Vacation

Welcome to the belated vacation post. I didn't download my pictures until this morning. We had a great time! When the kids saw the pictures this morning, they would have liked to go back on vacation!

Our first stop was at the Pretzel Factory.

The Antique car is a BIG highlight. The car runs as well, but we weren't offered a ride so we just let the kids sit inside.

The bathtub in our old and dated 80's unit is always a hit with the kids. This year they were asking about it before we ever left. The tub is like a big red, round barrel.

Noah was especially fond of the the big tall bathtub and he jumped around in there until he had bruises. It was quite painful to watch, but he was happy nonetheless. :)

This was a new attraction for us. We've been to Bushkill Falls a few times, but this year we heard about Dingmans Falls and decided to give it a try. The trail was sooo nice, we could push the stroller and it was entirely free.

The "big" waterfall

We climbed the 124 steps to the top of the big waterfall. That was fun and left us out of breath!

Noah at the top of a waterfall = dangerous situation

Thankfully, there were railings.

Elijah and Sophia found this "Pet" as they call any animal or insect that they catch. Of course, they wanted to bring it home, but we convinced them it was best for the caterpillar to stay in the forrest.

Still to come...the latest Free Gift Bar offerings for Odd Lot Outlet. Stay tuned for this great excitement!!!!

Home

The vacation is over, we are home, and I am *trying* to get everything/everyone unpacked, put away, cleaned up, home schooled, laundered and everything else. It's slow progress. We left the house dirty and came home and it was still dirty. :) Not to mention full of all of our bags from vacation. When I say "bags" I do mean literal bags. We packed for vacation entirely with plastic grocery bags! It was the only way everything would fit in the van with the bikes.

We had a great time and visited new places as well as a few old places. I wasn't ready to come home, but coming home is always nice, kwim?! I hope to download my pictures soon and I will post some of them after that.

Happy Monday! I'm so glad it's not as hot today!!!

One week down and lots more excitement to come.

Well, the first week of school is over. Praise the Lord it went better than I thought it would. Sophia did a great job. Elijah loved doing MathUSee with us. After Math he said, "Mommy, this is my school!". It appears he may have the math bug passed down from his Father before him. And me, I was just so glad that Sophia remembered how to write her numbers and sentences. Perhaps I'm silly, but I am just so amazed that she can even write at all. To me, it's a miracle because I don't feel qualified or confident to be her teacher. Some teachers worry about penmanship, I'm just wowed that she writes! :)

We also had impromptu music "classes" this week. Sophia and Elijah asked if I would get out "that guitar under my bed" - it's a violin - we're very cultured over at the Anderson Place. Well, I got out me ole violin and they wanted me to play something. I started with my trademark, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and I wowed my audience! I finished with several rousing renditions of Twinkle Twinkle (of course) and a flat and squeaky Amazing Grace. It was a grand re-entrance to my violin career! Sophia took to screeching, I mean playing the violin and Elijah was phenominal on the pitch pipe. Noah and did a duet on the piano and I cannot imagine what the neighbors would have thought had the windows been open. I'm glad the Bible says, "make a joyful noise".

We tried other new things this week. I put stickers on a few of the piano keys so Sophia could learn to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano. She wasn't interested at first, but today she played it over and over and over and over. Did I mention that she has been "playing" the violin several times a day as well? Maybe this impromptu music was not such a good idea. :) My favorite memory of the week was playing some new, exciting tunes on me violin. Almost as soon as I got "that guitar from under my bed" out, they asked me to play some children's songs. Yes sirree, I had never heard of "Rolled Away" on the violin until this week. Another favorite was "Deep and Wide". Never has a violin sounded so graceful until it has squeaked out Deep and Wide!

Our annual Poconos vacation is coming up soon. I just remembered that we get to go here this year. Yes ma'am it's a happenin' place with aisles upon aisles of --- junk! The kids love it. Graeme loves it for about 20 minutes when he announces that we are leaving. I can never get through all the aisles of useless junk in just 20 minutes but we always end up coming home with useless contraptions and cheap toys. Did I mention that they have the Poconos' only Free Gift Bar? You get a free gift just for stopping by. The free junk, I mean gift is usually something incredibly useful like a paper mache trinket box with a cherub on top or a wooden doorhanger advertising the 1996 olympic team or something klassy like that. It's a real quality place...that's why we frequent it each and every year and it is looked forward to with great anticipation!

We also lurve this place. It has such a nice nature path...there's a suspension bridge and a stream and pond. It's very nice. We utilize the nature trail while I go into the pottery shop and look at all the pretties by myself. I can't imagine Noah aka Blaze in a store with stacks upon stacks of pottery and glassware. It would be a very dangerous thing. I usually never buy anything, but it's fun to look at it all.

We have some other places that we visit every year like the bakery where you can get a hot dog and apple pie for $1.50 - we're so cheap, The pretzel and chocolate factories, the bread bakery shop (Graeme's all time fav. stop), the outlets (I get to go sans kids, yippee), and a couple of restaurants where we get great coupons from this site. Why is food linked to a good vacation?! We don't do a whole lot each year because the Poconos is a very slow paced place and there's not that much to do, but it's fun. Fun to anticipate all of our favorite spots, fun to be together without the normal distractions.

Vacationing with little kids isn't completely relaxing, but it is refreshing because it's a break from the norm. After the day 3-4 I start to relax and get refreshed (by that I don't mean sleep refreshed :)) and the last days are filled with re-prioritizing, evaluating, and setting new goals for the days ahead. It's good to come apart once in a while. It helps me think about my values because I am removed from the normal routine.

But, before the vacation comes preparation, of which I have done next to none. I'd better get busy! Happy weekend all!

My Sweetie Pie two years ago

This is my Elijah two years ago, right around this 2nd birthday. This is one of my all time favorite family videos. He was just so cute and chubblicious at 2! He hardly talked at this age, but he did his trademark pig impersonation. He also didn't know how to say the word "yes" so any answer in the affirmative was "I do". That made for some funny question and answer times.

Right now Noah is about the same age as Elijah was in this video. I can't believe how much Elijah has changed and how I know Noah is going to change just as quickly. Seeing how much E has changed makes me want to relish in my baby Noah all the more because I know that I will blink and he will be almost four just like his big brother! Time, slow down!

New Look

I was getting tired of pink. It was starting to hurt my eyes, was it bothering your too?

We have enjoyed the last few days in the great out of doors of our back yard. It's amazing how dirty the kids (boys especially) become after playing outside. I discovered from one of my friends, the secret to removing all the sand from the little boys...baby powder. You probably already know all about this, but it was news to me and it helps sooo much! I can't tell you how many times I have opened Noah's diaper after playing outside to find it full of sand, and I could never figure out how to get it off short of a bath. Now, not only is the sand gone, he is powder fresh, voila!

We have finished school day number three...woo-hoo!

First Week

The first week of school is going fine. I think I am going to like our curriculum choices this year, but I won't know for sure until the end of the year. What I like about them is that they are simple and to the point.

Sophia is still into catching butterflies. She has caught several of the common types so now she lets them go because she has so many of them pinned (poor butterflies). We don't have many of the larger kinds in our yard because we don't have any plants, but Graeme caught a monarch at our park and I caught a couple of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails at my Mom's. We need the black Swallowtail yet, so hopefully we'll catch that one soon. I am so amazed by all the different varieties and the beauty of each one. She caught a tiny little butterfly the other evening and the detail of it was just amazing. I never realized there were so many varieties of butterflies in our area until Sophia took up butterfly hunting. It's so fun to watch her run around the field till she's red faced and out of breath, net in hand, shouting at the butterflies as she goes about. I love that she has taken up an interest that she enjoys. It gives me another glimpse into her and what she is all about.

I hope to soon finally have curtains up in her room and do some decorating in there. Can you guess what she wants for her bedroom? Butterflies, of course! Thankfully it seems butterflies are a popular decor choice.

The house is mostly "done" (I use the word done loosely) except for the main living areas (kitchen, family room, LR/DR). Why did I wait til the end to do the areas I look at all day long? Anyway, onward and upward, tomorrow is another busy day...

Ready or not...

here we come! We are starting school tomorrow. Sophia is in first grade this year and Elijah is in wannabe school. Noah is hopefully still going to be in "nap school" when we do school.

Last year we started in the very end of July. I was so nervous to start school because I had no idea what to expect. This year I know more of what to expect, but truthfully, I'm not ready. I'm ready as in I have a lesson plan book with lesson plans, all of our school books and a basic plan for the year, but I just don't feel ready. We going on vacation soon and I've got that on my mind not to mention curtains and house stuff. Sometimes you just have to do what you know to be right whether or not you feel like doing it, kwim?! I know it's time to start school, so ready or not here we come!

BTW, my sister and I went curtain/fabric shopping today and did anyone else go to Chick-fil-a for the free chicken strips if you wore a team logo shirt? One of us didn't have a team logo shirt so she printed out a logo on a piece of paper and pinned it to her shirt. We'll stoop to new lows for free Chick-fil-a! We also used coupons for free chicken sandwiches at McDonalds. It was so much fun! However, after an unfortunate incident, I locked Abbi's keys in her car....can you believe it!!!! After last week. Fortunately, we were close to home so Scott came and rescued us. It was a very embarrassing moment. :) When will I learn?

Ps. In case you were wondering, I don't think Sophia was trying to assassinate her dolls, I think she was just playing with them and swinging them. It just looked so funny! She loves yarn, she does all sorts of unique things with it. She pulls cars and trucks with it, she plays horsey with her brother with it. When Graeme got a remote controlled heliocopter for Christmas she wanted to hang one of her toys from it so it could go up in the sky, and I cannot begin to tell you all the many items she has hung from the loft in our family room all with a $1.50 skein of yarn from Wal*mart. It doesn't take much to entertain in this house. :)

Signing off so I am rested and ready to take the homeschool plunge tomorrow...