustrated at her artistic inabilities and said with a sigh, "I'll probably just grow up to be a lawyer or something." I told her to give it time. After all, she's only seven.

Fire Safety

Yesterday evening we had dinner at Adam's County's social services building. Their foster parent support group was holding their annual fire safety day. The fire department set up multiple trucks, a "smoke house", and a "hot pan" for us to learn about fire safety. They also showed a funny 1980's era video about bike safety for the kids.

One nice thing was that the minute we walked in the door Gloria recognized a friend from her Sunday school class (2nd photo above). The girls got to walk through the smoke house, ducking low under the smoke, climbing the stairs, and then coming down the ladder to safety and running to the meeting place at the mailbox (1st photo above). Danya said that was the best part of the whole event. Daniel and I both got to use a fire extinguisher on the pan fire. We learned that the fire extinguisher is only supposed to be used to help you get your family out of the fire, not to actually put the fire out. It only lasts 30 seconds at most.

The one down part of the meeting was that we met some of the couples from our original adoption/foster parent class. We may be the only ones who haven't had kids placed with us yet. We're praying that they'll call us soon. We'll just keep checking with them every week and hoping for the best. For those of you praying with us, thank you!

Personal Best

For P.E. we're always thinking up games and things that we can use our timer for. Yesterday at a park a few blocks from home we came up with a new one. The playground is circular and surrounded by a concrete ledge (you can see it in this photo). We took turns running around it and using our watches to see how fast we could make it around. The runner had to do their best to stay on the concrete, not the grass, but there was no penalty for slipping.

I made it in 25 seconds. Danya started out at 43 seconds and worked her way down to 26 seconds! Gloria's fastest time was 31 seconds. I forget Daniel's time but he was the fastest by a long shot. He always is. That boy was built for speed. We try to encourage the kids that these sorts of games aren't about competition. The fun part is beating your own record.

We saw a little boy at Walmart today who was about a year older than Kevin. His mom was chasing him into the McDonald's there and wrestling a candy bar out of his hands. He must have weighed nearly as much as Gloria. It was sad and awful to watch. I think that ruining a child's health like that should be criminal. I've never read about a case yet of extreme child obesity that wasn't the parents' fault. Some people might read our blog and see pictures of us eating out with our kids and assume that we never feed them healthy foods. On the contrary, even when we eat out we teach the kids how to make healthy food choices. We very carefully look at the nutritional info on our groceries picking things that are low fat, lower calorie, high fiber, etc. We've had total strangers come up to us when we're out somewhere and compliment our kids on their healthy food choices. To paraphrase the bible, "All foods are acceptible, but not everything is beneficial."

India, Spitballs, and Math

This week in our Story of the World: Ancient Civilizations book we are learning a little bit about India. This picture has nothing to do with that, but I just laughed when I saw it. It makes me think of that strange statue with all the arms that represents some Hindu "god". We're also currently reading a book called "First Kids" for American history. It's a level 4 reader about kids who have lived in the White House. We're reading a chapter a day.

Tonight we read about Theodore Roosevelt's children. He had six kids! It sounds like they all ran wild in the White House shooting spitballs at famous paintings and letting a snake loose at tea parties. The girls didn't know what spitballs were, so I taught them how to make them and how to make a "shooter" out of a pen tube. I couldn't have their education lacking, could I? lol. We threw them against the wall in Gloria's room and taped paper with our names up next to each one. That way we can watch over the next couple of days and keep a chart of which one falls down first. I get them to make charts and graphs and they think it's yucky fun. Works for us!

We've also moved into division for Danya while still reviewing the multiplication tables with both girls. It's hard to know if we should continue moving forward at such a fast rate with Danya or just repeat and drill. I want to make sure she has all the times tables down pat and be certain they're in her long term memory. It always seems like there aren't enough hours in the day for all the things we want to learn!

Rolling with Friends

Tonight while I was up on stage practicing with the praise band Daniel and the kids hung out in the church gymnasium. There were alot of other kids there with nothing to do. When they saw that the girls had wheels in their shoes they all wanted to take turns pulling the girls around. They would grab Danya and Gloria's hands and run, rolling them across the room, and then let them go flying.

They all had so much fun! They were giggling and racing to do it again. Even a boy not much bigger than Kevin, maybe 3 years old, took Gloria's hand and started slinging her into walls. She thought it was hilarious to be pulled by such a little boy.

At the Movies...Without You

Daniel and I had been trying to go see the movie "No Reservations" for our anniversary when we got lost and never found the theatre. Today we decided to go see it as a family for the matinee. The only theatre that was showing it at a good time was at the Westminster Promenade AMC. Unfortunately their prices are horrible.

When we got there we found out it was going to be almost $10 a piece for the adults and $7 each for the kids, yikes! We almost left, but Daniel decided that the girls and I should go watch it by ourselves while he returned some items to a few different stores with Kevin.

He missed out on a great movie! I really really liked it. I would even recommend it for kids if you cover their eyes during the kissing part like we did. The girls eyes lit up when the pillow fight started and that was just some of the fun. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I may actually buy this movie when it comes out.

Good Food, Good Deals

We took the kids to the Westminster Promenade mall today. They played by the fountains, rolled around on their heelies, and generally had fun. We even took them to a little icecream shop. They shared a waffle cone dipped in sprinkles with orange sherbet mixed with gummy bears... they thought that creation up, not me, lol.

Daniel and I shared a chocolate dipped cone with peanut butter and banana icecream. Not good for my diet plan, but very delicious. Kevin wasn't cooperating when I decided it would be a cute place for a photo shoot. This one of him on the chair is one of the only two half-way decent photos I got.

The overalls and jumper that the girls are wearing in the right hand photo are new. Kmart is having a really great sale right now. Half off of all their clearance items. We got Kevin about 30 new clothes for under $30. I got a couple of shirts and the girls got a few things, too. Everything we got was less than $3 and most of it was under $2!

Music to My Ears

We took the girls' trumpet in to the music store today to see if they could fix the springs to make the valves work properly. We expected to have to pay between 30-40 dollars to have it fixed. They looked at it and said it was just very dirty. They sold me a $2 tool to push a cleaning rag through the holes and showed me how to wipe off the valves. They told us to take it home and give it a bath, literally. So that's what we did. Isn't it great when something turns out to be an inexpensive easy fix?

My second day of praise band practice was tonight also. I didn't do as well as last week because the music was faster and almost all in keys I'm not familiar with. I'm going to keep trying though. I've been practicing every day, so hopefully I'll be ready in a couple of weeks. The other trombone player has been playing 3 times a week since 1991, so at least I've got a good teacher to help me over the rough spots.

Fire Fighter Training

Tomorrow night the Adams County Foster Parent support group is having a meeting where we'll learn how to use a fire extinguisher. The fire department is sending some guys with a fire truck and the equipment. They'll demonstrate it and then we'll all get a chance to actually try it. The kids get to participate, too!

I don't know who's more excited about it, Daniel or the girls. There will be pizza served and free childcare for Kevin. We're all looking forward to it. Meanwhile we're anxiously waiting to hear if they've matched us yet with a group of kids.

Camp-In

The girls wanted to have a campout. I was going to buy Daniel a new tent for our anniversary since our old one blew away last year (or was it the year before?) in a strong Oklahoma wind storm. However, Walmart was particularly nightmarish the day I tried to buy one and I ended up leaving the store, abandoning my full basket and with a very surprised check out girl staring after me.

Instead, Monday night we had a campout (or is it, camp-in?) in the basement. We watched a movie and ate pretzels and banana bread. The girls wanted to sleep out there, but when the movie was over they changed their minds and we moved all the pillows and blankets back to their rooms. Despite that, it was a fun evening with the kids.

Kevin's New Slide

This is the race car ramp, I mean new slide, that we got Kevin at a yard sale for $2 the other day. He doesn't slide on it much, but he does love to push his race cars down it. Actually, what he does is stand on the first step and yell until someone hands him another car.

We've started setting the entire box next to him so that he can just bend down and grab another without having to climb down. He'll happily continue rolling cars down the slide until the entire box of about 400 cars is empty. I like to think that this kind of focus and determination will serve him well later in life. lol.

Learning About Money

Monday night Daniel and the girls made banana bread from scratch for Home Ec. Danya and Gloria followed the recipe all by themselves! It came out very good. The whole house was filled with the delicious smell of fresh bread.

Danya and Gloria are growing up and learning to help with more and more household tasks. They also are interested in doing extra jobs to earn money. This week we created the "Elliott Bank" so that they could start a savings account. They designed the logo and helped me create a bank statement. They each deposited some of the money they'd saved from their allowances. They'll earn 5% interest each week on any money that they keep in the bank for a whole week. They also learned about compound interest which has them very excited.

"Not Back to School" Party

Last night we got an email from "P" who found us through this blog and apparently had seen us at the final performance of Danya's homeschool charter school last May. She's got kids almost the same ages as ours and homeschools, too. So we invited her family to come with us to the first official event of our new homeschool group. And she came! Yeah!

So after driving around for a while near the mall we finally called and found someone who could tell us exactly which fountains we were supposed to be meeting at, lol. There were three other homeschool families there and plenty of kids to play with. The girls and Kevin had so much fun! Actually, I had a great time too, getting to know the other homeschool moms better. Daniel, unfortunately, was the only dad who works nights, so he played with Kevin most of the time. Our next event will be a Sunday picnic, so all the other dads will hopefully be there.

Kevin finally got brave enough to play in the water and took a break from crawling over everyone's food and knocking drinks down. When it was time to go Gloria got stung by a bee beneath her upper left arm. One mom, "D" was thinking fast. She ran to a nearby restaurant and got a ziplock bag full of ice. We left just as Glory was starting to calm down. She's doing much better now. On the bright side, she and Danya made instant friends with "P's" two daughters and they have a playdate with "D's" sons tomorrow afternoon. I'm so glad they are making more friends. It's definitely an answer to prayer.

Scenes from Our 11th Anniversary

For our 11 year anniversary yesterday Daniel gave me flowers and a really sweet card. He wrote a list of things he loves about me and almost had me in tears on the way to church. I, romantic that I am, gave him a wheel barrow so that he can landscape the backyard easier. He really wanted one. In church we got to stand up and announce our names and number of years married, which I've been looking forward to for months. After church we took the kids and Shannon out for lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate the beginning of our family 11 years ago.

In the afternoon we went to hand out food with the bikers in downtown Denver. Shannon came, too. One of the things they were giving away was fruit snacks, Kevin's most favorite food. He was smiling and crawling up to the people and they were offering him their fruit snacks. The little charmer got offered 3 bags that I saw and Daniel says he gave Kevin a bag also.

Last night Sarah and Shannon babysat for us for a little while so that Daniel and I could go to a movie. We couldn't find the theatre and ended up exploring downtown Denver. While Daniel drove I took photos of the architecture and the sun behind the clouds. It was really beautiful. We ate dinner at CiCi's pizza since we had a coupon. Then we hung out at a bookstore with a Starbuck's coffee shop in it. Daniel, not usually a coffee drinker, got a "Java Chip" drink because he had been awake for more than 24 hours. I drove home.

Baking for a Crowd

Today we baked about 100 peanut butter cookies (and still have 3 dozen to go). We're bringing them to downtown Denver after church tomorrow. There's a group of Christian bikers, one of whom is part of our adult Sunday school class, who feeds the homeless on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month. We join them when we can.

We like bringing home made cookies since most of what they get is prepackaged food. Last time we had alot of requests for peanut butter cookies since all we had brought was chocolate chip. The girls love handing them out and the adults love the kids' contagious cheerfulness. Danya and Gloria practically skip around the parking lot handing out cookies and crosses. Tomorrow is my and Daniel's 11th wedding anniversary. What better way to celebrate love?

Hair Raising Experience

At the park today Kevin decided to announce his independence. He wanted to climb the stairs all by himself and go down the slide. He only wanted one hand from Dad to help him go down the steps. Daniel took these cute pictures of Kevin's static filled hair as he came down the slide.

On the way to the park about a mile and a half from our home a strange dog came running out of a house barking at us. It was loose and had lost its I.D. tag off of its collar. This dog was about 3/4's of Gloria's size, black, with a white chest. It looked like some sort of boxer. It followed us all the way to the park barking and running at us full speed before veering away at the last second. Gloria kept talking to herself under her breath repeating, "I don't like that dog. Go away, dog." I thought she and Danya both handled it well since they are so nervous around dogs. Thankfully, the dog decided to stay at the park when we left.

Walking to Yard Sales

We pulled the kids in the wagon today for a 3 mile walk. On the way we visited a few yard sales. I got some books (big surprise, right? lol) and Kevin decided that it would be amusing to throw them out of the wagon every few feet for the next couple of miles. So technically I got extra exercise. I got to walk a long way and I had the joy of bending over repeatedly to pick up the books.

We call Kevin "Dr. Destructo" because wherever he goes he leaves a wake of destruction in his path. His favorite, by far, is pulling books out of the bookshelf. He also loves to prove me wrong. When he was once again pulling out all my big boring not-for-Kevin books about parenting and homeschooling, I showed him the inside of a book and said, "See! No pictures! This book is not for you." A minute later he pulled out my Usborne Easy Spanish book which, essentially, is a comic book designed to help you learn Spanish. It's chock full of bright colorful pictures. He showed it to me with a look as if to say, "See! Pictures! This book must be for me!"

His new trick is to steal a book and use one hand to slide it down the hallway as he crawls away. We've been finding books in every corner of the house. I think the truth must be that he can secretly read already. He's devouring novels and nonfiction in out of the way corners so that we won't get suspicious when we see our one year old moving his lips while he looks at those books. But I'm on to him!

About Me

Just for fun I thought I'd answer the questions that I read on Paula's Reality.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Telemarketer
2. Phone Book Typist (Data Entry)
3. Software Instructor for a Petroleum Company
4. Software Tester

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Lord of the Rings trilogy
2. Anne of Green Gables series
3. I. Q. (or really anything with Meg Ryan)
4. Sense and Sensibility (I really like Jane Austen books/movies)

Four places I have lived:
1. Virginia
2. Pennsylvania
3. New Jersey
4. Oklahoma

Four T.V. shows I loved to watch:
(we don't currently watch t.v., so I'll put old favorites)
1. The Dukes of Hazzard
2. The Cosby Show
3. Extreme Home Makeover (Notice my son's name: Kevin Tyler)
4. Any kind of designing show

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Florida (twice now and once when I was a baby)
2. Sacramento (for Daniel's job)
3. Texas (to visit our kids' godparents)
4. Kentucky (for our honeymoon) thanks for the reminder, Glenda!


Four websites I visit often:
1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Answers in Genesis
3. Christian Homeschool Fellowship message board
4. Adopt US Kids

Four of my favorite foods:
1. pretzels from Sam's Club
2. home made pizza
3. strawberry ice cream
4. Smart Portion Muffins

Four dreams I have for the future:
(I'm swapping this one out because there's nowhere I'd rather be!)
1. Renovating an old school, library, or church to live in
2. A house full of children, maybe 10, mostly adopted and foster
3. Finish my degree because some of our future plans may require one
4. Daniel and I someday working together full time in a home based children's ministry

Trombonists in Training

I was practicing playing my trombone today while being interrupted every 2 minutes with "Can we try it now?" So the girls finally got a chance to practice holding it properly, which is hard because their hands are small, and trying to blow while moving the slide.

It's a tricky maneuver when you first play the trombone because if you move the slide back up too fast you end up smashing the mouth piece into your lips. Both girls did well, in my opinion. By the time our kids graduate from homeschool I plan for them all to be able to play the trombone, trumpet, piano, and any other instrument they take an interest in after that. Guitar would be fun. Maybe Uncle Matt will give them lessons?

Science Up Close

Today we were reading a beginning science book about big and small creatures and things. It showed a picture of human skin under a microscope. The girls were both so fascinated that I knew it was time to pull out the kids' microscope kit Daniel and I had bought on sale at Walmart last year sometime (I think).

Once we figured out how to adjust it, we looked at carpet fuzz, fingernails, hair, and some prepared slides of parts of plants. They each drew a picture and wrote what they saw when looking at a piece of a fern. It was a fun day in science at our house!