Wordless Wednesday: Yellow River Game Ranch

These photos are from our trip to the Yellow River Game Ranch that we took in November 2011.

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom (Wordless Wednesday).

Overheard: Puppy Love

Josiah (age 9)

It's no secret that there is an intense campaign going on around here for a puppy.  The kids want a puppy.  (OK, Josiah and Grace want a puppy.  Robert (age 14) excludes himself whenever he is lumped together with the younger kids in this discussion, but I still think he'd be perfectly happy if one appeared.)  Jason wants a puppy.  There are lots of conversations on a daily basis that involve the topic of puppies in one way or another, and most of them start off with "It would be great if we had a dog because..."  Here is a glimpse of some of these conversations.


Grace [age 5]:   Mom! It would be good to have a dog! It could be our new Swiffer! ...But it couldn't eat dust.

Can you guess what one of Grace's chores is?
 
~~~~~



Josiah:  We could name the dog "Thunder."


Me:  Or "Swiffer."


Jason:  Or "Invisible."


Josiah didn't especially appreciate Jason's name suggestion.

~~~~~

A favorite book of Josiah's is one that covers most dog breeds.  He was trying to discuss the merits of a particular breed with Grace.

Josiah:  Look at this one!  It's a French bulldog.


Grace:  No, Daddy would want an English bulldog.  That way, he would know what we're saying.


~~~~~

So, why do we not have a dog?  Why the need for the intense campaign for a puppy?  I'm allergic to dogs.  And since I'm 99% sure the kids would want this to be an inside dog, unlike our last dog,, I'm resistant to the idea.  Therefore, the intense pleading recently shifted to an intense search for a hypoallergenic breed that, hopefully, I would not be (as) allergic to.  One of the breeds mentioned was the Portuguese water dog (It turns out that President Obama's daughter has an allergy to dogs, too).  Josiah immediately latched onto this thought and rearranged his glow-in-the-dark stars on his bedroom wall to read 

PWDR

 ...as in "Portuguese Water Dogs Rule." 

I would have taken a picture to share this with you, but it's not quite enough stars to make it make sense without an enthusiastic 9 year old there to explain it to you.

If you have any suggestions of which hypoallergenic dog breeds might be a good match for our family, just pass them along to Josiah.  He'll be glad to talk with you for hours on the subject.  

Hours.  Trust me.

November Sunset

November 2011--Photo is SOOC

November.  Seems like ages ago, doesn't it?  I miss the dramatic sunsets of that month.  I've looked at my photos, and there were several colorful shots in November.  Now we're in January, and if we get a colorful sunset...well, it seems we don't get colorful sunsets in January.

But--

We still get some pretty cute monkeys in our trees, especially on the warmer days.

Josiah, age 9

Grace, age 5

Look who's reading!

Grace, age five ("and a half," as she always adds), reading from a storybook Bible:

Grace has been our earliest successful reader--she's already about 3/4 of the way through the Alpha-Phonics book and is highly motivated to read.  She has been reading on her own a lot lately without any prompting, and found she could read the vast majority of the words in this storybook Bible. 

She has now decided to read "the whole entire Bible" to me.  (If you've ever heard Grace say "entire," it has most certainly had "whole" immediately before it...which is quite possibly like my usage of "vast majority.")

As you can see, she is very comfortable in front of the camera.  ;)  She would have kept reading the next story if I hadn't stopped her.

Our Melted Snowman

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly took a blogging break for no other reason, really, than I was crocheting a dozen scarves and otherwise preparing for Christmas.  (I'm still crocheting scarves and the occasional hat, but the Christmas tree is packed away and the house is nearly back to normal...such as that is.)  

Anyway, about that same time, I saw this cute idea that my friend Kari had seen on Pinterest where you make a snowman on your refrigerator or other large white object.  I loved the idea, and then loved the idea of putting Josiah (9) in charge of it actually doing it.  He did a great job of cutting out and taping up the pieces to make a "snowman" on a hallway door...

and then it melted.  And I didn't even get a "before" photo.  So...here is our sad, melted snowman:

The "one raised/one lowered" eyebrows were Josiah's doing.  Our snowman would have been quite the character if it weren't for the cheap masking tape we have.   ;)

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom (Wordless Wednesday).

Night Light

Grace (5 years old)

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom (Wordless Wednesday), Energizer Bunnies' Mommy Reports  (Wordless Wednesday) and I Should be Folding Laundry (You Capture).

Overheard

Grace (age 5) is doing very well with phonics and is about halfway through the Alpha-Phonics book I've used with each of the children.  She tries to read everything, whether it is on the refrigerator

or on Facebook.  

I don't have to wonder about her reading comprehension because she has a running commentary with everything she reads.  Here are some of the sentences she read today in Alpha-Phonics (in red) along with her comments and questions:

Dave had a date with Kate.  Is that a boy and a girl?  Are they married?  Maybe it was a friend date...or a playdate!

Jane paid ten cents [That's a dime!] at the gate.  Why did she have to pay to get in?  Did everyone have to pay ten cents?

If the train is late, Gail will take a bus.  Does the bus go to the same place?  Maybe she could walk the rest of the way.

~~~~~

And then the student becomes the teacher...

Grace decided to teach Josiah and me today.  One of her topics was Christmas.  She began by saying there were two parts to Christmas, and she would start with the second part and end with the first part because the first part was the most important.

So, she began talking about Christmas trees...

 

And then she talked about the most important part...

 

Jesus.

The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a manger."  (Luke 2:10-12 HCSB) ¹¹¹²