"You Can Trust Me, Honest!", the Mom is Heard Saying.

Elena will be 20 at the end of June!

It is pretty amazing how time flew by.

I am fortunate to have fourteen of my fifteen still at home.

I will have three more children (Joyce, Josiah, and Alan) turning 18 this coming year!

Yikes!!

That will add up to five children eighteen and over!

I know the older ones will need to jump out of the nest at some point to fly off each on their own life adventure, but until then I will enjoy this time.

Thanks Elena for washing Anya and Lily's hair yesterday.

Anya and Elena

The big sister.

Lily and Elena

Nolan...doing his umbrella dance. Nolan is his own person. He wears his heart on his sleeve. That is part of what makes him so charming. He leaps before he looks. That is part of what makes this mom stay up late at night worrying. I still think he should grow up to be a cowboy. He does not think so, anymore. That is something little kids say they want to grow up to be, he told me not long ago. I love him. I am very glad I have him for at least 4 more years.

P.S.

Kids.

Sorry, but I told a little fib.

I did not delete these photos from my camera.

Nor did I crop you out of these photos before I put them on my blog.

You will thank me in about ten years.

Good memories.

Trust me.

Really.

Honest.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Gotta Love...

those older brothers

who take time out for their little siblings

and make them feel special.

Can I take a little credit for raising them right?

Well, my selfish pride would like to say yes

...but...

My heart knows that they far exceed anything my feeble mom teaching abilities could pass on

and that

it is a Holy Spirit kind of thing...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Little Double Saturation

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Time,Tell Me the Time and Marshmallows

Go ahead.

I dare you.

Make his day.

Ask Joel the time.

Joel made a clock in his school yesterday.




Josh did extra chores this past week to earn money to buy a bag of his very own marshmallows to roast over the fire with some 'big' kids. He wanted to buy his own so he could invite those siblings he wanted.

Alan was very happy to participate in Josh's marshmallow roasting invite. Four of the other big kids were gone and two were just realised from being grounded and had some tasks to attend to but
Josh did not mind the smaller than expected turn out.

Actually,I am pretty sure that Alan was high on his guest list anyway. They sat there for a few hours enjoying each others company in front of the fire.

Cute thing was Josh also earned enough money to buy a pack of gram crackers and candy bars to go with the marshmallows for smores but a trip to the Dollar Store proved a little too tempting.




Warmly,A Dragonfrye Mom

Mighty Fine!

This evening our church hosted Yours Truly 2011.

"Come for an elegant evening of fun, good food and entertainment. Be prepared to be served by young gentlemen dressed to the "T" for the evening."

Elizabeth Hunnicutt spoke

and

Tay Wilson performed.


What a great time out teens had!

The young men in our church serve the young ladies.

Cyrus,Grant,And Alan ready to serve.



Joyce looking very pretty and ready for a fun time!



Elena! Where did my little girl go!?

How beautiful she looks!



Elena and her friend Miranda.



Elena and Miranda. An artsy close-up.

Don't they just look so beautiful!





Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Tell Me I Am Finished!

I should finally be finished with my part of the costume making. Although I kind of start to panic that I will not finish, I really, really enjoy the costume making.I wish I could go all out and make all the kids fancy costumes but those days were about ten children ago. Now days I just do things as inexpensively as I can still with keeping the costumes fun and special.

This evening I made a green vest for a child who wanted to be The Joker,two chain maul (is that how it is spelled?) things, and one poodle skirt. I am not real happy at all with how the Joker's vest turned out. It is not even photo worthy!The perfectionist in me is cringing. The poodle skirt turned out REAL cute and making something out of fake fabric net chain maul is difficult but mistakes are hidden easily besides I only made sashes out of the chain maul stuff. Joyce wants to be a STOP sign for Halloween. Now anything other than fabric is Jeff's territory. That should be a very fun costume. I will be sure to get lots of fun pictures of the kids in their costumes.

By the way, one is NEVER too old to trick-or-treat. I am very glad my teens are still exited about costumes and the fun. Although Elena and Grant are going to a party with their church youth group,I think they might hit a few houses before they go.


Here are a few fun pictures I took today you might like.

Today is Floor Friday which means all floors are washed. We do not do one big cleaning day each week.What we have done is divide our house into ten different chore areas (or zones).Ten of the children have a zone for a week. Within that week each zone has a daily core,Mirror Monday,Toilet Tuesday,etc...

That said, here is Joyce doing her Floor Friday in her zone which is the dining room with her helpers. She has a lot more patience than I do.




Anya is a big Tinkerbell fan. Elena's surprise birthday gift to Anya was to rent and watch the new Tinkerbell movie with her once it came out on DVD. Elena has been pretty exited about surprising Anya. Here they are just after they finished watching the movie this evening. Grant,Alan,and Joel joined them. A quote from my 14 year old Grant after the movie was over, "that really was not a bad movie after all,mom ". Maybe we have two Tink fans in the house,now! OK,maybe not but I'm glad the bigger boys were not too big boyish to appreciate Anya's 7 year old interests.