101 Cookie Cutters

We spent last Sunday doing a massive all in one shopping trip. We left Shannon at home in charge of the kids while Daniel and I got groceries, Easter stuff, and everything we need for the two birthdays coming up in the next couple of weeks. We're planning a big Chuck E. Cheese double birthday bash for Latte and Bunny. The main question has been how many kids to limit the invitations to.

While looking for Easter baskets in each kid's color and discovering wonderful new inventions like edible Easter grass, we came across a box of 101 cookie cutters for all occasions. It even had a recipe for easy cookie dough that did not need to be refrigerated. The kids had so much fun cutting out the shapes. We used the alphabet letters to make the first letter of everyone's names and the numbers to make the age of each kid. Kevin especially liked the dinosaur shaped cookies. Although we got flour everywhere, we can't wait to make them again!

Cora's Gift

We recently sent Aunt Claire a box with a blanket I made for her new daughter, Cora, and a few gifts that we all picked out for her. Now I'm working on a scrapbooking gift for her. Here are a few of the things I've made so far. I haven't decided whether I want to mail these to her now or wait until we drive down to see them in June and bring a whole bunch of items. I can't wait to see Cora!

Where do you go to school?

Today Latte got to see her big 15 year old sister for the first time in over a year. Her sister, who I will call "Sky" because if she keeps growing at the same rate she will be as tall as a skyscraper, had some photos that I'd taken on Valentine's Day and given to their mom. She thought they were school photos.

Sky kept asking Latte if she went to school and what she was learning in school. I tried to explain that Latte isn't old enough for school because she's only three. Sky was shocked that I didn't have her in a preschool already. So I started to explain that we homeschool, so Latte's learning along with the other kids in our home for now but Sky just wasn't getting the concept.

I'm actually happy with the progress that Latte is making. She can spell her name and is learning to write it. She's also learning to spell the colors using the same "color songs" that Danya and Gloria learned years ago. Mostly we just read to her a lot and include her in the crafts that we do. The girls all made sunflower masks the other day and put on a flower play that Danya and Gloria thought up. They were so cute! Latte is so smart. I know she'll do well when she finally does enter school. If she goes home this Summer like we think she will, then she may even start a four year old program this Fall. She'll definitely be prepared.

Ceramic Artists

We picked up these little ceramic flower pot kits at Walmart the other day in the clearance section of the craft department. Gloria's had a butterfly design and Danya's was a My Little Pony knockoff. They both loved them. Now that they are painted and dry we can move on to step two. They came with materials to grown wheat grass in them. I figure since Gloria is studying plants and animals this year in science it can count for a homeschooling project. It does sound a little boring, though. "What did you do in science this week, Gloria?" "I watched grass grow."

Calm in the Storm

This is Othello the Cat. Aunt Christina and Uncle Steven gave Danya this cat when she was very little and named him after the cat they had back then. Lately Danya has been sleeping with him every night because he gives her some inexplicable comfort.

I understand the feeling. Yesterday, Friday, Daniel and I woke up, looked at each other, and realized that we had nothing scheduled for the day. No visits with bio families, no caseworkers, CASA workers, or attorneys for the kids coming to our house, no doctors or dentists to visit, no band practice, no AWANA class, no food bank to pick up, no play dates, no court appointments, no teachers - principals - or bus barn supervisors to call about Penny getting bullied, no Republican district committee person meetings to attend... not a single one of the things the past two weeks have been packed full of. And to top it all off, FINALLY not a single member of our family had the stomach virus we've all been knocked down with recently. It was such a peaceful moment of quiet relaxation.

That lasted about 5 minutes before we realized that we still had to get Penny to the school bus. Oh well. Such is life these days.

Car Bed

We moved Gloria's old bed into Kevin's room. Then we decked it out in "Cars" merchandising. I had to buy two new mattresses today from Sam's with five kids in tow while Daniel was sleeping. That was interesting. It was worth it, though, when Kevin had so much fun playing in the new bed in his room tonight. He's still sleeping in his firetruck bed for now, but he loves the new one, too.

We're all still hoping to eventually have a buddy in there for Kevin. We'll see what God has planned for us. In the meantime, we are really enjoying having six kids. It feels like we've hit our groove and everything is going really well.

New Bed, Old Bed

Who moved Latte and Bunny's bunk bed downstairs to Gloria's room?! Wait, that's not their bed, it's just a duplicate.

Yes, Gloria finally got her wish since our tax returns arrived Friday. We bought the bed and assembled half of it Sunday night before Daniel left for work. The older girls and I finished it together.

Gloria's princess bedding stayed on the bottom bunk and she got to pick out new pink & camo bedding for her top bunk. She loves having the top bunk. Danya has always had the top since we bought her bed when she was three. Gloria has been begging us to get her a bunk bed since we moved here a year ago. She's also been asking more recently when we're going to provide her with a roommate. I think she's feeling a bit left out since Penny arrived and is sharing a room with Danya. At least now when we have guests staying the night (like Shannon and Sarah) they can sleep in Gloria's room instead of on the couch. Tonight Gloria, Danya, and Penny are having a sleepover in Gloria's room.

Reading Readiness

Bunny and Latte are both becoming interested in the idea of reading more and more lately. They've been watching the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos and can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet. We've also been working with them on letter sounds. Latte still gets confused somewhat and will say things like, "Buh...buh...buh...Mommy!" Then we'll try to get her to make the "Mmmm" sound. I'm trying not to rush them since they aren't quite four yet.

Kevin has started bringing them books and demanding that they read it to him. Probably because they are the least busy and the most likely to say yes. Of course, maybe it's that Bunny is pretty good at making up stories to go along with the pictures. Today she held this weather book up and asked me, "What do this says?" There was a picture of a snowman so I just told her that it said snowman. She happily went on inventing a whole plot line for Kevin.

Today in the library we played on the alphabet rug in the kids' area. We jumped on the letters that our names begin with. Then we marched around it singing the alphabet song while stepping on the letters. Latte and Bunny are both so smart. I figure as long as they're with us we might as well give them a good foundation in the basics.

AWANA Grand Prix

The three oldest girls, Kevin, and Daniel all went to the AWANA race car derby on Saturday morning. They had fun racing their cars and cheering for friends. Danya discovered that her car actually went faster backwards! At the end all the kids got participation ribbons. Penny isn't in this photo because she was too busy crying her eyes out over not winning a trophy.

Then in an odd twist it turned out that there was a mixup. Her car somehow got registered in the computer as an adult entry listed under the name "Spain". When they got it straightened out they caught Daniel just as he and the kids were leaving and told him that Penny actually won first place for her division. So she will be getting a trophy after all. The girls got to name their race cars. Danya named hers "Flamer Fast", Gloria named her car appropriately "Subway", and Penny dubbed hers "Kitty Wins-a-Lot".

March Kit

These are the two kits that I made for my March class. I turned them in today, a bit late. Since it's for March I made one with a general St. Patrick's Day "lucky" theme and the other one based on the saying that "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."

The one on the left just says "In like a lion Out like a lamb" and can be used for kid or pet pictures. I tried to keep it fairly neutral while still incorporating some green since it's for March. It's hard to see in this photo, but under the picture of Kevin sleeping it says "Sweet Dreams" which was part of the patterned paper I focused on.

The kit on the right has a title that reads, "Lucky to be your mom" and a photo mat that reads, "Not just lucky but Blessed." The other piece has two pockets that hold tags. Each tag hides a photo of my kids on the bottom. I like that one kit has a more formal classic look and the other one is more bright and fun. Hopefully having options will draw more people to the class.

Spiderwick

Thursday night Daniel and I called Shannon to babysit and were happily looking at movie listings online so that we could go out when Danya reminded us that her special time was going to start at 8pm, right in the middle of the movie. Oops. No problem, we could just bring her along, too. Then Penny started asking why she couldn't go. The next night would be her special time and she'd be happy to just skip that and go with us to the movies instead. Danya thought about it and decided she'd like to have another kid along. So our movie expenses instantly doubled.

We let Penny go contingent on getting her math homework done. That was a fantastic motivator! She went from crying that it was too hard and confusing, to amazingly suddenly being able to understand borrowing and carrying. Imagine that. Miracles do happen. The kids enjoyed the movie although they both ended up clinging to us during the scary parts. I'd say it's not a movie for younger kids. Danya and Penny were probably borderline old enough because the movie was very scary. I even yelped out loud at one part! It was a fun night overall.

Unexpected Library Day

Wednesday morning I took the kids out to the bus stop and we all stood around and waited... and waited. Finally I decided we couldn't wait any longer. There were no other kids out there. We must have missed the bus somehow.

So we ran back to the house, loaded up the van, and rushed off to Penny's school. It was deserted. No cars, no people, nothing. I called Daniel who looked at the school calendar they had given us the previous week and it had a little circle around Wednesday. It turns out that was one of their "late start" days. We had two hours to kill before school. So I drove home, grabbed Daniel and the rest of our ducklings and headed to the library to return books... where we were also early because it doesn't open until 9 am.

I ended up reading to them outside the door for about 20 minutes. While we were there we found a series of videos The Way Things Work. We grabbed the first 20 of them and have been letting the kids watch them as part of our homeschool day. They're cartoons that teach science concepts and explain things like gears, pulleys, electricity, musical instruments, etc. The kids love them! The librarian also told us about another library located at 105th & Huron. So after we dropped off Penny, we went to that one, too. I found several good books there that I'm currently working my way through. I may post about them later. It was a good day.

Penny's First Day of School

Penny had a rough first day. It's got to be hard moving from one school to another to another within a two week period. Danya, Gloria, and I went with her to find her new classroom, meet her teacher, and locate the cafeteria. We also waited with her on the spot where her class lines up just until the bell rang. I introduced her to the girls standing there in the hopes that it would help her break the ice a little.

She seemed so small and nervous as we walked away. When she met her teacher she hid behind me, which was a first. I'd never seen her act like that before. It was so hard to leave her there. All day long the other kids kept asking when she'd be back. Danya and Bunny missed her the most. When Penny got home I asked her how her day went. She said, "Terrible" and told us that a boy in her class gave the teacher a "bad finger" and later ran around on the playground grabbing all the girls' "booties and privates". She said that he wasn't punished. He was just told that doing that was a "violation" which seems to be the school's term for breaking a rule. I left the teacher a message to call me, but she never did.

Poor Penny. All week she's been crying all the way to the bus stop (she's never ridden a bus before). She says it's just not fair that she has to go to "the awful place" while the rest of the kids get to stay home. She hates getting up in the morning, too. Each night I've been going over her math homework with her. She says it isn't being explained in class, but it may be that she's just too upset and distracted by everything else to listen. She got really frustrated when Gloria tried to explain the subtraction story problems to her. I think it's a pride issue, of not wanting the younger kid to show her how to do it. Or maybe it's that Glory isn't willing to do it for her, like Danya did the first night. We had a talk about it, and now I'm the one who helps her with it, not the other girls. I hope things get better for her soon.

Last Supper

A week or so ago the group of Christian bikers from our church that feeds the homeless in downtown Denver twice a month provided their very last Sunday supper. Daniel stayed up late Saturday night working on special peanut butter cookies with candy Hershey Kiss centers.

Dan Ice, the guy using the belt sander in this photo, says that the location they've been using to serve the food is being torn down and the city of Denver won't renew their permit... until after the Democratic convention. Can't have t.v. cameras showing *gasp!* actual homeless people near the convention center. It might somehow reflect poorly on the lavish spending of the Democrats during their big event.

Daniel took the older girls with him on Sunday afternoon to hand out the cookies and help with the meal while I stayed home with the three little ones who had crashed directly after church. I wish I could have gone since it was our last chance for quite a long while. I hope those people will have somewhere else to get a meal. Dan and his group are so faithful. They serve the meal in rain, shine, or snow. I know their servants' hearts meant a lot to the people they helped.

Meltdown

Danya's been having a rough time lately. A lot of highs and lows mixed with your basic growing pains all contributed to her meltdown at the park the other day. It's tough being the oldest with your parents relying on your natural sense of responsibility.

She told me today, though, that since Penny arrived last week she's felt better. As if somehow having another kid her age in the house has just made everything seem easier, even though it hasn't changed her work load any. I'm so glad she's got a new best buddy sharing a room with her.

On a side note, the picture of her standing next to the swing looks just like me when I was that age. It's uncanny.

Kevin's Monk Cut

Cutting boy's hair without using electric clippers is a new thing for me. I'm trying to learn as quickly as possible, but in the meantime poor Kevin has to suffer through my first rough attempts. This time I managed the bowl cut look. It turned out to look more like an ancient monk hair style. All it's missing is the bald circle on top. He's a good kid though, sitting patiently on the bathroom counter while I wield sharp scissors next to his head. Sorry, buddy. Hopefully, some day you'll look back at this photo and laugh.

Not OSHA Standards

Saturday morning Daniel took the three oldest girls to church for the AWANA derby car build day. They had started working on their cars, but they needed help getting them to completion. The Ice brothers, Justin and Dan did the construction work. Justin, who is the director of the AWANA program at our church, was in charge of drilling a hole and filling it with liquid metal to help get the car to the proper weight. His brother, Dan, ran the belt sander to smooth out the curves on the cars.

Gloria is attempting to make her car look like a submarine sandwich, Danya is going for a classic race car look, and Penny is converting an old derby car of Danya's to make it look like a crouching cat. They enjoyed carving and spray painting their cars. Unfortunately, Danya's spoiler on the back of her car, which was it's coolest feature, was promptly broken by Bunny as soon as she brought it home.

Strange Humor

Why is this funny to them? Because they are little girls whose mom is out scrapbooking at a Friday night crop and they get to stay up late with dad. Because they found an entire basket of their mom's clean laundry. Because looking like mom doesn't become a horrible thought until you are a teenager. Because how often do you get to share a shirt with your sister...while she's still wearing it?!

Popcorn and Chocolate

Thursday night Danya decided to share her "special time" after the little ones were in bed. She, Penny, and Gloria had popcorn, milk, and chocolate while watching a "Hannah Montana" DVD. We had never seen HM before, but Penny assured us it was 'great'. I've heard of HM, but didn't realize it was Billy Ray Cyrus and his kids on the show. I remember the controversy when I was younger and he sang, "Achy Breaky Heart". Everyone was saying that he stole the song from his brother. I wonder if that was ever prove true or false?

Last night, Friday, Penny got to have her first ever "special time" and she chose to share it with Danya and Gloria. In our family you have to be five or older to get a night of the week where you can stay up an hour late and choose what activity you want to do. At least one parent is required to participate. I was at a crop that I'd signed up for over a week ago, so Daniel got to enjoy eating cookies with whipped cream, having a dress up fashion show (he was the photographer), and getting "monkey rides" to bed. That means that each kid gets a turn to wrap their arms around Daniel's arm and he carries them through the house to their beds one at a time while they swing like monkeys. Glory and Penny loved it, but Danya opted for an airplane ride instead.

School Registration

Life changing. That's what this will be. I know it's selfish, but I keep thinking how this simple act is going to be the beginning of a massive lifestyle change for the next few months.

We enrolled Penny in third grade at a local elementary school on Thursday. She was none too impressed with the school while we were there, but that's expected in a little girl who will be starting her third school within a two week period.

Our lives will now alter to revolve around her school schedule. We have to have her ready to walk to the bus stop by 7:30 and be home to pick her up at 3:20. Then there are all the other school events that we'll need to plan our lives around. Monday it starts when I'll have to call to change our other two foster daughter's appointments with their families so that they are either before or after that 3:20 window. I know the rest of the population faces these same scheduling issues for five days a week, 9 months a year, but it seems like such a loss to me. One of the reasons we love homeschooling is the freedom.

There is also the factor that it will be harder to spend one-on-one time getting to know Penny, bonding, helping her to feel like part of our family, when she will be gone for such a large chunk of the day and then working on school work for a portion of the evenings and weekends, too. I'm afraid she'll feel left out when she's shipped off to school while all the other kids get to spend the day with me. Already we've been receiving the same question from everyone, "Why aren't you going to homeschool her, too?" As if we are kicking her out because she's a foster kid and not worthy of my time. That is so far from the truth. She's already been sitting in with us when I homeschool Danya and Gloria and she loves it. She's such a bright little girl. She participates in the games and discussions about the subject. Right now it's George Washington and the American Revolution. We're learning about both ancient history (the Middle Ages) and American history concurrently.

I'm going to be praying for both Penny to do well in her new school and for our family, that this becomes an opportunity to "see how the other half lives" and make new friends and that it doesn't over stress us all. Please pray for peace and unity for all of us.