It's a Celebration!

Hooray! We were finally able to have

Fletcher's Thumb Sucking Cessation Celebration!

He's been trying to stop sucking his thumb for over a year, and he finally succeeded! We're so proud of him. He got to choose his reward and he picked ice cream with hot fudge and colored sprinkles.  He chose black raspberry chocolate chunk ice cream.  It was a huge hit!

Of course, Cole and Emery had to get silly with their spoons. Fortunately it was before they started eating their ice cream.

Way to go, Fletcher! 

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Who's Gonna Carry That??

When it was time to leave the KY State Fair yesterday, Jim and the older boys made several trips back and forth to pack up our stuff in the Hulk. When it was time for the final trek out to the parking lot, the youngest person rule kicked in:

They did a great job!  Don't you love the way they carried their blankets too? Indigo would have helped except she was too busy sobbing because she didn't want to leave.  And she was more "starving-er" than Brett.

But these two were so cute they stopped traffic (even if most of that traffic was people in golf carts). :D



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More Hewitt Stories

We were at the Kentucky State Fair today selling soap and demonstrating soapmaking. Brett was also demonstrating making bath bombs.

We wanted to show the people how bath bombs work, so Jim took Hewitt to go get some water. The family bathroom was closest so the two of them went in there, got their water, and left. 

Jim told me that Hewitt turned around, ran back to the restroom, turned off the light switches and proudly yelled, "Two POINTS!!!"

Now, that might not make much sense to you until you understand that here at the house, you get a point if you turn off a light that isn't being used.   The person with the most points after a certain time period gets a surprise.  Our most recent winner was Emery (much to Brett's annoyance he beat her by 1 point).  He won an extra scoop of ice cream during a recent celebration.

Anyway, Hewitt was REALLY proud of himself.

I also have to share with you that I call Hewitt "tactile boy".  That kid has to touch EVERYTHING. 

Seriously. 

Everything. 

It's very frustrating at times, and very funny at others.  I'm always telling Hewitt to stop touching things.  When I call him "tactile boy" he asks me, "What does tactile mean again?"  I answer him, "It means you touch everything!"

So, when we were at the fair today, Hewitt went up to our neighbor's cash register (they're very good friends of ours - you can check out their website here: www.littlepinkladybug.com) and opened their cash register drawer.  He knows how to work the cash register because we have the same one.

I immediately said, "Hewitt!!  You can't do that, close the drawer!"

So he closed the drawer, put a huge grin on his face, and ran back to me to proudly announce, "I'm TOUCH Boy!"

Oh man, it's so hard to discipline when they crack you up!

Since we're talking about Hewitt and his desire to touch, I've got to share a photo of somebody that sent Hewitt into absolute raptures!

This is "Chain Mail Guy" (at least, that's what Brett calls him).  I think he's from the Frasier Arms Museum in Louisville.  He is wearing authentic chain mail (that weighs 25 pounds), a spear (4 pounds), a dagger, a helmet (4 pounds), a pouch to hold his food and fire lighting equipment, a shield (made of leather and wood), and a sword (2 pounds).  All of this information is courtesy of Brett's memory.

So - can you see Hewitt hiding in there? 

Any guesses where his hands are?

If you guessed rubbing the chain mail, you guessed correctly.

It would seem that authentic chain mail is a delicious treat not often experienced by tactile, six-year-old boys.  And it is just too impossible to resist.  Apparently Hewitt sat there and rubbed Chain Mail Guy's belly (while his brothers asked how much everything weighed and Brett took mental notes).  Then he rubbed his sleeve.  Then he went back to rubbing his belly.

Then he managed to sneak the dagger out of it's sheath without Chain Mail Guy noticing because the belly-rubbing had apparently dulled his senses. 

Did I happen to mention it was a real dagger in the hands of a six-year-old boy inches from Chain Mail Guy's groin??

Chain Mail Guy was a bit surprised when he came out of his belly-rubbing-induced-coma to find his dagger no longer safely in its sheath.  Fortunately, he managed to quickly (and safely) reclaim it.

So, the moral of the story is to beware of Tactile Boys around Chain Mail Guys. 



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My New Camera

I got a new camera and was outside playing around with it. Jade was supposed to be inside cleaning up her zone, but her curiosity (what is mom doing??) got the better of her. So instead of taking pictures of my herbs, I took pictures of her:

Can't you just see her mind working:

I'll just take a peek outside...
Hmmm... she sees me...
Hmmm... she's not telling me to go back inside...
Maybe, I'll put one foot out the door to see what she says...
Hey, she's still just taking pictures...
Maybe I'll just quietly close the door...
And climb up on the bench...
Mom didn't say a word...
OK, I'm free!!!

I really like my new camera. But I really love Jade. :D

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Poison Ivy

Emery keeps getting poison ivy on his feet. We don't know how he keeps managing to do it, but he does. We've washed every pair of shoes the kid owns, and he still will get it periodically.

So I've decided to make a poison ivy soap. Jewelweed is the best plant for fighting poison ivy. Since we don't have any growing on our property, I sent out a facebook SOS and found some friends who have it growing.

They harvested a whole bunch of it for us, and Fletcher got the job of processing it through the food processor:

Fletcher is the king of the food processor. I've always got him using that thing for something. Here's a video of him at work. You can also see Jade and Indigo as well. At the end of the video are jars filled with the cut up jewelweed and oil. I'm letting those sit for several weeks, and then we'll use that oil to make soaps and lotion sticks.



Poor Emery, he's getting rather impatient!

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King of the Ocean

Colter was the undisputed King of the Ocean this vacation. The kid basically lived in the water.

The morning we had to leave was very windy.  It was the roughest the ocean had been our whole week.  Here's a video of most of the children staying up close to the beach.  But if you look in the background, you can see Colter swimming around, defying the waves, and having a blast:



Yep, he's the King:

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Queen of the Ocean

If Indigo is the princess of the ocean, then Brett is the Queen. She was just as much a fanatic with the water as Indigo:

I loved watching the two of them enjoy it together:

Brett waited so long to have a sister, and the two of them are really close.  Normally when they do stuff together, Brett has to go down to Indigo's level.  This was the first time that Indigo has grown up enough to enjoy something with Brett on Brett's level.  It was awesome to see!

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