Tea Party

Last week Sirah had some little girls over for an afternoon tea and dress up party. It was really a sweet and lovely time. We had 6 little girls all in various dress up costumes. Rhiannon and her friend agreed to help out with the party and they began by giving each girl a "makeover" where they painted their nails, added some lip gloss and some body glitter. The little girls could not have been more delighted, especially the younger ones. Then they danced with play silks, switched costumes many times and prepared a little dance to perform.

We served tea, cookies and fruit. We had both a dairy and nut allergies to contend with so our cookie choices were more limited. To my amazement Oreos meet both of those standards and ended up being the favorites over the tea cookies. Strawberries and pears were also popular. No one asked for a drink other than tea to my amazement and they seemed to enjoy having it with cream and sugar.

Sirah was beaming and it was great for her to have some time that was about her and her friends. Being the youngest I think it makes it all the more special for her.

All in all it was a wonderful afternoon and while it tired me out some, having the older girls there was a tremendous help to me and Ciaran even helped out with making the tea and cookies and setting the table. It was well worth the effort to see the joy in the girls and see Sirah so happy.

Recipe for Failure

Take one dehydrated mom and add

-1 son with low attention, high energy and something in his ears preventing him from listening

-1 daughter who wants to talk about everything not related to her work (ear piercing, friends, what she wants to do later)

-1 daughter who wants me and me and did I mention me

-And I forgot to mention 1 daddy who lovingly gives his darling children nice big frosted sugar bombs on his way to work right before we start school.

Mix continuously without stop and ask them to accomplish tasks related to school.

Results: I will let you guess but it sure wasn't pretty!

Sound Familiar?

Wikipedian Protester

Thanks Bex!

Come Join the Fun!

Our family will be joining an unknown number of other people in an awesome online scavenger hunt and puzzle starting today. Check out The Golden Jigsaw and have fun!

Peace,
Tenniel

Bucket Blast!

The kids have been outside all day playing everything they can with the neighbor kids. Towards the end of the day they were starting to get restless and out of ideas. I brought out our Bucket Blast game and it hit the spot perfect! This game is great and with so many uses - 6 buckets, a bunch of bean bags, blindfolds and some cones. I only let them use the buckets and beanbags. They began by stealing bean bags from each other and the person with the most bean bags at the end won. This was enjoyable but the real fun began with water. What kid does not love water on a hot day?

They filled their buckets and strapped them on - then they run around and try to knock the water out of each others buckets - at the end of the timer the person with the most water wins. Everyone is wet and everyone is having fun. They played several rounds of this and then tried to experiment with a way to fairly fill the buckets on each other. We have one hose and it seemed hard to make this work. They tried several versions and settled on one they liked but went back to dumping the buckets out and trying to keep the water in. A great time was had by everyone. Today the ages playing ranged from 6 to 13 and they played peaceably and enjoyably together. Though I must say the 13 year old is a very kind and gentle spirited 13 year old girl - results might be different with a rowdy competitive 13 year old. I recommend the bucket game - they are also great in the winter for indoor gym or indoor house games. A variety of ideas come with it and there are plenty to make up on your own or find from others. Great for a variety of ages and genders and once you have a few kids it is contagious and fun.

After awhile today the buckets started to annoy them and the realization that what they were enjoying was the hose sunk in. They created some other game of water jail involving our play set fort, the pool and the hose. This has kept them entertained for about another half hour. Really just add a little creativity to water and you have the guaranteed recipe for success on a hot sunny day.

We have just a little baby pool - appropriate for Sirah but all the neighborhood kids manage to get in there. They put it at the bottom of our slide, they stand in it, they put the sprinkler over it, they do a variety of things to get wet and really seem to enjoy this little pool. I tell people we don't have a pool but to bring swim suits and towels to our house because it seems kids always get pretty wet here - just like they always get pretty muddy here in the spring. I see that as meaning they are having a great time and that makes me happy. What is a little water mess and some mud for some great childhood memories and happy kids?

There are Days...

when I felt like this. Mostly now I am just comfortable with being who we are and not trying to live up to the stereotypes people have of us because we are Christian homeschoolers.

Yes my 5 year old watches PG13 action hero movies with his dad and owns all those action figures. He was at a convention before he was one and at midnight openers. Yes I don't make bread, except for the occasional loaf I enjoy from my bread maker, certainly not hand kneeded. And yes our science books include some of "those evolution" texts.

But that's okay, you liked us before you knew all that hopefully you'll stick around even when we don't fit the image of a Christian homeschool family What is that stereotype anyway and who actually lives it?

Addictive Time Waster

Here is my latest time waster that I can't help but keep doing. So far my high score is only 1100 - anyone beat that? What a clever idea for them and fun for us. Well I suppose it is only fun for a certain type of person - namely a geek. Well if the shoe fits...