Riding the Train

On Sunday, we drove over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards to ride the Grapevine Vintage Railroad.

It was an hour-long trip, but, to my surprise, the kids never got bored. Halfway through, the engine uncouples, and goes around to couple at the other end and you ride back the way you came. There was much to see... other trains, trestle bridges, a river that we crossed over, trees, flowers, a cemetary, and more. At every railroad crossing, people would wave from their cars at us. Daniel was disappointed when we told him there wasn't a tunnel. (He asked.) So when we went under a highway overpass, I told him it was a tunnel and he was quietly pleased.









Daniel was in quite the silly mood!







Can you tell it was HOT?







The whistle was very loud. It bothered the girls.

Kaytie was so taken with the skyscrapers that I took a picture for her. They had never seen a skyscraper before, but she had read about them in a book, and talked about them non-stop whenever they were in sight. On the way home, she got to see them all lit up!

All in all, it was a very exciting adventure.

Our Vacation

We are home from vacation. It was the first "real" vacation we have ever taken as a family, and it will always be fondly remembered. The impetus for this trip was that our ministry team was sent to a marriage seminar that was intended not only to strengthen our marriages, but to teach us how to strengthen others. It was based on the DISC profile, but in reality it was much, much, much, more. It was truly awesome stuff. We came away not only with greater insight in how to work together as a couple, but we also were able to apply it to parenting as well.

My Dad and Stepmom were very gracious and almost frighteningly brave as they agreed to keep all four of the kids for us Friday night and Saturday. They had a great time with Papa and Nana until we got there, and then for the rest of the week. Papa kept them busy with tractor rides.

And even let them "drive".

He had them making cookies, popsicles, and funny pictures with his camera.

Can you tell they liked that lawn mower?

Nana let them play with her Barbie dolls. That was quite a treat for the girls, as they had never seen Barbies before. Abbie had a blast dressing and re-dressing the dolls, and Kaytie spent a good amount of time organizing the suitcase. Another big hit was a giant stuffed puppy. It was seriously bigger than Daniel.

I'll leave the rest of vacation for another post. Well, actually, I'm thinking I'll do a series of posts, because they are all going to be very picture-heavy.

Why I have not been talking much, lately.

I haven't been blogging lately because I have been languishing with the toothache. :( So my world has narrowed down to: pain, taking the best care of the kids that I can, pain, trying to keep up with laundry and dishes, pain, and being ever so grateful to my incredible husband for going above and beyond the call of duty to take care of us.
We are now going to be gone on vacation for a week. Hopefully, when we get back, I can get to setting up the schoolroom for the year, and I can start blogging about homeschooling and fun again!

The Dreaded Bedtime...

There was a time, back in the day, when we only had two little toddlers, that we invested a few weeks for intense bedtime training. And we could run through our little bedtime routine, tuck them into bed, and walk away, knowing they would stay quiet and calm in their beds until they drifted off to sleep.

That is, however, no longer the case. Four years and two babies later...

It is difficult to get four kids aged six and under to lie quietly in their beds. Put those four kids all in the same room, and it is IMPOSSIBLE! This is something we struggle with daily. Sometimes, something will work, the next time, not so much.

So finally, last night, I started a new bedtime tradition. I took my Bible in, sat on Kaytie's bed, where I could get light from the hallway, and I read aloud. I read five chapters in the Old Testament, five in the New, a chapter of Proverbs, and a Psalm. By the time I was done, the little ones were asleep, and the big ones were calm. They were also asleep within minutes of me walking out of the room. It was very peaceful, and I feel awesome that we all got a good feeding of the Word.

Aha! And it's free!

Remember when I was wondering about phonics ?
I think Progressive Phonics might be just the help I was looking for!

American Kids!

Here's another paint.net creation! This is fun!

Happy Birthday, America!

Our Fourth of July festivities were a little muted this year. I spent the morning garage-saling, and Dad didn't feel well. I also forgot to get any Holiday books at the library this year... but this is how we spent the afternoon.

We started with a parade. The kids have been so excited that they had a yard to have a "real" parade this year!



Then there was the usual, posed, group photo that Mom just can't live without.

Dad was reminded of a Firing Squad, so he pulled out the water gun.

Then we realized that Oreo was left out of the group photo, so we had another session. As you can tell, the boys were really not that into it.

Then we had some fun running around in the front yard.

We colored maps of the United States and made flags. The white crayons wouldn't show up over their blue, so I let them paint white spots for their stars. We talked about the flag and what each part represents.

We had a picnic, of course.

And some silliness.

There was some gymnastics.

Some races.

And cupcakes to dye our tongues.

We also had some "Fabulous Fourth of July Fruit", which consisted of blueberries, strawberries, and bananas mixed together with whipped topping. It was delicious, but the kids' favorite part was helping to make it. Kaytie sliced the bananas, and the others dropped in the blueberries.

Then we went to the city fireworks show. This required waiting an hour in the van, but that was fun, too. I took books to read, and the kids thought it was great to roam freely around the van and make funny faces. And the fireworks were well worth it. The kids waved flags, pointed, laughed, and yelled, "Happy Birthday, America!" throughout the entire show.

Altogether, it was a great time.