Malachi has been ever so helpful as of late. I caught a booger of a virus and have been spending a bunch of time in a vegetative state the last few days. A couple of days ago I was so tired that I asked Kai to do me a favor:
Mommy: "Malachi? Mommy is so tired and sick. Do you think you could help Mommy and play in your room like a big boy? Then Mom can get a little rest."
Malachi: " Yeah, Mommy! I help Mommy! I play in my room! I'm a big boy!"

10 minutes later....

Mommy: "?$#%^&!!!!"
Notice that the beds were un-bedded, every shelf was disheveled, the laundry was de-sorted, stuffed animals victimized, diapers and wipes strewn about, items on the top bunk were de-bunked and discarded.
It's not that I mind the kids having fun and mess-making, but, the child ventured onto the top bunk! It's like he's been waiting for this opportunity since birth. Biding his time. "Someday, she'll get nice and distracted and then I'll conquer that bed in the sky. Someday..." I shudder to think what else could have happened had I not come in to check my little helper.

This is Malachi opening up his first bank account. I was just making a deposit. We're thinking of going in together on a car when we're teenagers. We can't agree on the color, so we're thinking of painting it half blue & half purple. When I pick up my girlfriend, I can park it with the purple side facing her house. When Kai picks up his girlfriend, he can park with the blue side showing - great plan, huh?

Solomon Starts School!

I can hardly believe it. As I sit him at the table on the morning of his first day, we look at each other. I have never been intimidated by my son (at least not this son - ha ha), but I'm thinking, "You know? This is a bit intimidating. He's looking at me all expectantly, 'OK Mommy - lay it on me! Teach me everything I need to know to function in this world.' D'Oh! Can I actually do this?!? When one uses public school, if their kids turn out psycho, they can shift some of the blame. Not so with homeschooling. It's all me. No one else to look to. What if my boys turn out to be nonfunctional members of society, or worse - Democrats? What do I say then? 'Whoopsie! My bad!' " My breathing quickens as I realize that I have until he's the age of 18 to turn this kid into a fully functioning adult, "that's only 13 school years! And we're not even proficient with scissors yet! Ohmigosh what about Algebra? I suck at Algebra! When did Columbus sail?! WHEN WAS IT?!?"
Then I hear, "Mommy? What do we do first?" I finally realize what's first. Or, rather, Who. "Solomon, let's start with prayer." I realize it's not what I know, but Who. That's why I'm doing this. To share who I know with my son. His creation will be explored, memorized and studied, but first, foremost, my son must know the Creator. That's my job. Everything else will come. "Let's pray, Sol. Then we'll work on letters."

Here I am on my first day of Kindergarten! I'm holding Malachi's bug farm. He's got 15 crickets, 3 spiders and a beetle in there. We finally went to the pet store and bought bug food. Can you believe it? They actually sell bug food! Our bugs really like it.

My first art project was making this leaf bird treat to hang in our tree! It was incredibly messy to make what with all the peanut butter and bird seed. Now we wait and watch for the birds...

Oregon State Fair 2005!

Daddy, Mummy and Nana took us to the State Fair on Thursday, and we had a bunch of fun! Here we are driving a big tractor!

We took a wild canoe ride!

I drove this spaceship! Malachi got scared and had to be rescued by Mommy, so I went solo.

We rode a semi-truck!

We saw some wonderful animals at the petting zoo - we spent a good half an hour in there!

The wallaby was awfully cute!

Malachi was trying to carry this one back to the car,

and I found a goat I wanted to bring home with me, too!

Even Daddy and Mommy had a good time!