Our little Bible scholar

Elijah and I were listening to one of our music cds while driving to the mall last week, and a song with the chorus, "Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, sing hosanna to the king of kings," came on (referring to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, which coincidentally was our lesson this week in BSF from Matthew 21). Elijah shouted from the back seat, "Just like in my Bible!" I thought for a second and remembered this page from his toddler Bible:


Eli was right and remembered the story and the word "hosanna" that was in his Bible!

Later that same day as we were reading Eli's Bible and the story of the Last Supper, the Bible mentioned Peter getting the food ready. Eli said, "Peter with Jesus in the boat! Story at BSF!" Three weeks before at BSF the Bible story the kids heard was about Peter and Jesus in the boat and Jesus and Peter walking on water. I was shocked that Eli remembered that story so many weeks later! Especially since that story isn't in his little illustrated toddler Bible. And he even remembered and recognized Peter's name! Eli's turning in to my little Bible scholar!

Art, art, everywhere!

Lately Elijah has been getting more in to arts and crafts. We hadn’t been doing as much because every time we would color or play Play-doh, etc., Eli would play for about a minute or two and then be done. It’s a lot of work to get out stuff for two minutes of fun, so I’ve been reluctant to do much. At BSF during my Monday morning leader’s meetings, Eli and other leaders’ children are watched by volunteers, and one of the times of the morning that they have is art time. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve noticed that the things Eli has been bringing home have been getting more advanced and he’s been participating more (things are actually almost completely colored instead of just a few scribbles). Talking with my cousin Stacy, who has a very artistic older son, Tyler, and a very active not-going-to-slow-down-to-color-two year old, Joshua, she suggested that I try having Eli glue things, since Joshua enjoys that. So Eli and I went out to Michael’s two weeks ago to stock up our art tub with things to glue and stick and all those good things. And when Lexi and Tori were over we gave it all a try. We did drawing dough, recipe courtesy of Catherine and Family Fun magazine, which was a minor hit with the kids, and then we glued and made pictures. And we discovered that Elijah absolutely loves gluing things!!

Trying out the drawing dough!

Tori was a big fan of the dough.

Sweet Lexi poses with her creations
(she's the only one who would!)
Let the gluing begin!

Elijah really likes to glue pasta shapes.

The finished creations!

The next day we painted (the girls love that) and glued too. Since then Eli keeps asking to glue things, so we get out our art supplies every few days now. I don’t know if Eli will ever be super in to art, but who knows? He is definitely more interested now and was just asking yesterday for “nother glue project, Mommy!”

Eli painted for a minute then asked for the glue!

Gluing "pom poms" is another favorite of Eli's!
(and hearing Eli say pom poms is a favorite of Mommy)

Chilly Winter Fun at the Zoo!

Following my cousin Catherine’s example, I took Elijah, Lexi and Tori to the zoo at the end of February (it was free!). The very last day of February was pretty warm (in the 30s at least), so we got bundled up in snow clothes and spent the afternoon at the zoo. The kids thought some parts were neat (the tiger!) and were pretty unimpressed with other things.

I thought we were in real trouble when we got to the first real animals of the day – the penguins, a kid favorite, right? – only to have all three kids look at the penguins for literally LESS THAN 5 SECONDS, and then say, “Let’s go somewhere else.” Uh oh. The penguins, I thought, were good for a few minutes at least!

Lexi and Tori's first words about this animal: It's a mini-camel!
Second words: Yuck, that animal just pooped Aunt Missy!

We got the same act for basically all the animals except the tiger and the monkeys (which were inside and scored some points with Lexi just for the fact that she could be warm and watch them).

Roar! The tiger was a favorite -
we looked at him for a good 10 minutes.Or did he look at us? Hmm.

That monkey is eating snow!

We were having having snack and hot chocolate within an hour, and I thought it was going to end up to be a pretty quick trip to the zoo after spending such little time actually looking at animals! I was pretty glad the zoo was free at that point. :)

Nummy! Hot chocolate, animals crackers, and cheese sticks!

But after our snack we found another path that lead to the petting zoo (not open, but we could see the animals) and the cutest little wooden house to play in. The kids LOVED that and we had a blast playing mailmen (we all took turns delivering our “snow letters” to the mailbox on the side of the house). Of course, just as we got to the house my camera battery died, so I only have one picture. And after that the kids kept asking me to take their picture too – they stuck their heads out the window and said cheese, they all sat on the benches in front and smiled nicely – and I only could pretend to take their picture! Guess we’ll have to go back when I’ve got a fully charged camera.

As we were walking around after snack time, Elijah wanted to carry his bag of animal crackers. No problem, except he kept dropping them. Mommy didn’t go back and get them for Elijah (he was supposed to take care of them, not me), so he would start crying when he noticed that he was missing them about a minute later. He’d have to go back and get them and start the cycle all over again. One time though Eli dropped them on the path and a zoo employee driving a cart came past. And, you guessed it, when we went back to get them they were “crunched” (as Tori said). Eli was a little upset about that, but I thought it was a pretty good lesson on taking care of your things (what a sadistic Mommy, I know). :) We had a few more animal crackers in another bag so Eli was able to have those – and not drop them at all this time.

After another hour or so of playing it really was time to go home – we were all pretty cold by that time and the wind had kicked up. Brrr. Lexi got right in the car, but Eli and Tori kept climbing on the GIANT snowbank that we had parked next too. Again, wish I had my camera, but oh well. We ended up having a fun afternoon at the zoo after all!

Pretending to be penguins in front of the penguin house!
What a fun time at the zoo!

Elijah Quotes of the Week

Our silly bean continues to crack us up with the things he says. Here are the thoughts he's been having in the last week . . .

• Elijah asked me where his Lightning McQueen car was and I said I didn't know. Then I asked him where he had seen it last. Eli just looked up at me, shrugged, and said, "I don't have a clue." That phrase (appropriately used, I might add) coming out of a two year old mouth is quite hilarious. And the inflection he used told me immediately where he had heard that phrase - from Grandma Koorndyk! He sounded just like her when he said it!

• Eli and I were playing last week and he stopped, looked at me, then scooted over and hugged me and said, "Mommy, you're my best buddy." There's one to melt your heart. Guess all my hours invested in trains and cars are paying off. :)

• We were at BSF last Wednesday and as we were leaving Eli pointed to the sanctuary part of the church and asked what was in there. He's never in that part of the church (his classroom is in a different area) and I figured it wouldn't do any harm to show him, so we headed in. Eli stopped, looked around, and said, "Wow, there's lots of cool things in here!" We poked around for a bit and then as we were leaving Eli said that he, "want go church Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday!" I questioned whether he wanted to go to church all those times, but he said, "Yes!" We'll see if he's singing a different tune when he's a teenager!
  

• Jon, Eli, and I were in the office, and Jon was looking for a picture of Eli as a baby to show him (we had just been talking about how Eli used to be a baby and now was a big boy). We weren't on our computer (which is in our room) so Jon headed to our blog to see if a picture was still there. As he typed in the address he was talking to himself and saying "jon and missy dot blogspot dot com, " when Eli piped in and said, "No, go mommy daddy dot com!" We didn't even know what to say we were laughing so hard. Our son the internet expert!
  

Bowling!

Almost two weeks ago Friday we went on a special outing with Aunt Lori, the girls and Noah, who had the day off from school for Winter break (You’d think they’d already had “winter break” with the 7 snow days they’ve had so far this year, but I guess not!). Lori had kept the destination secret from her kids, but Elijah kept bugging me about where we were going, so I told him we were going bowling with Lexi and Tori and Noah. Eli immediately asked, “Like on tv?” Yes, like we do on the tv – but for real this time! My child’s first experience with bowling came, not from a real bowling alley, but from the Wii bowling . . . what a sign of the times.

When we met Lori at the alley the kids had figured out where they were and were super-excited. We walked in and Eli looked around and said, “Bowling!” and started jumping up and down. We had to wait forever for a lane and then couldn’t find appropriate weight balls, but we persevered and eventually the crowds of children left and we were all set to go.

Elijah used the ramp the first time, but once he saw Noah and Tori throwing the ball he didn’t want to use the ramp anymore at all.

Hmm, they don't bowl with a ramp on the Wii, Mom.

So then Eli tried throwing like a baseball (quickly stopped by Mom) and then rolling the ball. That worked okay, but the ball was very slow. And then one time the ball just stopped about ¾ of the way down the lane. We called for help and a man retrieved the ball for us – and then Mommy said that we had to use the ramp.

I hit bowling pins! Yay!

This is taking a while. Time for a thumb break.

At least this one is still going!

Elijah was done with bowling for the most part by then and was more interested in the touch screens that you entered player’s names in. We got “yelled” at for touching them though, so then Elijah had a bit of a tantrum. Oh well, buddy!

Noah was actually quite good at bowling and picked up a few spares and even got a strike! And that was with not having a ball that really fit his fingers correctly. I think he could be one good little bowler!

What form!

I think Tori was so cute with the way that she threw the ball – she did not want to use the ramp and instead would just side throw the ball down the alley and then strike all these funny little poses as she waited to see if she hit anything. It was hilarious!

Tori chucks her ball down the lane pretty well.

Tori strikes a pose.

Lexi used the ramp for the most part, and seemed content to wait her turn playing with the pink and purple balls and talking to Lori and I. I got the cutest picture of her perched on the edge of the ball return with her legs crossed – sooo Lexi right there!

How adorable!

At the end of the game Noah ended up with a 105, and Eli, Lexi, and Tori all tied with 72. Yes, you read that right – they all tied! Of course, if you look at the score card you’ll see that Eli got a spare or two and a strike, so I think it’s pretty clear he had a little help from Mom and Aunt Lori. Still, it was nice that that we didn’t even have to lie to them to tell them they tied.:)


After bowling we had lunch together and then headed home. The kids keep talking about going bowling again, so I hope we all go together again soon. Almost every time we go to get in the car and see Lexi and Tori, Elijah is convinced that we’re going bowling and gets all excited. Even though he only bowled a little over half his balls himself he seemed to have a great time!