Watch Me Grow!

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Happy Birthday William

So William turned four more than a month ago (December 18th to be exact), but better late than never.

Happy Birthday William!

We Love You!

Here is a little bit of his special day.

Opening presents

Decorating his cake

and Partying at Chuck E. Cheese's

(his most favorite place on Earth)

Little Piano Man

Alex's rendition of "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home."

He plays this several times a day. It's usually a little longer, but he was too excited about the camera to continue the performance.

A Big Zero

When Esther was a little older than four I started teaching her how to write her letters and sound out basic words. She's progressed nicely. William won't be four until tomorrow, and is much more interested in climbing, jumping, running, and imagining than "learning", so I haven't really tried to formally teach him anything. A year ago he showed me that he knows all his letters and what sounds they make. A few months ago he figured out how to sound out basic words (with a little help from a computer game). He's still not shown any interest in learning to write, but yesterday after Esther finished her spelling, Will wanted to play with the white board. He wrote a Z and said to himself, "Z...Z...ZERO!" And a minute later, without any help on my part, he came up with this:

I am amazed at how much his brain has absorbed without ever being "taught."

Merry Christmas!

There is a beautiful Christmas song that we, in the Grange household, have no idea how to sing. We know the general tune, and we grew up singing the first two lines as, "Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree, How lovely are thy branches." But that's as far as we can go. Esther came to me today with her own version of the rest of the song, and it actually sounds pretty good. After looking up the "real" lyrics (yes, I know it's not in English, but I can't read German), we found out that her made up version isn't so far off. So her is Esther's debut of her semi-original song.

Works in Progress

Check out the new decor! Who needs a decorator when your homeschool is project oriented? As projects achieve completion, and others are begun, the motif changes regularly, but here is what's beautifying our home right now...

Various types of seeds growing in the window - beans, pine seeds from a pine cone we dissected, and an "amazing sensitive plant."

Clay bowls drying - they'll be painted like Ancient Chinese bowls tomorrow.

Bricks made from mud in our backyard drying out. A couple of weeks ago we made ours similar to the way they made some of theirs back in the Indus Valley. In the summer they would only take two weeks to dry, but since it's autumn, it's taking a little longer.

Clay amulets drying. They'll be painted gold and bejeweled next week, or the week after, then buried with the mummy.

And of course - our chicken mummy is still sitting in its salt. We've changed the salt several times, and we think it'll be ready for wrapping in 2 more weeks.

Halloween

We did just about everything for Halloween this year - except, that is, actually go out ON Halloween to trick-or-treat.

First there was family night at the YMCA. This was Alex's first time in a bouncy house, and our first child who didn't cry his first time in the bouncy house. Alex is the spider, William is the alligator, and Esther is the princess riding a pegasus unicorn. Alex won the costume contest that night.

Next came the party at the Lincoln Children's Museum. Union Bank sponsored an awesome party and invited many of its clients' families. All the residents at LMEP were invited, and we jumped at the chance. Free dinner, free admission to an awesome museum, and lots of free goodies. The kids even each got their own piggie bank.

Lastly, the day before Halloween was the ward trunk-or-treat. So much candy in just one parking lot! Alex was really excited to find out that all he had to do was walk up to people, say, "ti o tee" and they'd put candy in his bucket. He wouldn't let go of that bucket for quite a while afterward.