Insert Diobolical Laugh

Before:

After:
His opinion:

Oh, my sides! My poor dog! We take such joy in our animals - for days to come, everyone in the household will laugh every time he enters the room.
And, since he's constantly cold now (stifling a chuckle), he's ultra cuddly. Poor Alexxander. I'm pretty sure even the rabbit is laughing at him!

Cutting Class

One of the best aspects of homeschooling is that, when the first warm day of the season comes, you can bite your thumb at your schoolwork mid-way through and head for the beach. I'm torn on what it teaches my sons; either it's the "Family and togetherness is priority, if you have the chance, seize the day!" or, heaven forbid, "It's OK to renege on responsibilities if it's sunny and you'd rather play".
Hopefully, since we made arrangements to re-schedule schoolwork and got the green light from their teacher to have an "enrichment" day, they learned to only ditch your work if you're able to make arrangements with those to whom you're accountable.
Whatever lesson we taught or didn't, boy, was it a good day!

Now, it's off to wash 8 loads of sandy laundry and vacuum out the van and carseats...

Little League

So, this is the first year we've done Little League. Both the eldests were allowed to be on the same team, so that's a big plus. Each team has 2 practices and 1 game per week, so I don't think I would have been able to cope with each boy on a different team (4 practices and 2 games per week - yikes!) .
Plus they have Ninjitsu 2 nights per week, so we've been going. A lot.
I now remember how much I like to be home.
HOMEschooling..... HOUSEwife...... these are things that require a person to actually spend some time at HOME :)
The funny thing is, I thought it would be a struggle to "wrangle" the littles while the bigs were practicing. But, with some careful trunk packing, I've managed to have some good one-on-one time with Levi and Zephaniah. I bought a huge jug of bubbles, a big ball, and packed their tricycles. Luckily, practice is at an elementary school with a playground covered area for when it's rainy. The babies actually have a good time, and, with all 4 boys happily playing, it's worth it!

They both saw the same ladybug at the same time :)

The Story of the Broken Elbow...

...is a simple one for those of us with several small boys living in one house: playing is to blame. Actually, Zephan was playing with Daddy when it happened, so it just goes to show that accidents can happen even if you're watching them closely. He fell back and tried to brace himself with his arm out in back of him and turned it funny.
The scary thing was that we almost didn't bring him in! He settled down quickly after the fall and was even giving us the high-5's we were asking for (to see if the arm was bothering him). But, when he reached for his Baba with his left hand....we figured we should get him checked out, just in case.
And, low and belhold, there was a fracture on his elbow. Now, we as foster parents, promptly FREAKED. OUT.
"Oh, what will the State say?" This child was just in Dornbecher Children's Hospital in December for swallowing a stinkin' nickle! And now, this.
But, after visiting the orthapedist today, it seems the fracture is little and the healing should take only 3 weeks. He won't even require the permenent cast we were dreading. And his caseworker seems understanding. Our caseworker, we love and know fairly well - so that's a blessing. Thank the Lord. Seriously.
Now the question this prompts is: Are we sure we want another boy next? :)

Sigh.

9:00am:

9:00pm:

I'll fill you in more later....