Bobcat Badge!!!

Wednesday August 20, 2014

This week Mason earned his first cub scout badge! The bobcat! He was so excited.

Before the awards the boys put on a short skit about some Tall Heros like Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Pacos Bill. Mason's was about Casey Jones. His part was-

I am Casey Jones.

I am selfless.

I am an engineer.

I stayed with my train to warn others 

that it was going to crash.

Funny part is, Mason had his part memorized but he still stuck his nose in the paper to read it. It made Jer and I giggle.

Heck, even mom got a little pin. I had no idea! Guess I need to find something to put my special pins on.

This Week's Activities!

This week has been a busy one. Brook is still working on her paper mache' gifts. Dallas and Mason joined her for painting time!

Mason has been working hard on his Tall Hero vest for cup scouts pack meeting Wednesday. He has Casey Jones the train engineer! He's also been working on memorizing his little part.

We've gone to the library and switched out our books. I really need to start writing down our favorites because sometimes we really do feel sad to say goodbye to some of these friends.

Mason and Brook have really enjoyed working on their Khan Math lately. I've only just recently discovered this site and I really think the kids like it so far.

Dallas and Brook recently started to play with Brook's dolls. (Brooklyn has NEVER really played with dolls before) They asked to use the stroller and I found them pretending its our little baby. They rocked him and covered him with a blanket. Then they'd pretend he started to cry so they would walk him over to mommy. We have talked about how it will be different this time around. Mommy will feed the baby instead of using a bottle. I think they get it and want to help as much as they can even if they can't bottle feed him themselves. My heart just melted to see their excitement!

Morning Walk!

We try to get out of the house in the mornings to walk and enjoy the outdoors. Some mornings don't work out. This morning we walked around the fair grounds. It's a nice little track that the kids sure love to run along. They'd love it better if they could bring their bikes along but I just can't fit them in our little car anymore.

Mason reminded me of Jeremiah with that reed in his mouth. What a sweetie. When Brooklyn and Dal ran ahead, Mase stayed behind with me so I wouldn't be walking alone. Love that boy!

Last Swim and Pickling!!!

Saturday August 16, 2014

While dad took the kiddos out to swim for the last time mom stayed inside to pickle a ton of cucumbers from our garden. I was super nervous about pickling but it turned out to not be as hard as I thought! The true test will be in 6 weeks when we actually try them. We will see if they'll taste any good.

P.S. The two older kids have sure gotten better at swimming since we got the pool. I'm pretty impressed since Mason used to be really scared to swim. Now they are like little fish!

My Little Corn Huskers!!!

Jer bought a big box of sweet corn. I really needed to get on it before it went bad so I sent the kiddos outside to husk it! They did such a good job and were so fast I wasn't even about to get all my pots and things together to boil them in preparation for freezing! Mmm! We love fresh corn on the cob!

Family life!

Week of August 13-16

This week has been full of reading and projects! We are reading one of my favorite books, Anne of Green Gables! As we read the kids like to count how many times Anne says "imagination" and they also like to draw what the story is about. Mason did a good job drawing Anne with all the flowers she added to her bonnet on the way to Sunday school!

Brook has made the cutest journal entry about how she would react if she were in Anne's situation. The other kids at Sunday school only knew about Anne through gossip. We talked about how gossiping can make us feel and what we can do about it. I am so very proud!

We've made some yummy zucchini bread (finally) Jeremiah has been begging for it since we started to grow zucchinis!

Brook has decided she wanted to learn how to make paper mache' gifts for her brothers. She found a recipe online and made it herself. Now she works on it every day and will paint them up!

Dad has also been joining in on the reading time! we often comes home for lunch or after work and stops to read a story to the kids! They love it and I just love watching them all snuggled on the couch listening to dad. He's much more imaginative with books and often adds his own personalities to the characters!

Gender Reveal!

August 12, 2014

We found out today that Baby #4 will be....

A BOY!!!!

We bought some balloons from the dollar store and my friend gave me her box. We had the kids open it up to see what they were getting a little sister or brother!

Brooklyn was a little disappointed but she didn't stay sad long. Mason was happy and Dallas was just happy because blue is his favorite color. :-)

 We are just so excited for this baby boy to join us!!!

First Canning of the Season!

August 10, 2014

This weekend we picked a ton of green beans from our garden! I was so excited about this because we've been trying to grow green beans for years. This was the First year they actually turned out really well!

It was a whole family effort since there was quite a bit to snap but we snapped them in no time! I was surprised that the whole two bags full only canned about 7 jars but it was a great start!

On Monday I decided to blanch and freeze extra Zucchini and yellow Squash. Holy Cow I have it coming out of my ears!!! But I'm still grateful. :-)

Sterling Fair!

August 9

Saturday night we went to the Sterling Fair. We had promised the kids that because the rides weren't operating at the Akron fair that we'd let them ride some rides at the Sterling fair. They sure had a blast. It was a little crazy Dallas was allowed on a lot of the mechanical rides but wasn't big enough for the slide. Other than that it was lots of fun. Brooklyn especially enjoyed getting stuck on the Ferris Wheel with Grandma and Grandpa Mo. I don't think they expected to be on that ride for as long as they were. They just happened to change handlers right before they were supposed to get off and the new handler added a bunch of riders and kept them going around and around!

We ate yummy BBQ Brisket Nachos and had a big time!