homegrowing

The kids love the little treats they receive from their Grammie and Grandpa in Florida.  Ving had been saving these Bakugan markers and tattoos from a fall, treat bag.

Saving them for a day such as this… and they emerged from our bathroom…

Tattoos and buttons.   Isaac can’t write, and I know whose handwriting that is.

I’m not sure what happened when you pushed “there”.    Perhaps I didn’t want to find out.

Yes, everyone also had a designed spine on their rear thorax…

This looks a little more, say, self-inflicted…  I know that art anywhere.

The master mind.

B.I.G   … are they teens already?

And what happens when you write words on yourself using the mirror?  Educational moment.

“Can you tell me again, Hunter… what does T.A.F mean?” …. hehe

Oh, did I forget to mention????

FYI… The dollar store kits of Bakugan markers and tatoos are not, well let’s say… NOT WASHABLE!!!

While working on our morning routine, I noticed Eden was no longer in her exersaucer.   This is where I found her.

Eventually I scooped her up and took her with me about the house.

We returned a few minutes later to find Hunter sitting at the piano with a very guilty face.   He pointed at this.

I started to laugh hysterically.

“Mom, I thought I was going to be in trouble!” he said as he laughed along.

It’s a pencil, deeply embedded into the wall, approximately 9 feet high.

The piano is in Hunter & Isaac’s bedroom.

The pencil was in that room too.

As well as the ceiling fan.

Boy + pencil + ceiling fan = ?

Dangerous projectile pencils!

When I had scooped Eden off his lap, he did try to convince me that he could focus on his piano practice and play just fine with her there.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have distracted him into playing with projectile pencils by taking her away?

Dad was working from home that day.  I’m glad he could wittness this funny homegrowing moment and spot Hunter while I took a picture!

I LOVE boys!

I was delighted to read Ving’s perspective on birthplace in today’s English lesson.

Although this is not a great sentence, nor is it exactly following the directions….

Use capital letters to correctly write particular names for the following persons, places, and things.

#8. your birthplace  ______________________________

Ving’s answer:  Your birthplace is in the car?

Only a Salisbury.

That was NOT in the A Beka teacher’s answer key.

child:  “Ummm… mom,   a bug like just flew out of my hair onto my language book!”

mom: “What?”

child: “I went like this (rubbing fingers through hair, front to back to spike it up) and THIS came out.”

mom: “Lovely.”

I immediately started itching.  All.Day.

I Googled.

We stopped our lessons.  I inspected and combed everyone’s hair.  No findings.

I sent all children to the bathroom showers with strict orders for hot and soapy scrubbing.

Bathed the babies.

Took some photos while they were in the tub …. I stayed with them.

Detour:  When I took Isaiah out of the tub, he learned to pee for the first time all over the bathroom mat. He hasn’t been able to do so on demand.   Next, I placed him safely in the crib while I gathered clean clothes.  He continued to practice his new bearing down technique to pee.   The pee was already gone as his bladder was ummm empty, so he proceeded to bear down and pooped on Isaac’s pillow in the crib.   I bathed him again.  Cleaned out the crib.

I combed and inspected all heads again.

Nothing.

I have now waited four weeks and have inspected again.  Still nothing.

Thank you Jesus.

With a big family and busy dirty-ing boys, I have prepared myself – for someday, getting lice.

I’m thankful that time isn’t today.

For now, we’re okay.

I can now publish this post. It’s been four weeks.  You can still be my friend.  You can still come over.  You can borrow our hats.  You can sit on our couch.  You can ride in our van.  You can gather close at Church.  Do not be afraid.

And, you sweet bloggy friends -  even if I had lice, you’d still love me the same.  You’d just keep on visiting anyway.

This is one perk of blogosphere I hadn’t thought about before.

We attended our first ever, war reenactment this past weekend.

It was small, but great.   We arrived to the Nature Park early, and enjoyed a fun hike through the wooded trail.  We visited with different booths, shopped the sutleries, and heard wonderful oral presentations.   We enjoyed a delightful picnic lunch.  The battle was humbling.    The boys were educated, and equipped with toy guns and Union hats.

If you don’t like boys and toy guns, stop reading here….

In raising 5 boys, I am continually amazed at their interest in guns.  Around 18 months, different unsuspecting objects become weapons.  We do toy guns.  I’m purposing to raise mighty strong men, warriors for the Lord.  We allow guns, and encourage gentlemen behavior and chivalry.

Irv doesn’t hunt animals around here.  However, I was raised with men that hunt and ate the kill.   We’ve taught the boys that killing animals, God’s creation, is fine if we are going to consume  it or it is a danger to us.    Now, “playing war” is a bit harder to discuss…. “Don’t point the gun at mommy, please.  I’m a Yankee too?”

In case you needed a close up of Eden enjoying the hike!

Humbling to watch. Thankful for our freedoms.

"Babe" has a gun. "Shoooooo Shooooo" (missing the T)

Isaac too.

Daddy & Zaiah watching the battle. "Piece" & Binky comforting Zaiah.

Mommy's water bottle is the fav, just a tad heavy!

The big boys came home and played WAR for hours.

Eden's included in big-brother-play.

...and Daddy too.