When Adam prays...

When Adam prays:

~he clenches his fists as hard as he can
~he squeezes his eyes shut
~and doubles over on the floor.

My favorite part of it all is that when we are done, he will announce how many times he "peeked" or if he was able to keep his eyes shut the whole time.

Adam-isms

Today I was sitting at my parents table talking to my sisters, Carol and Lana. The boys were in the back room playing with Mike. All of the sudden we hear Adam say, "Daddy is flying!!" We all looked at each other and joked for a minute that Mike must have sprouted wings, and flying around. The suspense was getting to me, so I went to the back room to see what was happening. As it turned out, Mike was playing a game with Mario and Mario was the one flying. Adam just superimposed Mike in there. It was funny to imagine what could be happening in that room!

Oh, to sew!

One day this week, my boys decided that they needed to learn to sew. I am always excited when they are eager and willing to learn something new. So, I decided to take the challenge (and to be honest, a challenge it was!!) I decided taht we would do a simple bag. I cut out the pieces of material, then they sewed a patch on by hand. I helped guide them with the sewing machine. I had wanted to add drawstrings to the bag so that it would close, but the boys were to eager to move on at that point, so they do not have that feature! Overall, they did a pretty good job. And I still had a little hair, when it was all over! :)

Adam and the bag he made!

Green Beans

It's that time of year, when the green beans are ready to be done. Mom had asked if we could come over to help with them. I had Adam out for the morning, but apparently, Austin was in the house snapping beans while Mom and Dad were out picking more! So, when Adam and I returned, Austin instructed Adam how the process was to be done. They did a pretty good job of helping.

In the end, we had 7 quarts canned, and 5 bags of beans in the freezer. They are sure nice to have in winter!

Introducing Willie

We have a new "member" in our family. He joined us a few weeks ago, and has made quite an impression. His name is Willie.

Willie is, actually, a ventriloquit dummy. He was a gift for Austin's Birthday. Austin is working on his ventriloquism, and loves to do little shows for people. When the firefighters came to our house, they even got a show! He has been looking for jokes he can do with Willie. He would very much like to do something for the school talent show with Willie.

Our local library has about 4 books on ventriloquism, Austin will check out 2 one week, and then the other 2 the next, then he repeats. He loves to look at the mechanics of dummies, and sometimes they have dialogues in there.

Austin told me one day, when he grows up he wants to be a ventriloquist. But, he would, also, like to be a teacher. So, he thought maybe he could use the dummy to help the children learn. I thought that was a great idea!!

Austin and Willie

These are all of his dummies and puppets.
(L) Howdy Doody, Pumpkin (Austin created him!), In front of him is Monster, Willie is on Austin's lap, and to the Right is Moe (named after Moe on the Three Stooges. Grandpa made this for Austin.

Isn't it amazing??

Isn't it amazing what a stick can do??

One day last week, Austin found a stick for himself, and helped Adam find one as well. I told the boys that we needed to go run a few errands and we would be back. Austin asked if we could get some sand paper so they could work on their sticks. Sure, why not? As the morning progressed they boys seemed to pick at each other and tended to try my patience. So, when we got home, I sent them out-each with a piece of sand paper-and told them to work on their sticks. They worked very diligently, got along, and talked very nicely. I grabbed the camera, because I wanted to record the amazing things that a stick can do.

Adam and Austin working on their sticks.

Roasting marshmallows

Last time we went camping, we realized that really needed to get some roasting sticks of our own. We were always having to borrow other peoples sticks, and wait for a turn. So, Mike went and found some for us to add to our camping gear. The boys decided that they really needed to roast marshmallows. (Well, we did need to see if they worked properly, right?) I wasn't sure how we were going to do this, since we do not have a fire pit, or anything similar to that. But, leave it to Mike to find a way around this problem--Adam roasted his marshmallow over a candle :) (Austin decided to eat his bofore roasting.)

Here is Adam patiently waiting for his marshmallow to finish.

The S'more was so worth the wait!