Naptime Surprise

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for so many things, including washable markers!

Simple Machines

Most days as I walk through the house, I can tell pretty easily where Corrie has been. She is always inventing various ways to display her animals, and she loves the thought of giving them fun rides or letting them hang upside-down somehow. 

Sometimes her inventions catch me by surprise. On Monday morning I saw Corrie standing at the bathroom sink with a bar of soap and a piece of cardboard. 

"Corrie! Please don't make a wet cardboard mess!" 

She explained, matter-of-factly, that the cardboard was part of her "soap machine." She created it for sliding soap down in to the sink, "to get it there faster when you have to go somewhere and wash your hands in a hurry." 

Later that morning the little girl across the street came over, and she and Corrie built an "elevator" using a trash bag and some string. After her friend went home, Corrie stayed and played in the tree for a long time, giving her ponies "elevator rides." :)

When Mac got home from school, he couldn't wait to make a "pulley machine" too. His pulley handle was a little more interesting than Corrie's basic shovel handle. (A red spying decoder attached to pencils attached to an embroidery string holder).

Instead of a pony elevator, he made an eyeball carrier.

For now Davey just runs around and watches Mac and Corrie's inventions and machines in action. 

Davey, we can't wait to see your contributions to all of these imaginative adventures!

Is This a House for a Corrie Johns?

It's hard to believe that we've only been in Charlottesville for a couple of months now. Sure seems like a lot longer than that! However, in a lot of ways, Front Royal still feels like home. I know that it will just take a little time for us to settle in, but Corrie has been having a harder time than I thought she would with the change. 

Sometimes she will cry and say, "Mommy, I just weawy, weawy, weawy want to go home." Three "weawys" means she is pretty serious, and I know she is trying to tell me that she wants to go back to our house in Front Royal. And that sure is heart-breaking to hear with that sweet little voice of hers. 

A few weeks ago I got a book for Mac from the library titled, Is This a House for a Hermit Crab? As I read it to Mac, I got an idea for an activity to do with Corrie that I thought might help her get a little more used to our house in Charlottesville.

The book talks about a hermit crab that needs a new shell, and he tries on different "houses" that just don't seem to fit for various reasons. Finally, at the end, he finds a new home that fits just right for him.

So I thought I would help Mac and Corrie make their own books: 

I printed out pictures of various animal "houses" from the internet, and we put them on the pages together. I would ask, (looking at a spider web), "is this a house for a Corrie Johns?" She would say, "No!," and I would write down what she said on the page below the picture: 

For Mac, I simplified the content so that he could try and write his own responses:

On the last page, I put a picture of our house. I asked Corrie, "Is this a house for a Corrie Johns?!" 

She decided it was :)

Mac thought so too :)

But as I was preparing the materials for the kids to make their books, I knew in my heart that the story did not end there. 

So we added one last page. I helped the kids put a Bible verse in order and tape it onto the page: 

"Oh Lord of our hearts, home is not home without You."

-Charles Spurgeon

Davey's World

Just a glimpse into his sweet little world :)

Happy Halloween

We had fun with Halloween yesterday. When I gave the kids a snack, I would say, "Okay! Who wants a skeleton bone?" (A banana) Or, "Yum! look! Cheesy worms!" (Macaroni and cheese). Mac did not like the pretending at all. He kept saying, "Mom! Could you please stop?!" However, Corrie loved it, and I think she actually thought she a was eating a leg bone at one point.  

We managed to accumulate plenty of pumpkins for our porch this year, and thankfully we found a way to decorate them without having to carve them. (We used stickers from the grocery store). I tried to get a picture of the kids sitting with the pumpkins, but they would not even look at me until they all started saying, "Booooooo," which Davey loved. 

We were invited to a Halloween party by a couple friends in my Bible study, and I was grateful for the opportunity since Ellis was working. 

I was glad that the kids were fine with choosing costumes out of our dress-up bin instead of buying them. I stuck Davey in a Cookie Monster onesie, and Corrie chose Elmo (Mac's costume from when he was 2). Mac chose the Batman outfit (size 2T). Corrie fit surprisingly well into the Elmo suit, but Batman was a bit of a stretch (no pun intended). 

I told Mac that it made him look like he had big muscles (it was ripping apart at the seams). The cape was tied on (the velcro was missing), the mask barely stretched around Mac's head (it was so tight that the eye holes were like little slits and he could not see out of them), and the legs only reached just below his knees...but it did not seem to matter to Mac.

When we got to the party, Mac was running around and kicking and chopping the air and jumping with his cape. In his mind, he was really Batman. He totally pulled it off. I chuckled when we ran into a 2-year-old with the same costume later that night. It was obvious how the outfit was supposed fit/look, but Mac didn't seem to notice any difference. His reaction was so sweet. "Mom! A little Batman! Now there are two!" He proceeded to walk next to the "Little Batman" and escort him to the next house for more candy. 

We tried to get a group picture of all the kids before going trick-or-treating, but I am sure you can imagine how it went. I was happy that all three of our kids were in the frame at the same time long enough to snap a picture.

In some ways I would like for Halloween to come a few times a week because of the opportunity for Mac to run and run and run for at least an hour straight. He has the time of this life, and I am so glad for an outlet for some of his energy.

Mac got a pumpkin flashlight at school earlier in the day, and it turned out to be the saving grace of the night for me.

I would have surely lost him amongst the darkness and crowds if not for my instructions to stand and hold his pumpkin up if he couldn't see us. (I am also glad he did not go blind from staring directly into it for hours).


In summary, the day definitely had its hard parts (none of the kids took a nap, and it was so hard for the kids to wait until the evening for costumes and candy!) But all in all, what the kids remember is having a ton of fun and getting to meet and play with some new friends.

I am grateful for those blessings!