Three and a Half Months Old!

The puppies are 3 1/2 months old now and have grown tremendously! Katie weights in at 26.7 lbs and Blossom our dainty one at 23.2 lbs. Both are healthy and got their big girl rabies shot this week. I had thought of waiting till later, I could wait till they were one year, but with all the vermin in the area I thought it would be best to have them safe. We do not need to have a real life "Old Yeller" on our hands as that would certainly not go well with the children.

We have started "Puppy Pre-School" with Katie and Blossom so they can learn their doggie manners. I chose this particular school because Anton and Isabella are allowed to participate and learn how to "talk" to their puppy. I tend to handle the more difficult or first lesson on something new then children take over. Both puppies are responding but there is some need for maturity to take place. Puppies have lots of energy and Goldens love everyone creating a difficult choice for them, however if food is involved it makes the choice easier at least for the first minute.

Katie is much more curious than Blossom who is more cautious. Blossom immediately notices anything out of the ordinary and must evaluate the situation before she is comfortable enough to disregard it or find it unimportant. She is especially concerned with loose items be it a tag or a piece of my hair which has come loose. Katie just finds everything to be something to play with which gets her in trouble from time to time. I suspect she will be the first one "skunked" when the situation arises.

Karl finds it funny how they respond to me as the "Alpha" queen just by me saying "uh-uh" has them stopping all action and trying to appear innocent. The reason for this is their escalating puppy play. When the two where smaller they would yelp at each other if they got too rough, now they seem to be getting louder and rougher with no yelping to stop action. I was letting them work it out until I noticed scabs on their ears and necks. Then I decided I would set the tone because they were taking it a little too far. Just like children, they are getting warnings and time outs. First is the "uh-uh", then the "hey", then if I raise my voice to "enough" they run into their kennels. Yesterday, I noticed they were rough housing without sound. This was very humorous to Karl and I as they have learned to not attract attention to their play. At one point Blossom made a low egging on noise to which Katie quietly looked at me and placed her paw on Blossoms' as if to say "quiet, she's watching us!" To Katie, the kennel is punishment because she wants to be in the middle of everything. To Blossom, the kennel is her cave and place to unwind.

Do not get concerned about them becoming aggressive, as this is normal puppy behavior. They are still exploring thier boundaries, part of their education of the world. They know humans are not to be treated the same as their other canine friends. Katie is more submissive than Blossom due to her want of all the attention. Katie will just jump in my lap and give me kisses as soon as the opportunity arises. Blossom is only more submissive than Katie around me because she is usually busy in her protectorate role. Apparently the world must be saved from tags. My hope is this behavior will transfer into protecting the children from snakes or critters when they go out exploring. Blossom is quicker to notice something even a slight movement in the grass from an insect. I think she is supplementing her food with crickets and grasshoppers. It is fun to watch her being stealthy while tracking something. This will probably become a problem for us when the ducks come in a couple of years.

The puppies have certainly added more energy into the house. Now, if I could just get them to sleep longer in the morning because these 4:15 wake ups are killing me. I put an end to the 3 am calls by ordering them to stop one morning.

It is nice to be the queen, even if it is only in the canine world!

But then again, I control their food.

Anton's Birthday - Part 3

It just would not have been a Knightly Party without a little Dragon slaying!

Karl cut and sanded a piece of plywood in the shape of a sword for the pinata activity a few days before since the inflatable swords would not have accomplished the task.

Karl led the children in proper Dragon Slaying behavior to minimize any foul play.

It took a few tries, but it was finally beheaded!

We were all saved and the blood, or candy, was shed!

Then it was back to more sword playing and exploring of the land by the adventuresome clan.

All in all, it was a successful party even if we never got to the obstacle course or the jousting tournament (with pool noodles).

I gave them a few props and the rest was caught up in their imaginative play.

A great party! I don't know if I can out do this one?

At least I have 4 months till Isabella's party!

Anton's Birthday - Part 2

The big activity, and what kept me busy the night before while the men where building castles, was the shields. Every good knight needs a shield! This took some children a few minutes and others were very detailed in the choices.

Once the design was complete, they had to see either Donna or I to assemble the handle.

The hot glue worked for a while. It really depended on how rough the sword fighting became. I made a good call on the inflatable swords, no injuries, except for re-gluing handles for a few.

Who says only the men can wield a sword.

These princesses certainly seem confident in their abilities to defend their castles!

Isabella made the crowns one day while Karl and I were busy with other plans. She is becoming quite imaginative. When she has an idea, it is hard to dissuade her from the project. I have reached the point where my input in her work is merely a suggestion.

Oh how quickly they grow and become so independent!

This activity was one of my best and one the boys really enjoyed!

Anton's Birthday - Part 1

I can not believe Anton is now 9 years old! He has become such a good little man with many ideas and plans for the future whether it be today, tomorrow, or in the next decade! For now, I will focus on the present ideas.

Shortly after we moved into the house, Anton gave me notice that he would like to have his Birthday at the house. I began to pray for nice weather because I was not sure if I would have the interior ready for such an undertaking. We were blessed with beautiful weather!! This allowed the theme of Castles and Knights to be a success!

We began with a relaxing cookout. People moved between the house, garage, and yard to experience the environment.

Then it was on to the first activity, but I will put it in the next post! This brings us to the project which kept Anton and Karl busy the night before........The Cake!

No ordinary cake would do! Karl and Anton took two 9 x 13 chocolate cakes and created a castle. Hershey bars helped to sturdy the side walls and create the drawbridge. Finally cones were used for turrets with flags made by Isabella. It was definitely a hit!

Most of the children wanted a turret but when they found out there was nothing inside them it was requests for side walls or drawbridges.

I was very proud of my men for being so creative and I only helped a small bit. I really wanted it to be their project and they had fun completing the cake.

October Retreat - Stones, Paul, and Haircuts

The kiddos and I participated in one of our groups' retreat this week. As always, getting together with friends is always fun and exciting if not a little extraordinary! This month, Margaret had the older children, 10 - 16 year olds, who worked on creating stepping stones to reflect their souls and the paths they take. It was very insightful for them as they discussed the Magisterium, the Bible, and other influences on their path of discovery.

I took the Middlers this time, 5 - 9 year olds, and we discussed Saul becoming Paul. I had to make the focus very short and specific for the age group but I think they came away with a clear idea of who Saul was and how significant this is to how transformation into Paul. I had the children create a paper plate face of Saul after we discussed his view and agenda towards the Christians. We then broke into a topic of receiving gifts we might not want but need, Saul becoming blind for three days to be humbled. This lead us to to joyful transformation into Paul. I then had the children take another paper plate to create the face of Paul for the flip side.

The interesting thing about this moment was when the children returned to the table to make their face. At this exact time, Margaret had the older children outside playing Blind lead Blind verses Sighted lead Blind. The Middlers were saying, "Look, the big kids are playing Saul!" I guess they got it! We then sang a little song and I released them for free play!

The little ones played a few games and read a few stories.

Then one of the Dads got a little adventurous and gave a few haircuts too!

See, we are a well rounded group!

Have a little religion, a little socialization, and a haircut to boot!

On the edge of Margaret's property is a wooded area in which the children are making a fort. Other children were playing on the playscape or tire swing on the other side.

Trees, Trees, and more Trees!

Another busy but productive weekend! Last weekend I went to one of the local nurseries to order some trees for stage one of the orchard. Unbeknownst to me, I had shown up for customer appreciation and received 25% off my entire order. This was exceptional news as I was placing an order for 12 Eastern White Pine and 10 Blue Spruce trees; not a particularly small order. The trees arrived the following Tuesday with a surprise, four extra pine trees! The delivery guy asked if I could use them because I was the only order on his truck for pine trees and he was not going to take them back to the nursery. I was overjoyed! Not only 25% off but four extra trees! I guess there is some prudence in waiting till the end of the season to place an order. It is actually the best time to plant evergreens too!

On Thursday I began tilling up one of the areas for the trees. It took me about 3 hours to till a 50 foot by 10 foot area. My arms where shaking in a way it was difficult to write out the check to the children's piano teacher when she stopped by for their lessons. I watered the trees still in their pots and hoped they would make it till the weekend. Friday was a blur of activity with Karl's promotion and a library meeting in the afternoon. Finally Saturday arrived but Anton had a midday soccer game causing us to have to break the day in half. Once home from the game, we set out to get to the trees. Karl tried to borrow the neighbor's larger tiller but they found the gas line leaking into the oil, not good! The next idea was to run to the rental shop and rent a large tiller in hopes to get the trees in the ground soon. But as fate has it, Tim, Donna, and their son, Doug, were coming down the drive. Doug wanted to bring Anton a Lego Magazine and the parents just wanted to visit. The two immediately began smirking at my predicament. I had told them when we moved in, I would be chewing up the land in no time. Tim asked Karl to give him a ride back to his house and Tim returned with the tractor and tiller attachment. In about 10 minutes he had the entire perimeter of the to be orchard area ready to go. I was beyond words of gratitude as this was going to take Karl and I well into the night with this project. The perimeter of the orchard includes a 10 foot wide strip along a length of approximately 400 feet. It had taken me 3 hours to till about 50 feet a few days before. I just wanted to cry I was so thankful for their help. After a few more minutes of chatting and prying Doug out of Legoland, they left us with our trees.

Between Karl and I digging the holes and the kiddos helping with watering and filling the holes, we managed to get 6 in the ground before calling it a day.

The next day we broke from our mantra of resting on Sunday in order to finish the trees. Once home from Church and Sunday School, Karl set out to finish the holes while I began a large lunch of BBQ Chicken drumsticks, Anton's request, with last years canned Zesty Peach BBQ sauce and Regular BBQ sauce, potatoes, spiniach salad, and chocolate brownies with swirls of cream cheese. Our neighbor to one side, a Pastor for the Baptist Church, came over to give Karl a hand and inquire about our trees. In the 30 minutes I took to make lunch, the two men had all the remaining holes excavated. All we needed to do was place the trees in the ground and cover them. Stage one of orchard is complete, well, mostly! I want to put some mulch over the tilled grass in an effort to reduce the yardage of mowable lawn. Apparently one of the recycling centers offers free mulch if you haul it away. We really could use a pickup truck!

Why pine and spruce trees around the orchard? The deer hate them because of their texture and bitter acidic taste! The trees will grow in a way to create another barrier and take up the space needed for the deer to scale the fence. Not to mention it also looks pretty!

I have to say this project really sums up how blessed our new life has become. Small businesses that really care about their customers, friends and neighbors ready to lend a hand or tool, and children who are eager to be a part of it all. Yes, Life is good!

One Order Of Scrambled Eggs Please!

On Friday, October 3, the children and I were given special privilege to ascend to the secret floor in one of the buildings on the Navy Yard in DC. The purpose, Karl was being promoted to Commander. For those who have never been to an officer promotion, here is what it entails.

First is the oath. The officers take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against enemies foreign and domestic. As Karl explained to Anton, if the President told Karl to shoot an innocent person on the street, Karl could not because he is defending the Constitution which protects the innocent bystanders. This is different from the enlisted oath which also states they will obey the orders of the officers. For the movie buffs, this is why the issue in A Few Good Men was of concern. An officer was ordering them to do something against the Constitution. The oath assumes the officer, in defending the Constitution, would not order an enlisted personnel to do something against the Constitution. Thus the first rule for the enlisted is to defend the Constitution and then the orders of the officer.

Next comes the changing of insignia pins from gold to silver. Anton was very confused here because he kept saying "But I thought gold was more valuable than silver!" Isabella was also very determined to be a part of the ceremony and the Admiral obliged by helping her with the pins. He was very impressed that Isabella knew the clasps were called frogs.

Then the Admiral said to Isabella,

"Now let me help you up so you and your mom can give dad a big kiss."

Later, Isabella asked why we had to give Daddy a big smooch.

Karl responded,

"Because the Admiral said so!"

Then, I had to turn over my badge to security and we left the building. Karl escorted us back to the car and we returned to our normal civilian life. It is times like this I miss not being in a Navy Community. Yes the Capital is very military but there is no real community because it is just too big and everyone is very spread out. Our military side is more like an alter ego or secret identity that only applies to us some of the time as opposed to living in other places where it was our identity all of the time. This is actually helping us as Karl edges closer to his retirement and we become former military.