Thursday, June 10, in EL PASO

Diana had a lab class to attend Thursday morning ... so ... the children and I just hung out around the house and did our usual activities.
Today, we started out with water color paints because ... they are SO easy and SO fun for children to work with! There is absolutely NO mess involved, and even if something spills ... it's only water and it cleans right up! I brought a bunch of the color pictures we have in the resource room at church, and the children painted pictures about ... JESUS! And we listened to our beautiful JESUS songs ... and the children got up and danced around the table ...
This is Matthew's painting of the disciples leaving their fishing nets behind to follow Jesus. Christopher painted about three pictures ~ he is VERY fast ~ and then he went back to drawing his own pictures. I'll post those below for you to see. Christopher is a very interesting little artist. He has a quick mind and a good memory for details.
I took a picture of the "Chore chart" Diana has for the children. It hangs on the refrigerator and everyone works on learning how to take responsibility for their belongings and jobs around the house. I applaud Diana's efforts! :)
The kids have a wading pool out in front of their house. We totally didn't use it Wednesday at all. I think the children were so excited to have me with them that we just busied ourselves inside all day on Wednesday. But Thursday afternoon, we played outside in and out of the water and had a lot of fun.
The boys were splashing a lot in the pool and Emma got pretty annoyed with them. The next day when we went outside to play, we designated a "girls only" pool time where Emma and I sat like little ladies in the pool without those "annoying" boys splashing us ... but then we also had a HUGE water fight with just the boys and grandma a little later in the afternoon!

Here are some pictures of more of the artwork Christopher did ...

Oops ... this one was by Emma!
Christopher is really into sharks ...
Did you enjoy that gallery of art?! The picture above is "Spiderman" and "Venom". Look how proud Christopher is of his masterpiece! :)

* * * *

A few more stories:

I think it was Thursday afternoon when Jesse came home early from "work" that we all sat and watched some of "The Princess Bride" together. I had not seen this movie in probably 15 years, so it was really fun for me. The kids had obviously seen it before because they could recite WHOLE paragraphs of dialogue before it actually appeared on the screen. Christopher's favorite character in the movie is Andre' the Giant. He loved it when the giant spoke in rhyme. Chris had lot of his lines memorized. He could even mimic his voice! And he could match his facial expression too! It was a riot to watch Christopher act like Andre'. Emma was pretty enthralled with Princess Buttercup and the romance between her and Westley. She loved it when he said, "As you wish" ~ and all of us, naturally, loved Inigo and his famous lines about his father.

Thursday night, since the boys had been asking, we all slept together in Emma's room. We made little blanket beds for the boys on the floor. We did our usual routine of getting cleaned up first in the bathroom, then reading a good book together, and then our prayers. When it was Matthew's turn to pray he folded his hands very tightly, squinted his eyes, pointed his face to heaven and said: "Dear God! Please make it so that Grandma can stay with us ... FOREVER." Oh, Matthew ... you're breaking my heart!

By the time we finished our routine, it was somewhere around 9:30. We had been up and playing since about 7:30 that morning. I was ... T-I-R-E-D. The boys are kind of rascally at night. They do NOT stay in bed. They are NOT quiet. Matthew in particular talks to himself and to any object within sight ... constantly! He is LOUD. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, neither boy had really settled down until about 11:00. I was kind of dreading dealing with it. So we had a little talk. I told them that once I turned the light out, there would be NO talking. Not one word. We were going to sleep! I told them they would have to go back to their own beds if they could not obey. And I told Emma that I would have to send her out to her daddy if she would not settle down for the night. I got some verbal protest over these rules! Christopher thought it would be a good idea if I gave everyone THREE chances. But by this time it was 9:45 and the children were very clearly exhausted ... they just didn't know it! So I gave them an extra kiss and ... out went the lights! I listened to them squirming around in their beds, situating themselves and trying to get comfortable. I think Matthew was asleep in 10 minutes, Christopher followed in about 15, and Emma was the last hold out at about 30. But all three children went to sleep without ever getting out of their beds or uttering a sound! They slept until 8:00 the next morning.

I do not usually PAY children to obey. Probably not a good idea. But ... I did happen to have three dollar bills in my purse and I had taught them that dollar trick the day before (see the post from June 9), so I gave them each their own dollar so that they could practice the trick themselves. I told them they had been GEMS and I was very proud of them!