Awana Awards Night

Our last night of Awana was last night--Awards Night! All our kids were so excited. As were most of the Awana kids; they were really wound up! Brian and I are glad for a four-month break (though we do like helping). And we are very proud of our kids for working so hard and learning so many verses! Yes, it's fun to see them recognized for their work, but most importantly, they have all memorized lots and lots of verses! Even if they aren't able to say every verse word-for-word in the future, at least the kids are familiar with them, and hopefully those verses will come to their minds for years to come!

Austin finished his Sparks book one, the Hang Glider book. Awana changed Sparks, starting this year, no more Skipper, Hiker, Climber books for the kids entering Sparks. Now they start with Hang Glider. Austin finished that book, reviewed the entire thing, and finished one extra credit book. That is the most any kid did at his level, and there were only a few that did the extra work. Way to go, Austin!


And then there's Julia. She finished her first year T&T (Truth and Training) book, which a lot of girls did. But she was the only girl who did the extra credit Silver Review, and the extra credit Gold Review, and memorize Psalm 1. No one else even finished the Silver Review. And Psalm 1, the little bit of extra at the end, really wasn't the biggest task (only six verses).

That Gold Review was hard! There were eight sections with various projects . For one she had to make up a three-month long, daily Bible reading schedule. For another she had to say John 3:16 in another language. Another section had her make a list of 20 different names for Jesus and the verses where they're found. For the last section she had to answer the four questions in the handbook with eight answers, and a backup verse for each answer. She had to recite the verse and reference, along with each answer, eight of them, for four questions.

For example: Q: "Who is the Lord Jesus?"
A: The Lord Jesus is God. Recite John 10:30
A: The Lord Jesus is the Son of God. Recite Matthew 16:16
A: The Lord Jesus is grace and truth. Recite John 14:6
A: The Lord Jesus shows us how much God loves us. Recite Luke 19:10
A: The Lord Jesus came to earth as a baby. Recite Luke 2:11, verse with reference.
A: The Lord Jesus "showed" he is the Son of God. Recite John 21:25
A: The Lord Jesus died for our sins. He is our Savior. Recite 1 Peter 2:24
A: The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. Recite Matthew 28:6

She had to do the same thing for all four questions. That is a lot of memorizing!! Here Julia is, getting her first book ribbon. She also was awarded another special ribbon, because she was the only kid to do the Silver, Gold, and memorize Psalm 1.


All three with their awards. Austin's ribbon is at home, and he's wearing his patches and pin for the Extra Credit book. Sparkies are given the awards throughout the year, as soon as they complete a book.

Below: Lauren with her bag of Cubbies loot. ;) Her first book ribbon and mini Cubbie bear are in the bag. After the ceremony everyone went out in the courtyard for ice cream! I think our kids were most excited for that. Maybe. Ha ha. They like ice cream. ;) Actually I think they were just excited about the whole night.

This morning Caroline had to go in for a quick dr. appt. to get her booster Hepatitis B shot. Then we went grocery shopping at Vons. Caroline sits in the front of the cart usually now, instead of in her car seat. Lauren wanted to sit next to her today, just like she does at Costco. Only the carts with a car in front of them have double seats at Vons, so there I was, pushing a car cart around with two kids in the front seat, but no one in the cart. At home I got this picture of Caroline playing. Lauren swung that Little Red Hen book in the frame right as I snapped the picture. I thought it was kind of funny. See Caroline's band aid?

She was playing nicely with her toys until she noticed the band aid. Once she discovered it, off it came, and she was so proud of herself. She screeched and laughed and squealed about it and waved that old band aid around for quite awhile. Silly baby!!! Yes, that band aid is now in the trash. We won't be keeping that 'toy' around for her to play with. Ewwww..... :P

Mother's Day, Digging to China

Brian makes breakfast almost every Sunday morning, but for Mother's Day he made a special breakfast. He and Julia had gone shopping the day before and bought cinnamon rolls (which I love, Mmmm...) and other food, and presents for Sunday.

Lauren made the heart in Sunday School. Austin made the magnet at school (complete with my current age), Julia made the sun catcher at school. Brian and Julia came home from shopping and gave me the pretty bouquet of flowers.



This Mother's Day was like no other. When we were piling in the car to head off to church, Brian noticed the front driver's side tire was low on air. He found a nail in it when we were leaving Yosemite 3 weeks ago), but the tire had been fine since then. He filled it up with air at Vons before continuing on to church.

Since we knew air had started leaking we thought we better get the tire fixed. So after church we went to Santa Maria. Brian dropped us all off at Olive Garden, and he drove to Costco so they could fix the tire. Then he walked to Olive Garden to eat lunch with the rest of us. Our lunch was delicious, as always. The kids love Olive Garden! And it didn't matter that Caroline was screeching, as the restaurant was already noisy before we arrived. She's taken to screeching and squealing in restaurants these days. She's happy and pleasant, but oh my, what a racket she can make!

After lunch, with leftovers, diaper bag, and camera in hand, not to mention all these kids, we all traipsed to Costco to get the van. It wasn't a bad walk, maybe 3 blocks?, but not so fun in heels! The van wasn't ready yet, so we hung out in the waiting area.



This is how Brian amused the kids.


Cart rides around the waiting area. The van was taking longer than they'd said, so we went in to Costco and tried samples (the Olive Garden food must have settled on that walk...) and bought eggs. I think that's the cheapest Costco trip we've ever made: $1.49.

Brian took several pictures of me with the kids before church.

But the shots with all four with me did not turn out. So he tried again after we finally got the van back and drove home. What an ordeal!!! The tire thing and trying to get all four of them looking pleasant and at the camera in just one picture!

After our little photo session, every crabby child went to lay down. It was 4:00 by this time. They all slept, except Julia. But she was more cheerful when she came out after her rest. Before their naps they gave me gifts. Brian had them all go out to the garage, and I heard a bunch of banging around, and in they all came, with big smiles on their faces. Presents cheered them up for a few minutes. Lauren came in and gave me the box of coconut truffles (YUM), and the other two paraded in carrying a wind chime for me. I've been wanting one, so that was a good present! I was a little worried those particular chimes would be too loud, as they were very loud with the kids carrying them around inside the house!! But Brian hung them outside, and they sound pleasant. :)

Brian lifted Lauren to jingle the chimes. Then he went in to start supper (one of my requests was to not have to think about dinner that day), and Lauren threw the beach ball around the yard, and up at the chimes to make them ring.

While Lauren played with the ball and Caroline played in the grass, and Julia played in the house, Austin dug and dug and dug a deep hole. I asked if he was digging to China, and he said he was.

Brian grilled salmon (my request) for supper, which was a kind thing to do, as it's not his favorite. The kids and I love salmon, but he'd rather have other meat, like a steak. Or chicken. :)

Austin gave me his gift in this yellow bag. I asked him what was going on in it. He said, "That's my bed, and those are things under my bed. Those are my stuffed animals: Timet, Banana, Shamu, and my lizard. Rufie, Wrinkles, Crystal White, and Springy are on the floor. Julia, Lauren, Caroline, Daddy, and me are in the house. And we're thinking of you going on the airplane."

I asked, "Am I coming back?!", a bit alarmed by being the only one to go away! Austin said that I was, that he thought that would be a fun thing for mom to do. So that is why he drew a picture of that idea on his Mother's Day bag.

He also gave me this card he made at Rec, that after-school program he goes to. This side was sweet: "I Love Mom!" and me holding his hand.

Then there is the other side: First I read, "Go fast fast fast fast!" And then I studied the picture. And asked Austin, "Austin, is Mom going up in a rocket here?" He grinned and nodded. Then I studied it some more, "Austin, is that you thinking about the moon? Are you thinking about Mom going in a rocket to the moon?!" He got the most pleased expression and nodded again. I had to ask the same question I asked about the plane: "Am I coming back? You're not trying to get rid of me, are you?!"

He said, "Nooooo...! You're coming back!" Again, he'd just thought that would be a fun thing for me to do, take a spaceship to the moon. He told me he wanted to fly to the moon. :D I asked him today when I left him at school, "Should I fly to the moon today?"

He said, "Yeah!", then paused a moment, thinking, "But who will pick me up?" :)

Ten Months

Caroline turned 10 months Sunday. That bear keeps shrinking. ;)


She's a little sweetheart and the most easy-going baby!

Little Hands

Little hands explore. And so do little mouths. Little fingers try to fit in the kaleidoscope eyepiece hole. Little hands keep her entertained for a long, long time.


Little hands pick dandelions... and daisies outside the neighbor's fence. Lauren, Caroline and I went on a walk and collected these flowers. They had to be from the neighbors' yards and sidewalk grassy/weedy areas; because they don't grow in our yard. No sirree. Brian does not allow it! ;)

Little hands feed ice cream as fast the little mouth will eat it. Lauren had ice cream sundae night at Cubbies Tuesday. She was sooooo excited! Here she is with Gracie, seriously devouring that ice cream. I don't know what that Sparkie is doing outside. Sparkies aren't supposed to be out there!

Little hands collect birthday buttons from Cubbie Bear. They give birthday buttons at the end of every month. Since Awana is done next week, Lauren and the other May birthdays got lumped together with the summer birthdays. At least they got recognized. As someone with a summer birthday, mine was hardly recognized. One year at school, in first grade, my teacher had an unbirthday day for all the summer birthday kids to bring in treats if they wanted. And that was the only time that happened. Not that I'm scarred for life or anything. Just sayin'...

Can you see little Lauren in the back? Right in the sunshine?

Little hands found this big stick at the T-ball game. And decorated the stick with flowers. Little hands picked flowers off the tea tree bush, mustard flowers, and other wild flowers and stuck them in the bark on the stick. Little hands used it for a walking stick to hike around the hills near the ball field.

Little hands swing bats, catch balls, give high-fives, eat snacks and fiddle with baseball caps. Snacks are very important. He gets a lunch bag full of two or three snacks and a juice drink after every game. After each game, the teams do their chant: "Two Four Six Eight, who do we appreciate? Lugnuts, Goooo, lugnuts!", as they played the Lugnuts today. But before the cheer, Austin's team said, "One, two, three, Happy Mother's Day!" So cute. There was a collective "Awwwww...." heard in the stands. :)

And baby sister's little hands are always good for sucking on. At least she thinks so.

Everyday Play

The other day Austin built this racetrack. He said it's for Timet, his turtle. The next day he'd added Rufie and Shamu to the stands. The blue racecar he got at Chuck E Cheese last Saturday, and the orange one, Gracie's sister Keeley bought with her tickets, then gave it to Austin.


Austin woke up with a sore throat this morning. He whined about it quite a bit, but I told him to get dressed and we'd see how he was after breakfast. He seemed happy enough after eating, but still complained about it hurting. Julia told him that her teacher said to gargle with hot water if you have a sore throat. He recently learned how to gargle, and thought this was a good idea, because the next thing I knew he was in the bathroom gargling hot water.

When we got to school, he was still saying his throat hurt. I asked his teacher what she thought, and she said it was up to me. I decided to take him home, but told him he had to have a nap if he missed school. He wanted a nap! He told me I've been waking him up too early and he needs more sleep! I told him maybe he needed to start going to bed right after supper, and he had to contemplate that. I also said, that I don't like going to bed early either [just check the time of this post...], that I'd rather sleep in in the morning. But, we have to do what we have to do. ;) He did take a two-hour nap, and said his throat still hurt tonight. And he gargled more hot water.

After school, I set Caroline in the family room to play while I got the big kids their snack. Austin was nicely playing with her. Of course, she loves the attention.


I think Lauren wanted some attention too. Because here they were nicely playing and then Lauren goes and plops herself down right in front of them, and tells me she's eating her wassle. Waffle, that is. I'd shift to the right to still get them in the picture, and Lauren would shift too, blocking them completely from view.

Austin adores Caroline; he often will stop to play with her when she's sitting playing by herself. He was turning her head (second shot) and telling her so softly, "Look Caroline. Look at the camera." And then continued to hold her head still for the picture.

On to other things: Austin and Lauren had a light saber duel.

I think Lauren was a little jealous of all the attention Austin had given Caroline... :O

A new idea: will they balance?

Aha! They will!

Austin's cut on his head happened at school. His friend Solomon threw a pinecone up in the air, not at Austin, just up in the air, but it happened to hit Austin. The cut and a small bruise were the result!

All the kids worked several puzzles this afternoon. And they watched Lauren's new Tinkerbell movie after supper. They'd started watching it earlier this week, but never finished, so tonight they saw the whole thing.