Our Christmas baby turns six!

Sweet Caroline, it's hard to believe that it was already six years ago that we got our favorite Christmas present ever - you! This has been a big year for you in so many ways and it amazes Daddy and me to see the young lady you've grown into already.
You are spunky and sassy, nurturing and playful, strong and tough, girlish and determined. You are incredibly dependable and you love nothing more than to be trusted with a grown-up job. It comes very  naturally to you to notice a need and then do whatever you can to fill it. I'm amazed almost every day by some task you've decided to undertake and have done it well! It is not unusual for me to find you switching out laundry and starting a new round, simply because you came upon a pile of clothes waiting to be washed and decided to do it! You are always looking out for your littlest brother. You know every detail about what he can and can't have and are very diligent about his care. We often hear you singing his favorite songs to him at night if he's having trouble settling in to sleep and it melts our hearts, and you love to be the one to get him up from his naps.
Your determination showed up a few months ago when you decided to tackle the big girl bike that we had waiting for you in the garage. You had been a little intimidated by it and weren't interested in learning to ride it until one Saturday when the whole family took a ride out on the Swamp Rabbit trail and you had to stay behind. That afternoon you asked Daddy to help you and within two days you were riding that bike like you had been riding it all your life. You were not going to be left behind and on our very next trip out on the trail the boys had a hard time keeping up with you!
But what has really begun to shine through this year is your servants heart. You look for ways to bless the people around you and are so aware of what each of us need and enjoy. It is a rare night that Daddy doesn't come home from work to a glass of orange juice ready and waiting for him in the freezer, just as he likes it. And coming up to our room in the morning to find a "perfectly" made bed (and a beaming little girl!) is a common occurance. You are almost always willing to jump in and help the boys with any job without complaint. A spirit like yours is rare and we are so grateful! Your greatest desire right now is to be a mommy and your heart of service is one of the many things that will make you a wonderful mother one day.
Caroline, you are our little rose among thorns. We couldn't be more grateful to have you in our family! Happy birthday, sweet Peach.
January
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October
Birthday Date
pierced ears!
Happy sixth birthday, Caroline!

You Wouldn't Want to be A Victorian Servant!

This week we read a book by that title as we've studying the 19th century. Over the past couple of weeks we've been learning a lot about Queen Victoria and Britain during her reign. This book (as were others in this series) was a favorite with my people as it talked (in very humorous detail) about the demands placed on the servants that would have worked for the wealthier members of society.

Being a teacher who goes to great lengths to ensure that her students receive plenty of opportunities to learn in a variety of ways (and not at all because my floors hadn't been mopped in over a month), I decided that  hands-on servant training was just the thing they would need to really convince them that they did not, in fact, want to be a Victorian servant!

I announced their assignment, gave them each a rag and a bucket of soapy water and set them to work scrubbing the floors. They were hesitant at first (their assignments are usually much more enjoyable), but then they quickly got into character after reminding me that we'd read about the master's often changing the servants names upon their hiring if they were not pleased with the names they'd been given by their parents (they thought that was hilarious). So I quickly issued them proper English names: "Henry" for Travis, "Oliver" for Sam and "Victoria" for Caroline (we decided that she had high hopes for marrying out of her situation one day).


Henry, Oliver and Victoria did a positively splendid job on the floors and then promptly  moved out into the "gardens" to beat the rug (they liked that part a little too much). Since the more experienced servants were payed somewhere around $58 per year, I decided that they would each receive $.15 for their days' wages. Best $.45 I've spent in a long time.



Benjamin was not at all interested in trying his hand at servitude, however, he would be more than willing to accompany the British as a Native American on one of their many attacks against those pesky Americans. So long as he gets to wear this:

GO!

I think it's official... we have some runners on our hands! The kids did awesomely in their race this morning and actually loved every second. Yes, they did look near close to death as they crossed the finished line and yes, they expressed great relief that the kids run was only 1.2 miles and not the 5K that started right after theirs was finished (and certainly not the half and full marathon that took off right before their race!). But they were all asking when they could compete in the next race and seriously wanted to go to the track this afternoon for more practice (we talked them out of that)! 

Jimmy probably did the most running of anyone as he sprinted back and forth between the boys (who shot pretty far ahead of Caroline early on) and Caroline (who was probably holding back in an effort to not ditch her old mom who was running with her to "keep her motivated") to document this fun day. There were about 300 to 400 runners between the ages of about 4 and 12 and while there was no official time recorded you can believe that daddy was on it. Sam came in first of our crew (about 15th place) with an awesome time of 8:10! Travis was about 15 kids and 10 seconds behind Sam and then Caroline finished up just after 10 minutes. Dad was quite pleased with their performance and they really had a great time. Though Caroline was a little disappointed when she found out that the first place winner didn't win a "golden cup" OR $1000.00. Apparently she had it in her head that those were the prizes. I think their daddy would have run if that had been the case! 

Oh, and we will be accepting applications for sponsorship at any time.







 
 



 

Get Ready, Get Set.....

The kids are going to be running in their first road race this Saturday in the Spinx Marathon downtown. They'll be running a 1.2 mile race with a finish line right on home plate in Fluor Field. They haven't had to do a whole lot of begging to get their favorite trainer out on the track. Their favorite place for a good workout is at Furman. Last Saturday I was able to go and document their progress. 


Everyone knows you have to start with a good warm up.




Here they are, coming in from their first lap around the track. Looks like Sam jumped out in front!



Trav wasn't about to let that happen again!


Two laps wore them out! Too bad the race is twice that long...They got a good lesson from their coach about the importance of pacing.


Caroline just might fall over dead at the end of this race.

When we got them all registered we saw that the boys have quite a bit of competition in their gender/age brackets, but Caroline, however, was only competing against one other racer as of last weekend.  They're all pretty pumped, have their race day clothes all picked out and have requested pasta for dinner on Friday night. Gotta carbo load!