Wednesday, October 30th

Lincoln had been feeling a bit puny all week, but seemed to be on the mend Wednesday.  We kept things low-key (as much as they ever are here!) to make sure he could get some extra rest and feel up to trick-or-treating the following day.  The girls did school and spent quite a long time on a sewing project of their own creation.

Jim had a great surprise for me Wednesday morning - the previous day he had been in-town and stopped by Ikea for two things I'd really been wanting to pick up.  One thing was for the office space in our room, and the other was a new Ikea highchair for Waverly!  He put it together and we plunked her down in there.  In my mind, I had imagined her being much tinier in the seat, but nope - she fit great.  At first she was all, "Whoa! What is this?"

A big ol' smile soon followed... 

And pretty much stayed plastered on for quite a while - I think she enjoys the better view and having the tray to whack around on :-)  She definitely says, "Thanks, daddy!"

 The girls need a dedicated sewing teacher - they're so eager to learn but I have already taught them the two things I know how to do!  I think I am going to look into kids' classes at a JoAnn Fabrics or similar, or nag one of my crafty friends to teach a little co-op class.  The girls really enjoy messing around and creating their own little sewing projects.

Just in the nick of time, Jim's Halloween costume came - Lincoln had asked and asked his daddy to dress up like Captain America so that he (Linc) could be James Rogers, Captain America's son (from the movie Next Avengers).  He was just BEAMING when Jim strolled out of his office wearing the full gear :-)

Scarlett's finished dress that she made herself (the sleeves are a red shirt she's wearing underneath the red dress).  She is very proud of it and it is currently hanging in her closet!

Friday, July 19th

With nothing on the agenda for Friday other than an airport run to pick up Grammie (woo hoo!), we spent a leisurely morning playing and learning.  I love the games the kids come up for themselves, and more often than not they invent things to do.  If it's true that "only boring people get bored," then my kids are the least boring people in the world!  haha  They always have plans :-)

Difficult to see, but Victoria spent thirty minutes using yarn and tape to build an elaborate spiderweb on the floor.  She was inspired by a Curious George episode from the night before, and it was the first thing she wanted to do when she rolled out of bed.

I set Lincoln up with the bin of bears - he was supposed to sort them and line them up while I worked with Scarlett on her reading and math (Scarlett finished the final third of the 'Olivia and the School Carnival' book we'd worked on all week).  Victoria abandoned her spiderweb to join her brother and the bears :-)

I love seeing what they do with the bears - I never know how they'll organize them!  Victoria sorted hers by color (not by size) and formed them into regiments.  Lincoln, on the other hand, made a loooong winding line out of his bears, who were sorted by size with occasional clusters of color groups.

Victoria started her new book "The Red Hen" and completed half of the pages, saving the other half for the next time. 

The girls asked if they could get their sewing kit out and work on dresses for their dolls, so we got all set up and spent almost an hour crafting dresses. Mostly they like to do it all themselves, but need me to help them thread their needles.  

Waverly was such a good girl and hung out on the table watching me thread needles and staring at the animals on the bar of her bouncy seat (thanks to the Youngs for letting us borrow this!).

I let Scarlett "sew" for a while before offering to teach her how to do a whipstitch.  Above is the example of her sewing free style.

We took out that thread and she started over.  Above is her whipstitch - super improvement!  Now that I've exhausted all of my sewing skill with that one bit of instruction, we're going to have to find someone that could actually teach the girls how to properly sew :-)

It was lunchtime and Victoria was still in her jammies!  She didn't end up getting dressed until mid-afternoon, but sometimes you just need a day like that.  Even in her jammies, she still makes some awesome PB&Js - both girls worked to make their (and Lincoln's) lunch.

We had to make a stop by Walmart before heading to the airport.  Lincoln saw these flowers and said, "They're SO BOOTIFUL!  We have to buy these for Nana!"  He is so sweet :-)  I told him we couldn't buy them for her but we could take a picture and send it to her so she knew that he was thinking of her.

Yay!  Grammie was back home safely - her and Waverly needed a long time to make eyes at each other :-)  It seems hard to believe, but you could tell that Waverly recognized her and she gave her a little smile!

I'm so thankful that the vast majority of the time my kids get along so well - they genuinely love one another and are best friends.  But... sometimes, they also wail on each other.  Scarlett had been aggravating Lincoln for a good, long while after dinner, and he asked her to stop and she didn't.  So, he took his little miniature bat and whacked her upside the head with it - as you can see from the picture she has a nice raised/red lump next to her eye.  Lincoln, of course, got a major reprimand for that, but it did also give me the chance to chat with Scarlett (once I loved on her and helped her get calmed down - she was understandably upset).  I let her know that it was NOT her fault that Lincoln hit her with the bat, however, in life we do not always get to choose the consequences for our actions.  You always have the choice to keep pressing someone's buttons, but you can't always predict how they will respond, and so maybe it's better to respect their requests to stop... otherwise you might end up with a bat to the face from someone with poor impulse control!

They made up, and after a run to Kroger with daddy they returned with tiny ice cream treats for a pre-bedtime indulgence :-)