Art Class

What started out as a couple Mom's who weren't thrilled with their music program - so we got together once a month to take turns teaching it - has evolved to a very fun day for the kids. Music has been "cut" from the program, but we now do art and science projects, and our group is growing. The other project that I didn't get a picture of - but wish I had, was sewing quilt squares, as a part of learning about travel west and the patterns they put into their quilts to tell a story. From what I hear the boys actually did better than the girls, but they don't want to admit they enjoyed it.

This day they were learning about architectural elements to buildings. They had to identify and then put together a building with, columns, pediments, friezes, etc... they were sad to not get to put a cupola on - anybody have to pull out a dictionary for that one? :)

Mak and Noah have become good friends (and Noah's Mom is our fabulous art teacher).


Chatham and Abby, are also good friends, but they are sometimes unsure how to handle it because of the boy/girl situation.

This is almost our whole group, three kids were "absent".

The best part about the whole thing is that the building we use has a play room for the little kids. Kayte is looking out a "tree house" window.

September, October, November Birthdays and announcements

Kayte is still new to the gift opening process, but since she

was the youngest in the group she got to go first.

She got a lot of "accessories" to the doll house that Bubba built for her

(see next post)

Jack was so thrilled with his first gift of Star Wars Legos

that he jumped off my lap and ran and gave Oma a huge hug!

Mak received the well wrapped (notice the plastic Target bag)

from Aunt Abby.

And here is almost the whole group of Birthday people...

Somehow Scott managed to steer clear of the camera.

Kaytence, Todd, Gracie, Opa, Jack and Mak

And to top off the occasion there were a few announcements to be made.

Come next May/June we will have two new birthdays to Celebrate.

Congratulations

to

Uncle CJ and Aunt Alison on their #1

And to

Uncle Scott, Aunt Mona, Hannah, Todd, Hailey, Gracie and Will

on their coming addition.

As the vW family grows we find it more and more difficult to get us all together. It was finally November before we celebrated the September Birthdays - so we included October and November too.

For our personal family that included:

Jack (Sept 28 - he's 4),
Kayte (Oct 5 - she's 2) and
Mak (Nov. 27 - which is Thanksgiving this year and he'll be 10!)

Kaytence being girly or as Jack would say: Grilly

I have tried a few times now to tie Kayte's hair in "rags" at night in order to have some curl the next day - very old fashioned I know, but there's no risk of burning her, and I tried it on myself when we lived in Ethiopia with great success. So far, for Kayte, the ones that stay in work well, but I always seem to have one fall out and then it's uneven and looks funny. She sure is cute when it's all tied up though. I'll let you know if I'm ever successful :)My Great Aunt Mim wore hats often and recently I was given several of them.

Here Kayte is showing off one of them.

The others you will see on top of the doll house -

since I have yet to find the best place to keep them.

This is Kayte's new doll house and I am very proud of it. Bubba made it for her when he was here last month, but I was in charge of painting it which is why it's picture is just now getting published. Needless to say, she loves it! (Thanks Dad!!!)

The above picture is before she got her "accessories" and the one below is her showing off her dolls and their things...for some reason her favorite thing is the toilet, and she likes to have the dolls sit on it. Yet she won't use a real one, I know that day is coming though, and I will be done with diapers for good - oh the things we look forward to as parents.

Last week

Last week was an eventful week. David had a business trip to Israel, so I was home with the kids. The problem was that I had been sick with a sore throat before he left, and once he was gone my voice decided to go too. Being a Mom without a voice isn't easy.

During the week we had our final football game - I was happy, the boys were not. Probably because playing is a whole lot more fun than sitting on the sidelines trying to keep track of Jack and Kayte.
TJ also got his cast off. He played every football game with that cast on, and continued with his piano and violin lessons - amazing if you ask me.

At our new house we have a large pile of dirt that has been keeping the boys busy whenever David and I have things to do over there. They are building a fort. This is the view from inside it.
Here is the shot showing the steps they made to go up. And here is a shot to give you perspective on where it is near the hous, and how big the pile is.
They have been warned that the pile will not always be there, someday we'll need that dirt to fill in around the house.