Cherry picking

Due to frost in the late spring and then the heavy rain, the cherries are not in the best condition this year. It is our first time picking cherry and all it meant is that we have to look harder and really hunt for those nice, ripe cherry.

After a lot of searching, W finally finds a nice cherry !

It helps if you can climb

Got some good ones!

Now please give me the bucket!
(good to see W mostly back to his happy self, other than the sore throat)

Hey, look they do come in two (just like in the Enki math story)

Hey, look who else is in the tree!

Here is daddy searching "under the dress" of a cherry tree

for some nice ripe juicy cherries

As we were paying, we learned that our favorite blueberries requires acidic soil(never thought about that when we planted) and this is not the place for that. But we can come back to pick raspberries and apples in mid August in the same place. Wouldn't that be fun?!

Power of demonstration

Again, I'm being reminded about this concept when teaching children.

W's summary of Flat Stanley- an Original adventure by Jeff Brown in his own words orally after I demonstrated how I would summarize the book. I did asked him to tell me where he think he should put a period. This is because I notice in his journal, the period is usually not in its proper place. I'm thinking the reason for this is perhaps there is too much things going on all at once for him, spelling, sentence mechanics, organizing his thoughts, etc.

He also paused after each sentence and thought about what he was going to say next and didn't connect all his sentences using "and then, and then, and then". This is a lot of improvement. YEAH for W!
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"There was a boy named Stanley. Stanley became flat because a bulletin board fell on him. Being flat has its advantages. For example, he could slip under doors, help his mom, and help the museum catch sneak thieves. But then, Flat Stanley didn't want to be flat because people called him "Flatty". Stanley went to his room where Arthur was sitting. (Arthur was his brother. later added) Arthur pumped Stanley up with a bike pump. Stanley was very happy to be normal again."

Pochacco family portrait

In cleaning closet, I found Pochacco, who I use to like a lot. So now I gift them to my children and they took an immediate liking to it. W got the big and "toddler" Pochacco while J got the baby Pochacco and my pencil case full of Pochacco stuff.

While playing, J had the idea of doing the "family portrait" so here I present you these portraits. :) All poses as directed by J.

W with his Pochaccos

W had the idea of carrying P. on his back. He had the right idea that it required 2 ropes.
I helped to make it happen.




Front seem little more secure

Rest time is more fun with Pochacco.

Foodhunt

When I was in J's room today, I found this sheet under her bed. I think this is the most extensive menu I have ever seen J create. I'm pretty impressed with the details. The last menu I saw her create, most everything was "free!" :) But this one's got prices. Ho-ho. It's interesting to me that the food items are mostly all American food and and very few Chinese food items sprinkled in there. J says she wrote this in 2009, although she still didn't know beverages are drinks and not food. ;-)

You can even learn Chinese and Spanish here

Weekend

Sat. was fabulous! The weather really cooperated; it was suppose to have scattered thunderstorm but it turned out to be a nice day for the lake. I'm glad we decided to go the lake, otherwise we would not have another chance until much later.

Sunday, everything started out fine. Daddy took J/W to a children's museum for their grand opening to meet with their cousins/friends. But they came back earlier than I expected because W was really sick with fever and a bad stomach ache. This is a boy who don't get sick much, at least not in the last few years. So it was hard on him and he was in tears from the pain. We gave him some medicine (mostly homeopath stuff)) and gathered around to pray for him. J was a great helper - always changing W's wet towel to keep his head cool, bringing W water, blanket, heat pad and staying close to W. Though she had a hard day since her nose bled 4x in one day with the last one being pretty serious.

Today, W is doing much better, and is up and about. So thank the Lord for that!! Since he's still running a low temperature, he couldn't attend VBS today. He also says sore throat hurts when he had some green lemonade today. Usually, that is one of his favorite drink. So we are just taking it easy today. I read him "The TITANIC lost and found" in the morning which he really loved. He was eager to share/discuss what he learned with daddy.

A little indoor play on Sat.

And some outdoor play; the water feels great after a little getting use to. No great pictures since we all swam, including daddy. :)

This is how W smiles with his tongue right there which I love.

A Tooth and Trust Story

Here is a little story about W.

The first tooth W lost when he was only 5 was swallowed, while the second tooth he lost when he was still 5 fell into the drain when he was brushing his teeth. So when he lost his third tooth (6 and 4 months) while in China, he was very excited that he got to hold it. Since he was on walking on the street when it came off, daddy offered to kept it for safekeeping for the tooth fairy.

But when daddy's clothes was given to grandpa to wash in the washing machine, W's tooth went along with it and that was the end of that. So the other day, W tells me that he can't trust daddy anymore because daddy had said he will safe keep his tooth but instead lost his tooth. As a direct result of that incident, W still have not received any present from the tooth fairy in exchange for his tooth. So I told daddy and it was decided that daddy will be W's tooth fairy and give him a $1 dollar bill. Oh, I wish I had capture the joy and excitement on the dear boy's face upon receiving the dollar bill. Now the trust that was once lost has been restored. He is one very happy boy and he's keeping the dollar bill in what he calls his "treasure bag".

W's world

Here is a peek into W's world of drawing. I don't know any other boy who likes to draw as much as he does.

Except for the first one, which is a guided drawing of an Enki math story, the rest are all his original creations. The captions following the drawing are in W's own words which I have asked him to provide.

The sneak thieves who rob the bank

"The family who had 11 children"
(left is house, and right is school)

Spider and Batman teams up again the bad guys.

Normal day at castle

Taking a family picture. (The # represent their age)

Spikey hair dude against good guys

Big boys looking at their brothers

The Firework day

My blooming artists

Anytime J have some free time and she's not playing with her brother, you are most likely find her drawing, or coloring. Same with W, except he draws more than he colors (most of his coloring are in his coloring books). Since they are so passionate about drawing/coloring, I call them my "blooming artists".

The following (except one) are all J's originals and not copied out of anywhere. Enjoy!

This one she did at home; but the original one was taught by an art teacher.

Notice a general interest with J? They are completely different from W's.