Mommy's Slaves -just kidding

This week I made a chore chart, and put these kids to work! So far, it works well and they're excited to do their jobs and get a sticker toward a prize! The jobs on the chart are get dressed (by themselves), jobs on their job wheel (below), Quick Clean- clean up as much as you can in one room while a song plays, and make bed.

These are the job wheels. Each day they have 2 jobs. They turn their wheel to the next pictures, which I will trade around between kids each week. Some of the jobs look hard, but I just want them to do a little, to learn how, and get used to doing chores! We'll see how long it lasts! Hopefully this will keep working well!

Today our church is having a Harvest Party! I made a Tweety Bird cake for the cake walk. Meadow chose this one from a cake decorating catalog. I'm glad she chose this instead of one of the wedding cakes! It didn't turn out too professional looking, but it was fun. I've really had the urge to decorate cakes lately, for some reason.

I had to include Ashlen here, who loudly screeched like a pterodactyl throughout the cake decorating process! She is growing up so fast! She sits up really well now, can feed herself cracker pieces, and is almost crawling. She slides herself all over! She's a sweety, but also can out-scream and out-cry anyone! She's SO LOUD, especially when I'm getting dinner ready and at night!

Little Musicians

Yesterday at church we had a wonderful, unexpected surprise! A lady asked if we needed a piano, and GAVE us this full size electric piano! She's had it stored in her garage for 5 years, and nobody has wanted it. This is something we have been really wanting for the kids, (and me!) and we have been looking into them, but they were way more than we could afford. Meadow is interested in learning music, and wants to play piano (pianyo, as she calls it) so I am excited to start teaching her! We are thankful for how God provides!! Today we got a pretty lamp to go on it! Meadow and Logan are playing a duet.

Today some sample pieces of the new platform for the church came in. (It's finally getting replaced after many years of good use!) Matthew brought them home to test them out before taking them to the church. Here's some future worship band members- Brennen on drums, Logan on guitar and lead vocals, (he was singing a very sweet song: "Jesus is in Hea-ven, Jesus is in Hea-ven...") and Meadow doing a mixture of sign language, singing, and dancing! It was lovely! Ashlen was joining in too with shrieks, AHHAAHHs, and cries. She's laying on the floor in the background. I don't quite know what part of the worship team she is!

Anyway, they determined the stage worked quite well!

Big Boy Brennen

Now that he's two, Brennen has been really trying to be a big boy. Yesterday when we were leaving, he climbed into the van and closed the door. I found him sitting in one of the older kids booster seats with the seat belt across him (not buckled) and a big, proud smile on his face! He tries to use the bathroom by himself too, and does pretty well...except for one gross little incident...but I'll spare you from the details. Also, every night he climbs into Logan or Meadow's bed, really wanting a "big boy bed", so we took the side off his crib. He's very happy about it, but is learning the difficult lesson of staying in bed!Here's the newest member of our family, Ovino, the albino plecostomus (a sucker fish that eats algae off the sides of the aquarium). Our tank was completely green, so he was very needed! In the background you can see one of Meadow's jellyfish. We got those at the same time. They float around in the current. She thinks they are real, but kind of knows they're not. Her eyes welled up with tears as she asked, "Are they just toys? Are they not real?" It was very sad! I couldn't tell her they weren't alive. I just said they were just like real ones, but they don't eat. Logan says, "They're just pretend."

New Fold Meeting

We will be starting a new Fold group next week at our house for families with young kids! Pastor Dave has asked Matthew to lead it. (Fold meetings are small group meetings that our church does that meet in homes.) We will meet early for dinner, then the kids will go next door to Krista and Stephanie's house! Our first meeting will be on Oct.22nd, a Thursday, which would also make it easier (than a Sunday) to get babysitters if parents prefer that. Matthew has started a blog "Family Fold" about it for people to check for information and updates. Here is the link, which is also in the sidebar: http://www.familyfold.blogspot.com/

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I just added a little more info to the family fold blog.

Big Boys

Today we celebrated Brennen and his grandpa John's birthdays! Their real birthdays are tomorrow. We had a yummy spaghetti dinner and applesauce cake. Brennen is a big 2 year old! He was excited about his birthday. Grandpa is a big 85..I mean 58 year old!

I gave him a lovely crab mug. The crab tradition started long ago. We gave Brennen, our incredible drummer boy, a set of bongos! I wish we could get video of him drumming. He does several rhythms, and keeps a pretty steady beat. He drums all day long, and really is amazing for his age! The kids all helped decorate these beautiful cupcakes.