Sophie Is Five!

We had a birthday party for Sophie on Saturday. Sophie called it a "Flying Pony Party." Including our kids, ten kids were present.

Our talented friend, Michelle, made the CUTEST pink pony cake for Sophie:

When the kids arrived, they colored posterboard pony heads that I had drawn and cut out ahead of time. Two other moms and I, armed with glue guns, glued googly eyes on the ponies if the kids wanted, glued on each kid's choice of crinkle paper mane, and attached a stick to make homemade hobby horses.

After finishing their ponies, the kids had a "pony parade" around our house. Actually, it turned into more of a wild mustang roundup for a time, but I got the kids calmed down long enough to take this picture:

We consumed the cake. The kids played "Horse, Horse, Pony." To conclude the party, I gave out some small gifts to each child.

James' mom, John, Angi, Conner and Josi stayed awhile longer.

Nerf Dart "Misfire":

The Cavy Castle

Here are some pictures of the guinea pig cage that James and I made:

Cursive First Works

The kids have been practicing cursive every school day since Aug. 16th and here is an example of the results for Sophie from her Spelling Log:

No Kidding! I said each word to Sophie and broke down the sounds for her. She repeated each sound while writing the word HERSELF. She read her words after writing them.

Matthew has learned cursive too and the boys got a big kick out of the fact that I mistook Matthew's spelling log to be Evan's, because I couldn't tell their handwriting apart. His writing is very neat now.

An Injury, a Wild Trip, and a Must-See Movie

Well, Evan is our second child to get stitches. Last night another child threw a Rubbermaid lid which hit Evan in the eyebrow. Evan came crying up the stairs with blood streaming down his face. We took him to an after hours clinic where he got four stitches. He was very brave about it and didn't cry, even though it hurt.

This year we have been doing some homeschool co-oping with some friends from church. The mom teaches the kids science on Tues. and Thurs. and I teach English for the middle school daughter. On Saturday, we did a field trip to the zoo together. Since it was a free day, it was very crowded. At one point, we went inside a feline exhibit. I looked through the glass wall at the lions. The male lion caught sight of a group of kids beside me and got hot and bothered. He fixed his eyes on them, charged them and slammed into the glass, shaking it, in his attempt to attack. After a few moments, it apparently realized that its efforts were thwarted and headed back towards its resting place, turning its head and snarling in our direction on the way. I tried to get my kids' attention to see all this, but they had left the building right before the incident occurred and did not see it. I Peter 5:8 certainly came to my mind in light of the experience.

Last weeked, we saw the movie "To End All Wars" on DVD. The movie potently portrayed the power of God's word to give hope and transform lives in the midst of a bleak situation caused by sinful man. Don't watch this movie if you can't stomach violence or some harsh language (but no taking of God's name in vain), but if you can, realize that it is a true storyand it is not glorifying evil. You can read more about this film at "R" for "Redemptive" or at To End All Culture Wars BUT the latter article really might reveal too many details if you intend to see the movie. I'm glad that I didn't read that article right before seeing the movie. If you do see this movie, let me know what you think!

All the Pretty Little Horses

Here is a picture that Sophie drew yesterday and had me label:

Yesterday, Matthew took all of his weekly spelling words which he had written on cards and put the cards in order to make sentences. I told him to write sentences about a cowboy and his horse and asked questions as he put down cards so that he would add spelling words as adjectives. Finally, he wrote the sentences down neatly. He is using manuscript for now until we have practiced all of the letters in cursive (we haven't finished). Here are his spelling sentences:

Miscellaneous

Two days ago, Sophie learned how to get her bike started herself. She rode around our cul-de-sac for an hour. It was so cute to see her riding full tilt, legs pumping like pistons, a content smile on her lips. We went for a long walk with the kids riding their bikes yesterday evening before supper. One of the neighbors commented: "She looks too little to be riding a bike."

I let the boys play "War" with playing cards to review addition math facts this week. Evan was getting competitive, exclaiming: "I'm gonna win! I'm gonna win!"

I remarked "Wouldn't it be funny if Matthew won all of the cards?"

As the game progressed, Matthew indeed won hand after hand. In the end, he had won all the cards! What are the odds?!

I told Evan that he had "asked for it", because of his gloating. He too was good-naturedly happy that it had happened that way.

The Barbie Dream House behind us (the house painted to look like a Pepto Bismol bottle) is getting painted gray. Woo Hoooooo!!!!!

We visited the new Broomfield Thrift Store this week and found some gems in the book section: Sense and Sensibility, My Side of the Mountain, The Moffats, Treasures in the Snow, a Sugar Creek Gang book, and a book of 49 kids' experiments with electricity and magnetism.