Disturbing Video

WARNING: The following video contains disturbing sequences and material that may not be suitable for young children!

Yes, I know...cruel and unusual. BUT, someday he will be 17 and headed for the prom and we need ammo!

Happy Birthday, Ninny!

Papa took the whole family to dinner to celebrate Ninny's birthday. Nicky came up from Yale with his new "friend" and Jim and Sandy joined us. Missing, of course was Jonathan and Andrea who will be home soon...we can't wait!

Creation Fair

Our homeschool group hosted a Creation Fair. Families had the opportunity to do a science project and show their stuff. Our family did "Things Unseen" and we had 3 experiments. One for air pressure, one for gravity, and one for wind. Our display used the verse, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities- His eternal pwer and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20. We all wore matching t-shirts. (This is after Trevor had to take his off.)

We are thankful to live in a country where we have so many freedoms, including the freedom to worship in our own way and we're thankful to live in a state that comparatively is very easy to homeschool in. One of our biggest motivators to homeschool is to give our children a Biblical world view and to teach them things like Creation. They went from table to table with a little "God's Science Book" to answer pre-determined questions about each display.

This is Madison demonstrating how air pressure keeps the water from coming out of the glass.

As the crowd cleared, the last few kids played. Here's Trevor in his first game of 'Red light, Green light.'

Easter Fun

We've had quite a week of Easter celebration. We had 4 performances of "The Passion of the King". God was so faithful throughout it. Over 500 people filled out decision cards, but many, many more raised their hands to receive Christ. And seeds were planted in the hearts of even more. To God be the glory!

We dyed eggs twice. On Saturday we had dinner and an egg hunt with Colombo's family. Then C4 played the bongos in the band at church for all 3 services.

Today we went to my sister's for Easter dinner and another egg hunt. He is risen! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!

No more hockey hair!

Hockey is over and baseball is on its way, so the hair had to go! After growing it for 9 months, C4 had enough and asked me to buzz him. He looks a lot younger, but I like it!

Let the show begin!

Yesterday commenced our 4 performances of "The Passion of the King" at church. Over the course of the week, over 4,000 people will see the Gospel in the form of a musical written by Brent Grosvenor from our church. Madison and I and about 200 others have worked very hard over the last 11 weeks. The show includes 2 Arabian horses, a donkey, and a lamb. We pray that many lives are changed and many find a Saviour.

Proud Mama

Tonight was C4's hockey banquet...the end to a great season. We were blessed with great coaches who not only were great teachers, but also cared a lot about the kids and were always positive and never yelled. And we also met 15 other great families. I thought it was surprising that out of 16 kids, there were no divorces.

Coach Main

Ninny

The kids all wore jerseys

Anyway, the coach was handing out trophies tonight. He had prepared a couple quick notes about each player. When he got to Colombo this is what he said: (WARNING: the video is terrible. It's a video of a video because I'm technically challenged.)

I was overwhelmed and got choked up. I felt stupid and probably looked ridiculous that I was so emotional over a silly plastic hockey trophy, but it wasn't about the trophy, or the fact that he was the leading scorer, or even about hockey. I was so proud to hear those words about my son being spoken by another adult.

The verse from Proverbs came to my mind immediately. Proverbs 15:20 -- "Sensible children bring joy to their father; foolish children despise their mother."

I guess for a stay-at-home / homeschooling mom who is habitually overworked and underappreciated (just like all moms!) it was just such a reward for me to hear; a nice little pat on the back. Now I just need to remember all those other Proverbs about pride and get back to the laundry!

Trevor gettin' down!

Ok, so obviously the "Cereal Saga" continues.

I'll have to blog a little more with the other kids, but little TJ is so darn cute.

He's doing that martian jabbering. Here he is dancing to High School Musical 2. He's been wearing his coat here for about an hour now.

One of those days!

Two days ago was just 'one of those days'. Trevor had dumped not one, but two boxes of cereal onto the floor. After cleaning up the second, I got smart and pulled the rest of the cereal and set it on the counter. I thought taking the cereal away would solve the problem, but this is what came next:

So, the score would be Trevor 1- Mom 0. I quickly put him in his highchair so I could clean up the Bisquick mess. As I was wheeling out the vacuum, I heard C4 beckon me to the dining room to find this:Trevor 2-Mom 0. Alright, well this is still "cute." While still cleaning, he got the vacuum hose:

AND emptied my water bottle onto the table.

At lunch, I asked my husband in my sweetest, non-nagging voice to please fix the child safety lock on that door to prevent it from happening again. He did. So 2 days later here we are:

Trevor 3- Mom ZERO!!!