Month: June 2009

♪ A Spanish Guitar and The Black Cat ♪

| Stacy

The boys had their piano recital tonight.♫
Their teacher rocks.♫ ♫ ♪

Their recital was at a church about ½ a mile from my house! How is THAT for location, location, location??!

Beau played, “Spanish Guitar,” and Champ played, “The Black Cat.”

Angel… sat on my sister’s lap as she was trying to record this. You will see her menancing!!!!

And then, as the piano teacher played the violin for us, Angel fell in the seats and totally distracted Janelle. 😛 ► Insert mortification here.◄ 😛

I tried to upload the 90 second video, but I could not. 😦 😛

For the last few months they have kept record of their practice time. For every half hour of practice they earned a raffle ticket. For every half hour of other musical instruction, or going to a musical performance, they also earned credit. So they each had a TON of raffle tickets to put in for prizes. Beau came home with some Magnetix, some candy and a little handheld video game. Champ came home with a beanie baby, a double basket ball set by Nerf, and a Mickey Mouse Photo Album.

Champ particularly blessed us tonight. He put some of his raffle tickets in for items he knew Skeezix would love. He didn’t win them, but we were so touched by his spirit of generousity. He also threw in a few for a handheld video he knew his brother wanted and said, “If I win that I am giving it to [sic] Beau.”

♥

Checking in…

| Stacy
It has been tremendously busy at our house. I have been working a lot the last three weeks, and I just finished a five-day-in-a-row stretch of working.
I am exhausted. The shifts have ranged from 4½ to 12½ hours. The last three nights I didn’t leave work until 12 AM and didn’t get to bed until almost 1 AM. In between working we have squeezed in Father’s Day, Seabreeze, preparing for vacation and a smattering of school. I commented to a friend yesterday how I believed I had exhausted my coping skills and was running on fumes.
My kids have been excellent. I am so blessed to see how God has used my unusual schedule to reveal some fruit in them. The evenings Mama has worked the kids have been directed by Daddy to get up and play quietly in the morning until Mama got up.
They have done awesome.
This is what I was rewarded to see in the girls’ room when I went in this morning.
They were doing school with their stuffed animals! See how each one has a book to read? My heart was so warmed. Isn’t that cute?

Speaking of reading – Skeezix is really taking off with reading. I am so grateful.

Supercat!

| Stacy

Skeezix created “Supercat,” over a year ago. This heroic feline has an ever-developing storyline which includes a super-hero costume and some super friends, including her sister, “SuperBob,” who is also a cat, [I don’t claim to understand that one] and “SuperBunny,” who is her friend LaMB.
One day in the spring, Skeezix needed something to do, so I directed her to make some pictures of Supercat for her birthday invitations for this year. Her birthday is just a few weeks away, so I dug them out and pasted them into cards.


Isn’t “Supercat,” super?

Rainy Day Play

| Stacy
The boys opted to play out in the steady sprinkles.
The girls took advantage of the chairs I had parked out in the family room whilst I mopped the kitchen floor.
They are going on a bus.
Don’t you remember playing that as a child?

Then they were pretending they’d reached their destination. Under the kitchen table.


Look at how FILTHY the edges of the table are!!!!!!!
At least the floor was just cleaned!

Strawberries

| Stacy
“Kids, I was thinking I’d like to pick some strawberries today. Who wants to go with me?”

Four enthusiastic voices said, “Me!”
We picked more strawberries than I had money to pay for!
Washed and hulled about 40% yesterday.


Made my first attempt ever

at strawberry jam.


We will see if it thickens
in the jars,
or if it is going to be runny.
If so, we have lots

of ice cream topping!


OY!


Another haircut for Angel

| Stacy

Before…


The boys needed a haircut, so I took Angel along, as well. My hairdresser and friend was reassuring that some kids don’t lose their baby hair until they are four or five. 😦 Not much I can do except keep it out of pony tails, clips or anything else that will break it off.
I think her new hair cut makes her look more like Daddy!
And a bonus picture of Skeezix.
I don’t know what she is doing but it made her laugh.

Summer made a brief appearance…

| Stacy

Monday we saw some sun and we had a beautiful day at Seabreeze with some friends. The place was very quiet and the kids were able to ride over and over on some of their favorites. While the water was still pretty cold, us Rochesterians know enough not to let a nice summer day pass us by! We enjoyed the water and the sun and had a fantastic day.

Now I am going to go build an ark… 😦