No Hard Hats Required

Construction Zone

No

hard hats

required.

Self Defense

It's tough to be the youngest of six kids.

At some point

you've gotta learn to defend yourself.

Out of A Job

What's left for a mama to do

with all these helpers around

to take care of the baby?

If they didn't need me to

take pictures,

I might be out of a job.

Getting Smarter

It's tough to be the cat in our house.  Just when one child becomes civil, we have another child and the running and escaping from the tail pulling, fur grabbing hands begins anew.  She's getting smarter in her old age.  

She's decided that the older she gets she can't run,

but she can hide.

Second Retirement

Once Isaiah outgrows it,

for the second time in it's 33 year life,

the lion shirt 

will be officially 

retired.

(not so) Big Guy

Our (not so) Big Guy at 5 months:

Tough to Do

At some point after Halloween, I realized that I was so on top of it, that I purchased a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch in early October and then promptly forgot about it and left it sitting neglected in our old van in the driveway.  Not wanting our pumpkin or our yearly experience of carving one to go to waste, we seized the moment and carved our pumpkin on November 19th.

The kids, always willing to go with the flow when it comes to fun, messy activities were in LOVE with the idea.

Joe was the designated carver, but as always, received creative direction from the girls.

While Tikvah was a bit perplexed,

the rest of the kids knew just what to do:

Tikvah, still unsure, did what she normally does when unsure:  ate.  I can totally identify.

Once carved, we turned out all the lights, 

and admired the handiwork.

We thought the black mole (aka mold spot) made him look fierce.

That's tough to do with a heart shaped nose.

Close Supervision

School days.

Reading

and writing

and arithmetic.

All done under close supervision

 from the Big Guy.

Packing the Boxes

We had some friends here in early November:  The Gonsers (Sheila, Katelyn and Emily).  While they were here, it was time to pack our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  They packed theirs too.  Here's a bit of the fun:

Even the youngest got in on the fun.

When Isaiah tired of digging through the bags, Emily, Sheila's not quite two year old, read to him.

Once the packing was complete, the kids headed out to play

where the soaked up the remaining days of life before snow and cold.