KiwiCo Crates!

When I took the Kuch Kids home in December, Christina was telling me about the KiwiCo crates that Caleb had done. I thought they looked amazing so I decided to check them out. Since it was Christmas time they had a great sale going on. I talked with Michael and we decided it would be fun to get the kids a 1 year membership. Their first crates came before Christmas, but I held them back until January after all the craziness of Christmas wore off. 

I will say the first crate was kind of a disaster! The older boys had really poor attitudes and I was thinking I'd made a mistake. But I set them down and talked about how these are supposed to be fun. It's not a race to get them done either. If it takes a few hours, days or weeks who cares. The whole point is to have fun, learn new skills and make something that's useable. Thankfully that little pep talk helped a bit. 

I got Owen and Jack both the Eureka Crate which is the highest level crate. Their first project was to make a safe with a key. I love that each booklet has some very interesting learning materials...in this case they were learning about locks and keys and how they have evolved over time. Very cool stuff! 

I got Ella the Maker Crate. Her first project was a punch needle pillow. Her crates don't usually come with a complete booklet because they are more detailed so she gets her instructions from the website in the form of a few step by step videos and she loves it! 

Hard at work! 

Zeke's gets the Doodle Crate. He's such a creative boy I thought that one would fit him well. His first project was to make a leather pouch to hold a sketch book they gave him. His crates are definitely less intensive so there's more instant gratification which for his age is really nice. He has checked out the other crates they have and he's asked me that if we do this next year he'd like to move up to the Tinker crate!  

Ella watching her video! 

Zeke had to sew the leather together and then he got to decorate the pouch with different colored eyelets. It's hard to tell, but he made it have a Z on it! 

The older boys with their finished safes. Once they got it through their heads that it was okay to mess up, redo it and troubleshoot they did great. The other thing they were learning about was gears. The round portion is actually the opening of the safe. You stick the key in the smaller gear on the right and then turn and it opens the bigger gear. It's really an amazing design. Plus I love that it's actually usable. Yes, the keys will work for both, but the boys know not to go into each other safes. 

Ella's punch needle pillow was a lot of work. She LOVED it though. She worked on it everyday! The first thing she had to do after building the frame that would hold the pillow cover was pick a design. Then transfer that design to the cover using this special marker that fades overtime. Then it was like coloring the in the lines with yard. 

We did have to take out a little bit of her work since we didn't pay attention to how much room we needed on the ends in order to be able to sew it together, but that was an easy as just tugging the yarn out. She was so proud and it's such a cute pillow! 

The second KiwiCo crate Zeke got to make homemade soap and a cute little soap dish. He loved this one and did it almost completely by himself! Again such a fun and useful thing to make! 

The quality of the material they send for the kids to use has been top notch and so many of the items they send can be used over and over again. For example Zeke got a plastic molds for the homemade soap...that can be used to make more later. Ella has a really nice punch needle and a fabric marker. Even the boys have gotten cute little tools that they've used to put things together like small screwdrivers or wrenches. 

Ella's second project was this magazine / book holder. She got to put it together, but the main thing she was learning about was stenciling. This was so much fun! She even wanted to make the leaves have an hombre look so they go from lighter green to darker green. My only problem with this one was they should have included horizontal supports in the middle on the two sides. It's only held together by the wood pieces sliding into each other and glue and it's not a tight fit! Michael is going to have to add the supports so it won't keep collapsing on itself when she puts a heavy book in it. Still stenciling is such a fun useful skill to have. In fact she spent her own money and bought 5 canvas tote bags in order to use her skills for something else. 

With her stencil kit she got an Exact-O knife, a cutting mat, a stencil brush, paints and a paint tray all of which can be used time and time again on other projects! 

Back in December we went and saw the Kuch kids perform with their Homeschool Choir. I enjoyed it so much and Christina had nothing but wonderful things to say about it so I decided to sign up Jack & Ella. Ella has two choir books she needs to bring so she decided to make herself a specific choir bag and use the stenciling skills she learned make it special. 

I had the alphabet stencils for her name, but she had to draw and cut out the music notes on the stencil sheet. It turned out so cute! 

For Jack's second project he got to make a flashlight / lantern. Jackson really LOVES KiwiCo. He loves it so much he tends to jump in and usually ends up jumping ahead and having to take something apart and redo it. Thankful the projects so far haven't contained anything that we couldn't undo and make right. They also are great about included extras of things so even if you mess up a couple of times you'll still have enough. 

Here's his finish lantern! 

Hit the red button to turn it on and then pull up and the voila a lantern! 

Or he can unclasp the handle and reattach it on the other side and use it as a flashlight. Seriously amazing designs! He can't wait to take this camp with us this summer! 

This time Owen and Jack had different projects, but I like that they both got to make some sort of light source. Since Jack already has a light for his bed that meant that Owen got to make this articulating desk lamp. I didn't even have to help him at all. It's so crazy how this pulley system works to he can move it up and out. with the handles at the base of the lamp. So fun! 

Like I said I've been super impressed with KiwiCo. They are a bit pricey, but you get useful, great quality projects that your kids will love! If you do sign up for a longer plan such as a year you will pay less. I also have a code that will save your $10 on your first purchase if you'd like to check it out. 

https://www.kiwico.com/Refer?i=LyndsayM33

Ella's 12 Year Old Pictures!

How can this beautiful girl only be 12 years old! She easily looks 14 years old!! She's such a beauty! 

I love how Ella has her own style. She LOVES dangly earrings. These were in my jewelry drawer. I got them at a garage sale for $1. I thought I might wear them, but I think I only have once and I just didn't like them so now she gets them! 

I bought her denim vest on a girls shopping day with friends and she got the starfish pin from Ga-Ga. Her dress was an impulse buy at Value Village. 

I love that the lady wanted to use this round bench to sit on because I remembered Ella sitting on it before so I thought it would be fun to compare.

This was her 7 year birthday picture! I don't know if they had those letters to spell her name or if we brought them. They aren't the same style of font as the ones we have in her room so they must have had them. Either way it's so fun to have a recreation of this same picture! 

Ella Is 12 Years Old!!!

My sweet Ella Grace is 12 years old! The last preteen year! Although to be honest it has felt like she's been a teenager for the 6 months or so. Partly because she's so tall and partly because she's got the attitude of a teenager! :) 

 

Last year for her birthday she stocked up on all things doll related. She got quite the haul with the money she had saved up. 

When it came time to get Ella's birthday pictures at JCPenny's, I thought it would be fun to take her out to Olive Garden afterwards. It was our first time getting to eat out since the start of the pandemic. It was so nice to sit in a restaurant and have hot food. Ella and I love the breadsticks! 

Ella got her braces on in Dec 2019. She's done so well with them and has only complained minimally. She's already halfway through the process. In fact we are going to start talking to my dentist about getting her caps to cover her peg laterals. 

After working all day at our church's Easter Adventure, Ella and I went out for some girl fun. We got manicures and pedicures. It was fun to do something girly right before Easter Sunday. It was really expensive though....almost $100 and that was with a Groupon. Last year I actually decided to buy some Nail Dashes from my cousin Mel. She had started selling them a couple months before. Now instead of paying $100 it costs Ella and I about $13 to get our nails done and we can do them at home whenever we want. I actually loved them so much I signed up to sell them so I could get discounts on what I buy. 

These sweet girls have just grown up before our very eyes! They are turning into such lovely ladies! 

Don't count Ella out of the yucky squirmy stuff just yet though. She's fine picking up critters! 

Ella is such a cute fashionista. She's always wanting some article of clothing because she sees someone on a show wearing it and she thinks she'll like it. Enter the shortalls...she just HAD to have them. I think she wore them twice and that was it. They have since been passed onto Caitlynn! I think they looked adorable, but Ella is super picky with how clothes fit and feel. She just didn't like the way they fit around the waist. She has absolutely hates any type of ruffles or pleats. 

When Michael was working on the infamous stump in the backyard, Ella wanted to try her hand at chopping at it. She quickly realized it was a lot harder than she thought it would be so she started chopping at the stumps that were already rotting away. 

Ella has had to do a few Science experiments. She really loved doing the one that was all about matter. She had to run around the house and yard and find small things to add to her board and then label them. It was fun to use some of the little containers I had saved from our Hello Fresh meals to hold the liquids she wanted to use. 

At the beginning of the year I asked Ella if she needed a new bike. Ga-Ga wanted to get her one for her birthday. Ella was sure her bike would fit her for one more year though. She really wanted Ga-Ga to buy her the schoolhouse for her dolls instead. So that's what Ga-Ga did. Unfortunately, Ella's bike really did get too small for her. So I did what any loving parent would do...I turned it into a learning experience! :) I bought her the bike, but now she's in debt and she's been working to pay it off ever since. She's down to her last $35 so she's made good progress and she hasn't complained about having to work it off. In fact she's actually asked to do specific jobs in order to lower her debt more quickly. I'm quite proud of her! 

Because of Covid the stores bike sections had pretty slim pickings. We finally decided to ask an employee at Wal-Mart if they had any bikes in the back since the whole bike section was empty. Turns out they had bikes, but they were so short on employees they hadn't had time to actually build them. I told them I didn't care. I would just build it myself. I'm telling you...I LOVE to put things together, but that bike tested my patience and I still didn't do something correctly so Michael had to fix it later. Thankfully it's a really cool looking bike and Ella loves it! 

Ella with our cute Charlie boy or as Owen calls him our FFM...Furry Family Member! 

Ella's first year of homeschooling through Lighthouse Christian Academy was definitely a learning curve. She did amazing! Because of the difficulties in her classroom at public school it was basically like she didn't have any schooling her 3rd grade year. She was still struggling with her reading a lot. After that first year she's doing so much better. She still has some ground to make up though. This year Ella has rocked it! Her spelling and reading have come leaps and bounds. She's now willingly reading chapter books! 

To celebrate the end of the school year and Jack's 13th birthday we took the kids camping at Oasis. This was first time the campground had had their pool open since Covid. Unfortunately I think they got the chemicals a little messed up. All my kids faces ended up peeling really bad. This was me trying to get a pictures of Ella's red, peeling face. She wasn't too happy about it! 

Ella helping Ga-Ga out with dishes while camping. Ella has become a really good help in the kitchen. She doesn't help out on a regular basis, but when she does offer it's really nice to have the help. 

While we were camping the kids went to the little gift shop and bought some fun stuff. Caitlynn and Ella both bought coloring books. They actually ended up switching books with each other. Whenever friends come over Ella is always asking if she can't print pictures so they can color. 

This is my favorite pictures of Michael and Ella. Ella looks so cute in her trucker hat! 

Ella showing off her skills on the Ninja Warrior course we put up in the backyard. 

During that awful heat wave last year we had the Kuch Kids over for a sleepover. The kids ended up sleep outside in the tent and had a great time. Ella loves to have sleepovers with her friends! This year the boys are going to sleep in the tent when we camp that way Ella can sleep in the trailer bed with Zeke instead of at the dinette bed. She's not too happy about it, but I want to have my table up all the time so she'll just have to deal with the change. 

Ella really enjoys doing craft projects. She has so many kits in her room for things like bracelets, keychains, candle making and so on. 

Ella is still attends Kids Church on Sundays. Every Sunday is a theme...this particular Sunday was a Cowboy/Cowgirl day. Ella and Caitlynn looked so cute! She is technically old enough to go to Youth Group, but I decided I didn't want her to go. Not only does she need more sleep, but she also is a bit on the younger size in regards to the things she likes. She tends to play with kids that are younger than her too. I'm all for her waiting to grow up as long as she can! 

Ella would love it if she could have a horse! My friend Melinda has a horse and she said we could come ride her one day. Her name is Sedona. We were planning on taking Horseback riding lessons, but then I decided to put the kids in Taekwondo instead. They are all able to be in the same class together and it counts towards Owen's PE credits for school. Also the church where the kids do Taekwondo at is in Kent, while Melinda's house is out in Black Diamond. It just ended up being a better fit for us. 

Ella's favorite color is Turquoise as you can see by her dress and shoes. Ga-Ga always buys the kids their new shoes for the upcoming school year and Ella has had Ga-Ga buy these same shoes twice! 

Last summer we had VBS at our church for the first time ever! It was amazing....exhausting as a helper, but amazing! The first group Ella was with was not a good fit at all. She didn't have anyone her own age in that group. Thankfully Mr. Scott noticed that Ella wasn't her usual happy self so the very next day she got to switch groups. She ended up being with her friend Emily and Emily's friend Riley. Those 3 girls had the best time. Riley is making that fake sad face because she wants Ella's snack. Ella can't have dye so she couldn't have the Rice Krispie treats that had been turned black to look like coal....our theme was a train theme. So instead of coal they just made Ella normal Rice Krispie treats and called them diamonds. Who wouldn't want diamonds! 

My sweet girl...even though her eyes are closed I love this picture! I'm so glad God decided I needed a girl!

Even though we had finished school in June we had to wait for the kids grades to be officially posted before we could throw away all their PACEs they completed that school year. Ella did a ton of work in one year....it was actually well over 1 years worth of work! 

Camping and coloring with friends are some of the best memories. That and the awesome rope swing that was at this campground! The kids still talk about this campground because of that swing! 

Ella loves her Charlie boy and one day he chose her to sleep with. She was over the moon about it!

 

Cute 5th grade girl! Like I said earlier she has been doing so well this year. Her reading has exploded. In fact I highly doubt we'll ever use the hours we have left over with her tutor at Varsity Tutors. There just isn't a need for it. Plus they still weren't doing in-person tutoring the last time I checked. 

Going on a few hikes prior to our road trip last year was the best thing I could have done. It really helped the kids to know what to expect and it helped me to know what I needed to do in order to get the kids prepared for the trip. Which I promise I will blog about in full some time soon. Anyway....one of the big things was working on attitudes. This girly just loves to be in control and in the lead. She also doesn't like to let her brothers win or be in front. Thankfully we worked those issues out pretty quickly! 

Speaking of vacation...Ella did great...all our kids did really! They are such good road trippers. 

This sweet girl has legs for days. She's only a few inches away from being as tall as me. She can already fit into my shoes and in fact she actually has slightly bigger feet than me already. 

Here's the staged photo vs. the reality photo while on our hike in Arches National Park. Ella was pretty hot and tired by this point. 

When you get hot you have to improvise. I bought these fun rechargeable fans on Amazon prior to our trip and then Ella used her blanket to block out the sun while we were driving. 

While we were at the Grand Canyon the kids had a blast making friends with all the squirrels. They even named them all. The names were always something to do with their behavior...like nappy, skittish, chewy and so forth. 

When you spend the whole day hiking on trails you work up an appetite...nothing like having dessert prior to dinner! :)

The Petrified Forrest was definitely a bit disappointing, but I did get this cute pictures of our girl sitting on a petrified log. 

Being at Miss Ellen's house was a highlight of our trip. The kids spent hours in the pool! 

First time at the movies since the start of the pandemic! 

Hands down our favorite time on vacation was at Tree Top Tahoe. The adventure course was amazing! Ella spent most of the time with Michael since she's a sweet Daddy's girl. She even ended up doing one of the Black Diamond runs. Towards the end she joined me a couple runs. It was so epic! 

Ella has unique relationships with each of her brothers. Her and Zeke loves to play stuffed animals together. Jack and her get along when they are working towards a common goal. Owen and her are at time where they mainly get on each others nerves right now. 

Ella loves to go to the beach and collect shells. When we were at Seaside, Oregon she spent hours running back and forth on the beach finding as many sand dollars as she could. 

We were all so happy to see our Charlie boy when we got back from our vacation! 

Last year the time finally came for us to pass on the Power Wheels. It's crazy how in my mind I honestly thought that the kids could probably still ride around in them. Oh how I was wrong! They've just gotten so big so fast! 

Even though they are all growing up and it can be sad to leave some things behind it's also fun seeing them get bigger and more responsible. It was so fun taking them all to the corn maze and not freaking out when the older boys got separated from us. 

It's also fun that the kids can now handle their own pumpkins. All I did was cut the hole at the top and then Ella took over from there. 

It was also pretty awesome that she wanted to wear the outfit I wore to church for 80's night. I love that girly! 

Teeth are getting straighter! 

In preparation for an upcoming basement remodel we had to clear everything out of the basement. The backyard was getting pretty gushy by this point because of all the wet weather. Michael laid down pinewood in hopes that we wouldn't ruin the yard. The kids ended up using it as their scooter course! I love seeing them use their imagination! 

When it came time to get family pictures for our Christmas card I tried to have my friend Starr take our pictures. I think we had pictures scheduled 3 times, but the weather would not cooperate at all. It finally got to be too late so I decided to just take our own pictures at the house. I thought it would be fun to use the fireplace brick as the backdrop. Of course I had to have Ella give me a sassy pose....it wouldn't have been right to just have a normal pose! 

When the Kuch kids spent the weekend in December we had so much fun. Homemade pizzas, crafts and Christmas movies. The best time! I just love seeing these girls and watching them grow together. This year we actually get to see them once a week. Every Friday we meet up at a church in Federal Way for choir. Christina told me about it last year and we saw her kids at the Christmas choir performance. It was awesome so I asked the kids if they wanted to join...Jack and Ella both decided to join and we've really enjoyed it! Owen and Zeke come with us to choir they just stay out the foyer with the other kids and play games. 

Getting to see Scrooge the Musical was so much fun. I was worried that Ella might have a hard time since the show went so late, but she did great. She still requires a lot of sleep. She's usually in bed around 8:30pm, but some nights she'll choose to go to bed as early as 7pm. She hasn't been seen by her Neurologist in almost 2 years. She has an appointment in March to get checked out. I'm not expecting anything unusual to show up, but it's good for Dr. Philips to see her. It still amazes that she's on her original shunt. She truly is a miracle! 

Ella is the best when it comes to Christmas gifts. She has the best reactions and she's super thankful! 

I got the girls all matching necklaces for Christmas. Ella loves jewelry...she's always coming into my jewelry drawer and seeing what she can have. She has so much more jewelry than I do! 

When we had snow between Christmas and New Years we got to break in Jack's new sled. Ella decided to try to snowboard all on her own. She's so adventurous! 

Christina also told me about KiwiCo crates. I looked into them and we decided to buy a 1 year subscription for the kids. It has been so amazing for all of them. Ella has loved working on the projects and learning new skills. She's even taken the skills she learned and made addition crafts as well. 

For Ella's birthday this year we had a bunch of her friends over. She was over the moon excited. Ella hadn't seen Riley or Olivia...the two girls on the right...since Covid canceled school almost 2 years ago. The girls all got along so well and it was a really nice, simple celebration. Ella's love tank so filled up...it was really beautiful! 

Michael built this clubhouse 7 years ago when this room was the playroom. We decided to move Ella in here at some point and she loved having the clubhouse in her room. She's talked about taking it out for years, but she's always changed her mind and decided to keep it longer. Finally this last year she decided she was ready for a change. On Monday, February 14th, Ella and I worked on getting her whole room cleaned up and organized. We moved everything out of and out from under the clubhouse. On Tuesday, February 15th, we took the clubhouse down. 

It was nice having Ella help me with the process. Tonight for her actual birthday we are having Ga-Ga & Pa and Papa & Miss Ruth over for dinner. Ga-Ga & Pa are giving Ella my old bed from when I was a teenager. Ella can not wait to have a bigger bed and a new more grown up room. 

Her whole room remodel is her birthday present from us which includes a new mattress, sheets, comforter and she really wanted a reading chair for her room. I found this super cute saucer chair on Amazon and Ella is in love! She absolutely loves to sit in her chair and read. I can't wait to see it all come together! 

This weekend Logan is coming to spend the night and it's my hope to have the full size bed put together so they can sleep in the bed and not on the floor. 

Ella Grace...

You are such a fun, precious girl! This year there has definitely been a change in our relationship. Your attitude towards me isn't so sassy. We've really reached a nice middle ground with each other and I'm enjoying every minute of it. You definitely seem older than 12 years old to me. In fact at times I've had to catch myself from saying I have 3 teenagers. :) 

I'm am so incredibly proud of how far you've come emotionally and educationally. You have soared with homeschooling. You still need help with some words, but you are so much better. I don't even have to have you read all your Science & Social Studies work to me anymore. You do still get stressed out about certain things...ie...looking up words in the dictionary! 

With the change of you not going to public school anymore we've had to be more intentional about you making time for friends. You recently started hanging out with a friend from church and you have loved spending time with her and I love seeing you make new friends. 

My sweet girl I can't believe it's been 12 years since I was sitting in bed, relaxing, watching a show with Daddy, to having labor with you start with a 6 minute long contraction. You were the sweetest Butterball Baby. My heaviest baby out of all you kids! 

I have so enjoyed seeing you grow and develop and I look forward to more and more mommy daughter time with you. You are so special and God has big plans for you my girl. You are going to do great things! Remember to always listen to God's leading in your life. He will guide you in paths of righteousness! 

Happy Birthday Ella Bean! I love you so!