Knock, Knock, Who's There?

Saturday night the door started knocking and the ladies started arriving for Lady Bug Dinner Club.  This is the girls' monthly dinner club with several of their homeschool friends.  They take turns hosting dinner and games at each other's houses.

It had already been a very enjoyable day searching out Halloween costume parts and getting the house and food ready and watching the BYU game on TV.

There are so many clever ideas for fun Halloween food out there, but this was the most effort we were willing to exert-- little mummy dogs.

But then... suddenly there was another knock at the door.  Who could it be?  All the guests had already arrived... or had they?

A TOTAL SURPRISE!!  My brother Matt had come down from Washington state for the BYU football game and he stopped completely unexpectedly for a visit.
We love Uncle Matt and we were SO excited to see him!!

Freakishly happy to see him!

Clark loved talking football with Uncle Matt.  His visit was the perfect ending to an already great day.

The girls played spoons and then headed outside for loud screaming games.  Girls this age scream a lot.  Not so much with the boys.   Clark's friends don't really squeal anymore.

Hippity- Hop

Let's begin this evening's sharing time with 2 very important announcements.

1.  I ran 10 miles this morning!  It took me 2 hours and 5 minutes and it wasn't horrible.  Dare I say I quite enjoyed myself?  Yes, I did enjoy it.  21 days until my half-marathon and I figure if I can do 10 and have it not be horrible, then 13.1 shouldn't exceed quite unpleasant.  Hopefully.

2.  I have now reached my first weight-loss goal and have lost 40 lbs.  I'm pretty sure the running 10 miles thing has contributed to this:)

Come on, now, everyone together,
For she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good feeeellllooooowwwwww---- which nobody can deny!

Oh, you all are too kind.

I am missing out on my more frequent blogging, but life is just keeping us hopping.  And when we're done hopping we want to sleep because we're so tired of hopping. Not so much time left for blogging.
Here are a few of our latest hopping abouts.

Little Fay-Fay learned how to ride her 2-wheeler on Thursday thanks to her big sister, Bethany.  Abe has worked with her a lot this weekend and she is cruising around the block now.  A friend/ neighbor who had been observing Abe working with Faith called me to say how sweet Abe was with her and how she wished Abe had been her dad!  He is wonderfully encouraging and patient and the best cheerleader when kids are learning to ride bikes or learning how to swim.
Oh, yes, he's a keeper!

Tonight Elinor was the host and cook for Lady Bug Dinner Club.  I listened in for a bit to their dinner table conversation and it was A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E.  I loved when they went around the table playing Peach-and-Pit.  That's where you share the best thing that happened to you that week (the peach) and the worst thing (the pit). 

Here's my peach-and-pit for the week.

Peach:  I ran 10 miles and lost 40 lbs.

Pit:  George is drawn to the toilet bowl like a moth to the flame, or should I say, like a fish to major bacteria laden water.  WHY WILL NO ONE IN THIS HOUSE CLOSE THE FREAKING BATHROOM DOORS??????????

Holy Moly!-- little boys have a lot of energy!  But they are the cutest little things and they are both fiercely jealous of their snuggle time with mommy.  If one is getting some loves, the other quickly arrives on the scene to fight for what is theirs.  I feel so loved-- so many males vying for my attention.

Now that is a good looking bread stick.  But that's not what I want to discuss.
Cannon enjoys superhero cartoons, but he can only have it in small doses because he really does behave quite naughty if he watches too much.  He gets very aggressive.  Once again, not what I want to discuss.
I want to share a conversation with Cannon from this past week.  He regularly keeps us in stitches during dinner with the funny things he says.

Abe:  Cannon,you can have the Star Wars poster in this cereal box.
Cannon:  YES!  I knew their was a poster in that cereal!
Abe:  Really?  How did you know that?
Cannon:  My spidey-sense told me.
Betsy:  Where did you get your spidey-sense?
Cannon:  Heavenly Father gave it to me.
Betsy:  Did Heavenly Father give everyone spidey-sense?
Cannon:  No, only the boys.
Betsy:  Oh, what did he give to the girls?
Cannon:  Green Lantern Power.

I want to trade.  Spidey-sense is way better than Green Lantern power.  Everyone knows that.

The Fun Stuff of Homeschool

Last week we had our first Kids' Book Club for the 2011-2012 school year.  We have two book groups this year--- the 8-11 year old group and the 12 and up group.  The older group is the first Tuesday of the month and the younger is the third Tuesday.  The younger group will function very much like it has for the past two years, and will contain many of the younger siblings of the original group.  The older group will be heavier on the book discussion, but still have some fun as well.  Also the older kids will take turns leading the discussion and planning the games.  I've become quite attached to these kids and am so happy to have a few newbies joining us this year.

We read Across Five Aprils, a historical fiction about a farm boy in Southern Illinois during the Civil War.  We always read the book club books aloud and Clark and I really enjoyed it.  I think it was a little above the girls, but I purposely picked books that would be a bit more challenging for the older kids.  Clark was in charge of planning the game and a rousing game of capture the flag seemed the obvious choice.  They used the whole yard-- front and back and of course the teams were the North and the South.  Generals were chosen to head up the teams' strategies.

  The Rebs.  A formidable opponent.  Even though the boy in the white shirt is obviously the only one who knows how to stand at attention for a photograph.  He better know--his older brother is in the military.

The Union soldiers.  We had the numbers, but we we definitely lacked the speed of our countrymen to the South.  I don't know what overcame me when I requested if there was a spot for me to play as well.  What was I thinking?  It was really fun, but I am embarrassed to say that I was super sore for the next three days.  I tried some very gutsy maneuvers, got caught every time and went to jail more than anyone else.  And then when I was guarding our flag it was stolen and the South won the war.  Oops.  I guess I won't be invited to participate again.  Besides, I did trash talk some of the kids.

Another fun thing the girls are doing this year is "Lady Bug Dinner Club".  It is so simple, but I think it will be a wonderful thing for Bethany and Elinor.  We just got a few of our home school friends together for a once a month dinner club.  There are 8 girls in the club, but a couple are missing in this picture.  The idea is for each girl to have a turn planning and preparing a yummy dinner and hosting a dinner for her friends.  It's just once a month and the great thing is that it won't take much work for the moms to do-- just a dinner once a year and then the girls get to rotate around to the other houses for the rest of the year.  After dinner the girls can stay and play games for a while. 

I love activities that are simple, but are very useful in many areas-- this covers learning to cook, hosting a dinner party, practicing good manners, time spent with mom planning and preparing the meal, and fun time with good friends.  That is my kind of activity.

Bethany was our first host and she prepared turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Why start small?
For a few years now I have had groups of kids playing over at my house.  Sometimes they have been all boy groups.  Much of the time they have been mixed--boys and girls-- because Clark and Bethany are so close in age (only 20 months).  But I haven't had too many times with just girls.  And let me just say that it was D-E-L-I-G-H-T-F-U-L!!!!!  Talk about cooperative, nurturing play.  As I washed the dishes I looked out the kitchen window and I loved watching the older girls grab the hands of the younger ones and run off together.  They played the same games as the boys--capture the flag, cops and robbers and such, but with a very different end goal.  For the boys it is ALL about winning and every man for himself.  The girls were so darling as they whispered to each other their plans and screamed with excitement.  They were having so much fun it made me wish I could go out and play with them.  But then I remembered I was almost incapacitated after the last game of capture the flag.  I decided to just wash my dishes.