Pumpkins 2017

Garrett carved Harry Potter with a Patronus projecting onto the back wall

Astrid Carved a Dementor

Glowing Pumpkin Hunt

A couple of pictures from our Glowing Pumpkin Hunt evening. We hid plastic pumpkins out in the yard with glowsticks and lose change, spider rings, and other small things inside them. Each boy got to hunt until he had found 12 pumpkins!

Halloween Science

A couple pictures from our Halloween Science and Pumpkin Carving night.

We did Boo Bubbles, Ghost Eggs, zombie brains, lots of fluorescing projects, bubbling carbon dioxide magic potion, etc. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun listening to peppy vintage Halloween songs, eating pizza, carving projects and enjoying the blacklights.

Boo Bubbles were the best. It was dawn dish soap and warm water mixed with dry ice. The result was fog filled bubbles! With our special gloves, we could hold and play with the bubbles before they popped!

Halloween Costumes 2017

This year Ethan discovered the world of Harry Potter and wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween.

Landon has loved owls for a while, but after seeing Ron Weasley's family owl, Errol, he thought he was hilarious and wanted to be not just an owl, but Errol for Halloween.

Y'all are both so excited about your costumes and can't wait to go Trick or Treating on Halloween!

Ethan: 7.5 Years Old!

Ethan,

Somehow time got away from me and I didn't post the journal entry I wrote from when you turned 7....and then I added some new quotes between 7 and 7.5 and still didn't post it. I had wanted to find more photos of you but I think now its time to just go ahead and post what I wrote!

-----

At age 7, you are 48.75  inches tall ( cm) and 51 lbs. You wear size 120 cm, or size small (kids) clothing and size 12 shoes. You are on the line between clothing sizes however and are beginning to be able to wear some size Medium boys shirts and size 7 shorts although it'll be summer before you fit into them better. 

Questions:

• What brings you the most happiness? My birthday

• When do you feel the most loved? When I get special treats and I know my parents care.

• What are you afraid of? Dogs and Peanuts and other things I'm allergic to.

• If you had one wish, what would you wish for? I would wish that I could do anything in the whole wide world.

• What makes you mad? Times when my brother doesn't listen after I say something multiple times. 

• What is the meaning of love? Caring. The act and the feeling.
• What is your name?  Ethan Garrett Moring
• What is your favorite toy? Anything from Santa and special people who I don't see very often.
  - What is your favorite drink? Chocolate Milk
  - What is your favorite food? Smores, Milk and Cookies and Ice Cream.
  - What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play all sorts of different things.
  - What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Snuggle
  - What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Play all sorts of different things
  - What is your favorite animal? House Cat
  - What is your favorite song? All songs
  - What is your favorite number? 7. The age that I am at.
  - What do you want to be when you grow up? A great hero who saves the world.
  - Best friend: Gabi
  - Favorite color: All colors
  - Favorite cartoon: Pretty much every cartoon
  - Favorite holiday: All the holidays.

You are such an extrovert. And really this is nothing new but it is amazing to me how many times we've heard strangers say "Bye Ethan!". At the butterfly garden we arrived and you ran ahead of us to talk to the front desk and ask for a butterfly identification chart all on your own and your own idea. Later you ran up to a worker and started asking questions and they led you around and helped you find the butterfly you were looking for and showed you the eggs on a plant and answered your questions. Everywhere we go it seems that there is someone who remembers you and your name. 

In the Spring, during the first half of your 6th year, you were enamored with Trilobites. You thought they were so neat, that you wanted your middle name to be Trilobite. You went around telling people that your name was Ethan Trilobite Moring, and even had a couple friends believing it. 

You have penpals and best friends outside the family but you and Landon are truly very close. You play together off and on all day and have wonderful adventures together. You are almost always ready to join in and play with Landon when he asks. You both love playing outside and especially in the backyard at night when the weather is mild. The two of you dream up all sorts of worlds and continue the same imaginative world for weeks at a time. Last Halloween y'all would take the light sabers outside and light up your play climbing structure and call it "scary house". You've also been pretending that you are a night elf that can change into a bear and protect and defend Landon. And most recently the two of you have been playing Time Machine. Y'all climb up on the circle swing and the direction the swing turns is the direction that you are turning back the clock. Y'all have so many games ya'll play. You play as ninjas with a secret headquarters where y'all sneak around the house and try not to be seen. Y'all play Harry Potter's magic world and use play wands to summon chocolate from the pantry. Y'all also build forts in the living room and pretend to be owls/mice/or an owl hunting your brother who is a mouse. You also play that you are a fanciful flying cat that hatches from an egg.

As for questions, you've dialed back a lot of your questions but when you do, you want them answered very detailed. Human body questions about saliva and digestion eventually lead us away from the kid geared videos and explanations because those aren't detailed enough to answer the questions in your mind.

One of your many invention ideas when you were at the end of age 6 was titled the "The cat feeder necessary to feed fish". You described it as a  series of tubes- one goes to the sea and they suck up fish and shoot them through the tube and they pop out and surprise the cat and the cats divvy them up. 

Quotes:

"One day I'm going to make a fossil out of myself"

"Mom? Why was the Clifford the Big Red Dog so big? How did he get that way? I bet he has health problems."

"If a two headed snake doesn't live very long, would he live longer if one head was cut off?"

*sigh* when I get to heaven I'm going to have so many questions to ask God. First question will be "did Giants (humans) ever exist?"

About an hour after the kids went to bed we hear a noise and Ethan walks into our room "I just wanted to tell you...that did you know that honey bees do something really interesting? They tell each other where the pollen is by doing a little dance." Thanks for the cool fact Ethan. Now go back to bed!

"Mom, when you said 'Ethan Garrett Moring' (not sure when he is referring to) I didn't like that... I prefer Ethan TRILOBITE Moring."

"I want to get a Nobel prize... I know! I'll make Trilobites not extinct. I'll build a Time Machine! How? Well with God's help of course! God can do anything!"

"*gasp* I just found my pajama shorts on under my shorts! That's where they went! I was wondering why my clothes were so hot!"

Saw Landon's short chubby baby legs in a picture and said it kinda looked like Elephantiasis.

"Ohhh, thanks. You're the nicest mom I've ever had in my life."

"Oh that's just a weed seed mom. Don't drop it, it's like planting your own hate."

"Does a two headed snake have two brains? Which one tells it what to do?"

Ethan ran ahead to go catch Landon and they slipped in the mud. Then Ethan told me that he risked his life to save his most precious treasure. His brother.

"I really love my brother. He's so precious to me. There is nothing more precious than a brother. If you only have one brother you've got to take very good care of him! The older one HAS to look out for the younger. I'll always protect him! Even past the age of 10!"

"That spider could have bit Landon! And he could have died! No mom, ALL spiders ARE poisonous! There mouths just aren't all big enough to bite humans! We don't know how big that spiders mouth is. HEY- LANDON! I have an idea! Let's follow him and find his web! Then we can put up a security camera and watch him eat a fly or insect so we can see how big his mouth is!"

"(Sigh)....I wish Adam and Eve would have just obeyed God...."

"Mom, why do girls think hair is so important?"

Landon is fussing in the backseat and Ethan just sweetly told him "I know Landon, but sometimes life just doesn't go the way you expect it to."

"I really like Peter Rabbit because he's naughty- like me (said with a grin). He has to be told stuff not twice but thrice."

Pointing to a wilted blossom among newer blossoms, Ethan asks "don't you think this blossom looks weary?"

"Wow oh wow. I just don't know how to thank you! You answered one of my greatest questions!" 

"You know Mom, my life is going to look different from how you want it to be"

"The friendship between me and Landon will last from the beginning of the earth to the end of the earth. Even in heaven! I bet God knew that and that's why he gave me Landon for my brother"

"Mom, if I yelled Happy Halloween underwater, how far would the sound travel? Since sound hits molecules and makes them move to travel and water is full of molecules would it go farther? What distance mom? And what would the fish do when they hear it?"

After your allergy test, the allergist measured the size of your wheals and wiped down your back with an aloe and anti-itch lotion. You smiled and said "ah! I feel most refreshed". Then you thanked the Allergist for being doing a great job at doing his job.

"Ugh! I just wish I knew how to make my invention! But not after years- now! As a kid! It'll be my life's work to change the world!"

(Detailing the differences between Cats and humans) "... and the last thing different is that they have the courage to bite the heads off of snakes and eat spiders."

"'Just milk' (as compared to Chocolate milk) is so yummy I would drink it from a straw, an open cup, or even a jug if I have to! I'm even thinking of getting a cow!"

"Are these the same dining chairs that we had at the old house? ....ah, such memories we've brought with us!"

"Good morning mom! I want to snuggle with you. You've never snuggled with a 7year old before!"

"On the weekdays I'm going to be a microbiologist, on the weekends a geologist, and on the holidays a Warrior"

"Hey mom. I'm going to need an orange seed-  no wait, a full orange, and a lightbulb. Don't worry, I'm just doing an experiment."

"Mom! Landon won't stop talking about carbon dioxide and it's getting annoying"

"Hey mom. Smell this putrid acorn."

"I had a dream that I had an enchanted piece of paper and when I drew on it, it turned 3D!"

"Aww mom, you are the nicest girl I've met. I'm so glad I met you the first moment I opened my eyes."

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" I get up and head to the bathroom wondering what's wrong and find Ethan peering at the mirror, "mom! I looked really closely at my irises and I saw my destiny!"

"See that bird over there? He told me a story. A story about the village that lives over there on top of that cloud. That's where the story of the world is written. Whatever they write comes true. I don't know if it's the quill they write with, the scroll that they use or if it's just the person who is writing. But whatever they write becomes true. The bad guys ride the wind and try to change the story."

"I stood on the chair looking out at the rising sun and I felt as if the future was depending on me, ME, to become an inventor!"

When your new bed arrived... "Booskger meet our new bed. See the orange lightning bolt sheets? Mom said we can pretend it's dragon fire."

"Mom, the lantern fest really opened up my interests. My real true interest is love and family and events."

"If a cat could drive, How many tickets do you think he'd get? Well, I think he'd get a few and he doesn't even have money!"

"If I took my clothes off do you think a magnet would stick to my chest since I have iron in my blood?"

"Do cats get wrinkles on their face when they get old?"

------

E "There's a force field keeping  my pencil lead from touching my paper! I can't do my work because the force field!"

Me "well, that's a problem. You are going to have to find a way to get rid of that force field if you want to earn Minecraft time"

E "Oh! Hey! I figured it out! If I use a magnet it turns off the force field!" (Finishes doing his handwriting assignment...)

E "how many pages for handwriting? 1 or 2?" "Two" (loud dramatic sigh) "I feel like I'm in a horror movie!"

-----

You love Pokemon and invented your own Crystal type Pokemon with a history of attacks and evolution and you kept track of everything you dreamt up. You and your friend Gabi dream up plans for the world wide adventure you are going to go on once you've invented a way to make Pokemon real. You said I could come along to cook for y'all.

You told me that in 11 years you will take care of me and teach me how to write again if I'm too old and forget.

After a long school break, rather than loosing ability, you seem to gain it. It's happened a couple times and it's funny because it was like you were learning my osmosis or something. I expected to have to reteach a little but the first week back is usually amazingly smooth. This time I decided to ask you about it to test my theory. I told you that I was surprised that you remembered so much and that your Math got much better after the break. You told me that you were afraid that you would forget something so you had to actually focus on your school. Yes. The difference was that you focused and tried. I try hard to keep school interesting and we skip a lot of the repetitive work but still, if I ask you to do the same type of Math problem more than a couple times you start to shut off. You keep me on my toes with school work.

One of your life goals is to discover an un-identified species of plant. Then you told me that really anything would work. Animal, microbe, etc. But you also want to be a warrior.

One night you were running around pretending to be a dragon. I heard you had a wheeze starting up so I said we needed to get your breathing medicine. You  told me you couldn't take it right now because then you wouldn't sound like a dragon anymore.

You still like to draw pictures of invention ideas. This one is a s'mores machine. That's a conveyor belt with a grabber to assemble and a hairdryer to heat the marshmallows and chocolate. 

One of your stories you told me:

Have you ever noticed black or grey flowers? Those flowers have been pollinated by a "darkness bee". The darkness bees are very dangerous and if you are stung you will die. The white flowers are pollinated by lightness bees. But only white flowers have been pollinated by them, not the grey. If you are stung by a darkness bee, there is one small hope, If you can get a lightness bee to breath its breath on a paper towel and you hold it to you for two years you can be cured. You need to attach the towel to your foot with a shoe made from Lucite. If you take it off before two years, you will die in a nano-second. The darkness bees are around to try to harness the power of the darkness flowers and spread it. Thats why their bee stings are so deadly. There have been reports of boys all over my imagination-land being stung by darkness bees. Every day, 10 boys get stung. They are tricky because they like to hide in the dark where they are invisible. They use their darkness sting to disintegrate a hole into the wall of a house so that they can build their hives inside the walls of houses where they cannot be seen. It appears that the boys in my imagination-land are starting to become extinct. Girls are 1,000 percent immune to the stings of darkness bees.

(recently he was stung by a bee that he stepped on)

I wish I had more of your stories written down. You create detailed worlds with fanciful epic storylines. I hope you still like to tell stories once you have efficient enough typing skills to document and revise them. It's a little hard for me to keep up with them. When you have to hand write something you pair down your sentences to the shortest possible way to convey your meaning and you'll even count letters in a word and try to find a smaller word. Handwriting is your least favorite subject.

You love using your microscope to see things. You ask to pull it out all the time and look at all kinds of things.

You are so fun Ethan! You keep us entertained and I'm so glad I get to spend more time with you through homeschooling!

Neighborhood Campout

Saturday was our annual HOA sponsored neighborhood campout. This was our first year to attend and we had a blast! They had music, lawn games, organized minute-to-win-it games with prizes, a chili-cook off contest, BBQ for purchase on-site and complimentary hotdogs and smores. They also screened a movie after dark. 

Landon was majorly into the idea of camping and wanted to stay close to the tent and do "camping things". He enjoyed all the extra events and kicking a ball around our campsite but was less interested in the playground since that was a "normal" event. Ethan loved camping as well but was happy to swing on the swings as much as possible.

One of Landon's neighborhood friends and his family was camping at the event as well. The boys had fun running around with Jeffrey and visiting between our two campsites.



Ethan won the minute-to-win-it ping pong ball game!

Landon enjoyed playing Jenga, but mostly playing it his own way.

Daddy taught Ethan the finer points of throwing a frisbee

It was really fun seeing the neighborhood kids run around and play with flashlights on the dark playground.

Landon thought it was pretty neat that we could hang our lantern in the center of our tent and that Daddy hung glowsticks around the outside of the tent as well.

But best of all in Ethan's mind were the smores. Landon said that all of it was the best part. Camping really brought him out of his shell and he was dismayed when we took the tent down the next day and he realized it was only a one-day event!

{Daily Moments} Let me tell you a story

After our bedtime routine is over and we've sung our last song, Landon likes to tell a story of his own before we leave the room.

Summer 2017

It's a cold rainy day and I can't help but think back on our warm summer days. Here is a post of a random assortment of memories from our summer!

Birthday party for Booskger and Elephant in your fort.

"Dragons love Tacos" party

Water density experiment

This was for our neighborhood 4th of July Parade! There was a best decorated bike contest and you and Landon won! ($25 each!)

"Mr. Box"

Playing with Orbeez with Grammy while Daddy was in Sweden.

Physics Carnival Kiwi Crate