Sunday School Graduation

Our church's Sunday School is made up of at least three departments for preschool through 6th grade.  When children move up to the next department we have a ceremony to congratulate the children for completing this part of Sunday School.  

The First Steps children were first.  They sang two songs for the congregation.  They are always a joy to hear sing.    

Singing "I'm in the Lord's Army."  

Singing "Stand on the Rock", one of their favorite songs.  

Then it was time for them to graduate.  Those who are graduating are the 4 year olds who will be in Pre-K or their last year of preschool in the fall.  It is a pretty big class with about 10 children.  And several of them have birthdays within weeks of one another.  

Eden receiving her Bible, certificate and bag of candy.  

Eliza receiving her Bible, certificate and bag of candy.  

Then it was time for the Pre-K to 2nd graders to sing a few songs.

This song is a fun cowboy version similar to "If You're Happy And You Know It."  The kids love it!

Singing the famous Veggie Tales song "My God is So Big."  Emmet is in the middle in the blue plaid and Ephraim is behind him in the green stripes.  

About half of the 2nd grade class.  They will be moving up to Power Zone with the 3rd through 6th graders in the fall.  They will have a special ceremony in the fall when they received personalized Bibles from the church.  

And then I attempted to get a few photos of the girls after their graduation.

Emmet wanted to take a photo of the girls so this is his shot.  

Congratulations girls on graduating from First Steps! We have already enjoyed reading from their new Bibles.  

Pictures of the week, May 20 to May 26, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

A busy day for us, first church, then home.  In the afternoon we attended a farewell party for a local pastor whom we've come to know through Cedar CRC VBS.  After that, we practiced Bible Quiz questions with our team.  Then we were home in time to see the solar eclipse.  We had a chance to read about it in our science curriculum, too.   

Monday, May 21, 2012

A trip to Urgent Care for 4 stitches for Emmet, which I've already blogged about.  

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The children were ecstatic to find a baby painted turtle in Grandma's pond.  Don't worry, we did let him go.  We're hopeful there are a few more of them around.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I made up a large batch of my homemade whole-wheat pancake mix and then put them in decorated jars with a label.  I would then give them to the children's Sunday School teachers  on Sunday for an appreciation gift for teaching.  

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Enjoying some puzzle time before bed.  

Friday, May 25, 2012

Time with the cousins, which I've already blogged about.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

What's a child to do when the temperature heats up?  Get out the slip-n-slide, of course!  I have more pictures than this one but this one will do for now.  

It was a dry week with no rain.  I've started watering the garden but we're not able to water acres and acres of cropland.  Join me in praying for rain, please. 

Surprise! Cousins!

We had an unexpected opportunity to spend the afternoon with my sister's children on Friday.   The girls wasted no time in getting together and the boys wasted no time in taking a lap around the house.  

A quick picture on the back of Grandpa's truck.  Garret & Alyssa had been to the river bottom to get a load of free sand (leftover from last year's flooding).

Scooping the sand out of the buckets (it really didn't have to be scooped out but we didn't tell the boys that!)

Then the buckets were dumped out to be used later.  

Alyssa is quite the little reader and she is reading a My Little Pony book to Eden.

It was a nice time spent together.  We were even able to introduce Garret & Alyssa to our much-loved No Bake Cookies.  I think they liked them.

The kids enjoyed each other's company and the best part is that it was a surprise for all the children to meet up together.  I never told my children where we were going and who was going to be there until they saw Garret & Alyssa.  Garret & Alyssa didn't know we were coming until we all started piling out of the van!  Fun times!

Pictures of the week May 13 to May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day, which I've previously blogged about.

Monday, May 14, 2012

We were excited to have Grandpa & Grandma visit us for Emmet's ball game.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Happy Birthday to Ephraim!  Wow, 9 years old!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

(Actually taken on Sunday, but does it really matter?)  We came home Sunday afternoon to this:  a swarm of bees in our tree!  And by Monday night they were gone.  Must be looking for a new hive?

 Thursday, May 17, 2012

Another baby tooth falls out of Ephraim's mouth!  He's lost quite a few now.

Friday, May 18, 2012

This is what I brought to my Supper Swapper group:  Twice Baked Potatoes.  I made 53 of them!  Thirty-six for my friends in the group, 6 for me and the leftovers for a friend and my brother-in-law.  This was my month for a non-meat dish.  I hope everyone likes them, I know I do!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

I'd seen an idea on a blog about making your own ice cream sandwiches.  One idea is to use a cake mix and prepare as directed.  And then pour it on your waffle iron and prepare as though you are making waffles--chocolate ones.  Once done, let them cool, cut in half, add ice cream and top it off with the remaining half waffle.  We like them!  I like that they make a lot and you can have a cool snack ready to go anytime.  

Mystery Calf

It showed up last Sunday (Mother's Day) in our corn field.  A golden calf.  And it wasn't ours.  And it wasn't the neighbors.  Hmmm.  The neighbor thought he'd seen an ad in a paper about a missing calf.   We don't get the paper so I did a quick Internet search and found the ad.  I called the number and talked to the farmer.  Yes, it was probably his calf.  It had been on the loose for at least three weeks.  We could tell that it was WILD.  We made a brief attempt to get the calf in with our cows but that didn't work.  This wild calf was shying away from all fences.  Fast forward a day or two.  The owner stops by.  He can't round up the calf until that coming Saturday.  The wild calf is eating/destroying our corn field.  It only shows up at dawn and dusk, otherwise it is hiding out in the trees by our crick.
We did look into a tranquilizer option but that wasn't going to be practical or financially smart.

By now, Seth has our cows locked up by the house and doesn't want a wild calf around them, spooking them.  The owner mentioned that we could buy the calf, if we could catch it.  No way do we want it.  Then the farmer made another offer:  if we could shoot it, we could keep the meat.  That sent me to the phone to make a few phone calls to see if this would be a practical.  Our local meat locker only gave us a couple options:  bring it in live or bring it in gutted and bled out.  Knowing that the first option was out, we started looking into the 2nd option.  After a few phone calls to those in the know, we put together a plan that came about last Thursday, the 17th.  Our shooter showed up EARLY (5:55 AM).  Lucky for us, the calf wasn't too far from our pasture.  And without going into too much detail, the calf was shot with one shot, gutted and bled out.  Then Seth drove it to the locker.

No, there are no pictures.  There are just some visions that do not need to be on the blog.
I'm pretty sure that this is one thing that was not on my master to-do list: an on-the-farm slaughter.  Some things are just better left to the professionals.  Many thanks to those who helped us out with this.  We do hope to be generous with this unexpected blessing of meat.

Stitches for Emmet

Last night was quite an evening.  Emmet had t-ball and did a great job.  Then it was time to drop him off in the pasture  . . . . with Daddy, Grandpa and Ephraim.  There were doing some fencing and repair work to keep the cows contained in the pasture.  There was a lot of work to do and only so much daylight.

We dropped Emmet off and the girls and I went home.  By now it is 6:30.  I'm getting supper almost done, Eden's in the bathtub yet and Seth calls.  "Come get Emmet.  He scratched himself on some barbed wire and might need stitches."  Supper goes in the fridge uneaten.  Eden is whisked out of the tub and thrown into some clean clothes.   We drive to the pasture, assess Emmet's owie, apply some gauze and drive to Urgent Care.  He was in pain but he did excellent the whole way there.

The nurse and doctor were both excellent.  First they numbed it with a topical cream.  Then they gave him a shot by the wound to numb it even more.  Emmet's whimpering a bit but we keep him busy by talking about t-ball, reading Farmer Boy in homeschool, talking about the cows and then we had him recite his books of the Bible: Genesis to Esther.  And before we knew it, we were done.  Emmet has 4 stitches but only two sets of holes.  It's a double stitch in each location, one deep and one on the surface.

Now, let's talk about Eden a bit.  Eden was curled up in a fetal position in the ER chair, head buried in her hands, tears coming down her face.  Poor girl was having sympathy pains for Emmet.  I'm just glad she wasn't hysterical since I was holding onto Emmet.  Eliza on the other hand, was so close to the doctor she was touching him, trying to get a good look at the needle & string stitching up Emmet!

It was late when we got home but we got Emmet showered.  Remember when I said I picked him up from the pasture and went straight to the ER.  Suffice it to say that Emmet wasn't exactly clean.  Dirty legs with blood & cow manure!

Emmet handled it perfectly, praise God!  He was in a lot of pain in the pasture before I got there, but I think we're on the mend now.  

Solar Eclipse

I had heard that there would be a solar eclipse on May 20, but that it would be the most visible on the west coast.  But then I heard it would be visible in Iowa and I wanted to find a way to safely see it.  Our science textbook had the directions for making just the thing to see an eclipse.  It was easy and free!  We started with a long box.  Cut a hole on one side and put aluminum foil over the hole.  We made  a pinhole in the aluminum foil.  On the opposite side is a piece of white paper.  There, you're done.  

The eclipse would only be viewable for one hour on Sunday, from 7:20 to about 8:30 in the evening.  

Here we are getting the box set up.  I was a bit skeptical that this would work, but sure enough it did!  The sun shone through the pin hole and then the eclipse was viewable on the white paper.  

It may look like everyone's having a good time, but Eliza was inside having a temper tantrum about getting her shoes on.  We finally got her outside and able to view the eclipse.  And then when it was time to go in, Emmet was in tears.  He wanted to wait until it was a total eclipse.  Well, that's not really how it works.  This go around it is only a partial eclipse.  If we wait, we'll be waiting years.

I think all the grumpies were due to it being bedtime so inside we went and straight to bed.  I can definitely tell that the warmer weather and more play time outside is wearing out the children.

Happy 9th Birthday

Ephraim's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year.  In the morning he was allowed to open one gift, actually two if you count Emmet's gift for him.

Emmet made a bracelet for Ephraim that spelled his name.  

Emmet was able to open one small gift, a hammer head shark toy.  And the girls each got a Pinkalicious book.  

Ephraim's present was a shark shirt and a leopard shark toy.  

Then in the evening, after his requested supper of corndogs, he opened his big gift.  We went with one bigger gift this year and it was straight from his wish list.  

"What is it?  What is it?"

Can you see the excitement on his face?  

It's a police helicopter and he's ecstatic!

That was all for his birthday celebration on Tuesday night, after cake of course.  

On Thursday, Grandma Twyla came over and brought another present from Grandpa & Grandma and Aunt Amber & family.  

A swordfish shirt and shorts.

Oh, yes!  Just what he wanted.  A Lego dinosaur set: a t-rex and helicopter.  

Can you see the smile on both Ephraim & Emmet's faces?  They just love Legos and so do I.  

Many thanks to you for his gift!

Ephraim's request for a birthday meal and for losing a tooth last week was to eat out at a local asian buffet restaurant.  They love it there and we've only been two or three times.  So, after Emmet's t-ball game, well went out for supper together.  All the way there they were talking about what they wanted to eat.  And we definitely got our money's worth because the kids made multiple trips up to the buffet.    

Happy 9th Birthday!

Cake Time!

Monday night, after Emmet's T-Ball game we set right to the task of decorating Ephraim's birthday cake.  His birthday would be the next day on Tuesday, May 15.  Ephraim drew the design on a piece of paper:  It would be a humpback whale tale with the #9.  And as an added bonus, Ephraim did most of the decorating!

Here is the finished cake.  Chocolate cake with blue frosting (the water), white frosting for the clouds and #9 and black for the whale tale and the little black blob in the upper corner is Emmet's sea turtle that he requested be on the cake. 

Happy 9th Birthday Ephraim!  We love you!

Mother's Day Gifts

I got some nice homemade cards from my children for Mother's Day.  They made them in Sunday School and they are precious!  Ephraim also  had a jar full of Skittles with a note about making each day colorful.  Emmet's handprint card read "A mother holds her child's hand for a little while but she holds their heart forever."  And the girls had a flower craft with their photo on it.  Seth got me the plant to put outside.  Church gave us all a bookmark and I got  nice card from my parents.  I am blessed.  

For our moms, I made Bird's Nest Necklaces.  I've seen one necklace like this before and liked it.  So I looked online for a do-it-yourself option instead of buying them.  It really wasn't that complicated.  For Seth's mom I did the eggs in yellow, green & blue, one for each grandchild.  

For my mom, I used six white beads, one for each grandchild. 

I think they liked them!

 For myself, I made one with four white beads. Obviously it is a necklace that you could customize the colors of the beads, the chain & even the wire.  They were fun to make and I am pleased with how they turned out.