Ella's birthday recap

My girl is eight. Eight! Mark always takes the kids' birthdays off (because he's the greatest) so we had a whole day of celebration.

This morning her birthday banner was up, her birthday gifts wrapped and waiting, and eight balloons had been blown up and were waiting on the floor of the living room. [All the kids know to look for these things on their birthday morning.] She came into our room at 8 o'clock, having counted her balloons to be sure there were eight. :) And when everyone else woke up and joined us, we told her she could open one gift. She chose the biggest box, which contained her petticoat, which she was excited about. We had Swedish Pancakes together for breakfast~ made by daddy.

Then we let her open her other gifts.

The next gift she chose to open was her gift from Miss M, Ella's penpal. She got this box some time ago and has been anxiously waiting to open it!




[And sweet Miss M~ Ella was so, so excited about all of your gifts for her, and the lovely letter you wrote. I'm sure she'll write you all about it~ but she especially loves her "Jack". I don't think he left her side for the rest of the day, as you'll see in the pictures below!]

To let the rest of you in on what I'm talking about: Quinne is a longtime blogging friend of mine, and her daughter Miss M and my Ella are the same age and have been penpals for several months. Miss M chose this little bulldog for Ella, knowing that she loves Little House so much, and thinking that she can now have a Jack when she plays Little House! Wasn't that so thoughtful? (She will certainly be using him for her Little House scenes, of that I am sure. And I'm thinking Isaias will be mighty happy that this means he's about to get promoted to a new Little House character!)

Then she opened her final gift from us, the only thing she requested for her birthday:




(and I think she liked it!)

When Audra woke up from her morning nap we all headed to the bookstore, because another one of our birthday traditions is that our children get to choose a book on their birthday! We went to our favorite used bookstore and Ella chose her book~ which I can't remember the name of (I ended up in the van with the little girls) but the illustrator is Garth Williams, so she's definitely a girl after my own heart.

Then we came home for lunch, and then naps and quiet times while I got busy in the kitchen (after playing a quick game of Settlers with Mark!)

For dinner, Ella requested:
-meatloaf (every year!)
-mashed potatoes
-sweet potatoes
-bread
(I added some green beans~ canned from our garden, and some apples. Oh~ and sparkling apple cider, which, upon tasting- Ella pronounced as her second favorite drink, next to pink lemonade.)

After we finished dinner our family began arriving: grandpas and grandmas and uncles and aunties and cousins and whoever can attend from our extended family. Then she opened more gifts, and I'm pretty sure my mom wins the award for the best gift:


She made her a dress and an apron! (That's actually Mark's mom in the photo, because she happened to be sitting next to Ella. I don't have a photo of my mom with Ella, but I know my dad snapped a picture of the two of them.)


How cute is she?! :) I'm sure we will never see her in another outfit again~ or at least until she outgrows this one!

We served cake and ice cream (banana cake with cream cheese frosting. And Ella wanted rainbow sherbet ice cream, but we also provided a vanilla and chocolate option for the adults! :))


And then: all partied out and ready for bed:



Other highlights of Ella's birthday:
*no chores for the day! (the boys did a little extra so that she didn't have to do any of her regular work)
*a birthday call (complete with song!) first thing this morning from Auntie Stef (my sister) and family
*a birthday balloon delivered this morning from grandma
*a birthday card that came in the mail from great-grandma and great-grandpa: with eight dollars enclosed
*daddy, coming back from the store hiding a bouquet of flowers behind his back for his girl. (she had the perfect response, too: she just burrowed her head in the petals and smelled her flowers and smiled and looked like the happiest girl in the world.)
*one of Ella's dear friends, Madelyn, stopped by with her mom to bring her the gift of an American Girl book
*extra time to play with her cousin Sadie after her party tonight
*a birthday email from our dear friends who couldn't make it to her party tonight

She is well-loved, our girl. And oh, we are blessed, so blessed, to have her!

Enjoying the moment(s)

This time of year, not only are we busy preparing for Christmas, but we are also busy with birthdays.

One of the birthday traditions in our home involves making a birthday sign/banner. While our soon-to-be-birthday-girl was out of the house today (with grandma, visiting great-grandpa), we took hold of our opportunity.

Here's a little of what went on as we tried to tackle this:

Color crayons were everywhere... Audra and Adelia crawled all over and ripped the paper while I scrambled to tape the places they'd ripped and tried to keep one step ahead of them so that they wouldn't color anywhere else...

...Isaac meticulously drew his picture and carefully wrote the letters of Ella's name, in big, block letters- and was happily oblivious to the chaos around him as he did so... I was making suggestions for what Isaias could draw, but then he wanted me to draw everything for him because he's at that age where he cares that it actually looks like what he's intending to draw, so we settled on 8's and balloons... I kept trying to keep the paper smooth for drawing, which was practically a fruitless effort on my part, because Adelia kept shoving crayons beneath the paper and Audra kept sitting on top of the paper, and kicking her legs in all the excitement, thus scrunching the paper up...

...I traced the girls' hands, and Isaias', too...and I picked up crayons and kept taping and told Adelia and Isaias to please not wrestle right now and took the tape away from Adelia and thought about how I used to struggle with these birthday banners being sloppy and the lettering maybe not being perfect and the rips and the coloring right on top of the words someone has written, but my~ how I've grown in that area!... and I thought about how anxious I might have been if I had things TO DO today; how rushed and frazzled and irritable I might have been. But I wasn't, because this was all we had to do, and so I laughed and moved Audra one more time and pulled another crayon from beneath the banner and taped the rips and simply enjoyed the moment. And I thought about how good this was for all of us, just to be together with nothing to do and nowhere to go and no plans but this.

A break

We've just wrapped up our last day of school before we break for the holiday season. We'll start school up again in early January, so we have lots of time to celebrate!

We've been brainstorming what to do for the next several weeks, and here is our short list (that will surely grow as new ideas get thought up!)

-work on a puzzle
-daddy make Christmas pancakes
-bake gingerbread men
-Christmas movie night!
-decorate
-play and dance to Christmas music
-get our Christmas tree
-pull out our bin of Christmas books
-buy our new Christmas book
-go to a craft fair with Ella
-cut out snowflakes to hang
-put up outdoor Christmas lights
-playdates with friends
-make a birthday cake for Jesus
-buy and wrap presents
-gifts for Jesus
-make a Christmas sign
-choose gifts from the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog

Ah... such fun awaits us!

The blog will be relatively quiet as we enjoy crossing things off of that list.

I'll resume the current series on school when I return.

Blessings to you and yours for a wonderful Christmas season!

Thanksgiving tradition: changing it up

I've written before about our tradition of a Thanksgiving journal here.

I know that post is missing all the photos. Sorry about that. Here are a couple of photos to show what our Thanksgiving Journal is:



It's what we've done for the past several years as a way to record our gratitude, as a family, over the Thanksgiving season. We added pictures to a spiral-bound notebook, and then we wrote down the things we were thankful for as we reflected upon the previous year.

I love this idea, and especially the fact that we can look back on it from year to year and see, and remember~ God's faithfulness in our lives.

Last year I ordered the photos and they sat in their envelope and we simply never did it. Too busy, too pregnant, too much.

This year we scrapped the Thanksgiving-Journal idea.

I really hope to go back to it some time in the future, but now is not that time.

So this year, we did something a little different. We started with these:


and began making this:



I loved seeing this one:


(Daddy who works for us)

...and clearly someone was abundantly thankful for his


(!)

As I stapled the chain links together, I read each of them aloud. It was really encouraging for me to see how our children have grown in gratitude over the years. They loved this project, and were super excited to see the chain getting longer and longer~ and they truly delighted in coming up with all the things they were thankful for!


It's quite long, actually. We have it temporarily hanging up around our living room...


...but when we get our Christmas tree this weekend, our Thanksgiving chain will become a garland for our tree! [How much do you love that idea? I read about this creative project over at Little Birdie Secrets. We skipped the first part of their idea~ the Thankful Jar~ although it's very cute, too.]

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

School after breakfast: English

When the chores are done and Audra is down for her nap, and if it's a Tuesday, Thursday or a Saturday, Ella and I work on an English lesson together.

We use Rod and Staff, and we really like it.

One of my favorite things about Rod and Staff is that the text and exercises are based on Bible stories and there is a focus on character traits we value: obedience, respectfulness, cheerfulness and hard work.

I usually have Ella read her lesson to me, and then we go over the instructions together. Then she works independently until she completes the exercises. (Maybe 20-30 minutes.)

After I get Ella working independently, Isaac and I do some Kindergarten work together.

This is where it gets a little tricky with Adelia (and Audra if she happens to be awake). I don't think we have a good system for this time of our day yet. All I know is that Adelia always.wants.to.do.what.the.bigger.kids.are.doing. When Ella and Isaac are at the table, she would like to be right there beside them. If they are holding a pencil, she would like to be holding a pencil, too. As a matter of fact, that very pencil Ella is holding!

We've tried different things. Sometimes I pull her onto my lap and try to school with her there. Except for the thing about Adelia is that she does not sit still for longer than 45 seconds. So then it becomes a battle to keep her there.

I've had her help me with things in the kitchen (washing dishes, cleaning up, etc) so that we can be near the table. I've had her in the Ergo at different times, but she doesn't always want to be there for long. I've set up the pack-n-play near the table, but that's usually a battle, too- and then I feel guilty for containing her when she was just strapped into her seat for all of our breakfast school time.

There are times I release her and Isaias to "go play nicely together" (which is brave of me to hope for, truly)~ but it works sometimes. The thing about that plan, though, is that they have to go downstairs because I don't want them playing in the living room because they'll get too rowdy and noisy for a napping Audra. So then they're completely out of sight so I end up being really distracted with checking in on them.

More often, lately- we all move downstairs. The negatives are that we're away from the table and the dry-erase board, and we're in an area of the house that has a lot of toys, which can be super distracting for Ella and Isaac.

The positives are that my light-sleeper of a baby can have an uninterrupted nap, I'm not as frazzled trying to keep everyone quiet, and I can see and hear everyone.

It's a little crazy, though. I am increasingly aware of how patient both Ella and Isaac are. I can't tell you how many times I've said to Isaac: "Okay, I'm ready to do some Kindergarten with you now! Can you bring your pencil and book to the table?" And he scurries off excitedly to do so and then tells me he's ready and by that time I'm changing a diaper or dealing with a discipline issue with another child and then I'm answering a question of Ella's or thinking: "Oh, I have to photocopy that page from his book" so I go to do that and while I'm there I throw in a load of laundry and then I remember "Aack! I haven't taken out the meat to thaw for dinner", so I do that and I pass Isaac at the table and realize I've forgotten all about him. There he sits, patiently waiting. So I tell him, "Just a minute, budders. I'll be right there" only to hear Audra cry or Adelia yell or whatever and on it goes.

This is our life. I'm so thankful for how well the kids have adapted to this season of life with its unique challenges. I know they will be all the better for it.



Coming up: Kindergarten

The best part of my (otherwise very difficult) day

was this:

It says:

To Mommy

I love you. I am so sorry you have been sad and haveing a hard time today. Sorry Audra was being grumpy at the start of quiet time. I can't wait for it to be my birthday.

love Ella to mommy

Then she had Audra draw a picture and noted "from Audra" on the side, above Audra's scribbles.

Then she had Adelia draw this picture on the back:


(Which is labeled "motorcycle nup". Because that's what Adelia said it was and so you can't argue with that girl. She knows her stuff.)

I love being a mama.

One of the great things about having friends who blog

is that I can direct you over there to see/read about our family vacation (shared with their family, which is why they're blogging about it. But since I never did (blog about it)... it works out quite nicely. Plus, Mike takes better pictures. :))