William Returns to the Orthodontist

This is the latest post in the series of William, grace and Juliet's journey with hypophosphatasia.

William went to see the orthodontist again, to see if he has grown enough for a braces treatment.

After driving through commencement traffic and a campus filled with graduating students and their family, we were happy to be in a conventionally busy waiting room.

His exam did not take long, even with the xrays.  The plan has not changed, we are continuing to wait.  He'll go back in 9 months to see if his baby teeth have fallen out and then they will make a new plan.

After the appointment, we went down to the coffee shop.  They had a new art exhibit in the atrium. 

And, since we arrived just minutes before they closed up shop for the day, William was gifted the last cookie.

Very thankful that these medical posts are so few and far between these days.  Also thankful that we have experts that are not too far away.

later days

<what happened previously

what happened next>

8 Year Old Birthday Party x4!

Grace and Juliet wanted to have a party for their birthday, and really wanted to have it with their BFFs.  Since Zoey's birthday is at the end of April, and Kennedy's is in May, we decided to have a quadruple party!!!

Since we hosted, we ended up making a lot of the decisions for all the birthday girls, and the twins wanted cupcakes instead of a cake.  So, we made yellow cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes. = )

Once we had some snacks and cake, it was time to open gifts!! Everyone had fun opening and watching each other open gifts. = )

I think all four girls (and my other children) had a wonderful time celebrating four of the best 8-year-olds that I know!

later days

Easter 2022

Easter was in the middle of April this year.  It was cooler than last year, and the girls were for sure a little chilly without sleeves, but I had to show off their adorable dresses!!

Everyone except for Alice was game for some pictures.

She did participate in a silly picture though.

Easter buckets with toothbrushes, a little candy and some sort of popper toy.  Thanks to Enisi and Edudi, there was also a roblox card in there. ; )

The two big girls have aged out of the egg hunt at the park, so it was just me and the three little ones this year.  William has one more year, and the twins have a couple.

It was a fun day.  We had a nice meal as a family, and boxed up some leftovers to bring over to Sarah. 

Thankful for such as wonderful reason to celebrate:  He is Risen!

later days

Crafts, Projects and Everything Else

The kids attended an Encanto party and have had the fever for sure.  It's died down a bit, but they still break out costume pieces every now and again. Here Emily is representing 9 characters!

My mom has been sending art to the kids.  When Grace colored the picture, Juliet wanted to give her bunny ears.  I told them it kind of looked like Juliet was holding the picture and Grace was giving herself bunny ears, so they wanted to pose that way too. = )

Grae wanted a rainbow of scrunchies in her hair.  We had to use a bamboo skewer, and some anchor hair ties, but we got it to stand without her having to hold it!

In the mornings, when I turn around, I'm sometimes surprised to see Emily already "awake." It's just her mask most mornings though. = )

Grace and Juliet sewed some slime ranch characters.  Juliet sewed the baby.

And Grace sewed the mommy.

Grace bought some balloons from one thrift store or another and made a kitty head. 

Speaking of kitty heads, we found a kitty head cookie cutter for 50 cents!!! I was so excited, because Alice wanted one for a project (and I wasn't willing to spend the $7 on amazon.)

Homemade ice cream sandwiches.  You have to bake a cake, thaw the ice cream and refreeze it, cut it and then freeze it all together.

I had an inspiration to embroider and sew some gifts for an upcoming birthday party, but when I went to turn on my old computer (which had been Billy's old computer) it would not start. = (  I fought it for a day, and then asked Billy to look at it.  When he made no progress, it went to Sarah.  She's my final stop and when she said she couldn't get it working, I had to give it up.  

The reason the computer was so important was because of how old the software is.  When I tried installing it and running it on Billy's old computer it gave me all sorts of errors. = (

Sarah was able to locate an update for me, and after a couple of hours of uninstalling and reinstalling the software and updates, I was finally met with success!!  

I didn't turn anything off until I finished all of the embroidery I wanted to do, just in case something broke upon restart.  Beautiful, beautiful pieces ready to assemble and sew.

I was so happy to complete this project.  = )

A Few days later, I was looking at some of the strap that I had cut to shorten the shoulder bags, and was struck with inspiration to transform them into cord organizers!  They came out super cute, and I even sent one to Erin Elise when I finished hand sewing the buttons. 

Grace lost her front tooth on St. Patick's Day!

Grace, Juliet and Emily have all shown quite an interest in sewing, so I let them use my machine whenever I'm not in the midst of a project.

I've also started braiding some old clothes into the beginnings of a rag rug.  It's going to take a long time to collect enough rags at our current rate, but I am liking how it looks so far. = )

When Russia attacked Ukraine the only thing I "panic bought" was cocoa.  Giant ones, just in case, I really don't want to be out of chocolate. 

Grace and Juliet spent one evening making BFF necklaces for each other and smaller ones for their dolls.  It was very sweet. = )

I think that catches up my poor neglected blog, at least for the time being.

later days

Homeschool Activities

 The past few months between science and nature study, we've been doing some fun experiments and observations.

In science, the big girls dissected a flower, but we enjoyed the others from the bouquet in our vase.

My Grandma sent us a packet of souvenirs from Ireland that we enjoyed with our lessons on St. Patrick's Day.

We have had an uptick in doctor's visits since March, it seems.  Since I knew we would be rushed one of our days, I took some pictures of tree stumps while I was walking around a park during William's karate.  Their favorite was the heart shaped one, though we had to use a rounder one to follow the guide.  

Another project was to grow some mushrooms.  They required daily watering and then they just exploded in size! We put the decaying project near and old stump in our backyard, maybe they'll be able to expand into a new home. = )

For yet another project, we had to collect pond water.  The day we went there was a layer of ice on top of the pond that we had to break through just to get the water from below.  Once it melted, we were able to start our experiment.

From the literature that we read, we expected the bone meal to explode, and the rest to be hampered, but we think Alice added a little too much, so it didn't grow and it started to smell like rotten fish. = (  

The vinegar, soap and detergent all killed off anything that might have grown, so our control actually did the best.

We've since moved the bone meal outside, and are watching as small organisms are appearing in our control.  Also, we got to use some of the control water for another experiment during which we put a drop and viewed it through a microscope. = )

Yet another experiment was to grow bacteria.  We were unable to maintain as warm enough environment as the directions indicated, but we still had some gross growth!  Emily's purple popper had the fastest growth, so you'd better believe we sprayed that thing down with lysol as soon as we saw the strongest of the bacteria appear.

8ish days in:

2ish weeks in:

We threw them all away after we took this picture, because it was just too gross.

With only 7 weeks left in our school year, we still have a few more projects to which we are looking foward.

And I want to record that we've decided that the three little ones will return to public school in the fall.  It will be William's final year at the elementary school, and we don't want him to be thrown into middle school before reestablishing some of his friendships.  The big girls will continue to be homeschooled for the time being.

later days

End of the Snow?

This time of year (April 10) we have the fools hope that every snow is our final snow of the year.

We were still getting some heavy snow through the end of March.

2-18-22:

2-25-22:

What I hope will be our final sticking snow of the year 3-11-22.

I am hopeful now that warmer weather is coming sooner rather than later, as I see the sweetest of new sprouts in my flowerbed!  (But slightly disheartened, as snow is in the forecast for next week.)

 later days.