"What is your mother thinking?!"

For some time, the kids have wanted to deliver a plate of goodies to this really nice woman who lives two houses up from us.  Finally, we had a batch of something that was not only yummy, but it wasn't burnt, and we remembered when it was still light outside (it has only taken us three months).

Donuts.  Yummy.  Pipalicious was the head of the operation and the one that kept reminding me to do it.  She happily organized a couple of her older siblings to accompany her and they took the goodies over.  Not thinking, I just called out to them to make sure they had shoes on.  We rehearsed the Hungarian phrase they were going to say, and they were off!

When they got back a few minutes later, I asked how it went.

"Great!" said Piper, with a huge smile on her face.  "She asked us if we were cold, and I said 'igen'!" ("Yes!")  Sweet.  More clothes on their way?  Oh well.  Next time I'll check for coats as well as shoes, although, really, they should know by now :).

Avot's end of the year Bible party!

(By Avot)
 
Avot's end of the year Bible party!

This is "Abraham's servant" with "Isaac"

This is the Pharaoh that Abraham and Sarah met

Meet Eve.

And her arch foe, the serpent

Comdemned to crawl on his belly!

Noah hugging his animals

Some art about the creation

Liliputian drew "herself" and Adam

The Goob was thankful for weaponry and gore. Go figure!

Chuggerdude's was Awesome, and then he started follow the Goob's lead.

Those are Avot's, the one you can't see is clouds :)

Hava side #1 (love her eyes!)

Side #2

Lek's neat assortment

After drawing pictures, they all went on a Creation Savenger Hunt. Then they came inside and played a quiz game to see how many books in the Old Testament they could name. After that, they acted out the story of the Fall, and Cain and Abel. They also played "Fruit Basket."
For Enoch (the guy who couldn't talk well) they played "Vegetable Master", and then Signs for the Tower of Babel. They were all tested on their scripture masteries they had worked on, and then went outside to play "Friendship/Missionary Tag", for Noah.
By this time everyone was exhausted, and went inside and got refreshments (which they bought using tickets they had earned for each of the activities).

Mother's Day Weaponry

Q-dawg must know me...he took me to an "authentic Hungarian ancient weaponry contest" with the kids the day before Mother's Day as part of our two-day celebration.  (Yeah.  I'm spoiled.)  You can't really see the spears, knives, and bows being thrown and shot behind us, but I could!  It was tucked in this little valley, and was soooooooooooooooo neat!  We found out later that anyone who wanted to could have registered and participated, but we found out too late that it wasn't just for professionals.  I totally need to do this when we get back to Utah.

Notice the cool pyre (?) behind us for burning later.  You can't really see the "whippers" in the background, but even a little six year old was "manning" a huge long whip like a pro!  So cool!

This little munchkin spent most of her time in and out of time-out.  I sure don't want to break this little spirit, but some days I wonder if she is going to break me!

A view of the forest on the way home.  Sigh.  Love it.

The Tooth Fairy chant

It all began with the fact that dear little Chugger-dude seems to have shark teeth.  No, not razor-fine, triangular teeth, but teeth that grow in rows.  He has had to have a couple pulled already, painfully, but this one seemed to top them all.  The root of the old tooth was hardly eaten away, and the tooth was already coming up behind at a good pace (no tooth root to gnaw through, after all!).  It was a worry to both Q-dawg and I.    

 Well, yesterday, after a week of daily, painful submission to his father’s tugging, Chugger-dude finally had the ultimate incentive to finish the painful process: if he finished getting it out within a given half hour’s time, I would do his lunch clean up. (If only all hard problems in life were so easily handled!  “I’ll clean your meal up if you fix our car ;).”) Later that night, Chugger-dude culminated his tooth work with our family’s “tooth fairy chant,” faithfully preserved on video from our time at Q-dawg's parent's house. 

            


The Goob, also a relatively recent “loser of a challenging tooth,” joined in the chant after watching it on the video. The Goob wrapped his with tin foil and placed it under his pillow, while Chugger-dude asked us where he could hide his bagged tooth “to see if the tooth fairy could find it no matter where he put it.”  Q-dawg dryly replied that if the tooth fairy had to look too hard, they might get mad and just leave…hopefully without leaving a curse, or something like that :).  Chugger-dude accepted this line of reasoning and joined the ranks of ritualized children, placing it compliantly under his pillow :).

Ahhhh...the fun of tradition.

Days never to be forgotten...

...if I can get them down fast enough :)!

The other day, moments before devotional heralded the arrival of our school day, I hurried and jotted down these notes, so I wouldn't forget:

Kids on porch doing laundry while they play, or playing while they do laundry :)
Cool, spring weather
Puzzles on floor with little girls
Spooner falling asleep by himself on the floor, so content
House clean
Birds singing
Q-dawg with little load...day full of potential

A little corner of paradise.

"Lookin' a little nervous, Spooner, with your favorite little 'dog'..."

This is why...notice the contrast with and empathy from his sister :).  Okay, she's two :).

Love that baby

"I will endure your adoration"

Art time!  As we take things off the wall, on their way to recycling or folders of treasures, I like to capture the artistic moment.  Here is Avot, warming up a bit after an early morning, with her scribble art Squirrel and watercolor sunset.

Coloring Oma's pic from Germany and watercolor

This girl is either hot or cold...there is no in between!

Papaya wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with these; she just knew she wanted to be a part of the picture action

Shape Space Ship and scene from scriptures

Close-up to see it better...

More shape art and sunset

He didn't want me to forget the dragon

Too cute!

Lovely Liliputian's scribble art and sunset

The goob with his scribble art monster and sunset that we could never figure the right way up

Liliputian and Lek, shape art and scribble art (from FHE)

Who is that crazy woman?! (figure the kids needed a couple pics of their mom)

Love moments like this!  Can't remember who won this one, but Avot keeps Lek on his toes...

Meanwhile, down the hall, we have a little slave labor going on...

 Next we have glimpses of quiet time...Hava and her lego "harses" and the Goob and his latest read.  He has devoured our Childhood of Famous American series several times now, and will read one in one sitting.

Hava insisted on a pic of her "harses" :)

 Who's putting who to sleep :)?  Pipalicious has the Liliputian touch...happy Spooner fell asleep like this.  He weighs almost as much as Pipalicious :)...or not.

This is what I like to see. The only trick is making sure she wakes up soon enough so that she will go to sleep at night before I do :)

Later that week, we find Hava with her inevitable collection of as many animals or toys as she can "finagle" from her siblings (never tried to spell that word before)

Q-dawg's method of protecting Chugger-dude's face wounds from being scratched :), and lovely Avot

The Goob in his element as he finishes up some daddy rice for breakfast.  (One of Hava's favorite!)

 Love my kids...and their awesome daddy...

Ez az kedvencem

Avot finishing up Jane Eyre...she couldn't put it down long enough to find a comfortable place to read it where it was still light (as it was later at night), lovely girl :).  She reminds me of...me!

Like I said, quiet moments...

These girls do this for hours, learning all about how to be nice and how to be good...sometimes the hard way

We had a devotional where we watched a film about some kids who tried an experiment in their homes, by finding one things they could work on in a month to make their home a holy place.  Here Liliputian has hers, along with a comic model.  So cute. Notice anything unusual about her list? "Don't divorce."  She was listening to our devotional videos on marriage and the family, apparently :).

Crazy Papaya.  Notice that she is sleeping standing up? Can't complain as long as she is asleep. This is also the usual "Hava bedtime wander."  Papaya doesn't have many options :).