The Mind of Viva

I'm clearing out old (very old, this first thought is from before Evan!) notes for blog posts, and I have a number of Viva gems. Here they are!

 Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

V: "A mother!" *awwwwh*

Me: "Do you want a baby like Lincoln?"

V: "No, what I really want is an obedient baby."

 *********************************

Quote from Viva while playing a game.: "I can't believe I actually like this game!"

*********************************

 Me: "Do you ever feel like there are things you should do but you just don't want to do them?"

V: "No, but I feel like there are things I want to do and I just can't remember them... !"

 *********************************

 V: "I never read anymore at night. I'm busy thinking, and it's the quietest time of day to think."

(FYI: She does read at night still!)

 ********************************* 

V: "Is it true Grandma really loves me more than you?" (talking to me)

Me: "No, she loves us both equally."

V: "Ok, right. Her heart must just get bigger everytime she has a new grandchild. Do you think someday her chest will explode?"

 (This thought was shared between the arrival of Lincoln and Evan!)

Christmas Ornaments

Every year I make ornaments with the children. Some ornaments they love making and they ask again and again to make more of them. Some ornaments are not so well received and I have to beg the children to finish them. I have gotten smarter over the years and now I know to have each child make two ornaments at once if the ornament is more complicated. That way when they say they don't like making them, I still have one to keep and one to give away! 

Make-It Bake-It Ornaments

These were a big hit last year and still liked this year, but we didn't find time to make very many. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of all the new ones this year before we gave some of them away.

Sequin Pin Ornaments

I loved making these ornaments as a kid and I made them with Kara. It's hard to find the right supplies (plastic pins), but I had some leftover from years ago. I will wait a couple more years to make these again with the children. Bentley and Jake complained they were too hard--which is not true because they had no problems making them. Viva made three in the time it took Bentley to make two and Jake to make one. I coaxed a second session out of the children by inviting Marjory to make one with us! (Evan did not make one; he just played with the supplies.)

Tissue Paper Trees

Kara found this idea online and it fascinated me because they looked quite pretty and we had all the supplies on hand. They were more work than I anticipated. It took multiple sessions to make them. Bentley did not like working with Mod Podge. I followed the online pattern and had the children add sequins and rhinestones, but I think they looked better without the addition. (See Evan's tree below.) It was my idea to add stars to the top and a twig for a trunk . Viva found me the twigs somewhere in the yard. She is an excellent scavenger.

Foam Snowmen

I don't like foam ornament kits. However they are cheap, quick, all supplies included, easy enough for toddlers, and a hit with the children. Given all those pluses, I buy the kits despite my personal opinion!

Question of the Week: Life Alone in a Big House

Mommy: "If you woke up tomorrow and you were the only person in the house what would you do?"

Bentley: "Uhmmm... I'd do school work like I always do?"

Viva: "Play iPad."

Jake: "I would do math."

Grandma: "Wouldn't you try to figure out where everyone went?!"

Jake: "No! I'd just do math!"

Viva: "I'd be happy that I could do whatever I wanted, but I'd need plenty of money for food." 

Mommy: "Wouldn't you be concerned?!"

Jake: "I would! Because it's near Christmas, and I need my Christmas presents!"

My children are bizarre. That's all I have to say about it!

Swimming

Viva preparing to enter the pool!

Bentley on the high dive 

Jake on the low dive

Bentley, Jake and Viva just finished a semester long swim class. They met once a week at East High School for an hour and a half. Thirty minutes of that time was spent getting a swim lesson. Meeting only once a week doesn't give much practice time, but Kara wouldn't have signed them up if it meant a greater time commitment.  Sometimes you take what you can get and hope for the best.

So how did lessons go? They learned a few things. They enjoyed their pool time for the most part, but some days they found the pool too cold and they didn't stay the full ninety minutes. It didn't help that they went on vacation twice during class (once to California and once to Las Vegas) and the pools there were much warmer. They have become quite critical of cool temperature pools!

Evan's Favorite Word

Evan has a new favorite word.  In addition to his darn cute "oh-tay", he now pulls out "awh-right" for half of his answers.  It's so cute.  Even more so because it momentarly tricks my mind into the belief that my little Evan is a calm, easygoing, mild-mannered, little guy... which is a fun idea to entertain!

Not that he can't be mild-mannered, if he's in the mood to.  But if he's not in the mood to?  Well... it is best to just abandon any other plans I may have and plan instead to deal with Mr. Evan.  :)

Many of Evan's super passionate moments stem from his FOMO disorder. 

Don't know what FOMO is?  No worries.  I myself didn't know until this past week when I was introduced to the disorder through my Mother's bookclub.  FOMO - fear of missing out.  Google it.  It's a thing!  FOMO disorders are a new area being studied by pyschologists.  Apparently with our hyper connected world and social connections, it's easy for people to see when connections are happening/they are being excluded/they fear they might be excluded if they don't keep up on what's up - so they become glued to their internet devices and digital connections and constantly anxious about what might be happening that they don't know about.

Evan doesn't have that problem quite yet.  His FOMO issues stem from having 4 older siblings who get to do cool things that he doesn't due to age limitations.  He feels discriminated against.

Just yesterday at nap time he screamed for 40 minute straight because he didn't want to nap and instead wanted to sled more.  In our defense he had just returned from one hour of sledding and was an ice cube - so Grandma and the older kids dropped him off before heading back out for another hill.  He was not pleased.

I've told him many of his current frustrations will resolve with age, but I haven't broke the news to him that his siblings keep getting older too... !  Poor little cookie!

Grandma Julia's Day

It was a busy holiday season and it was difficult to find a time when the children were available to do Christmas crafts and activities with me. I got a few minutes here and there on afternoons with no gymnastics or in the late evening after karate if the children weren't engaged in personal activities (chess, reading, crafts, Legos, iPad time, etc.). Finally I asked Kara for a day that was all mine--no schoolwork!

We started my day with them in the evening after karate. We put Christmas lights up in their bedroom. The older children watched three of their favorite Christmas movies--Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns, and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Then they went upstairs to read with the promise that they could sleep in the next morning.

The next day I had a list the trio helped me create of Christmas activities to do together. I chose one activity from the list and then they chose one. We had pancakes for breakfast (their request) and pizza for lunch. We read Christmas books (my choice), worked on foam snowmen (Jake's request), watched another Christmas show (Viva's request), tried to make Lego ornaments (can you believe we lacked the right Legos for the Christmas tree we found online!?), went sledding (Bentley's request), and played nativity bingo. Evan and Lincoln participated with us some of the time. I had a good time!

Bentley and Chess

Bentley's current passion is chess.  I signed Jake and Bentley up for memberships with chesskid.com, and Bentley has been really into playing lately.  He can always find someone online ready for a game and he's determined to steadily work and then work some more at improving his chess ranking.  He told me he's going to be a grand master within a year.  I told him it's good to have goals.  

He's not really serious about all the strategies and details yet, but he is having fun.  And I'm ready with piles of books and suggestions when he decides he wants them. (I'm having a hard time waiting for him to ask!!!) Right now he's convinced that he's *invented* the 4 move checkmate.  :)

I do, however, have to admit that the child can beat me now.  We played a few weeks ago and I wasn't giving the game my full attention and he quickly trounced me.  So I decided I should try harder - and he beat me again.  It's humbling to have the eight year old able to beat me based on his own merits.  It wasn't that long ago I was working hard to throw the game so he could win - and that can be hard to do with a chess game.... !

I'm off to study his chess books - I think I need to up my game!

Rocks!

Kara recently did a science unit with the older three on geology. This inspired me to bring out our rock collection. I started it when Kara was young. I purchased a dozen or so polished rocks and over the years, a few more have been added (not many, just a few). Kara was never really interested in the collection, but she kept them in a tin in her bedroom because they were pretty. 

I really like rocks. I have wanted to take the children out rock collecting for the past two summers, but I have not made it enough of a priority that we did it. I have collected a few books on rock hunting over the past five years. When I saw the children were studying geology I was excited to get my books and rock collection out to share with them. 

After showing them the awesome rocks in our collection, I asked the children if they wanted to visit a rock store. Never having been to a rock store, they weren't that enthused about going, but I took them (and Lincoln) nonetheless. 

They loved the rock store. I had a hard time dragging them away. It is unusual for the children to spend their own money. Jake and Bentley occasionally buy Legos, but Viva just saves her money. All three of them purchased items at the rock store. They bought some Christmas gifts and some items for themselves. I had the children pick out three small geodes to crack open at home. It was a very successful field trip! In fact, they asked to go back the following Saturday to purchase more gifts. At the end of that trip, they were already planning their next visit. 

There is another rock store in town and I am planning to take the children there when we can find the time. I stopped in on my own to see if it was worth a visit. At first I was disappointed because they don't have very many carvings made from rocks which is what the children liked best in the other rock store. But as I looked around the second rock store, I fell in love with...the thousands of polished and unpolished rocks on display! They sell many of them by the ounce. I picked out a few to add to our collection. (The three unbagged rocks (copper, jet, and green quartz!) are from the first rock store.)

One thing about rocks is that no two are alike. Each rock has its own shape, feel, and color pattern. Rocks rock! 

Opa & Lincoln: Lego Buddies

Lincoln and Opa are Lego buddies. Lincoln likes to build small sets and opa has a lot of small Creator sets. Lincoln comes to Opa regularly and requests that they build something together. Opa pulls out one of his small creator sets which has building plans for three different vehicles using the same set of bricks. They will build one of the designs and Lincoln will play with it for a while before coming back to Opa and requesting help to build a new design. This has been going on for a number of months now.

Viva Creates

Viva has an entire shelf in the craft closet because she is always working on some project or other. She continues to fashion different items from duct tape. Recently she made Lincoln a belt:

Her artistry with face and body painting is likewise going well:

Lincoln is a great help to Viva. He is excited when she makes him new items out of duct tape and he is willing to let her practice body painting on him! 

School at Home

Here's a collection of photos from our school at home taken over the past semester.

For some odd reason I have no photos in the school folder right now of the children reading which is certainly a vital part of any educational process! Bentley, Jake, and Viva are all excellent readers. They read for pleasure and they read for knowledge.

Twin Times

Recently Viva and Jake had similar, but separate experiences which prompted Kara to offer both of them incentives to be cooperative. It started with Viva who had to get a TB test. Kara felt bad that Viva had to get a shot and no one else in the household had to do likewise. I could totally relate to this experience. Three months before I graduated from high school the school district instituted a new ironclad rule that you had to have your shots up-to-date or you could not attend school. For some reason my shot records were missing. We speculated that because I was a twin some inept filer in the admin office thought my twin and I were the same person because our names were similar (Julia Ann and Jean Ann) and our birth date was the same, so they threw my shot records out. The end result was that I had to retake all my shots. I was livid needless to say and my twin thought it was the funniest thing ever. 

Viva was persecuted by the same school district that persecuted me about the same thing. But wait, this post was about Viva and Jake, not Viva and me. (Should I retitle the post and continue telling you about my and Viva's similarities? I would, but Kara insists the blog be about the children.) Back to Viva...the local school district demands that every child enrolled with it be tested for TB. This makes sense if you attend school with hundreds of other children who you could infect if you had TB, but since Viva doesn't leave home, it is a stupid rule. Kara tried reasoning with the staff at the charter school, but they are under the school district's big fat thumb, so we had to obey the rule. As Viva is the only one currently enrolled in ASD, she is the only one who had to take a TB test. We told her if she was a good sport about it, we would take her to the craft store and let her purchase some new supplies. She picked out two new rolls of Duck tape.

A few weeks later Jake was in a similar predicament. He went to the dentist and learned that it was not okay for his baby tooth to stay in place indefinitely. It was starting to cause problems for the permanent tooth which had been valiantly trying to push up for months. The baby tooth had to be pulled which necessitated Jake getting a shot of novacaine. Kara was not sure how Jake was going to react to this treatment. Earlier this year Jake was uncooperative with the dentist and at that time the dentist told Kara if he could not work with Jake, then Jake would have to go to a pediatric dentist. After a few pointed discussions, Jake became a model dental patient. However, with this new dental problem Kara worried that Jake might relapse. (Just like with Viva, I could totally relate to this experience, too! I HATE dental work. HATE, HATE, HATE it.)

As Kara had just successfully negotiated with Viva to take the sting out of her TB shot, Kara tried negotiating with Jake to get him to be zen about having a shot and then getting a tooth pulled. Jake was a good sport about pulling the tooth and he received a nerf gun. (Just in case you're wondering, the children do not get special rewards for every painful experience they go through. Sometimes they just have to tough it out.)

Sugar Cookie Fun

 

A little girl at Viva's gymnastics gym has a serious illness and the gym decided to have a bake sale to donate money to her family to help with the medical costs. Viva asked Grandma Vicki to help her make sugar cookies for the bake sale. I didn't get pictures of the finished product (I should have!), but they turned out beautifully! Viva reported that most of her cookies were gone the first day of the bake sale.

We are very thankful for the help that Grandma Vicki gave us on this bake sale project!

Ukulele

Opa continues his obsession with ukulele playing. Every Friday night he attends ukulele night at Guidos and Jake and Bentley go with him. They have even done two gigs with the group! They played a few songs at two different social events held by local businesses for their employees. The group was paid a small amount which went in the group kitty. So are the boys and opa professional musicians now?!

Here are a few uke photos collected over the past two months.

Opa took a selfie the evening he and the boys attended the United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra performance in early November. 

The boys were so handsome, I'm including a second (good) photo from that evening.

Evan continues to love his ukulele, but he's just as apt to play with the tuning keys as he is to strum it. It's a good thing he has his own ukulele!

Viva's ukulele isn't taken out very often, but I did capture this rare moment.

Lincoln loves to sing and play his ukulele, but opa refuses to take him to ukulele night with the older boys at Guidos.

This is an odd collection of photos because I have none of Jake or Bentley playing their ukulele! I will try and address that lack. In fact, I shall try to get a video posted of them playing.

All In a Day

A few pictures from our Wednesday. It is constant craziness around here. But it's all good.

Hard at *work*:

 

More hard workers, working hard at play:

 

Snack break!  While the older three were off at their midday swim lessons (more hard work, right?!), I made brownie trees because it seemed like the right thing to do.

 

Evening.  Gymnastics and karate kids gone, the littles back to play while hanging with Opa: swimming in the duplos....

We made it home and I conducted Family Home Evening, during which time we discussed fire safety and read a Christmas story.  Double points for me.

Survived another day!  The kids wanted to sleep by the tree.  I'm trying to say yes more often when I don't have a reason to say no:

Uh oh!  Not *quite* bedtime for the littles...  (I am an inept parent, it often takes two or three or four tries to put the two and three year old firmly to bed.  Good thing Daddy will be home soon!)  A hunt underway for missing finger lights:

 

Thankfully Grandma, who has more patience than I, found the missing lights.  And now all are finally asleep.  :)

Evan's Crowded Crib

We have created a bedtime monster.

Don't be fooled by this sweet looking picture.  Under the covers are lurking many things:

two pillows
two blankets
giraffy (half animal/half blankie)
4 (?) stuffed animals (2 bears, a bunny, a monkey)
2 finger lights
2 small flashlights
1 light up turtle
1 water bottle
2 or 3 board books
and...
a partridge in a pear tree.

And he notices if any one of those items is missing at bedtime.  I'm not sure how this happened, but I am quite sure my youngest is over indulged.  Crazy kid!