Ever posing

This picture was taken this morning after Elle deftly disposed of her pajamas and climbed up on the kitchen table to read her favorite Mother Goose book. Her Aunt keeps telling me she ought to be one of those Baby Gap models. I'd agree with her, except Elle's favorite outfit is her birthday suit. Since her pajamas are the easiest to get out of, if I don't get her dressed right away I will most likely find her running through the house completely tickled with herself and her amazing ability to get OUT of clothing....they call her the streak....

Pumpkin Patch 2007

As a family tradition we have made a yearly pilgrimage to the Pumpkin Patch. I suppose you could say it kicks off the holiday season for us. We go to the Pumpkin Patch in Dixon and every year it gets better and better. They have hay rides, free wagons to go out into the field and pick a pumpkin, a little playhouse village for the kids to run around and play, a haystack castle specifically to climb up and play on and a corn maze that won the Guinness Book World Record for largest Corn Maze in 2007. Michael's brother went through a smaller version a couple of years ago and it took him two hours to find his way out again. Perhaps when the children are older we'll venture inside, but at this point I'm afraid we would never see Hunter again. Everyone (i.e. the children) got to pick their own pumpkin and we got one extra, a big one to carve for Family Home Evening.

This year we went in the early afternoon instead of after dinner. It was light out, which was nice and we made a day of it rather than just an evening. As part of our tradition we go out for pie afterwards. We made the 2 o'clock meal lunch and dinner. Everybody got to pick a slice of pie which we all made little samples of and we got two whole pies to take home.

Since we had so much time we went to the Nut Tree Family Park and got the wristbands to go on everything. All the children loved the Merry-Go-Round, Ethan indulged me with a ride on the Roller Coaster and Elle even got to ride on the balloons. Grandma went with us. I think she had a good time, too.

Vote Ron Paul

Body Worlds

We are studying physiology this year for Science. As a field trip we went to San Jose to see the Body Worlds. They were actual bodies donated and plastinated for preservation. The purpose was to see all the different parts of the body, recognize God's hand in it's creation and reverence the body as a temple. I made it very clear when we entered that these were REAL bodies and not just models.

Hunter didn't particularly like seeing the bodies. Perhaps because he prefers to be hands on, and I made it a point that he NOT touch anything. He gets grossed out fairly easily. After the fact he has said that the bodies were scary. Ethan said, "When I die, I don't want to come here." His favorite part, however, was the skateboarding body.

It was completely fascinating to see all the different systems isolated; skeletal, muscular, nervous, circulatory, respiratory... To see the body from perspectives otherwise hidden from view was amazing. On display were healthy lungs next to smoker lungs which were next to coal miner lungs. We were completely amazed at the damage to the coal miner's lungs.

For the months of September and October we are focusing on cells. Ethan's attention was really caught when we went over the beginning of life from a single cell. In the reproductive portion of the exhibit he was able to see first hand this development. There were embryos in various stages of development along with older fetuses. The only sadness that Ethan expressed to me during the whole Body Worlds exhibit was seeing the babies who never got to be born or grow up. He wanted to know why they died. I didn't have an answer, but reminded him of Jesus' role in our lives and the power of the resurrection...and he was comforted.

Throughout the exhibit there was a quiet sense of reverence demonstrated by everyone in attendance. There were no signs asking for the hushed tones and respect, yet the spirit that attended the exhibit was one that I have most often found in church meetinghouses.