Sunlight

We don't get much of it in the summer/early fall, but when we do, it's so glorious! The kids love laying in the morning sunlight that come through the windows...didn't know I had two kitty cats for children!

Well, no sun in this but it's their favorite spot on the sofa...

Superheroes for God--Super Speech

If you remember, our umbrella verse is 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love and in purity. So for our first week we tackled Super Speech! Our first day was this really great experiment.  Our verse for Super Speech is an abriviated Matthew 12:34 "...your mouth says everything that is in your heart."  As I said before, I've been using ImpressYourKids  as resource, so click the link to see the real thing.  Timo and Cameron really enjoyed this one and it made a huge impression on them.

Basically we were making two different drinks, one yucky and one yummy.  The principle is which would you rather have coming out of your mouth (speech), good stuff or bad stuff.  I gather the supplies while they were at school.  Leaves, dirt, rocks, sticks for the yucky and lemonade, lemons, strawberry ice pop for the yummy.  I had each child make a drink...Timo, of course, wanted to make the yucky one and Cameron grabbed the sweet stuff.

Once they were mixed, I poured them into cups and asked "what happens when I pour this yucky stuff into the cups."  Holding their nose and making crinkled faces, they answered "yucky comes out, ewwww!"    Then I poured the yummy drink and both quickly grabbed that cup to drink.  We then pretended the mixture was our hearts.  If we put yucky things in our heart, like whining  disobedience and complaining, then yucky stuff come out.  But if we put good things in our hearts, like scripture from the bible about obedience  encouraging words, love and being a blessing, then good things will come out of our mouths.  Mission accomplished!

Another day we focused on Ephesians 4:29 "Don't let any unclean talk come out of your mouth but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."  Cameron had to put on her supergirl costume for this one...go figure.  We made lip and said the verse over again.   Then, through our lips, we said good things...like pretty flowers, rainbows, big trees, superhero, Mommy, hearts, etc...you get the idea.  They couldn't say anything bad/negative for two whole minutes.  Doesn't sound too hard but for two 4 year olds, it was a challenge!  Things tend to turn silly real fast.

Then I pulled out their building blocks and we read the verse again, asking if it said anything about building?  Yes, build each other up!  So we built huge towers, each taking a turn adding a block.  Each block they added, they had to say something encouraging about the other.  My personal favorites were Timo to Cameron "I like the way you color pictures."  Cameron to Timo "I love you because you are my brother." Timo to Mommy "I like the way you snuggle with me."  And Cameron to Mommy "I like the yummy food you cook for me."  This was such a good exercise for them about encouraging words.  Not only that it's good to use encouraging words but how great it is to HEAR encouraging words.

We had an opportunity to put this into play the very next day.  There was an argument that broke out in the car, something about who said what...I really can't remember what it was over, but the thing I do remember is turning around and asking them if they were building each other up right now or tearing them down with their words.  They both stopped, rethought what they were saying and decided they both could be right, then said something nice to each other.  Love when I catch them in a teachable moment and I can see how the Lord is working in their little innocent hearts!

Blog Humor

My friend Marge Bancroft gave me this little comic strip last week. She is a faithful reader of our blog and seems to understand all is involved in the upkeep of a family blog. I thought my fellow bloggers might get a smile out of this. (click on the picture to enlarge)

Hiking--Henery Cowell St. Park

I was serious when I said I wanted to make hiking part of our regular activity regime. So for this hike I enlisted our friends, the Hirzels, to go with us on Labor Day. We met at Henery Cowell State Park in Felton, CA...about 1.5 hour drive south of SF. It's a huge, beautiful redwood forest. All the kids had so much fun climbing on the gigantic redwood trees!  Timo had the map and lead us through the 1 1/2 mile walk through the forest.  We even got to stop and talk to a few park rangers, ask questions and and learn that some of these trees were around when Jesus was born! 

See the sticks in their hands?  At a certain point we had limit Matthew and Timo on how many sticks and rocks they could carry.  Young finally came up with the rule that stick couldn't be any taller than you and only the number of rocks that can fit in your pocket.  And at the end, everything had to stay at the park.  The only things we could take out of the park were our pictures.

The park is right next to Roaring Camp Railroad, which was open and trains going all day, so we were able to walk over for our picnic lunch.  How exciting to see and hear all the trains go by while we ate.  Even though the kids were satisfied just watching the trains and climbing trees...we might have to work the train ride in for next year...

After lunch we took the river trail to try and see some bears!  Young was joking when he told the kids to stay together because there might be bears in the woods.  Just a reminder that we're dealing with 4 year olds and nothing is really a joke to them.  So Cameron was really disappointed that we didn't see a bear but we did find the river.

I like this picture..somehow Jen found herself watching all for kids by the water.  I'm not sure where I was but thankfully she was able to keep them all from fall in...the river bank was pretty steep.

The park is only about 20 mins from Santa Cruz so we decided to cap off our day with some ice cream at Marianne's.  It was packed!  We had to wait a while in line but it was well worth is.  A fun ending to our great day of hiking with friends!

 

Superheroes for God!

Since school started, our whole routine has been altered and we're on a new schedule.  I was having trouble having an "organized" bible study with the kids at bedtime so I decided to move it to after school...when they are still in that learning mode.  I also wanted to do something a little more sturctured, instead of just reading a story out of  the bible and talking about it.  I did lots of research online and came across this amazing woman's website.  http://impressyourkids.org/.  I love all her ideas and settled on the Super Hero series....can you guess why?  Since I'm not that super creative in this area, and at least for my first attempt at "home Bible school", I'm doing pretty much exactly what she did, not much variation.  I hope, as I get more studies under our belts, I'll be able to create my own.

So, a few weeks ago we started Being a Super Hero for God!  because God is our ultimate hero.  The umbrella verse of the whole series is 1 Timothy 4:12 

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young,
but set an example for the believers,
in speech,
in life,
in love,
in faith and
in purity.

I really like this verse because of the practicality of the twins being so young.  And I love what it says about being example and then list very real ways the children can act out their faith.  Not all of their friends come from Christian homes but this verse show easy, tangible ways they can show Jesus' love to friends that don't know Jesus.

We started by making our super hero crests.  Each week we'll tackle a different quality...speech, life, love, faith and purity of a believer with a verse and crafts or activity.  At the end of the week the kids get a badge to put on their crests.  Here are our crests!  Timo and Cameron are so excited to start this series...can you tell.

I also got a new bible for the kids.  I think it's pretty fitting for them.  I really like this bible because it's a scripture bible but brings out the "stories" for kids to understand.  So far they have really liked it.  They ask us to read the bible out of this one now but we still use their picture bible as a reference of photos to match story we're reading.  But I love reading scripture...so much more details.

 Ok, we're up and running!  I'll try to post each week with our verses and activities...stay tuned.

True Craftsmanship

I've mentioned before about how Timo loves guns or weapons of any sort.  His passion was fueled even more this summer when his Daddy took him to Target to pick out a super soaker water gun.  So I've decided to give up the fight on the weapon front with him and just let him be little boy he wants to be, fighting the bad guys.  I do, however, have a hard and fast rule of no toy guns in the house. But Timo easily finds a way around that by building his own, very elaborate weapons out of tinker toys.  This video is Young's idea of "can you get the kids ready for bed while I do the dishes?"  Timo built all the weapons you see in the video...his, Cameron's and Young's.  Seeing his craftsmanship, I'm no longer so fixated on his love of guns but rather on his love of construction and attention to detail.  I know someday he will use his powers for good...

Superhero!

I don't know about your 4 year old, but my four year old is a Superhero! My little girl is out to save the world. It's a love affair that has been going on for a long, long time.  Remember Halloween last year?  And she wore that costume until she practically wore it out.

Now that she is four and her world has gotten much larger, she goes back and forth between Batman, Captain America and Wonder Woman. When I ask her why she loves superheroes so much, her answer is extremely simple. "Because they save people, Mommy."  Duh.  There must be some instinct in little ones to pretend to be someone or something they're not so they can control the world around them...a world that, to them, seems they have very little control in. I'm not even sure how she came to love Batman, etc...because she has never read a comic book, seen the movies, seen a tv show, but somehow being the hero is in her somewhere.

A little identity crisis...a super unicorn??  But she thinks the fairy wings will help Captain America fly..."because he doesn't have a cape, Mommy."  Of course, makes sense.

Just FYI, once your kids know you can print coloring pages off the internet...it's all over.  Every other day Cameron is asking for a new coloring page.  These are some of the ones that made it to the wall.  The Joker is her favorite bad guy, btw.

 Our church picnic a few weeks ago...Batman saving Daddy from the gigantic ball!

I'm thinking I'll have to get all three costumes for Halloween because who knows who's super powers she will be channeling on Halloween.  It changes everyday.  And I'm willing to bet my kitchen aid mixer that she'll rotate between them on the days before and long after Halloween is over.  We're still getting mileage out of her unicorn and Supergirl costumes (2 and 3 year old Halloween) She is already planning her Superhero birthday party (next Feb), complete with Captain America cupcakes and Wonder Woman lasso of truth games...we're not sure what that game is but she knows it involves a yellow rope.

But not to be forgotten, last week she was looking in her closet for her Super Girl costume from last year (I thought I put it far enough in the back but not far enough...) and stumbled across her princess dresses.  I love that pink is her favorite color but can switch between a princess or Batman in a span of 3 minutes.  I guess that's what a superhero is...a real Hero in disguise.

10,000 Reasons

Here is Cameron singing her favorite song.  One of mine too.  But she is always asking when it's coming on the radio and was so happy this day when it came on.  I thought about downloading it to itunes but then I knew we would have to listen to it over and over and over...plus, not having unlimited access to it makes it a little more special when we do hear it!

Day Before School Putt-Putt

I wanted to make the most of our last day before school started.  I took a poll of options for the kids and it was a unanimous decision (both kids actually agreed on the same thing!)  We hit the putt-putt course in sunny, warm San Rafael. Timo LOVES golf.  He has a little golf kit at home and plays with it all the time.  I guess practice makes perfect because he hit a hole in one on one of the holes!

Cameron has this bad habit of hitting then running and picking up the ball, putting it closer to the hole and then hitting it in...guess whatever works for making the game go by faster.

Timo helping Cameron line her ball up, he thinks he is such the expert.

But it was hot there.  The only downside to putt-putt is it takes along time to play all 18 holes.  (most holes are a par 5 or 6 for us) So around 12:30, Cameron was getting hot.  As we moved from hole to hole, she would move from shady spot to shady spot.

A little picnic lunch and the kids were done with hot weather.  (you can tell we have SF kids)  We had a great summer, enjoying lazy mornings, doing random mid-day activities, multiple picnics and just spending time together.  I have to say, I think after a whole summer together, my son was getting a little tired of me infringing on his independence.  I feel like Timo and I were constantly nit-picking each other and needed a break.  He was acting out for attention and I was apparently giving him the wrong kind of attention.  But I'm happy to report, since school has started, he has calmed down greatly and I can't wait to see them when I pick them up.  Guess absence does make the heart grow fonder!