field trip: crayola

the week before christmas a friend from mops and i took some of our kids (her youngest 3 of 5 girls and 3 of my youngest 4) to the crayola factory. despite driving through squall like conditions only to have it dry at crayola and at home (strange weather....) and a few wrong turns, we had a really fun time, and had almost the whole factory to ourselves.

christmas

our lifelong friends, the snyders, attended christmas eve service with our family and then came back to the house.. we love the snyders! mom and jerry were here too and they KNOW we love them!


and olivia and keri:

happy last year in your teens, karis!

last night the favor of the Lord was upon us as we waited for karis' best friend, sara, to fly in from tallahassee. the snow was coming down fiercely and blowing all around us, the philadelphia airport was closed, but we were able to get her from harrisburg with no problem. thank you, Lord!



this morning we slept in a bit (schools are closed for all the blowing and drifting of our measely 3" but it is nasty out) and so we had cake for breakfast. sara brought a monogrammed license plate for k's car (so cute!) and we gave her a gps system and yoga pants.



we are thankful for good friends, great family and an abundance of blessings on karis' life these past 19 years. we pray for God's wisdom and blessing on this coming year as she works so hard at her 2 jobs preparing for wherever God leads her.

we love you karis!!!!

company

last week we had the pleasure of keeping a sweet 10yo girl for 3 nights while her parents were with her brother in washington dc for the future city national competition. her family goes to our church, we've known her mom since she was in high school. alyssa has 3 brothers, so having 2 sisters and their undivided attention for makeovers and hair straightening was a new and lovely experience for her. we loved having her!

girls "club"

we started a little girls "club" for olivia and other girls her age.
the goal is to foster deeper relationships based on godly principles so that when they get to high school (next year for her!) they will be accountable to each other for their behavior, attitudes and pursuit of God.

we read romans 15:5-6
"5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.all while having fun in a low key environment while eating, creating and serving."

this time we made scrabble tile necklaces and decorated valentine's cookies (lovingly made and provided by my new friend deanna). some to eat, some to give away.

also before christmas.....

we are blessed to have an awesome sledding hill behind our development, close enough for the kids to walk. on this particular trip, i was out looking for the wayward puppies (who keep digging out under the temporary chicken wire fence we've put out) and took my camera with me to catch a few shots before the sun went down. their friend, veeble (sp?) was with them, seen in the picture of the jump they made.









at the end of a beautiful day....

more catching up

last month when we had nick's birthday party, karis, her friend brittany from church and olivia went on an impromptu photo shoot around the corner. it's so fun to see what pictures end up on my camera....

karis bought her first car with a little help from grandpa craven.
it's a honda accord 4 dr that "drives like a dream" and has the dings to prove it.

rainball

more friends-n-fun.
football.
in the rain.




ah, youth.

we had the recent pleasure of seeing our good friends of 22+ years, doug and val sheaffer and their lovely daughter, hadley.
the last time we had seen them, hadley and jack were babies (they were born a week apart).
they are in the military, and are relocating from texas to germany (as in europe!).
we had so much fun. and olivia and hadley bonded as well.
we'll miss you, and wouldn't it be great if we could come visit?
and have lunch in paris?

"a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."

"it is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
ralph waldo emerson

opportunities

olivia has the option in her co-op literature class for some extra credit.
she had the opportunity to herd or milk cows.
she chose both.

our friends, the linds, live next to an amish farm and have become friends with them.
they graciously allowed us to come to their farm.
however, the cows were a bit spooked by us (14 children, 5 adults!).
the older amish girls said it was because of our "bright" clothing (i was wearing gray and denim, as was olivia, but one kid had on a bright pink shirt).

did you know you can earn a lot of money from renting your land to cell phone companies?
yup. about $1,000-$2,000/month!
the amish know this.
but they don't want obnoxious english cell towers on their property.
so they only agree to do it if the company agrees to make the cell tower look like a silo.
you can't tell from a distance.

the fence around the bottom is a dead give away.
normal silos don't need large square concrete slabs or fences.

a fun day, and the kids were sure cute (no face pictures please).

they had 10 kids. so cute.
thank you linds and stotlzfus'.

the creamery

the creamery has always been a favorite spot to stop for "penny" candy. but last winter the creamery was closed for remodeling, and we were afraid it wouldn't be the same.
when we stopped after the railroad, we were pleasantly surprised to see they kept most of its original charm, and even added a two sided honeycomb, complete with live bees making honey! (bottom right photo).
of course, the candy is now sold by the pound rather than the piece, and it's a bit more expensive than a penny each :)

strasburg railroad

we've had lots of out of town company lately, and it's been fun taking them to different tourist destinations. when the 3 big kids were little, we would take them to the strasburg railroad (i'm sure ticket prices weren't as high back then, but we had a friend who worked there who kindly gave us tickets so i never noticed...). this day we took karis' friend ashley, but nick wasn't with us since he had spent the night at patrick's.

pete was quietly concerned about the whole thing before we got started.
then when we saw thomas the train engine being repaired, he continuously wondered how he got sick and what they were doing to him (and what happened to his face? it wasn't a painted smile)

karis had the camera and saw this kid. she thought the t-shirt was funny.
(and we'll be homeschooling 4 this year! yay!)

halfway through the train ride, there's a nice, quiet picnic grove that you can get off to have lunch or play on the playground. we always do this, and that's usually a way you can differentiate between locals and tourists. it's not an advertised thing, so tourists rarely know it's an option.

freezing corn

i love to freeze corn, and lancaster county has the best. we always wait until the butter and sugar corn comes in (note the yellow and white coloring) because it freezes so well. we did 20 dozen or so and it will all have to stay in sue's freezer, since my little 'ol side by side does not have much room. thanks for hosting us at your house snyders! and for shucking all the corn darrell and cody! we girls had so much fun!

one week ago today part 2

we had good friends take off work to help us unload!!
we already owe them so much.
they are our saturday night game night friends.
(and sue and i *so* rule cranium!)

we even had a friend from tallahassee fly up to help (thanks, sarah--so glad you came!)

of course, not everyone worked equally hard.
some considered themselves entertainment.

i have tried numerous times to change the size of this picture to a normal size, but it's little or large.... sorry! don't have time to fool with it anymore now....

starlite

we had so much fun at starlite camping resort....

the boys went mini golfing (primitive according to today's standards, but fun nonetheless)
they got to play the first round free.
because cody willingly blew the leaves off each hole first.
what a deal!
nick could not hit the ball past that old sunken sink. very funny.
the game room was also a big hit. i think cody hit the all time high score on ms. pacman.



we did ceramics.
olivia did a ballerina.
haley did a dolphin (and deleted all the pics on my camera that had her in them).
keri did a lion (pete says that's his favorite).
zach did a lighthouse for us, and karis claims the credit of doing the water.
olivia won a drawing for $5 camp credit, and gave it to jack to do a car but i didn't have my camera with me then. mike kept him company by painting a dog.

camping!

more pics coming soon....so much work to do, so little time!

7 things seen this weekend

1. 3yo helping with mountain of mulch


2. forgiven puppies post-baby-bunny-catching
(still upset by that scene)


3. game of wiffle ball with friends
(check out that dew cap!)


4. proud grandparents sending granddaughter off to prom


5. unihibited pre-teens singing "ymca" complete with motions


6. sister love


7. beautiful girls-almost women

living lovely-weekly

this week over at mt hope chronicles we're talking about weekly rituals.
(that's karis on the left, 17 years ago, about 17 months old, wearing a dress that was her mother's)

when our kids were little, starting at about age 4 (for the olders, the younger kids started earlier because, well, they saw the big kids getting to go out....) we started a weekly date with mom/dad. it would be date night with mom, alternating each time with a child-led date night and a mom-errand-date night (like grocery shopping). then we'd alternate months with saturday morning donut date with dad, which didn't last long with dad's busy schedule. but the weekly date nights with mom were a special time (didn't take many pictures). so let's say january was a one kid a week date night, kid choice. february would be donuts with dad saturdays, march would be date errand night with mom, april would be donuts with dad. get the idea? we haven't done date nights (other than some random one on one) since moving here in january, but i know several kids who are anxious to get it going again. this has been one of our best moments of parenting, in my opinion. i love spending time with my kids. they're great people!

that one-on-one time became especially important once we had so many kids we had to switch from a man-to-man to a zone defense. that was their time to share anything and everything, make memories, try new things without an audience and spend some time alone.



again when they were little, we had a weekly family night where we did something intentional as a family, whether it was play at a park, watch a movie, or do a puzzle. this got harder as the kids got older and more involved in sports/dance/youth activities. it permanently fell by the wayside about 5 years ago. i hate that the littles don't have the same childhood as the bigs, but in some ways it's better. the bigs didn't have older siblings to take them to the grocery store and get a treat, etc. now, in place of those nights, i try to make an intentional effort to watch a show with my kids (past favorites have been american idol, what not to wear, jon and kate plus 8. current favorites are survivor, the office, csi miami) or play a game with them (settlers of catan, dutch blitz, norwegian dice). it may not be my first pick, but i never regret pushing all the things on my mind aside in order to spend time with them, even if it's a show i don't particularly enjoy. it has sparked many great conversations and laundry and dishes are still there when the show's over!



when we were homeschooling, we had a weekly tea time where we had a special snack (i was usually the only one who drank tea--the others opted for hot chocolate or milk) and shared a poem from a book, or one they had written. (that's pete in the swing, where he usually was during tea time when it was reasonable to be on the back porch)




and of course we have the weekly ritual of church attendance on sundays and wednesday nights. those days are our anchor days--they help us through the week to maintain focus, and have even helped our kids learn the days of the week.

(olivia with buddies from church in florida)

i feel like i'm forgetting something important, but i also feel like i've been working on this post forever. must be the lack of sleep.....

enjoy your kids!