Aquarium

The kids were so excited about going to the aquarium at the beach that we did that the first day. As they get older this will be an awesome educational "field trip" but right now they love to run from tank to tank checking out the different fish. We did manage to see a Creature Feature about snakes, which was really interesting but as soon as the teacher pulled out a real snake Piper decided she was "bored" and ready to leave. She was not willing to admit that she was really scared!

Here are Piper and Abe looking really interested in the largest aquarium:

Here is what Abe looked like for the rest of the visit!

Piper in the alligators mouth and the kids in the large shark jaw:

And a really cool sandcastle outside the Aquarium:

Vacation

We are back from a week at the beach! We had such a great time, coming home is always bittersweet. I love returning to my own bed and shower but I hate the idea of returning to the "real world" again. The kids always have a hard time adjusting to Daddy going back to work and I have a hard time adjusting to being on my own with them after a week with full-time help!

We had such a wonderful time and Piper completed her first week of school! I had contemplated waiting until next week to start but she was so excited she wanted to start while we were on vacation. In addition to school, we went to the local aquarium, spent several afternoons at the ocean, rode horses, took a boat tour and even made it to the water-slides today before leaving.

I have a TON of pictures to upload, so I will post those through the coming week!

The last days of summer

We are enjoying those last days of summer by spending as much time as possible outside. The kids are enjoying swimming at Grandmommie's, making mudpies in the dirt, fishing at the creek and riding their four-wheelers through the trails behind the house. Sometimes I will sit for hours in the rocker on the porch with Abe while Piper and Cohen entertain themselves outside. I love the warm weather!

I always fall into a slight depression as the nights cool off and the leaves begin to drift from the trees. I wish it stayed summer year 'round. This year I should be too busy to dwell on the entrance of Fall, between homeschooling full time, commitments at church and the daily grind with 3 small children. And our line-up of birthdays start in October (Chad), then November (Piper), December (Cohen) and January (mine) which always adds a little excitement. Then before you know it, Abe will be turning 1 and Spring/Summer will be back!!

I am off to order some jeans, Old Navy has them for $7 today!

Speaking of my 18 pound 2-month old...

Here he is now, still sucking that thumb!

Small Personal Victories

This is not a weight loss blog but sometimes it feels good to celebrate the small victories in life! Although I should be embarrassed to admit this, I weighed a few pounds more at the start of each my 3 pregnancies. Last week I weighed in below my pre-Abe weight and this week I am just under my pre-Cohen weight!! A few more pounds until I get pre-Piper and I will be back where I started!! Breastfeeding an 18 pound 2-month old is the best weight-loss plan ever :)

Tomato Soup

I borrowed my mom's Paula Deen cookbook and found the yummiest tomato soup recipe. To preface, I do not like tomatoes outside of pasta sauce and ketchup but I have been trying to eat better( i.e. more veggies) even if I do not like them. I was shocked when I tried this soup and fell in love. Here it is, in case you want to try it (I used fresh tomatoes, dill & parsely from my mother-in-law's garden):

Tomato Dill Soup (by Paula Deen)

3 cups peeled, diced fresh tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except heavy cream, parsley, Parmesan, salt & pepper in large pot. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, until tomatoes are tender. Add cream, parsley & Parmesan. Season with salt & pepper and simmer 10 more minutes.

Letter from Piper

When I picked up the mail last week there was an interesting letter in the box. At first I thought it was from one of Piper's friends who has sent her mail in the past but this time it was addressed to me. I opened this letter:

It says "Dear Momma, I miss you. Piper"

When I looked back at Piper after reading the letter, she was grinning from ear to ear. We both started laughing! I had left Cohen and her with Grandmommie for the night and evidently she woke up wanting me. Grandmommie had let her write this letter and mail it to make her feel better.

Oh and the drawing is of our house according to Piper. It sure looks more grand in her picture than it does in real life!

Back to School

Here is Piper in her back to school outfit I mentioned before:


Gymboree was having a great sale on all their new merchandise, so Piper picked out this outfit. She does not usually like dresses so I was surprised by her choice. The navy clogs should be pretty versatile and look so cute with the dress!

Homeschool Planning

I have been spending some time planning our upcoming school year. I think I am going to focus primarily on Piper and let Cohen observe/help as I can. Last year I did kindergarten with Piper and pre-school with Cohen (quite irregularly, mind you) which was fine but this year I have Abe to work around also. I think Cohen will learn by sitting in on my classes with Piper as he already recites the months of the year and days of the week (although not exactly right yet, he is on the right track!). The State of NC requires that we school 9 months out of the year so we will start August 25th and run through the 2nd week of May, allowing 1 week vacation for Thanksgiving, 2 for Christmas, 1 for Massanutten trip and 1 for Easter.

We are using My Father's World first grade curriculum but excluding their math and continuing with Saxon (first grade also). I am ordering My Father's World today (!!!) and I have Saxon already, so we will be ready for the first day which is less that 2 weeks away! Yesterday I even purchased Piper and "first day of school" outfit. (I will have to photograph her and add the picture.)

Memories from the hospital

Amber recently sent me some pics that she took while we were in the hospital. Since I was totally unprepared and did not even have my bag packed when they sent me to the hospital, I did not have my camera (I guess what they say is true about 3rd children, Abe will be lucky to HAVE a baby book, let alone one with writing and pictures!). Here is Abe on the day he was born:

And here he is under the Bili lamp. Because of his jaundice he had to lay under this lamp for about 24 hours and could only come out every 3 hours to nurse. It was no fun trying to console him as he laid there with that crazy mask over his eyes. I even had to wear sunglasses to tend to him, because the lights were so bright. Needless to say, the jaundice cleared up quickly but I hated this Bili lamp mess!

Swimming

One of our favorite summer activities is swimming at Grandmommie's house. Chad is so good to work with the kids and both Piper and Cohen are swimming. Cohen requires a little supervision but he is doing quite well for his age!

Here are Piper and Abe waiting to get into the pool (Cohen and Chad went on a dirt bike ride so Piper was waiting for them to swim with her):

And whoever said Speedos were out of style? With a figure like this, they are required!

Here is Cohen posing for a picture:

And here is Abe and me (since I never post pics of myself):

And lastly, Abe making his debut in the water with Daddy! It went extremely well until Cohen splashed him in the face, from that point on he was done!

Haircuts

The kids were in desperate need of haircuts. Here they are before and after:

Before



After

Great Grandparents

My kids are so blessed to have 3 great-grandparents living who are still active and sound of mind. (There were 5 but 2 passed away last year.) One of them recently celebrated her 83rd birthday with a gathering of family at Grandmommie's house. As soon as we arrived at the party, she scooped up Abe! He ended up going to sleep in her arms and he does not do that for many people.

Birthday pics

Here are the pics from Sunday's birthday party for Sam. The kids had a great time! Abe is always a hit with the young girls, they want to pass him around and tend to him like little mommies and Piper & Cohen are in heaven if there is cake around!!

Busy week

What's new? It's another busy summer week. We had a birthday party to attend Sunday after church. Today we have a cousin visiting from out-of-town and spending the night. Tomorrow we will get haircuts and take the kittens for rabies shots. The rest of the week does not slow down either! Nothing too exciting to mention on the blog; I hoped to get some pics uploaded from the birthday party but blogger is not working for me tonight??? Maybe tomorrow...

Dress Up

It's been a busy week around here! We have had friends and cousins stay the night several times this week. Inevitably the trash bag containing all the dress-up items comes out of the closet (and you can guess who ends up cleaning it up!). Here are Piper, Abe and their cousin after a round of dress-up; we don't have any costumes for Abe yet!