Baylee Girl

It's hard being between two boys. Baylee has to be tough, but last week she decided she had had enough. She came up to Tony and said in her sweetest little voice, "Daddy, all of the toys are boy toys, but I don't have any girl toys!" He looked at me and I kind of confirmed with a nod. I mean, she has had various things along the way, but they seem to always be being purged. She has a few dolls, and 4 little princess figurines... she had 6 but one went missing, and Jasmine had an unfortunate incident with Jacie. So, he decided to take her to Target with him and pick out a few girl things. :) Can you guess who is her favorite parent? She got a barbie with a horse, a little set of fairies that are already mostly missing, and that crazy tiara she is wearing. It is a good thing he took her, because I would never have let her have any of those things, which is probably exactly why she spends most of her time playing with little toy cars and soldiers. I am just not prepared for such a girly girl, I hope she will forgive me someday. :)

Wildflowers

My mom tipped me off to the wildflowers growing near Arvin the other day, and I decided that it would be worth the effort of taking the kids out to get a few pictures. I'm glad I did! We had so much fun. It was an absolutely beautiful day, even though it was a little overcast. The flowers were breathtaking. I wish I were a better photographer, but there is probably no way to really capture the beauty of it without being there anyway.

Bright yellow, orange, pink, purple and blue splashed the hills. The wind was blowing gently and the masses of fragrant colorful blooms swayed peacefully as we took it all in. I was happy that the kids were so impressed. Usually, such things get a few second acknowledgement and then are forgotten in favor of stomping on ants, or sword fighting with sticks. However, today they admired the beauty of it all with me, and I got to enjoy not only the magnificence of this forgotten hillside in Arvin, CA that God lavished with intricate, delicate beauty... but also the wonder in my children's eyes as they experienced it for the first time.

I was prepared, and had my bible with me for just such a teaching opportunity. I flipped to Matthew and read to them, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." We talked about what that meant, they seemed to take it in. I don't know if these "teachable moments" are as effective when I plan them out, but God was gracious to let my little plan succeed. I hoped some seeds were planted in their little hearts. Then, Jaden yelled out, "Mommy! Look! That must be where Jesus died!" Low and behold, that old metal cross I've seen out there a hundred times was right across from where we stopped. God gave me a teachable moment that wasn't a part of my plan, and of course, it was better than mine ever could have been.

Random

Baylee

Heads Up!

 

Yep, they can both hold their little heads up now. This is how I usually find them after naptime. They never make a peep, just start playing until I get them up to feed them. They are SUCH good girls. :)

Butterfly

For YEARS he's been trying to catch a butterfly. Ever since seeing that very first episode of the Little Einsteins.

So when Daddy found one this morning on the patio...

you can imagine his reaction.

Pure JOY. :)

Cool Tricks

Jaden keeps yelling at me from the backyard, "Mommy! Come take pictures of my cool tricks!" He is so funny, I had to snap a few. His "cool tricks" include coasting with his feet up, and standing while riding. He is getting so big! :)

Random Cuteness

They always look so big in the pictures, this is just for perspective. :)

Livie is smiling at Baylee.

miss brenna. (Jaden just typed that, he wanted to help.) :)

It would be a better picture if Livie could hold up her head. Still, it is cute. :)

Why I love our School

While I was at school today, snapping a few pictures, I grabbed a couple of just some random things going on. This is why I love Valley Oaks! It was after school, so I assume that these kids were just volunteering, but these are the kinds of things they actually do in their enrichment classes. This first one is a bunch of kids, all different ages, working on the garden. They grow all sorts of things and help to prepare, plant and harvest everything that is grown. They even get to take some of their crops home. All of the animals are also cared for by the teachers and students. The kids learn so much this way with the hands-on classes. I love that!

These were just some young guys, maybe 12 or 13, working on building a fence for the school. They have their welder and they are just working away. It blows me away, I love that they can get so much experience with "adult" things. Instead of wasting their time in a classroom where they would inevitably be bored and frustrated, they get to learn in a real life environment. I strongly believe that these lessons will be with them for their lifetimes, and am so thankful that my kids get to learn this way. (And this is just 1 day a week!) Boy, do I love homeschooling. :)

Pizza Party!

Jaden's "class", or I should say Becky's roster won a pizza party at school today. :) It was fun, although I think the kids thought just eating pizza and leaving was not much of a party.

Jaden and his resource teacher Miss Becky. :) I think this was when he was asking why there were no games at this so called "party".

Luke, enjoying his cheeseless pizza.

Antonia, before her mommy took the cheese from her pizza. I told her to say, "No Cheese!" I think she is lactose intolerant, I'm not sure why she didn't get cheese. Luke just didn't like his. :) Becky and the other moms agreed that we wished we didn't like cheese.

Taya, eating her pizza. At least Taya remembered to wear green today. Poor Jaden showed up without any green except his nametag. It took me back to my school days, I don't know if I ever remembered to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. I never thought it was a very good holiday, pretty silly actually. I remember, even on the days that there was nothing in my outfit that could possibly pass for green, falling back on my green eyes. No one usually bought it. I left school praying that no one pinched him because I don't think he would think it was very funny. Who knows what he might do in retaliation. :/ He said he had a great day, so hopefully they let him off the hook. :)

Pizza Party Continued

In order to make the pizza party a little more fun, we let the kids go over and play with the animals for a bit. Here are Jaden and Luke being silly in front of the chicken coop. :)

Jaden found a new friend. He wanted to keep this guy. One of the great things about having our chickens is that it has taught Jaden how to handle animals really well. He does better than I do these days.

Jaden and Luke holding the baby bunnies. They were so cute and tiny! Luke really liked holding them until their little nails scratched his hand, he got scared and threw one of them a couple times. It was pretty funny. I remember coming here for farm day once when Baylee was small and she threw one of the bunnies too. I think they are pretty used to it. :P

Antonia did great with this little bunny. She kept asking Liz on the way out if she could have one. They were SO cute! I almost wanted one myself, but then came back to reality.