Happy Birthday, Noah James!

Jeana: So, how does it feel to be six? Any different?

Noah: No. I'm really surprised about that. It feels exactly the same as five. And anyway, thanks for keeping my secret.

Jeana: What secret?

Noah: About me being a superhero. I still am one even though I'm six now.

Jeana: Right. So...is there anything you're looking forward to about being six?

Noah: Yeah. Seeing Lili at Christmas time so I can tell her we're the same age. And I hope I'm taller than her, too.
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In the car on they way to see a movie with his friend from kindergarten...

Noah: I really am superhero.

Friend: No, you're just pretending.

Noah: No. I really am! I don't have any powers but I am a superhero.

Friend: How can you be?

Noah: Well...I have the uniform.

Thanksgiving

Come on and gather 'round, come on and gather round...

Let the little children lead us

Into the sanctuary of the Lord

Let the strong carry the sick

And let the rich embrace the poor

In the name of Christ our Savior

Gather at the Table of the Lord

Rejoicing always

Marvel at the radiance of God

Celebrate the day!

As one body come together

In the Father's love forevermore

At the Table of the Lord

Come on and gather 'round, come on and gather 'round,

Come on and gather 'round, come on and gather 'round...

Join the anthem of the ages

Proclaim the holy presence of our King

War and suffering will cease

Glorious eternal peace

By the grace of our Redeemer

Gather at the Table of the Lord
Rejoicing always
Marvel at the radiance of God
Celebrate the day!
As one body come together
In the Father's love forevermore
At the Table of the Lord

At the Table of the Lord

Come on and gather round

Come one, come all!

Come on and gather round

There's room at the table

For the young the old

For the rich and poor

For the meek and the bold

We all can

Gather at the Table of the Lord
Rejoicing always
Marvel at the radiance of God
Celebrate the day!
As one body come together
In the Father's love forevermore
At the Table of the Lord

Come on and gather 'round...

[Table of the Lord by FFH & PC3

from the album City on a Hill: The Gathering]

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that it reminds of THE feast. I hope you know that you're invited...

Interview with a Superhero

Safety first, superfriends!

Sorry for the sidewaysness of this video. But it's still super funny.

I don't know why she swallowed a fly...

Noah and I were singing "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and doing all the signs for each animal in the song. We tickled Toby every time we came to the spider part and it was great fun. But the part that had us all cracking up was when we sang the line, "...perhaps she'll die!" and Toby stood up, raised his right fist into the air and bellowed, "DIE!!!"

Silly Boys

Noah discovered that he could suction the bulb of a turkey baster to his chin. He called it his "beard." Of course the tube part made the perfect nose.

A few minutes later he came back with a bowl on his head. "I'm the Tin Man!"

Naturally, Toby wanted in on the action, too.

Bean Bags, Barley Bags, Whatever

As I mentioned before, I made some little rice bags for Noah and Tobin to play with. They have been having a blast tossing them into bowls, playing catch, making roads for their toy cars and using them as pillows for their stuffed animals. Seeing so much creative play from such a simple project made me decide to make some bean bags for a two year old we know who is having a birthday party this Saturday.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out and I'm excited about how easy, fun and frugal they were to make. Here's what I did:

First I found an old tin with a handle at our local thrift store. It cost 75 cents. I used double stick tape to adhere some cute scrapbook paper that I already had to the outside.

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I used colorful letter stickers ($2.99 at Target) on a large cream colored label and stuck the whole thing to the front of the paper covered tin.

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After that I sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge.

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While the tin was drying I sewed up 4" by 4" fabric squares on three sides to make small pouches. Then I filled them with 1/2 cup of pearl barley. It cost 48 cents a pound in the bulk section of Winco. Much cheaper, and also lighter and softer than beans.

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Once the pouches were full I folded the tops in and stitched across the top making sure to back-stitch on each corner to ensure that no barley would escape.
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I made a little card with ideas on how to play with the bean bags,

but I'm sure Hope will invent many more games on her own.

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Then I threw everything in the tin bucket.

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Then I took it all back out again to take a cuter picture. I hope she likes it!

Wiggin' Out

I took the boys up to Seattle for Halloween so that they could go trick-or-treating with their cousins. It was so good to spend time with family and I also got to hang out with one of my closest friends. My only regret about the weekend is that I forgot to bring my camera! I'm planning on having the boys dress up in their costumes again today so that I can show you (note to self--charge camera batteries).

My sister-in-law did email me this picture from the weekend, though. So now we can all imagine what my kids would look like if they happened to be blonde girls.

"I don't wanna be Barbie for Halloween!"

After School

Noah: Sometimes my teacher pretends that she doesn't know how to read and she makes us read it instead.

Jeana: Why do you think she does that?

Noah: She's just teachin'. But we all know she can read so she's not fooling anyone.

They probably hid them in their bonnets

My sewing machine recently came home from getting a tune-up at The Sewing Room. It's working better than ever now so of course I've been diving into all kinds of sewing projects. Last night I whipped up some small rice bags for the boys to play around with.

Geary: It's cool that they are having so much fun with something you made. You're like a real live house-wife now.

Jeana: I know! I kind of feel like a pioneer woman...except they didn't have sewing machines.

Noah: So they were just tricking us?

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The blogging problems seem to be with longer posts and those with pictures. I'm still don't really know what the problem is, but for now I'm planning on keeping you updated with any little snippet of life that I can. Thanks for the encouraging comments! I've missed you, too!

Blogging Problems

I have a whole bunch of posts that I've haven't been able to publish due to some kind of blogging error that I can't figure out. It's been really frustrating so I took a break from trying for the last couple of days. I'm worried that it has something to do with our computer--ugh. But rest assured, this blog is not going away. It just needs a little rest and hopefully it will be back up and running very soon.