reformation day:

Happy Reformation Day.  It is an important holiday in terms of its meaning to us, but it's not for elevating Martin Luther beyond his humanity.  We have no agreement with his strong anti-Semitic writings late in life, but we would agree with the changes that needed to be made in the church to follow the Bible more.

fall carnival:

Our church hosted a carnival this weekend as a safe and welcoming place for families to go during this time of year.  We had live music, bounce houses, a slide, maze, sumo wrestling, lots of carnival-type games, and lots of candy.  I manned the can knockdown game for an hour, and it was actually a major workout chasing after the ball and cans and stacking them.  People would come in waves, and most of them were people from the community and not our church.  I only volunteered an hour, so I can only imagine how much effort it would be for the volunteers who worked all day or even for weeks.  About 400 people attended.

Manny and I had to miss the Stanford-USC game, but we didn't miss it entirely.  We just kept refreshing his phone.  It didn't show that it had gone to triple overtime, but Chris filled us in via phone call on the way home.  Wasn't an easy win.  Go Cardinal and go Bruins!

I dressed up as Waldo (or Wenda, his friend).  It was my first time dressing up as an adult, and I think only the fourth time in my entire life.  I was hoping to find a cheap, used red-and-white striped shirt, but it turned out to be less expensive to get the costume on sale.  Naomi dressed up as Silvermist again, and we just used regular clothes and a rescue pack for Lucas, who wanted to be Diego.  You can find the rescue patch online and just print it out and pin it on.  At the carnival, Naomi hung out with her friends E and A most of the time, and Lucas went down the slide about 100 times.

So whether you celebrate this time of year or not, I respect that, and hope that we will always see the bigger picture no matter where we stand.

Waldo, Diego, and Silvermist.

A photo for Grandma with just the kids.  Lucas wouldn't look at the camera.

Lucas picked one of the special ducks for extra candy and a free duck.

For tic-tac-toe basketball, he got the first two in on his own, but was allowed to cross the line and drop the last one in the right place.

There was Italian, Korean, and Jewish food.  This was one of two plates I actually got for myself, but more went into everyone else's mouth than mine.  Yes, I'm still sad about that.

A friend who caters made these delicious carrot ginger cupcakes.

I went down the slide with Lucas once, and after that he just got in line and followed directions to go down.  I'm not exaggerating about the hundred times.  It was probably actually closer to two hundred.  

We were there for four hours, but Naomi and her friend E still didn't make it to the sumo wrestling in time.  They were thinking about doing this in the ring, but the suit fabric would've been ruined.  Ok, if we didn't have to watch the kids, I totally would've been up for doing this with Manny.

observing naomi:

On Friday afternoon, L and her classmate came over to observe Naomi doing a variety of tasks, from crafting to snacking to throwing a ball.  It was for a college course.  Naomi missed the question again of what happens when one pours an exact amount from a measuring cup into glasses or cups of various sizes.  Mathematical concepts aren't her strong suit, but she'll catch up.  She also told L she doesn't brush her teeth regularly, which isn't true, but it was true that she hadn't brushed her teeth the night before or the morning of since we'd been out very late.  I didn't intervene, but I did at other points and probably shouldn't have.

Naomi kicking a soccer ball in a straight line.

sent into the harvest:

I often come across some thought-provoking articles or blogs by renowned Christian men, and they turn out to say exactly what Manny's been telling me.  I have a couple friends who have been vocal about their disdain for Halloween in any way, shape, or form.  And in a timely manner, John Piper writes up the view our church (for the most part) and our family have taken.  We agree with this view, although we certainly understand why people are so against it as well.  I often have to tell the kids to look away or go down a different aisle this time of year because they are so frightened by the images.  I sometimes can't wait for this time of year to be over.  Yet I also understand--this is the time when your neighbors, your community will willingly show up at your door.  We can choose to turn off the lights and hope they go away, as I did for many years, or reach out to them with something new--the fact that I don't fear Halloween itself, and I would love to talk with you about why.

classroom fun:

We brought supplies to make kabobs for Naomi's Jr. Lego team this week.  Each week we meet to eat healthful snacks and discuss the history and harvesting/processing/packaging of food while using our imagination to design and build Legos.  So far, Naomi says she enjoys the eating part the most.  She also came up with our team name, the Lego Stars.  Between the team meeting and Naomi's keyboarding class, we were supposed to have a park playdate, but my friend had to take a raincheck.  The kids got wiped out without the break in between for rest and snack, so I'll try to balance out our schedule a little more.  We're out and about almost every day, which wipes out an introvert like me (and Lucas), but I think it's good for me to get out there in the world.  :)  The extra fruit and cheese are going on a cheese/meat/crackers platter for our small group.  I like how anyone can bring refreshments any time, so we can share our extra food whenever we'd like.  

Naomi also dressed up for the Halloween party at her ISP class.  I'm not a fan of the gory side of Halloween, and the decorations around town really scare the kids, but I'm okay with her getting dressed up and getting candy, as long as there's modesty and moderation.  I'm actually dressing up this year for the first time as an adult, since I'm manning a booth at our church's Carnival.  Lucas decided at the last minute that he wanted to be Diego (I was just going to have him wear his Buzz pajamas), so I put something together with regular clothes, and Naomi is going to be Silvermist, Tinkerbell's Asian friend.  She's had winged costumes for four years.  Next year she wants to make her own costume, either a cotton candy seller, a baker, or a hot dog.  Chances are she'll change her mind by then.  :)

Lucas had three kabobs himself.

 

The kids making kabobs and silly faces.

The kids designed a logo representing themselves in the team.

The knight and the fairy (Tinkerbell's friend Silvermist) leave with the leftover cupcakes.

pumpkin patch redux:

Naomi's been doing so well with school and asking to pet the bunnies again, so we returned to the pumpkin patch with the better camera in tow.  What a difference a camera makes, even though I just left it on auto.  I was a little disappointed that it was so sunny, but I guess I should just practice more with the camera!  We got to go on a hayride this time, something apparently not often in operation.  The kids were really tired after staying up too late last night, so they actually asked to leave.  We had to go to the store to pick up some things for the fruit and cheese kabobs (for Naomi's Lego team meeting), and Lucas hung in there really well.  He picked out a yellow mini pumpkin and Naomi picked out a pudgy orange one.  He crashed shortly after we returned home.

Forecast said partly cloudy, but once again it was too sunny.

Yay for fall!

Big ole pumpkin!

Lovely weather for a hayride together...

Petting the bunnies again.

Bunnies!

I love this photo, but a person walked by just as I took it.  Couldn't get Lucas to do it again.

homecoming and home cooking:

Manny and Chris went to Homecoming at Stanford on Saturday and then the football game.  We tried to find them on TV without success.  The first half was good, when the scores were a little closer.  Stanford is on fire this season.  Chris came by for a little while Sunday evening to get his camera.  The kids are always glad to see him.

Our pastor continued the series on missions and focused this time on each of the missions efforts and our sponsorship of those in unreached regions.  I mentioned before he's very good about getting right to the heart of our motivation, reminding us to give not under compulsion, guilt, self-righteousness, religiosity, or pride.  He doesn't take a cut from this fund.  I feel like our church makes sound financial decisions, even though giving is down this year.  I've been a bit worn out lately and the message reminded me about this huge world out there that is so much greater than my "first world problems."  :)

I'm getting reacquainted with my bread machine.  We enjoyed making pretzels today and I was pretty impressed with Naomi, who helped me roll the dough, form the pretzels, and brush it with eggwash.  The other day she also helped me wrap some wontons.  There are a lot of lessons reinforced through cooking, and it's fun for both of us.  Lucas tries to take over often, but at least he'll listen to reason now before conflict erupts.  I'm looking forward to many more opportunities to cook together.

pumpkin patch:

New patch this year, and it was really sunny!  The kids had fun and got to touch a few little animals!

Forgot Lucas's cap--poor light-and-noise-sensitive boy.

The kids pretending to make a fire by the tepees.

All the little pumpkins...

In the jumphouse.

Naomi with a sweet little bunny.

Lucas petting a chick.  He said he liked the big chickens more.

Petting the kid.

She wants a pet so badly, but we don't have room for one.

Lucas and another cute bunny.

My favorite--a floppy-eared bunny!

Wabbits!

conference / native-american dwellings:

Our ISP parent-teacher conference went well once again.  Naomi confused a couple facts for the first time, but she was as enthusiastic as ever.  We got a couple of our projects put on display, which doesn't happen often.  The Native-American dwellings project was a lot of work for us, and my favorite school project so far.  Naomi's curriculum called for making a dome-shaped wigwam and a tepee, but I decided to just make several different types from across the U.S.  Many books focus on the east to midwest tribes, and we just learned about the American Indians who lived in this region, so why not?  Naomi's definitely enjoying history a lot more this year, and I'm sort of glad we decided to put in a year focused on U.S. History before we went into World Studies.

A map of the United States with the type of dwellings for each region.  I typed up a little blurb about each and Naomi matched it up with the correct model.

This is a chickee, in which the Seminoles of Florida (who'd left Georgia when settlers moved in) lived.  The chickees were built on stilts and without walls because of the swampland.  We used skewer sticks, kitchen  twine, cardboard, glue, playdough, and moss for our model.

Tepees are commonly known, and they were made of buffalo hide.  The pictures would depict a buffalo hunt.  We used fancy paper, some paint, staples, and a few twigs to make ours.

Pueblos were made of adobe, but ours was made of playdough.  I didn't want to use too much, so our pueblo is probably a little smaller than it should be.  Naomi made the walls and ceiling and I helped stack them together and carve the door and windows.

This was a model of a wickiup, sometimes called a wigwam, which we saw on our tour of the museum.  I originally tried to make grasscloth, but it was too hard to shape, so we ended up gluing raffia to a paper cup.  

The Iroquois of the Great Lakes lived in longhouses, which would house several families, although each had their own fire.  They were usually covered with elm bark.  We made our model out of cardboard boxes turned inside out and some tape.  Naomi drew on the grid, and made the door and ceiling holes and glued them on.

The dome-shaped wigwam, which is usually covered in bark or mats.  This was the toughest to make, and Naomi ran into the bathroom every few minutes because she doesn't like the feeling of glue on her hands.  Each piece was actually supposed to be dipped completely in the glue or paste, but we minimized ours.

in the community:

These past few weeks at church, as we've gone through the book of Acts, the emphasis has been on missions, both local and to the ends of the earth.  The pastor mentioned some of the community services in which our church participates.  I was working in the nursery, but Manny filled me in afterwards.  Our church isn't huge, so I'm amazed by how much is being done in the community through it.  The afterschool boxing/tutoring club is expanding rapidly, and firefighters and SWAT are now training there.  I knew about several of the women's and children's ministries, such as helping a women's shelter, a local elementary school, food bank, Christmas projects, among several other things, but we didn't know the details about a specific fund our church sets aside.  A majority of it goes to international missions, which are so important, and the remainder goes towards local efforts, sort of like a deacon's fund.  Currently we are part of several partnership organizations, including one serving the needy (which can be just about anyone these days), a community pregnancy center, a church planting group, and a chaplain.  Many in the congregation are directly involved in these organizations.  It's exciting, and the pastor encourages us to really roll up our sleeves while being careful to not motivate us by guilt or compulsion.  At the moment, I can't do too much because I'm raising the kids, but we have many ways we can contribute as a family and share the good news with our community.

couples' night out:

We had a nice time last night at our Couples' Night Out (i.e., no kids) with friends from church.  It was a fun end to a super busy week and especially busy day with lots of surprises and rearrangements.  I hadn't been feeling well for most of the week, either.  I can't stop sneezing.  Think it's time to get back on the supervitamins.  L was able to come over and babysit the kids, and they loved it.  Naomi drew her a picture and raved about it, and Lucas said he was happy and didn't cry.  Yay!  I made them a lasagna for dinner and some apple caramel bars.

My order hadn't come yet when we took the photo below, but I got a larger-than-expected steak sandwich  with sweet potato fries.  I said I had no room for dessert, but Manny ordered some cheesecake and suddenly there was room.  :/  Ok, diet starts Monday.  :)

junior lego team:

We started the Junior Lego Team this week, which was a lot of fun.  Almost all the students in Naomi's K-2 ISP class are participating.  Now Naomi will see those friends at least twice a week.  The first challenge was to build something related to what they look forward to in the Lego team.  Naomi didn't understand the challenge and created a model of a man who had to sweep the floor all day (a janitor, probably).  She said she originally wanted to do a plumber.  The second challenge was a bit easier for her--a model of how she felt eating her favorite snack.  Naomi's fingers were taped together because she had a sprain in her pinky finger.  We went to the doctor after the team meeting to get it checked out.  Lucas cried the entire time we were there, perhaps thinking he was getting shots or something.  Then while Naomi was in piano class, he fell asleep and so did I for five minutes while we waited for her.  It's been quite a tiring week for us, but we're all in good spirits.

The kids brought their favorite snacks for the first day:  vegetable crackers, dried apple rings, chocolate chip cookies, and we brought edamame and caramel corn.  

For one of the mini-challenges, Naomi created a Lego design of herself eating pizza.

The kids working as a team for free time.  Naomi wanted to do a house with an exercise room and kitchen.  It's great to see them all learning teamwork and cooperation while having fun.

big birthday party:

We went to our seventh birthday party at P.ump it Up this year (popular for kids Naomi's age as they can run around on their own), but this time it was in another city.  Naomi liked being in a new place while Lucas seemed to miss the usual one.  A long drive in Friday rush hour traffic, but we definitely wanted to celebrate with our neighbor's son (so did about 50 other people!).  Most of the children would be Naomi's classmates if she went to the local elementary.  Manny was a good dad and took the kids down the slides.  One time, he took Naomi out--she was waiting for him at the top, and he accidentally kicked her down the slide.  Haha.  He also did not observe the "feet first" rule.  Lucas couldn't wait for the pizza, but then only took a couple bites.  I thought he wasn't hungry, but it was just that he wanted the veggie pizza instead of cheese (after I removed the onions).  So he downed two slices of veggie pizza after that, and some delicious ice cream cake!

Lucas jumping.

Help!  Tight squeeze for Manny.  :)

Naomi having fun on the slides.

A lot of kids, and this wasn't even all of them.

Why aren't you eating tonight?  Oh, you wanted vegetables on your pizza!

historical field trip:

We had our first field trip of the year with the ISP.  We went to SCU to tour the California History exhibition at the de Saisset Museum as well as the Mission church.  We started with a slideshow covering the history from pre-contact with Europeans to the early years of the college.  I enjoyed learning about Native American history, especially that of our region.  Many of the books I've seen cover east coast and plains Indians, but don't go into as much detail for the rest.  I didn't know that their main staple was acorns or that they made diapers out of cattail flowers.  The kids had an interactive time when they could touch various replica or artifacts, a good idea because everything was hands-off after that.  Overall the kids really enjoyed the trip.  

Instructions at the beginning of our tour.

Slideshow covering the history of the region.

The kids got to touch everything from arrowheads to a huge mortar and pestle to burden baskets.

A wickiup, which is an Ohlone dwelling made of thatched tule.

Artifacts brought over by the Spanish.

The Spanish also brought silk clothing which the priests would wear.

About to enter the Mission Church.  Likeness of Saint Claire in the middle.

Closer to the altar of the large building.  Lucas seemed fascinated by the ceiling art and lights.

They have a beautiful rose garden by the chapel, but we couldn't stay once it started raining.  The wisteria nearby is about a hundred years old.

An earthquake destroyed the mission, but this little area was saved.  The walls are made of adobe and 2.5 feet thick, so all the outside noise is blocked.