Friday, May 24, 2013

school's out for summer!

This week brought the end of soccer season, the end of Kindergarten, and the beginning of a crazy busy Summer.

Charlotte's Kindergarten graduation was very cute. I was so proud of myself for not crying... until the last song of the slideshow her teacher prepared!  It was set to the song "Let Them be Little." If you have never heard it, you should listen to it and you'll agree- that's just not playing fair. EVERY parent in the room was practically sobbing.

We celebrated the first day of summer vacation by heading to the library to sign up for summer reading and then playing at the park and splash pad.  Bears love the water!


Big kids love the water too! 

We are looking forward to a lot of fun and a lot of work (with moving) this summer too!  Here is Charlotte to sing you a little song about what she learned this year in school.  ;)


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Art space

I love seeing different ways that children express their creativity and individuality and personality! But man, music and dance lessons can be pricey. When I was a kid, I loved to draw and paint, and now as a parent I love to let my kids draw and paint because it is so incredibly cheap! We have art supplies on our kitchen table nearly every day, and the kiddos create so much artwork that I cannot possibly keep or display it all. I do have portfolios of my favorites for each of them, but the majority of our masterpieces end up in the bin just out of necessity.

 I thought I'd photograph and share today's artwork just for fun.


Battling robots by Toby, age 4. 
 Toby cut all of the individual pieces before assembling his battle-bots and decorating them.  The bits of paper above are their weapons flying through the air.  The blue button is to fight, the red to stop, and the yellow to fly.  Toby is my 3-D man. He prefers to work in multimedia and excels at construction problem solving.


Facial expressions practice by Charlotte, age 6. 
 Charlotte has been experimenting with how to show emotion in her drawings and sat down today to practice.  She had a very clear goal in mind with each face and did her best to convey her ideas.  She is so incredibly observant. I was blown away honestly.


Experimentation with lines, color, scissors, and glue by Jakey, age 21 mo.
Jake has only just barely jumped on to the arts & crafts bandwagon, but he has done so with GUSTO!  He has added "marker, paper, and glue"  to his vocabulary just this week.  He is particularly fond of the glue stick.  (I think he may have used it as chapstick today as well.)  Also, he did not draw the arrows- Charlotte added those to the ends of his lines before I could stop her.  He seems so grown up to me sitting at the table with a crayon in his hand. 

Friday, May 03, 2013

half way baby

If you've been on Facebook this afternoon, then you've probably already heard, but Anderson baby #4 is a
GIRL!!!!

I'm not gonna lie.  I am pretty surprised.  If you've followed us for long, you know that I had very high expectations of having a girl and 3 boys.  Charlotte threw a wrench into that though when she began fervently praying EVERY DAY for a baby sister about a year ago. 

 Rob and I discussed whether or not that could actually effect the grand plan (I realize I am not fully omniscient, and therefore this was likely the plan all along, but hear me out) and I was left really wondering because I truly, absolutely, without a doubt believe that our Father in Heaven hears our prayers.  Well, now Charlotte believes that too.  Which I think is a wonderful thing.  So, like I said, maybe this was the plan all along.  :)

As for all the stats, our baby GIRL has all of her important parts, weighs about 11 ounces (per the ultrasound,) and is the size of a banana, butternut squash, or carrot depending on what baby book/blog you prefer.  She is plenty active, and wouldn't allow us a decent look at her face on the ultrasound as she kept her arms crossed over her face.  (Stubborn little girl- you'll fit right in!)

I am (sadly) gaining a mountain of weight (for the fourth time,) and still waking up vomiting about once a week.  Other than that I feel great! Amazing how when coming from a place of first trimester exhaustion, and every day morning sickness, the way I feel now is just peachy.  I will suck up my pride and permit a picture of my growing belly soon- but not today.  I have always struggled with my weight, and gaining a lot of weight is probably the most challenging part of pregnancy for me.  Even though I know it is normal for my body, and that I will lose the weight after the baby is born, I still hate to see it.

So now we are 20 week along!  Half way down, and half way to go!  I guess it's high time we start discussing baby names!