What does these things have in common?

What does puppet shows, singing in the rain, stinkbugs and cute kids have in common?

Our day!

Today, we went to a puppet show with some friends. The puppet show was about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They called kids on stage to participate but Ari didn't get chosen. She was disappointed about not being chosen. Honestly, I was too! I wonder what she would have done in front of all of those people:) You never know with my sometimes shy sometimes friendly child! I told her we could go back and try again. I have to prep her on the best way to get noticed in a crowd. She raised her hand calmly and stood still. Great behavior and exactly how she has been taught to do in school. But not the best way to get noticed in a crowd of kids that have their hands raised too but are also jumping up and down in trying to get picked.

This is a pic of the two kids in front of the library after the puppet show sitting with the statue kids.

We went out and played in the rain (one of our favorite things to do). Arianna was in concert. She was singing "River Lullaby" from Prince of Egypt. I told her she should sing "Singing in the Rain" but she didn't know that song. I guess she is too young for that one:) If I had a working camecorder, it would been a great video but mine is broken. Oh Well.

Ryan found a stink bug in the sensory table. He was very excited! He touched it for a while and then exclaims "He licked me". I guess the flutter of the bug felt like a lick to him! He eventually picked it up. Despite the bugs multiple attempts to fly away, Ryan kept him for most of the time outside. He let it crawl over him. Arianna kept telling him that if he squished it then it would stink really bad...they both have no idea! I figured the smell would just be another life lesson. But my gentle bug lover didn't squish his dear stink bug.

Ryan made multiple attempts to give the bug a kiss. The bug would either fly away or would move before Ryan's lips reached him. Excuse the unwiped runny nose:)

Here Arianna poses with her new found umbrella and Ryan has his precious stink bug.

Here are those cute kids posing for the camera.

Typos

Okay so I am the first to catch a typo when I read anything. You wouldn't know this if you read my typo-ridden blog. As I read back over my blog, I find a typo in almost every post. I want you to realize something. I usually type these things with kids climbing over me, I usually end up doing something for the kids midway through typing. My thoughts are constantly interrupted by something from the kids. I also don't have the time to read back through the posts until later when they are in bed. So I apologize from this point forward for my typos:) I correct them when I see them but those of you who receive this via email get my unedited version. It could become a game like "Where's Waldo?" but instead "Where's Crystall's Typos?"

Enjoy my unedited versions of my ramblings about our crazy and charmed life!

Enjoying the Fruits of our Labor

We planted sunflower seeds back in June. It was late in the season so I wasn't sure they would grow. Some of them got eaten by deer and rabbits. We watched the bees pollinate them. When the hurricane came we cut most of them and put them in a vase. I was disappointed because I really wanted the kids to see where the seeds came from. But today we were pleasantly surprised. We didn't cut one of the large flowers because we thought it was dying. It was hanging way over almost touching the ground. I was cutting the stalks down today and picked that flower up to discover that there were seeds in it. I was excited to share with the kids that we would get to enjoy sunflower seeds after all.

There were a few small silky worms in the flower but there were plenty of untouched seeds for us to enjoy.

Ryan trying to break open a sunflower seed.

Ari getting seeds out of the flower.

Ryan posing with our seeds and flower.

School this week

We are finishing up our unit on Friendship this week. This morning's devo was on Cain and Abel. We discussed how Cain dealt with his anger and jealousy. We then discussed appropriate ways to deal with our own anger and jealousy towards others. The kids practiced their memory verse for this week which is Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, a brother is born for adversity."

Later we had school. We read The Rainbow Fish and discussed what made the rainbow fish happy. Next we worked on our Rainbow Fish cape. We stamped our handprints onto the cloth. Once we are done with our capes, we plan to act out the Rainbow Fish.

Slumber Party part 2

Saturday night we spent the night with Heather and her 3 boys. Here they are all pretending to be grass. Silly Kids.

Heather and I were up until after 2:30 am scrapbooking. Ryan woke up at 6am. I was so tired at church! I ended up getting a total of 7 hours of sleep the whole weekend. I am not complaining though. I got to spend some great times with friends and was productive: I got about 25 scrapbook pages done. I am almost to Ryan's birth, all I have is opening Christmas presents and my birthday and then I will finally be to the point to start working on Ryan's albums.

I was very excited to have my husband back! He says he had a great weekend with the boys too!

Mountain Goat

We go to the playground and Ryan looks for the highest and most dangerous thing for a 2 year old to do. I watched an almost 6 year old struggle to get up on this and then get stuck and need help down. Ryan tackled it and did NOT want help. When I tried to spot him he asked me to stop. What's a Mom to do?

He did really great climbing. He even was able to get over the head and sit on the nose.

Slumber Party Part 1

What's a girl to do when her husband is at a Men's Retreat?

Scrapbook of course!!! My dear friend Bobbie and her son came over for a slumber party. Once we got the kids to bed, we got busy scrapbooking. I ended up staying up until about 2am. Of course that didn't matter to the kids at 7am. (I am too old for this little sleep). I got about 15 pages done! Woohoo!

Cherished quilt holder

This is probably not what my Grandfather had in mind when he made me this quilt holder:) Ryan being the adventurer he is, figured out how to crawl down into the middle of the quilt holder between the two quilts. Ari thought it looked fun and joined him. The mostly ignored quilt holder became an exciting place. This discovery did lead to a discussion about my Grandfather. Ari was amazed that he made this and that he carved the beautiful hearts in the side. She asked "Was he a woodworker?" In fact he was. My Grandfather could do amazing things with wood!

Fun with Old Friends

Some of our friends that we have seen much since we moved came over yesterday. Tyler is Arianna's age and Kylie is a day younger than Ryan. Interesting how things have changed. Used to the older kids played together and the younger kids played together. Yesterday, mostly the girls played together and the boys played together. I guess things are shifting:) The girls enjoyed playing princess and dress up. The boys enjoyed pirates and batman. I wonder what changes between age 2-4 to cause this shift in choices of playmates?

Friends Fruit Salad--Yummy, Yummy

We are continuing to talk about friendship and cooperation in school. A friend joined us on Wednesday for school. We read Emily's Sharing and Caring Book. We talked about how we can care for our friends.

Everyone was asked to bring a fruit to school. Before school, we went to the grocery store to choose each of our fruits. It was a hard choice for them. Ryan said he wanted grapes but chose strawberries. Ari chose grapes and then thought about blueberries and then finally settled on a watermelon. I chose a Kiwi and avocado. Speight brought mandarin oranges. In school, each child talked about what fruit they chose. We talked about the color and how each fruit felt. We smelled the fruit and looked at where their seeds were located. We discussed some of their similarities and their differences. Then we cut each one up and put it in a bowl. We mixed our different fruits and shared a yummy fruit salad. I didn't include the avocado because I had no idea how to cut it and it didn't seem to fit into the mix:)

Refreshing

I spent time today with someone that refreshed my heart. I actually met her briefly at our neighborhood pool at the beginning of the summer. Her husband and my husband went to school together and we just happened to run into each other at our neighborhood pool...they actually do not live in our neighborhood:) Anyway at the time she was pregnant and had two kids that are within four months of the age of each of my kids. It took a while to hang out since she was due soon. She is homeschooling her children.

We finally got to hang out today. We planned to talk some about a potential co-op for the fall. Today was one of those times where the time seemed to fly. It was time for her to leave and it felt like she had just gotten here. We never did get a chance to really talk about a co-op as we were discussing so many other things. It was encouraging to feel so understood and supported! Rarely do you find someone whom you just met and it feels like you have known each other forever.

I look forward to getting to know my new friend better. It is always amazing how God brings the exact people we need at the exact time in our lives when we need them.

My Little Dancer

Arianna had her first day of dance today. She was very excited. She has taken ballet in a Mommy and Me class when she was 2 and has been in Ballet summer camp twice. But this is the official first time of dropping her off by herself for an official Preschool Dance Class. She came out of class glowing. I asked her if she liked it and she said "No, I loved it!". Then she asked me if I knew where ballet was from? She told me France.

She is excited that she gets to get a costume and be in a recital at the end of the year. I danced from age 9-18 and loved it. It is so sweet to see her take up something that I enjoyed as a child. We give her a choice of one activity per semester and she chose dance for this semester.

Out for a Ride with Friends

My kids love these motorized vehicles. They ride all over the driveway and cul-de-sac. Ryan has become quite the expert in navigating the Gator. David (Ryan's twin) came over and was trying to drive the Gator. Ryan had to push the pedal and David "steered" (more like ran into things:) David is learning the fine art of steering.

I try to let the batteries die down so that they have to get out and use some energy and muscles to ride their bikes:)

Valuing Diversity

Today, Arianna went to her first practice for children's chorus at church. When we got home from church, I was looking for the song that they are going to be singing in 2 weeks.

I finally found a video on youtube of a group of children in Africa singing the song. Arianna asked "Is that my class?" The thing I love is that she can look at a group of african children and wonder if that is her class at church. Chris and I chuckled at the fact that this group of children could remind our daughter of her class. Our church is very diverse and there are many different cultures. That is one of things I like about our church...many different types of people worshipping God together. I like that our children get to be around others that are not exactly like them and that is a normal part of life for them.
Arianna loved chorus practice and cannot wait to get up on stage to sing. She has been practicing the song. She loves to sing and I can't wait to see her on stage!

Interesting Diverse Dinner

We hosted 2 international students for dinner tonight. One was from India and one was from South Korea. Both are in school at NC State. Arianna enjoyed playing with the girl from South Korea. I am kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture (yes I know you can't believe it but I, the picture queen, forgot to take a picture). So you just get to hear about it instead of seeing it for your own two eyes. We learned how to say hello in their native tongues and learned about some of their culture. I would say something that we learned tonight but I wouldn't even begin to know how to spell it, I don't even know if I can say it again.