Snow!

A nice evening to be out in the yard...

Our sweet potato plants got attacked by deer for the second time, so we harvested them a little earlier than we planned (the rest of our garden is safe in our fenced backyard).

Here's what we got from starting with just one original sweet potato:

After that, I spent some time trying to capture some good photos of the kids. Here's some of what I managed to get:

 

she was actually posing for this one

my sweet boy

trying to get all three together

feeding the cat some grass

then running from the tickle monster

is that trouble or what?

The Summer

I used to not want a full week to go by without blogging and now look how I've let this slip. A month and a half! Well, first I started my other blog which divided my blogging attention and then a semi-major shift happened at home.

Preschool (5 mornings a week) stopped for Erin and Noah and suddenly I had them all at home all the time. We went right into homeschooling back in June (sitting around with unstructured days would have driven us all mad) and most of my "free" time has been focused on what to do for homeschooling or just taking a moment to relax.

So what has been going on over the summer? Well, as I said, since June we have been homeschooling. The mornings are preschool time with all three, and then Erin gets Kindergarten time while the boys nap. I have been polishing up our routine (I viewed the summer as more of a practice time for me) and I think we've got a pretty good thing going. The kids seem to like it and I do too.

Prior to right now, I don't think I've mentioned on here that we decided to homeschool. At one point I drafted up a long post as to why we're doing it, but I never posted it. Basically, we have a long list as to why we feel we want to keep our kids out of public school and homeschooling seems to be a good fit for us. We will evaluate year by year if it's what we want to keep doing, but I can certainly see us doing this long term.

Aside from schooling, we took a trip to the beach (Topsail Island, just past Wilmington) in August. We stayed at a house that is owned on Sean's side of the family. Had Luke been a little older, I think it would have been a better trip. There were certain areas of the house we just couldn't child-proof and he was a major headache in the house. Also, he didn't much care for the ocean (water or sand). But we did have good times too, it was basically a mix of wonderful and horrible....

Another event over the summer was back in July when Luke had outpatient surgery to remove a cyst on his chest (actually, you can see the little red scar above his blue collar in the above photo). A few days after the surgery, it started to get infected and it ended up that he had a staph infection. It got pretty nasty, even giving him an actual 1/4 inch in diameter hole in his chest...but all ended well as the antibiotics did their job. That was a scary few days as we didn't know how bad it was going to get (the most common strand of staph infection is very resistant to antibiotics).

Other minor summer events...we just put a new roof on the house and we have committed plans for new windows (yay home ownership!) We went to the Atlanta aquarium back in June, Erin just started a Ballet class and Noah has outgrown his peanut allergy! (although not the tree nut) Oh, and my birthday was yesterday...welcome mid-thirties.

That's about it. Looking forward to a break in the heat as we get into Fall. I hope to pick the blogging back up, but no promises. I have gotten severely slack in taking photos of the kids. But maybe as we have nicer weather it will prompt me to snap a few.

Till then...

Learning the things of the world can be a funny thing

I was just reminded of how much Erin has to learn. So many little things.

A few minutes ago, I was folding laundry on my bed. Erin comes in a watches me for a minute. She asks why daddy has long underwear (as in boxers). I told her that men either wear boxers or briefs like Noah has.

Then I told her that briefs are sometimes called "tighty whities" and we both laughed hysterically for a good 30 seconds.

Aquarium Trip

Last weekend we went to the aquarium in Atlanta. It was fun, but a bit overwhelming on a Saturday afternoon (last time we went was just before Noah was born and it was a weekday morning).

Next time we go, I want to be past the stroller stage. Somehow I had it in my head that Luke would sit quietly and be observant as we walked around. The kid was a wild man and did not want to be in that stroller.

But we survived and I think everyone had a good time.

A big day

When the house is full of yelling children running around (whether because of playing or fighting), I think how nice it would be for a quiet moment. But when I get one, it's always way too quiet and I miss the noise.

Right now both boys are napping and Erin is off on her first day at her week-long summer day camp. She's over on Lake Greenwood and I'm sure she's having a great time.

Aside from her time at preschool, or on the rare occasion that we either travel without the kids or have a night out, she's always with me. When the boys nap, that's our time to do something together (or for her to play independently while I get stuff done - but still, she's around).

So obviously, I miss my little girl who is growing up so fast. She's 5. FIVE! I remember when she was a baby and thinking that someday she would be a 5 year old...that seemed weird and like such a distant future time.

And now here she is, and she's spending some time away from home. Selfishly I don't like it...I want to be a part of everything she does. But I know it doesn't work that way. As the kids grow older, I know I'll have some letting go to do. It's just hard when they start out needing you for everything.

But I guess it's good that it's a gradual transition. They don't go from 3 to 18 overnight.

***

Another reason it's a big day is that it's Noah's first day of potty training. We've been talking to him about it on and off for several weeks now. A couple times I've brought out the little blue potty for him to try.

So far today he has had one accident. I put the Gerber vinyl pants on over his underwear and it contained the pee so well that I didn't even know he had already gone until I was having him try to go. And of course he hadn't told me. But it's the first accident and it's only been half a day. We're in progress...

Preschool Graduate...

(for us to remember) Left to Right:
Zac, Mac, Erin, Amber, Jacob, Riser,
Lilliana, Delia, Maddison

Erin the Artist

For a long time now, Erin has loved coloring, drawing and painting. And lately, she has gotten really good at it. I have started becoming more and more impressed with what she brings me.

So forgive me, but I must brag a little:

Carrot garden

Duck in a pond

Beaver by an apple tree

Bees in the wind

An angel flying above baby Jesus' crib

Tinkerbell

Blue whale

The Big 5

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Say Cheese (Part II)

Brought the camera out again after dinner to try and get my good 8x10 shots. Got some good ones:

 

 

Say Cheese

Tonight while the kids were playing in the backyard after dinner, I brought out the camera to try to get some good head shots of them. I want to replace our terribly outdated 8x10's on the wall.

I was trying to get either Noah or Luke, since Erin's hair was wet. I got one for Noah, but no luck with Luke (they mostly came out blurry or with half-closed eyes). But I did get a cute one of him clapping for himself after he successfully climbed to the top of the slide ladder.

 

  

The Kids

 

 

 

Luke's new favorite place to climb

And there's no child-proofing gadget that can keep this from happening...except the word "no" which doesn't seem to have much effect.

***

Quote of the day

Erin to Noah:

"Yeah! We can play Ariel. I'll be Ariel and you can be the ugly squid."

Germs and Molars

Sorry for the absence. We've had a germy household for the past two weeks. Luke has a cold (which means I'm ready with a rag after every sneeze), I've had a cough for several days and Erin has also been sick with a cough, and added a fever to it last night. I took her in to see the doctor this morning and she's got a double ear infection. So at least the medicine can get her feeling better soon.

And in addition to sicknesses, Luke has a back tooth coming in, possibly a molar. So he's been extra cranky and super extra drooly.

But on a more positive note, he's learning new things. The other day I let him hold a spoon and try to feed himself. Now he's all about it and gets quite mad at me if I try to feed him without his help. He's okay at it, not great. But I'm glad he's learning, because soon I'll be able to put food in front of him and be free to do other things (like get food for the other two).

Also, he's creeping ever so slowly along with his words. Here's his 5 word (or phrase) vocabulary:

Uh-oh
Ba-ba (bye-bye)
Ticka-ticka-ticka (tickle, tickle, tickle)
Ahhhh-daaaaaaaa (all done, meaning his bowl is empty)

and now for word #5: pee-pee

Both day-dreaming

Erin, ready for her wedding:

and Noah being attacked by the Elmo chair during his nap:

Crazy kids

The new thing they like to do now is strip down to their underwear (or diaper) and run around yelling and smacking their bellies. They have included Luke in this and he finds it hilarious. As soon as Erin takes off his shirt, he starts walking and smacking his belly. He's such a copy cat :)

Just now, the added a new level. They made capes out of a blanket and one of Erin's dresses and now they are the Wonder Pets.

Paris Mountain

I'm finally getting around to putting up these pictures from last weekend. We took a half-day-trip to Paris Mountain for a nice walk around the lake, a picnic and a little playtime on the playground. It was a good day.