Even the little things

Today I was reading from 2 Kings 6:1-7. In this passage, we see that God worked a miracle to retrieve a borrowed ax head for one of His prophets. The commentary I was reading by Dale Ralph Davis pointed out that this is a great example of how God is also involved in and controls the seemingly little details in our lives. I already knew this, but He reminded me of that again this evening.
Ketchup will be auditioning this week for a role in the summer children's musical at church. The musical is "The Music Man" and today we've been practicing a part of the song she needs to sing in the audition. The song is "Wells Fargo Wagon." After several more practice runs, I turned off her CD and turned on the TV. Guess what was on - that's right - "The Music Man." We were watching for about 5 minutes before the Wells Fargo Wagon song started. She was so excited to see it and the whole idea of the song/musical make much more sense to her.
God is concerned in every aspect of our lives, even musicals!

Science, science, science!

We've been on a science kick over here at P family homeschool. The kids had a science fair with our homeschool group. I just love the fact that they are doing real presentations at their young ages. Here are they are talking about ants and radars. You'll have to follow the links to youtube because the videos were too big for me to put directly on the blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShRFvEIiGdI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui9-VSD3Xmo&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPWhkp_EqIo&feature=channel
(I apologize for Ketchup's shaky video. I let Bounce attempt to play videographer, but soon realized he needs more training.)

Here is a cool video of the ants. Although I was not thrilled about having an ant farm in the house, I was quickly won over. They are super strong as you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrTMRd9gWe8&feature=channel
We also have a butterfly habitat in the house. Here is a picture of one of the cocoons.

We now have 10 beautiful butterflies that are ready to be set free.

How amazing God's creation is!

Polanco Version of ESPN

Bounce had his first baseball game this season on Saturday. We were mostly pleased with him overcoming his fear of "live batting" because of being hit by the pitch several times in practice. But he really excelled at defense as he got five outs at home plate. Here's a video of him sliding home for one out. He received the game ball for his hard work.



Ketchup had her playoff game for soccer against their arch rival. It was a tough loss, 2-1, but our Patriots played hard. Here's a video of her taking the ball down field.

He is Risen!

Happy Easter! We have just wrapped up a fun filled, blessed Easter weekend. We started our fun on April 1st with our annual April Fools recipe. This year we tried "Chicken Pot Pie."
It was really white chocolate pudding w/ laffy taffy pieces cut up to look like veggies and chunks of white chocolate was the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted. We joked that Ketchup now loves to eat chicken pot pie; only if it's this recipe of course since veggies never touch her lips.

On Good Friday, we made our first Easter Garden. We had a lot of fun and I was really pleased with how well it all went and then turned out. On Easter, the kids rolled away the stone to show the empty tomb. In the future, if we give ourselves enough time, we can use real seeds on Palm Sunday and hopefully by Easter we would see some grass growing.

Then Ketchup and Bounce wanted to add some characters to their scene. Polly Pockets and army men have probably never had such prized roles as the two Marys, an angel and soldiers guarding the tomb.


We attend church on Saturday nights, so we celebrated our Savior's resurrection early. The kids enjoyed dressing up. I really like Ketchup's new shorter haircut; she likes it too! I don't even have to fight her to brush her hair now.

The best part of Easter weekend is that the kids were eager to explain to their neighbor friend that Easter is not really about the Easter Bunny, but it's about Jesus. They told her about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. When she had questions they then had Ozzie explain in more detail. What a great Easter blessing! I am so proud of them and yet convicted at the same time that they were unashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I pray that I will be more like them.

Feb/March in pictures

Where has this last month gone? To soccer, spring break, snow and school. Here are a few pics of each.

Here are a couple videos of the kids playing soccer. Try to imagine these clips multiplied by hours and that has been our life over the past few weeks. Also, notice in Bounce's clip that he is doing cartwheels. I guess the actual soccer game does not utilize enough of his energy, so he needs to throw in some cartwheels as well.
(Bounce is #8 and Ketchup is #15)



We had some nice snow days over the past couple months. Dallas even set a record for most snowfall accumulated in one day - 11 inches. We all had fun. The kids enjoyed pelting each other with snowballs and then realized that if they threw them at the dog (Bella), she couldn't throw them back.
Picture of Bella after she had been bombarded with snowballs.

We enjoyed the Fort Worth zoo on homeschool day. We were blessed to eat lunch right in front of this alligator. It was the opening day of their new reptile exhibit. We saw all the newspeople and got first row seats for the action.


As the weather has warmed up, we have enjoyed playing outside. Here is Bounce with his ninja face.
Ketchup wanted me to photograph her. This is her favorite shirt and she would wear it everyday if I let her. She's our little fashionista and she definitely did not get that from me.

Finally, we took an extended spring break and spent a few days in Brenham, TX to visit family. Here are the cousins sitting on a fallen tree. They had so much fun playing outside all day and were so exhausted each night.

Daddy/Daughter Project

Ketchup got her wish for an American Girl this past Christmas. She then started dreaming of a bed for her dear Felicity. Daddy proposed the idea that they build one, so they began a fun project together. We now joke that they can start their own business making American Girl beds and beds only as they're not quite ready to expand yet.





PS...
I'm sorry about the video from the previous post. We're having technical issues and my support guy/hubby has another job besides my honey-do list, if you can imagine that.

Happy Valentine's Day

I was serenaded when I came home from work today.

School update

I haven't updated in quite a while about school, so here's to now.
We have really enjoyed our "storytime." We've read some great books so far this year: A Lion to Guard Us, Little House in the Big Woods, and we are currently enjoying The Cricket in Times Square.
Today, after we finished reading an extra "keep reading" chapter, the kids wanted to play "Cricket". Bounce was Chester Cricket, Ketchup was Mario, I was Tucker Mouse and our dog Bella played Harry Cat. I have to say that Harry Cat stole the show and we all had a great time.
One more story to share. The book A Lion to Guard Us is about a family that is trying to sail from England to Jamestown. The book is actually based on a true story about a ship that was shipwrecked on an island for several months before finally sailing on to Jamestown. It was interesting because the people were so frustrated that they were shipwrecked for so long. However, once they finally arrived in Jamestown they found very few survivors left and those who were still alive had little to no food left. That winter, while the others were shipwrecked, most people died of illness and starvation in Jamestown. The once shipwrecked people were not only saved from death and disease, but they brought food from the island they sailed from.
It reminded me of how God was working behind the scenes. Those shipwrecked probably saw no reason for their situation. They probably thought they were doomed there on that secluded island, but God had really saved them and used to save the lives of a few others ultimately saving the colony of Jamestown.
Isaiah 55:8-9 and Ro. 8:28 in action.

Christmas 2009/New Year 2010

We were blessed to experience the first white Christmas here in nearly 80 years. It started snowing on Christmas Eve and the snow stayed around until later in the day on Christmas.
We made a miniature snowman when the first snow fell. He's little, but he's a snowman.

The kids were excited to make snow angels and catch the snow on their tongues.
Their big gifts were a Wii, DS for Bounce and an American Girl doll for Ketchup.
Here's a pic of Ketchup asleep w/ Felicity (her doll). Ketchup received some pajamas that had a matching sleeping mask. I couldn't resist taking this one.
Bounce and Ketchup have also enjoyed playing with the Batman Castle he received from Nana and Tata.



As the end of the year came, I wanted to give myself a gift - new counters. Well, that is new-looking counters. I took on the project of painting our 1970's laminate counters to look like granite. There were several steps involved in the process. Here's a summary of what I did.

Step 1 - I painted a base coat on the counters. It was suggested to use a metallic paint, but I used paint we already had and sprinkled glitter on it while wet.

Step 2 - Sponge on your mid range color. If you have 3 different colors (lighter, medium and dark), it would be your medium color. The sponging didn't take that long and was fun (at least to a painting freak like me).


Step 3 - Sponge on the darkest color of the three you've chosen. This was the scariest step for me because I was really afraid I was going to end up with black airbrushed looking counters.


Step 4 - Sponge on your lightest color leaving some spots of black in random areas coming through. As you can see this really covered the black a little too well for my tastes, so I needed to do step 5 to darken it a little.

Step 5- I sponged on a caramel colored glaze to warm up the counters while letting the other colors come through.


Step 6 - Cover with a poly-acrylic top coat. This step took the longest because we had to apply 3 coats and each coat took several hours to dry.

Here is the final product although Ozzie and I agree that they look better in person than in the picture.

I am very pleased with my $50 faux-granite counters. Merry Christmas to me!

Thanksgiving in the Valley

We traveled to Brownsville, TX (aka The Valley) for Thanksgiving. There are few places where you can celebrate Thanksgiving and go to the beach in the same vacation. The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins. They played a lot of soccer both in the driveway and at the park. Then a funny thing happened at the park (well, funny depending on who you are in the story, sorry Daddy). We all learned that a nearly 40 year old body is not meant to race a 14 year old. The loser is the almost 40 year old hamstring. Daddy ended up on the ground and Mommy quickly learned that he did not pretend to fall and lose the race (anybody seen Mr. Mom?), but he really was hurt. We now are big fans of Icy Hot patches and are grateful he is returning to a computer job rather than one where he’s on his feet all day.

Birthday Time

Both Ketchup and Bounce have November birthdays. Both Bounce’s birthday and their original party date were interrupted by the flu. The good news is that Daddy and Bounce were able to have a fun day out on his birthday and we were able to easily switch the date of their combined birthday party. Here are a few pics from their Hello Kitty/Transformer party.

Now a few pics of the last 7 years with Ketchup and the past 5 with Bounce. They are beautiful, sweet kids who make me very proud to say God has blessed me to be their mother.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Swine Flu – a different perspective

Ketchup started a fever on November 1^st and thus began our families’ journey with the swine flu. God protected us from the worst of it, so I can lightheartedly look back at it. Here’s our take

Days 1 & 2 – spent in bed either asleep or watching TV. Mommy got some good facebook time in while Ketchup watched her shows.

Days 3 & 4 – We progressed to playing board games or Webkinz. Ketchup also enjoyed playing hairstylist/makeup artist to Mommy.

Days 5 – 7 – spent by the window staring at the other kids play. In between coughing fits, she would beg to join them.

Finally we were able to venture out of the house for a couple of days before Mommy had her turn. My bout with the flu was cut in half thanks to the God-given drug Tamiflu. The doctor was also kind enough to prescribe it as a preventative for Daddy and Bounce.

I progressed in the same order as Ketchup just with fewer days. I thought it was funny that I was playing hairstylist for their crazy hair day at AWANA just as Ketchup had done for me the week prior.

Although life was interrupted for a short while, we were able to have a little fun with H1N1.

October Pics

Bounce showing off his muscles. He is convinced by a smart Tata (grandpa) that with each green bean that he eats, his muscles grow automatically!
This was a lego house built to celebrate our study of the poem "The Little House." This is Ketchup's house.
Our homeschool group had a historical figure day. Ketchup and Bounce acted out a play about Christopher Columbus. Ketchup was the Queen of Spain who sent Columbus out on his voyages. I attempted to record their play, but you can't hear anything they say, so I'll spare you those eight minutes of your day.
A homeschool fun field trip day allowed the kids to roller skate for the first time. We were all exhausted after an hour and a half. Maybe when we're feeling up to it, we'll try again. They did very well and were able to go around the rink without falling by the end.

We ended the month at our church's Fall Festival. Our Ladybug and Wolverine had fun and we're still enjoying their candy!!