The Great Wall of Albuterol

Jonas first started have regular treatments 10 years ago. At that time they came in cute little bottles.  Convinced that I could find a use for them I tossed them into a bowl for awhile before sanity won over and I threw them away.  Well, maybe that one-and-a-half year old little recorder was running. 

Even though drug companies have upgraded to vials, Jonas likes to save them and play with them. He even has a cute little tin that he stores them in.

Here he is making the "Great Wall of Albuterol."

The Huns are fighting the Chinese.

Various Artwork

Follow the Drinking Gourd-- by Miriam

The old man at the river waiting for the runaway slaves to take them across to safety.

The blue man is the slave owner and everyone else are slaves trying to escape.

If you look really hard you can see the Drinking Gourd on the right hand side.

"Karen"-- by Elijah

Aren't my kids talented?!?!  And smart??

"My tooth came off!"

Ryah, forever has been wanting to lose a tooth.  Seeing her brothers and sisters lose theirs has been hard.  She is forever asking when she will lose one.  She even asks periodically if I will "take my tooth off." 

One day while she was drinking out of her waterbottle with a spout, Kristina bumped her.  While I was comforting her I checked for loose teeth (standard operating procedure, because you can't tell how bad they are really hurt by the intenseness of their cry).  Sure enough her two front bottom teeth were loose, obviously not completely from the bump.  She worked on them for a couple days and then came to me with a bloody mouth saying "My tooth came off!!"  Way to go, Ryah!

Elijah builds his dream house

This is what Elijah does whenever he has a minute to spare. 

House

after house

after house

One day he wanted us to take a picture of it. We said "just a minute" (in the middle of something).

 

He got tired of waiting and took the camera up and took it himself. LOL Now there is no stopping him.

Miriam is TEN!!!

I guess we have kinda been slackers this year with birthdays.  Miriam got to open her presents at breakfast then we all forgot about the cake until late afternoon.  Not enough time to do something fancy (she wanted a pioneer boy and girl with the hats covering their faces-- after I complained about more people) so she opted for some feathers and flowers.  She wanted to do the flowers.  She had a lot of fun picking the colors and decorating the flowers.

GeoCaching

Still trying to catch up on posting.

I have wanted to do this FOREVER. Geo Caching.  Also know as Letterboxing/ Treasure hunting.  Now there is a merit badge that the scouts can earn.  So we jumped in.  The girls didn't understand.  They were looking for gold and money and cool toys.  They even threw fits when I said the first one was only for Caleb and Jonas (for scouts).  But once we got into it, they were hooked.  The prize didn't matter any more, the journey was the fun part.

The first one we found.  It was a 2 part one that we never did find the second part to.  This was a film canister wedged into a knot in the fence.  It had coordinates to the second part that we gave up on for lack of signal and grumbley tummys.

Caleb trying to get a signal.

The scenery (as is always the case at Tolmie Park) was distractingly beautiful.

Climbing the hills and driftwood.

Rabbit's Hawse Geocache. (Alina and Anastasia took these pictures)

The prizes

We will definately be doing this again!!  They loved it (and so did I).  Too bad there isn't much time now that school has started.  We'll have to do some on a Saturday and get Keith hooked too.

And So It Begins................

I hate this time of year.  I don't like sending my kids back to school. 

:(  I always wander around for loneliness and wondering what to do for a couple of days before reality sets in and I have to get something done.  This year was especially bad as I have a kindergartener.  Don't take my baby.

The South Bay-ers.

Anastasia loves her teacher!  And wants homework.  She is having a hard time with the change in schedule.

Kristina, as always, has a hard time with the "newness" of it all.  Give her a week and she'll be off and running.

Alina loves being able to see all the people she knew.  Not so sure about the school work part.

Ryah is deliriously happy to be going to school.  She takes a lunch and everything (giggle giggle) but someone needs to talk to the people who schedule and tell them that it isn't fair to have her only go one day the first week and one day the second week.

Miriam is getting so mature.  She loves her teacher (and the fact that she gets to go on lots of field trips).

Jonas and the bus house.  He is struggling to breathe.  He LOVES his teacher (who is a man), but is still disappointed not to be going to Aspire MS "like all my friends."  Jonas, you will make a splash wherever you are!

Here comes the bus, here comes the bus.

(with a neighbor girl)

Caleb off to be a BMOC 8th Grader at Chinook.  He likes the fact that he can touch the ceiling... and I can't.

Yeah!  I still have two more years with my baby... (even if he still is in his pj's.  LOL  I don't ususally really let my kids out of the house still in their pajamas)

I'm off to eat some bon bons and drown my sorrows in some apple cider..... then paint a bathroom.