merry babies

School Hair

I've been inspired to make a few hair things lately for Samara since we now have to have her hair looking presentable most of the days of the week. Our summer 'do was wash-and-braid-every-three-days-and-disregard-in-between. Not so good for school. :)

But the truth is that I still don't like to spend a lot of time on her hair--there isn't much time, and it isn't that fun for her...so I made this little headband to get started. The inspiration was from here and the execution was unbelievably quick and easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Focusing on the hairband instead of the eyes wasn't nearly as easy!

Play

I've been nesting like crazy. It's amazing--it seems like I've gone through every closet and drawer and messy space and organized and cleaned and trashed and given away. I'm so grateful--it's been a long time. Housecleaning has never been my forte, which is okay for most of life, but I think it's a good thing I keep having kids so I can clean and organize every couple years. :)

The kids have really benefited from the whole thing, too--while I'm off organizing the basement, they're enjoying their newfound toys with enthusiasm. Who knew we had such fun stuff hiding in piles of junk?

It really is true that less is more when it comes to toys--I took several trips to the Salvation Army and the result is that the little ones are actually playing with the toys that are left!

Here are a couple moments I caught on film:

 

 

 

 

 

I let them play with this little scooter thing that used to be my sister Bethany's. It progressed from racing back and forth across the house to making Samara be a papoose. While I was cleaning something. I'm not sure I would have let them do this, had I been paying more attention, but it was just so interesting to watch, I couldn't stop it at this point.

 

 

They took great care of their papoose--they fed her and gave her water and read to her and sang to her. She loved it! So interesting.

 

 

Then, while I was cleaning the art room I let them play with the basket of "play yarn". This is what happened, in the space of minutes. They made a giant spider web which progressed to them taking it apart and just played with it. It's hard to let that go, too, but oh! I know how good it feels to just touch things---textile touching is one of my favorite things to do. By the way, it still looks just like it does above, except now it's back in the basket. Yikes!

 

 

I also found the walnut shells I'd saved from Christmas time and so I let the little ones make boats. Again, while I was doing something else.

 

 

This progressed into ilo sinking all of them...

 

 

And a lot more water than I was expecting. And legos.

 

 

And "cooling off".

 

Sometimes I feel so bad for working/cleaning/cooking while the kids are around asking me to play with them. But seriously, do they really need my help?!

School Clothes

I'm having so much trouble getting anyone to cooperate with picture-taking these days, but here are a couple pictures of dresses I've made for Samara for school...

 

 

This little reversible dress was easy--I purchased the pattern from Mani Mina's etsy shop. I can't wait to make a couple more! I think they'll be perfect for winter wear with a long-sleeve shirt underneath. (The doll is for a friend of ours! She was just getting "tested out"...!)

 

 

 

I made this one using a fabulous tutorial for upcycling a men's dress shirt. I loved this shirt--it has a small floral print and those fun snaps! Samara loves the purple trim, which I found on sale at Hobby Lobby in the upholstery section...in this case, it make the dress, I think! Now I'm on the lookout for more trim like it.

 

  

  

And here's a little picture update on curly top--wearing his new tank from Shelby!

  

 

Asa's First Day of School!

Here we are at 7:15 AM to send Asa off to school! There wasn't a very good one, so here are the outtakes, "taken in" or whatever you say for that:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 His first day was "awesome, mom!". He got the teacher he was hoping to get, and has lots of friends in his class. He loved every minute of it and was raring to go back this morning.

Yay! We're celebrating!

 

  

 

 

Things to Do When It's Too Hot #7

I think this has to be the last installment! Not because there aren't a hundred other things we've done inside in the past few weeks, but because yesterday I felt the first hint that fall might come. No, the temperature did not dip below 95...there was just a little feeling in the slight breeze that reminded me that this too shall pass.

Fortunately, we didn't let it pass before we tried to bake cookies in the driveway...

It worked.

I know, isn't that scary? We made this little solar oven and stuck it outside for about 6 hours and then we ate the crispy cookies!

 

They were delicious!

 

 

 I am so grateful that this weather will pass, even though it's been lots of fun. :)

 

Bonner Family Retreat 2010

 

Last weekend we got to have our (possibly) annual family retreat to get ready for the new school year. It was so fun! A couple of years ago we worked up a "family crest" with four things we felt we wanted to focus on for a while:

 

 

We didn't get to it last year, but we spent the weekend working one up for this year:

 

Matt and I have spent some time praying over this during the past few months and we finally felt like we had our four things in mind, and the timing was just right for us to have a special family time to talk about each quadrant and "practice" each thing.

I had so much fun drawing the pictures!

 

We also came up with our family verse for this school year, which you might remember from last year, and we made our first-day-of-school tee shirts. It was a busy weekend!

 

 

 

 I realize this is going to be a very long post, since it really covers about 4 days worth of activities, but I've got to document it for next year...

Matt and I got to go on a date on Thursday and we spent about an hour of it talking and planning the weekend's activities in great detail.

 I love this stuff. 

 

 

 

 

Please don't even imagine that this it how it all worked out. I'm only including a picture of this so you can see what I thought we might do. Right! It turned out that we could only manage two sessions a day, which was great, since we had the whole weekend to have our little "staycation". We tried to plan the food and everything else we could think of, and then we tried to just stop working/cleaning/organizing/checking email, etc. 

Tough, but worth it. We all feel so peaceful when we're having family time together!

We started with making some journals for the retreat with star decorations (in keeping with our verse) while we talked about our first quadrant, "Bring Peace."

 

Our "response" to that quadrant was to pray for places in Norman that don't feel peaceful--which meant that we prayer-walked around the courthouse and the jail. My favorite part of this time was that Grammy came with us, and Poppy Steve was free for a few minutes and so we got to go into the courthouse to pray for peace for him and for his courtroom!

 

 

I realize if I include everything we did it would be too much, so now I've got to switch to a general overview...:)

The next quadrant was "Be and Influencer". We read the first chapter of Daniel and talked about making choices that bring life and encouraging others to do the same. We talked about friends who influence us towards the Lord and then we wrote notes (drew pictures) to them to thank them and to encourage them, too.

 

And then we had a sleepover! We dragged all the mattresses to our room and snuggled and read out loud. This was so fun!

 

Saturday was lots of fun-- with a trip to the Gray Owl, the Farmer's Market, and lots of swimming. Matt and I had planned a special outing to the movies to see Toy Story 3, but on our way there we remembered they'd already seen it with Grammy! So we tried changing our plans to something else fun....which was a disaster. We tried Shrek 3--and walked out--and then we tried The Karate Kid--and walked out. By this time, several of us were crying (me) and were feeling sad that our fun plans weren't working out. Matt and I sat in the car and prayed and decided we should do our next quadrant, "Come to Serve". We talked about it as a family and so instead of going to a movie and getting popcorn and drinks...we hiked the storm drain in our neighborhood and picked up all the trash (thanks for the idea, B and A!). Keep in mind this is August in Oklahoma--I think it was over a hundred degrees and so, so humid!

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is that in the end, we had a great time. Tears were dried and lots of laughing ensued, especially when we got back to our house and just hosed each other down because we were so hot! This felt so significant to me--the Lord is faithful to remind us that what is "fun" or what brings us JOY really is serving others! That's the thing we wanted the kids to learn, to practice, to take with them...and it feels like the Lord orchestrated our circumstances to do just that. Such a good Father!

 

We spent part of the day making our school tees (with freezer paper) based on our verse "in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the Word of Life".

 

 

 That's the last of the pictures, since I forgot to document our final quadrant-- "worship in body, mind and spirit". Our response to this one? 

Family Dance Party.

And that's what you really wish I had photos/video of to share, but somehow I was too involved in the dancing to remember that part. :)

It was so fun--so good--to be purposeful and thoughtful for just a little bit before we start a new season. I'm already looking forward to next year's retreat, honestly! There are lots of other ways we are getting ready for school around here, but none can compare with preparing our hearts. I'm so grateful we got to.

  

 

 

 

 

 

Adelaide's birthday present

I was just organizing some photos last night and came across these--this is a tent I made for Adelaide's birthday gift this summer. It was easy to make, and is simple to set up, and fun to use. This time I used a pattern for a "terrific teepee" from sewbaby.com and that made all the difference. You'll have to excuse the pregnant photos (!), but I never took any of the finished product, so these are all I have...

 

 

I loved the ties--there isn't a close-up of them, but they are so sweet--little pieces that Carrie brought back from France for me. And there's also a little round window on the other side that didn't make the pictures--it was very easy, in case you're considering this project! And it added just the right amount of, um, pizazz to an otherwise simple look. This pattern suggested using PVC, which was great for jamming in the sand at the beach and is otherwise much lighter and easier to work with than the (more aesthetically-pleasing) wooden mop handles I used for my last tent.

Carrie says they're using it all the time--I was hoping it would be pleasant enough (read: not too wild and colorful) to have set up in their lovely and peaceful living room...

 

Things to Do When It's (almost) Too Hot #6

6. Play outside in your PJs before breakfast. With water balloons.

 

 

 

 

 

 N.B. This was the most successful water ballooning I've seen with kids--we used regular party balloons (that are way bigger than water balloons). This meant that they could fill them from the fountain (instead of trying to put them on the faucet in the bathroom--yikes!) and they didn't have to tie them since if they did, they wouldn't really break. So they were more like water hand grenades, and it was perfect! And we saved them all for the next time we venture outside...:)

 

 

Things To Do When It's Too Hot #5

5. Play dress-ups.

I was busy cleaning and organizing (nesting?! OH YES.) and came upon this scene...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phin kept track of it all in his handy notebook he's now carrying around all the time-- influenced by The Invention of Hugo Cabret (a great book that we totally recommend!).

They've been playing lots of dress-up lately and I've noticed they act out things they've experienced before--clearly weddings is one of those things. :) They knew all the words and didn't miss a thing, down to the dancing at the reception and cutting the cake. Needless to say, I snapped these photos and instantly jumped to when that sweet, handsome Asa William might actually be showing me a ring on his love's finger and that just put me over the edge. I cried for the next hour while they happily played more dress-up. Oh, boy!

Yes, it's true, I'm pregnant, but really--wouldn't you do the same?!  

 

Things To Do When It's Too Hot #4

4. Make mojitos the Bonner way.

Juice lots and lots of limes and lemons--whatever you've got--and put it in the blender.

 

Add enough mint to fill the blender and puree for a while.

 

Strain. Mix into this (in about a 1:1 ratio, although we like ours sour, so we use less) a simple sugar solution. That's just 1:1 water and sugar, boiled til the sugar dissolves.

 

Pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

 

 

When you're ready (which is right now, for me!),  add club soda to the mix, or pour club soda over a few mojito cubes from the freezer.

Enjoy my idea of the perfect summer drink!

 

 

 By the way, you may have noticed that I didn't mention any alcohol in this recipe--I like it best without (and take it that way this summer for sure!), but you can always add all the rum or tequila you want at that last step. :)