Chef Corbin

This little kitchen was a Christmas present for Sofia when she was 2. She still likes it but it’s really fun to see Corbin enjoying it now too:

YUM. EAT IT.

Sofie is now FOUR YEARS OLD

Holy smokes.

Wow. Sofie is FOUR. When I look at Sofie’s little face, it looks exactly like it did the first time I saw her…only different. Sofie is so unique. She is so her own little self and we love her for it.

Here we are out our preschool coop, hosted at our house, when we were celebrating Sofie's birthday

The cake. Have to get a pic of it every year

This one speaks for itself

Blowing out Candles and makign a wish

Check these girls! Watchout!

Sofie told me that she thinks she looks prettier when her eyes are half closed and she looks alluringly at the mirror/camera. Uh...oh.....

Musical Chairs video

Tillicum Village

Our history club is off to a great start. We’ve had 2 very successful meetings and a really fun field trip out to Tillicum VIllage located on Blake Island about 8 miles from Seattle. Chief Seattle was born on Blake Island and it was/is considered a sacred place by many of the northwest Indian tribes.

We could have done with less rain and more sun, but it IS November in Seattle. In fact, it was Sofia’s birthday, November 6th. Dan took the day off of work to make the trip with us and we had a great time.

Here we are on the Argosy learning about salmon from one of the Tillicum Village workers.

Then they “showed us a story” about a bad fox that learned not to hold a grudge, tell lies, or take what was not his.

Here we are arriving at Tillicum Village

Here is how they cooked our salmon lunch for us at the long house

AFter we ate there was a very elaborate presentation with an amazing set and great lighting, costumes, and music.

Here’s a not-so-great pic:

Woops, we weren’t supposed to sit on the totem pole.

Here's the birthday girl looking out into the gray waters of the Seattle coast

Don't forget the bud boy

On our way back to town

A little popcorn made the trip easier for sofie

Here’s a little video of the boat we went on:

Halloween 2009

Well, as much as I was looking forward to passing on the duck costume to Corbin this year, he would have nothing to do with it. At least we got two good years out of it with Sofia and Camila.

Here are some pics of the sugar freak out at the ward party this year:

So glad she was willing to recylce this costume from 3 years ago!

And Sofia was happy to re use her recital outfit from last June when they did Snowflake Serenade

Dan is so grossed out by the seeds he has to wear gloves!

Birthday Message for Grammie

Camila at the 4H Awards Banquet

Well, the 4H season is officially over. Our awards Banquet was last Saturday night at the Grange. It was really nice. WE were not expecting to be served a 3 course meal on blue willow china. I was expecting spaghetti and cheap white bread. Wow, so not the case.

The older kids served and cleaned up. The food was SO good and it was all locally grown on the 4H farm/garden or donated by local growers. We had salad, soup and bread, and then a table full of good things to choose from like lamb, chicken, turnips, green beans, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes…and then a table FULL of desserts! Beats any ward dinner that I’ve ever been to.

We bid on a few things at the silent auction to ease our guilt about not having donated items or helping to set up/cleanup. We came home with some yummy gingersnap cookies and a beautiful big pot of fall flowers for the front door.

Here’s a short video of Camila accepting her chicken trophy. She won a blue ribbon at the fair and her Leader, Lila, is extolling her great showmanship at the recent harvest festival where she showed off Fluffy again with her 4 chicks (which are now quite large) for the over 400 visitors that came to the 4H farm that day.

Listening Center

The kids have enjoyed incorporating the old Illustrated BOM series with audio cassettes that mom and dad just gave us. They are now a regular part of our school day (or at least until we get through them all).

Where’s Buddy?

The other day I couldn’t find Corbin for a minute. I had left him playing with a basketball in the garage while I went inside to do something. I panicked for just a minute when nobody knew where he was and he wasn’t answering us.

Then we found him……

In the storage part of the bike trailer. All tucked in with his blankie and some crackers that he found. He was not happy about being discovered. He was quite content to remain tucked away in his perfectly Buddy-sized hidee hole.

Table Time

Each school day, we start with a song, prayer, flag, calendar, a poem and then comes table time. This is a group activity for all 3 kids. It’s usually a book, a craft or some sort of fun science experiment. On this particular day, it was finger painting and WOW did they make a mess:

Sofie and The Resurrection

We read Charlotte’s Web a while back. If you have read it you know it’s about a pig named Wilbur who is afraid that he will be killed by the farmer at Christmas time. His Spider Friend, Charlotte, resolves to keep him a live by making everyone believe he is “some pig”.

Well, more than once in the book, Wilbur laments his situation by repeatedly saying, “I don’t want to die….I don’t want to die….”

Poor Sofia was truly distressed by these passages and started asking me lots of questions about death. How do you die? Why do you die? Am I gong to die? Are you going to die? When? And then she would always end the conversation in a sad whiny voice with, “Moooom. I don’t want to DIE!’ and then I’d do my best to console her.

Well, then about a week ago, I was in the bathtub reading the Ensign. Sofie sauntered in and stood next to me, looking at pictures in the magazine. She pointed to a picture of Christ (I can’t remember which picture it was) and asked me about it. Our conversation, led by the picture, was about Christ’s death and resurrection. I explained very simply that Jesus died. Oh, He did?? And then I explained that he is alive again. OH HE IS???? And that because he died and lives again, we can all live again with him after we die.

Her reaction to this glad news was so sweet, so sincere, so pure…I can hardly describe it. Her face literally brightened and she smiled so big. “Oh mommy! That makes me so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

And for one second I was able to look into a child’s heart with all it’s innocence and purity. She didn’t doubt or question the resurrection. She accepted it fully and with joy. She understood it immediately and laid aside her fears of death. We’ve never had a sad conversation about death since.

Being “mom” is sometimes draining, EXHAUSTING, mundane and very demanding. These special little moments when we get a glance at the bigger picture are the best, sweetest rewards. And there’s no other way to earn them. So glad I get to be mom and be part of these little awakenings in each of their little souls.