Castle Cake

Number Bonds

I've been trying to keep Matthew's math work as concrete as possible--using manipulatives or real-life situations as much as possible--while still using the text as a guide. So here is Matthew figuring out the number families on the living room floor using knex and checkers.

And here is Sara Joy wanting to "do it too."

A few more of the Narnia Birthday...

I've been working on converting the pictures Mike took on his fancy camera--and I found these:

Coupons

I used to never use coupons. For one, I didn't get a newspaper. For two, searching through piles of inserts for coupons I might use (but often didn't) just to save fifty cents here or there seemed like a waste of time. After all, I was perfectly willing to buy store brands. And I shopped regularly at Aldi, which doesn't take coupons.

Then I discovered moneysavingmom.com. And matching sales and coupons. And buying when prices are rock-bottom to save for later. And printable coupons. And getting name-brand foods for less than Aldi prices.

Check out the website: www.moneysavingmom.com

or the book

The Money Saving Mom's Budget

Oh, and while I've been meaning to post about coupons for awhile, I get a free ebook for doing it today :)

A Very Narnian Birthday: In which Matthew turns six

So if you've been around Matthew at all recently, you've probably bumped into the Narnia obsession. This started very slowly quite a while ago when I impulsively checked The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (book on tape) out of the library for a road trip. We listened to it twice, but seeing the movie at Grandmom's house really got him excited. Now we've read Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and are three chapters into The Silver Chair. He has most of the lyrics to Roar of Love memorized, and even Sara Joy knows that Matthew likes to be "High King Peter." I must say, if I had to pick an obsession, this is a good one to pick. So of course Matthew has been dreaming about his "Narnia" birthday for awhile.

Here is the lion cake--hardly as regal as Aslan, but at least it looked like a lion:

And a cool action sequence Mike was able to shoot:

Taking a break from Narnia for some cowboy time

Matthew and Anna in Narnia

And last but not least, the White Witch fleeing King Peter.

A real-life, non-scripted, out-of-the-blue conversation over cake tonight:

Matthew: “I have a question.”

Mike: “Yeah?”

Matthew: “ Did God know that people would get like this, that they would have alot of sin in their heart?”

Mike: “Well, God knew everything, so He knew that people would get like that.”

Matthew: “Wait a minute! God’s in control of everything, so did God make it so that people had sin in their heart?”

The Big Pooh Bear

So we went to a yardsale and Sara found this Winnie-the-Pooh bear and fell in love with it. It is as big as she is-if not bigger, but she drags it all over the house. A favorite game is backing up, running, jumping, and landing on Pooh.

I love it when my kids fall in love with a stuffed animal. So much of the time they (the stuffed animals, not the kids) seem like mere dust-collectors. And then one is "found" again and loved to pieces. Sara recently found the Boz you see in the picture. For those of you who haven't met Boz, he's a big green bear who stars in a kids' cartoon by FamilyLife. We had moved past Boz with the older two children, so Sara was unacquainted with the cartoon. After a few days of her carrying the stuffed Boz around we pulled out the video. She was thrilled.

It has been a long time since I've written anything here. The last several months have seen so many changes in our life, I've not known where to start. Where would I start to capture saying goodbyes, moving halfway around the world, adjusting to life in the USA?

This is as good a spot to start as any: my two kids. Yeah, I have three, but these two have a special bond. Best Friends would be a good word. Oh yeah, they fight, but they really are buddies. This picture captured a moment I'll remember. We went camping for a night out in Western MD. In the morning I made the kids hot chocolate, and Matthew got Anna to come sit on this log. They sat there for a good ten minutes sipping and chatting. A sweet moment.