Spring Break

Time off from school!  Almost summery weather!  A trip to the dentist!  Wait, what?  Most of spring break was fun, but there was still a couple of "have to" things that needed to happen.  

Spring break inspired the great clothing switcheroo.  I had Jack pull down the bucket of warm weather clothes and I purged all the outgrown (and holey) stuff.  My girls are super hard on pants and shorts, and sometime even their dresses end up with holes from their prosthetics. 

We stocked up at the library so they'd have plenty to read during quiet afternoon rest.

Jack helped me prep for the egg hunt by sorting eggs by color.  Grumman is not to sure about these plastic eggs and buckets.

My last day of work for this school year was during the kids' spring break, but since we were having a party at the park, I was able to bring Hannah and Katie with me.

The theme was "things that fly."  You can barely see bubbles floating down behind Hannah here.  We did gliders and kites and there were dot to dots and coloring pages of hot air balloons and planes.  We made Frisbees.  It was so nice to be at a park for the first time in ages. 

Selfie cat. 

We're going to call this a STEM engineering challenge.  No, wait, I'm not homeschooling any more.  I can just call it playtime now. 

Grumman is getting used to the harness.  He likes to go outside, and now that we've got windows open more often, he likes to perch on the sills and sniff the breeze. 

This was actually kind of sad to me.  We're down to 4 hunters this year.  Eli and Josiah decided they're too old now. 

While they were dressed up, I decided to get a picture or two.  This is probably what they're wearing for spring school picture next week. 

Hmm, I wonder if I have enough motivation to make Hannah a gumball necklace by then?  Probably not. 

My Dad & Step Mom came for Easter lunch.  Katie is selecting her piece to perform on the piano for them. 

Hannah played a song...

...and then Katie played a song. 

My Dad just retired.  They look pretty happy about that! 

I think Brayden is taller than Katie now (even though he's a year younger).  I'm guessing he'll pass Hannah up, too, one of these days. 

So, we're missing Heather, Annaliese, Sam, and Brianna.  I realized the last family picture with less than 4 people missing was taken in 2015, while Annaliese was Down Under.  The last picture with "everybody" (or at least everybody at the time) was 2013, before Heather and Brayden joined the family.  With all the grown kids scattered about, who knows how long it will be until we get everybody in the same place at the same time again. 

Egg hunt!

I always find it amusing to see eggs the kids have walked right past in these pictures. 

After lunch, a board game was played involving pooping farm animals.  Much hilarity ensued. 

We're Still Here!

I know.  I've sort of disappeared.  I'm not at my desk as much as I was when we homeschooled, and with the kids growing up, I share less of the everyday details of their lives.   

Eli's cat Grumman is quite a character.  He'll be 1 year old in May. 

I don't think I mentioned here that I got a job.  Although, it's almost over.  I work for a charter school one day a week at their "enrichment academy," which is a program for homeschoolers. 

They're not sure yet whether or not I'll be needed next school year.  I'm okay, either way.  I like having regular deposits show up in my vacation account, but I won't be crushed if I'm not there in the fall. 

The girls are doing well.  We started piano lessons at Shriners.  Katie reads while Hannah plays, and then Hannah reads while Katie plays. 

It's a new program at Shriners, and they did a PR piece on the girls. 

Tuzi the bunny is happy that we've had some nice days to go outside lately.  I don't know if I'm projecting or not, but it seems that life in a cage would be really boring, so I'm always glad when he can be out in his playpen or outside on the leash. 

Sam is currently deployed on a ship.  I've been sending holiday theme care packages.  I like themes, so that's fun for me.  I print "lunchbox jokes" for the flaps, and he gets a chuckle out of those.  He's always been very punny. 

Jack is in his second season of trap shooting.  It has been a great experience for him. 

We continue to enjoy our library.  I've already read 26 books this year. 

I try to take the kids to get books more often now that the girls each have 45 minutes where all they can really do is read while waiting for each other at piano. 

I taught another art lesson to Katie's class at school.

We did one of the projects from our homeschool days, root vegetables done in oil pastel and watercolor to learn resist techniques. 

I joined Blue Star Moms and went to an event. 

I got to scratch another state off my travel map, with the hope of scratching off one or two more later this year.

Brianna turned 19!

She was home for a visit...

...and now she's off on new adventures. 

Playing air hockey at Shriners while we wait for adjustments to be finished on Hannah's prosthetic leg. 

Prom happened.  Eli's senior prom.  Which, honestly, probably means my last prom as mom, since the tiny school my younger kids go to doesn't have dances.  (Although, I think Shriners has a formal event similar to prom.  We'll see if that's still around when Hannah gets older.)

Jack turned 15.  Paul made his cake and decorated it with a shotgun. 

He got his first cell phone. 

Thankfully, he has built in, older sibling, in house tech support.

Katie and friend, waiting at the regional spelling bee. 

Hannah (purple dress) competing with other 6th graders at the spelling bee. 

It warmed my heart to realize we'd had adult children visit 4 out of 5 of the past months.  Sam and Annaliese were home in November, Brianna was home in December and February, and Annaliese visited again in March. 

While Ese was here, we took a field trip to Nimbus Fish Hatchery.  The kids hadn't been in about a decade, and Hannah and Katie not at all. 

Watching the kids grow up is bittersweet.  I love how capable and interesting they are.  But I miss being super important in their worlds.  All too soon, Eli will be graduating and stretching his wings. 

Mela and the Elephant - MCBD #readyourworld

Representation matters.  While my girls don't see themselves when they look at me, I can do my best to surround them with others who look like them.  That includes buying Asian dolls and having an abundance of books with Asian characters in them.  Which is why I was eager to participate in Multicultural Children's Book Day again.

We received Mela and the Elephant, by Dow Phumiruk this year.  This hardcover book is beautifully illustrated by Ziyue Chen.  It's 32 pages, and designed for kids 5-8, or K-3rd grades.  Katie is 8, so this was perfect for her.

This book was timely for us, since Annaliese visited Thailand just a few months ago, and she got to get up close and personal with elephants while she was there.

Mela has an adventure in which she learns a couple of lessons.  In the end, she chooses to be kind to her younger brother, who she rebuffed in the beginning of the story.  The girls enjoyed the story, and I like this book, too.

If you'd like to see the books we reviewed as part of MCBD in prior years, click here.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents, and educators.

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Medallion Level Sponsors Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org. Super Platinum: Make A Way Media GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV,  Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press, SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls, BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift,  T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board

Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini, Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Claudia Schwam, Lori DeMonia, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE. Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it,  Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup, Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media!

MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party. GO HERE for more details.

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media!

MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party. GO HERE for more details. FREE RESOURCES From MCBD Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: https://wp.me/P5tVud-1H Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/ Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

Visits From the Big Kids

We had some special days around here last month!  Sam came home for the first time in a year. 

It was so good to have my boy at home!

We hung out together, played darts in the back yard,

took a drive to Apple Hill for pies, cider, apples, and more, for our Thanksgiving meal (which happened the week prior to everyone else's Tday because of Sam and Paul's schedule).

Apple Hill was exhausting.

Annaliese came up for 2 days while Sam was here.  Eli talked me into letting him stay home from school one day, and we went bowling.  Sam won, and I came in second!  We went out to lunch afterwards.  I really enjoyed spending time with my adult (and almost adult) children. 

It was so good to have Sam home for a time of rest and re-connection. 

And it was great to have Annaliese here for Thanksgiving this year! 

Long time blog readers may recognize Snake Oil, a game we reviewed 4 years ago, and it's still one of our favorites. 

It was so fun to sit and laugh together and see the younger kids building memories with the older ones. 

It's pretty rare to get 7 of our 9 kids all in the same room, so we did a family picture. 

After Annaliese left, we got to see Zach for the first time in 6 months, as he's freshly home from a deployment to the Middle East. 

So incredibly proud of my boys who've chosen to serve our country.  Even when it means they're gone for months at a time. 

All too soon, it was time to take Sam back to the airport. 

Yes, this mama cried most of the way home.