Happy Father's Day

Curious George was supposed to be napping this afternoon. We didn't push it too much because he's beeen taking pretty good naps the last few days. Well, he came in while Brandon and I were working on our family history projects and asked for some tape. We didn't think too much of it because he likes to draw pictures and hang them up all over the house. He came back a few minutes later and said he needed lots more. We gave him several more pieces. We forgot all about the incident until I went in the bathroom a few hours later. Curious George had decorated the bathroom with toilet paper!

"Happy Father's Day, Daddy!"

Don't you just love four-year-olds?

It's Going to Rain

It's been raining a lot here where we live. This much rain is very unusual for our climate this time of year. Today Curious George and I were talking about the rain. We checked out a book at the library on Tornadoes and Hurricanes. It's one of those big, fat eyewitness books (and it's Jesse Bear's favorite book to read right now :). Anyway, I was reading it to Jesse Bear and one page had this picture of a pine cone on it. I was reading that one way to predict the weather is by looking at a pine cone. If the pine cone's spikes are open, that means the weather is dry and hot. When the pine cone's spikes are closed that means there's humidity in the air. So I guess if you're looking at the open spikes on a pine cone every day and one day you wake up and they are closed, then you could predict that it might rain that day. I really didn't think much of this method - it seemed a little far fetched to me.

So anyway, it must have inspired Curious George because we were walking to swimming lessons today and he picks up this pine cone. "Hey Mom," he shouts. I look back and he shows it to me. "It's going to rain so we won't be able to go to the park." (We had planned on going to the park with some friends after swimming lessons). Sure enough,the pine cone's spikes were closed. I told C.G. that since it's been raining all week there's a lot of humidity in the air so the pine cones haven't had a chance to dry out and open their spikes. The sun was shining, and it really didn't look like it was going to rain today. Plus I was trying to be optimistic about going to the park. Well, we got through swimming lessons, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. But sure enough, just as soon as we got to our friend's house, the rain came. So, there you go. I'm outsmarted by a four-year-old again. And now you know how to predict the rain in case you're ever wondering... :)

Fun Family History Activities for Kids and Youth

I just got sent a really fun link about a family history program for kids this summer. There are cool projects on this page for children and youth of all ages to get excited about their family history. These would be great activities for after church on Sunday or another day.

https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family_History_Activities_for_Youth

While we're on the family history subject, Brandon and I have been trying to get back into doing some family history lately. We've been scanning a lot of Brandon's Grandmother's old family photos. We planning on sharing those photo scans with any family member that is interested. It's been a really fun project. I think it's very important to preserve these pictures for our children and our children's children so that they can get to know their ancestors a little better. If you're interested in learning more about preserving your family photos, here's a few great sites:

http://photoheritage.net/
http://creatingandpreservingmemories.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6662/photopre.htm

Big Helper

Jesse Bear is a big helper. He always loves to help clean up the toys, wipe up spills, throw away garbage, do the dishes, etc. Once when he had barely learned to walk I was out of the room when the timer went off on the oven. I was a little late getting in there and by the time I did, J.B had pulled out the hot pads in the drawer (one in each hand) and was reaching as hard as he could to pull open the oven door. Of course I overreacted because it really scared me, but afterward I thought about it and that was the sweetest thing - he was just trying to be a helper and get the food out of the oven for me.

Just for Laughs

We refer to other members of our church as Brother or Sister followed by their last name. One of our neighbors is Brother Fawson. This man has been friendly to Curious George and he thinks he's pretty neat. Well, a little while back we had a leaky faucet that Brandon was fixing. Brandon was explaining to C that he needed to fix the sink. C asked Brandon, "Why don't you just call Brother Faucet and ask him to fix it?"

O Remember, Remember

I watched this clip today and it gave me just the boost I needed. I love how it points out that we should notice the hand of God in our lives every day. There are blessings all around us, sometimes it just takes opening our hearts and looking for them. Here are a few things I'm grateful for today:

1. Curious George crossed the street on his bike today in front of a car. I'm grateful that the driver saw him and he was protected.
2. We met a good friend and her kids at the park today and I'm very grateful for her. She has been there for me on many occasions when I've needed her.
3. We went to the Library today and I'm so grateful for it! We go there to check out books almost every week and I don't know what I'd do without it. It keeps the kids busy for a long time after we check the new books out. We love reading them together and learning new things.
4. There's so many more...but speaking of library books, I've got to go read them to Curious George now. He just informed me that I've got one more minute. :) Aaaah, the life of a Mom.