Fun at Papa and Gramy's House

Well our van has died a slow death....its headed for the salvage yard and we have officially lived out the phrase, "drive it till it dies." You might be wondering what that has to do with this post. Well, the first time our transmission gave us trouble Jeremy headed to his dad's house to fix it. (Which he did and then it died for good less than a week later, bummer) I hate being home alone on Saturdays, which I know is ironic since I do it five days a week. But, I love to do something out of our normal clean the house, cook the meals, do the laundry routine on Saturdays. So....when Jeremy went to be our mechanic we threw our stuff in our loaner car and headed to Illinois. It was a pretty impromtu trip but the kids had lots of fun.

Grace at "play." She is packing up stuff to go rake the yard.
Faith however is content to have Papa swing her.
Wait Papa me 2!
Wait Papa me 3!
The kids love playing with Roxie.
Helping pick up leaves.

Uncle stops in for a quick visit.
Papa keeps Titus busy while the girls cook.
Aunt Jo Jo was thinking about having cake "balls" at her wedding. We tried it out.

Well.....the kids liked them but the adults were not impressed at our first attempt. WAY to sweet and mushy.


Titus shoving his in...
All tuckered out from a great day of fun...like 3 peas in a pod (or 3 kids squished in a car).
Love when my kids get the chance to make memories with my parents!

Purple & Pink

End of Summer Clearance

On a recent trip to the home improvement store to buy some lumber for our Nativity Blocks project we wandered through the end of summer clearance and found this fancy new hammock for a great deal! We couldn't pass it up since our old one was being held together by zip ties. As you can see from the picture everyone couldn't wait to try it out. Now we just need the mosquitos to die so we can actually enjoy it a bit. It seems each year we have something we want to try to snag at the end of season clearance. I think our next item might have to be a fire pit....

(For the record it was blazing hot out side, but Grace insisted on dragging her blanket outside to snuggle it up.)

Lions, & tigers & public school- Oh, my!

Well, we had our first "welcome to public school moment." today. We were walking to school (day #4) and Grace said, "A girl at my table said she is going to bring her big strong sister to fight me today." Excuse me???? I asked a few questions including if she had shared this information with her teacher. Her response is so precious I had to record it, "No, mom I didn't want to get her in trouble. I want to try and make a friend out of her." We talked about wether she felt scared and if she thought the girl was telling the truth. Then I assured her the girl wouldn't be able to follow through on her threat. She seemed okay with things so I encouraged her to keep trying to make a new friend and by that time we were at school. Mentally I was debating wether to mention it to her teacher. I didn't want to seem like the over protective "my first child just went to kindergarten" mother. However, the teacher part of me would want to know if that kind of statement was being make in my classroom. So, I stopped by to see Grace's teacher and let her know what had happened. I am hoping I made the right choice. I will encourage Grace to share those type of things with her teacher in the future, however I know she made the right choice by seeing past a threat and seeing a child who needed a friend. Isn't that just what Jesus would have done? Oh, to have faith like my child.

First Day of Kindergarten

Before we took Grace home from the hospital Jeremy was worried about how to pay for her wedding. I however was much more worried about how I would survive the day I would have to send her to kindergarten. I was of course sad (maybe teetering on heartbroken at times....)to have my precious baby girl away form me for so many hours in the day. I also knew it would totally change our lifestyle in many ways. So we have spent the whole past year packing in lot of traveling, play dates, and trips to grandma's house. Knowing these would have to be squeezed into weekends from now on.

With a month of summer school and a visit to see Grace's classroom to drop off her school supplies and meet Mrs. Prichett under our belt we felt like were were as prepared as we could be. Thursday August 18th finally arrived. Grace's first day of kindergarten.........and the good news is we both survived. Without even any tears!!!! (Well sort of I did cry earlier in the week during my prayer time with the Lord, but I thought that was a great place to cry.)

First Day of Kindergarten!

Looking SO grown up.
Daddy went into work late so he could get in on the big morning. He also made breakfast so our day had a great start.
We are once again walking to school which I love. It makes it easy for me to walk Grace into the building. The kids all go to the auditorium first so there aren't any pics of her classroom or teacher. I was so glad we had practiced this at summer school it made it lots easier.
Faith of course wanted to check out the construction sight which is looking a lot more like a school building every day.

Grace,

Your daddy and I wrestled with the decision to send you to public school. It was a decision that became more and more difficult as the day grew closer. I just love you so and would have loved to have you home with me all day. I miss you while you are at school and sometimes its so hard not being able to fully get "all the details" of what happened during your day. But, I know you will do great. You already love learning, making new friends, and your teacher. (You want to take her a thank you gift like every other day) I know you probably won't always feel this way about school, but I'm praying we have many years like that. And I wanted you to know that I already see the way you are shining the light of Jesus there and that makes me such a proud mama. Even though this has been hard for me you are beginning to flourish and that makes me smile.

Love you my favorite 5 year old AND kindergartner!

Mama

Summer Days Drifting Away

We decided to make sure our last day of summer was a fun one. So my friend Karen and I planned an agenda o' fun for the kids before Grace headed off to kindergarten and her babysitting kids headed back to school.

We started the day at Bonkers in Quincy. I had to laugh when I told Grace we were going to an indoor playground. She said she remembered and I realized she was talking about Burger King. So I said that this was way bigger. And then she remembered again and I realized she was talking about McDonalds. So I should have saved my $12.50 and went to McDonalds, because my kids aren't too adventurous and they played in the tiny 4 years and under section 98% of the time. But, its the thought that counts right?

Titus was none too adventurous- he was not a fan of the "holes" in the grid of straps.
Finally being a tiny bit brave...
He did love the slide, but he insisted on being carried up there. He wanted no part in trying to walk across himself.
Towards the end the kids started to melt down...




After Bonkers we headed to the park for a picnic. It worked out that Jeremy was able to meet us. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground equipment for a long time. I unfortunately was too busy chasing Titus to take any pictures. He seriously never stops moving and was way more interested in exploring than in any playground equipment. Maybe I can get some from Karen later.

Finally at about 2 o'clock we packed up to head back to Hannibal. When we got back we treated the kids to ice cream at DQ.

I know lots of families have a yearly fun ritual they do before school starts. I am looking forward to seeing what different fun "last day of summer" trips we can plan each year. I really thought going to get our nails done sounded fun but totally undoable for now. (I kept remembering how hard it was when I took Titus to our girls outing when he was a baby....no way was I trying that again.)

And I am already counting the days till next summer...

My "Little Mama"

I went in one morning to discover Grace sleeping like this. She had her baby crib pulled right next to the bed and all her babies lined up sleeping next to her. It reminded me of when my brand new babies slept in the pack n' play right next to me! She is such a little mama.

Your going to make a great mama one day my sweet girl!

Titus' First Haircut

I finally gave in to the "mullet haters" and gave Titus his first big boy haircut. It wasn't really as emotional as I expected it to be. I was even brave enough to cut in myself since he really just needed the back/his bangs trimmed.

Before:

Showing me his hair.
The front was just getting long enough to get in his eyes.
Cutting (Pictures courtesy of Grace)

After:



You look so handsome my little Mr. Man. Love you!