My Silly Children

This is one of those posts that just chronicles what living with five little ones is like on a regular basis.  

We have family prayer twice a day, meal prayers three times a day, and extra prayers for FHE and church.  Needless to say we practice being reverent a lot!  So when V decided to join us in our prayers, I hurried to get a picture without him noticing so he wouldn't be disturbed.  It was so cute to see him being good.  And who can not love a 1 1/2 yr old being reverent?  Sooooo cute!

Now as I'm sure everyone knows by now, my home is rarely quiet and for the most part we like it that way.  Sometimes I even catch a moment when they are being extra silly: like this picture of V running around with a toy in his mouth, or like when Ally decides she just has to read that book before nap time, or when Vaughn and Joe are having one of their wrestling matches.  I love that my kids make me laugh!

large red blanket + mermaid tail = silly boy

 honestly, it was a very good book!

Joe is such a good big brother most of the time.  He is so loving having a brother the older Vaughn gets.  Can't wait to put them in the same room at some point.  They are so great together.

Love my kids!

Washing the Car

Normally doing a chore like vacuuming, sweeping, or taking out the garbage is one of those annoyances you deal with because it needs to be done so you do it.  Then you have kids and chores take on a whole new meaning!  All of a sudden vacuuming has turned into "a monster's gonna eat your toes" time, sweeping has become the most adorable picture moment when even the smallest child wants to "help", and taking out the garbage is a contest in who can get it in the can before it eats your fingers time.

daddy tries to direct and teach

So it is also with washing the car.  The car gets so dirty so quickly with five kids!  We also don't have the best habits.  We like to eat in the car and throw our sandy things in without doing much about it.  Well, no more!  After all the icky stuff we got out of the car today our habits are changing (I hope).  So this is what washing the car looks like with five kids under 8 "helping" out.  I giggled and laughed and of course, got wet.  I had so much fun!  Not sure if dad did, he actually wanted to get the car clean.  Eventually though the car got clean and so did the kids.

some of the kids listen!

Lizzy gets the dirt off!

he loves water anyway, so convincing 

him to help wasn't difficult

this is how Joe helps

 my kids are so cute!

 can you find the baby amidst the disaster that is our garage?

spraying each other is our responsibility as a family

Dancing!

Everyone who knows me know that I love to dance.  I'll take an chance to get up and move.  So when Chris pulls over to the side of the road on the way home from the Laie Temple, I took the chance.

He encouraged me to get out and walk on the beach.  It was his way of giving me a few moments amid the mass of moments I spend with the kids and with him.  It was honestly, heavenly and I giggled like a little girl!

I danced on the beach, kicking up sand and sending unhappy little crabs scurrying across the whole beach.  It was an unlooked for delight.

Didn't know until much later that Evie got out to watch my foolishness!  What must she think of her mother?!

The Military ID

So it finally happened for real this time!  My ID is gone.  No, I didn't lose it, the guard at the gate took it away!  Before you get any interesting ideas as to why an MP would take my ID let me tell you what happened.  My ID was expired!

Honestly, I had the odd impression that ID's just never expired or that it was so long until it did expire that I wouldn't ever have to deal with it.  I know, makes no sense, but that was my thought process.

Then the methods to get a new ID were not particularly simple.

1- find all identifying information needed (you've not had to bring so many pieces since you had a background check)
2- bring it to a building you've never been in and never will be in again
3- contact your sponsor (spouse) and convince him/her that they need to somehow get out of work in the middle of the day to come down to above mentioned building for a two minute interview to remind the ID giver that indeed, you are still married and a dependent.
4- find a way to keep any children busy for a 20 min wait before your two minute interview to which they may not attend.  (you may want to enlist the above mentioned spouse to hang out until YOUR interview is over)
5- take ridiculously horrible picture rivaling any drivers license picture you've ever taken (don't forget that this ID lasts twice as long as ANY driver's license)
6- thank the office assistant at the front desk for the joy of the whole process.

Ok, so it wasn't THAT bad, but yes, each number was what really happened.  The kids did a great job and the office workers were the people who got me through each step as this was my first renewal.

See?  At least the office provided a place to sit and read for the kids.

They did so well and Chris was kind enough to take off his lunch hour to help me out.

HS - Friendly Notes/ DC - the Family

I so enjoy homeschooling! There are days that are not so enjoyable, but most of the time I'm so grateful for the opportunity and resources to do such a wonderful thing for my kids.

On most Fridays we change our Language Arts work from the regular stuff - it's Friday after all.  They write notes to friends and family.  We even purchased special stationary for our notes.

Evie wrote to her friend Aidan Crandall from Sumter, SC

Joe decided to write to his cousin Parker in Spokane, WA

While Eve and Joe do one level of school, obviously Liz and Al do another.  This Friday they did a lesson on the family.  We made sure to have a picture of our family sitting next to us as a guide.  The girls really liked it and made it a longer lesson than I scheduled so they could build a home and put the family members in their correct places.

 We have a front door, some beds, a kitchen, and a living room.

Don't ask why a dump truck happens to be in the bedroom, I couldn't get a straight 

answer without a mouthful of giggles to garble it.

Hickam Safety Fair '13

This is our second safety fair on our base.  It's always held at the Ka Makani community center and has so far been a wonderful and positive experience for our family.

The community center does a great job with fun activities like a bouncy castle (always a hit), fire safety instruction like stop, drop, and roll and fire drills, free Hawaiian ice and dinner, and our favorite:

 meeting the military police dogs!  

They always do a presentation on how the dog helps to catch bad guys and the kids are so good at patiently waiting to pet the dog (the only time you CAN touch a police dog).

Thanks Hickam for a fun way to remind the kids (and adults) to be mindful of our safety preparedness!

These pix were taken by a woman who prepares the advertising for the safety fair.  She liked that all my kids were so engaged!  I liked that they were having fun learning at the same time they were practicing new skills.

HS - math class

Every day we do math.  Sometimes we play math games and sometimes we do worksheets.  Sometimes we do workbooks and sometimes we learn new math concepts.  The point is we do math all the time.  Usually the kids are pretty darn good about learning and practicing and then, sometimes, they're not.  Today they were doing a great job.

Last year when I was still learning how to home school more than just one kid, we did a lot of worksheets, flash cards, games and puzzles.  They both did just fine and passed all the next grade level assessments.  This year we chose a more organized curriculum to help me not have to work so hard.  I'm working smarter this year, not harder.  

We chose Horizon math because it is simple, straight forward, easy for me to follow, and gives very specific instruction to me (a person not so comfortable with math).  It also allows for a lot of extra practice if we need it, and sometimes we do.

 They really are having fun today.  They both thought today's assignments were easy.

Claire's Princess Playdate

We have made some new friends!  They are the Melby's and we love them.  Jill (mom) had become one of my favorite people and Claire (daughter) is a favorite in our home both by the boys and the girls.  We recently had them over for a fun afternoon.

Jill and I were talking in the kitchen when our little princesses came down to show us their beauty and grace.  It was amazingly cute and quite funny.  Loved it!  So glad God gave me girls.

 My sweet, adorable, giggly Elizabeth!  Love her so much and she was having so much fun!

HS - Pyramids of Ancient Egypt

This year we started something new.  After organizing our school closet Chris was very unhappy with our lack of history curriculum.  I hadn't found one I liked yet or a way to teach it that I agreed with.  In PS (public school) kids are taught about themselves, their family, their neighborhood, etc on out to the rest of the world.  They actually start from the very last thing to occur on a timeline of the world: themselves!  Not my favorite way to start.  As if my kids need more reasons to feel like the center of all life on earth.  So we found a curriculum for history, for grade school, that starts at the beginning, but in a way that is simple and fun for kids to learn.  It's called "the Story of the World" and my kids love it!  We read a bit, we talk a bit, we color maps and use our big wall map, we color pictures, and we do projects.

Of course, to start at the beginning, we learned about nomads, and lands, but we really began when those nomads stopped moving.  So we got to do our first project with the Egyptians on the Nile river.  The kids loved all things Egyptian this week, like pyramids, mummies, pharaohs, etc.  

To help the kids understand a bit more, we did a hands-on project.  We built pyramids out of sugar cubes. The surprise?  It ended up being a math lesson as well when they realized they needed to use squares for each level of the pyramid.  It was so great to watch them figure it out all by themselves.  When we were done I thought the first question would be where can we put it?  But no!  The first question was, "can we eat the blocks that are broken?"  I let them have a few.  I'm mom and I'm okay with a little sugar cube madness after a good day of classes.

They turned out great!  I was so proud of them and how neat their pyramids looked.  They had so much fun.  I had never done this in school so I really enjoyed watching them do it.

 Joe's is the top one.  Eve's is the bottom one. 

Joe's Last PWFootball Game

It would be totally ridiculous to post every week of Joe's football season, partly because Joe doesn't always do a lot of playing, but a whole lot of messing around, and partly because it all starts to look the same after a few shots.

This was his last football game and while I believe I must have gotten him when he scored a touchdown, I can't find it.  Anyway, I'll post some of the game and the awards ceremony.

 Joe hones in on those flags.  Here you can see him crouching down while running in preparation for a flag.

 And this is when he has gotten a flag already and is returning it to the coach.

took a few vids during this game.  this is warm ups at the beginning of practice.

 He saw me taking the shot and paused in the middle of game play to pose for me!  Darn kid missed the whole play to show me his silly pose!

 Joe practiced kicking all the time.  Though he never quite got one of those off the ground and into the sky kicks he understood the principal and just kept trying.  So proud of his work ethic.

Recovering from a stolen flag.  He did such a great job with this concept.  Figured it out and was able to grab lots of flags without hurting anyone.  He had amazing self-control for such a young guy.

pretty sure that's not his flag as I see one on either side of his body

He was so fun to watch.  Actually they all were.  If you ever want a great laugh, watch little kids try to play sports.  I enjoyed his successes and giggled with his silly mistakes.  Adorable and so worth the effort to get him here every week.

sometimes there's a little too much waiting for Joe in between plays, but he handles it relatively well.

AWESOME block Joe!  Picture perfect. 

V loved watching Joe play, especially when he was running out onto the field.  We had to watch him closely.  Joe was just so exciting for him!

Ally….not so much!

 At the end of the final game the kids all sit on the bleachers and wait for their certificate and participation medal.  They're too young for points and mvp.  Right now the goal is to learn the skills, learn the positions, and score if they can working together as a team.  Surprising how well these kids do at such a young age.  Football is definitely more Joe's game than t-ball was.

 Joe and one of his coaches!

 Pat Yuen, Daddy, and Joe

 my handsome big boy!  Can't wait for basketball season next!  Stay tuned!