Mother's Day 2019

Mother's Day was filled with a lot of love and time with my family- all I could possibly want!

Annabel was very excited to give me all the cards and things she made me! She is always so loving and so thoughtful. Daniel wrote cute things on his cards, too, which I just loved. We spent the day hanging out together and watched a movie that night with stove-top-popped popcorn, which delighted Annabel! (I recently dug this thing up and we probably have never used it with the kids strangely enough, so they loved this idea!) Perfect day!

Annabel sharing her cards with me.

Me modeling my handmade fused glass necklace made by Annabel! Daniel made one, too. SO very cool!

Best job in the world- Mom to these two amazing kids!!!

I got lots of cards! So much love!

From Annabel...

From Daniel...

These are behind the scenes pictures of the kids making their glass pendant necklaces for me during a fun Mother's Day Project night with Y Guides! I'm amazed they made such nice things at this event! The kids each made these two fused glass pendant necklaces, which Ben picked up a week later, all nicely set and ready to wear. Plus the kids made gift boxes for them and the two large cards they each did above, plus the Mom shaped card, too. Great night out for them!

Annabel also made me a flower pen in school, which you can see in the very first picture of this post.

 Annabel's pendant

 Daniel's pendant

Special treat! Stove-top-popped Popcorn!! Annabel helped crank that thing! She loved how it sounded when they were all popping!

Peek-a-boo! So cool how it worked!

Such a lovely Mother's Day! And Meson Sabika dinner with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law the night before, too! I had a great weekend!

Doodle Crate

Annabel was gifted a Doodle Crate subscription for her birthday- a big wish of hers. Several years ago, the kids both had subscriptions to Kiwi Crate and Tinker Crate (2012, 2013, and 2015) and then we took a break. They've been asking for these monthly boxes again lately. So we started up Annabel for her birthday- well, Grandma Cheryl did. Daniel wants to start up again for his birthday, too, hint hint. Anyway, Annabel's first Doodle Crate arrived a couple weeks ago and she could. not. wait. to get started! It was a kit to make a super cute little leather portfolio, complete with a sketchbook- so awesome! Annabel loved it! She had a lot of fun sewing it together and decorating the flap cover with brads. Take a look!

We can't wait to see what comes next month! Thank you, Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Gary for this wonderful gift subscription!

Annabel, Author Extraordinaire

I've mentioned before Annabel is forever writing. She really is our very own in-house author. I'm happy to be her in-house publisher...she's given me permission to share some of her work on the blog! Enjoy these bits and pieces of her work!

Cute story: Annabel told me one night, calling to me after lights were out to ask if she could just write something down right now or she'd forget it, "I just have to write when I think of it. It's just the life of an author." I think it's rather adorable to see, after I have left her with lights out, that she's turned on her little desk light and I can hear her clinking away in her room writing some little bit for just a few minutes before going to sleep (I told her this is okay within reason and she's been remarkably responsible- so proud of her!).  Annabel's brain basically never stops thinking. (Been that way since the minute she was born- she's always go go go and has a hard time getting to sleep!) Anyway, enjoy!

This is a sneak peek at some of Annabel's Sketchbook Project pages. So cute and clever! She's a wise girl, really- that third picture, a fave!

This is a story Annabel typed out in her school Google account on her Chromebook (which is from school) one afternoon. This story is notable in that she finished it. Annabel is a starter- she is great at starting stories (and other projects for that matter), has great ideas, amazing "hooks" and introductions with incredible describing words and so on...but seeing something through to the end, especially the way she envisions it unfolding and stretching out before her, is not always easy for her because she wants it to be bigger and more than she feels she can do and has the stamina to do. It's something to work on with her. Writing can be hard. For now, I celebrate Annabel's incredible writing as it is. She really is deep and has a good handle on what makes a story interesting. This was a cute story. I've edited nothing.

The Story of Leah

Book #1             By: Annabel

Leah stared out into the lake. Leah just came home from school and was waiting for Mother to return from the bakery. The bakery owned by the family was a very busy place. The bakery sold blueberry muffins with sugar, donuts [ glazed, frosted, creme filling] and much more attracting items. Mother would come home every day at 4:30 pm. Father and Charlotte [ another worker] would have to stay to run the place until Uncle Jay took over for the night shift. Leah hardly got to see her Mother and Father. They left at 5:00 am before Leah was awake. Leah was used to getting ready by herself in the morning and waiting for the bus. Leah kicked the water hard before slipping on her flip flops and going back inside. Leah closed the back door and opened the front door. As Leah stepped outside, the chilly air flew into the house. Leah sat on the front porch waiting for Mother to come home. A few minutes later Mother walked up the driveway. She carried a brown paper bag in her hands. “ Bagels for dinner?” she asked. Leah nodded and followed Mother inside. Mother set the bag down on the table and took out two bagels. Mother handed one to Leah and kept the other to eat herself. She filled a glass with water and set it in front of Leah. “Leah,” Mother began, “ your Father is staying extra late tonight because Uncle Jay is out on vacation.” Leah finished up dinner and went up to bed. She cried herself to sleep.

2

“Bring!” went Leah’s alarm clock. She pulled off the covers and got dressed and combed her hair. She stuffed a muffin in her mouth and grabbed her backpack. She walked outside and waited for the bus. Finally, the bus pulled up on Chester Ave. Leah got on the bus and searched for an empty seat. All the seats were full , like usual. Chester Ave was the last stop before school. This time the only seat left was next to Kay. Leah took her seat and avoided eye contact with Kay. When it was Leah’s first day of school at Mindle Way Middle, Kay lead Leah to the janitor’s office instead of her homeroom. Leah hopped off the bus and walked into Mr. Darwin's room. The school day went by fast and next thing she knew it was time to go home. Leah walked outside surprised to see Mother and Father waiting for her. “ What?” Leah stammered. “ Your Grandmother was very generous and offered to take over for the rest of the month” said Father. “ Now why don’t we go and celebrate at Darby’s Ice cream?” Mother said. They each held either side of Leah’s hands and they skipped all the way to Darby’s Ice cream Parlor.

The End

Annabel likes to play around with the different Google templates. A resume was one such template and here's what she filled in. Very cute! She's hired!!

This is some of Annabel's after-lights-out writing! She's been writing blurbs for the backs of books. Very cute.

We're so proud of our wonderful author!! I always see things that say budding artist/writer, future author/artist, etc.- but really, Annabel already IS an author and I like to honor that by saying so!

Robin Hood and His Merry Family

Ever since Daniel started taking archery classes through our park district when he was 8 and then he and Daddy took the class again together when he was 9 (during 3rd grade last year), Annabel had been dying to turn 8 so SHE could take the class, too! AND- she wanted us ALL to take the class together. Yep, even Mom. She was quite inspired by the fact that Daddy took the class with Daniel and the fact that we could indeed all do it together. I love how she got us all inspired to join her, too. I just think it's so cool.

So- we started at the beginning of May. We didn't waste much time after she turned 8! (The April session started before she technically turned 8 and I could probably have waived her in, but we were actually quite busy in April; May has been much quieter, strangely enough.) Annabel was beyond excited for the first class!! Too cute. I was actually quite nervous, but after class- Annabel and I were super pumped. She had a hard time falling asleep that night, actually.

Anyway, I remember being unimpressed by the instructors when we first did the class two years ago, but they are actually quite nice, and really, it's just all about trying and trying and trying again and again and again, so that it actually works out nicely. You just have to hone your skill and get the position and all down pat and they do mean pat- as the teacher keeps saying, archery is about consistency. I can see where this would be excellent for Daniel, my creature of habit kid. And for Annabel- this forces her to take a breath and slow down, my steam-roller girl, and it also satisfies her lust for adventure and just really nailing it, and that whole getting to do it again and again...yep, she just loves everything about it. This class has been a really good fit for all of us. And the instructors have been super nice and let Ben and Daniel move their targets out farther, as their skill has been developed and they've done this class before. We're just loving this class and we're sad we only have one more class left! We will definitely be back!!

It's funny- our family of 4 just about makes up half the class. It's a really small group this session, which works in our favor immensely because only so many can shoot at a time and with a small group we all get to shoot all the time, there is no waiting turns. So we get twice as much practice. And actually, we even get to shoot 6 arrows at a time even, instead of just three. So satisfying!!

Anyway, our big news is that during the first class this session, Ben accomplished something quite rare in archery, purely with luck he says, but still very awesome...he shot what is known in archery as a "robin hood"- where a second arrow splits the first one in the target!! WOW! Holy cow. The instructor said it had been YEARS since he'd seen this happen. He made us all gather around and take a look and he asked who the owner of those arrows was and it was Ben. Then he said something that made my kids go crazy with excitement- he said Ben would get to keep the arrows as souvenirs! Very cool. Of course many pictures were taken! And now Ben has plans to mount the double long arrow above his office door, which will be very cool.

So now we have one more week left- and it's balloon popping week! We can't wait. And then like I said, we'll be back!

Our Robin Hood! 

With his "robin hood" arrow...check it out!! 

Right in the center, too. How's that for consistency?!

The "robin-hooded" arrow!

And now for the Merry Family hard at work!

Girly Girl

Annabel has really grown a lot this year. She's been growing out her hair and she loves to play around with it. Headbands are worn almost daily now. And she went through a ponytail phase where she was using this cute ribbon hairband we'd won in a basket at school a long time ago (it came in handy finally!).

We've also graduated from Annabel's first pair of earrings that had to stay in for three months- she can finally change her earrings! She was SO excited! She's got lots of choices already- Mickey birthstone earrings, Stitch earrings, mood initial A earrings, infinity earrings (which I also have- so we match!), Eiffel tower earrings, even dangly white flower earrings, and many more of course. Her first earring change- Mickey!

Also, her class did an 1895 day at school (they were studying local history) and Annabel was all over that! She wanted to wear a dress (not exactly of the time period, but still, not pants) and old fashioned earrings, so she wore my pearl earrings. For her hair, she wanted it pulled back in a low ponytail and tied up with a simple ribbon, so sweet. It was all so cute. Annabel took the whole thing very seriously, and was quite concerned with how far her teacher would take it (her teacher did make sure it was a day they didn't need Chromebooks and other technology), after all, if there wasn't any heat, they would get really cold in the building and what about the lights, and so on. Annabel was very clever- it was impressive. She does love a good historical fiction book, so that might have a lot to do with this, too. In any case, so fun!

First earring change!!

Ponytail fun!!

Learning to change earrings on her own!

1895 day- low ponytail and a simple ribbon to tie it off, 

plus a dress and pearl earrings! 

The sweetest!