Science Night

Today was Alexis' big Science Fair night! We all had supper together at the O'Hara's--the guys headed off to the shooting range, and the gals headed to the school for Science Fair. Alexis did a project on germs and how far they go when you sneeze. It was pretty cool. She had a can of compressed air, and a "nose" for it to blow through, and pepper to shoot across the room. Very neat! We were proud of her. There were lots of other fun experiments too...many volcanoes, as the boys liked things that blew up! The girls had a great time at a generator, where they put the power through them once they connected the circuit. They loved the tingling feeling, and they boys seemed to not tolerate the voltage as well as the girls. (One more reason God had women do the tough child bearing!)

After the Science Fair, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some items. We arrived home at the same time as the guys. We enjoyed Root Beer Floats, and a few rounds of cribbage. Lets just say the girls didn't suffer as much as last time!

The younger girls had fun dressing up and taking pictures of each other for their scrap books. Alyona, Ryan & Declan had their own round of cribbage in the living room. Another fun (and late) night!

Locks Of Love Day

Today was a big day for three of us gals. Tanya, Kristin & Myself all went to my girlfriend Kellie to donate our hair to Locks of Love. The girls waited until I had enough hair (the minimum was 8 inches) and I managed 9.5 and still had shoulder length left.

Tanya went first...and cut off 10.5 or 11 inches of hair. Her new style is SO very cute!!

Kristin went next...and is sporting such a cute haircut, it makes those of us with straight hair sick. It is very attractive!

I went last, and let Kellie give me the style she thought would look good. She did great, although it has been a long time since I've had bangs on my face, that I am having a difficult time not brushing them off.

We had a fun afternoon, and even Ryan & Bill's barber Shane (who works next door) came over for some entertainment.

Oh yeah, and Declan...you left your coon skin hat again!!

Declan's coon skin hat, modified Kristin Style with a crown!

Another Round of Cribbage

Tonight we got together with the O'Hara's on an impromptu visit.....the guys decided to have bible study after all. SO, after supper, we all met up at our house, and the guys headed to Bible Study. Tracey & Alexis worked on her Science Project for her Science Fair, Alyona watched a movie, the other girls played dress up, and the boys of course played a computer game.

The guys came home, and the kids were playing so nicely, that we got in another game of cribbage. Sadly, the girls were skunked...but, let it be known...this is what you end up looking like after a skunking!




In all seriousness--we are thankful this is all Sean got! He was helping a friend yesterday to raise a large post over their drive, and Sean was on top of the beam, 18 ft in the air. The chain binder jumped or let go, and it came back to hit Sean in the hand, lip & face, causing him to have several stitches in his hand & cheek. The picture of the laceration doesn't really do the cut justice, as I saw how ucky it looked just after he did it, and the picture does not give the dimensional look! We shudder to think of how serious (or fatal) this could have been, and Praise God for his watchful eye over Sean.

Now, for more silliness--Declan, you forgot your coonskin hat here at the house! You'll have to pay to get it back now!! (Just kidding...we're just funnin' with ya!)

Our Silly Girls

This is a quick picture of our girls singing in church Sunday AM
Notice the long hair on Kristin & Tanya--it will be donated to Locks of Love this week!

We spent supper & the evening together with the O'Hara's. The kids played outside for quite awhile, despite the cloudy weather. It never did rain, so we were thankful for that.

We enjoyed supper together, and then the adults played a few rounds of cribbage. Tracey & I won the last round, and I won't tell you about the other hands we didn't win. Lets just say that Sean is a happy winner!! WAHOO!!

The girls ended up having a great time dressing up in the silliest get ups that they could put together. There was lots of giggling, and boy, the fun things they put together.....pictures are worth a million words!

How Times Have Changed

My, how times have changed. It seems we have known the O'Hara family for years, even though it has only been a short 15 months!! We have grown to be quite a family, loving each other as we were truly blood related, but adding two more kids to the mix last October.

Here we are last June, when there were only 5 kids!!



Here we are this May (almost June) with seven kids--all close like brothers & sisters!! (AND oh my goodness...they are lined up almost the same, and we did not tell them how to line up at all!! Funny!!)




We had a great trip to the Science Factory on Wednesday after work. The kids saw all the displays in a matter of 30 minutes,(they were very spoiled by OMSI) and were ready to go--until they found the dress up clothes. They had a blast dressing up, while Tracey & I envisioned lice...yikes. Thankfully, everyone is fine!!



After our Science Center adventure, we headed to Goodwill--boy was that exciting with seven kids. The girls had a blast, while the boys got bored....good thing for lap tops & DVD Players!!

Sorry about the pictures...they are from the cell phone...and no, I did not forget my camera. My camera broke while we were at the Science Factory. Unfortunately, I don't have a card reader to get my photos from, so will ask Sean to please download them for me, as my camera is on the way to IL to be repaired (thank heavens for warranties!). So, in the meantime, I'll be stealing Kristin's camera again to keep you in the loop of our happenings! Look for more pictures when I get the ones off the camera! (I will add a separate slide show to this post).

Here are the rest of the pictures from the camera that broke!

Saturday & Sunday

Last evening, after supper, we had a huge "cleaning effort"! With seven children, two adults, three dogs, and two cats, the mess in the the house was incredible!! While at the dinner table, we assigned jobs and everyone took off in their own directions to get things done. Since we had used the slip & slide...there was grass everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Declan swept the main floor, Alyona handled the worst mess-the bathroom, I think she had a piece of sod when she was finished sweeping in there! Tanya, Kristin & Kim cleaned up the dress up mess in Kristin's bedroom, Ryan emptied & refilled the dishwasher, Alexis & I cleaned up the kitchen & supper leftovers, and I can't recall what happened to Bill?!!

After we were finished, the boys headed out to play, since it had cooled down to 85. They purchased rifles at the Civil War re-enactment, and had so much fun playing with them.





The girls, exhausted after a full day of playing outside,asked for a movie, so they watched Jim Henson's Jack & The Beanstalk...I had forgotten how long it was!! They enjoyed the movie, although we stopped it for showers, and then allowed them to watch the end of it with the promise of everyone heading to bed as soon as it was over. Before long, we were all in the livingroom, enjoying it together.









We headed to bed, and the talking and singing didn't slow until almost 11--but everyone was great about getting up and getting ready for church this morning. It was a beautiful morning, and everyone was ready, had their things loaded, and in the car by 9:30 to head to church.

The girls bought fans yesterday at the Civil War Re-enactment, and they showed off their fans this morning....



Alyona finished her bridge after some frustrating attempts with the string....thankfully I remembered to catch a picture with my cell phone before she left with it....





Shawnna & Bill had a great nap this afternoon in a quiet house. We love to have the kids...they are like our own. It was a great weekend...and everyone got along so well! Praise God for blending our families so well! (Sorry, not pictures of the nap!)

Civil War Again!

Today started off warm. The kids all slept until after 8--some until after 9:00. Alyona was on the couch and the last one up at 9:15. We've decided she can probably sleep through cannon fire!!

Bill & I enjoyed coffee on the porch until it got to hot to be out there--by 9:30, it was 80 degrees. We had talked with the kids, and they really wanted to go back to see the re-enactment with the 400 guys instead of the couple dozen we had yesterday. So, the kids & I decided we'd better get to the early battle, because the afternoon one would be way to hot. Bill was worried about getting a headache in the hot sun, so he stayed home, and I adventured out with 7 kids on my own. I say "adventured" because that's exactly what it was, an adventure! Actually, the did really well, and I received more sympathetic looks than I thought possible--along with many offers of sunscreen for myself & the kids, since we were so red from yesterday. We did slather up with SPF 30 before we left.



The battle was great. It was actually too much to watch. 400 guys on the field were tough to keep up with....and I have to say that the learning we encountered yesterday, was certainly more than we would have had today, had it been our only time there. It was good today, but it was geared for everyone, and they did not have the learning stations set up like they did yesterday. It was a living history, and everyone was in character, but you had to seek each one out, and we were hoping to catch what we missed yesterday....but we couldn't locate the bugler, and the medical center was not open. Bummer. We did however, find some folks to chat with, and enjoyed what we did learn.

We were able to catch the guy who had the amazing horse from yesterday, and chatted with him for awhile. He explained how he trained his horse to side step...it was an amazing animal, and nuzzled the kids while we were there. Ryan got a nudge, and was a bit uncomfortable, until the guy chatted with the kids about the horse.

This was the guy (Ken), and the amazing horse "Bill"
that we met yesterday, and chatted with today.

Our next stop was one of the cannon loaders. He had various types of "stuff" that they packed into cannons. Here we thought it was only "balls"....they used some similar to buckshot, some grape clustered items, and other's that looked like huge bullets. The boys really got into this table, the girls on the other hand were a bit bored after awhile. The gentleman that talked to us allowed Alyona to hold a sword.

We hit the Medical tent, but it was closed...however, there were lots of items left out for the kids to observe. We looked at all their crude tools, and were amazed that more didn't die from infection, or sheer fear!! There were some scary tools!

We wandered through the tents (there were literally hundreds of tents) and everyone in the family was in period dress. It is the rule of this club to dress from 6am on Saturday until 6pm on Sunday to be in total period dress..including food, cooking, sleeping & living quarters. Even their SOCKS had to be wool. The women were in full dress...including corsets. We talked to several people who were hot, but said that they were probably cooler than us, because they wore all cotton or wool, and these fabrics wicked the sweat away from them. I'm not convinced that my one layer tank top and my 'undergarments' and capri pants were warmer than their 12 layers of clothing!!

We looked for our friend Andrew because the kids all wanted their photos with him, but we could not find him. We wandered through both the Union and Confederate camps and did not locate him, but we saw some neat things.

The kids went to the tents to purchase their goodies....Kim missed getting a purse that she really wanted. Today a fan was more appealing to her! The girls (all but Alyona) bought fans, and the boys pondered and pondered over the black powder guns. The walked away twice (once yesterday and once today), then as we were on the way out of the gate...the boys decided they had better have those guns!!

We headed to the dollar store to get more soap to make the slip & slide REALLY slippery. We had lunch, the kids changed, slathered with sunscreen and were back out to the slip & slide. With temps at 92--it was the only place to be cool. Unfortunately, when you use soap on the slip & slide, it washes your sun screen off. All but our Ukrainian born kids are burned to some extent tonight. They all claim it was worth it. I've spent quite a bit of time rubbing aloe after sun lotion on them.

Enjoy the battle pictures. We will certainly do this again next year!!

Kids, Kids, Everywhere!

Today, after our Civil War Field Trip (check it out two postings below!), we headed to drop off Tracey & the kids. Sean had planned a weekend away for he & Tracey, for their anniversary, and we took the kids. It took a bit of planning to get everything into place, but we pulled off the surprise (EVEN when Jeremy almost blew it last night!!).

Bill bailed us out by warning Sean we were on the way home early...and Sean was able to bail out of the house so it was empty when we got there. It couldn't have played out more beautifully, as Sean pulled in with a dozen pink roses, and a nice card. She was very surprised. I headed to pick up the girls from school, and they took off.

We got everyone packed up, and headed back to our house for some good ol' Sweet Home Slip & Slide. It's amazing what fun some heavy black plastic, a bottle of dish soap and a hose will create. It was great fun for them.



After Alyona had some cooling off, she asked Bill for a piece of wood for a bridge she had to make for science. They headed off to the barn, and before we knew it, there was a full scale project going on!! She worked hard on her project , as well as Bill!! She will finish up tomorrow...we'll try to remember to take a picture.





We wound down the night with a movie....boy, that new couch holds all seven and then some (not that we need anymore!). You can see where Bill took to hiding! Sean fixed him up with some shows to watch on his laptop...so he's hiding in the bedroom!!
It has finally dropped to 80 degrees at 10pm...maybe we will sleep tonight! Thankfully, those temps don't include the humidity....so we're thankful for that.

Enjoy the pictures....and look for more fun this weekend!

Butterflies Away!

It was 94 degrees when we got home from our field trip today. Kristin decided that it was time to let her butterflies go. With the heat, they could certainly cope better outside, than in the mesh cage they were in, with flowers wilting faster than we could keep up with.



It took about 10 minutes to get them all out...some hung around on a hand for a short time, but most of them just took off into the air. They were beautiful, and it was a fun project. Five caterpillars into five butterflies...all perfectly made by God!

We hope to see them around!

Civil War Field Trip 05-16-08

OK, it was hot, but it was fun!!





We started our morning out with beautiful sunshine, temperatures at 8:30 were in the 70's, but by lunchtime, we were well on our way to 80 degrees!! Some were smart enough to use sunscreen, others of us (I'm not mentioning any names!) were not!

The stations were set up to change every 25 minutes, and the kids learned about sharp shooters, medical attention, calvary, infantry, how to stand at attention, how to handle your rifle, how to march, and how the bugle was so important. We learned about the photographers of that era, and those with Dana & Shawnna's group sure did understand why we have no "action" shots--it took 15 minutes to prepare and take just 1 picture! Now we understand why no one ever smiled...you were told NOT to, as the exposure time was five seconds! Who can not move in that amount of time? The weird thing...Shawnna was on the left side of Dana....these images were always flipped. So, Jesse James was not left handed!



We also learned a very interesting fact--Gettysburg was never a site that was supposed to be for battle. Everyone was heading there for shoes!!! The regiments literally bumped into one another. (I wonder if anyone ever got their shoes?)

The battle at the end was small, but the kids sure got the idea. We can only imagine what the full battle this weekend will be like. I'm sure that many of us will be heading back! It was amazing to watch the different parts of the battle.

Butterfly Adventure--continued

drying his/her wings

JASON--CHECK IT OUT!! THE CATERPILLARS HATCHED!!

Yesterday, we had one lonely butterfly hatch. We were
worried about the other four, since we could see no movement. Within an hour this morning, the other four hatched. Amazingly, we didn't see one of them escape the cocoon. Bummer! We did see how they sat & let their wings dry, and how they were able to extend them to get used to having them. It must be weird to got to sleep as a worm, and wake up with these large things on your back.

sitting on a leaf just after hatching

From the back, they look brownish with eyes...but when opened, they are beautiful red-ish orange with spots. They are painted ladies variety, and very pretty. We will keep them inside for a day or two, and plan to release them on Saturday. Watch for more pictures! It's been hard to get them in the habitat, since it is mesh, and the camera picks up nothing but white mesh. The pictures you can see, and through the door that we can put fresh flowers in for them. Bear with us, and look for more pictures on Saturday!

These guys just hatched...still sitting next to their cocoon

New Furniture

The section where the sunshine is will have another piece in a few weeks.
It will fill up to the windows

Yes, it wasn't so long ago that we had a new couch & love seat in our living room. Unfortunately, it met with a disaster, and although it could have been repaired, the fabric was discontinued. Long story short, we had purchased fabric insurance and this time it paid off! They refunded the ENTIRE purchase price of our couch, and we were able to choose another one.

After hitting the Lazy-Boy store three times, we finally decided, ordered, and waited this week for our new sectional. The first time we went up to Lazy-boy, we "thought" we knew what we wanted--thankfully, we slept on it, looked at fabric samples against our love seat, and chatted with Jen & Brady, who just purchased this same set we ended up with. We decided we were "settling" for something to try to match our love seat. So, back to Salem for a second trip, to look at something else, deciding that we need to look at what we like, not what will match what we have. It just wasn't working! Needless to say, we had seen a piece on our first trip that we liked a lot, but didn't think a sectional would work for us. We did some measuring, and lo & behold, it looked like it was custom made for our area. So, we ordered it, and just had to wait for our credit to arrive at the store for the old couch.

Tuesday after Miss Millie's funeral (our neighbor passed away the 25th of April after a short battle with cancer), we received a call that our credit was in, and we could order when we could get there to sign the credit. Being that Bill was home early for the funeral, off to Salem we went, surprised that they had the piece in stock (with the exception of the special order piece that will lengthen the other side) and could be delivered Friday! Wow....how exciting.

We spent Wednesday night deciding what to do with the old love seat.....Bill took off with the tape measure to the trailer. I knew what he was thinking...he's always hated the couch that came with the trailer. Guess what, it's a perfect fit. Now there is a love seat that is much more comfortable in the trailer, the only loss is that we can no longer use the sofa bed...BUT, we've slept plenty in those recliners, so they will serve as a good back up for extra sleeping if need be. We loaded the recliner in the trailer, and spent Thursday cleaning, moving furniture, and spring cleaning the living room. It looks great.Margaret & Linda....look how good Nain's table & Mom's chair look together!

New couch arrived today about 1:00---check it out!! YAHOO!