Bits & Pieces

January has not been the Alldredge's month! We have been battling sickness since the first day of the year. I'm happy to report though, that we are all at least mostly well. A couple lingering coughs to contend with, but much better! After looking through my camera I realized that we apparently took good advantage of the moments when we were not so sick.....

 Rebecca is getting to that age where she wants a pet and I agree that the responsibility would be good for her, but I am almost the mother of three.....we don't need a dog! Fish seemed a nice compromise.

 First Picture - Black Skirt Tetra, of which we have three. Above- Our school of Neon Tetras

Purple Parrot Fish....the females are actually orange and this one Rebecca named Olivia. Olivia likes to chase the other fish and will eat any neon tetras that are too small....we've lost several.

 Our tank is a cool half moon shape, this was before we added the blue background.

 We have a couple of snails in our tank as well as a Pleco ( named Sammy Sucker since he's our cleaner fish), a few ghost shrimp and one African Dwarf Frog by the name of Bogart.

 Another view of the tank. This idea originally started as a Betta in a bowl, and we still have him in a bowl, but the Aquarium is much neater for the children. Also learning something so new is intriguing to me....maybe some day we'll do a saltwater aquarium with live coral!

 Levi loves the fish, he likes feeding them their flakes, as well as various small objects he finds around the house, library books have been added for their reading pleasure, and they have tried a cheesestick....which fish are not fond of. In this instance he was actually helping me clean up the tank.

 More new experiences for Levi, homemade gluten free playdough.

 I love this age!

 Working those fine motor skills.

 Finger painting is so much fun, admittedly messy, but fun!

 Helping in the kitchen with his handy stool, you may remember the puppet theater from Christmas, this is just another great use!

 Sick kiddos couching out.

 When mama is sick they all have to pitch in with the chores.

 My kids love to vacuum, really, I'm not mean they like it!

 Rebecca's newest hobby. She tried making a bow and arrow out of bamboo skewers and yarn a few weeks ago. That first attempt didn't work, but when daddy showed her how to add rubber bands to her design for tension we began having bamboo skewers sail across the living room. NOT SAFE! Next she decided we should buy her the bow set from Target themed from the movie 'Brave'. We decided if she wanted to do this, lets do it right. So we ordered a child size bow and blunt tip arrows. She practices as often as possible. The second evening she had it she told Aaron she was 'awesome' and he asked if she could not hit what she wanted. (he meant could she pick a target and hit it.) Rebecca's very honest answer was "You told me I couldn't shoot bubby." ;-)

 Tonight we made a paper chain counter for Rebecca. Each day she can break a link and in just 33 days her new baby brother or sister will be here!

Big brother and Big sister t-shirts are made and ready to be worn to class on February 14th and then again the day we bring our bundle home. Awesome iron transfers were found on etsy, shirts from hobby lobby and the long sleeves were cut from old shirts and sewn in to make them appropriate for cold weather or mild, because in Indiana March 4th can be anything!