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Earlier this year I started both Miriam and Evan on doing daily chores.
For the most part this has gone well, but Miriam needed a little
motivation. Especially, in the good attitude department! It seems at age 5
chores are no longer "fun". Sooooo... enter the Reward Chart. Each
child gets a sticker for doing their chore to the best of their ability
and with a good attitude. (For the record, not doing the chore is not
an option!) Anyway, Miriam gets to watch a movie during the younger kids
rest/nap time, IF she has 4+ stickers on a given day. Then if at the
end of the week she has 4+ days of 4+ stickers, she gets ice cream as a
treat. Right now Evan only earns stickers (he gets ice cream if Miriam
does). We are two weeks into this system, and it is working pretty well
so far!  Here are picture of the charts, including the chore charts which list what they need to do.

Note: "School Work" is listed on Miriam's chart not because it is a chore, but to help her have a good attitude and to work hard.  "Dry Night" is listed on Evan's just to encourage him (and he has been doing really well!)

It's not been the best year for gardening with not enough rain then too much, but somethings have done well enough. The sunflowers look lovely, for example. :)

 

The blueberries have also done well thanks to the rain arriving just in time.

 

The tomatoes loved the dry weather we had early on so they are doing well too.

Meet Lisa.... the sweetest little calico kitten. She is Miriam's kitten promised to her for her 5th birthday. Miriam is learning to be a good mistress, and Lisa puts up with a lot of being drug around! Momma keeps a watchful eye to be sure both girlie and kitty get enough rest and are safe (it was touch and go the first few nights on the rest part!) :) Lisa is 9 weeks old, and Miriam named her after the little girl in the Corduroy books. I hope the two of them have many happy years together.

My children have something very special. Something few children have
these days. Each has two siblings very close to them in age with whom
they spend 99% of every waking hour.  They have two built in BFFs...
not just this year in school, or for most of their childhood, but, God
willing, for the next 80+ years. Yes, sometimes it is hard having three
young children with only 29 months difference in age from eldest to
youngest. Yes, it would be easier to send them all away to preschool
rather then to keep them with me (but I don't believe for a minute that
that would be in their best interest). And yes, they do fight and tease
each other, but far more often they love each other deeply, watch out
for each other, and play together well. Yes, they really do have
something wonderful and special, and I am so blessed to be their mother!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am happy to report that thanks to our wonderful webslave (a.k.a Daddy), Westhaven Kids has seven new pictures in the header.  Enjoy! I am. :D

We just got back from a week at the farm visiting Mimmi. The kids had a wonderful time.

Plenty of water play...

Lots of swinging...

Plenty of playing with Taffy, the dog...

Lots of popsicles gave their lives....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some people took mud bathes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was lots of running free in open spaces...

And Katie got lots of wagon rides...

There was playing at a couple of parks...

There was bike and trike riding...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuteness abounded...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a zoo trip with giraffe feeding...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and train riding and playing on the toy train...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and goat petting and brushing...

and water pumping...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and play exploring....

and carousel riding...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and some people came out of their shell!

There were other adventures as well, like an airshow and a festival
with carnival rides plus 4th of July fireworks. Might have been too
much fun actually. :)

I've been rather neglectful of the blog lately. And, as a result, am playing catch up! Look for a lot of new posts dated in May and June (though I am writing them now) to keep things in the right time frames.

I found this wonderful video blog of Ethiopia. It's eight minutes long and so worth watching. I can not wait to go back. Yet it also makes me cry at all my daughter has lost.

As those who have been around awhile know, I like to make a special cake for each of my children on their birthday. In the past, I've done coordinating Sesame Street cakes for M & E, a candyland cake, Elmo, Veggie tales cakes, a barn cake, and an ice cream cone cake.

This year Evan asked for a Toy Story cake. (He LOVES Buzz and Woody). So, I did Andy's Room. I made a half sheet cake and covered it with fondant (this was my first time working with fondant). I used MM fondant made from this recipe. I added a small rectangular cake for a bed, covered with a fondant "bedspread" and made a headboard out of fondant, graham crackers, and pretzel sticks. I added fondant stars to the base for decoration. I also added miniature character toys I bought (they were easy to find thanks to the new movie coming out!) As you can see, Evan loved it!