Accio Smoothie

I have seen this graphic a number of places on the web. I am happy that my kids do look more like those "kids on books" than that group up on top. This was confirmed even more strongly today at breakfast when Molly, who is almost 4, picked up her spoon and pointed it across the table at one of glasses of green liquid and said "Accio Smoothie" while giving the spoon a little flick.

Then there is Ian who is constantly wearing his Harry Potter robe and even made a loop (out of duck tape) on a rope to hang at his waist so has a place to stash his wand.

Henry likes all the unforgivable spells, so I have to remind him constantly that we don't do dark magic. It doesn't help that Molly is always Bellatrix. At least her killing curse is just "abracadabra" instead of "Avada Kedavra".

We have been rather Harry Potter crazed at our house. We finally finished listening to the last book. Henry was taking too long to make it through the books so I relented and let him listen to the last few.  I have also relaxed my PG-13 rule as well but only for these few films since they have read the books now. I am letting the kids watch the movie once they finish the book. (This may be a mistake and they may not get to see these last few films again for years and years.) We spent a good 4 hours doing nothing but listen to the audio book but thankfully we are finally done. We have only the last movie to watch and then hopefully we can move onto some other book, some other characters, and some other stories.

Ian has been reading the Hobbit so I have heard him refer to some of his lego creations as "precious" when he saves them from the hands of his little sister. So I have a feeling I know where we are heading next. Now that Harry Potter is finished (They have even beat the Lego Harry Potter Wii game for years 5-7) I think we are going to be headed to the world of Hobbits and dwarfs. But perhaps we need something very light like Winnie the Pooh, or maybe this summer I will introduce my boys to the world of The Borrowers. I read these aloud to Sophie years ago and have yet to read them to the boys.

Hoops?

Yesterday while the rest of us were playing Monoply (our usual Sunday afternoon activity), Molly was playing dress up. She came out of her room dressed like this.

Take a close look can you seen the hoops, as she called them. She had put herself into 3 or 4 hangers. The hangers with their handles poked out around her holding out the skirt of her princess dress. She thought it was very funny until it she finally decided it was starting to hurt and then had trouble pulling the hangers off. 

Another one gone

Henry lost another tooth. He had been wiggling it and wiggling it for days. He really wanted it to come out because, as he put it, "then I will have bunny teeth." The two teeth on either side of the top front center two are now missing.

 I hated to tell him that they didn't quite look like bunny teeth since there is such a large gap between those front two. He certainly looks more like a jack-o-lantern to me.

Moments after loosing it he handed me his tooth and said "Tell the tooth fairy I want direct deposit". I guess he has learned not to expect the tooth fairy to tiptoe into his room that night. She often forgets gets busy and takes days and days to make her visit.

Cub Scouts Last Week - Water Rockets

The Pack Meeting in May is always the last one before they break for Summer. And it is always Water Rockets. My kids have been looking forward to it for weeks. We went to the store that afternoon and actually bought soda (we very rarely drink soda so this was a special treat) so we could have bottles to use for the rockets. 

This meeting isn't all about Rockets. There were a few awards to hand out. Ian received two more belt loops. The Hiking and the Astronomy belt loops and pins. I still don't know exactly what to do with the pins. Ian always quickly adds the belt loops to his belt and then hands me the pins. They are sitting in my sewing box waiting for me to finally decide what to do with them.

Once the meeting portion is done the fun begins. The kids grabbed their bottles and hit the craft tables to build their rockets.

 A bit of poster board and lots of packing tape later, the kids have rockets.

 It is really hard to get pictures of the kids actually shooting them off. It is hard to time the shot inorder to catch the rocket just shooting off the launch. But all the rockets went up pretty high and the kids kept running back into line to launch it again and again. Half the fun is waiting in line with all their friends.

 Even Molly made a rocket and joined in on the fun.

This year she was so excited about being with the other kids and shooting her rocket she didn't pet any gophers. That was what she was doing when we came to this same pack meeting last year. This field is covered with gopher holes and those little rodents aren't afraid to show themselves even with 30 + kids and their parents running around.

Since this is the last meeting for a few months I guess when scouts starts up again in the Fall I will have two Cub Scouts. Henry will officially be joining the ranks of the Wolf pack.  Ian will be just finishing up his Bear.  The last few things he needs to complete will be done this Summer if all goes as planned.  Both boys are excited for Cub Scout day camp in a few weeks. They are looking forward to some Bb guns and archery.

Cub Scouts has been a fun ride so far. My boys, and the girls too, love it!

When you Live with A History Buff.....

When you combine History and Airplanes my husband gets rather giddy. Having grown up in a military family with a father that flew planes he has a love for all things aviation but especially military planes.  He can tell you exactly which kind of plane you are looking at even if it is flying above us. He often even knows the airplanes whizzing above us simply from the sound they make.  I guess it is good we live right in the flight path for a military airfield.  Last night my husband heard some planes zooming over our house and he ran out dragging the kids with him so he could point out the historical planes that were soaring past us. He was so excited to see not just one but three planes go by. He couldn't wait to head to the airfield today.

 Along with the planes there were also a few other military vehicles.

 But the planes were what we came to see.

 Here the kids go climbing in to the rear of the  B-24 Bomber. Molly couldn't wait to get inside so she could see the bombs! 

 They boys really liked the guns that they could pretend to shoot out the windows.

 We couldn't get very close to the B-51 Mustang.  But the kids enjoyed seeing all the swastikas painted onto the side of the plane. That must mean it saw some action!

 The third plane was a B-17 flying fortress bomber.

 This plane was very tight inside. I bumped my head several times as I tried to navigate through the plane. It was about right for Henry and Ian but the rest of us had to stay crouched down the much of the time.

 More guns!

 Molly had a good time walking the little cat walks in the bomb bays. She thought the whole thing  a lot of fun.

 There were even a few German vehicles there as well.

It was an beautiful sunny day at airfield. My husband got his historical plane fix and the kids got to see a little piece of history. Who knows how long these planes will continue to fly into our part of the world.  It is good to see them when they do!

New Hair style

Sophie loves having long hair. But I like it better when she actually brushes it and does something other than just let it hang. She looks like Hermione in the first Harry Potter movie when she forgets and lets it dry without styling it first. 

Last week I was pulling her hair back. I had just put in two low tails in the back but then decided to braid each tail and attach it to the other. This is what it looked like.

From the front it looked like little short low pig tails. Sophie received a number of complements when she wore this hair to co-op. She asked me to do it again for church on Sunday and it looked even cuter. I am sure if I get to do again and again it will only get better and better!

Cooking with Anne

 Sophie is taking an online Literature class all about Anne of Green Gables.   Today the girls (I guess boys could take the class but I believe it is all girls) all brought their laptops into the kitchen so their teacher could walk them through one of the recipes from the Anne of Green Gables Cookbook. The teacher choose raspberries tarts. Diana Berry brings raspberry tarts in her lunch one day in the stories and many of the food items talked about in the book have found their way into this cookbook.

My boys really want to make the raspberry cordial. I think the part of the book where Diana Berry gets intoxicated is one of their favorite parts of the story.  Yes my boys really enjoyed listening to Anne of Green Gables. They were thrilled when I said they could watch the Anne of Green Gables movie during our drive to and from Grandma's house this past weekend.  The first half on the way to, and the other half on the drive back.

I have a feeling this recipe will get made many more times. There is already plans to try strawberry and maybe even apple.

Everyone is happy when class includes cooking and food!