Gaston vs. God

This week in our school lessons we've been learning about King James, how he wanted all the people of England attending his church. Our curriculum has been following some Christian families (about to become "The Pilgrims") in a little town of Scrooby, England, They had to meet in secret and now they are having to move to Holland to be able to worship freely.

So a big theme of this week is that we always do what God wants us to do, even when it's hard and other men don't agree.

Then this morning, after we were done with school, I was doing laundry and Sofie was telling me about the movie, Beauty and the Beast, which she's really been into lately. We were actually talking about Gaston's little side kick and that he always says, "Ah, nuts!" Which Sofie and John (not me, I don't really have a problem with it :) )decided wasn't a nice way to talk.

But then Sofie pipes up with, "Gaston was a bad guy, he wanted Belle to follow him and do what he wanted, but Belle was strong and didn't follow Gaston, she followed God." Um...well...I guess. Do you ever have one of those speechless parenting moments? How do you explain that she really didn't follow God because it's not a Christian movie... I guess you could really generalize it and say that she kinda followed God because she followed where love wanted her to go? Like I said, a speechless, yet thought provoking, parenting moment...

A Jungle in the Gym

Mike has decided to build the kids a play set. He found TWO families who wanted to get rid of their old play sets and willing to give them to us. Mike has taken them apart and started to put them back together in a "Mike Original" configuration. He hasn't quite gotten the play set built but the kids have been loving to play on the pieces that have been sitting around in our front yard. They've been very creative! My question is, will they love it all as much when it's put together?

Baby Check

This morning I had my monthly baby check at the Dr.'s office. They did another ultrasound to check out a few things they hadn't been able to see before. The baby looks just perfect. Big, (measuring about 2 wks ahead of schedule) but perfect.

The baby is crowded up underneath my left rib cage and, as I can attest to, hangs out there most of the time. It was wonderful to see how well the baby is doing and gracious the Lord is that this pregnancy is going so well this 4th time around.

It's heart beat was in the 130 range. And as I said before, gearing up to be quite large. My Dr. and I were amazed how I keep doing this teeter totter of going from small babies to big babies. Both Sofie and Lilia were in the low 7lb. birth range. John was 9lb 11 oz! This baby seems to be following John's example. Does it mean it's a boy? I have no idea. I didn't find out.

At one point I did ask the Ultrasound Tech. if she had seen what the sex was, and sure enough, she had. But she respected my wished and kept all our conversation very gender neutral. I do want to know! But I don't want to be disappointed if it's a girl. The only reason I want another boy is so our family would be "even". I truly will be happy with either. I just know when the baby is born, I just won't care anymore what the sex is. So I might as well leave the discovery till the time I'll be happy with either.

As with all C-sections. You get to schedule the birth date ridiculously far into the future. So today, at 24 weeks, the Dr. and I decided that the 9th of December would be a great birthday. So mark your calendars! Baby Wolfe will be making it's arrival 2 1/2 weeks before Christmas!

Well, off to do some afternoon schooling. I thought I would be able to do it while Lilia was asleep, but no such luck...

Flower Power!

Yesterday Mike and I took the kids to the local Arboretum. The had a lot of fun "looking" at all the flowers (why can't you pick all the flowers that you see?!), walking on all of the walls and enjoying the trails. It was a beautiful day, mostly in the low 70's. It was a great trip.

Wednesday's Wardrobe

I couldn't resist taking their pictures this afternoon. It's dress-up time once again at our house. Sofie has brought Lilia in on the play, picking out the perfect dress and everything.


When John heard there was dressing up going on. He declared that he wanted to "get into something special," himself. There is a little bit of an argument ensuing about what they are now going to play. Sofie wants to play "castle" but John will only play if he gets to be the "guard-er"...

A Fortress...

...this structure was not. The kids have been building forts outside for a couple of weeks now. And so I built them this one the other day. It wasn't very sturdy, it fell down when John tried to stand up. :) But we built it right back up.

After a couple of cave-in's I told them that I was done making forts and they could use their imaginations to build one themselves. To which both, especially Sofie, was very vocal that she didn't know how to use her imagination and couldn't do it. So then it was quiet time because they obviously needed the rest.

After quite time they went back outside to start the fort over. They were gone a while when John came speeding into the house announcing, "Mom! Sofie got her imagination back!"

Number 2!

This evening we celebrated Lilia's 2nd Birthday! She turns 2 tomorrow, but tonight was the family party. We had a Taco Bar for the meal, and then I made a Strawberry Shortcake decorated cake. (The cake was actually German Chocolate, not an actual strawberry shortcake. :) ) Lilia received a lot of puzzles and books. Which will be perfect for our homeschooling times. She needs some new things to occupy her!


Here are all three. Aren't they growing up?!
Lilia (especially Sofie) loved the Strawberry Shortcake...
This was on "Ooooh Wow!" moment to one of her presents.
The cake. Momma's got to have a creative outlet somewhere! Can anyone tell what Strawberry Shortcake is missing?...
Lilia modeled her new outfit. :)