Baby Trees

One of Mark's favorite time of the spring came and went this past weekend.  He drove up to Bellingham and picked up his baby trees on Friday, had a quick visit with both girls (who will be called "the girls" forever), and came home to plant on Saturday.

In addition to trees, Mark brought home some of Laura's goat milk.  It was so so yummy, but sadly, it effected Heidi.  Back to the coconut milk for me.

This little guy loved visiting with his grandad, aunts, and uncles and cried when it was time for them to go.

Planting baby trees is something that Mark really loves.  Did I already say that? Well, I'll say it again.  He really loves planting baby trees.

Daniel and Lula love jumping in mud puddles.  Ian, Shane, and Evie love riding their bikes through the muddle puddles. 

I used to love letting them be kids.  I didn't even think about the laundry or the number of baths that would be required after a day in the mud.  But as I saw Daniel run through the giant puddle with the boots that have the huge crack and wearing his brand new socks, I sighed.  Goodbye, new socks.  Evie was riding in her best jacket (which she later discarded on the walkway, leaving a nice place for a muddy Jack to curl up for a nap in the sun).  Sigh again.  Mud splattered on all their faces...I used to be able to cram three kids in a bath and get it all done at once, but that is no longer doable.  Everyone needs their own bath now that they're older and mixed genders.  That is a long time to sit shivering, waiting your turn.

I keep waiting for this new baby/winter funk to wear off, but it sure is taking a long time.  I'm looking forward to finding the joy in a mud puddle or a baby tree again...

The Googly Artiste

Sometimes Sponge Bob inspires....

Now if only an art critic would show up and pay $50 for each rock, just like in that episode...maybe I could buy a new table...you know, after the kids grow up.

Writing Letters and Finding Toes

Daniel has been very busy this morning...

He made the "letter that has the big tummy" and then added H and a letter that wears a hat and a pair of shoes:

Other letters he likes are buh-buh-buh-buuuuh (Beethoven's 5th symphony) and T (which is just like the letter that wears a hat and a pair of shoes, only T doesn't have shoes).  He really likes using the white board to write really big letters.  These kids burn through dry erase markers like you wouldn't believe!

Guess who found her toes?  She was sick all day yesterday because I ate a few white chocolate chips the day before.  I cannot believe how sensitive she is.  I didn't even remember eating the chips on Saturday, that is how few I ate. 

Sensory Bins

I somehow stumbled on the concept of sensory bins.  I remember my preschool had a huge one, filled with cornmeal.  I always thought these were supposed to be indoor sandboxes, but I guess they have their own special term and purpose.  I like the idea of having calming activities and something quick and interesting to keep little ones occupied.  So I've thrown some super simple bins together in the last few days...

The pasta above makes quite the noise!  Lula loves to move her hands around and make the pasta rattle.  The older kids, when I choose to include them, can string pasta on pipe cleaners (renamed chenille stems in this PC time).
The pinto beans above were put together in a second while I was trying to make dinner last night.  Lula kept getting into things, so I figured I would save more time with sweeping up beans after dinner prep than constantly stopping to get Lula out of mischief.  And I was right.  Lula happily sat on that stool scooping and dumping beans for a good 20 minutes!  Of course she has the ability/personality that allows her to sit and focus quietly on an activity...I've had other kids that would take one look at that box and dump it straight on the floor, just so he could hear what noise it makes.

The split pea bin was one I had planned on setting up for Daniel on St. Patrick's Day.  I have buckets and buckets of dried beans in my emergency food storage, so I was happy to rotate the older stock out.

Fiona helped me cut up a gold shamrock necklace from the dollar bin for this one.  The gold shamrocks slowly rose to the surface as Lula scooped and poured with the gold cups I described in this post.   I have tons of ideas that I may (or may not) execute, because remember? My new year's resolution is to not set myself up for failure.  But I have this cute mini eraser set in the shape of sushi that my Japanese friend gave me...and wouldn't it be fun to sift through white rice with a pair of chopsticks during our next unit on Japan?

Spring!

Lula on the far couch, Heidi on the footstool, me and Daniel on the near couch: this is how I roll.

 Days like today are a reward for starting school in July when it was too hot to play outside. 

Fiona in the sandbox

Heidi in the sky (with diamonds?)

Daniel running with sticks and an egg he found behind the papaya tree

Frog Eggs!

Ian and Shane celebrated the first day of spring by swimming in the pond.  I tried to tell Shane that the pond was so cold he could go into shock and drown.  Ian said that I was just trying to scare him out of swimming.  Well, maybe.

Ian said the water was so cold, he couldn't feel his anything.  He couldn't feel how cold the water was either because he was already numb. Or did he say dumb?

I'm happy to say that Heidi is now HAPPY.  She doesn't cry all the time anymore!  I eliminated dairy, eggs, and soy.  I avoid wheat too.  Beans don't have an effect.  But chocolate often has soy if it doesn't have dairy, so I still avoid yummmmmy chocolate.  And now she only cries when babies normally cry.  What a relief!  Now we are ready to take over the world!

Best Corned Beef and Cabbage Ever!

You know you're a Downen when you sleep in green pajamas, just in case a sibling wakes up before you to take advantage of your sleeping state! I painted my fingernails green last night to make sure I had full protection from the pinch squad all day long!

The Lean Green Mean Pinching Machine!

We spent the entire day celebrating our Irish heritage, starting with a green toy scavenger hunt.  I handed each kid (or team of kids) a list of items: something round, something that drives, something soft, etc. and they had five minutes to locate each item.  Ian (and Daniel) won with 14 items, Shane (and Fiona) came in second with 13 items, and Evie was in 3rd (or last, depending how you view the glass) with seven.

Mina gets into the spirit by hoarding a green ball in her bed.

Next was Rainbow Skittle math.  I printed off a bunch of math worksheets that centered around sorting, counting, and graphing Skittles.  My only rule was a given: do not eat a single Skittle until we were finished.  If you ate your Skittles, you would be asked to leave the project and would lose your Skittles.  Fiona got seven Skittles sorted before she was told to leave.  Like I wouldn't notice that she had her hand over her mouth as she tried to chew softly.  When I asked her to open her mouth, she hesitated, started chewing and swallowing as fast as she could, and then opened her mouth wide.  I could see at least three different colors of Skittle stuck in her molars!

Fiona was given a second chance with half her Skittles (yum!)

For science, the boys took Daniel outside for a Leprechaun hunt while I taught the girls about the states of matter... we made green Jello and learned about colloids too!

Even Daniel O'Niall could do Skittle Math!

I had a bunch of little preschool activities to do with Daniel if Mark took the older kids to the YMCA today, but I ended up taking all seven myself.  I drew a green shamrock on the carsick pressure point on Daniel's arm before we left.  Of course if I would have eaten 124 Skittles before leaving, I would have been feeling sick too... PE? Check.

Heidi has no green clothes, so she stayed safe with her green burp cloth.

History was a no brainer...Who was St. Patrick? And who kidnapped him? According to Wikipedia, who heard it from Keating, Niall-the guy we named Daniel after-was the kidnapper.

Lula loves Corned Beef

So all my kids are descended from the whole reason we celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  If Niall hasn't taken Patrick to Ireland as a prisioner, Patrick would have never become a Christian and returned to Ireland as a missionary.  Pretty cool, eh?

Yum!

After the most delicious dinner of bangers, corned beef, cabbage, potatoes (and carrots for the orange men) and Sprite with rainbow ice cubes...

...we listened to Mark's vast collection of Celtic music.  This has been, quite possibly, the best St. Patrick's Day yet...

One LUCKY guy!

Pinewood Derby {LAST ONE}

Yesterday was our last year of Pinewood Derby until Daniel joins up in a few years.  I, sadly, am completely burned out on Pinewood Derbies and do not feel the bittersweet feelings that Mark feels about the boys growing up.

The 2014 Lineup, from left to right: Shane, Daniel, Evie, Mark, Fiona

This was the first year Mark raced a car.  But he didn't actually race it; Evie and I did.  Mark had to leave in the middle of the races to go teach his taekwondo class at the YMCA.  I was actually able to go out into public with six kids (Shane and younger) and survive.  We even survived a pizza dinner where we had to stand in line and get a piece of pizza and a cup of lemonade.  I'm honestly surprised we didn't drop our pizza and only spilled one small lemonade.  Heidi actually slept in the carrier!

Our pack awards trophies for siblings, but not adults.  Adults get "gag" prizes.

Shane didn't place this year, but his car was fast.  When the places are determined by hundredths and thousandths of seconds, cars can be fast to the point you can't tell them apart by only your eye.  Evie's car placed 2nd in siblings and Daniel's placed third.  Fiona was so upset that both Evie and Daniel got a trophy and she didn't.  She was busy tearfully complaining to me about life not being fair when Mark received his prize for second place.  He took one look at her big eyes and trembling lip and handed his pinwheel prize right over.  Tears begone!

The look of pure happiness and joy on her face was worth all the stress that comes with the whole Pinewood Derby experience *smile*

Heidi Update

We thought Heidi had a dairy sensitivity until we realized it was the eggs making her cry.  We had the crazy idea that maybe she isn't dairy sensitive after all... and gave her 3 ounces of formula.  That isn't very much.

That was the worst idea we have ever had.  An hour or so after drinking her bottle, she started  vomiting.  This was no spit up.  This was a full-on vomit.  After she emptied everything out of her stomach, she dry-heaved for two hours until she fell asleep.  She was choking on her stomach acids and turning red from the retching.  Scary stuff.  I was afraid that she would inhale her stomach acid or stop breathing or go into shock.  In between episodes, she just sat weakly in my arms, not moving much.  My Heidi never stops moving, so I knew she was very very sick.

I called the after-hours pediatrician and he recommended I take her in to urgent care for IV fluids just in case she gets dehydrated.  I was a wreck and agreed to go, but Mark calmed me and recommended that we just watch her through the night and avoid the thousand-dollar bill we would definitely be responsible for.  I was awake almost all night long even though Heidi slept peacefully and kept her normal bottles down with no problem.

Heidi definitely has a dairy and egg allergy and it is way more severe than I thought it was.  Ian and Daniel were given formula from time to time, including during their first week of life, and Lula was on formula full time by the time she was six months old.  None of them had such an adverse reaction ever.  I also noticed an increase in spit up when I used soy-based dairy alternatives, so I'm assuming she is sensitive to soy too.  We are ALL DONE with crying and spit up around here, so I am more than happy to cut out wheat too.  Now I just need someone to cook me a bunch of meat and vegetables because all my easy foods are no-nos.  And I need to catch up on my sleep and vitamins.  And then MAYBE we can get out of this postpartum funk and rejoin the real world.

Statement

"It was okay until we lost a reindeer. One of them had a heart attack from pullin the heavy sleigh. But it's okay. We ate on him for three days." ~Uncle Si, dressed as Santa's Helper, Duck Dynasty

I made my statement to the grocery store's insurance company.  I don't want to have to pay over $1000 for four stitches, ya know? The hospital charged the insurance $2500 and the doctor billed $1000 for his services.  The total cost was about $3500 and we have a high deductible plan.  Hello January!  I'm feeling anxiety-chest pain, shortness of breath- about the whole thing. Sigh.

*Jack found that deer skull the other day.  Finding a skull is pretty cool, but finding one that has the antlers attached is even cooler!*

Who Needs Preschool?

I first started homeschooling when Ian and Shane were preschool aged.  Back then, I was part of a club for stay-at-home moms and we all knew which preschool was the best and when you had to place your child on the waiting list to get in.  The list filled up within hours and I had to write a check as a deposit for the boys' spots.  Ian was in the four year old class, that met three times a week in the afternoon.  Shane was in the three year old class, that met twice a week in the mornings.  The total cost for both boys to attend preschool was $150 per month (I think. Maybe it was $150 each!).  I just felt sick to my stomach knowing that I would have to pack the three kids up in the van and drive across town ten times a week.  And I would pay someone $150 a month to teach them...colors, shapes, and maybe letters and numbers.  So I used one month's tuition and bought my own stuff...

One person's shot glass is another person's lentil scooper!

Preschool is my favorite age to teach.  I could teach preschool forever!  Come to think of it, I've been teaching preschool since I first began homeschooling...

Right now I have a bin filled with lentils on my table.  I've had Lentil Science since Ian was kindergarten aged, but I never officially set it up due to the never-ending supply of messy two year olds in my house.  Well, enough is enough!  I'll never get Ian's kindergarten days back and lentils can be swept up and replaced for only $12.50 for a 25 pound bag!  That's like one day of preschool! True to my children's natures, all I have to do is set something up and set them loose.  I was pleasantly surprised with what they came up with.  The gold-colored shot glasses were purchased at our local thrift store for $1.  I removed the gold chain they hung from (who wears a shot glass as a necklace?) and added the shamrock stickers.  The gold buttons were $.50 for six and make perfect gold coins.  My idea was to dig for the gold treasure using the scoopers.  Fiona added the counting bears and created her own one-to-one correspondence.

At some point I will pull out the other activities that go along with the lentil science, but for now I'm going to try to include a little more St. Patrick's Day themed activities for this week.  The great thing about getting activities set up for Daniel is that the older girls enjoy them as well.  And I don't feel like they missed out on preschool activities because I was so busy including them in Ian and Shane's school work.

I've started checking out some preschool blogs put together by moms who send their kids off to school everyday and have plenty of money and time and a fancy camera for nice photographs.  They have AWESOME activities for their Saturday Science.  I can only make a cheap imitation, but my kids enjoy what I've come up with (so far) and that's better than a super-fancy blog and public school and lotsa money.  Today I had Daniel search for those gold buttons in shaving cream.  Wow, that was a sensory experience!  We could only find one button!

Some ideas I came up with for this week are: paint chip (from the hardware store) memory with different shades of green, a green item scavenger hunt, a shamrock sticker puzzle, green playdoh with gold beads stuck in it (I don't get the stuff-stuck-in-playdoh thing, but I guess there is no harm in trying it out), and green finger jello! 

Spring Ahead!

Daylight savings is a good time to spring ahead into my favorite season of the year!  However, my kids are ready for summer already.  Then again, a Pacific Northwest Native can't really tell the difference between spring and summer with all the rain and all...

Really, all my kids need is a sunny afternoon and a couple of blankets and a body of water and they are set!

Even Lula was released from the house so she could enjoy the sun!

The chickens, sadly, have been sold, pending pickup.  I'll keep a few, but with half the family not eating eggs and me not having the desire to wash and sell eggs, they are just taking up valuable resources.  They sold themselves in just a few minutes from this picture I posted on the local Buy, Sell, Trade page:

Don't they look happy and healthy, free ranging on all that grass?  I'll get back in the chicken business when the babies are older.

Mina is getting old and gray, just like me.  You can see all her little gray hairs on her muzzle and its taking her longer to get up out of her dog bed.  She has been my constant shadow for the last eight years.  She has accepted Heidi into the pack and brings her toys to play with.  It's gross, but cute, to see Mina gently place her deflated ball on the tray of the baby swing while Heidi stares at her all bug-eyed.  In the picture above, Mina was making sure no chickens came too close to us.  If one came inside the invisible baby circle, Mina jumped up and chased it off.  But I don't think we will ever cure her of her binky addiction:

March 2006: A bad habit begins!

It is so hard to believe that we've had this Pathetic Doberman (the original blog title) for eight years!