Hey #9

"Great hit!"

"Awesome catch!"

"Way to hustle!"

These types of comments were bestowed on #9 of the Phillies at last night's baseball game..  Who's #9, you might ask?  None other than our precious Caleb.

And the end result?

A game ball!

Now, game balls aren't necessarily given to the player who has the best hits, or makes the most outs.  Sometimes they're given to the player who tries his best.

But you know something?  Caleb demonstrated all of the above.

I knew he was going to have a good game when, during his first at bat, he swung at the first pitch and nailed it into center field.  His best hit ever!  And it only continued.  

He hit the ball hard during every at bat.

He outran fielders trying to make the tag on him.  Nope. Safe.

And then, when he was playing first base, he made all three outs in the inning.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  His first out was a short hit down the first base line.  He retrieved it, stepped on the bag.  Next out was a nice throw from the pitcher.  Third out- a high fly ball!

Caleb had the game of his life.  And the whole time, he wore a smile on his face.  Seriously.  He never stopped smiling.  One of the moms told me that he is such a joy to watch because he's always so happy.  I think I grew about 10 inches then.

Once the game was over, there were a lot of players complementing him on earning the game ball.  Caleb just smiled and said thanks.  But Patrick still had a chat with him afterwards about the importance of remaining humble.

When I was chatting with him about all that happened during the game, he said something that made me put the brakes on.  He started telling me about the fly ball he caught and said something about how he didn't think he was going to catch it.  I quickly stopped him and said, "Caleb, don't ever say you don't think you can do something.  Don't put bad thoughts in your mind like that.  Remember you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you."  It just about broke my heart that he didn't think he could catch that ball.

Anyway, Patrick and I (and Bei Bei too) are just so proud of him.  I wish had photos or video to share, but I didn't bring my camera.  And Bei Bei had me busy in the stands so I couldn't whip out my phone for a video.  You'll just have to trust me when I say Caleb had a great night at the ball field.

We love you, Caleb!

Way to go, #9!

Sunday Snapshot: Is there a thing as too much fun?

I'll answer my own question....NOPE!

That's exactly what we had last weekend.  Yep, I'm late as usual.  Last weekend was Opening Day for Spring Ball where we live.  What does that mean?  A fun parade full of tee ball, baseball, and softball teams walked down the street, past our house, to the ball fields.  Then it was bounce houses, competitions, hot dogs and soda.  It was great fun to see all the teams together.

This spring Caleb happens to be on the coach pitch Phillies.  Yep, same name as his spring tee ball team last year.

He has the same coach from the fall, and a few players from that team are also on his spring team.

This year he participated in some of the competitions.  He had fun with a few of his teammates and reconnected with a player that was on his first ever tee ball team (the boy in green below.)

Then, if that wasn't enough, the following day we headed over to Epcot for lunch with the princesses.  Patrick originally took off work for Madeline's birthday, so we can all go to Disney together (like we usually do for birthdays.)  Anyway, since it's still unclear whether or not he will have that day off, we decided to be sure Madeline got her birthday lunch with the princesses.....so we did it a few weeks early.

Madeline was very friendly with all the princesses.  

She talked to Belle a lot.

Caleb was so cute.  The princesses would often call him over and say hello.  He would just get so shy.

After lunch, we headed over to China to let the kids pick out a gift.  We let them do that in January for Caleb's birthday.  Since it was Madeline's birthday, she got two gifts.  

I picked out this Uighur princess hat.

And she picked out a purse, which has gone everywhere with her this week.

Caleb picked out a diabolo (Chinese yo yo).  The two of them have had so much fun with it!

As you can see, the kids have had a lot going on lately...and a lot of fun, too. Baseball is in full swing now. So we are down at the fields three days a week. 

 Add to that Madeline's day of dance...and that means lots of busy afternoons. But oh, are they worth  it!

For more Sunday Snapshots, check out Stefanie's blog.

Favorite Photo Friday: A Windy Day

I do apologize that I haven't shared any photos of the kids in a while.  Before this photo shoot, it had seriously been a month since the last time I photographed them.  Pathetic.  Shame on me.  I love to photograph their precious smiles.

I just haven't had much spare time.  So we had a rare break in the hustle and bustle of our days last week, and I thought I would whip out my camera and snap a few shots our little dumplings.

After putting Madeline down for a nap, I went outside to read while Caleb played some basketball.  That's when I said "Hey, forget the book and get your camera."

Caleb has been playing a lot of basketball since he got his hoop at Christmas.

He is such an athletic little guy.  

Because of the brachial plexus injury to his left arm, he shoots one-handed and does a pretty darn good job with it, too.

Caleb was so patient with me as I interrupted his game to take some photos of him.  I just love this series.  I guess he got a little tired. lol.

Madeline finally woke up from her nap, just a wee bit cranky.

However, after showing her the photos I took of her brother and asking her if I could take some of her, she decided to join in the fun.

Still a bit tired though.

And a bit cranky.

Really, though, it was the wind she wasn't a fan of.  And boy, was it windy!  I think it was gusting to 

25-30 mph!

After bringing her back near the garage (these were all taken in the driveway), she was a tad bit happier.

This focus is a bit soft, but I just LOVE her lips in this shot.  

I tried moving her further away from the garage because the light was better.  Then she complained that she was so cold.  It was like 80 degrees.  

Anyway, it was fun to get out there and capture some sweet shots of the kidlets.  I've already told myself that I need to do a better job of photographing them this next month, no matter how busy we are.

If you'd like to see more gorgeous photos, be sure to check out Lisa's blog. 

Have a great weekend!

Have you heard the latest?

...number that is.  

Over the weekend, we attended a small party to celebrate one of our friend's 50th.  To say that he has a nice set up at his house would be an understatement.  He's a serious drummer. I can't even pretend to know a thing about drumming.  But I can tell you that the dumplings had an absolute blast.  Tony was so gracious to let them bang away and entertain themselves (and us, too!)

Here's Caleb on drums and Madeline on vocals, singing the latest chart topper "Have a great day!"

(Sorry that the video is so dark.  Tony has sound controlled lighting and fog....big hits!)

And if you think I've forgotten how to take photos of my kids, don't worry.  

I have another post coming soon with *gasp* photos!

More videos?

As if I haven't shared enough videos lately, I have more.  Yep.  I haven't had my camera in my hand much at all lately, but I always (most days, if you ask Patrick) carry my phone with me.

Once a month, Madeline's dance studio has an observation day, when parents can come back and watch the children during their lesson.  I was unsure how Madeline would handle Caleb being in the same room, and my suspicions were confirmed.  While they practiced their routine for their recital, she kept pointing her finger at her brother.  It was hilarious.  Although I videotaped that, I won't be sharing it here just yet because I don't want to spoil the actual recital performance.

However, I did get another video of her during her warm up.

And not to leave out Caleb...

We had some fun this week with science.  In addition to reading great quality, "living books" like Thornton Burgess' Bird Book and his seashore book and James Herriot's Treasury for Children, we still continue to work our way through Dr. Nebel's Building Foundations Through Scientific Understanding.  I really love his socratic approach.  I love how all the scientific disciplines are studied concurrently, so children can see how they're related, rather than seeing concepts as isolated and disjointed.

Anyway, this week's lesson was a part of our ongoing study on the particulate nature of matter.  We learned about how the air in the atmosphere is a mixture of gases: nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide.  We also learned that burning requires 1.fuel (in our case wax from a candle) and 2. oxygen.  Finally, we learned how carbon dioxide is a byproduct of burning, can put out a flame, and it's role in our own breathing and photosythesis.  Phew.

Anyway, before we talked about any of this, I mixed baking soda and vinegar together, resulting in a chemical reaction that produced carbon dioxide.  I then "poured" my jar of carbon dioxide over the candle, which consequently extinguished the flame.  Naturally Caleb was floored and not only wanted to see the demonstration done again, he wanted to create the mixture and "pour" the carbon dioxide on the candle himself.  I obliged.

(And yes, you did hear him say "carbon dioxygen".  How cute!)

Unfortunately with the rain we got on Friday, we couldn't do our weekly nature study.  So I was bummed about that.  A highlight one morning this week , for me at least (as the kids were still in bed) was seeing a male and female cardinal together!  I've never before seen a female cardinal.  So I was quite tickled.

Hopefully this week my camera will see some action, and I'll actually have photos to share.

Golf anyone?

Last weekend, Patrick took the kids to our itty bitty local driving range. It is literallly down the street, about 1/2 mile, just past our baseball fields. We live on a narrow island, so real estate is hard to come by, and as such, the course is also on the smaller side (par 68 I believe.) Anyway, it was Madeline's first time, while Caleb has been a few times already. I can't wait until we can all get out there together! 
 Enjoy!

Resurfacing

Gosh, I know I'm not the best blogger in the world, but I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted.  Not too much has been going on lately, other than the typical- homeschooling, therapy, dance for Madeline, and life in general.

I previously mentioned that I would try to videotape Caleb narrating Shakespeare using his finger puppets.  In actuality, it's a bit hard because there are always several different characters involved, and I am always participating with him.  So I decided to ask him for a brief recap, after he had finished narrating one day.


 
 I just love how he says proper names he's not familiar with- just like my Gramma! It's so precious. 
 This week, I took the kids down to our local pier for a nature walk. This is something I've wanted to make a weekly occurrence out of, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened. I was thankful that, as we were preparing to head home, a snowy egret decided to make an appearance. 

The other thing we've been doing a lot of is reading.  Lots.  Caleb has recently finished Toad for Tuesday by Russell Erickson (awesome!), The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh, and The Courage of Sarah Noble also by Alice Dalgliesh.
For read alouds, we finished up Pinocchio.  Even Madeline enjoyed listening in.  I thought I might lose her because the language in the original is quite rich.  Nope, she hung in there.  There were so many lessons to be learned, too.  It was a great way to talk about how God calls us to act without sounding preachy (another Charlotte Mason nugget.)  We're now reading a great little fairytale The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin.  It was his only book for children, and boy, am I glad he wrote it!  It is a feast for the imagination.  Add it to the list of books "I wish I read this when I was kid".
And me?  In preparation for next years reading selections from Ambleside Online Year 2, I am reading Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Alongside Pilgrim's Progress I am reading Helen Taylor's Little Pilgrim's Progress.  The reason for doing so is because Ambleside spreads Pilgrim's Progress out across Years 2 and 3.  And although I love, love, LOVE the original writing, I prefer Caleb to read Helen Taylor's version for little children before I read the unabridged version to him in Year 3.  So far, I think she's done a fabulous job at staying true to the original. Really.  Amazing.  
If I'm being honest, this is my first time reading both Pilgrim's Progress AND The Wind in the Willows.  See?  I told you I suffered severely from exposure to literary masterpieces while growing up.  A Charlotte Mason education is not only a good choice for my children but for me as well.  In fact, after I read the first chapter of The Wind in the Willows, I wrote down my own narration.  Seriously, I rather enjoyed typing up my narration!
Anyway, as you can see, we've had our noses in books.  Lots of them.  And really loving it.  It just warms my heart to see Caleb reading to Madeline, as he does so almost daily.  And watching Madeline reading to her dolls, priceless.
Tomorrow we head out to celebrate the New Year with friends.  Hopefully, I'll take some photos (haven't done much of that lately) if we don't get rained out.