WonderWorks, Pigeon Forge

Yesterday we took a family field trip to WonderWorks in Pigeon Forge. I've been finding there are MANY buisinesses and museums around that have special days or special rates for those of us who choose to homeschool and WonderWorks was a particularly cool one because we all got in FREE! Gotta love that!

None of us had ever been, so we didn't really know what to expect, but it was amazing! There was so much to do there--we spent 4 hours there and still didn't get to do everything! Some of the exhibits were "too old" for my kids, but there was so much to do and explore that it didn't really matter that there was some they couldn't do. Even Emilia got in on some playing around...she was especially fond of the big piano!

Josiah said his favorite part of Wonderworks was the magic paint wall. And the second most favorite was the TV that could make you look like Ooompa Loompas and the last most favorite is the swap body TV where he and Micah got to switch upper and lower parts of their body.

Micah's favorite part was pretending to do magic on the paint wall and the "steady hand" metal shapes where you had to try to not touch the wire with the wand (like "Operation").

We had a blast there! We will definitely be going back next year for free homeschooler days! :)

Here are the boys practicing their pitching. This neat little set-up let them try to strike out the batter and it told them how fast they were throwing. Josiah really had fun with this!





Ahhhh...my little space babies :)







This was one of Emilia's favorite things--a big, huge piano!! She had so much fun running up and down the keys and making beautiful music! :)



Josiah and John making big bubbles in the bubble room:





Here's Micah workin' the air cannon:



Ha-ha! Josiah had me cracking up at how he was laying on the bed of nails--I guess he was just taking precautions in case anything unexpected happened! :)



This is the best I could do at a picture of the magic paint wall. The wall would sense your body heat to create the colors. It was really cool!



That's all for now--we've got soccer again tomorrow and hopefully I'll remember the camera this week so I can take some pictures. Micah is playing this year, too, so it's double the fun!

My Super Six Year Old!

Can you believe Josiah is SIX??!?

Don't worry, I can't either. (I also cant believe it's been a month and a half since I posted, but that's a different story...)

So...he's six. It takes TWO hands for him to show everyone how old he is. He's started Kindergarten. He reads like a champ (seriously, he read a whole chapter book before breakfast one day). He loves to be a helper, but if I'd let him he'd park his butt in front of the T.V. all day long! He plays soccer, takes karate and has decided our driveway isn't big enough for him and his bike, so he's started off-roading in our yard. He's basically your awesome, outstanding six year old boy. And I'm still in shock that he's SIX.



This year for his birthday he wanted to have a bowling party. It was really fun and I think Josiah could have bowled the night away! He bowled 3 games and in his last game he got a strike and 2 spares!!

Here's his bowling lane cake:


Josiah and his cake...it melted a little in the car:


The cousins ready for some cake!


The bowling crew:


And, of course, the birthday boy opening some of his presents:



We had his party the day before his birthday, so we had to come up with some fun stuff to do ON his birthday, because I just think birthdays need to be celebrated! In the morning we all went to the Bounce House. For those of you who don't know, it's a place that has a bunch of those inflatable slides, etc, for the kids to play on/in. Everyone had a blast! Emilia wanted sooooooo bad to keep up with the boys, but she's just too little for most of the inflatables. We did take her down the big slide MANY times and she LOVED every second of it!









After the Bounce House, we went to lunch at McDonald's (his restaurant of choice!) and then to see the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. It was a fun, busy day. All of us were exhausted at the end of it!

Happy, happy birthday, Josiah! We love you so very, very much!!

Another One

My kids prayers have just been cracking me up lately. I don't know why. Maybe it's the complete innocence and total trust with which they say them that I just love. Maybe I sort of envy their sweet child-like faith. Whatever the case, they are just too cute to not record for all time. Here is a prayer from Micah today after he got in trouble for playing with something I told him not to play with:

Dear God,
I'm sorry for breaking Mommy's rule. Please help me to be a good listener for Mommy and to make good choices.
And please help me to stop picking my nose.
Amen

Now, I know picking noses has been an issue before, but I just wasn't expecting this and it took a lot of will power not to laugh--not AT him, but just because it was so unexpected and cute. Don't think less of me for wanting to laugh at my child's innocent prayer--I'll bet you anything God was chuckling in heaven!!

My Report Card

"Dear God,
Please help Mommy be nice, even though she doesn't want to, and help her to not yell and to make good choices. And help her to not yell at Daddy in big conversations.
Amen."

This is a real prayer prayed by Josiah after he very sweetly asked me if he could pray for me. Guess I know what I need to be working on, huh? :)

I Know, I Know...

I know, it's been forever since I posted. Let's just say we are all still adjusting to John's work schedule and it's not turning out to be a very smooth process. I don't think we really expected it to be an easy transition, so we're just muddling our way through it and trying to find a routine that works for everyone.

One of the things that has been pushed to the backburner has been this blog. I am sorry about that because I know it is how some of you keep track of us and what we are up to and how the kids are growing and all of that, so I am going to do my best to find a place where blogging can fit in my life again. Hang in there with me! We'll find something that works!

So what have we been up to? Well, quite a bit actually. Emilia has been experimenting with her food...face painting, plugging various available holes...all sorts of fun stuff! Here is a picture I took one day after lunch. Needless to say, she went straight from the highchair to the bathtub. It wasn't the same day as this, but one day I also pulled a wad of spinach out of her nose.



Our neighbors across the street recently had a tree cut down...that also had a honey beehive in it. We spent the morning like all good neighbors would--with lawn chairs and snacks watching the activity! It really was fascinating. They had to bring in a crane because the tree was so tall.



That in and of itself was enough excitement for the boys, but we also got to watch a bee keeper come and smoke the hive, wrap it up, cut it down and take it home. He let the boys try on part of his bee suit





and even showed them part of a honey comb!



At one point after the hive section of the tree was on the trailer and ready to go, the bees started walking out of another hole in the trunk, so the bee keeper had to smoke them again and wrap up that hole, too.



It was a really interesting day, and that's not even counting watching them use the crane to cut down the tree!!

We had another fun 4th of July out in Powell, setting off a bunch of fireworks and hanging out with family. We missed Matt and Candida and their kiddos...it wasn't quite the same without them, but we're hoping they can come again next year! Emilia slept right through all of the noise, so I got to have fun messing around with my camera during the fireworks. Hope you had a great 4th, too!









I don't know what it is with my kids and putting stickers on their heads, but all three of mine have done it...Emilia takes it to a whole 'nother level, though!



This is a card that Micah made for John:



It is a picture of the two of them holding hands(the round circles on their legs are their tummies) and their remote-controlled tornado (the swirl in the bottom right corner). Micah wrote all of the letters himself, drew and colored in the heart by himself (what is in the middle of "Daddy"...you could tell what it was better before he colored it in) and came up with what he wanted to write. My personal favorite is their Mickey Mouse ears :) Here is the proud artist:



Micah has started riding 2-wheels!!!! Woo-hoo!! This is a big childhood milestone, you know!! All it took was one trip with daddy to the baseball fields, and he's good to go with balance. Now, if he could just master the dismount...and a little more confidence would serve him well, too!







Last, but certainly not least, Josiah had a mohawk for a day this week. He desperately needed a haircut and AS A JOKE John left him a mohawk and then made the mistake of showing Josiah what his hair looked like. Well, I coulda told you how that would end...Josiah wanted to keep the mohawk. John negotiated it down to a day. So, for one day, Josiah had a mohawk. Personally, I don't think it was such a good look for him and I'm glad its gone! But, for record keeping purposes, I did take a picture.



Well, there you have it...the last 3 weeks in a nutshell!