Fairy Rose

image from the flowerfairies.com - one of the many roses I love, but not the one I love the best

Do your children beg for you to tell them stories? Does this make you panic?

I used to answer "yes" to both. I usually tried to redirect with , "I'm not good at stories, but I'll read you a book." I like books. I read well. Seemed like a much better plan. Ethan went along with this. On the rare occasion he persisted in the need for an actual story, I managed to drum up a lesser known Bible character or fairy tale. I slipped through the early years of Ethan and Anna Kate this way.

But not Rose. Rose the snuggler. Rose the "will you lay down with me for just a few minutes", then inevitably, "will you tell me a story?" child. Now what?

There is a lovely storybook called Rosy's Visitors (I just bought it for a penny plus shipping - you can too!) about a little girl who hauls her treasures in a wagon to a hollowed tree and prepares to entertain many magical guests. The name and concept, not to mention the whimsical illustrations made this story stick in my imagination, and was, I believe, part of the inspiration for what happened next.

I said, "okay." And I began the Fairy Rose stories. I thought I was just telling a story called "Fairy Rose" about a little girl who found a magic fairy tree and twirled around inside and turned into a fairy. From there all sorts of little adventures have been possible. Initially, Fairy Rose's adventures were based on my girlhood daydreams of being able to turn into a fairy and sneak into homes and leave things for people who were sad or in need. Fairy Rose has done those things. One day she gathered butterflies to fly to the garden outside the window of a sad shut-in she visited earlier that day as the girl Rose. But sometimes she just has fanciful adventures.

Tonight we were reading a book of children's prayers. One illustration showed children sliding down a rainbow. Rose, in all seriousness, asked how you can slide down a rainbow (she has a gift for seeing these things as realities), and thus provided the inspiration for tonight's tale of a lake fairy named Misty who always had the best secrets. And today Misty showed Fairy Rose and Fairy Anna the secret of how to slide down a rainbow.

So the one who was unable to tell stories has become (at least in her daughters' eyes) a master storyteller. For me the secret was to take an imagining that both they and I could relate to, and then keep making up stories about that one thing. That way, I feel like I'm sort of telling a story I already know.

What stories do you tell?

this is, of course, copyrighted by Alicia (just in case I ever write a book)

Goldfish

I overhear Rosie talking to her rainbow goldfish crackers. "I need to eat you so that you can have a party in my tummy..."

Jesus' Birthday Party

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is having

a birthday party for Jesus.

We'd done a pageant a few years ago, before she can remember,

but it was that Rose angel in the middle that just had to act

out this story - and she wanted to be an angel - the one

above the manger, to be exact.

The outifts are made from clearance ($2!) fleece blankets

from Walmart and since there were no white blankets -

plastic tablecloths and gold garland from the Dollar Tree.

With a few belts and scarves thrown in, of course.

Everyone agreed that the perfect Mary was dark haired and lovely.

Ethan, however, was a little less enthusiastic about being

Joseph. I think he was afraid of all the "married" jokes

that his sister might inflict upon him.

The children all insisted that Bella be the baby, even thought she's

not "quite" a newborn - and the wrong gender for the role.

She really didn't want to lie in the manger - she was much more

interested in crawling around.

I thought the cake was pretty, but I'm never sure what to

do about the candle, and I never think about

that ahead of time. It is tradition, though, for

all of the children to blow it out together.

They also enjoyed a beaded wreath craft,

watching "Small One", a hot potato-like gift passing

game with a gift that was wrapped several times and

contained party favors, and Christmas charades.

Backtrack :Thanksgiving

Bella's first trip to Chocolate World.

This is always at the top of the kids list of

"things to do while at Gramma's"

Heading into Hersheypark's Christmas Candyland.

Note my dad with the stroller trying to veer off

to hit up a Dunkin Donuts for coffee before

we've even entered the main gates.

Rosie is beaming over the first ride on someone's shoulders

that she can remember -

it was so funny -

she didn't know what to do when she got up there!

cousins on the train


Gramma and Bella

watching the train

cousins on the little pirate ship

documenting Dad's inability to pass a

concession stand

the lights are coming on

Santa's reindeer resting up for the big night

cousins on the swing

the band they were dancing to

Isaiah's 19th birthday

Rosie and "Jack", which, incidentally, was Bella's

first word. She quickly added the expected "Mama"

and "Dada", although she did surprise me

by actually calling me "Mommy" too.

She's holding there waiting for some other

words that are half that good.

Probably something like, "go away!"

Pappy, Jack, and Bella

Thanksgiving dinner

Rosie's turkey

Anna Kate's underwater alien turkey

We went to a war museum thinking we could

enjoy the outdoor exhibits, but didn't realize that

there was apparently a 10-15 degree wind chill factor.

After near death-by-boredom, Ethan suddenly was

very interested in taking a picture of everything in this room so that

he could draw them later at home.

Brian's cake nearly burned down the house.

And I had to add another candle at the last minute -

36, not 35 - I can't keep track anymore!

our annual girl's breakfast - this is half of us :^)

We got to drive through the most beautiful sunset, I'd

ever seen in Virginia on the way home.

These pictures don't do it justice, taken through a window that doesn't

roll down, while going 70 mph.

It touched my heart, because, even though, I enjoyed

my time with my family,

it wasn't my favorite trip ever, I just

felt really off all week. Probably the fact that Bella

slept very little, and, thus, I slept very little, had

a lot to do with that. :^)

I'm so thankful for my family.

Autumn Fires

Kids Stats

Bella - crawling and sitting herself up - she's really going to take off soon! I think she's going to get a second tooth soon. She hated banans a couple days ago - gagged on them. Even just a little mixed in her cereal. She loved applesauce. Ate the whole bowl up.

Rosie- quoted Psalm 113 almost perfectly for my mother until the last verse - "He gives the bear and woman a home making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!"

Anna Kate - first item on her "I'm thankful for" list today? "I'm thankful that we don't live when they stoned kids for disobeying"

Ethan - on filling out an "If I were a Pilgrim" worksheet question, "my life would be differnt because" - "NO electricity"

Kid News

Ethan:

Chose to make his Christmas box for a 2-4 year old girl. I think that he's decided that little sisters must be his life work, for now at least.

Anna Kate:

Told me yesterday, "I want to do ballet until I'm twenty so that I can be a professional!"

Rosie:

When asked what she's thankful for: "My mom and my dad and my sisters and my brother and that we can go to sleep so we can grow. Going to play outside and have fun and come back inside and get a bath and go to sleep - all these things are so beautiful. And I will wake up and be a teenager because I grew, and I will love my children. My friends. And I'm thankful for everything. Amen."

And she always says "amen" the traditional way, not with a long a sound. :^)


Bella:

Trying to crawl - she gets in the right postition, but tends to go backwards. She covers a lot of distance, though. Loves to give kisses, and she gets pretty spastic when she sees her Gran or Pa.

Mamas

After singing several songs including "There is a Fountain" and "Nothing But the Blood", we read a chapter on "God is Holy" from Leading Little Ones to God. One of the the end of chapter questions was "How do we know that we are sinners?"

Ethan quickly answered, "Because the Bible tells us so." Rose quickly added, "And our mamas." Ethan smiled and responded, "Mamas are good blessin's!"

Pinano

I love the way Rose talks. She just told me, " I am going to play the drums and sing, and lou [you] are going to play the pinano, because you are good at that."

Tidbits

1. Bella got her ears pierced - princess crown earings - Blogger doesn't like pictures today.
2. I took the kids ice skating for the first time today. Anna Kate picked it up fastest, Rose was doing the best by hour's end, Ethan tried hard. :^)
3. After raining for two weeks, the weather has turned beautiful - and fallish. Highs in the 70s this week. I spent the rainy week switching out summer and winter clothes - almost done.
4. Moon names are fascinating and my favorite, the Harvest Moon, is coming up on Sunday.
5. We're studying history via ABEKA's third grade history book, Our American Heritage this year. It travels a timeline of American history by biography. We covered Christopher Columbus, and are now studying John Smith. Next week is Pocahontas.
6. If you're studying John Smith or Jamestown this year, On the Trail of John Smith at National Geographic Kids is such a fun online resource! Animated, narrated videos and interactive games are a great way to remember history.
7. I asked Rose what she wanted for Christmas last night. She wants a pink rubber band.

Waffles

Rosie the Earlybird: Mom, will you get up and make me something to eat? I'm hungry. (She says this many mornings.)

Me: Sure, Rose, just give me a minute.

Rose: I put forks on the table, so we need to eat something forky. Like waffles!

A bit later:

Rose: Do you have any powers, Daddy?

Daddy: Am I Superdad?

Rose: You have the power to make waffles!

A Fun Day

We got to study constellations today - fun! The children seemed to all be in good moods and enjoyed their worksheets, the book we read, and the DVD we watched. The man in the DVD on space was standing with a moving outer space background behind him (you couldn't see the ground or his feet). Rose wanted to know if he was on his porch or if he really was in outer space.

Brian got off early like he's supposed to on Fridays, but doesn't as early or as often as he used to these days - so that was a big plus for the day and allowed us to carry out our Family Night plan - a paddle boat rental at the nearby state park (they close at 5PM). It seated four, so the three older kids went with Brian. He and Ethan pedalled while the girls sat on the backseats and dangled their feet in the lake. Bella and I hung out and watched.

The children very much wanted to go swimming in the lake, but we instead hit the trail to a spot on the mountain creek that has a trail to it and some benches and is a nice ankle - knee length depth area. They had fun wading and crossing a fallen log, although, they kept trying to get me to cave in to their idea of swimming back at the lake beach. Rose brought me the prettiest rocks from the creek to look at while I held Bella, I wish I had taken a picture of them. Ethan was sure every unusual rock was a meteorite.

Back at the ranch(house), we cleaned up, got Ethan's earache back under control (swimming in the lake would have been a bad idea), and had some buckwheat pancakes with last years vanilla pear sauce from the freezer. We even got to read a really cool glow in the dark book of the constellations. (And, wow! I just went to find the link for that on Amazon and ended up with a good condition hardcover used copy being shipped to me for a total of $5.03!!)

Last tidbit for the day. Brian charges Anna Kate and Ethan's mp3 players at the desktop CPU. He'd returned Anna's recharged player to her and she immediately immersed herself in her favorite Hannah Montana song - it's very catchy.



A bit later, Brian called to Ethan to let him know that his player was syncing and Anna called back through the house, "yeah, mine's already sunk. "

Well, I can't get the computor to acknowledge my SD card, so I'm giving up for now and can hopefully add pics to this post later.

Flavored Milk

Rose sent a small cookie that she'd made home from Gran's on Tuesday. She had a note with it that said that it was for Bella and that I was supposed to eat it so that she could have it in her milk. :^)

All the colors of the world

Rosie loves to cook and Rosie loves to sing. She recently got a new-to-her play kitchen that came with a new play phone.

So she was walking around chatting on the phone the other day. To her husband. On his birthday. So she was singing him his favorite song.

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Yellow, green, and black, and white
They are precious in his sight...

And she sang on, adding all sorts of colors, "all the colors of the world."

Did I mention she likes to improvise new lyrics when she sings?

Not Magic

Daddy: "Rosie, did you write on yourself with magic marker?"

Rose: "No, they were real."

It Might As Well Be Spring

We're having a stint of days in the 70s - heaven! So we spent Sunday at the park and zoo.

The playground has been completely redone and is very cool.

Don't you love the nosedive pic.

But those recycled tires really work - no permanent damage. :^)

Rose wanted to know why the lions didn't have any babies.

I told her that I dodn't know, but that I was sure

the zoo would be happy if they did.

She replied, "Maybe them are not married."

7 months and counting.

Oh, and my first chance to wear my pretty $4 thrift store find.

Wait 'til you see the dress I found this week for $1 -

I'm saving it for Easter.

Christmas Wishes

Rosie wants Santa to bring her a cake with pink icing and a pink Barbie.

I think he can manage that. :^)

Anna Kate wants a pink wall clock that is like a small grandfather clock with a pendulum - HELP!!!

My Rosie

She had to have a picture with this leaf

She likes to do this.

Her first real dance lesson.

This is how she fell asleep the other night.

And this is how she fell asleep tonight.

She came into the bedroom, found an empty spot

between me and the laundry, stuck a pillow in the basket,

pulled some pillows over her legs - and fell asleep!

Rosie's Three Year Pics - I know, they're late

I had a smear on my camera lense that I didn't discover until I'd returned home - I'm hoping that the printed pictures will still look okay. I never got furthur than a few jotted notes for her birthday letter either. I've got to see if I can still write it before "two" is hopelessly blurred with "three."