Friday, August 30, 2013

Thursday, August 29th - Passport Club: China!

The day had arrived for our monthly Passport Club meeting!!  We were so excited to join our friends, review information on China, participate in crafts, games, presentations and enjoy yummy Chinese food :-)  The Thornton household hosted this month, and they did a wonderful job.


Arrival craft - black dragon paper ornaments.  When you used a pointed tool to scratch off the black, multi-colored hues appeared beneath!  My kids love this kind of paper and had fun decorating their dragon via scratch-off.


"Little" Charlotte has been the youngest kiddo in our Passport Club group, but now she's joining the mid level rank ;-)  She is just beyond adorable!  As soon as I got there she said, "I want the baby. I want the baby. I want the baby. Can I have the baby?" and so forth and so on, lol.  So she definitely got a few turns with Waverly!


Our dear friend, Mrs. Lawson - I asked her to hold Waverly for a minute so I could use two hands to tie my wrap on.  Mrs. Lawson put the baby into her favorite position and she totally zonked in about 3.5 seconds.  She's got a magic touch!




Carrie, during board time, teaching the kids about China.  She did a great job - China is especially tough as there is SO.MUCH.INFORMATION.  We could probably stay on the country of China for a year, let alone one month.  But she chose her topics wisely and didn't overwhelm the kids with too much at once.

  She also read "Ping" which was a precious story with a good moral, and the kids were very attentive!


Me and the baby - she made the transition from Mrs. Lawson's arms to the wrap with nary a peep and slept soundly for about an hour.  Babies are soooo tough ;-)


The main craft was really fun - the kids were going to make paper Chinese lanterns!  Lincoln really worked hard at his.


Drawing Chinese characters onto their lanterns to make them even more festive. (N and Victoria)


Scarlett concentrating.


Lincoln's lantern ~


Scarlett's lantern ~


Victoria's lantern ~


I needed to set the baby down for a second, so Scarlett held Waverly.


Smiles!


Waverly's lucky to have such great older siblings! :-)


Scarlett, about to begin her presentation, with her friend Meredith assisting as the poster board holder.


Waverly was happily hanging with one of her faves, Ms. Amanda, during presentation time.  Judd kept inching ever closer :-)  


When it came time for Victoria's presentation, she asked her friend Olivia K. to help her with the board.  However, little Charlotte decided she would be the helper, too!  Victoria was very patient :-)


Finally, we came to a workable arrangement :-)


Lincoln's turn!  Victoria was his helper.


The kids played a game outside for a little while, and then it was lunchtime - Carrie had gotten all of the kids "cheater" plastic chopsticks (hooked together at the top).  These were a big win with the kids and we were able to bring them home.


Such a yummy spread!  Dumplings, white rice and a veggie/tofu stir fry.


Lovely!



Delicious!


Meanwhile, Waverly was busy smiling and talking on the sofa :-)


For a treat, the kids each received a few fortune cookies - so fun!


The fortunes inside the cookies were actually verses - love them.


Back home, we had a spontaneous swim playdate with the Phillips.  I wasn't going to have the kids nap anyway, so that they could go to bed early.  Jim was going to a Falcons football pre-season game with Jason (Amanda P.'s husband), so it worked out well for Amanda and I to wear the kids out with lots and lots of playing.  The kids were all in their swimsuits and waiting for our friends to show up - Waverly was sitting up with the Boppy and Victoria gave her a huge smooch on the head :-)


I love this picture!! lol  It looks like she's playing 'one-potato, two-potato, three-potato, four!' with her fists :-)  


Jim and Jason rode the MARTA down to the Georgia Dome - MARTA is always an exciting adventure...


Jim was invited by the owner of his company to join a special little VIP meet and greet event - they also were given pretty great seats!  


However, in the end they wound up in the seats they originally had since the view was better.  A fun guy's night out :-)

Wednesday, August 28th

Wednesday was a full day - school, lots of outdoor play time, karate and more play :-)


For our Bible time, I wanted to put a spin on our Philippians 4:8 lesson and redirect a bit by challenging the kids to use the filters found in the verse for a different purpose - how we view others.  Of course with four kids in the house - three "big" - we have a lot of tattling.  Overall, I feel they do better than average on this front, but it is currently a work in progress.  So I suggested that we use our filter to gauge other's behaviors.  I put up a big dry erase sheet in the dining room and labeled it "Praiseworthy and Excellent Tattles."


I explained to the kids that over the next few days I would like us to fill up the board with "tattles" of other people's Philippians 4:8 behavior.  The one caveat was that you could not tattle on yourself ;-)  They were intrigued and pretty interested to give it a try. 


For their journals, I just had a simple printout of the verse (each one had a bit different picture).


And underneath we pasted in "Let's LOOK for the good things others do."  Over the word LOOK we glued a little picture of a guy with binoculars.  I told them that just like a person with binoculars is usually studying a particular area, and really searching with intent, we should be looking for the good others are doing.  I am hoping this will refocus a bit of their attitudes toward each other.  Not only will they be motivated to find things to tattle on each other about, but in theory this will prompt them to check their own behavior (for the better) in hopes that someone will tattle on them!


By mid-afternoon, we had quite a few tattles noted down!


So with all of the goings-on, I had totally forgotten about our tie-dye shirts from the previous weeks SASCH event!!  They had sat languishing in the bag until Wednesday morning, but I think in the end I'm actually glad - the colors really saturated through and the results were terrific!  I am not necessarily a huge fan of tie-dye, but I think our shirts came out beautifully :-)


Jim had offered to take the kiddos to karate for me, since he would be finished with work a bit earlier than usual.  Even though I love taking them and watching how hard they practice, it's nice every once in a while to have the time alone (alone = me + Waverly + Gram + Nana, haha!).  For her part, Waverly totally zonked out in the swing - this hardly ever happens, as she loves her swing and really enjoys watching the little lamb mobile attached to it.  She was a tired girl!



Karate!


When she woke up, Waverly was all smiles for Nana :-)


A little post-dinner, backyard karate practice (Scarlett and Lincoln).


Front Kick!


Side Kick!


Evening floor time with Daddy - she can really get herself all around on the blanket; I think we'll have another super-early crawler like Victoria.


So sweet!