a celebration of Leannora

(i have a few things to fix and add on this, but i need mark's help. so since it's actually leannora's birthday today, here's the preview.)

a look at our little lady Leannora's 3rd year:

happy birthday to you, Leannora is 3 now instead of 2!

We celebrated Leannora's 3rd birthday at the Fenwick family campout at Kim's Uncle Joe's farmette.

She helped frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles.

The summer that Leannora was born we missed the campout because she was only a few days old. It was fun having such a memorable celebration.

summer fun and a snack in our garden

The children all love Little Bear. In a Little Bear movie that we have he and his friends take a trip to the moon and and go moon jumping. Little Bear wears a box on his head. So Leannora is pretending to be Little Bear here. The boys assure her that he is not a girl, but she has made up her mind to join in the fun with the boys.

Leannora LOVES her brothers. This bedtime pajama picture was taken when Leannora had decided that Owen was her special buddy. The two would play together in everything. It was a wonderful little window of a special bond between brother and sister. Of course, all the children are good buddies and love to imagine and pretend in all sorts of adventures together.

We made cowboy cutouts for all the children at the end of the summer. It was kind of a kickoff for our first official year of homeschooling. Each child had an outline of their body on newsprint roll paper and we printed out enlarged pictures of their faces. Then we drew cowboy outfits unique to each of the children. Leannora was the cutest cowgirl in the place. Instead of a gun, lasso, or lariat, Hogan thought his sister should have a basket of flowers. Here's cowgirl Leannora times 2.






A sweet elderly woman from church requested some pictures of Leannora specifically in piggy tails. This was one of the photos we sent her along with some Leannora doodles. She kept them on her refrigerator. She went home to be with the Lord this winter. We were so blessed to be a bit of encouragement to her as she suddenly battled and lost a fight against cancer.




We surprized Grandma Sara with this dress one time when they came to visit. Sara's mother made this dress for Sara when she was a little girl. She remembers wearing it over many years as it was a favorite and could easily take out the hem a bit to add length for a growing little girl. She was so tickled to see Leannora in this adorable dress.

This is Daisy, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara's dog as a new puppy. We've started calling her crazy Daisy because she's so full of energy. I guess we must have momentarily worn her out with all the energy of little Milligans.

A BIG lego tower constructed by Nikao and Leannora.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Milligan came for a visit just a few days before Able was born. They brought all sorts of treats and treasures for our family. Here Grandma and Leannora are having a special time reading some new books.

Aunt Nina and cousin Bobby came for a quick delivery. . .

of chicken george for supper. I guess it's a well known thing among the nurses in Dixon that chicken from the Candlelight Inn and BBY help induce labor. We really enjoyed their quick visit.

Unfortunately the chicken didn't work it's wonders in our birth situation. But a baby boy was born evenso. When we announced to the children that our baby had been born, Leannora asked, "Is she a her?" She was not thrilled that "he was a him" and answered, "Awww, I wanted a baby sister." In a short time her disappointment disappeared and she said, "I love Able Arden!"

a bunch of movie watching milligans

The glory of raking leaves on a beautiful autumn day is jumping in your work pile! As soon as the first few leaves begin to fall from the trees, the children beg to rake. Our three small trees in the front yard are our only leaf producers, so the poor children have to wait till we've got a good bunch on the ground before we play. Then we push them off the curb and watch the city trucks load 'em up and move 'em out. We do save some for our compost pile and a fun jumping spot in the back yard too. The neighbors even kindly (for real, in kindness - I'm not being sarcastic here) share their leaves with us for bigger piles!

Oh GIVE THANKS to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever! We have had the honor of hosting the Hartzell family Thanksgiving meal in our home for the past 2 years. Great Grandpa Hartzell was touched by the day together as a family.

Cousin Adam! Buddy Becky! They were living near one another in Chicago for a while. So Becky rode along with the Mardauss family and then Adam and Becky took the train back to crazy Chicago after our Saturday Thanksgiving celebration. It was fun having Becky as a part of our family for the day.

O Christmas tree! We got to add some of our homemade decorations to Grandpa and Grandma Strub's tree one Sunday after our church meeting.

I think you might call these winter indians.

Winter wonderland of 2008. We broke Wisconsin's record of snowfall this winter. Oh was it fun! Snowmen, sledding, we even made a snow cave and trails to walk around in our backyard.

This is Leannora's first haircut. She was so excited to share in haircutting night for the first time. She wanted 5 inches cut off and held up her 5 little piggies with such exuberance. Daddy said only a couple - we're just trimming those lovely locks little lady.

We had enough of our cold blue family room and warmed up the wood burning stove room with red! Leannora helped us keep the work rolling along.

A jammie morning! Everyone gets so excited about these simple things. (Able really was happy, he just blinked at every flash of the camera. For a few months we couldn't take a picture of him without that funny look on his face.)

Since we have 5 children, the puppy priority is pretty low on the totem pole. So the children take turns playing "baby puppy." This is Bruiser, sometimes called Bean, Teddy, and also know as Snowflake. He is our best puppy. He will sit, stay, and has the cutest personality. Leannora is a very good puppy trainer.

Craft time! Oh, how Leannora loves learning time! She does not let me forget that she wants to learn along with her big brothers. Hogan snapped these 2 shots with his camera. He has the best way of capturing our family candidly from a child's perspective!



"my dancing dress!" A friend of my mom's used to teach dance classes. She was getting ready for a rummage sale and gave Leannora this BLUE dress!

The children all had their jammies on one evening. Papa hadn't seen Leannora's dancing dress yet so we put her dress over her pjs and let the children jam and jump and dance around.


happy birthday to our 4 year old little lady leannora
august 25, 2008

the cloud room - part one

So this is the beginning of one of the momma brilliant ideas.

Last year we gave the boys a new room. We painted the walls dark blue and then on one wall we made it look like a log cabin. They call it their cowboy room because we decorated it with fun things from Grandpa Bill and Grandpa Strub.

We wanted to give Leannora something special too. I had in mind to paint her room a lovely shade of lavendar (similar to what I had in my room as a young girl). But when I asked her what she would like she said BLUE. (At the time, Owen was Leannora's best buddy. It was a very sweet stage. Because Owen's favorite color was blue, that became Leannora's FAVORITE color.) So blue it would be.




Now I've always wanted to try painting clouds. I remember trying to get Chris Padgett to help me paint a sky scene in my room on Boyd St. It didn't work cause no boys were allowed in my room and it was way too full of smiley faces. So of course, this was my big chance. And of course, the original artist that I am -always wanting something different, led me to the idea of painting a night sky. (I would have loved to have done a stormy sky, but that wouldn't have been very peaceful for a little girl's room.) I found a picture of the idea in a magazine and was determined to give it a try.



So in February I finally convinced Mark, with the help of my mom, that we could accomplish this creative task. My mom planned to come for a few days to help me. We had a variety of leftover paint in the basement that I was going to mix to get the choice color. But once we mixed it, it was much lighter than what I had as my original idea. I was too cheap to buy paint. That was part of the deal - a quick, inexpensive, fun project for the family. I debated for a while, and then decided to try the mixed color. But then we ran out of paint. Uhh.



So we tried painting clouds down low on the walls, which was not what I had pictured, but we can be creative with what we've got. It turned out to be so much fun painting with my mom and the children. As Strub grandchildren they all have painting clothes and lots of painting practice. This time we painted O's on the wall with rags.



Nikao got a paintbrush so he wouldn't be so messy.



I had lines chalked out for the children so they would know where they could play with the O's. At some point Leannora and Nikao found the chalk and made their own little doodles on the wall. At first I wasn't so happy, but then it wasn't a big deal as we were IN the painting process. It turned out to be a cute thing. Leannora was practicing her own O's and the letter L.



Owen wanted to make the highest marks on the wall. Oh that brotherly competition.



The children all did a great job and had so much fun. Looking back at it now, a part of me wishes that I would have kept it as it was. But then I couldn't keep you in suspense for the cloud room - part 2. More to follow soon. . .

A Stonesifer family visit!

The band that Mark plays in, Highway 2 Heaven, had a concert at our church in July. We called up a few people to invite them and it worked out that the Stonesifers could come!! They met us at the church. Actually, they arrived before us, having had some adventures on the way.

We finally got to meet Milo at 2 months old. Wow, what a great little man! Hmm. . . a great young big guy might describe him better. He looked bigger than Able who was 9 months old at the time. (although Able might have had a pound and a few inches up on Milo).

The Stonesifer children survived the noisy concert by listening from a room off to the side with a window to view things. Hopefully they had a fun time. Mark's band hasn't figured out how to not be too loud. Trumpets mostly. Hee hee.

Following the concert we had a pie and ice cream social downstairs at the church. Yummie! It was a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with our guests and the band members and our children, so we kind of missed out on good buddy time. But the Stonesifers found the children's play room which is right off the social area, so i think they still had a fun time.

Then a cool thing happened. After all the activity, the Stonesifer family followed us home to hang out for a bit. We managed to fight the traffic exiting WI on a Sunday night in not too bad of time. None of us had eaten supper really, so we snacked and played games and had a simple good time. And the amazing part is that I actually got out the camera and took a few pictures. So here's Val surrounded by kiddos reading some library books.



And here's the Stonesifer men, Shawn and Milo.



Two silly, sleepy girls. Lucy and Leannora having a sleeping party. They were pretty tired cause it was late, but they didn't want to miss out on any fun. So they figured out how to rest and have fun at the same time.



Well hopefully the hours that the Stonesifers postponed their return travels meant that the traffic was a bit more smooth. I forgot to follow up and find out. But anyways, we had a really fun visit. Thank you!!!

Hurray! Zoo day!!

A few weeks back we went to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison with Grandma Strub, Aunt Erica, and cousins Daniel and Kayleigh. What a fun day!!

The zoo is FREE and a really fun place. They are in the process of redoing a whole bunch of things, so it will be even better and still free. For a small zoo, it is pretty great. I think it's just the right size for our family. And not too big so as to exhaust all your energy. (The parents energy that is, somehow children can keep going and going!)




I wish I would have taken some pictures of the new playland - a treehouse! We watched it being built last summer. There is a carousel just next to the playground area.



Here's the giraffe exhibit. Last year we visited the week that they got 2 new giraffes. That was pretty neat. There are 3 now. We had fun posing at this spot.



Leannora and Owen are watching the 2 lions in this picture. One visit we were standing near the male lion. He was laying down in the grass. Then he got up and walked over to the female lion who was lying on the rocks. He pawed at her a bit and she just swiped back answering that she was not in the mood to play. So he went back over to where we were standing and let out a few good roars. Maybe he was complaining to all of us? Anyways, it was really cool. They are such amazingly powerful animals! What a creator we have!



Able got tired out after adventuring through the zoo.
We have some similar pictures of Kayleigh at the same age sleeping in the stroller too. So cute!



If any buddy is ever interested in a zoo adventure sometime we would love to have you up here for a day or weekend or whatever! Our big van is great for packing people and strollers snacks and stuff and especially children. I've never been there on a weekend before - I imagine it would be pretty busy. But I know that weekdays are really great!

So . . . till our next posted adventure. . .
bye
kimmilligan

silly milligans

It's a singing party! Leannora loves this spot on the stairway for singing. It has just the right echoing sound. She invites everyone to take turns using "singing books." Leannora's idea is that the children have special books to use off the piano. I think if you are an adult you are supposed to use the bigger hymnals. Nikao just likes to make lots of noise and he is not particular about which book he uses. Here he is using an I Spy book. I imagine this is much to Leannora's dismay. Usually Leannora's singing party is made up of various soloists. Each person must take a turn standing on the 2nd or 3rd step from the landing (for best accoustics) and the audience should be seated on chairs at the bottom of the stairway. Here I think Hogan must have done a firstborn convincing job on the value of a choir. Hogan used to call the hymnals "singnohs."

Children are such a wonderful blessing.



Home is a wonderful place.

HERE'S AN INTERESTING ONE!

1933 -- The first Humanist Manifesto is published. Co-author John Dewey, the noted philosopher and educator, calls for a synthesizing of all religions and "a socialized and cooperative economic order."
Co-signer C.F. Potter said in 1930:
"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American public school is a school of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday schools, meeting for an hour once a week, teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?"

What a quote, eh?
Mark

milligan family vacation adventures

So, here's a few of our favorite vacation pictures from back in June. We journeyed down to Tennessee all in one day. The 10 hour drive took us 12 hours with a few stops to stretch. The children were amazing travelers! Yea! Our first destination was to visit with some friends near Pleasantville. We met the Otto family when we lived in Milwaukee. It was super fun to catch up with them again. They are pioneers at heart. They've built a really neat place on top of a thickly wooded mountain. We camped out at their home for a night, enjoyed a little hike around some of their property, and went swimming in a beautiful creek. A short but fun filled visit.

Then we were off to the Milligan family reunion in Lexington, Tn where Mark's grandparents have a beautiful second home. Most of the family was able to attend. We had a wonderful time getting to know the Milligan family in a whole new way. 4 fun filled days of swimming in Great Grandpa and Grandma's pool, eating yummy meals together, chatting, visiting, playing, fishing, home tours of family that lives nearby, a pontoon boat ride, a fantastic family slide show, and memories to treasure. Hogan learned to swim with confidence, Owen caught his first fish, Leannora LOVED the boat ride, Nikao LOVED all of Grandma's delicious food, and our happy Able boy enjoyed visiting with everybody! It was such a great time and we thank Grandpa and Grandma Milligan for their love and generosity. As well as all the family for making it possible to be together. On Sunday morning we were able to visit Grandpa and Grandma Milligan's church with them. It was a special blessing for us and them to attend the service as a family.

Our next stop was Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. We traveled with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara and joined up with Grandpa and Grandma Strub once we arrived at the campground. Wowie! 2 sets of grandparents, tents, sleeping bags, living out of our van and in the outdoors - what more could a kid ask for? We stayed here for two nights because it was a close and inexpensive spot near THE CREATION MUSEUM!!! Woohooh! We were super excited about visiting the Creation Museum (which is near Cincinnati, but actually in Kentucky). It was fantastic! We were impressed with everything and had a super duper time. Especially because we had 2 sets of grandparents to share the day's adventures. To begin, we walked through the museum. Then we ate lunch at Noah's cafe. After lunch we strolled through the gardens. Then we finished up with enjoying the shows and bookstore. My (Kim) two favorite parts of the day were watching Nikao chase butterflies in the gardens and visiting the bookstore (I spent hours there!). Leannora liked the show where they splashed water on everyone. Mark took the boys to the planetarium. The dinosaur sculptures were great. The ark area was really awesome. The whole atmosphere of the museum was wonderful. Families everywhere! A humble,
intellectual, Biblical, creative, artistic, fascinating presentation of creation. We want to go back again sometime!

Our camping adventures continued. After saying goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Strub (they were off to visit Pastor and Mrs. Zetterburg in Cincinnati - the pastor that married them) we packed up and drove to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. Both of Mark's grandparents have some family memories at this park, so we thought it would be fun to visit and camp there on our way home. We picked out a wooded site near, but not too close the bathrooms and a playground. The campground was surprizingly full for the middle of the week. It must be close enough to Chicago that it's a popular place. We had some visitors in our campsite that night - four legs and ring tails. We watched one raccoon climb down the tree next to our picnic table before bed. They made off with some hamburger buns that were inside a camping tote! It rained just a bit the next morning while we were packing and loading up. Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara were off pretty early so they could get to Dixon
for family visiting and still have time to get home. I guess they got home pretty late. We decided to stay and explore the park a bit before heading home. We were so glad we did. It was a beautiful park with neat trails and landscape. No wonder it's such a popular place! Mark wanted to take the boys hiking, so we all took off on some trails. We crossed the suspension bridge and adventured together as a family for a bit. The momma didn't feel up to being so adventurous, so I turned around with Able in the front pack and Leannora and Nikao each holding a hand. We probably impressed some people with the look of being rather bold. We made some lunch and cleaned up the van and played for a bit while Mark, Hogan, and Owen braved their rugged trail. Oh they looked so manly upon their return - dirt, sweat, smiles and full of stories.


So now it was time to head home. We were able to get home by about bedtime. Our adventures complete. Ahhh, the momma was so glad to be done living out of the van. It took a few weeks for the laundry to get done and for everything to find its place again. And the last little bit of news is the best. We learned of a surprize upon returning home. Our family is growing again as we are expecting Baby Milligan 6! Woohoo! Yea! Yahoo! Anyways, this pregnant momma needs to be done telling this story and get some rest. Hope you all enjoy hearing about our adventures.