Girls Stay Camp--day 3

For breakfast today we took a walk at a local park with nature trails--and called it a hike--because that sounds more camp-ish. And all good camps have hikes...right? :)

We packed a breakfast of donuts and milk and enjoyed the cooler weather. (I'm so glad the humidity has come down.)

I also enjoyed chatting with my girls--and Liam too.
Cailin's favorite books are the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. She told that this nature park is just how she invisioned the setting of these books are to her....and then she proceeded to tell me all about the book she's reading right now.

As we walked we gathered different wild flowers to make bookmarks with. Liam had fun gathering the wild blackberries and smearing them all over his hands.... he's such a boy.

Once we got home after a few extra stops, (Cailin's flute lessons and trip to Walmart) we

put together our bookmarks.

Biranne wasn't feeling well this afternoon (she was very cranky and just wanted to be held), so this was the only craft that we got to make today.
I really wanted to make our friendship bracelets--to go along with the book we are reading together (My Last Best Friend by Julie Bowe), but that will have to wait till Friday because....

tomorrow is water day. For the rest of the afternoon we watched a movie from Netflix--'Jack and the Beanstalk' and then the girls cleaned out all the june bugs from our pool. They are really looking forward to their friends coming over to have some fun.
Oh, my sweet little one, we just sat outside and rocked in the swing watching them work.
Between the thrush making her mouth feel awful and the rash she got due to shots yesterday--she was often batting/scratching at her face-- She was one miserable little girl.

But not this one....he's a mischievious little imp! However, he's a cute one, that's for sure.

Playing with Brianne....and trying to make her feel better.

Delaney has been patiently....okay, not so patiently, but she has been waiting for the night we could roast hot dogs. Dinner was very late beacause I was tied up with Brianne.

I started the charcoal late and they didn't have enought time to get hot...so at 8pm after attempting to roast them over the fire they choose to finish the cooking of their hotdogs in the microwave.

(Thank goodness, Barry was there to help--he came home to deal with some work stuff--or else we may never had dinner tonight)

The marshmallows had a better chance as the coals were finally ready

Mmmmmm, ooey, gooey goodness. I love roasted marshmallow!! says Cailin

The perfect camp treat....can I have s'more, please?

Girls Stay Camp-- day 2

It's our second day of camp and we started our day with 'omelets in a bag'.

I got this fun idea from 2 friends who just got back from our church's girls camp.

When I heard about cooking eggs in a ziplock bag I knew I had to try this one out.

Step 1--add two eggs to a quart sized freezer ziplock type bag. I only had gallon sized ones so I added four eggs and it worked very well.

Step 2--mash, smash and mix the eggs--this is the fun part for the kids.

After the eggs are all mixed you can add the extras to make it an omelet--cheese, sausage, peppers, onions, bacon.
Make sure to get as much air out of the bag as you can when you close it up.
Step 3-- place the bag into a pot of boiling water.
Cook for 13 minutes
Step 4--take the bags out of the water. Open the bags and let the eggs fall out. They will look like this.

Step 5--Eat and enjoy... we made our eggs into breakfast burritos.

A quick visit to the doctor to make sure Brianne's ear infection was all cleared up turned into a two hour ordeal.

Although her infection is gone she still has fluid built up in her canals (this is common for kids with DS, their ear canals are at a different angle and won't drain fluid very well--if at all--on their own) and she has thrush from the antibiotic....no wonder she wasn't wanting to eat much solid food lately.

She also got her 6 month shots. Liam was a protective big brother and told the doctor "you not give my "Beann" shots". How sweet, just a few hours earlier he was decorating her body with an orange marker and I was wondering if he would ever get over sibling jealousy.

So change of plans....we went home and worked on another craft while watching a movie and let Brianne sleep.

We call them Mexican dream catchers--a cross between dream catchers and a Mexican inspired yarn craft.

We also got to make the pens for our journals.....I just had to get the supplies from Dollar Tree. We purchased them yesterday....I just forgot to get the bag as we left the store and I didn't realize it till much later last night. ( I thought one of the girls picked it up. Oops)

Girls Stay-Camp....day 1

I've heard people talk about going on a stay cation before....we tweaked the idea into a stay camp!

The boys headed off for scout camp this morning which left us girls (and Liam too) here for the week. We thought we should have a bit of camping fun too.... and so we are.

An impromptu breakfast at the park was the perfect beginning to our week of "at home camp".

Once Liam spotted the purple dinosaur he wouldn't eat a bit more of his breakfast. He just had to ride that big dino toy!

Mmmmm, a yummy breakfast of applesauce and cereal for me!



After breakfast we did a bit of shopping at the local thrift store, then back home for some crafty camp fun.


We created new covers for our journals using a pair of Barry's old jeans. They turned out quite cute. Liam had lots of fun squirting glue all over his bit of jeans and covering the glue with foam cutouts. We planned to make cute flower pens to place inside the front pocket--we'll just have to get them done tomorrow. Gotta have a cute pen to write with in a cute journal!


We still had a bit of the mundane, real life to do....Delaney was quite sure that having to clean the house up wasn't what going to camp was all about. I assured her it indeed was a part of camp life too.

A traditional camp meal---foil dinners. The girls were a bit skeptical as we put them together, but once they were done all three of them enjoyed it....Delaney hopes to eat them again tomorrow night.

We also made blackberry cobbler in a can for dessert. (pictures of this will come later)

What is camp without sleeping in a tent!?! Since the boys took our only tent with them, we improvised and created a tent of our own.

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't let the mosquitoes bite!
We hope the boys are having as much fun at their scout camp as we are with our home camp.

Just added....(a day later)
Here is the yummy dessert....cobbler (or for us cake) in a can. It turned out well, but it took a lot longer to bake than I had anticipated.

The Adventures of Shadow and the Guinea Pigs---from Cailin's blog

I'll let the piggies get out of the cage at least once every three days. I just let them run around. Shadow, my cat, likes to batter at their bottoms and pat their heads. I don't mind, she never hurts them."Is that something I see a play toy? Maybe I should take a little look." Shadow thinks anything that moves is a play toy. Sometimes that gets her in trouble.

"Before Cailin gets Fiona and I out, I'll take a nice, cold drink." Melody squeaked.

"This is a nice little bed. I'll wait here...I'm thirsty too!" Fiona exclames.

"My best subject? Playing!""What do you need? I'm fine, just sitting here, and if you don't stop staring at me I'll run away,"

"Hi." Melody says."How are you?"


The Guinea Pigs Play

The pigs will search for stray bits of food in the catpet.

"Hey, whats in here?"

"Nope, nothing good."

Six Months Old

Looky looky--the cannula is off!! The biggest news of this past month has been that Brianne is breathing well on her own. I've been monitoring her oxygen saturation rates for the past week and she is consistently keeping them 94 and above. (Today she even pulled a 98)!! Needless to say I'm E-X-T-A-T-I-C!! at this new development. I'm convinced that a combination of thickening her milk to honey thickness and taking Previcid is keeping her from aspirating!! Yeah!! Can I say that one more time ----YEAH!!

She still needs the oxygen at night--those numbers aren't staying up, but that is okay. Baby steps...one day at a time.
She is doing well....loves to interact wtih her siblings. She's still thrilled to see Liam, so I guess he hasn't tramatized her to much yet. We're still working with her to sit. We've got her sitting in a bumbo seat, however, her core muscles need more work as she's not able to sit in it for very long and when she does she's all wobbly--she bends back and forth like a rubber band.

The rash, blisters and irritation on her cheeks from the tegaderm are starting to get better. Thankgoodness, I've tried many different tapes and adhesives, if it didn't hurt her then it didn't keep the cannula in place, if it kept it in place, then the tape irritated her skin. She would also take the cannula off on her own. She could get her fingers under the tubing and pull it off. Once she did that she enjoyed chewing on the cannula. I figured, well the oxygen was still getting into the lungs, just not through the nose.

But lucky for us....all this may come to a close soon. Happy Day!

The End of the School Year...Yeah!!

The kids have been eager for school to end for a few months now. Once May began, I too, was ready to call it quits. We had to pushed through to finish some history, math, and the kids' writing workshop and online course with Mrs. Rife, but the school year did (finally )come to an end. Now, just one more hurdle so we could offically call it the end of the school year....the CAT 5 test. We ususallly take 3-4 days to complete the tests but this year the kids wanted to push harder and get them all done in 2 days. I was a bit worried that the rush would bring about lower test scores, but I didn't need to be concerned at all, they did great--they all achieved scores in the 90th percentile.

The last day of writing workshop the two classes showed off to their parents all the fun they had during the semester. The older class wrote a play.

Delaney's class shared a book that they authored...plus they combined their efforts and wrote a poem....all about mud.

I Am Mud

I'm Sloppy, I'm mushy

I'm sticky like honey.

I smell yummy, I smell yucky

I even fell slimy.

Pigs say I'm soft,

Others say I'm cold and hard.

It's fun to be gooey, It's fun to be squishy.

Mom says I'm disgusting, Dad says I feel good.

I can be hard, I can be slimy,

But it's okay,

Because God made dirt and breathes life into it.

A friend invited us, along with others, for a fun end-of-the-school-year pool party. We had a great time playing inthe water and sun and enjoying a meal of pizza.

Happy 15th Birthday Ryan

15 years ago, as Ryan was placed in my arms at the fragile age of 28 hours old, I knew he would one day grow up.

Everyone told me he would grow up much too fast. They were right. I just can't believe that it's been 15 years since that most wonderful day in Carrollton Texas when we became a family.

He's turning into quite a wonderful young man.

He loves to read--dragons are currently his favorite subject--but anything in the fantasy genre would work--just ask him about Naomi Novik's books, he's read them 3-4 times each in the past 2 months alone. He particularly likes to read them to us as read aloud. I must've not been around him enough as he and his Dad have gotten so far ahead of where I'm at that I no longer know what is going on in the story, but no worries, Ryan loves to update me.

He still loves to play computers and hopes to one day be a video game programmer. He spoke with a computer programmer a few months ago that worked for Disney. He found it facinating and is working hard on math and science now.

I'm so proud of the way he takes care of his priesthood responsibilities in a reverent manner. He loves to visit the home bound members of our ward each week to give them the sacrament. I think they like him too, as he often comes home with candy and other treats to share with his siblings.

(Barry's writing now)--He's still working hard on obtaining his Eagle Scout. The reason for wanting, and working so hard for this achievement is two fold, one, he is very much a perfectionist and loves to finish what he starts, two, he wants to get his learner's permit. This is a subject that is very near and dear to his heart. It frankly scares the heck out of us. But, it is the deal that he made with us along time ago. Back when I thought that it would be a life time before I would have to seriously consider the fact that he would uphold his end. Thus is life.

Ryan is struggling to understand the world of social interaction. To me, a devout stand off and non participator, I hated this part of life. I watch Ryan as he struggles to be accepted and my heartaches for him. For him it is a fine line between being accepted for being himself, and knowing when his Asperger's is driving everyone crazy. I have to hand it to him. He is persistent and rather courageous. He does not give up.

I think about him when he use to go to nursery school. We would walk in with him and he would greet his class with "Hello friends" and waving at everyone. Too bad he had such jug head/know nothings for teachers (just preschool teacher, he had some good elementary teachers). Sometimes those who think they know everything in actuality know very little.

Ryan is a great help with the lawn care business. He is greatly missed when he is at camp or youth conference. All I have to do is give him a job and he is off to the races. I usually do not have to go back and check on him. He comes to me and lets me know when he has completed the task.

'Blow the candles out? No thanks, I'll karate chop them out instead."

This was his "date with Mom and Dad" year for a birthday celebration. Since Barry's birthday is only a few days from his, and Ryan didn't care where we went, Barry chose a mexican resturant for us to eat at. From there we went to Barnes and Noble and let Ryan choose a new book--another book by Novik from the Temeraire series he's been reading--for his gift. He bought a few more with his own money, he even bought one with his sister, Cailin, in mind, knowing that she would enjoy reading it too. Of course Barry came out of the store with another history book. We're definately a family of readers.

Happy Birthday Ryan, we're so grateful that you're a part of our family--we love you dearly. We look forward to many great things in you're life-- and ours-- with you too.

Book Club

This past year we've been involved in a book club with a group of friends. Our theme for the books we've chosen was to take an armchair tour of the world. We were going to make passports for the kids to stamp each country traveled but somehow that didn't get done.

September--The Secret Garden a trip to England (and for a bit of time India).

Cailin was a child presenter this month. She shared her favorite parts of the book with the group.
The kids created many different types of individual gardens. Here is the one on paper. They also threw wildflower seeds to help populate the wildflower gardens of Wildwood park.

Another garden they created was an individual terrarium type one. They gathered items from the creek and land to make their own 'perfect garden'.


October--King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (she's also wrote Misty of Chincoteague)- This book took them from the Sultan's stables of Morocco through France and then up to England. This book is the story of Goldophin Arabian, the father of the famed Man o' War and other thoroughbreds and prize winning race horses.


We made a middle eastern bread--naan for our cooking activity. Mmmmm, just mix yogurt and self rising flour to form a dough. Pat out the dough in a circle and fry on a skillet with a bit of butter in the pan till it's puffed up a bit, lightly brown and very yummy!!

Delaney, Janet and Meredith mixing up their naan dough.

November-- Dragonwings by Laurence Yep The kids didn't really get into this book so, they didn't read it on their own. Most of the books I read aloud to them but I was so busy going to the doctor 2-3 times a week with Brianne's pregnancy and trying to keep up with all the other school and home things this book just got put aside one time to many. We didn't finish it. We traveled to China and California during the 1800's with this book.

December-- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Okay, so I was in the hospital when the kids participated in this group discussion. They had a great time reading the book. Actually they read it over a couple of times so they could remember all the facts for a game of Jeopardy.

Seeing how I was at the doctor's office, (I was admitted later that day), during the group discussion I decided to add a picture of our family's best Christmas pageant ever!!
Here we have Samuel the Lamanite/Sheppard, narrator and Mary on her donkey.

January--Just So Stories--by Rudyard Kipling

Mr. Kipling wrote 12 silly stories telling how various animals may have gotten their distinctive characteristics. Above are Delaney and her siblings presented the story as a play of how the elephant got his trunk.

One of the stories told of animal homes that looked like muffins....so muffins is what we made! Yum!!



February-Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge--We've often learned that when a story is made into a movie the storyline often changes. Boy did we learn this once again with this book. Due to Brianne being sick and the kids just had a hard time getting into this book without me reading it to them,--I thought we'd try to get away with watching the movie. Not So! This book had us traveling in Holland.




March--The Cay by Theodore Taylor We really enjoyed this book. We armchair traveled to the island of Curacao just off Venezuela.
In the book, the 11year old boy, who became blind, learned how to weave tall grass into a mat for a bed. Here the kids practice their weaving abilities, some even tried to do it with their
eyes closed

April-- The Liberation of Gabriel King-- by K.L. Going-- This was another great book. We traveled to the state of Georgia in 1976. This book is about the friendship between a girl named Frita Wilson and Gabriel King. Gabriel has many fears (spiders, loose cows, dark basements) and Frita tells him it's about time that he become liberated. So the two of them make a list of their fears and during the process of liberating Gab, Frita, who is the only black child attending an all white school, learns to deal with her fears, which happens to be the hardest fear of them both.



One of Frita's fears were brussel sprouts. To overcome this fear the two of them concoct a plan to make this vegetable more palatable. Who can resist ice cream sundaes? So they decide to hide the brussel sprouts in the ice cream. Of course we had to try brussel sprout sundaes too.

Mmmmm

Connor and Jared were the child presenter for this book. They took all the ups and downs of the story and put them into a graph. The kids of our group also created their own lists of fears. Spiders were on some of them, but I don't think anyone had a fear of brussel sprouts. :)

May--Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Another great read!

This is the true story of Esperanza, a young girl who possesses all the treasures a girl could want: fancy dresses; a beautiful home filled with servants in the bountiful region of Aguascalientes, Mexico. One sad night, the day before her birthday her father is killed and this forces Esperanza and her Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. There she learns about the challenges of hard work, acceptance by her own people during the economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression. When her Mama falls ill from Valley Fever and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must relinquish her hold on the past and learn to embrace a future ripe with the riches of family and community.

At one point, while in the migrant farm camp Esperanza sweeps a floor in the common area, only she has never learned how to sweep before and other kids her age pointedly make fun of her. We have our kids participate in a sweeping challenge....who can get the potatoes and mangoes to the other side of the porch and back again first?

We had a great time reading, discussing and learning about different cultures and customs this year. Hopefully we'll pick some more good books for next years book group. If you have any favorite picks let me know! :)