A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Peter’s dislike of getting his ear’s wet and the fact that he had never voluntarily put his head under water. Well, on Sunday, August 10, he and Anna voluntarily put their heads under water for Jesus to let the whole world know what took place in each of their hearts when they were 5 years old! They got baptized! PRAISE THE LORD!
Candice has been playing with her toys long enough to be tired of them. I have resorted to giving her jar lids, spoons, and bowls to play with because they are new to her! 🙂 Here is a video of her newest toy discovery.
On the Fourth of July, we went to the 224th Annual Independence Day Parade in Bristol! I did not know until I got there that it is the oldest parade in America! We all had a blast with YeYe and Nei Nei and their French friends. It was fun having conversations with a mix of French, American, and Chinese! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
The Brunneaux house was one like I’ve only seen in movies. It was a huge 2 story house with a double parlor and a lot of open space. They had a fenced in backyard that had a gate leading out to the beach and the bay behind their house! And as we were leaving, I received my very first true French kiss. 😉
Here are some pictures from our Independence Day 2008 celebration.
Anna has been old enough for a while to help out around the house, but the part that is relatively new is that she is old enough to help out with the younger kids. Last week she got Candice to sleep all on her on for the first time. I asked her if she was tired of holding her, and she very quickly said, “no!” After about 20 or 30 minutes, she said she wasn’t tired, but she wanted to go play now. 🙂
For Mother’s Day, we went to the park to take nice pictures of the kids. Since the kids were already dressed up after church, we ate a picnic lunch and headed to a park with water and large rocks. (I love Rhode Island’s rocks, but that is a different post). Some of these were taken a little later because Bethany slept through most of the pictures, and I could not easily get pictures of Candice alone while outdoors. Here are my favorites!
Anna and I have been taking a home ec class together. Technically it is Anna’s home ec class for home school that I am supposed to be teaching her, but in reality we are both learning side by side. This month’s project was making a dress.
Anna picked a purple floral-like material, and since there was a lot leftover, and I was given a pattern in Bethany’s size, we made a matching dress for Bethany. We had two sewing machines, so Anna worked on one machine on her dress while I worked on the other machine on Bethany’s. My friend Christy instructed both of us at the same time. (Thanks, Christy!!)
After the dress was finished, I found myself standing in the middle of the room holding up Bethany’s dress saying, “I made a dress” in wonder! Anna said she wants to wear her new dress every Sunday. I guess there’s just something special about a dress you made yourself!
I was introduced to the Zoei Toh videos by my father-in-law. I was very impressed with this 3 year old’s ability to remember the words to the songs and be able to carry a tune. She is absolutely adorable! Notice that there are several songs included in the video box below. Some are in English and some in Mandarin.
Charlie is also impressive in that he maintains his temper while in pain brought on by his baby brother. He is very matter of fact.
Several months ago I realized that Phillip seems to have a natural knack for engineering and things that take a lot of concentration. While playing a game of monopoly for family night one night, I looked over at Phillip and saw that he was lining up the hotels and houses in perfectly straight lines. Since then I have noticed that it is not an unusual occurrence to walk into a room and find toys lined up neatly. One day I saw a frisbee with a perfect ring of crayons around the edge. I knew instantly that it was Phillip’s handiwork.
From early on, Phillip has liked things to be very neat and in their place. When I come home from the grocery store, he pulls groceries out of the bags and starts putting them away. Whenever we are looking for something, Phillip is the one we are likely to ask first because he tends to know where things are.
Phillip also likes to take things apart and put them back together. Because of this, Peter has picked up on Phillip’s engineering-like abilities. When one of his toys breaks, he is very likely to ask Phillip to try to fix it. Several times I have heard Peter say, “Mom, will you help me with this? Never mind. Phillip figured it out!”
It is so interesting to see the kids’ interests forming when they are so young! I can’t wait to see how they use their individual interests and abilities as they grow into adulthood! I am looking forward to seeing how God uses each of them!
Bethany has learned to say “I love you,” and it’s so adorable I just had to share it! (Oh how I wish I’d had a blog and/or known how to use one when my other children were this age!).
