Sprout Spot: April 2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

Art Show

Last night Anna and Noah had their art show at school. It's so hard to believe that we're already starting these end of the year events. I was counting last night and I realized that Kate only has 6 more days of preschool, Anna and Noah only have 15 more days, and Ben only has 7 or 8 more rounds of Benji school before we finish his lessons for the year. Insert panic here. But I really am looking forward to the relaxing schedule and I know the kids are excited for more free time. Last night was a marathon sprint for poor Anna who went straight from school to violin, ran home to change out of her uniform, and then ran right back to school for the art show. Luckily homework has been light this week due to standardized testing, or she wouldn't have been able to keep up!

When we got to the school where she takes violin lessons we found that they were having an art show too. Godzilla, yikes. I love the image of some kid carrying that thing to and from school.

Once we got back to their school we found Anna's class first. This was her piece at the top, "The Green Wave".

Kate found a place to rest in the student coffee lounge (seniors only). She reeeeally wanted to play with that lamp, so this is her stiff self control posture.

The art was spread over several rooms and before we found Noah's piece it was time for Anna to perform with some friends. She told me she was chosen by an elimination process - all of the students play and one by one they are disqualified by making a mistake. She made it all the way to the end, so she was chosen to perform in this little group for the art show.

So cute and focused. Here are a few seconds...

(video)

After she was finished we found Noah's art work, "The happy seal". I loved that title, and that happy face. He missed 3 days of school over the last 2 weeks because of strep throat so it's nice to see him feeling good again.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Kate's Dedication Day

This weekend we (finally!) had Kate's Dedication Day at church. They do the ceremonies twice a year, so there have been 3 since we got home from China. Every time they had one either Nathan or all of us were out of town, so when we realized this one was coming up we jumped and registered fast! Even though we dedicated Kate to the Lord long before we ever met her, it felt nice to complete this formal step with our church.

We have been through this three times before with the other kids, but right after Ben they changed the process. This time we had to listen to 3 different parenting talks and answer some questions and we also had to go to a meeting at church with other families. As soon as we walked in I told Nathan, "I feel old". I think we had at least 10 years on every other couple in the room! They asked for a show of hands if it was your first baby, and about 98% of the room raised their hands. And guess which couple won for having the most kids? Yup, we are the champions. ;)

When the day came we got there early so we could check in and get settled. Since Kate is a big girl she went up to register herself, hee hee.

They gave her this little Bible, and she ran back towards me waving it in the air. Then she asked if she could please play the grand piano (no). She definitely entertained the whole room while we were waiting. Our senior pastor came in and read through the list of names to be sure he was pronouncing them correctly. When he read Kate's name she raised her hand and yelled out, "Me!" and he said he was going to be sure to get it right because she was paying attention.

The ceremony itself went fine. She was a little antsy on stage, but she ended up just putting her chin on my shoulder and watching the monitor behind us while we waited for other families to file in. She waved at the congregation a few times, but was mostly bored with it. When it was over she told us, "Dat take so long! I so tired!", ha! Being carried around is exhausting. As we left the choir room she waved and yelled, "Bye, Dave!" to our pastor. He was cracking up!

Grandma and grandpa got a family photo for us once we got outside. Ben's little squinty sunshine face cracks me up!

Overall it was a nice and calm day. As we sat in the back room waiting to go out, I had to laugh. We've done this now with three infants and one preschooler and man, was it easier with a preschooler! All around me were moms and dads trying to get in that last bottle, that last burp, change that last diaper and get that pretty outfit on before they had to walk out. As we stood in line just off stage the mom in front of us passed her baby to the dad and made a comment about the baby spitting up and them having nothing to clean it off their clothes. Oh, I remembered that feeling! I remember worrying about Anna's dress being wrinkled and the boys not keeping their little hats on. It was so nice to just tell Kate what was happening and go on with it. She did get bored and a little whiney, but she was easy to distract.

Like I said, this was more of a formality than anything. We've been praying over Kate since before we even saw her face, and we've been dedicated to raising her to know Jesus for just as long. But it was a nice day to reflect on that and what a blessing her little life is to all of us!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Gerbil Star Wars Party

Anna and Noah's birthdays are only 12 days apart, so they have always shared a family party. Well, I gave Noah his own 1st birthday out of guilt, but from then on we've only asked family to come to one party. Most years Anna has pushed for a certain theme, and laid back Noah has just agreed. It helps that she's never been super girly and has chosen themes like ocean animals and dinosaurs. Man I loved that dinosaur party, but I haven't done that much work for a party since then, ha! This year Anna wanted gerbils theme and Noah wanted Star Wars so I knew right away I wouldn't be doing too much because there's just not really any way to combine those themes in decorations, etc. Not with just a week or two notice anyway! My sweet friend who makes the cakes suggested cupcakes instead of trying to combine themes into one cake, so we went with that. They were adorable and the kids loved them. We invited just family and Nathan grilled, so easy.

I wedged some candles in behind the cute fondant decorations and we sang to the two birthday kids. I loved how Anna was smiling at Noah.

We only had room for one candle per cupcake. Together they would have had 20 candles this year! When Noah blew his out he accidentally got Anna's too. Luckily, she thought it was hilarious.

Noah asked for "Star Wars stuff", so that's what he got. I think he had the 4-5 new Lego sets completely assembled before he even went to bed that night.

When I would ask Anna what she wanted she kept describing things for her gerbils, "Oh, tell grandma to get me a small wooden bridge. Tell Amy to get me some little granola treats", etc. Finally I just told people to get her some pet store gift cards so she can shop for her own gerbils. They're just about out of food, but I told her I would cover that and she can buy them fun stuff instead.

I just can't get over how big they are, 11 and 9. How did that happen?! Watching videos like this and hearing this little voice causes actual pain in my chest. But I really do love these big kids and how we can have real conversations and share jokes now. I really want to ask them some questions and get new answers to some of the old interviews I used to do when they were little. But for now...

Anna

**Still loves cats, but spends more time reading about them and drawing them than she does pretending to be one. That's Kate's territory now. ;)

**She has so many sweet little girlfriends and they're always writing cute notes and encouraging drawings for each other. Last week she came home with more than one card spelling out her name with good qualities attached - A is for Awesome, N is for Nice, and so on.

**She still plays the violin in private lessons and the recorder at school and home. She loves figuring out a new song without music. Last night she told me she thinks she's the fastest kid ever at learning those on the spot.

**She still loves to draw and this morning she was almost late for school because she was finishing up a drawing of two animals named Plus-y and Minus-y for her math teacher.

**She got a new bike for her birthday and we've been letting her ride out of our line of sight for the first time ever. Just around the few courts off of our main street, but she feels awesome going out on her own like that.

**She's becoming so self aware and she can now ask me for help when she recognizes something about herself that she would like to change. She doesn't love when I remind her of those things, but she's big enough now to sigh and agree and make real effort to do better.

**She's hilarious. I mean she genuinely cracks us up all day long. This is nothing new, but I love it just the same.

Noah

**Still loves Legos and will sometimes get inspired and go up to his room to build. Suddenly someone will ask, "Where's Noah?" and that's usually where we can find him.

**He's known as a jokester to his school friends. When I went and had lunch with him at school I could tell that his friends were watching him to see what funny face or joke he would come up with next.

**He's still a more quiet and serious little guy than some though. He really wants to dig deep into topics that interest him and he will often ask Nathan and I to spend time learning new things with him.

**He's a math whiz. As someone who is not, I'm in awe every time he says Math was his favorite part of the school day.

**He loves to play chess and more than once we've found him and Ben out of bed playing chess after we've tucked them in for the night. It's hard to get too mad over that. ;)

**He's a sensitive and sweet, sweet heart. He just wants everyone to get along and be happy as much as possible.

**He wants to learn to play the guitar and he doesn't know yet that Nathan bought one for him and is setting up lessons!

**He has a real heart for God and talks daily about blessings we've been given, how we can help others, and what he's learning.

Love both of these kids so much! It's so fun to see the people they are becoming as they grow. :)

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Enrichment

Ben's last day of his little home school enrichment class was back at the end of March. It's a short schedule, only 10 weeks in the Fall and 10 in the Spring, but they're talking about maybe extending it to 12 weeks next year. Anna and Noah have already told him how lucky he is to have 5 full months of summer, but of course we are still doing school at home for him until at least mid-May, and all of the kids will have review here and there throughout the summer.

On his last day his class had a little performance, singing songs and reciting verses that they had been working on for months. Ben was so nervous leading up to this day. More than once he didn't even want to go just because he was worried about the performance getting closer and closer. I had no idea how he would react once he got up there in front of all the parents, but as you can see in these videos, he really enjoyed the spotlight! Anna and Noah were always pretty quiet at these sorts of things so I loved hearing his little voice over the other kids! So here are 10 videos. That's a lot, but I need them all here so that I can come back in a few years and boo hoo over how cute and small he was in his PreK days. :)

My Country Tis of Thee

The Star Spangled Banner

The Fruits of the Spirit - Ben solo

Jesus Loves Me sign language

Ten Little Indians

Love is Patient

Zephaniah 3:17

If You're Happy and You Know It

This Little Light of Mine

I Say Yes to My Lord

(Ben and Kate's favorite that they've been singing around the house for months!)

Ahhh they are all so cute! After the PreK kids had their performance we went over and watched the older kids do their songs and dances. It's SUCH a sweet little school and we're so glad that we found it this past year. Yesterday Nathan and I took the little two on a different tour for a 2 day a week homeschool supplement school. We have several friends who send their kids there and I had been curious about it for a while now. It was a perfectly nice little school and it's something I will definitely keep in mind if we continue to homeschool for a few more years, but for now (and this Fall) I think we're going to stick with our current plan of Ben being home with me for 4 days and going to Enrichment on Fridays. We just love the teachers there!

A sweet fellow adoption/ homeschooling mom recently wrote a blog post about school choices and how she decided to keep at it "until it's broken". That was so good for me to read! Schooling Ben this past year has been really great, yet I've continued to stress about changes for next year. Anna and Noah and Kate are also thriving in their current schools but I let myself second guess almost constantly! None of it is broken, so let's move forward and just enjoy what's happening right now. I'm sure worries will still pop up, but I'm doing my best to focus on one year at a time. It felt good to go on that school tour, put my curiosity to rest, and file it away for another time.

If you need some laundry folding entertainment, this podcast was encouraging (and funny!) this week. Love hearing from moms that are a bit farther down the road of motherhood than I am, and loved her index card idea to help us focus on what really matters. "Fear is the opposite of faith". Amen, sister. Definitely hitting the library for her books this week!

Friday, April 15, 2016

Oh April...

In our family this month is a crazy one. We have 5 birthdays which means doctor's check-ups and several parties, end of the year school events start up, Spring sports start, and even our city starts having lots of events. My brain also starts going into SUMMER IS COMING YOU BETTER GET READY mode as well, which is never pretty. ;)

A busy month with plenty to blog about also means very little time to actually sit down and write, but here are a few snippets of what we've been up to lately.

Kate's beloved speech therapist is moving to a new job and this past week was our last day with her. Kate took her a little card and gift (and opened it for her). She has been so sweet with Kate and has taught her that speech therapy is super fun! I don't think Kate understood that we will probably never see Miss Megan again, but she did give her lots of hugs and even ran back for one last squeeze as we were leaving.

With perfect timing, the local school system called that same day and told me Kate would start twice weekly speech sessions with them the very next day. We go to a local elementary school for those, so there's lots for Ben to look at while we wait. Her new speech therapist seems very sweet and fun, and Kate came out of that first session smiling and with stickers all over her shirt.

Anna and Noah both had their school plays this past week - Greek myths for Noah and Robin Hood for Anna. I remember looking at their school website way back when we were just researching Kindergartens for Anna. I looked at the photos from the 5th grade Robin Hood play then and thought that was so far away, and now it's already over. I know I'll blink and the other kids will be there too. I have more photos and videos to share later, but here's Noah narrating scene one in his toga. :)

Lots of birthdays this month means lots of shopping for gifts. While Nathan and Anna checked out new bicycles for her, Noah checked out some new disguises.

Anna had her 11th birthday back in the first week of April. She will get her own post, but here's a preview of her happy face. I lover her so much and pretty much every day I look at her and can't believe how big she is now. Yesterday as we were leaving violin the teacher called out, "See ya!" and in unison Anna and I replied, "See ya later!". We both laughed at how we sounded exactly the same. She is my mini me, even if she isn't so mini anymore.

These things aren't really related but it is Friday, so here a few favorites.

I posted this first video on Facebook this morning because it's just such a good story. The longer I am a mom the more I agree with what this mom says - it's easy to get tangled in grades, sports, and all of that day to day stuff, but their hearts are so much more important than all that. Good reminders. Every single child is worth the time, the effort, and the sacrifices.

We were so sad this week to hear that Karyn Purvis passed away after a long battle with cancer. Anyone who has adopted knows this woman and her amazing work and research into parenting kids from hard places. Her book should be required reading for all parents, and we learned so much about parenting our biological kids from it as well as how to deal with situations specific to adoption. Nathan and I were fortunate enough to be able to learn from her directly when we went to the Empowered to Connect conference in Chicago in 2013. She was just as warm and encouraging in person as she is in all of her videos. So sad that she's gone, but she left such a legacy.

This blog post also spoke to me this week. Although I'm not quite out of the physical hands on parenting phase, I love having older kids too. I can so appreciate their older-ness and the younger ones' young-ness all at once. Each stage is so good and perspective is so very helpful as we go along.

We have a busy weekend ahead, complete with soccer games, dinners with friends, and a Gerbils/ Star Wars birthday party. Yeah, that's right. Hope you all have something equally exciting planned! ;)

Friday, April 01, 2016

Friday Favorites

Today is Friday, and that alone is my very favorite. Soccer games don't start until next weekend, so not setting my alarm for anything in the 5am range will make me very happy tonight! Nathan has been home all week and we've been running around a ton, so it will be nice to relax a little bit this weekend....even though we do have about 15 projects planned. But they're all favorites too!

1. I know, I know. Enough with the tree pictures! But my entire street looks like this right now and it's hard to step outside without being wowed. I was pretty happy to see those green leaves starting to pop out this morning though. The shrub that runs along our driveway is NEON green right now. I can see it from the other end of the street as I'm driving and I love it.

2. Somebody is wearing a little sumo bun and insisting on doing school work this morning.

She also rediscovered her baby carrier this week. She is the sweetest girl! Yesterday she carried this book around all day and *read* it to her stuffed animals.

3. The weather has been really nice, so a few times this week Nathan and I took the little two out to lunch while the older two were at school. They loved walking around the reservoir.

When Kate was at preschool we took Benji out for his favorite breakfast. Like I said, we packed a ton of errands into this week while Nathan was off of work, and they were great sports about being dragged from place to place. A little yogurt and playland time helped fuel them up for the rest of our day.

4. A favorite for Nathan and I both was how many things we crossed off of our list in just a few days. Some of these things had been in the back of our minds for months or even years (!) so it has been nice to knock them out and move forward. His wonderful parents actually gave us a full day date, breakfast to bedtime, so we have used our time well. We did a fair amount of shopping, as our poor house has been somewhat neglected in all of our usual busyness. Nathan bought a new car (that is not a van but will actually hold our entire family, yahoo!) and my brother is buying his old one - something he has wanted for years too! We didn't take any pictures of the things we actually bought for the house, but I may have a dining room and bathroom before and after coming soon. I did take pictures of things I didn't buy though! Loved this wooden tray.

And this chair, minus the pillow.

5. Today we're making the most of our last day with the big two at school and we're going to purchase new bikes for their birthdays. They outgrew their bikes more than a year ago and they've been using them anyway, but it's definitely time to upgrade. Hopefully Ben and Kate can keep the secret just until next Tuesday! That's Anna's birthday, and we're going to give Noah his at the same time since his big day is so close to hers. I know they will love riding them together. Now I just have to get an almost 11 year old girl and an almost 9 year old boy to agree on a party theme for their family party. My sweet friend who makes the cakes suggested cupcakes so that they don't have to compromise and can each have their own, so that's probably what we will do!

6. Not related to anything, but this CD is a whole family favorite. The songs are so worshipful, and it's so fun to sing along even though your voice could never come close to hers, ha! I love hearing the kids walk around singing these songs. :)

Hope your weekend is the perfect mix of relaxing and productivity too!

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