Pictures From a Puzzle Party

"Oh Dear!  Am I overdressed?

I may just slightly be overdressed...

...but you did say we were having a Puzzle PARTY"

This SO Concerns Me!

The other day the girls were at a playdate where there were many kids.  We knew a few, but most of them were brand new.  That didn't stop Melayna from joining up with a group of kids playing tag.  It was fun watching her mingle and mix with them....until I heard her shouting to a small boy in her little sing-song voice, "You can't kiss me, you can't kiss me.  You can try...but you can't do it".

Yes, slightly concerning!!

What Happens When I Finally Pass Off My Camera

Well, they almost got clear pictures of me...

Spring Preview

Since we're getting snow flurries again today, I thought I would cheer myself by thinking about the wonderful preview of spring that we had earlier in the week:

Great Quote

The Post Where I Admit To Not Having All The Answers...

And these are just some of the questions that my children ask me from time to time...

• How many seeds come in each apple?
• How big are God's hands? 
• How many fingers does God have?
• Does God ever sleep? 
• Why can't we have ice cream for breakfast?  Is it really any different than for dessert?
• How much food would it take to feed all the starving kids in the world?
• Who made the alphabet?  I mean.... the very first one?
• Were you alive before the lights worked?
• Do they have toothbrushes in Africa?
• What is water made of?
• Why does water get bigger when it's cold, but everything else shrinks?
• Mommy, what would you have done if you hadn't become a Mommy?
• How does the van work? 
• Where would you go if you got on that road and kept driving until the road ended?
• I have a very important question Mom.... if you ate trash, would it kill you?  Would it at least make you really really sick?
• When you're playing a game against the computer, who is it?  What does the computer look like?
• Mom, do you know what time it is right now in Antarctica?

I guess that maybe these are the really important questions to ask in life afterall!!

Wordless Wednesday

A Saturday Full of Modeling...

The girls got up on Saturday morning with the idea that they were going to dress up in nice outifts and have a tea party.  They asked me if I would make real cookies for their tea party so they didn't have to use the pretend food downstairs.  I agreed to it but I knew that they would move on to other things by the time the cookies were ready.  And I was right.

But, since they were dressed up already, they decided to use the opportunity to model all of the various things you can do in your nicest of clothes.  

Morgan is up first.  I absolutely LOVE this outfit that she found at "Once Upon a Child".  It makes her look so grown up and business-like, but the best part is that it only cost $3.50 for the entire thing!!

Maybe I should title this picture "Modeling what Smart Value Looks Like".  Way to go Mo!  You're a girl after my own heart!!

And Melayna insisted on modeling her finest threads while helping me make cookies.  'Nothing says super-fancy  like brown sugar all over the counter and licking the bowl with your fingers!!  The irony of this is that Melayna normally doesn't want to dress up.  She wears her favorite wind-pants to church almost every Sunday and is definitely not "girly girl".  But ever since we got this dress as a hand-me-down, she wears it at some point of the day....almost every day!!  It's too crazy...but then, that's Laynie for ya!

Now it's Marissa's turn to model her Sunday finest (on Saturday) while she reads her books to us.

Oh, but before you think we're all serious here in this house, Marissa did some funny modeling for us as well.  She pretended like she was a web footed animal for a while.

And just like that, another fun-filled Saturday is in the books.

The Moments That Bring Us Joy...

Monday is our library day.  Each Monday morning Laynie and I drop the two older sisters off at school and then we run a few errands before ending up at the library.  We usually stay there an hour or so before picking up Marissa from kindergarten.  Melayna enjoys playing educational games on their computers, putting puzzles together, playing me (and beating me) in Memory games.   Anything to fill the time.

Yesterday morning I was all geared up to finally win our game of Memory when I noticed that she had disappeared behind a row of shelves.  I knew she wasn't lost though because I coud hear her little voice.  It was going on and on in little fragmented sentences.  "I have a sister named Marissa......she is older than me.....her favorite color is black too.  Your name is Connor?  I like that name.  I also like Indiana Beach..... do you know Indiana  Beach?  Do you want to put together a puzzle with me?  I can show you how to do that one.  we can do this one but it's missing the letter "Z"..... Hey.  We just got a new van too.  I like to sit in the middle seat but my sister also likes to sit in the middle seat......"  I could hear her continuing her dialog so I peeked quietly over the shelf to find her sitting on the floor beside the little boy named "Connor".  She had his rapt attention and he had the biggest smile on his face.

When they she seemed to run out of words to say about 40 minutes later, they decided to put together some puzzles, build a tower with blocks, and then head over to the computers until it was time for us to leave.  I can only guess that in their young minds, a very strong friendship was just formed.  It was too cute to watch.

These are the moments that bring us joy.

She's Getting It!!

I've mentioned before that Melayna's schooling is pretty informal.  She usually likes to sing her ABC's while playing dolls, or coloring alphabet pages while watching t.v.  She puts together puzzles while "racing" me to see who completes their puzzle first.  She usually isn't one to just sit in one spot and go through workbook pages, so I try to make learning more like play.  Apparently it's working.  She's getting it a little at a time and has surprised us a lot lately with how far she's come.

For instance, tonight while we were all talking during dinner, I suddenly noticed that Melayna was counting and got all the way to 100 by herself.  I'm pretty sure that was a first.

And then there was last night.  I was doing the dishes after dinner  when I heard Melayna reading.  I wasn't paying really close attention so I thought she was just making it up at first, but then I realized that she was actually trying to read the words by herself.

I realize that much of this comes from memorization, but she really is learning some new sight words.  I just LOVE hearing my girls as they learn to read!!



Dick and Jane has been a wonderful tool for all three of our girls as they begin reading. 
I found this video of Morgan when she was first reading by herself.  It's from the same exact book.

Marissa learned to read using the same Dick and Jane book.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a video camera when she first learned how to read, so this video came a few months later as she was reading one of her library books.