BLAST FROM THE PAST Monkey Do

L and E doing school work on the couch while S and G Monkey do :) 

This was taken January 2015. Check out the room behind them. No walls, hallway or stucco. 

Gingerbread Smash

Successful :) Great fun had by all! 

J's 11th Birthday

Better late then never right? 

So hard to believe he's 11 already! He loved his apple tarts and whipped cream cake. 

Reading the invitation from Grandma. A night on his own at G&G's house! What an experience :) 

A funny card Papa made for him. :) Strangly similar to one Papa's folks gave Papa not too many years ago. Humor, strange or otherwise abnormal, does run in families :) 

His very own sling shot. He promptly made a bag for rocks and went out target practicing. 

A book from G&G. Hardy boys. His first one. He's also been deep in the Louis L'Amour box this winter. 

Happy Birthday J! J loves to read, shoot his new bow and sling shot, and help in the kitchen. He told me just the other day that now he can make all 3 meals in the day, and cookies, just about by himself!  (And only just about because he isn't sure of oven temps etc). He's very good with the littler kids, often reading to them or teaching them something. He's amazingly strong and does all my lifting jobs with Papa now. He's working on a origami book right now and has a collection of animals he's made from paper. He also loves to build paper air planes, metal swords and collect things. He also loves to wrestle, either with L on the trampoline or with Papa on the living room floor. His feet are a size bigger then mine and Papa's and he's got about 20lbs to go before he'll outweigh Papa! He loves social studies and science and could do without math (even though he's super good at it) and English :) he loves to make fires in the woodstove and plays some great piano :) He's already decided his next instrument with by a guitar! 

Thanks for being such a wonderful son :) We Love you lots! 

Gingerbread Houses

We made a village this year. Two big houses, 4 little houses, a big tree and a bunch of gingerbread men. It was super fun! 

The finished village. 

It went really smoothly this year with the different work stations for different age groups. I did all the 'glueing' while Papa ran interferace and helped keep everyone busy and out of trouble :) 

The boys house. 

The tree decorated by Papa, G and J3. 

The girls house. 

A little house I decorated and a person done by either J3 or G. 

E's little house she decorated alone. 

Papa started this one and I finished it. 

And I did this one too, with some help from R :) 

E's 8th Birthday

What's that they say? Better late then never :) 

Here are E's birthday pictures. She really enjoyed making her own cake this year :) 

Our horse crazy girl loved this new horse and the book that went along with him.

We had a great celebration night with G&G and B&B. Root beer floats! 

She wanted a dog family on her cake and flowers :) Turned out pretty good actually. Did you know that red sprinkles added to white icing makes really cool pink sprinkly icing? You do now! 

I can't believe she's 8 already. She loves to do hair, horses, playing with or reading to the little kids, tag or any sort of games. She can ride her bike with no hands, hand milk a cow, make toast like a pro, braid her sisters hair, finger knit, hand sew (and a little on G's machine!),  read a novel, and loves to take pictures with her camera. Oh and make pot holders, quite a lot of pot holders around the place these days ;) Here favorite school at the moment is her book study! We love you E! 

G's 3rd Birthday

G was so excited to have OLAF on her cake :) 

Whipped cream for snow and some pink icing just because she loves pink. Pink everything. 

Opening gifts with the siblings. She got a Frozen set of mini dolls from Papa and I, a bunch of random stuff from the siblings and a tea party ( food included) from G&G :) Grandma baby sat for us a few weeks later and they had a grand tea party then :) 

G loves pink, Frozen, coloring, babies, Olaf and trying to keep up with every other child on the place. She's quite the little motor mouth and loves to sing. She just got a toddler bed and graduated to it from a mattress on the floor ( so when they fall out of bed they don't fall far.) G loves to play with S inside and 'wing with J3'outside. She's a very brave girl and anything J3 can do: she can too ;)