First teeth!

Lately Abe has been a little more fussy than usual and now I know why, he cut his first two teeth this past week. I felt the first one on Friday and the second one on Saturday! He's growing up too fast.

More Piper Funnies

This past Thursday the kids and I went to our MOPS meeting (Mothers of Preschoolers). It was my group's turn to provide the food for the meeting (the kids are watched by volunteers so the mothers can eat breakfast and have some adult conversation). I have a recipe for grape salad from my cousin-in-law that has become a favorite at the meetings, so I had prepared that ahead of time. Piper wanted some but I told her she would have to wait to see what was left after the meeting. But as usual, there was none left! When I picked her up, Piper opened the dish with anticipation and gave a little frown. Then she proceeded to scrape down the walls of the dish to get some of the topping on her spoon; she looked at me and said, "Those hungry mama's didn't find this part!"

And today I was setting up 'Spending', 'Saving' and 'Giving' jars in Piper's room so we can include some early finance with her schooling. My original thought was to have her place 1/3 of her allowance into each jar to get her started early tithing and saving. As soon as I told her what each jar was for, she pointed to the 'Giving" jar and said, "I'm not going to need that one!" It was hard not to laugh, but I took the opportunity to share with her our reasons for tithing and its importance. We'll have to work on that one a little more, I guess!

From Piper's Mouth

"Mom, can we get a corn-on-the-cob field?"

This child wants a farm so bad! She has asked for a chicken house and chickens for her birthday coming up in November, and she constantly asks when we are getting a horse. Now she has expanded her vision to include a "corn-on-the-cob field"!

Update

Homeschool continues to go well. I am still working on keeping Cohen busy during Piper's lessons (without turning on the TV). He seems to enjoy learning with her for a little while then he gets disruptive, but that's to be expected. Abe is taking a long nap in the mornings now, so if we are smart we can finish school while he is napping!

We had a good weekend although we didn't do much. My Dad came for dinner Friday night and we had a really nice time. The kids enjoyed spending time with "Poppy" and Piper talked him into a few jokes while he was here! I always remember my Dad telling tons of jokes as I was growing up and that is Piper's current thing. She sits and makes up jokes that are so random that they are actually funny.

Saturday and Sunday were spent around the house mostly. We accomplished some cleaning out and some quality time as a family.

Piper starts soccer through the YMCA tonight. (I know I mentioned before that she has retired from soccer because of the socks and shoes, well, she has decided to give it another try.) We know of one other little girl on her team, so that is exciting. I was not sure that we would know anyone in this league.

That's all for now!

The Bonfire

As long as I have know Chad, he has always loved to start a fire in the yard and "hang-out" around it. This past week he cut down a huge dead tree in the yard, so a bonfire was in order to burn the wood. We invited over another family with kids and hung out all night at the fire. This was one of our biggest fires yet, the men had to keep the water hose handy to beat it down so it would not get out of control.

Photography

Piper loves to set up backgrounds for photographs. Normally she pretends to take pictures but she told me that this one was SO GOOD that she had to take a real picture of it :)

Pics from our recent field trip...

Piper looking over the map in the gardens with her new friend.


Cohen insisted on pushing Abe when we first got started, but his interest waned when he realized how tough it was.


Here are the kids listening to an explanation of cooking in 1700-1800's style kitchens. The lady in the picture had prepared apple fritters, apple butter, baked apples, homemade bread, fish and fried okra over an open fire, pretty amazing!

Piper and Cohen filling the water bottle at the old water pump (not sure what it was called).

Mother of the Year Award

This past Friday I took the kids to homeschool day at one of the local historic sites. We went with 3 other homeschooling families with intentions of learning something, I guess I could call it a field trip. I knew it would be hard to keep up with 3 kids, having only 2 hands but I was still game for the trip. All went pretty well, with the exception of one incident.

I needed to change Abe's diaper so I plopped him down on a bench outside and changed him. As I was buttoning up his outfit I looked up to find Cohen in the middle of the road (keep in mind this is a historic/visitors area so the road is not heavily traveled, but I did see several cars on it while we were there). I yelled to Cohen to get out of the road and watched to make sure he was listening, then all the sudden I heard one of the other mothers scream, "Your baby!" I knew what had happened before I turned my head back to my precious baby, but I have to admit it was still a scary surprise to see Abe laying on the brick sidewalk. He rolled (for the first time from his back to belly, mind you) from the bench onto the hard brick walk! He cried one of those cries that is silent for the longest time and then bursts forth.

I was so mad at myself and so upset with Cohen for taking my attention from Abe but mostly I was embarrassed to have the other mothers and children witness the situation that unfolded! Abe escaped with only a light bruise on his cheek, Cohen was fine of course but I was humiliated and horrified by the event. I have relived it over and over. I know the trauma will be forgotten, but it was definitely a learning experience for me.

Milestones

The kids and I spent the weekend out-of-town visiting my sister. We had a great time and even managed a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, which was a joy to the older two! We spent some quality time in front of the TV (the kids got their fill of Sponge Bob since we do not have cable/satellite), took some nice walks with her dog, visited some other friends in the same town, played outside with the neighborhood kids and even dared shopping with my children (gasp!). I should have taken some pictures but my camera died and I did not take the time to charge the batteries :(

Abe even hit a milestone while we were gone, he rolled over from belly to back 2 times! I kept wondering why he would not go to sleep one afternoon and I walked in to find him laying on his back although I had placed him on his belly to sleep. He in one step closer to mobility!

Cute Smiles!

I got a lot of pictures of Abe smiling on vacation, I cannot get enough of his little smile! It just lights up his face!

Boat Tour

We also took a boat tour while at the beach which we all enjoyed. There is so much history on the coast especially when it comes to pirates! This will be an excellent educational trip as the kids get old enough to appreciate the history. Here is a family pic, minus Piper:


The boat was pretty crowded and we were last to board so Piper had to sit on the other side:


One of the attractions is the wild horses that live on a local island. It is said that they survived a Spanish shipwreck many years ago and have lived on the island since then. Our tour guide said this was his first time seeing a mother and baby horse on the shore together and he goes out several times a day!

Horseback Riding

We found a place to go horseback riding while on vacation which was awesome! When we go to Massanutten we pay $10 for each kid to be led on a horse around a circle 3 times, well for just $40 this lady gave each child and Chad and horse, taught them how to go, stop and turn and then took them on an hour-long trail ride! They had a blast and Chad's horse even took and unexpected jump over a log on the trail, Cohen kept saying "Daddy's horse popped a wheelie!"

Cohen's horse (or pony, I should say) was named Christie:


Piper rode Fallon:


And Chad rode Razz:


Here they are taking off towards the trails:

Salvation Army

They have the best Salvation Army ever at the beach! I love thrift stores and this one far exceeded my expectations. I did not bring a stroller for Abe and he is so heavy my arms and back were aching after the Aquarium. So I found a Graco stroller at the Salvation Army for $3.99 and get this, it was 25% off! So just $3.00 saved my arms and back on the beach trip! I also found quite a few pair of pants that fit me perfectly (all either $1.99 or 3.99), brand new Nike's for Piper ($1), tees for Cohen ($1.99) and the stroller of course! Also I found an Etch-a-sketch for $.99 which became a crowd favorite immediately.

The Waves

We went to "the waves" as Piper called it 2 different afternoons while vacationing. Chad loves to swim so he goes out in the ocean with the kids and plays. Abe and I hung out on the shore and to be totally honest, I do not even think he got sand on him anywhere! The lull of the waves put him to sleep both times we were there. Piper mastered riding the boogie board pretty quickly and loved it. Cohen loved playing at the shore but he was a little more hesitant to get in the deeper water. The waves were kinda rough with the storms churning off coast. Here are some pics of the ocean play.


And here is Abe in his favorite beachside position:

And a cute pic where he was actually awake:

Riding without training wheels

Cohen has been on the verge of riding his bicycle without training wheels for about 2 months, but he seemed to lack confidence. Well, he got it together while we were at the beach! Piper started riding last summer so Cohen requested that his training wheels be removed also even though he could no longer ride. I guess he thought pushing a bike with no training wheels was cooler than riding one with?? Well, he started the week riding like this (on a bath mat, mind you!):



And by the end of the week he was all over the island by himself riding with Chad and Piper!