Today was the investiture for Adventurers...the "graduation" to the next class if you will. Since this was Aubree's first year, it was obviously her first investiture as well so Calleigh took it upon herself to describe in great detail everything there was to know about the day even though Aubree has attended both of the investitures of Calleigh's.  "Aubs, we go up on stage, and we get our trophies and we get our needles (this is what they call the pins that they get), and, and, and, afterwards we get to go and have goodies. You get to have a chocolate chip cookie and an Oreo cookie and other snacks." The investiture wasn't until 3:30 so they had the whole day to look forward to it.  I heard Calleigh mention at least three or four times, "I can't wait until investiture." I love to see their enthusiasm! Grandma and Grandpa came which made it extra special too.  The stinky thing was the program was smack dab in the middle of nap time (including mine!) but we maneuvered things by putting the boys down by 1:30 and letting them sleep until 3:00 and then I hightailed it to the church.  Duncan went a little earlier with the girls.

For each class, they pick a boy and a girl who is the "Adventurer of the Year" based on your attendance to the meetings (and whether you were on time), wearing your uniform to church on the first Sabbath of the month, and helping with the offering.  Points are awarded for these things and whoever has the most points, wins the award.  We didn't miss any meetings or were late although we did miss two Sabbaths of wearing uniforms (the first one when I didn't have a uniform yet for Aubs and the second was when we were gone for Leadership weekend for Duncan's work) but the girls did the offering like four times.  So I knew they had a pretty good chance.  I warned them though that they might not win.  We got to the part of the program where each class goes up on stage to get their trophies (everyone gets one of those) and Aubree's group was first, the Little Lambs.  Sure enough, when they announced the winners, Aubree's name was called. We weren't sure she even heard them say that she had won because she was standing there with a blank smile on her face but she said afterwards that she did. Her prize was a Target gift card (guessing it's $10).

Calleigh's group, Busy Bees, was third up on stage.  There is only one other girl in her class and she didn't ever do the offering so I figured Calleigh had a pretty good chance. Alas, they ended up giving it to two boys this time.  Oh well!  I was wondering how Calleigh would react to Aubree winning and not her but she was great.  She wasn't mad or jealous at all and was really excited for Aubree.  She did ask Aubree if they could share the gift card though and Aubree, being the sweetie that she is, said, "of course." And so ends our Adventurers year.

Brady wanted to get into the picture.

Apparently so he could make faces.

Going back to the beginning of the week....Sunday I had another dream day.  A Corey day. I call it taking a personal day since I'm taking a day off work so to speak.  We finally got a Sunday where we didn't have something going on so I decided to cash in on the coupon Duncan had given me for my birthday of a "day without the kids." I left the house at about nine and went to some yard sales in our neighborhood and then on to four Goodwills. The yard sales were mainly a dud until I got to the Isidros and bought a cute giraffe chair from them that used to be Braelyn's.  It goes great in Colby's jungle/safari themed room.  So that worked out nicely!  I had to pop back home mid-day to feed Colby since I didn't want to go twelve hours without nursing him (which would have entailed pumping while I was on my journey) but it was all good. Awww, these days are so wonderful.  Can't wait for Mother's Day!

Duncan took the kids to a festival in Winter Garden while I was gone.

McDonald's was giving out free smoothies.

Guess it was good.

My favorite firefighter.

The rest of the week was mainly uneventful with just our usual trips to Publix, Target, CVS, and Costco.  If Calleigh had her way, we would never go anywhere.  Monday's are her favorite day because usually it is a "home day" where we don't leave the house.  In fact, this past Wednesday she didn't even get out of her pajamas the whole day and she was very pleased with this.  On other days when I tell her to get dressed because we are going to Publix or wherever it is we are going, she always gives a big groan and says "Oh, I wish it was a home day." The great thing about Calleigh is that she is more than happy to entertain herself playing polly pockets or something else in her room.  I rarely ever hear her say that she is bored.  Apparently she would make a good only child which she laments about pretty much on a daily basis (wishing she were one!).  

Target.  I can neither confirm or deny that I first wiped down that bar that Colby appears to be sucking on.

Costco

So this is really a thing, huh?

I haven't been very good about planning out lesson plans for school in advance so it was with surprise on Wednesday that I opened our school books to discover that it was our 100th day of school which apparently is somewhat of a big deal...We don't really have school on Fridays so this is part of the reason why our 100th day is so late in the school year (and also we started several weeks late).  So yay!  We made it to this milestone.  We are still having our good days and our not so good days with school which I'm sure will be the story for the next two decades.  I did have some excitement this week though on the reading front with Calleigh.  I haven't mentioned it on here but I've been somewhat discouraged with Calleigh's lack of enthusiasm for reading. She knows how to do it but she hasn't progressed at the pace that I had envisioned. I taught myself to read at the age of four or five and I've loved reading passionately since that day.  I used to read books as a kid next to the nightlight in my room after we were supposed to be in bed because I couldn't get enough.  Indeed, if I had no kids or a job, I could live a happy life just reading all day and night. Anywho, somehow you picture your kids being the same way and I'm having to adjust my thinking at least so far. Calleigh loves to pretend to read and she loves getting a book read to her but she doesn't just pick up a book and read it.  At least until a couple of days ago.  We had a "Learn to Read" Fancy Nancy book which I found on one of our shelves.  I brought that out and she did very well reading it and seemed to enjoy it so that night I went on the library website and using our three library cards, I ordered like 25 of them to be delivered here.  They were delivered a couple of days ago and we've been using them for our extra school reading. But then on Thursday she confided to me that she had read one of them by herself the previous evening.  Oh, if that didn't make my week!  Then tonight, she offered to read me another one before bed. Please, please let this continue.

Hitting the 100th day in her nightgown.

On the Colby front, this week he started eating puffs so we now have a new distraction item to add to our repertoire. I'm trying to keep him in his highchair while I make supper since he still screams when I leave him in the living room with his toys and my back is really starting to kill me with him in the Bjorn after a little while.  I'm feeding him two solid meals a day and am looking forward to getting to some real food and not this baby food stuff in the not too distant future.  I weighed him this week and he's up past 18 pounds (at 7+ months) so he's doing great with his growing.  He's getting really, really close to crawling and my suspicions are that he'll be doing so by my next blog entry.  I'm hoping that will improve his disposition since he'll be able to come find me.  Or, it may mean that he'll just crawl to my feet and sit there and cry instead of crying where I left him.  But, he's still sleeping great at night so I'm not going to let this other stuff get me down!

Trying puffs for first time.

Getting close.

Finally got his hand on it.

This week we harvested some Brussels sprouts from the garden and they've been fantastic.  Duncan put some garlic, lime juice, and salt on them and roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes.  They were so crispy and delicious.  Imagine my delight when Calleigh decided to try one.  She has been pretty steadfast in her distaste for them although Aubree gobbles them up along with every other vegetable.  Turns out she loves them prepared this way and kept asking when we were going to make more.  Ahh, the little things that thrill a parent's heart!  The only thing that could have made it better is if Brady would try some.  But nope. We still have some of the Brussels sprouts growing over the next few weeks and then they'll be cleared out because they don't do well in the heat.  For this summer's growing season, we're putting in tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, pole beans, and watermelon.  

Before going into the oven.

I've mentioned that Calleigh is having a problem with that cyst on her eye and I'm in the process of getting her an appointment with an ophthalmologist for that.  In the meantime, I'm dealing with some eye issues of my own.  I've been wearing contacts for 20 years now and have rarely ever had any problems but that's all changed since last summer.  It all stems from going over some friends' house up in Maine during campmeeting to watch the Bruins game and having my eyes irritated from what I believe was cat fur in the carpet.  My eye (I've only had a problem with my left eye through all of this) got incredibly itchy from that and I had problems all week.  Since that time, I haven't been able to sleep with my contacts in (something I did frequently without ever having an issue) and in fact, the past few weeks, I haven't even been able to take a nap with them in.  If I do, within a few hours, my left eye becomes irritated and itchy.  And then I can't wear my contacts the next day either and I have to throw those contacts out and put new ones in.  This morning I finally opened a new box of contacts (Accuvue Oasys with Hydraclear) I had ordered at the end of last year to get them before our reimbursement ended and when I put it in, my eye was all blurry and I could really even see out of it.  I thought maybe that one was a dud so I tried another one, same problem.  I still had some old contacts for my right eye (right eye is 2.5 while left is 2.75) so I put one of those in the left and it was fine.  So now it appears this new brand of contacts don't work for me after I ordered four boxes. The eye doctor told me to get this brand so I don't know if I can take up this problem with him or what. Anyway, the bigger problem is that this is incredibly frustrating and now I'm thinking about Lasik although I really don't feel like spending that kind of money or having it done when I have an infant.  We shall see though.  Ha. We. shall. see.  I'm up to more inadvertent jokes at this late hour.    

Just one quote to wrap things up.  As I noted above, Calleigh would seemingly be happy as an only child. Oh, she loves playing with Aubree and 95% of the time they get along great and play in happy accord but there are a few moments here and there when she gets really frustrated with her or more likely Brady who will come along and wreck something she's setting up.  Then she starts spouting off all kind of things, saying she wishes she didn't have a sister or brother or wishes she had her own room, etc.  Most of the time Aubree doesn't say anything when Calleigh gets on these rants (and they are definitely rants) but this time she spoke up.
Calleigh:"I wish I didn't have any siblings.  Siblings are SO disgusting!!"
Aubree: "Well, I guess YOU are disgusting then because YOU are a sibling."
That shut Calleigh up for a few minutes while she pondered that one.

A few final pictures.

Last Adventurers meeting of the year on Wednesday night.

Taking baths in the big tub now.

The boys wrestling.

A yard sale freebie.  Brady saw this at a yard sale and when I said "no," he started to cry.  So the lady gave it to him for free.  Glad I can teach my kid that if he cries he gets stuff!

Helping little sister button her uniform shirt.

We got one of those "Where's George" stamps on this dollar bill so we entered it into the computer to see where it had been.  Apparently people are real curmudgeons because it was only logged once back in 2011 in NC.

Have a great week.

The blueberry farm not far down the road from us has opened for the season so this past Sunday morning we trotted on over to pick some berries.  With my new found love of frozen blueberries with whip cream, I didn't have to think twice.  The Isidros (minus Tangie) joined us on our escapade.  At first, it was slim pickings (many berries weren't ripe yet) but eventually I came to an area with a lot more.  There is something just really enjoyable about picking berries although I would say this experience can't quite compare to picking wild raspberries up in Nova Scotia off our own property and for free.  Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed myself as did the kids who didn't complain or anything despite our being there for over an hour.  I thought each kid performed pretty much to their personality.  First we had Calleigh who picked for a little while but then got tired and scared off by bees (she has been freaked out by bees/wasps for weeks now since we had a small nest on our patio) and decided to hang out with Braelyn, chatting and what have you. She then picked a few more and found some giant berries she was proud of.  Next we had Aubree, my little worker bee, who was a very serious picker, picking the whole time and ended up with a half bucket full compared to the full bucket that Duncan and I both picked.  Not bad for a four year old!  Next was Brady who hung out next to me.  For the first fifteen minutes he diligently picked berries for his bucket but then decided it would be much more fun to just eat them.  So he picked and ate, moved on to eating what was in his bucket and then finally tried to eat some out of mine.  But seriously, every time, EVERY TIME, he was about to pick one, he would say "Is this one okay, Mom?" Apparently he was very concerned he would get a green, unripened one.  And yes, he doesn't know his colors that well yet but to his credit, every time he asked, it was always a blue one.  Finally, we had Colby who Duncan had in the Bjorn the whole time.  He was perfectly well behaved but kept trying to grab all the berries off the branches so Duncan finally had to just start mushing the berries in his fingers and giving them to him.  Colby was quite pleased with this.  So there you have it.

Classic Brady face.

Those would soon be gone.

Her giant blueberry.  Or is her hand just small?

 Eventually Duncan's back could take it now more so we left thousand of berries behind and went to pay. We ended up with fifteen pounds of berries at $4 a pound.  Not bad for a little over an hour.  So what does one do with $60 of blueberries?  We froze about 2/3 of them and the rest we have been enjoying our our cereal, of course.  Or, if one is Allen Isidro, you make fancy salads and salad dressings.


As for the rest of the week...Monday was a home day for us per our usual and much to Calleigh's delight. Tuesday we just HAD to go to Target because the girls had to get something with Aubree's gift card from Adventurers.  We also stopped at Payless to look for sandals for the girls.  Aubree has pretty much the most confusing feet ever.  I guess it must be because they're thin or something but if you measure her foot, it comes out to an 11 or 11.5.  But yet she's wearing a size 9 Croc because a 10 is too big.  If you put her in a size 10 sandal, her toes are getting to the end but most of the time, it will at least fit properly around her ankle.  If you go to an 11 sandal, it's too loose around the ankle although the toes fit correctly.  She's inherited many shoes from Calleigh, obviously, but if the sandals have a regular clasp, rather than the Velcro, you can't get it tight enough.  This all drives me nuts!

Tuesday night we hopped over with the Begherms to Chik Filet for their family night which included Easter festivities complete with a mini petting zoo, egg hunt, and face painting.  They used to have the kids eat free deal every Tuesday night but stopped it last year so we rarely ever go unless they have some big event going on.  Of course, their menu is full of chicken, strangely enough, so it presents a challenge sometimes when ordering.  We used to ask for a grilled cheese (a hamburger bun with a piece of cheese) which they would just swap out of the kids meal for the chicken nuggets.  We would get all the kid's meal items for free...drink, fruit, and toy.  Well, now that we hardly ever go, apparently they are out of practice with this request because when I asked for it, the lady seemed all confused and had to ask a manager if they could do a bun with cheese.  Come on.  Could it get any easier than that?  She found out they could but then she had to ring it up all separately which makes it comes out way more expensive then the kid's meal.  I politely expressed my frustration with this concept but to no avail.  Sometimes it is a real pain to be a vegetarian.  I dream of going into a restaurant one day such as this and they just swap out the real chicken for Morningstar chicken. If only it were that simple!

He still only gets his arm painted.  And always a shark.  Can you see him holding his left hand steady with his right hand?  He stays SO still.  Who says toddlers can't stay focused?

What's up with that face, Brady?

 Wednesday morning we went to the consignment store to find some summer 3T pajamas for Brady. Apparently Camden never wore 3T pajamas in the summer because all he passed down were cold weather ones. But then, after this past winter up there, I can see where a kid could perhaps go through a whole size and never need clothes for a different season.  I found about six or seven pairs of pajamas and Brady was just thrilled. This is good and bad.  I'm glad he liked them but unfortunately he also is starting to display displeasure with some of this clothes.  For example, the handsome shirts.  You may recall that these are the button up shirts that he often wears to church...the name being derived from us saying he looks handsome. He doesn't like to wear these and he'll put up a fuss if I try to put one on him.  Each morning over the past few weeks, he's been picking out his own clothes and bringing them downstairs during breakfast.  As you can imagine, they mostly don't match.  But you know that saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day?  Well, about once a week by pure chance, I'm sure, it ends up matching.  At first, he would want me to get him dressed but he's now starting to take his pajamas off by himself and put his outfit on.  I think this is something they asked about when he turned two, if he was interested in doing it.  So maybe he's a little behind on that front but at least he's doing it before hitting three!  But yeah, don't know if I'm completely thrilled with the interest in clothes.  I thought I was leaving this all behind by having a boy.

Yesterday was to be my book club meeting with my neighborhood ladies.  I forgot to mention the meeting last month which went very nicely.  The lady who was hosting the meeting last night got to pick the book we were reading this past month which was "The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" by Fannie Flagg.  It's about a 60-year old lady who finds out she was updated as an infant.  And boy, was she whiny.  I quickly determined that I didn't care for the book but I plowed ahead so I could contribute to the meeting.  On Tuesday morning, Duncan told me that there was a 5k race on Thursday evening at Lake Eola (downtown Orlando) and that a bunch of people from work were going to be in it.  A babysitter did not work out so alas, I wasn't able to go to the meeting.  On the one hand, this was a little bit of a relief because then I didn't have to finish the book.  On the other hand, it also meant that I had read 2/3 of a book that I didn't like for nothing!  Ironically the meeting was in the house pretty much across the street from mine so I sat outside as the ladies arrived and was able to make a few comments on the book before they went in.  And really, the more I thought about it, I suppose I would feel bad for saying I didn't like the book or else the lady picking it might feel bad.  How does that work in book clubs anyway since I'm sure there are many times when people don't like books?  Not sure what book club etiquette dictates.  As the ladies went inside, I told them I would be at the next meeting...until I thought about it for a second and realized I had just texted my mom that in four weeks we would be together.  Oops.  Yup, my mom is coming for the weekend next month and will be arriving at 7 pm on book club night.  Oh well.  You're worth it Mom!

At the playground while Daddy is at the 5k.

Every parent thinks their kid is adorable, right?  So you will indulge me when you see that I've posted a bunch of the same picture just because seeing Brady's different faces makes me smile.

Due to some crummy weather and it being Good Friday/Easter weekend, there weren't many yard sales today although I still found a few things.  We did, however, make another stop at a consignment store as I'm only the lookout for some sandals for Brady this time.  Since I've posted about several bad experiences I've had at the Once Upon a Child on East Colonial in Orlando, I thought it would be fitting to post a positive experience I had at one, albeit at a different location in Altamonte Springs.  As a refresher, a few years ago I got annoyed because my purchase came to like $29.93 and the lady wouldn't give me a third stamp on my customer appreciation card.  You get a stamp for every $10 and when you get 20 stamps, you get 15% off a future purchase.  Today, my total came to $26 something.  The cashier, who I believe must be the owner, let me pick an Easter egg out that happened to have a coupon for 10% my purchase.  So now it was $23 something.  She started a new card for me and as she stamps it she says "$10, $20, and up to $30" as she gives me three stamps.  I said "Oh, so you gave me three stamps even though it only came to $23?" She says "Yes, I always round up." I proceeded to tell her my bad experience at the other store and she couldn't believe it.  She said "Why would they do that?  It doesn't make any sense.  It's a customer appreciation card. You should make the extra effort for customers to feel appreciated.  Besides, you have to have 20 stamps to get 15% off.  It's not that much!!" Yes, lady, it does seem like common sense that some people just don't get.

Also went to Costco today...and ran into Allen and the kids.

I thought for sure I would be reporting that Colby was crawling but he's just not quite there yet.  He is moving and getting from point A to B but I wouldn't precisely label it crawling.  Next week!  His food repertoire is expanding however with first bits of ice cream, macaroni, strawberries, blueberries, and watermelon.  All but the first he's had in baby food form or sucked on through a strainer but now I'm giving them to him as the real thing, cut up very small, of course.  So far, no problems.  He loves everything.  I'm feeding him meals for breakfast and supper with little snacks at lunchtime.  We're still nursing five times a day but the three sessions besides first thing in the morning and in the evenings, are very quick...often less than 10 minutes.  I need to look and see at my nursing history to see when a session can be dropped.  It would be nice to wear a dress to church that doesn't have to be nursing friendly.

His eye is on the prize...ice cream!

Checking out, or should I say, pulling out books at the library.

We finally got his name up.  When Duncan first hung the letters up, he stepped back and realized he had spelled COBLY.  Oops.  Obviously he fixed it.

Finally, I'll wrap up with a quote.  Let me preface this by saying it is involves Aubree being in time out and as I gave her the timeout, it occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time she was in a time out. Calleigh and Brady have been in them plenty of times but it's clearly been a LONG time since Aubree was in one.  I always thought the middle children were the ones more to act out so they could get attention (at least, that's how it was with my siblings!) but that is definitely not the case in this family...although I guess we have two middle children so Brady could be a different story.  Anyway, Aubree was in timeout because in the morning I had discovered she had left a cup with water in it on her bedroom floor which had subsequently spilled all over the carpet.  This wasn't the first time this had happened so I told her if it happened again, she would be in time out.  A few hours later, she does the same thing downstairs and of course, that cup gets spilled too. So off she goes into my bedroom for a short respite, tears flowing.
Me:"Aubree, I told you that if you did that again you would be in time out."
Aubree:"But I forgot!"
Me: "Well, hopefully you will remember next time since you've had this time out.
Aubree:"But that's not fair.  I didn't remember that rule so you're cheating!"
Me: "Please sit on that chair and think about it."
I close the bedroom door but I can hear her wailing in there from the living room.  Brady seems to be very upset at Aubree being upset so he says he wants to go in there and see her.  I kept telling him no but finally he runs over to the door and lets himself in.  He comes out a few seconds later.
Me: "Brady, I told you not to go in there.  Aubree is in time out and we don't talk to people in time out."
Brady: "I saw Aubree and I support her."

Support her?  Where does he get this stuff from??

Have a Happy Sabbath!

Early this week the event we knew was coming came to fruition...Colby started crawling. According to my blog and my memory (I didn't start blogging until Calleigh was 10 months old), this is a week or two after Calleigh crawled, five weeks before Brady, and a whopping three months before Aubree.

The crawling has had the effect that I was hoping for.  Previously when I put him down in the living room and I went into the kitchen to cook, clean up or whatever, he couldn't see me which I presume was the cause of his acute displeasure.  Now I see his little face poking around the side of the couch and into the kitchen he comes.  Yesterday Duncan had the three other kids (henceforth to be called "Calaubra") and it was just Colby and I.  I actually wanted to run to Target but realized that Duncan had the car seat in the van so I was out of luck.  Thusly, I was inspired to clean my microwave and cabinets (the latter of which probably hadn't been done since before Colby was born...thank goodness I don't have white any more) so I thought, "What if I took out a few pots and pans for Colby to play with?  Would that work?" Amazingly, it did!  I almost had to pinch myself.  Could this really be happening?  Could Colby go this long without fussing and crying for me to pick him up?  Ahhh, bliss!  So God bless crawling.




This past weekend was certainly a busy one between church, the twins' birthdays, and various Easter festivities.  Sabbath got off to a pretty rough start.  On Sabbaths I make an attempt to dress the family (or at least the five of us who I have a say on what we wear) in matching colors.  The color this week was green. Everybody was dressed except for me who is always the last one ready.  I was frantically putting my dress on, checking the clock to see if I would have time to do something with my hair when Duncan comes in with Aubree in tow.  He had spent the last five minutes trying to get pink marker stains off the front of her dress after Brady had thrown a marker at her.  Yes, they were killing time on Sabbath morning by drawing with markers.  How nice for them.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered Brady also had marker on his vest (although not from Aubree retaliating).  No amount of cleaning would get it off.  Not wanting to ruin our green theme for the day, I decided to ignore the marks and hope that no one noticed I was bringing sloppy looking children to church.  Perhaps it was all an omen because half way to church, a button on my dress came off, rendering one of the two straps holding my dress up completely useless.  But I refused to give in! Instead, I tied the two straps around my neck and hopefully no one was the wiser.  One can only hope that tomorrow goes more smoothly.

The boys in their green playing before lunch.

Saturday evening we were at the Isidros for Maddy and Kohlden's fourth birthday.  We had a nice potluck supper while the kids played outside in the somewhat chilly weather, oddly enough (I say oddly because it's been like 90 the past few days and will be for the foreseeable future).  I took Colby home to bed (so nice to live close.  Have I mentioned that?) while Duncan stayed with Calaubra to paint Easter eggs and other crafts. We are excited that the twins are now four as they will be in the same Sabbath School class as Aubree starting in July.

Cakes courtesy of Jennifer, of course!

My boy knows how to party...shirtless and showing off his police car tattoo.  Keep back, ladies!!

Sunday was Easter and as is our tradition, we went over Ron and Elaine's for a lovely breakfast and Easter egg hunt.  We met there at 9:30 with the Idisros, Bergherms (minus Bruce) and Ricky and Ana.  Duncan and Allen decided to ride their bikes over so they took a 45 mile circuitous route and were there waiting when we all arrived...a little stinky but what's some sweat between friends?  Elaine made her famous French Toast and we all contributed an item or two and I must say, it's really one of my favorite meals of the year. But then, I've always been a breakfast person.  The hunt went great, despite the chilly temps, and the kids all enjoyed themselves but Aubree came up to me at the end and asked "When's the big suprise?" A few months ago Elaine decided to get a pinata for the event and I think we must have told the kids that there would be something special this year.  A couple of nights ago, after talking with Allen, Elaine decided to save the pinata and have a Cinco de Mayo party because she will be celebrating 50 years in the US on May 5.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have forgotten to pass this memo on to Aubree who was very disappointed since gathering dozens of Easter eggs and getting a bunch of candy and trinkets is just not special enough, apparently.   Hopefully the pinata in a few weeks will meet her high standards.  By the way, it's not always a good idea to tell your kids you have a surprise for them because a) if you tell them in advance, there's a decent chance it won't happen and b) often the surprise is much smaller than their expectations.  For example, you say "I have a GREAT surprise for you!  Guess what it is??!" And they say, "We're going to Legoland tomorrow??" And then you say "Ahh, no. I got some new Popsicles at Publix." Fail.

Throwback to 2011.

That isn't his hat but it looked cute.

After Ron and Elaine's we came home to recuperate for a few hours and then it was off to the Hilliard estate for Easter 2.0.  They have a big shindig every year with, I don't know, a hundred people counting kids. Jennifer helps host it so that means you know you'll be getting some really good treats which we did.  It's a potluck and I always try to figure out something unique to bring but this year I just went with PB&J because that way I know there will be at least something there Brady will eat.  But I cut them into triangles and put them on a fancy plate so it would appear that I at least made a little effort.  The big highlight this year was the ponies.  The Hilliards fenced in their yard and got two of them since last year's party and the kids, particularly Brady, were very excited to go for rides on them.  The other big thing was the appearance of the Easter bunny.  Duncan was coerced into donning the attire last year and if it happened again, I probably would be sleeping on the couch this week.  Fortunately, someone else volunteered.  I was waiting to see Brady's reaction since last year it was this huge ordeal with tears and the whole nine yards.  He would watch the videos for months after and talk about that bunny and how he didn't like it (even though we kept saying it was Daddy dressed up).  Well, a year does make a big difference.  This time he went right over to the bunny and took pictures and all that.  Santa Claus can take solace with this information.

Hilliard estate from the front.

Dessert table.

Calleigh wanted her face painted as....an iguana?

Another shark.  Who would have guessed?

Eggs before they were hidden.  Yes, unbelievable as it sounds, Brady actually wore the same shirt to the morning activities AND the afternoon/evening festivities. And he even ate French toast at Grandma and Grandpas.

Getting ready to leave for the egg hunt.  The tall guy to the left is the host, Doug Hilliard, my old boss.

One funny thing happened at the end.  I was standing over next to the trampoline where the girls were jumping with a few other kids, much to my chagrin.  Those things freak me out!  Brady wanted to go in but there was no way that was happening.  I was in the process of getting the girls out when all of a sudden, something hard slams into my backside and I yelled, "Ouch!" I look around and a father and son were playing catch with a football and the son had made an errant throw and the ball hit me.  I told them not to worry, I was glad it hit me there and not in the head.  But I had to sit down for a few seconds because it stung like the dickens.  Brady was very concerned about the situation and said "It's okay, Mom.  I'll get you a band-aid." Thanks, pal.

Monday was Patriots Day up in New England which means it's a holiday and the Boston Marathon. Because of the busy weekend, I didn't get much work done around the house so I made the executive decision that we would take the day off school.  We are one day ahead in our lesson plans (in other words, our book shows a schedule for Monday - Friday where you write in the date.  When it's Monday, we have been on Tuesday's lesson, etc) anyway so it worked out.  Instead of traditional school, I told them we were building stuff so in the morning, Calaubra helped me put together a new shelving unit for Colby's room.  They actually were quite helpful with the girls even using the electric screwdriver/drill on their own.  During quiet time I cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, and changed the sheets.  That felt good.



Tuesday and Wednesday were your run of the mill days.  But Thursday was different in that Duncan took the day off work, just for kicks.   So we went to First Watch for breakfast.  Then he took Calaubra to pick some blueberries (we finished all the ones we hadn't frozen) and to the pool while I stayed behind with Colby (this is when I got the cupboards cleaned).  He planted the rest of the garden and got a few errands done so it was a productive day and a nice treat to have him home in the middle of the week.  In the evening Ricky and Ana came over for the girls' Spanish lesson and then Ricky and I watched the Bruins beat the Red Wings in overtime.  Playoff hockey rocks!

Attempted to get a nice picture to document we went to First Watch and this is all we got.

Aubs picked another half bucket.  They got a total of 10 pounds this time.

Today was yard sales, of course, and it was the first day this season that the heat reared its ugly head while out on yard sales.  But I'll take it any day over rain.  Brady had gotten $2 in one of his Easter eggs at the Hilliards and he was extremely eager to spend it.  He got some kind of transformer at the first stop and then at the second stop he spotted a John Deer tractor which had no price.  He was clutching his remaining $1 in his hand and it was quiet a nice tractor and I was sure it would be more than his measly dollar.  I told him to go ask the lady how much it was and to my surprise, he actually walked over her.  But then he just stood there in front of her, completely mute.  Finally I spoke up and the lady said, "For you, $0.50." He was pretty excited.  Then when we got it home, we realized it makes all these different noises so it was quite a bargain. Maybe I'll have him handle all my yard sale transactions from now on.


I have gotten into the habit now on yard sale Fridays of going through the drive thru at Taco Bell for lunch. This gives us a little more time to "shop" since I don't have to get home to make lunch for the kids.  When it comes to fast food as a vegetarian with kids, your options are greatly limited.  It's pretty much Taco Bell. The girls like the soft tacos (with beans, no meat obviously) and Brady gets a quesadilla which he calls pizza.
I get two bean burritos and there you have it...lunch for four for under $10!  Today we really had to hurry because Duncan was taking Calleigh to the eye doctor for her initial appointment for her cyst.

Duncan ended up taking Aubree as well since the boys were back here sleeping and he decided to make it an outing...he had to pick up his bike at Ron and Elaine's and the girls could thus swim.  I'm sure glad he took her and not me with the four kids because it took an hour to see the doctor.  The doc was a little surprised nothing had been done thus far for the eye.  He prescribed compresses and an ointment and hopefully that will do it.  If not, there's an antibiotic she can take and as a last resort, they would have to put her to sleep to drain it.  I really hope it doesn't come to that.  I was thinking they would do a local but apparently not.

Stopped at Starbucks while out with Daddy and got some specials milks.

In other Colby news, we had to lower his crib this week too.  He's pulling himself up on things now and I had no idea this would even be an issue in his crib since he's gone right to sleep in there for the last several months.  Well, that all changed on Easter.  It was a horrible day for napping.  He fell asleep on the way to Ron and Elaine's which lasted about 25 minutes.  Then he fell asleep on the way home which lasted another 25 minutes.  Thus, he would not go down for an afternoon nap despite my best efforts.  To top it off, he fell asleep AGAIN, on the way back from the Hilliards at 7:15 which was horrible timing since he goes to bed at 8:15.  Naturally, he wouldn't go to sleep at bedtime.  He just cried and started standing up at the railing, looking all pathetic, and that's when I realized, oops, we need to get this thing lowered lest he throws himself over.  I couldn't leave him in there crying with that situation so I had no choice but to bring him in with me while Ricky and I watched the Bruins game I had taped from that afternoon.  I finally got him to sleep about 9:30 after nursing him some more.  The next day he cried at naptime and bed, although not too overly long. But seriously, this is Exhibit A of why I like to stay on a napping schedule.

Lowering Colby's mattress.

Speaking of Colby, we are pretty much done with his room and I'm happy with the results.

Just wish the crib was a different color but we put the black one in Brady's navy room.  You could suggest I paint it but then I would laugh in your face.

A few conversations with the kids...

After I've read about Daniel's three friends being thrown into the furnace:
Calleigh (incredulously): "Why in the world did people pray to idols anyway?  It's just CLAY baked in an oven.  It's like praying to my food." 

She must have an excellent Bible teacher.

The last week or two, Brady has asked that when I change him, I go "sweetly."
Duncan (to me):"I was outside spraying Brady off with the house and he told me 'Please put it on the mist because it sprays sweetly.'" 

So yeah, whatever that means!  Guess it means gentle?

It was just me and the boys this afternoon and I had finished nursing Colby.  Brady ran to get a bar for a snack and brought it over to us.  Colby started grabbing it, as usual.
Brady:"No!  Don't let Colby get it.  He'll wreck it."
Me:"Okay, I won't let him get it."
Brady (talks into Colby's face)"Ahhh, Colby.  Thank you.  Your a good not wrecker.  I didn't cry."

Nothing is more devastating for Brady than having his granola bar broken in half.

Have an eccellent Sabbath!

I didn't post any pictures from Boston for Christmas because my pictures weren't loading on to my computer from my phone.  Technology!!  Fortunately I have a very clever technology guy that lives with me who was able to uninstall the new version of iCloud and reinstall the old version of it and voila!, back in business.  So here we go.

View from Ron and Elaine's hotel room in Alexandria, Virginia.  The girls were very excited to be reunited with Derek and Tyler!

Waiting for the Metro

Ron and Elaine brought up our double stroller for us.  Having a stroller while on the Metro proved to be a pain in the neck because we had to switch trains a couple of times and they make you go WAY out of your way to get to the elevators.

If you squint your eyes just right you can possibly, maybe make out the White House in the background.

The National Christmas Tree.  We decided that it totally looks fake because of the way they decorate it.

The family of singers.

Sabbath morning on the way from DC to my parents.  We noticed it was getting a wee bit chilly.

The view from my parent's front window.  We were so thrilled to have snow this year and the girls LOVED it!

Papa and Calleigh

My parents and Duncan took the kids tubing the day after our arrival.

Warming up inside...working on an activity book.

American Girl store.

These ladies were standing around waiting to do your doll's hair for $20.  What a racket!

Newport

Our 3-bedroom suite.  My parents and Shawn and Camille stayed with us.

Mac & Cheese for lunch

Comparing Shannon's son Griffin with Colby.  Griffin is eight weeks younger but is a little smaller (you may not be able to tell that here but he weighed 15 lbs, 3 oz at his six months appointment compared to Colby at 15 lbs, 13 oz at his four month).

The cousins of the ten cousins (in age order): Mia, Calleigh, Aubree, Camden, Tyson (not in picture since he was having a melt down), Acadia, Brady, Finley, Bode, Westin, Caleb, Griffin, and Colby.  Missing: Zasha and Luccia.  Also in picture was friend Hannah.

Warming up by the fire after a swim in Newport.

My studly husband and I in Boston.  The evening before our 11th anniversary, in fact.

My brothers, their wives, and us.  First time out together!

Now that's a tree!  This is the one from Quincy Market and it puts the National Tree to shame.

Meanwhile, Gigi had the kids busy doing crafts at home.

Cheesecake Factory before the Pops

The stroll from the Prudential Center to Symphony Hall

Our view.  When we sat down in our seats, Brady asked me "What movie are they showing?"

David and Yully's house.  It was lovely.

Hanging out at Boomer's Playland in Carver.

Fun times.

Ice skating at Patriot Place (this is next to Gillette Stadium)

Christmas Eve kid games.  Picking up marshmallows with a straw and putting them in a cup.

Building snowmen.

Horseplay with Steve.

Our annual Christmas card contest.  We judge all the cards sent to my parents and pick a winner.  It's always very controversial.

Before things got under way.  We have a lot of people Christmas morning, hence all the gifts.

And it's on!

Wearing the same Santa outfit Brady did on Christmas Day two years ago.

Steve and Caleb with Duncan and Colby.

Christmas brunch is always one of my favorite things.

Christmas caroling around my parent's neighborhood. (This happened the Friday night before Christmas but I missed putting it above.)

Aubree and Penelope

Calleigh and Olivia

Bowling the night before we left.  So nice because they have the little balls instead of the big ones.

Heading home.

We made it!

So I missed last week's post because we were gone for the weekend to Camp Kulaqua for the church retreat.  And now I'm left with two weeks of information to impart.  A very daunting task but I vow to not be up past 1:30 working on this as I have been the last two nights (not working on the blog, that is, but up past 1:30).  I will try to touch on some highlights from the previous week.

Taverna Opa - Amy's 40th Birthday

Saturday night, April 26, we met nine other couples at Taverna Opa at Pointe Orlando for a surprise 40th birthday party for our friend, Amy.  I wasn't sure how it would work out for us to go because Ron and Elaine were gone up north visiting their other grandchildren and I hate the thought of leaving Colby with some random person just in case.  Fortunately, Uncle Ricky and Aunt Ana were available (isn't it nice having them here?!) and the kids were super excited to have them over.  As it turned out, the dinner wasn't until 8:30 so we were able to put Colby to bed before we left and it all worked out perfectly.  We had a grand time in the raucous environment that may or may not have included bellydancers and people dancing on tables which I was not a part of....if it did include that.

The birthday girl with the hubby.

Wait....where did this picture come from??!

Colby turns 8 Months  

My cutie patootie turned eight months on Sunday, April 27.  Things are looking a lot rosier today than they did at four months, that's for sure.  An afternoon personality improvement would not be discouraged but all said, we're pretty pleased with things thus far.  At eight months he is crawling, pulling himself up on stuff, saying a lot of da-da-da-da and the occasional 'm' sound, sleeping continuously at night from 8:15 - 6:15, and napping at least 1.5 hours in the mornings and afternoons.  No teeth to be seen.  That, however, is not stopping him from eating like a pig.  I had only been feeding him meals twice a day but now he's gorging on food for lunch too.  I say gorging because he'll down two hot dogs in a meal, no problem.  Please note that they are cut up into VERY tiny pieces.   He eats everything I give him and I'm trying to do better with a variety of stuff like hummus, avacados, etc with the hopes that he will be a better eater than his brother.  Oh please, oh please.  We are still doing a bit of baby food but he eats "real" food pretty much each meal now. I'm still nursing five times a day, also.

He loves to stand up using these balls and look under the table.

Apopka Art & Foliage Festival & Gaby Ottati's Birthday

Also on the 27th, we hit up a the above mentioned event which was a lovely park in Apopka.  I had no idea but Apopka touts itself as the "Indoor Foliage Capital of the World." Whatever that means... At any rate, we jump at any chance to go to a festival so we braved the 90 degree heat, at least for awhile, to enjoy some greenery, art, and kids' festivities.

Trying out the teak bench.  Apparently Brady saw the price and made this face.

Won some prizes even though we didn't pay to do the games which we were supposed to.  They just kept letting us do them for free and who was I to say no?

Butterfly garden

After a stop home for a quick lunch, Duncan took Calaubra to a gym for Gaby's 4th birthday.  They had an absolute blast so much so that Aubree is still bugging me about when she's going to do gymnastics.  We will see what happens after the summer.




Calleigh Loses Two Teeth

Ugh.  I'm not overly fond of the loose tooth process.  It's usually some dragged out affair where the tooth basically hangs by a thread but you aren't allowed to touch it, breath on it, or look at it sideways.  You can't get within two teeth of it when you're brushing and the hand is constantly in the mouth fiddling with it.  It's quite unsanitary, I'm sure.  This went on for a good five days last week with one of Calleigh's upper incisors and thankfully Duncan was able to knock the thing out one night while she was sleeping because I'm not sure I could take another day of it.  What's worse, one was also loose on the bottom and I was living in fear that we would have to go through it all again so soon after the other drama had just ended.  Alas, by some miracle, it popped out by itself yesterday.  Just when I thought we were good for awhile, the other upper incisor is now fighting for it's life.  Apparently these things like to fall out (or get knocked out) in groups.  For those counting at home, she now has lost six teeth, soon (please!) to be seven, and is quite giddy that she has lost more than some friends that are older than she.

Finger in mouth.

Camp Kulaqua 

We weren't overly impressed with the weather forecast for the weekend which called for rain both Friday and Saturday but Sunday was forecasted to be beautiful so we packed everything up and headed out Friday afternoon at about 3:30.  And yes, this included packing stuff into our car top carrier.  Do I feel a little weird bringing that thing when we're only going somewhere for two nights?  Yes, a little.  But our BOB stroller takes up half the back so that's my rationale.  Plus, although we are staying in a cabin, we do have to bring all our own linens and towels.  You can eat at the cafeteria for your meals and not bring any food but at $9 (or $8 for kids) a meal times 4 peoples times 4 meals that would be in the neighborhood of $140.  So yeah, roof top carrier is going on!   The trip up went pretty well.  Unfortunately Duncan couldn't get home any sooner from work so we couldn't leave in the prime Colby napping window so he ended up only sleeping about half the trip.  We did survive the non-sleeping time though.  The trip is about two hours.

Our first stop was the Springs Diner which is where we have eaten our Friday evening meal each year.  They have outdoor seating which is ideal for our very rowdy group which was hitting almost 30 people this year. We heard that the diner had new owners since we were there last and as we noticed that our waitress had an English accent, soon discovered that her family had bought it.  An older gentleman helped deliver the food and I struck up a conversation with him.  He, his wife, and two children were from an hour's north of London and after living in France for six years decided to move to the U.S. because the economy had gotten so bad. Apparently they had vacationed (or is that holiday'd?) at Disney and liked the area so moved to Ocala and then a bit later farther north to High Springs and bought the diner.  They saw it and just had to have it, he said!  They were very nice and gave all the kids free ice cream. I suppose I have a special affinity for English people since my children have a good dose of it in their blood!

The owner and his daughter, Charlie

The dining experience wasn't without it's small hiccups.  Before we had got our food, I heard Duncan make a sound and turned to look at him dashing to where Brady was sitting.  Brady was completely silent but his face was all contorted like he was in pain and trying to cry but no sounds were coming out.  His fingers were stuck between his metal chair and Aubree's.  I looked quickly and saw dark marks on his fingers and I thought he was all bruised and figured the fingers must be broken.  But it was those dang markers again. Yes, stains from markers.  The fingers turned out to be fine and all was well...until he tripped in the parking lot and started bawling again.  Please, please, just don't get hurt this weekend was all I could think about.

We had our usual arrangement for lodging.  We rent a whole cabin, which is four bedrooms and a common area, for the Isidros, Bergherms, and us.  We took two of the bedrooms this year with Calaubra taking one room and Duncan, Colby, and I in the other.  The kids slept great the whole time with nary a peep out of any of them.  I tell you, box fans are truly magical things.  The nice thing about being together in a cabin is that once the kids are asleep the adults have a place to gather to talk which is what we did until after midnight. Some of the ensuing conversation focused on how it was possible that Allen and Tangie forgot to bring their bedding with them.  The kids had stuff but they didn't.  Fortunately we had an extra sheet and blanket and along with some beach towels, they were able to make it work.

Sabbath morning I stayed with Colby while he napped and Duncan took Calaubra to "church." It was still raining off and on but nothing too bad.  It didn't stop Calleigh from riding her bike which is pretty much what she did all weekend with Braelyn and Lindsey.  Poor Aubs.  We couldn't get her bike on the bike rack so she ended up just running behind them all weekend.  She was such a good sport about it too.  We did eat at the cafeteria for lunch and then the afternoon festivities included the zoo, a canoe ride, a baptism, and more bike riding.

Come on guys..you couldn't have gone two more?

They kept their helmets on wherever they went.  Notice finger in mouth.

Hallie, Lindsey, Calleigh, Aubree, and David

At the zoo.

"Please, Mom, can I try your Izze?"

"Whoa!!!"

Hamming it up while waiting in line for cake after the baptism.  Hand in mouth.

Group supper.

A few of the kids playing duck, duck, goose after supper.

Celebrating Bruce's birthday with a cake Jennifer brought.

Most of the kids in our circle of friends.

Sunday morning, I was on cooking duty along with Lisa Deininger.  All went well and then it was time for pony rides, go-carts, and the ABC before heading home.  They do have a water park there but it was rented out for the day.  They also have a springs which the Bergherms stayed for but after I realized I had forgotten Calleigh's bathing suit, we decided not to talk about anything to do with swimming and just went on our merry way at about 11:15.

Brady rode with Bruce.

Helmet on.  Check.  Finger in mouth.  Check.  Not sure what the crying is about.

Cuatro de Cinco

Yes, we know the fourth of May would technically be Cuatro de Mayo but someone accidentally called it Cuatro de Cinco and the name just stuck.  As I mentioned in the last post, Elaine was going to be celebrating 50 years in the U.S. on May 5 and since Cinco de Mayo is so closely related to people immigrating here from England, we decided to have a party...or something like that.  We were joined again by the Isidros and Bergherms and Ron and Elaine's neighbors from across the street who are moving.  Ron and Elaine had the place all decked out in a Mexican theme with Mexican music playing.  We made tacos and had a grand time. The highlight, of course, was the pinatas and they were a big success.  A new tradition, perhaps?

Duncan gives instructions to the younger set regarding their pinata.  This was Brady, William (neighbor), Maddy, Kohlden, and Aubree.

Kids trading goodies afterwards.

Brady is pretty fond of Bruce.

New ABC Opens 

I was beyond thrilled, THRILLED, this week when the ABC (Adventist Book Center) opened in it's new location.  Previously it was off Lee Road which is pretty much on the way to nowhere.  Due to I-4 expansion, they had to move and are now in a building next to Costco where I am anyway pretty much every week so it is an ideal situation.  So much easier to get all my veggie food.  Of course, much of the veggie food is available on Amazon which I can get delivered free but it isn't always cheaper, by a long shot, and plus, I really like to support our Adventist institutions.  We stopped by on Wednesday, the day it opened, and got some hot dogs which we go through like crazy.  The store is definitely bigger and they are even putting in a deli so I thought that was pretty neat.




Winter Park History Museum Grand Opening

Last evening was the grand opening of "The Trains of Winter Park" exhibit at the history museum.  What is the meaning of this?  Well, Ricky has been working on this exhibit feverishly for the good part of the last three weeks.  Originally he was going to be building a replica of a train car in the museum but there just wasn't enough time so they had to go to Plan B which was to build something to look like the inside of a train car.  It was very well done.  And let me tell you, they know how to do a party.  You could have had a whole meal there even though the invitation said "snack." There were people on stilts, face painters, a train, photo booth, and more.  For those not aware, there are some very wealthy people in Winter Park.  At one point a lady complimented me on my dress.  I almost said, "Thanks, it's from Ross." but I didn't want to scandalize her.  They probably spend more on their dish rags!  At any rate, the kids had a swell time with it all.  A nice mid-week treat.  Also, the other neat thing was that we got to see the Sunrail go by a bunch of times. Central Florida now has a commuter rail.  This has been a thing in the works here for years and it finally came to fruition about a week ago.  It only operates during the week and it's only one set of tracks going north and south but I have to admit, when I heard the whistle blowing and the gates go down and saw the train come around the corner, it gave me goosebumps.  There's something exciting about a train!   We went out to eat at Olive Garden afterwards and then headed home.

The party took place in the room adjacent to the museum.

It's pretty hard to just get a regular smile out of this kid.

Sunrail

So there you have it. That wraps up what we've been up to.  A few other things..

• Ricky and I have been having a nice time watching the Bruins game together.  We tape them and then start it once the kids are in bed and he's done working.  Last night it was 0-0 at the end of regulation and JUST as it was about to start overtime, the recording inexplicably had stopped.  With baited breath we checked the score to find they had scored the winning goal 1:12 into overtime.  So we literally missed it by like two minutes.  Dang DVR.  You watch a whole game with no goals and then get cut off at the end. 
• This week marked the end of an era.  I am no longer employed.  I had my exit interview at the hospital on Monday and I'm officially no longer an employee.  Sure, I had barely worked over the last year but now it's really final.  I'm sad but still feeling mighty blessed.  It was a good run and now I'm just really happy to be serving where I'm needed most.  
• Maybe I'm in the minority here, or maybe not, but the Olive Garden just doesn't do it for me.  I'm sick of the salad and the knock off version of "create your own pasta" was sub par.  Macaroni Grill is WAY better.  But it was nice having a coupon.  
• Beets aren't just for old people.  I have never liked beets even ones fresh from the earth in Nova Scotia.  But Allen made me some tonight using ones from his garden and they were delicious.  Maybe it was the cheese and the pistachios...whatever it was, winner!
• We are now part of the "internet of things." Duncan got some fancy schmancy thermostats that know when we're home and when we're not so it automatically turns the temp up when we leave the house. We also have a new front door gadget that automatically locks the door when you leave although I"m afraid to actually not lock it for fear it won't work and I come home to find someone in my house.  

The em-PHA-sis is not on the "I", Mr. Brady.

As I was getting ready for the birthday party for Amy, Aubree was standing in the bathroom watching me put on some eye shadow.  I thought I was doing a decent job..
Aubree:"Don't worry, Mom.  You'll probably have your eyes open most of the time and no one will notice."

The girls get paid a "commission" each week for some chores around the house.  The girls could not be more different.  Aubree is a total worker bee while Calleigh wishes she were doing anything but that.  And then, when she has her money, I still don't let her buy just anything she wants and this irks her to no end.  We were in Publix and she wanted to buy some junky trinket which I wouldn't let her do.  As we stand at the register:
Calleigh: "I just don't know why I can't buy what I want.  It's MY money."
Me:  "I know, but I don't want you to be foolish."
Calleigh:  "Why should I work then?  I'm fired."

Oh my dear.  It just doesn't work that way.

Brady got a balance bike for his birthday year and about the past month or two he's finally gotten big enough to use it.  Poor mini-kid.  Anyway, we often go for walks around the loop of our neighborhood and one day he wanted to ride (which has no pedals in case you aren't familiar with one) for the walk.  I was certain he would tire out within a couple of minutes and I would be stuck trying to get the bike home but after much pleading on his part, I let him do it.  I was quite surprised when he made it the whole way.  The next night, Duncan was with us and Brady took it again.  This time, as we neared the end of the walk, this is what he said.
Brady:"Heeeeyyyy, you aren't carrying anything Mom.  Want to carry my bike??!!
Me: "Um, okay.  Yeah, I guess."
Brady (about every five steps he looks back at me): "Good job!  Good job!"

Glad I'm meeting your expectations, kid.

A few more pictures.

Washing her bike after getting back from camp.

Brady had the bright idea to dump everything out of the garbage can and put it on his head.  After cleaning up every last bit, don't think he'll be doing that again!

The balance bike

One of the samples at Costo was a piece of bread with cream cheese and this mango/pineapple sauce that definitely had a kick.  Aubree, my best eater, took a bite and said it was too spicy.  But Brady insisted on trying it and ate the whole thing.  Where is my son and what have you done with him???

Our favorite...when they have the VitaMix demonstrator there.  We usually stand there through three or four recipes/samples.

Enjoying our backyard now that stuff is starting to bloom.

So things aren't always perfect around here in case you were wondering.

Well, I beat my self imposed 1:30 deadline but just remembered I have to pump because I'm having a Corey day for Mother's Day.  So much for that!  Have a Happy Sabbath.

I had every intention of posting last night but Duncan and I both took a short nap after the kids went to bed and Duncan never woke up (until this morning, that is).  He supplies me with many of the pictures so when I woke up around 10:15 last night and saw him still sawing logs I said "Oh well. Guess this isn't happening!" and went back to sleep. And now this evening I have a massive headache. But I will be back at some point!

I need to get out of the habit of not posting for two weeks.  My excuse this time was that my mom was here last weekend and I thought it would be rude to type up a blog instead of visiting with her.  And I'm just so busy during the week that it's hard to carve out an evening to do it.  So there you have it.

Last weekend was indeed a big weekend for the family Grodack as Calleigh turned seven on Sabbath (17th) and Aubree turned five on Monday (19th).  I will say that I did kind of feel bad for Aubree because by the time Monday rolled around after celebrating Calleigh's big day on Sabbath and then having a party on Sunday, you're kind of partied out.  It felt like it was the never ending birthday, to be honest!  And to think we get to do it all again in a few weeks for Brady.

My mom wanted to come for a visit and was able to work it out to come this particular weekend.  She arrived on Thursday evening (15th).  It was sure nice to have Ricky around to pick her up.  Duncan had driven up to Hammock Beach for a work thing on Thursday morning and wasn't coming back until Friday afternoon.  The flight was a little delayed so it didn't arrive until the time Colby was going to bed so I was glad I didn't have to pick her up.  Calaubra had their faces glued to the window awaiting her arrival and ran out the door as soon as the car pulled up.  Always fun to see their excitement..."Gigi! Gigi!"

On Friday, Gigi, Ricky, and Ana took Calaubra to the beach for the day while I stayed behind to do a few yard sales and some last minute party stuff with Colby.  They took the van and I took Ricky's Toyota Corolla.  I knew it was old, as evidenced by the cassette player, but I realized just how old when I got behind the wheel and happened to notice a few minutes later that the odometer was on 299,999.  I got a little excited thinking that I was going to be part of such a momentous event as a car flipping to 300,000 miles.  I mean, how many people can say they were part of that??  I had my camera poised for the big event but it....never...happened.  Yup, the odometer has been stuck at 299,999 for like over a year so who knows how many miles it actually has on it.  Ahh, well.

Everyone had a good time at the beach but we couldn't t help notice upon their return that there seemed to be certain parts of the kids' faces that were bright red.  I won't name names to protect the guilty but sunblock application and good job were not two phrases that went together on this excursion.  We were a little concerned on Sabbath that people might report us to the authorities once the public took a gander at their faces.  And indeed, Aubree practically scared one of her classmates.  "Is that you, Aubree?" one of them asked.  "I thought it was a monster." Poor, poor kid.  Fortunately, they all seemed pretty unfazed, most likely because they're too short to look into any mirrors as they walk by.  

Just a tad red around the eyes.

Food trucks Friday night included a visit from Bob & Karen McDougall including Dewey and granddaughter, Kenzi.

Maddy's like "Whatever!"

I couldn't have ordered up a nicer day on Sunday for the party had I tried.  Just gorgeous weather.  A month or two back Calleigh had requested a bike cake for their party so I went with that as the "theme." As I've mentioned on this blog a time or two, I am not a big fan of birthday parties in general and pouring hours and hundreds of dollars into their creation.  I would prefer a simple approach.  The kids and I did go to the party store and picked out some decorations.  We went with the red/white/blue theme to match the blueberries and strawberries on their bike cake and plus, I figured Memorial Day wasn't too far off.  The main event was a bike scavenger hunt (or maybe road rally was a more appropriate term).  Those are the kind of things I have more fun planning than parties!  We split up into two teams, mainly boys vs girls, and then they were off.  There was a list of 17 questions they had to answer like "How many rungs are on the monkey bars at the playground on the hill?" and "What color door does the house have at 2547 Smith St." Since Aubree and Brady don't ride two wheeled bikes yet, Elaine pulled them in the trailer so they could still participate.  I think everyone had a good time and I was pleasantly surprised that the girls' team finished first.  We started the party at 9:45 to avoid having to ride around in the hot sun so we served a light brunch and then it was over by 12:15.  The girls then had the rest of the day to play with all their new stuff which consisted of a LOT of American Girl doll stuff.  Definitely makes it easy to figure out what to get for them!  Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry also came by on their way to visit Uncle Terry's mom in Avon Park so we capped the day off with supper at Macaroni Grill with them.  Gigi left the next morning at 7:00 so it was an early morning getting her to the airport.

Gigi making the fruit sticks.

Colby "helping"

The girls team

The boys team

One of the birthday girls

And the other.  Brady really wished it was his birthday too.  He kept wanting to open a present.

Birthday cake by Jennifer, of course!

New ponies for Olivia and Penelope

In other news, seemingly a long time ago it was Mother's Day.  For my usual treat, I got the day to myself. This time I didn't want to have to come home midday to nurse Colby so I left three bottle behind and begrudgingly took my pump with me.  I love nursing, don't get me wrong, but it's these kind of situations in which I will be glad to be done with it.  Around 2:30, as I was driving from one Goodwill to another, I hooked myself up.  I actually thought I was pretty cool because I was using the special bra that holds the pump in place so I didn't have to hold it and then I was using the hands free feature in Duncan's car to talk on my phone.  So I could pump, talk, and drive and still have both hands on the wheel.  I have no idea how many trucks may have driven by and seen me in action but hopefully the window tint worked pretty well. Actually, who am I kidding??  I really don't care!

At the last Goodwill, I had a little dose of reality.  I was waiting in line to pay and the lady in front of me had a baby boy in a stroller who looked similar in age to Colby.  I struck up a conversation with her asking her how old the baby was.  "Nine months" she said, so a few weeks older than Colby.  To myself, I was kind of thinking "Haha, poor lady.  Her husband isn't as great as mine to watch the baby so she can go out by herself on Mother's Day." Yeah, I was feeling a little smug.  We chatted a minute or two after I said I had a baby a similar age and she said "Oh, so you're out by yourself for the day?" I said "Yes" with a big smile. She said "I really wish I had the option but my husband is in the army in Afghanistan.  We haven't seen him since the baby was two months old but I think he may be coming home soon." Boy, if that doesn't make you ever so thankful for what you have.

This week we didn't do a whole lot although Thursday we did make a trip over to our pediatrician.  On Wednesday afternoon Colby's eyes started filling with gunky stuff and I was figured it was probably pink eye.  Sure enough, it was and he had an ear infection in his right ear.  That totally figures.  Last week I had been talking to my cousin Shannon who was reporting that her son Griffin had two ear infections in a row and did my kids ever have that.  I said the girls had them a few times but it had been years.  On Saturday night before the party, Colby woke up at like 10 pm and was crying and crying and mom thought he was pulling his right ear.  Well, now we know why.  So Colby is now on an antibiotic to cure both things. Naturally, a few hours later, I saw one of Brady's eyes start to get the same gunk in it.  I had some old drops from the last round of pink eye a few years ago and although the bottle was expired, figured it wouldn't hurt to use them.  The next morning, I called the pediatrician's office to see if they could just get me a new prescription without having to go in since Colby had just been diagnosed and pink eye is very contagious.  I described what Brady's symptoms were and after some questions, the nurse proceeds to say "Well, from how you describe it, I really think this is more of a viral infection rather than bacterial (or maybe it was the opposite...whatever it was but she made it clear that it was the OPPOSITE of Colby) so I really think you should just use some warm compresses three times a day for it." I was like "Really?? So my one kid is diagnosed with pink eye a few hours earlier and the other one comes down with the exact same gunk in his eye and you don't think it's the same thing?  I mean, aren't we dealing with 1 + 1 = 2 here?" But she repeated her instructions so I said "Ohh-kayyy, I'll just continue to use the expired drops then. Goodbye." I mean, seriously.  The expired drops have worked fine.  Brady's pink eye went away and nobody else has gotten it thankfully.       

Thursday evening was the start of the homeschool convention so we headed down to the Gaylord Palms to walk around the exhibit hall.  Duncan, Ron, and Elaine met us down there and we all had a good time.  I am trying to decide if I will continue with My Father's World for second grade so it was nice to able to look through that and then look at other options, namely A Beka. Also, I stopped at a booth that sells paper and writing utensils and was referred to a few erasers that I can try with Calleigh.  As previously mentioned, Calleigh has a really BIG problem with the sound of an eraser.  She really can't stand the sound.  If she erases something, she tries to cover both ears while erasing - - very hard to do - - or if I erase and don't warn her ahead of time, she freaks out because she didn't know to cover her ears.  So I'm hoping that erasers made of of different kinds of material will help with the sound.  We will find out when school resumes on Tuesday (although we may have school tomorrow despite the holiday).  Incidentally, I didn't go to much else of the convention this year due to Colby.

Photo booth one of the vendor's had

Nice!

I bought this really neat family tree that goes from Adam to Jesus.  Really cool!

Close up.  You could study this thing for hours.

Today was another beach day, this time at Winter Haven Park in Ponce Inlet. Seems like the thing to do for the Memorial Day weekend.  Actually, it was a big day for Colby because it was the first time he's been to the beach or submerged himself in any body of water.  And the verdict is in...he loved it!  He loved sitting in the water and having the waves splash up on him.  That was good to see because not all Grodack babies enjoyed this as I recall.  We had a nice time.  Great weather. We were with the Bergherms (minus Bruce), Isidros, Biris, Gregorys, and Braces. We only stayed about 3 1/2 hours though.  Around 2:00 pm Colby because pretty fussy and I wanted to drive home while he napped since it's a 1.5 hour trip and I certainly didn't want him to be awake the whole way home if we left later.  He slept the whole way home.

This looks foggy because of Duncan's phone.

Colby wasn't the only one tired.  Love Brady's leg and look at Aubs in the back!

Okay, I think that's about all we've been up to that is of interest.  Here are a few conversations with the kids.

We were doing school and I accidentally pushed a basket of markers onto the floor.  I asked Aubree to pick them up for me but she was intent on something else and seemed to be ignoring me.
Me:"Aubree, can you PLEASE pick those markers up for me.  You know, you should really help me out here.  I gave birth to you, you know."
Aubree:"Okay! But what does picking up markers have to do with me being born?"

Our plans for when we leave for Nova Scotia have been contingent on whether Shawn was going to perform a wedding in Michigan.  We finally got word that he wasn't going to do the ceremony so I was trying to explain all this to the girls.
Me: "Oh good.  Uncle Shawn isn't going to marry her so we can leave on the Thursday for Nova Scotia."
Calleigh: "WHAT??  Why was Uncle Shawn going to marry her?  He's already married!"
Me: "No, silly.  He was going to PERFORM the wedding because he's a pastor."
Aubree: "She's texting herself that!"

The girls are onto me!  If they say something I want to remember I send myself a text message.

The Bruins lost 4 games to 3 against their rivals the Montreal Canadiens and I was sad to see their season come to a close especially when they had been up 3-2.  This had not sunk in for Aubree yet though.
Aubree:"Is Uncle Ricky coming over to watch hockey tonight?"
Me:"Nope.  The Bruins are out of the playoffs because they lost last night."
Aubree:"He can come over and watch other hockey."
Me: "To be honest, I really don't care about any other hockey now that the Bruins are out and won't win the Stanley Cup."
Aubree: "Well...that's okay.  We were watching too much hockey anyway."

Brady has his hands on my back as he stands behind me as I sit on the floor.
Me: "Brady, can you give me a massage?"
Brady (looks searchingly around the room): "Yes, where is it?"

A few more pictures before closing.

Getting bigger.

Duncan took them to get sunglasses on Friday to try and prevent the last beach/sunburn fiasco.  If you look closely, you'll see Brady's tag sticking up.  I would say 90% of the time, his shirt is on backwards.  You would think by default it would be more like 50/50 but no.

Such posers.

Oakland Nature Preserve yesterday.

The girls had been given a "paint your own tea set" like three years ago.  It was for ages 8+ so we stored it away until last week when Calleigh declared she was now old enough since she was almost 7.  Brady has managed to only break two pieces so far.

Another wound.  Walked into a clothing rack at Costco.

Maybe I should sue.  Ha!  It was that silver piece next to the white/blue dress on the far left (the piece just above the blue part of the dress).  Not sure why Brady thought the most direct route somewhere was walking THROUGH the clothes.

Never too young to play felts.  I think he might have been getting it down to eat it actually.

A really fair wrestling match.  An 8th month old vs. his older sisters.  No children were hurt in the filming of this.

Have a great week.

Last week (27th), Colby turned nine months which meant it was time for a well visit to check in on how things are going.  It also worked out nicely since we had been in exactly one week previously for his ear infection and pink eye so now the doc could check to see if the ear infection was gone (it was).  I had made an attempt to combine his sick visit and well visit into one visit when he was sick but the blasted insurance wouldn't cover it because it would be five days before he turned nine months.  Somehow computers just aren't smart enough to figure out,  "Gee, I see this baby is about to turn nine months in a few days and here he is at the doctor's getting a well visit.  I think we can go ahead and count this as his nine month well visit." But, I guess we at least have insurance so I shouldn't complain.  Or wait, doesn't everyone have it now so I that argument wouldn't hold up.  At any rate, I was trying to save myself a trip back and forth but it wasn't meant to be.Going back to the beginning of last week, it was Memorial Day.  Duncan, of course, had the day off work.  In the morning he took Calaubra blueberry picking which may have been the last hurrah of the season.  I think it's about to close any day now which will be devastating.  It's been so nice having fresh berries every day.  After that we headed over to Babies R Us to get a new car seat for Colby.  He will need a new car seat once we turn him around so we figured we might as well just get it now and keep it rear facing.  We got a Chicco and it is really easy to install and tighten and untighten.  It's nice to see that they're making improvements in that area since one of the things I hate is trying to move car seats from one car to another. While we were looking around, Duncan and Calleigh spotted a nice booster seat that we ended up getting for her.  She's still been in a five-point harness car seat although she's very annoyed at that fact.  But I've wanted that for the ability to recline it when we travel overnight (plus, it's safer).  In the end, we decided to let her have the booster but we would keep the car seat for trips.  We'll put the car seat in Duncan's car so that when he wants to take Brady somewhere, they can go in Duncan's car and not have to move Brady's car seat over.  So now everyone is happy.  

Calleigh reported that she picked as many blueberries as Aubree this time.  Wow.  She worked as hard as Aubree.  Unheard of!

Babies R Us in their red/white/blue for Memorial Day.

The new car seat.

Seems to be a hit.

Wednesday was kind of a downer of a day.  We got several pieces of crummy news (nobody dying or anything fortunately) and then it was all topped off with losing our baby monitor.  Ricky and Ana had come over for a Spanish lesson and then were playing with the kids upstairs.  I put Colby to bed and went into the school room to get the monitor and it was nowhere to be seen.  I always have it in there because I bring it in with me during school while the boys are napping.  I was POSITIVE I had left it in there.  The kids were already in bed (but not asleep) so I went to question them and the girls and Brady seemed to recall that Brady had been playing with it in the school room.  Of course, you can never really trust their memories because for all we knew, that could have been three days ago but it felt like that day.  But, this did seem the most likely scenario.  I called Duncan, Ricky, and Ana up and we seriously must have looked for at least 30 minutes in every possible spot we could think of upstairs including Colby's room three times, trying to be very quiet not to wake him up.  I was certain it wasn't downstairs but I looked down there too just to be sure.  I was so disgusted because it meant I would have to sleep in the guest room that night not to mention that we were having company staying over for the weekend which meant I wouldn't be able to sleep in the guest room starting Friday night.  We would either have to find it by then or buy a new one (or suffer through Colby sleeping in our room in a pack-n-play which I did not want to do).  Prayers were said many times but to no avail.  We did offer a reward of $10 in the hopes that the kids would keep looking for it the next day.

I checked a bunch more places on Thursday morning and kept asking Brady if he remembered anything.  I tried walking him through things but he would just laugh and say "no" every time I would ask "Did you bring it into the beach room?" or wherever.  We had school as usual and Brady woke up a little early and came into the school room while we were still having school.  About five minutes later, he shouts, "There's the monitor!" Sure enough, that stinking thing was in the white caddy we have sitting on the table.  Yes, right there in front of our eyes.  I'm sure I looked in there but I think because the back of the monitor is white, it somehow blended in.  I asked Brady if he put it in there and he said "Yup." Then, to top it all off, we had to give him the $10 reward.  So the person who put it in there and lost it, gets to find it and collect $10.  What a country!  I guess when you're two, you can get away with that.  But really, the worst thing about it all was when I texted Duncan the good news and he texted back "Do you remember putting it there?" I'm pretty sure he thought I was the one who really lost it and was trying to blame it on Brady.  



The aforementioned company we had coming for the weekend was Cory and Amanda Reeves.  Cory had some meetings at corporate so he brought the family with him.  They were supposed to get here Friday evening but they were in the process of moving out of their house and didn't end up leaving until really late in the day.  Hence, they met us at church and then came over afterwards.  The kids were just thrilled to have them here and had a great time playing in the backyard and then later we went over to Chapin Station. There is a huge sandbox there and even though we didn't bring any shovels or buckets or anything with us, they spent most of time in there building castles, walls, and moats.  Just as they had finished, a little boy, maybe barely two, chased a ball that landed near all their castles, etc and started running through everything and stepping on it all.  I'm sure he didn't realize what he was doing and he was too little to really understand when we told him to stop.  So I ran after him and quickly picked him up and moved him out of the way.  Then, in hindsight I was wondering if that was appropriate.  I don't think his mom was nearby so I'm not sure if she saw me pick him up but I don't know if I should have asked first or what.  Obviously it happened very quickly.  At any rate, they had to rebuild a bunch of stuff but they didn't seem too upset fortunately.

It's hard to see but this is where they built all their creations.

They left Sunday morning to go to Legoland.  I was tempted to join them as they had some Buy One, Get One coupons but A) I couldn't see myself going on a Sunday when it would be horribly busy and B) It was still cost a whole bunch more than it would cost if we just went on a homeschool day like we usually do.  So in the end, we didn't join them.  Cory texted us later to say that it was rainy and they were soaked but there were hardly any lines and they had a blast.  I guess we should have gone.  Oh well!  Incidentally, when I was at the homeschool convention, they had a Legoland booth there which is when I found out that weekends are very busy and that you actually can go just about any Monday of the year and show some identification that you homeschool, and you can get the homeschool rate ($25 for adults and $10 for kids).  You do not need to go with a group.  That was nice to discover.  Maybe in the fall Duncan can take a Monday off and we'll all go.

Here are some pictures of other things going on:

 

Memorial Day evening we had a goodbye supper at the pool for our neighbors, the Neumans, who are moving back to North Carolina.  We didn't know them long but they and their six kids were fun!

Colby went in the pool for the first time and loved it.  He may only last two minutes, if that, in an exersaucer or Johnny Jump Up, but he stayed in this floaty for at least 30 minutes and we only took him out because he was getting cold.

Very excited that a new breakfast joint is opening right next to our Publix.  Could this be our new First Watch?  It's called "The Breakfast Club" but it looks like they need to trim that tree back.

I thought it was cute when I found all four kids playing together with this birthday cake toy.

We've been studying coins/money in school which prompted us to start a state quarter collection and also the new one on national parks.

Founds some new rain boots and rain jacket for Brady at the consignment store.  Getting ready for campmeeting.  Prayiing we won't need this stuff!  Calleigh was excited to do a photo bomb.

Calleigh reading the bedtime story.  I shamed her into it by showing her a picture of Braelyn reading a bedtime story to the twins.  Thanks for posting that picture Allen!

Colby enjoying the bells at Sabbath School.  I'm sure the germs from the kid that did this last week died off in the seven intermittent days.

I guess if you have a bunch of kids, Allegiant Air isn't for you.

We went to Costo yesterday and Calleigh somehow tried a sample of pasta with tomato sauce on it which she hasn't eaten in YEARS (the sauce, that is)...steadfastly claiming she doesn't like it.  Surprise, surprise!  She actually does and requested it for supper tonight.  Thank you Lord!

First time in this kind of cart for Colby.  Who knew the ceiling was so interesting?

I am going to try and keep this pretty short since I posted a few days ago and also because I have a bit of a cold and need to get to bed.  If we're being honest, I'm pretty sure I jinxed myself on the cold because we were out to eat a few weeks ago with my mom, Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry, and Ricky and Ana and somehow the topic of putting toilet paper on the seats in public bathrooms came up.  I'm going to go ahead and say this...I do NOT put TP on the seats in public bathrooms.  Did I just rock your world??!  To be fair, I inspect it closely to make sure it appears clean and if not, I wipe it down.  But no, I do not go to the effort of putting a covering or TP on it.  Too much work.  What can I say, this is how I was raised.  I actually feel pretty vindicated with this because Ana was telling me that in one of her lab classes last semester, they did testing on various things to see what germs they contained.  They tested a toilet seat and there were very minimal amounts of germs...probably because most people do put TP on it.  So see, I'm safe!  She said a cell phone contained WAY more germs.  Anywho, the point is that when I made this bold statement over our meal I said "And I'm never sick!" I take it all back.  Actually, I'm not even certain it's a cold.  It could be allergies but I've never had allergies in Florida so this would be a first.

Moving on...on Tuesday, I took the girls for their annual well visits.  Yes, they had their birthdays weeks ago but due to the darn insurance rule, you can only do a well visit once every 365 days so if you went on May 30 last year, it has to be a date after that.  Such silliness.  Aubree knew she had to get shots this go around (thanks Calleigh!) so she was not excited about the visit at all.  But she put on a brave face and made it through everything else very well.  Both their hearing and vision were perfect.  Dr. Holson had Aubree draw a square, identify a few letters, and a few other things which she was able to accomplish.  She had Calleigh read which she did.  She recommended that I give the kids Vitamin D one way or another, I guess through taking vitamin gummies, so I need to look into that.  Apparently not getting enough Vitamin D is a new thing the last few years even when you live in Florida.  As for the shots, boy, was that sad.  Poor Aubs had to be held down and it was all so pathetic listening to her pitiful screams.  I was in tears myself afterwards.  You just hate to see your kid in pain even for a good cause.  Plus, I hate shots myself so I know how it is.  But she got through it and she got a little prize at US Toys later in the day for her misery.

In their "gowns"

Here are the girls stats.  Pretty much the same as last year as far as percentages.

Calleigh - 7 Years

Weight - 57 pounds, 75th percentile (unchanged)
Height - 49 3/8 inches, 75th percentile (unchanged)
BMI - 16.5 (was 16.4)
BP - 109/59
HR - 90
Shoe Size - 1
Clothes Size - 7/8

Aubree - 5 Years

Weight - 39.5 pounds, 50th percentile (unchanged)
Height - 43 1/8 inches, 60th percentile (up from 50th percentile)
BMI - 14.9 (was 15.2)
BP - 93/52
HR - 101
Shoe Size - 10.5
Clothes Size - 5T

After we left the appointment, we made an attempt to meet Amanda and the boys at Lake Lotus Park only to discover it isn't open Monday - Wednesday which is kind of weird.  Not sure why you would have a nice park closed three days out of the week but what do I know.  So instead we went to Magnolia Park (aka, Peacock Park) which is closer to our house.  I brought a picnic lunch and we enjoyed that while we waited for Amanda to arrive.  It did get a little dicey for a minute though.  We call it Peacock Park because the place has so many peacocks just strutting around making the weird noises that peacocks make (which 99% of you probably don't know).  Apparently these peacocks have no fear because it came right up to our table and ate a potato chip from under it while we were all sitting there.  The kids all freaked out and were huddling around me but I figured the thing wasn't going to attack us.  I did have a knife just in case though! Eventually Amanda and the boys got there and you would think the kids would be playing on all the playground equipment, there are at least three separate playgrounds there, but nope, after hitting a ball around for a few minutes, they all ran over to the volleyball court so they could build stuff in the sand.  And there they remained for the duration of our playground visit.  I had Colby play in it for a minute but only a minute because he promptly starting eating the sand when I put him down.

Here he comes!

And there he goes after stealing the chip.

Better than eating sand.

After school and naps, we met them at Cafe Positano's for Noah's birthday dinner as it was the actual day of his 7th birthday.  We were happy to hear that Cory will be coming to Florida for meetings at least three or four times a year now.  So now we just need to get Amanda to do home school with Noah next year so they will be free to come with him on his trips!



After dinner we got some ice cream from a place nearby.  The girls got cones but Brady got his in a bowl which is what apparently prompted this exchange:

Brady (pointing to his bowl of ice cream):"Can I eat this?"
Me (thinking this was an odd question since he had already been eating it):" Yes."
He then proceeds to start biting his actual bowl as if it were edible.  Evidently he saw the girls eating their cones and thought the apparatus holding his ice cream must also be edible.  Mercy.  He was totally serious too.


Yesterday we got our new server delivered to us from Haverty's.  It's matches our dining room table and I'm thrilled to have a place to put the "fancy" dishes my mom gave me that she had for years and years.  Brady was oddly excited about the teacups when we unpacked them and kept picking them up to try and have a tea party.  Must be his British blood.  We also had a visit from two ladies from Haverty to give us a interior design consultation. When we were there picking out the server, the sales lady said "Do you know we offer free interior design consultations?  We'll come out to your house." Ah, no.  We sure didn't.  Wished we had known that a few years ago.  Obviously they want to sell us stuff but that's okay.  We're interested in buying some things.  It was really great, actually.  She gave us advice on how to rearrange some of the art we already have, told us we need a bigger area rug in our living room, need to move our flower art out of the dining room, and other good tips.  I did not spend weeks, days, or probably even hours on the decorating scheme of this house so my feelings are not hurt...any help is appreciated.  They will get back to us on some recommendations for where we have blank walls and I'm very much looking forward to that.  We aren't purchasing any furniture, except maybe one chest/dresser for our pass through between the dining room and living room.

The new server.  The flowers will be relocated to the girls' room.

This was our next to last week of school and I'm very much looking forward to the break to recharge. Speaking of breaks, I caught a break this week when one of the books Calleigh was reading was about a "book bug club" where the kids are part of a book reading club and have to read a certain amount of books. That inspired me to create a reading chart for Calleigh which we will use during the summer to keep her reading.  I have 35 squares on it and each time she reads a book (aloud or to herself - - I told her Jesus will know if she cheats!) she'll get to put a star sticker on a square.  For each sticker she gets, she'll get $.50 and when she gets all 35, I'll double what she's earned.  I know, I know.  Maybe I shouldn't be paying my kid to read.  But I'm doing it because she doesn't just pick up a book and read on her own accord and I'm hoping this will motivate her to do that.  It's off to a great start!  She was very excited about the chart...we laminated it, she picked out her stickers, etc.  So far she's read four books (the books she reads in school don't count). Please pray it continues.


On that note, a comment from Aubree.  Calleigh had to write a two sentences about a Bible lesson she had read and then draw a picture.  But after she did her sentences, she started giving me a hard time about drawing:

Calleigh: "No, I don't want to do the picture."
Aubree: "But Calleigh, drawing is good exercise for your hands!"

Lastly, I wanted to say a big congratulations to my cousin Rad who graduated from law school today with high honors.  Not only that, but he was chosen to give the student address at the graduation.  There aren't too many people I put above Rad when it comes to an all around wonderful person and I couldn't be more proud of what he's accomplished.  He's come a long way since I did a speech on him in seventh grade about how he got Diabetes at age 3!

With his lovely pregnant wife Jen.

A few more pictures:

The girls saved up their money and got this car for their American Girl dolls at Target.  Colby loves to hold on to it and even took a few steps pushing it.

Some more science experiments.

We came outside one morning to find the nurf football torn apart into a bunch of pieces.  Duncan questioned Brady but I was like "That would take Brady like two hours to put into that many pieces!" So it's a big mystery.  I didn't think an animal would do that but it must have.

Found this remote control airplane at a yard sale today.  He's been asking about a remote control helicopter for weeks but all I can think about is that kid who chopped his own head off a few months ago.  So no and no!  This is obviously for much older kids anyway.

I usually write Corey on my cups but decided to write this on it this time.  But now I keep looking around expecting to see my mom appear.  Even after seven years, it's sometimes strange to think of yourself with this name.

You know you're tired when you start eating your food and realize that you had mindlessly cut it up into small pieces beforehand.

Have a Happy Sabbath!

Last Sunday was Brady's third birthday.  Before I get into that, I'll backtrack a day to Sabbath.  Calleigh had told us a few weeks ago that she had been interviewed in her Sabbath School class on the topic of marriage. We didn't really know what she was talking about and didn't pay too much attention to it but when the youth pastor got up to do a sermon on marriage and started showing a video of kids talking about marriage, it all came together.  Sure enough, there was Calleigh and her friend Lindsey being asked some questions (they just showed quick snippets so it all happened fast).  The first one was what marriage was and Lindsey answered that it was when people kissed...Calleigh was silent at this point.  Then later, she was asked if she was going to get married.  Lindsey said "yes" and Calleigh said, "no!" They switched to someone else and then came back to Calleigh who had the last line of the video which was "Are you kidding me??!" which I assume went along with her "no!" answer.  Considering that Calleigh has discussed in the past who she is going to marry, this answer came as a surprise to me.  Later, she and Aubree both told me that they were going to live with me forever.  At any rate, all the kids were pretty cute and Calleigh seemed proud of being
on a video shown to the whole church.

Birthday chair at Sabbath School

Trying to get some pictures of me with the kids since I'm not in the picture that often.  Kind of hard to get something good.

A little better.

Saturday night the Walls arrived from Texas.  This is my cousin Jonathan (David's brother, for those who know David), wife Marcela, and daughters Zasha (3) and Luccia (2).  Jonathan is chair of the music department and other stuff at Southwestern Adventist University and thus has a good chunk of the summer off.  They decided to drive here for a week and then head up to New England for a few weeks.  The kids were very excited about spending time with them and naturally kept asking every ten minutes, "When are they going to get here?" We let them stay up until about 9:15 for the big arrival and we could tell right away that they were all going to have a good time.  We hadn't seen them in a year and a half so obviously the kids were much bigger than the last time we crossed paths.

Waiting on the front porch.

Sunday morning, birthday morning, we had Brady's little motorcycle, which has a gas pedal, waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.  I had gotten it at a yard sale on Friday for $5.  Miraculously I was able to get it into the car without him seeing it.  I'm sure it's meant for someone younger than three but I guess it sometimes pays off to be small for your age.  As expected, the motorcycle was a big hit.  Since I don't particularly like throwing birthday parties, I was happy to keep things small with just family and the Bergherms (Isidros were in Denver).  Brady doesn't care that it isn't some big orchestrated bash.  We had subs, cake, and opened presents.  He got a bunch of great stuff...much of which the girls quickly took over.  In fact, Calleigh started saying she wanted boy toys from now on.

The new motorized motorcycle.  It was still pretty early in the morning hence the lack of major excitement on his face.

Brady requested a chocolate airplane cake from Jennifer and that is what he got.

I love his expressions!

About to open presents.

It wasn't a remote control one but he'll take it!

Girls trying on some of his new dress up stuff.

Colby is ready to take the motorcycle for a spin.

Monday we just hung around the house while the kids all played.  Tuesday was picture day at JCPenney. Calaubra were getting their birthday pictures taken.  I decided to forego any individual pictures of Colby since I'd just wait until he was one.  I did attempt to get a group picture and by some miracle got a really good one.  I also marveled at how good Brady was.  I remember him being difficult turning two with his pictures but this time he was totally hamming it up for the camera.  Thank goodness.  On the way to the mall for pictures, I was talking to the kids about how many days we had until campmeeting (a topic we discuss pretty much every day) and this was what happened with Brady:

Me: "It will be great to be at camp meeting because we'll get to see John, Mike, and Mary." (names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
Brady: "Mary? I don't like that name...(thinking for a few seconds)..."Ohhh, that will make Jesus cry."

Wednesday the Walls went to Disney World which we did not do, much to the kids disappointment. Instead, I went into the hospital to turn in my badge and to say hello to some friends/former co-workers.  As soon as we got off the elevator into the basement, my old place of work, Brady stated "I don't like this place. It's yucky." Well, yeah, it is kind of dank when you step off the elevator I must admit.  But we forged on. There are only a dozen or so folks that I still know working there now but I had a great time seeing everyone again...it had been at least 1.5 years since I had been in to see people.  One person I had to say hello to was Bertha who is 92 and still working in Accounts Payable.  Just crazy!  I was talking to another lady who was excited to see the kids and since I knew her son had gotten married in the last two years, I commented, "So how about you?  Any grandkids?" She got a look on her face and whispered to me, "They got divorced." AWKWARD!   It was kind of sad to turn in the badge, knowing it's really all over but honestly, that whole thing seems like a life time ago and I'm certainly more excited about my current job than my old one.  Once of the reasons I haven't gone in for so long is that it's a good 30-minute drive and I know Colby will probably fall asleep on the way home.  Sure enough, it didn't take long.  I had to pull over, get him out for a few minutes to get him awake, put him back in his car seat and continue on.  I've actually done this a few times this week and fortunately it's worked.  

A picture of my badge for memory's sake.

He actually let Treva hold him for quite a long time.

Thursday was another quiet day at home, especially since Zasha started showing some signs of illness in the afternoon.  She had a fever and threw up.  The fever continued into Friday (cancelling a trip to the beach for them) but thankfully was gone by Sabbath and nobody else got sick.  We stayed away on Friday morning but doing our usual yard sale circuit although it started raining at about 11:15 so we sought refuge at Target. Target has been putting out fantastic coupons the last few months (probably because of the data breach fiasco last year) so I was able to get a bunch of hair and body washes for Duncan for $0.50 each.  I would say about 75% of the time I use the great Target coupons at Publix (since they take Target coupons) so their strategy doesn't always pay off to get me to shop there but this time it did.  Since we aren't too far off from our camp meeting trip, I let the kids pick out a few crafty items that they'll take on the plane with them.  This always excites them greatly.  I told them they couldn't use it yet but they like to just look at the stuff.  Even today, Calleigh wanted me to get it out just so she could look and I guess dream about the future fun.

Friday at 5:00 we had our appointment at Haverty's to see their recommendations from their interior design visit.  We were happy with their suggestions on an area rug for the living room and a painting for the dining room but didn't pull the trigger on a few other things including some art for the "brick wall" in the movie room.  They showed us some Paris themed pictures and that's just now what we were going for.  Duncan is now motivated to do some things himself which I'm excited about.  While we watched the little "presentation" the kids were kept busy sitting on a white sectional watching a DVD (this is where the lady had them go). After awhile, Duncan and I were walking around looking at stuff and Calleigh came and informed me that Brady had a deuce (I had already changed a deuce from Colby so it was a little annoying to have another one).  When I got over to him, Brady was engrossed in a movie and says to me "Just change it here." That's right, on a white sectional in the middle of a furniture store!  Nice.

Our new dining room art.  Miraculously he was able to use the same hooks from the flowers we had hanging up. What a break.

This morning the Walls departed for the next leg of their journey and we were sad to see them go.  You forget how cute little girls are.  Zasha said in a prayer one night "Thank you that we get to live upstairs." They live in a one story home and apparently the fact that we had an upstairs was very exciting for them. Jonathan and Marcela spoiled us by cooking a couple of nights and made some delicious food which I'm actually thinking about right now (there is some leftover) but I suppose it's not appropriate to eat at 11:30 at night.  It was so nice spending some time with them and I told them that they'll have to come again in two summers (every other summer they go overseas since Marcela is from the Czech Republic).  The good news is that we will see them at camp meeting in a few weeks.

Saying goodbye.

Earlier in the week...looking at some pictures.

Both Colby and Luccia love playing in the fridge.

Brady talking to Marcela's sister's son who is about the same age.

Luccia loves to suck on lemons and we discovered that Colby does too.

Taking some pictures after church.

Jonathan and Ricky helped make Sabbath lunch.

Marcela is an amazing artist.  She loves to sketch people and is really good at it.  Here she is sketching Brady.  Wish I had thought to take a picture of the final product.  I will for next time!

Sabbath afternoon walk down at the dock.

Lots of grasshoppers out and about.

Jonathan got me these gorgeous roses.  I was so preoccupied with the kids that I didn't even notice them sitting on the island until Marcela pointed them out to me a few hours later!

Today was, of course, Father's Day.  We celebrated by going to Ron and Elaine's for brunch and spending some time in the pool.  On that front, I'm pretty discouraged with Aubree and her swimming or I should say, lack of swimming.  She was doing so great last summer but it's like she never swam it all and we're back to square one. She doesn't want to take her life jacket off.  I tried to do some one-on-one with her today but she was a mess.  Part of the problem is that the water is still a little chilly and her teeth were chattering.  I think if I could just spend a few hours with her, like I did when we were at the condo last August, I could get her back to where she was but who knows when that's going to happen.  Almost forgot, while we were there, the kids were playing on the swing set when all of a sudden, Brady started crying.  Turns out some hornets had made a nest on part of the swing and Brady unfortunately stirred them up with his swinging.  It resulted in two stings on his left hand.  He was bawling and bawling but a binky and some bug bite spray greatly helped the situation.  Unfortunately, this will probably set Calleigh back like five years.  She's already overly paranoid about bees and wasps and this is sure to make it worse.

Reading his Father's Day cards.

Ron and Elaine got kayaks.  They do plan to take them out on actual bodies of water.

Ouch!

On the Colby front, he has some things he's working on.  First of all, he appears to at last be getting a tooth or some teeth.  No white is showing yet but his gums are swollen and he's drooling a bunch so I think something is imminent.  Secondly, he's started to walk around while pushing on things and Duncan has had him standing up a few times without holding on to anything.  Does this mean he'll be walking before age one as the doctor predicted?  I have no idea!

Making a mess in the pantry.

A few other pictures.

Going for a hair cut this morning.

Pretty excited!

Bike ride with Daddy...Daddy runs and she walks.  They did ten miles and she wanted to do even more.

Photo op along the way.

Tried the "Mentos in the soda bottle" explosion experiment but it didn't work.  Hmm.

The kids got a kick out of this car parked next to us.

Wearing his bowtie that Aunt Camille made.

Daddy wearing his tie that Aubree made in Sabbath School.

First green bean from the garden.

Have a great week!

Last week was the week the girls have been counting down for months...Vacation Bible School!  It is one of their favorite times of the year.  As usual, they attended the (best) one at Markham Woods Church and the theme this year was "Weird Animals." Where Jesus love is one-of-a-kind!  Unlike previous years when the girls learned all the songs once they got there, we got the CD about two months ago so they already knew the songs backwards and forwards going into the week which I think made it more fun.

I was a little concerned about the logistics this time around.  It takes place from 9:00 - 12:00 and it's a 30 minute drive.  It would be crazy to come all the way home after dropping them off so I determined that the boys and I would just hang out around the area. Unfortunately with the 9:00 start time, it meant that Colby would not be having his usual 9:15 - 10:45 morning nap in his crib.  I hate for him to get out of his routine that many days in a row (what if he doesn't want to take a nap in the morning any more or something?) but what can you do?  Fortunately it seemed to work out fine.  A few of the days he would fall asleep on the way there and then take another short nap around 11:00 and then the other days he wouldn't sleep until after we dropped them off.  Either way, he got in his nap one way or the other and still slept great for his afternoon naps too (although I would sometimes have to feed him puffs with my arm at a weird angle over the driver's seat so he wouldn't fall asleep on the way home).

The girls had a terrific time as usual.  I don't know how many times Aubree told me "I love VBS!" Unlike last year when she had a crying spell one day and showed some anxiety with my not being there, she had no problems at all this time.  Thank goodness!  Aubree was in a group with Maddy, Kohlden, a boy Sam from her Little Lambs group in Adventurers, and another boy, Will.  Her leader was Sarah.  Calleigh was with Braelyn, and three boys.  The first day when I asked she said she couldn't remember any of their names but then each day thereafter she would report that she had learned one name.  So by the end, we knew they were Zach, Emil, and Julius.  Her leader was Ryan, a really nice guy. Funny story on that, actually.  When we were at the reception following the Friday night program, I saw my Aunt Wanda talking to Ryan and some folks who looked like his parents.  Sure enough, they were.  Aunt Wanda had taught Ryan and his sister Holly English at the College but bigger than that, his mom had gone to Greater Boston Academy with my dad.  But even more interesting, Ryan's last name is Rigsby and his grandfather delivered me at New England Memorial Hospital.  That is the Adventist world for you!

Aubree looks pretty blase here but I think I caught her at a bad moment.

Colby watching the singing one morning.  If I calculated things correctly, Colby will be in his first year of VBS while Calleigh is in her last (actually, he won't turn 4 until August but if I volunteer they may let him in).

The pink character named Sandy.  It's a real animal although...weird.

Closing program on Friday night.  There were 153 kids at VBS.

Calleigh's group song.

And Aubree's

Aubree and Sarah

Calleigh and Ryan.  Some single lady needs to snatch this guy up!  He's studying medicine AND good with kids.

They showed pictures from the week on the big screen.

While the girls were having fun, the boys and I kept busy going to Publix, Fresh Market, CVS, the consignment store, the mall, JCPenney to pick up our pictures, and on Tuesday, Brady's 3-year old well visit.  Everything went very smoothly and he was as good as gold...probably because he knew he wasn't getting shots.  Here were his stats:

                          Brady                               Aubree                           Calleigh
Weight               28 lbs (25th)                      28.5 lbs (25th)                 34 lbs (75th)
Height                36 inches (25th)                37 1/4 inches (50th)         38 1/4 inches (75th)
BP                     82/56
Pants Size         2T
Shorts               18 Months - 2T
Shirts                 3T
Shoes                7

He's still the little guy of the family but look, only a half pound less than Aubs at age three.  Making some progress!  The 25th percentile is completely wrong though for him.  I saw the line on the chart and it was much less than that but I'm not sure what it was.  She wrote down the 25th but there's no way he's in the 25th as a boy if Aubree was 25th and she was half pound heavier.  Either way, the good news is that he gained 3 pounds in the last year which is right on and his curve still has a nice upward slope.  I asked the doctor about him not eating vegetables except for cucumbers and he said he'll get over it eventually.  Don't force them on him.  As long as he's growing, it's all good.  

Dr. Smith.  We love him!

Mall playground.

He loves to stick out that tongue.

When we picked the girls up (Elaine actually got them since we wouldn't have made it in time...we then met her in a parking lot) they asked him about the doctor and he said "That guy looked in my diaper." This seemed to be the fact that he was most interested to talk about.  And yes, Brady is most certainly still in diapers.  He hasn't shown any signs of wanting it to be otherwise and I'm in no hurry to change things. Perhaps at the end of the summer we'll have a chat and see what he has to say.  I'm not particularly looking forward to the pee all over the floor and having to stop at the bathroom every 8.5 minutes while we're out running errands.

So the sad news is that my brother and Ana are moving to Montana.  He's going to be the assistant boys' dean at Mount Ellis Academy in Bozeman.  He held this job a number of years ago and really enjoyed it so he decided to have another go-round when the opportunity presented itself.  I am INCREDIBLY sad to see them go.  Even though we have known for weeks, we didn't tell the kids until this morning and I was bawling!  I don't know that Brady and Aubree really got it but Calleigh did and she kept saying "Why did he have to take that job?" We are going to miss them SO much as they have been the absolute ideal aunt and uncle to the kids.  The girls made them cards which we presented them at a farewell dinner tonight at the Cheesecake Factory.  Aubree's said "Come back soon" and I pray that is true.  They are leaving Tuesday but we will see them at campmeeting as they are spending some time up north until they drive out to the school in early August.



I had gotten some gift cards for the Cheesecake Factory hence our selection for a place to eat.  But mercy, it is expensive to feed a family of six there if we didn't have those!  Of course, we did get several slices of cheesecake which are now at the bargain price of $7.50/each.  Just wow.  Guess it had been awhile. Anywho, we completely stuffed ourselves and I had let the girls pick a cheesecake to share.  Calleigh was initially upset that she didn't get her own piece, she was sure she could eat a whole one herself, but as expected, they couldn't finish it between them.  I shared with Brady who selected a chocolate tuxedo piece. He's my chocolate lover.  So there we are after this whole big meal.  We get in the car and Brady's first words to me are "Do you have a snack for me?" Seriously??

Thank you someone for letting me know that black strappy thing was showing.

Playing with the giant checkers outside the Cheesecake Factory while we waited for our table.

Thursday night we had our bookclub meeting which I hadn't been to in a few months due to scheduling conflicts.  The book we had to read was "You Before Me" which is a novel about a guy who gets paralyzed and decides to commit suicide.  His parents hire him a companion to keep him company, they fall in love, but he still commits suicide.  So yeah, really uplifting stuff.  The book got rave reviews but I just never found time to read it but I felt like I needed to go to the meeting since I had missed the last two.  A few hours before showtime I went on Amazon and read a bunch of reviews and figured I could fake my way through it which I think I successfully did. I did a lot of smiling, nodding my head, and "Yeah, I agree's." I should have more time to read the next one...hopefully!  

Colby has had a pretty good week.  He is now:

• Climbing stairs
• Standing up by himself (pulls himself up and then let's go)
• Popping out his first tooth.  It's all swollen and the white is about to break out at any moment.
• Waving
• Doing blow out poops right before I have to leave to go somewhere in the morning causing me to run around frantically changing him, changing me, and generally putting me in a state of panic that we will be late.  But wait....I think he's already been doing that.

The girls made the shirts and hats at VBS.  Aubree wanted me to take a picture and send it to Duncan.  She specifically said, very seriously, "Make sure you tell him it's Aubree in case he doesn't know it's me." (And no, she was not watching the show that is on in the background.  I had it on pause when she snuck down from quiet time.)

Some family friends from Maine, Norman and Kristin McGuire, are moving here and were down for the week looking at houses.  We had them over for Sabbath lunch.  Norman is a professional artist.  We are losing a Spanish teacher but may be gaining an art one!

Calleigh saw Kristin on her flip phone and said "Look!  She has an old fashioned phone!" Remember when an old fashioned phone used to be a rotary one or one that had to be plugged into a wall?

The view from yester year.

We returned from campmeeting in Maine on Sunday evening and right now I would normally be writing about that trip.  But alas, something much bigger occurred that made campmeeting pale in comparison.  This past Saturday night was the end of campmeeting.  I had (finally) showered the girls after their meeting and gotten them to bed and had gone over to the snack bar to see if I could get something to eat - - they always open it up after the last meeting and you can get a great deal on a grilled cheese sandwich.  I had ordered three (I swear, not all for me even though I probably could have eaten them all).  I meandered back to our tent where Duncan, my parents, and Shawn were hanging out and chit chatting as we do every evening after the kids are at last asleep.  I opened the flaps and someone, I don't know who, maybe Duncan?, says "Nova Scotia burned down." Or maybe it was "The cabins burned down." Either way, I knew what they meant but I thought it was some joke.  My mom had her phone on the speaker setting and she was talking to Uncle Charlie.  And it was true.  It had really burned down. There are no words to describe the feeling that comes over you.

The place that we affectionately call "The cabins" came into our family decades ago.  It's located on a little Island called Isle Madame which itself is on the bigger island of Cape Breton (Brady's middle name) in the province of Nova Scotia.  My mother's father was born on Isle Madame nearly 100 years ago which is undoubtedly how it all started.  Around 1970, my grandfather and his sister purchased two houses that were across the driveway from each other on over 100 acres of land (which is MUCH cheaper in Canada) and shortly thereafter the tradition of us spending every summer there began.  Ever since the summer of 1976 when I was six months old, I've been there every summer...of course, until that streak was broken last year with the imminent birth of Colby.  My grandparents, my mom and her three sisters and then their husbands and eventually the 10 grandchildren (of which I'm the oldest) have experienced the greatest memories of our lives at that wonderful place.

The main cabin, thought to have been built in the 1940's that my grandparents, the Copsey family, and our family, the Braces, resided.  This is where we also ate all of the main meals.

 ,

The second cabin, which was built in the 1800's, housed the Walls, Cases, and my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Dar (until their deaths).

I know people often wondered how it was possible that we could have 20 people living up there together for two or three weeks and get along so well.  But we did, we do.  We really truly love each other and each year as we left we would always daydream about what it would be like if we could just live there together all the time.  The 10 of us cousins bonded in a way that I don't know that many other cousins do because we had this special place.  And now, the 10 cousins have 16, soon to be 17, children of their own.  We've also lost a few with the passing of Mimi and Pampa but their legacy lives on as we continue to treasure this place and yearn for the months, weeks, and days to pass until we are up there again.

One of numerous cousin pictures taken on the front steps over the years.

It would take me hours and hours to recount all the things that make the place so special.  When the 10 cousins were in our younger years, our favorite thing to do was to play pranks on each other...this was passed on from our parents.  We would put salt in each other's beds, dump water on people's heads we crouched on the roof over the front door, put logs in the driveway at night so someone would have to get out of the car to move it and then we'd spray them with water guns.  The list goes on and on.  One of my personal favorites was when Ricky, Alison, and I had come back from town (so I must have been in my late teens) and the younger kids started pelting us with eggs when we got back.  Rad threw an egg at my white pants which cracked and made a mess.  I didn't care about the mess but that darn thing HURT.  I was pretty mad.  I had gotten some milk in town and I took that thing and dumped it on Rad's head as payback. Looking back, I realize that was $7 down the drain but it felt good, doggone it.  

My grandfather died in 1988 and after he passed away, my grandmother didn't want to stay in the room they shared anymore so somehow Alison and I ended up in their room, which was the nicest of the bedrooms, for a few years and we really felt like we hit the jackpot.  There was a king size bed and its own bathroom (although with 19 people and three bathrooms, people are bound to come in there a lot to use it).  I'm not sure where it came from but we managed to have a little TV (we don't generally have a TV in Nova Scotia...no cable or Internet to this day) and every afternoon we would try to watch some of our soap operas whether it was All My Children, One Life to Live, or General Hospital.  At that point, both of us were hooked on soaps and we obviously didn't have DVR's recording things back home so we tried to be sneaky and get in some viewing every afternoon.  I'm not sure if anyone caught on or not.  I guess they'll let me know after reading this!

Another one of our favorite things to do was to play hide and seek with our cars.  We would split up into two teams..each team commandeering a vehicle.  One team would "count" while the other team "hid" somewhere along the road that our cabins were on.  The road used to be just dirt and it's very long and has all these little dirt roads off it that made great hiding places.  The team that was hiding would park and then move branches and such to try and disguise the car.  I tell you, it is kind of an adrenaline rush when the car that is "it" comes near where you are with it's headlights shining but fails to see you.  Kind of like Maria in the Abbey!  Sadly, we don't do hide and seek anymore because people don't want to get their cars scratched up.

In 1996 we made the decision to move one cabin across the driveway next to the other cabin and build a connector between them.  This is why many of us still refer to it as "the cabins" even though technically there is only one now.  This mean all of us were together under one roof which did make things a little chaotic at times.  I remember one time it was Aunt Toni's birthday (which is August 11 so we are usually there for it) and we were going to have a little party for her.  We kids were a little rambunctious this particular day, running all over the house, being loud, who knows what.  When questioned, we said we were just trying to have some fun.  Finally, Uncle Terry had enough and yelled out. "That's IT!!  No more FUN!  It's time to start the party." Apparently his parties are quite boring.

Our backyard fire pit which is now all scorched.

This fireplace is basically all that remained.

Since I don't have the time to go into detail about all the memories of the cabins over the years, here are some bullet points of things that stand out:

• Playing barbies with Alison on the landing
• Cindy Crawford poster in the boys' room
• Bats (and not the wooden kind)
• "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine!"
• Mafia
• Listening to the shutters hit against the side of the house as you lie in bed at night
• Paying Shannon or Rad to do my dishes for me
• Trying to make meals in the world's tiniest kitchen that services 35+ people.  No garbage disposal, no dishwasher, etc.  Many people have bathrooms bigger than our kitchen.
• Family Feud & The Newlywed Game
• Dutch Blitz with Alison, Kelly, and Rad.  Rad was finally beaten two years ago, I think.
• Never being able to find a pen
• The drawers in the hutch would always get a little stuck when you pulled them out.
• Just the sound of the door opening and closing going into Mimi and Pampa's old room.  I can hear that sound clear as a bell in my head right now.
• Games, games, games.  Uno, Scattergories, Skip Bo, Clue, Settlers of Catan, Phase 10, Apples to Apples, Aww Shucks, Rook, Trivial Pursuit, Rack-O, Balderdash, Stratego, Rummikub, Pit, 
• Shannon making up completely ridiculous answers for Scattergories
• Reading in bed at night with Alison when we had the room on the second floor. We always brought big piles of books.  
• Boyfriends having to sleep on the little bed in the "room" between the two upstairs bedrooms of the main house.  Duncan recounted finding dog poop on that bed one time.
• The list in the kitchen that showed who was cooking and who was cleaning up each day. The women cook and the men clean up.
• The two cabins combined had seven bedrooms and some people had the same one year after year. But sometimes things switched around, if someone didn't come one year or something, and I realize that I stayed in five or the seven bedrooms.  Never stayed in Lori and Charlie's room or Mimi's new room.

Despite this tragedy, we have much to be thankful for.  Nobody was there so nobody was hurt or killed, the six small cabins were amazingly untouched and we have insurance.  It will take a lot more than a measly fire to break up this Latimer clan.  Praise the Lord!

We'll be back!!

We left for campmeeting on Thursday morning, June 26, at 12:15 pm.  Our flight up was on JetBlue which is our favorite airline, partly because of the TV's.  But honestly, the TV's are really a waste because they never have any channels that have suitable programming on for kids.  At any rate, Elaine was kind enough to drive to our place to pick us up and then come back here to bring the van back.  They were going to be out of town when we came back so we needed the van back here for Allen to pick us up.  Everything went very smoothly until I caught a glimpse of our plane...with NY Jets emblazoned on the side.  I know JetBlue is out of New York but as a Patriots fan, this just isn't something you like to see.  There was a bunch of logo stuff on the inside too.  My hope was that the pilot wasn't as inept as the "pilot" of the Jets in years past, aka Mark Sanchez. He's gone, I know.

Ugh!

We had three seats in one row and then two across.  We left the middle seat empty but someone did claim it so we had him take the window instead.  The girls, Colby, and I were together and Duncan drew the Brady card.  Lucky duck.  The girls were fine but Colby, of course, wanted to be out of my lap and crawling all over the place.  Naptime isn't usually until 2:30 and since we were landing at 3:00, he only slept about 30 minutes.  But, there was no screaming so it was all good.  My mom picked us up and it was a joyous reunion.

Flying warrants a binky, apparently.  He did fall asleep for quite awhile with his head on the arm rest facing the aisle.

My flying companion(s) and I.

We picked up a rental car on the way to my parents.  Clearly our stuff takes up a whole minivan so we needed another form of transportation to campmeeting for my mom and her stuff.  Freddie and Kathy typically take stuff up for us but they were at Southern New England campmeeting (which was the week before Northern New England this year as opposed to the same week) so I figured the best solution was a rental car.  We got a Durango and everything fit just right on Friday morning for the drive up to Freeport. My dad still had responsibilities at Southern New England through the weekend but fortunately we did get to see him for a few days in Freeport.

This year we had two tents rather than one which turned out to be really great...not just for the extra room but for the fact that our second tent was at the end of the row of tents.  This meant that we could set up our screen tents for our kitchen at the end of the row next to our new tent rather than between two tents that we did last year.  Much better!  In all, we now have six tents in our little village.  The sleeping arrangements were (1) Duncan, Corey, Brady, Colby (2) Nobody in our second tent...just food and clothes (3) Shawn and Camden, (4) Mom, Dad, Calleigh, Aubree, (5) Sean, Shannon, Finley, Griffin, (6) Aunt Toni, Aunt Lori (a few nights), Nanny (a few nights).  Camille started out sleeping in her tent with Winslow, who is now three months old, but it was tough going.  During the day it was too hot for her to nap, even with fans on her, because she has to be swaddled still and she woke up enough times at night to make it just not fun for Camille.  So she, along with Acadia, sought refuge at the Peltons after the first few nights and that worked out much better.  We really missed her in the evenings though!  Alison and Heath got a travel trailer a few weeks ago so they were in that this year with Tyson and Westin rather than a tent.  Kelly, Steve, and Caleb were also there, as usual, but were in the trailer community with Steve's family.

Tent # 1

Tent # 2.  Ricky actually slept in this tent a couple of nights while he was there.

Cooking and dining.

From another angle.  This was on the second Sabbath when the ground was wet so we moved the kids to the road.

The weather worked out pretty well for us.  I don't think I check the weather more often in the week leading up to campmeeting than the rest of the year put together.  Rain at campmeeting is like doomsday.  It is the absolute worst and a few days of it probably would have had us seeking other arrangements.  The weather was showing a great week all week.  Eventually, it started showing some rain for the end of the week but we really enjoyed the hot days through Thursday.  Duncan and I are obviously accustomed to the heat and when it's bright sunshine in the low 80's, it feels pretty good to us.  It did get REALLY hot in the tents during the day though so I only had Colby taking a morning nap in it (we got some shade from a tree in our second tent in the mornings) but for the afternoon naps for both of the boys, we would have drive around in the van.  At night, it gets pretty chilly so the kids wore sleeper pajamas and I would get all bundled up in several layers. It's pretty nice cuddling with the hubby on nights like those! This year we also ditched the air mattress that we had used the last two years.  I don't sleep very well on those with another person.  Instead, we used the beds that are provided and put a board under the mattress so the beds wouldn't creak every time you basically breathed.  Worked like a charm.  All the kids did so great with their sleeping.  I wasn't worried about Calaubra, of course, but Colby exceeded my expectations.  He would fall asleep nursing every night and I would transfer him seamlessly to his bed.  There were a couple of nights that he woke and I would bring him in our bed but it was only about two or three times and it was only once during the middle of the night.  The others were in the early morning.  So no screaming babies coming from the Grodack tent.

Speaking of Colby, this kid was like a whole new kid.  I seriously can't wait to be on vacation again.  His middle name is Cabot and one of his nicknames is Colby Cabby which recently had morphed into Colby Crabby, courtesy of Calleigh, I believe.  I have stated numerous times that if he were kid # 2 or # 3, there may not have been # 4 because he can be such a pill during the day...constantly wanting to be held, crying whenever I leave his sight, etc.  But it was like a transformation.  He barely cried at all and was perfectly content with other people holding him and all that. And he even popped out his first two teeth without a whimper. I don't know if it was the outdoors or what but I tell you, what a blessing it was not to deal with a crabby kid.  Apparently it must have been something or someone up there because as soon as we got home, he was right back to his old ways and maybe worse.  Fortunately this week things have gotten better.

Love this picture!

So what do we do with our day while we're up there?  The biggest thing is that the kids go to their meetings. For the 0-3 crowd, that is once a day from 11:00 - 12:15 which was taught once again by Janel Sabnani who is amazing.  She is such a great teacher which makes sense because she...is a teacher!  Colby didn't make it to many meeting because of his morning nap schedule but Brady was there usually with Duncan.  I woudln't say he was always perfectly engaged with everything...no fault of Janel's.  Sometimes he's in the mood to participate and do all the activities and then other times he's distracted with other stuff.  Here is something about him - - he will get fixated on some object and he'll carry that object around and play with it for the whole day.  It's usually some non toy item that strikes his fancy.  One day it was a tent stake. Another day it was a big ring to some game that you throw darts into.  He insists on taking it to the meetings, sleeping with it, etc.  On the last night we were there, he had that tent stake and he had it in his pack 'n play.  The next morning when we were packing up, Duncan chucked that thing way far away when Brady wasn't looking - - it was a piece nobody needed - - in the hopes to get rid of it. But Brady is like a dog with a bone.  A few minutes later he came trotting back to the tent, held it up all excited, "Look what I found!" It never occurred to him that his own father had tried to make it never be found again.  What was my point in all this?  Oh yes, it was a crapshoot on whether Brady participated in the meetings or not.

The theme was "The Farm"

Pretty happy to get one of the daily toys they gave out.

One of the few days that Colby made it and he tried to dig up the garden.

The girls were in separate classes this year.  Aubree is in kindergarten with Camden which met from 10:40 - 12:15 and from 3:40 - 5:15.  Those two are such pals and it was nice to be able to just drop them off together and they would be fine.  The theme this year was Joseph and one of the mornings Camden stated he didn't want to go because Joseph was going to get thrown into the pit that day.  But he must have been convinced to go somehow.  Their teachers are the sisters Kandice and Krista and again, we just love them. It takes some special people to lead a kids' class for three hours a day, nine days in a row especially when you aren't a teacher or a parent in "real" life.

They did slip 'n slide one afternoon.

Colby was content to watch them and eat watermelon.

Calleigh was now in primary and at first, she stated she wanted to still be with Aubree but then as soon as her friend from last year, Anani, showed up, she was good to go.  Bruno was also in her class because even though he is ten and now in juniors, he decided to stay with primary.   They met at the same times during the day and then also at night from 7:30 - 9:00.  Aubree would go with Calleigh to the evening class.  The big thing for Brady was going to pick up the girls from their class.  I would put Colby to bed at around 8:15 and I was tempted to put Brady to bed shortly thereafter but I was always afraid he wouldn't be tired enough and he would be too noisy and wake Colby up.  So I would put Brady's pajamas on and then let him play by the tents while the girls were in the meeting.  He would play with Camden for a bit (who is getting to stay up later!) and then just by himself.  He is perfectly content to be on his own, thankfully.  About 8:50, I would announce I was going to pick up the girls and he would get excited to come with me sitting in the stroller. When we got back, I would get the girls ready for bed and Duncan would take Brady to bed in the tent. Usually by that time he was pretty tired and he never woke Colby up with any noise (we did have a sound machine right next to Colby's crib so that helped a lot).    

Calleigh's class.

When it wasn't meeting time, the kids did a lot of playing in the big field next the tents, playing in the playground, playing in the tents with a few toys we brought, or going on various little trips around town. Brady just loved going to LL Beans, as he calls it and would get all excited if someone said we were going there.  He must have gone at least five different times and came back each time talking about the mooses (we need to work on his English, clearly), fish, etc.  One of the times that the girls were in their meeting, the remaining four of us in the family took a trip there to get a new duffle bag (I HIGHLY recommend the extra large LL Bean duffle bag...you can get so much stuff in it, it's never over the 50 pound weight limit and most importantly, you can fit four of them standing up in the back of a mini-van).  They have a photo booth in the kid section and I went in with both the boys to do pictures.  Brady got a huge kick out of making funny faces and I thought it was so neat that I got to do it with the boys since I've been taking pictures in there every summer with the girls.  I still sometimes pinch myself at how perfectly my family worked out...my two girls and now my two boys :)

Some of the boy cousins: Bode, Camden, Brady, Tyson, and Westin.  Missing: Caleb, Colby, & Griffin.

One day I got some sidewalk chalk from Target.  Bad idea.

Outing to McDonald's for some cheap ice cream.  Not that $4 stuff from Ben & Jerry's.

Acadia and Finley playing dolls.

Zasha and Luccia made an appearance on a couple of the days.

Fish tank at LL Bean

One of his excursions to LL Bean with Daddy...at 8:00 pm.

Yup, eating one of those $4 ice creams at 9:00 pm.  You're on vacation I guess!

Just hanging out with the cousins.  Love them all in the stripes!

Since the weather was so terrific, on Sunday afternoon we went to the beach at Winslow Park which is only about 12 or 13 minutes from the campground.  It isn't the world's greatest beach but the scenery is spectacular and is a perfectly fitting name for Winslow Brace.  It's so beautiful there that I insisted we all go back on Monday night for a hot dog supper and let the kids run around in the playground.  I'm sure Duncan knows undoubtedly where I get many of my traits from - - on the way there I asked my mother, "Do you have the fire starter?" "Yes," she says but we get there and she had left it back at camp.  Totally something I would do.  She and Duncan tried to start the camp stove using the cigarette lighter to no avail so she ended up tracking down some campers and borrowing theirs.  Problem solved.  

Back for supper the next day.

Saluting Gigi as she rolled in with the fire starter.

The boys played on this wooden boat the whole time.  Brady had such a good time!

Eating weanies next to Finley.

My dad got to campmeeting on Monday evening so on Tuesday we decided to take a trip to Popham Beach which is about a 45-minute or so drive from Freeport.  It is well worth the time because it's just beautiful.  I was a little hesitant about the beach with Colby because it had been anything but a relaxing time when we had gone to the beach for Memorial Day.  He kept trying to eat the sand and just needed constant supervision.  Nevertheless, I was excited about our beach day.  We got a perfect spot, quite a ways from the actual ocean but right near a little wading pool formed when the tide had gone out.  It was perfect for the kids to "swim" around in.  The ocean water up in Maine is like a thousand times colder than here in Florida so it's actually way better to just be in a little wading pool! Colby was a freak of nature.  He ate sand only about one time and was perfectly content to play with all the toys and crawl here and there but stay right where we were. I was dumbfounded.  At one point, my mom took him to the wading pool and watched him while he splashed around next to the other kids and I actually laid back on the sand and took a little snooze. Heaven!  And speaking of snoozing, we got there at about 10:00 am.  Almost immediately, Brady said he wanted his binky so I asked if he wanted to just sit in the stroller with it.  He slept in there for almost two hours.  Poor kid was worn out from so much campmeeting fun.  So the beach was a big hit although the aftermath was not so much.  We were covered with sand but the showers to clean off had only one water temperature which felt like about -50 degrees.  Talk about shrinkage!  You seriously could barely keep a limb under it for more than two seconds.  There were more than a few sandy bums on the way home.

Sleeping Brady.

So glad to have Papa around this year!

Colby in the water.

The rain did eventually get to us but not until some on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  It rained heavily for awhile after we were in bed on Thursday night but we were very glad to see it gone on Friday morning. It was the 4th of July and we had some big plans.  First up was Duncan running in the LL Bean 10k race which he did with Ron Pelton.  That took place at 7:30.  Ron picked him up and then we all went to the finish line around 8:30 and got there just in time to see him finish.  At 9:10 was the one mile fun run which Calleigh, Aubree, Camden, Acadia, Brady, and Finley participated in.  The adults did too but we didn't get the numbers for our shirts.  I went at a slow pace pushing Colby in the stroller but Duncan ran with the kids and they actually ran the whole time, including Brady.  Seriously, they are better athletes than I!  After that was the parade down Main St.  The sky was ominous and we felt a few drops but the weather held and the parade went off without a hitch.  I personally love a parade so it was one of the highlights of my time there.  The kids got a ton of candy (including a piece that hit Winslow in the head) which was thrown from the various floats.  They had a few pieces and now it is sitting on the top shelf of our pantry and has apparently been forgotten as I was hoping!  Later in the afternoon, the skies opened up and it started pouring and continued that way for the rest of the day.  But it stopped during the night and Sabbath ended up being a great day so I think we ended up pretty good with the weather all things considered.    

Ron and Duncan

Who knows if he saw something really exciting or if he's just making one of his numerous funny faces.

No thanks

Awesome picture that Camille took.

For our meals, the ladies each took a day to make the supper so we didn't have to cook every night.  I took the first Saturday night (tacos) and it felt good to get it out of the way.  We ate breakfast every day at the tents but for lunch we pretty much ended up at the snack bar after their midday meeting got out.  The grilled cheeses and hot dogs are $1.50 and I couldn't see myself making the effort of preparing a meal when the food is that cheap!

Eating at the snack bar.

Despite the news that we got the last evening about the fire, we had a terrific time.  Some who have children that might not have done as well as mine during the nights may think differently but for me, I love it!  More importantly, the kids love it and who doesn't love to see their kids having fun?!

I wanted to mention one awkward thing that happened there with Calleigh as reported to me by my mother. There was a 5-year girl there named Charlie was was attending with her grandparents who had an RV next to Alison and Heath.  She latched on to Tyson and came over to our tent with him one day.  Someone asked her if she had any siblings and when she said "no" they responded by saying "Oh, well, maybe you will someday." And she replied, in front of Calleigh, "No, I won't because my dad isn't going to put his seed in my mother's belly." Calleigh just looked at her wide eyed, trying to figure out the meaning of this and then finally said something like "Well, there are other ways." Fortunately she has not asked for more information on this whole seed thing!

Other pictures from campmeeting:

The girls' friend Anani.  She was pretty much with us all the time because her parents just let her roam around unsupervised.  We find this quite interesting since we don't even let any of our kids leave our sight.

Girl cousin photo op!  Kelly, Alison, Shannnon, and Corey (the friendly giant).

Aubree and Camden's class had a parade on July 4...not that you can tell it's a parade from this picture!

It's hard not to stop taking pictures of the "twins."

Heath and Alison

Ricky and Eric

Ana, Yully, and David.

Sean and Griffin

The Peltons had us over for supper one evening and they have a big black dog which did NOT go over well with the kids.  But eventually they warmed up to her.

Griffin turned one on July 2 and we had a cake for him.

Leigh and Bode.

On Sunday our flight didn't leave until 5:50 so we didn't need to rush to leave.  Some other did though because there was a big family wedding in the afternoon.  My second cousin, Adam (Megan's brother) was getting married.  We had contemplated changing our tickets and staying until Monday morning but I just didn't see myself going back to my parents' house and having to partially unload stuff and then re-load again to leave the next day.  But maybe we should have.  We got to the airport at about 4:00 and then at 5:00 they said our flight was delayed until 7:45.  I muttered to myself "Whose bright idea was it to fly into Orlando in the summer at that time of day?" Yeah, yeah, it was me.  So we had some time to kill at the airport.  Colby killed about 15 minutes of it by doing a big poop explosion in the highchair while we were eating supper. Thanks kid!  On the bright side, since it was now later in the day and close to bedtime, Colby slept about 90% of the flight.  The other three eventually fell asleep too so it was a pretty peaceful flight until we had to jerk them awake and walk all through the airport.  Mercifully, Allen (and family!) was there to pick us up so Duncan didn't have to retrieve our car from long term parking at 11:30 at night.  We have wonderful friends, what can I say!

So now we're back and things are going on.  I don't have time to recount it all so I will let the pictures do the talking.

Went to Mimi's Cafe on the 9th to celebrate Jennifer's 35th birthday.

Kids were a little wild so we were glad to have a separate room.

Hmm.  What do we have here?  No children were harmed in the filming of this.

Time for this!  We actually did not use safety locks with the other three kids because we were able to keep the kitchen closed off in our other house.  Not an option here.

Tiffany and Anthony came over for supper Friday night and I gave them preemie clothes for Greyson.

Calleigh threw up a couple of times Friday night.  It was a short night which is why I found her and also Aubree sleeping when I woke up from my Sabbath afternoon nap.  Thankfully it was only a 24-hour bug.

Playing at the Z's during a birthday party for Addison and Devin.

Birthday girl

Birthday boy.

I guess this face means it was good?

I went to visit Greyson in the hospital on Sunday afternoon.  He was born June 16 at 27 weeks weighing 2 lbs, 10 oz..  Almost a month old and almost to 4 pounds!

Haitian free?  That's a little cold, isn't it??!

Man, I love couponing.  These four items for $3.74 including tax (normally about $35). Also got a huge baby haul at Target on Saturday night.  Seriously, that data breach was the best thing to happen because they have such good deals now.  Maybe the breacher (not a word, apparently) was a couponer.  Just sayin'.

Cleaning out the toy closet and came across some stuff we hadn't used in awhile.

A Brady story in closing.  Ricky lost his wedding ring a few months ago at my house.  He was CERTAIN he had lost it upstairs and we looked everywhere for it with no luck especially after he promised a reward. Fast forward to the day before campmeeting and as the kids are playing with the couch cushions downstairs, Brady finds the missing ring!  He was so excited because he remembered the cash reward.  While we were at campmeeting, Ricky paid up and gave Brady $10 (and the girls $5 each).  I told Brady that we had to give $1 of it to Jesus and that we needed to put some aside to save but the rest he could spend at yard sales if he wanted...which of course he did!  But he was really having a hard time with the thought of not keeping that $1 for himself and stated several times that he did NOT want to give it to Jesus.  I talked to him about a little but didn't press it.  And then this happened at the end of the day:
Me:"Good night Brady." I start leaving the room.
Brady:"Wait!  Mom.  Come back."
Me:"Yes?"
Brady:"I AM going to give the money to Jesus."
Me:"Oh great!  That is going to make him so happy.  You can give it to him tomorrow at church."
Brady (you can see the wheels turning in his brain):"He's going to be there??!!"

Have a great week!

Sabbath afternoon I received some startling news which I've had a difficult time getting out of my mind.  My phone rang and I noticed it was my old boss/friend, Doug calling.  Phone calls from him happened all the time when I was gainfully employed but to get one now was a surprise.  I had reason to be concerned.  He gave me the horrible news that my former co-worker, my old assistant, my confidante, my dear friend Treva (pronounced Tree-va) had passed away that morning.  Her husband found her in the shower after she suffered, what an autopsy showed, to be a ruptured aorta due to plaque buildup. I'm not a medical professional but my understanding is that nothing can be done when something like that happens.

Treva worked at the hospital in Accounting and the executive offices for at least 10 years...I kind of lost track.  She was one of those people that I immediately liked and we quickly discovered we had so much in common - - a love of Dr. Laura, the same views on politics, and she was my biggest supporter on being a stay at home mom.  Sure, we had some different beliefs when it came to religion but those never affected our relationship and she was one of the most wonderful Christian ladies I know.  One of her favorite things to talk about was her grandchilden, Lena and Liam, who I would say are 11 and 9.  She was Bebe (pronounced BeeBee) and they were her world.  She would take them to get slurpees at 7-Eleven every Friday for a special treat.  I remember how she would always be promptly out the door on Friday afternoons so as not to be late for that.  She, of course, loved Lena but then when Liam came along, well, she just couldn't stop gushing about how wonderful little boys were.  Maybe it was because she didn't have a son but that boy was so special to her.  As Brady (and Colby although it's different with him because he doesn't talk yet) has gotten older and found such a special place in my heart, I now understand what she meant when she talked about Liam and his specialness.  In fact, that was one of the very last things I said to her.  I went in at the beginning of June to the office.  Treva had been bugging me to come in for a visit and I almost said no because I didn't want Colby to fall asleep on the way home.  But I went and spent a good 30 minutes talking to her and having her walk me all around the office to talk to people I knew who still worked there.  Just before I was getting ready to leave, I whispered to her "You were so right on the whole boy thing." She just knowingly nodded her head.

I know most people reading this don't know her and this is probably boring to read about some "old" lady dying but I needed to write this all down.  Everyone who comes into your life makes a mark on it in some form or another and I am so glad to have known this lady.  The world is a little less bright today because she is no longer in it.

But, the world stops for no one so life goes on.  Our main event over the weekend was attending a birthday party for Blake and Evan.  It's actually neither of their birthdays but Jennifer like to do a joint birthday midway between both of them and who can blame her?  Anything to reduce the number of parties!  The party was at the bowling alley and the kids were excited as they recalled bowling at Papa and Gigi's during Christmas.  Of course, those were with the wonderful candlepin balls (which I personally love and totally prefer) as compared to "regular" bowling.  I apparently had a senior moment or something and completely forgot to bring socks.  No worries...we were able to pick up a cheap pair at the alley for only...$3.  EACH! Oh well.  The kids had a great time.  Aubree actually beat Calleigh but to her credit, Calleigh didn't care. Brady did great too although he was using the little ramp for the ball.

Hmm.  Which ball?

Surprised he didn't have a fit because it wasn't blue, his favorite color.  Or maybe he did and I missed it.

A little hip shake for some luck.

Nailed it!

This one needs to work on her form a bit.

Colby was quite taken with all of the balls.

It's a miracle his fingers didn't get crushed at some point.

As long as he cant' see me, he's cool with people holding him.

I had a little mishap when we got home.  But let me back up.  On the way to the party we stopped at WaWa (a fancy gas station) to pick up some stuff.  In that morning's paper, there were coupons for free parfait, free donut, free gum, and a free Snapple.  No purchase necessary.  And since I get four Sunday papers, there were enough coupons to go around.  Duncan couldn't believe we could just go in there and get all that stuff but that is exactly what we did.  Okay, so, we get home from the party and I reach onto the floor of the front seat to get the bag with the Snapples out and apparently I didn't grab it tightly enough because it slipped out of my hand.  Without thinking it all the way through, I stuck out my foot to prevent the glass from hitting the pavement which meant it hit my foot instead, of course.  It stung but not too bad.  Fast forward a few hours after working on cleaning up the garage for a few hours and it started killing me.  I finally sat down on the couch at about 6:00 and decided I was going to have to take some Ibuprofen and start icing it.  The good news is that was only slightly swollen so I figured it probably wasn't broken but it was quite uncomfortable and a major inconvenience not to be able to walk on it.  We had no crutches so Duncan said he would carry me up the stairs to put Colby to bed.  But then once he picked me up I remembered that his back was hurting him and he had just taken some Ibuprofen for that.  At least, that is what I was attributing the groans too. I sternly reminded him that you should never pick up a lady and make any sort of sounds that would make said lady believe you thought she was heavy.  I am very grateful that a night of sleep (wouldn't call it "great" due to a middle of the night episode by Colby) had me back in good shape this morning with only a little discomfort remaining.  Phew!  So much for a great deal at Wawa though.

Some of our Wawa stuff.

Colby has been giving me fits for about the last week.  When we were at campmeeting, we obviously got out of our usual routine with napping, etc.  But he did great sleeping at night and all was well.  We got back and he went back to everything as usual with naps and sleeping at night.  But then last week, something happened and he suddenly won't go to sleep unless I'm in the room.  Normally, I just put him down for his nap, awake, and he may cry for about 30 seconds and then that's it.  Not now.  He'll cry and cry.  And then when I go in and lay down beside him on the floor and reach my hand into his crib, he'll immediately stop crying and go to sleep.  Clearly, I haven't helped matters by succumbing to his cries and going along with these shenanigans. Sometimes I've let him cry for at least thirty minutes but other times it's only five or ten.  Tonight when I put him down I vowed that I was NOT going to go in there and lie down.  I would let him cry it out.  We need to kick this new unwelcome habit.  Fortunately, he only cried about 10 minutes and went to sleep on his own.  Tomorrow may be another story when it's time for a nap.  I will persevere!

"Who's causing problems?  Little 'ole me??"

Can you see his little hand holding on to mine?

This past week I've been ordering all the curriculum for the new school year.  I have been enjoying the summer immensely but it goes by quickly.  My plan is to start on August 25.  I've decided to My Father's World again but unlike the first year curriculum, you have to come up with your own math, language arts, and spelling curriculum.  It's not included in what they provide you.  There are only like 10,000 different options out there which can be overwhelming but have no fear!  My friend Vasti is a homeschooling guru and a quick email to her for her recommendations and we are in good shape.  For language arts we are doing "Queen's Homeschool for the Very Young," for spelling we will do "A Time for Spelling" and for math we are doing "Math You See" and "Life of Fred." The interesting thing about this was that I had to give Calleigh tests to find out what level to do.  You can't just assume they are ready to do second year stuff.  I have not tested Calleigh at all since it was not part of the curriculum and the understanding in the early years, in particular, is that you don't need to be giving your kids tests or grading them because you should know where they are with things since you are obviously working with them everyday. So I was a little nervous giving her the tests especially considering we haven't done anything with spelling at all.  I was happily surprised when she got a 15/20 on the spelling test which meant that she was ready to do the second grade level.  She was not a very happy camper to do the math which were 30 addition and subtraction problems and then seven word problems.  She got 25/30 and 6/7.  I'll take it!  She will be doing the Beta level for "Math You See" which is their fancy term for Grade 2.

So yeah...apparently we also have to work on our "7's" and "9's"

For all that Calleigh drags her feet and doesn't want to do school, I have my little Aubree who is just exuberant to be starting Kindergarten.  I did not do Kindergarten with Calleigh at all and was not planning to do so with Aubree either (as far as an actual curriculum).  However, I decided to get some books from Rod & Staff so that Aubree can have her own things and she keeps asking me when they're going to get here so she can start school.  We had our last day of school in mid-June and then the next day Aubree said "Okay, time to start Kindergarten." I had to set her straight that "No, you aren't starting Kindergarten until the new school year starts at the end of August." I pray that her enthusiasm continues for a very long time.

A few pictures of other stuff we've been up to this past week:

Joined friends at the splash pad and Tijuana Flats for lunch on Tuesday

Got all this brand new loot which came in the backpack for $2 at a yard sale.  Both the girls got one.  I was very excited considering the backpack still had a price tag on it that said $21.95.

Food trucks with the Bergs on Friday evening.  Blake seems thrilled.

Moved up to the 3-year old Sabbath School.  All four kids are officially in different Sabbath School classes but we are unofficially taking Colby to Brady's.

Back in class with Miss Patti who I helped out when Aubree was in her class.  She now has the songs automated and such and doesn't need me.  Oh well!

Have a good week.  

She may look like Duncan but there are some things she does get from me.  A messy eater!

As of today, Calleigh is officially done with first grade.  Yes, we finished the school year last month but one of the requirements of homeschooling is that you get your portfolio (otherwise known as all the work you've done during the year) reviewed by a Florida certified teacher.  This was finally accomplished today.  All along I had been thinking that Aunt Wanda would review it and sign off since, after all, she has taught English for decades in Florida.  Well, a few weeks ago I discovered that you do not need to be certified by the state if you are teaching in a private school.  Yikes!  There went my plan up in smoke.  Jennifer had a friend that she referred me to but unfortunately he wasn't certified either.  I posted a few messages on some messages boards and found a couple people but I preferred to have someone that I know or someone that knows someone I know.  Thankfully Ashley came through for me and said that the lady she used for Marley, Linda Gable, would be happy to do mine.  I thought the name sounded familiar but I didn't know where I had heard it.

I talked to Linda on Friday and told her I was under a time crunch because I have to have this filed with the county by the anniversary date of when I filed my paperwork to home school which was August 19.  She was very nice and said I could come on Monday and that I should expect it to take an hour to an hour and a half.  Holy cow!  I was expecting a review to take maybe 20 - 30 minutes at the most.  I wasn't very excited about the prospect of trying to keep the other three kids quiet in a stranger's house while all this is going on. I had Elaine lined up to come but in the end, I just went for it.  Last night I spent about an hour organizing all of Calleigh's stuff into binders, printed off all the library books we had checked out over the year (fortunately the library keeps a list for you and you can print it off - - over 450 books since November when I turned on the feature on my account), and got everything in order.

Everything went well.  I tried to listen with one ear while keeping Colby entertained (Brady and Aubree had some electronic devices).  I did hear her answering questions but also she would just talk and talk about various other things.  Something about some bling Grandma had and the whole saga of Ricky and Ana moving to Montana, etc.  She definitely doesn't have a problem warming up to strangers.

As we were leaving, Linda asked me about vacation and I said we were going to Nova Scotia but flying to Boston first and driving from there.  She asked if I was from there and I said yes and she said she was as well and asked my maiden name.  When I told her she said "Oh, are you related to Wanda Brace Hopkins?" Indeed I am, I said, and that is who I had wanted to do the evaluation in the first place.  "I went walking with her every day for 13 years!" I knew that name sounded familiar.  Now I know I heard it from Aunt Wanda. That's the Adventist world for you.

So, everything ended up well with this whole evaluation thing but I've decided to do things differently next year.  She had Calleigh read out of a book and Calleigh's reader which Calleigh did fine with but I was thinking, "What if Calleigh wasn't really able to read yet?" I know people whose kids haven't started reading until seven, eight, or even later.  These are perfectly smart and normal kids but the parents haven't pushed them (the better late than early approach which I support) if they aren't ready.  Does it mean that we didn't have a successful school year if she wasn't reading yet?  Does it mean that Linda wouldn't have signed off on the evaluation?  I would much prefer to go at my own pace but how do you do that if someone is going to be evaluating where they think she should be at the end of the year based on public school standards? Fortunately there is another option.  You can use an umbrella school.  By doing so, you become part of a private school and are no longer required to have an evaluation (or any of the other four criteria you could choose to do to meet the home school requirement).  To be clear, she wouldn't actually be going to the school.  Nothing would change except I will have to submit her medical records to this school (it's completely on-line) and then once a quarter I have to send an attendance report.  The name of the school is Florida Unschoolers and every day is a day of learning so the attendance keeping will be easy.  It's also all free (as opposed to several hundred dollars at other umbrella schools). I'm really excited about this option as the lady who runs it seems really nice.  It's all completely virtual and she has about 2,400 "students." No more worries about having to file all our work just so and finding someone to review it at year end.

Summer has been a really good thing as far as school goes.  It's amazing how about six or seven weeks away from the whole school thing can really recharge you.  I'm feeling really excited about the upcoming school  year and I think the girls are too by their reactions to the packages coming in the mail.  Last year all of our books were from one place but this year since we've added other curriculum, we've had about four or five different packages of school stuff coming and it's almost been like Christmas morning opening them all up.  Calleigh has been excited but nobody has been more excited than Aubree especially when she opened the package with her own books.  I had to let her get started right away on doing some.  Even today she was asking to do some of it but I told her we needed to save it for the school year.  She has also talked to me about the seating.  We have a rectangular table with two seats on each side.  This past year, I sat on one side with Calleigh beside me since this made it easier to help her with her work.  Aubree sat across from me. A few days ago, Aubree came over to me and made sure Calleigh couldn't hear her, and said "I'm going to sit on the same side as you this year, right Mom?  Since I'm a real student this year.  Calleigh can sit where I was sitting." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't consider Kindergarten to be quite a "real" student yet (considering that Florida doesn't require me to do something unless they turn six before February of the school year).  We will see how things go on the first day of school!

This week I'm back to wishing I could just put my kids in a bubble until they are no longer in danger of injuring themselves (which I guess would be never!).  This time it was all Colby - - we haven't had any Brady problems for awhile...knock on wood.  First off was one afternoon when he was just crawling around downstairs and was playing with something on the Time Out chair.  I was a short distance away but wasn't watching him intently.  I look over and just catch the tail end of him hitting his head on the floor.  I have no idea how it happened.  I grabbed him up and he let out a little cry but then was silent as if he was catching his breath to make one of those giant cries.  But the cry never came and his face started getting strange looking and it looked like his eyes were starting to roll back into his head.  I was getting a little freaked out for about 10 or 20 seconds.  But then, it all went back to normal and he never did let out another cry.  A little bump on the head and all was well.  Of course, during this incident, Calleigh was hanging on my leg crying "Is he okay?  Is he okay?" I had to have a little talk with her that as the big sister, she needed to be calm and help me if I needed it.  So we had to have a little review on calling 911.  We have done that before but it's been a few months.

The second incident was on Sabbath morning.  Calleigh was in the shower and I was in the bathroom ironing.  Colby was playing in my room but then I noticed it had gotten kind of quiet so I went out to see what was going on.  I knew Duncan and Brady were out there somewhere and the gate for the stairs was closed so I wasn't concerned about Colby leaving the room.  As I came out, I noticed it was very silent - - no boys to be seen anywhere - - and the gate was NOT closed.  Duncan was in the office doing something and I let out a little scream because I knew that Colby must be on those stairs.  Sure enough, as I walk over, I hear a loud noise...Colby falling down the stairs.  Fortunately he stopped at the landing but seeing your baby boy landing on his head at the bottom of some stairs, albeit the carpet part, is still a VERY dramatic experience.  I ran up to grab him and there was Brady about 2/3 of the way up the top so I'm assuming that Colby was in a similar position.  This time Colby was screaming the the whole time and there were no eyes rolling back or blood or anything but I was shaking really badly and I started crying which then caused Aubree to cry (Calleigh was still in the shower and completely oblivious to it all).  He then had another lump and scrape just above the one from falling on the floor so that was all looking really good.  I just can't get the image out of my head and your brain starts going into bad place like "What if he had fallen on the first part of the stairs which meant he would have landed on the tile?" Ugh.  I can't even think about it now.

After it was all over, I had a talk with Brady.
Me:"Brady, why didn't you say that Colby was going up the stairs?  You need to tell us if Colby is climbing up the stairs so we can come and get him.  That's very dangerous for him to be up there."
Brady: Silence
Me:"Brady, do you understand?  Colby can NOT climb the stairs.  I don't want him falling like that. You have to tell me if something like this happens again."
Brady:"Okay, I'll tell you if Colby falls down the stairs again."
Me: Ahhhhh!!!

Not to add to all the negative things happening here but on Thursday I went to the memorial service for me friend Treva.  It was at 11:00 am and Duncan had a big meeting he couldn't miss at noon so Grandma had to be called into service.  I was a little nervous about that since Colby has been a pill for her at times in the past. But I knew there was no way I could take him.  Thankfully it all went fine.  Hopefully he's over the hump. The service was great although a little different than an SDA service, of course, since there was emphasis on how Treva was now joined with Jesus in heaven.  I'm thinking "Boy, she must be thrilled to see us all down here weeping for her.  I know that would really make heaven happy for me." I was so happy to see her daughter and her husband whom I don't believe I had met in person.  I had a chance to talk to her daughter for a few minutes and tell her how much I had loved her mother and share a few anecdotes and that felt really good to be able to do.  As sad as it is, it's often at funerals (and weddings) that you see people you haven't seen in a long time and so it was in the case.  I saw so many former co-workers and friends and it was so good to see them all and reminisce about the good times working in Accounting "back in the day."

   
Last week I mentioned that Colby was having serious problems falling asleep without me in the room and that I had been staying with him in the room to get him to just go to sleep.  This week I vowed that would end and it has mostly been positive.  At times he won't cry at all or sometimes it will be about ten minutes. But there have still been a few times where he has gone more than 40 or 50 minutes (I will go up about every 15 or 20 minutes to give him his binky and lay him down).  He'll eventually go to sleep but it has resulted in some funny positions as you can see below.  And yes, we moved him to a more comfortable position after snapping the pictures!




Colby has been making strides, so to speak, with his walking.  He's taking one or two steps if you put him down and have him come towards you.  But even more so, when nobody is even looking at him, or so he thinks, he'll stand himself up from a sitting position with no help, and take some steps.  I think it will be happening in the very near future.  Is it possibly true that I will have a kid walking BEFORE his first birthday? What an overachiever!

I will close here since it's late but here are a couple of conversations with the kids.

We were stopped at a light and there was a homeless guy with a sign that caught the girls' attention (for the record, in some situations I will give money or food to these people but I don't feel comfortable rolling down my window for a strange man when there aren't a lot of other people around and even then, sometimes not)
Calleigh:"What is that guy doing?"
Me: "I think he's homeless and he's asking for some money for food."
The girls start talking to each other about this in the backseat.
Calleigh:"Well, how did he even get a marker and paper to make a sign if he's homeless and doesn't have money?
Aubree: "I don't know.  Maybe he went over a friend's house who let him use a marker?"

At yard sales on Friday, Brady scored a free toy that is an animal head on a stick.  He called it a lion and would carry it around and say "ROOAARRR" in people's faces.
Duncan:"Brady, that isn't a lion.  It's a cheetah.
Brady:"No, it's a lion.
Duncan: "See all the spots.  It's definitely not a lion."
Brady:"It's a LION!"
An hour or two goes by and Brady comes over to Duncan.  As if they never had the previous conversation.
Brady (sticking the toy in Duncan's face):"I'm thinking this is a cheetah."

A few other pictures:

Costco without the girls.  Allen had them come over his place to do water play in the backyard.  There were a few samples Colby could eat but if we were eating one and he wasn't, he would get SO mad.  I actually had to give him some of my lettuce with sweet vidalia onion dressing on it and he ate it right up!

Got this new water table at a yard sale for $5.  The guy had a $10 price tag on it but it was the end of the day and was practically begging me to take it and said to take it for $5 without my asking.

Calleigh in Sabbath School.  I thought she just looked so grown up with the way she was sitting.

Have a great week!

The blueberry farm not far down the road from us has opened for the season so this past Sunday morning we trotted on over to pick some berries.  With my new found love of frozen blueberries with whip cream, I didn't have to think twice.  The Isidros (minus Tangie) joined us on our escapade.  At first, it was slim pickings (many berries weren't ripe yet) but eventually I came to an area with a lot more.  There is something just really enjoyable about picking berries although I would say this experience can't quite compare to picking wild raspberries up in Nova Scotia off our own property and for free.  Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed myself as did the kids who didn't complain or anything despite our being there for over an hour.  I thought each kid performed pretty much to their personality.  First we had Calleigh who picked for a little while but then got tired and scared off by bees (she has been freaked out by bees/wasps for weeks now since we had a small nest on our patio) and decided to hang out with Braelyn, chatting and what have you. She then picked a few more and found some giant berries she was proud of.  Next we had Aubree, my little worker bee, who was a very serious picker, picking the whole time and ended up with a half bucket full compared to the full bucket that Duncan and I both picked.  Not bad for a four year old!  Next was Brady who hung out next to me.  For the first fifteen minutes he diligently picked berries for his bucket but then decided it would be much more fun to just eat them.  So he picked and ate, moved on to eating what was in his bucket and then finally tried to eat some out of mine.  But seriously, every time, EVERY TIME, he was about to pick one, he would say "Is this one okay, Mom?" Apparently he was very concerned he would get a green, unripened one.  And yes, he doesn't know his colors that well yet but to his credit, every time he asked, it was always a blue one.  Finally, we had Colby who Duncan had in the Bjorn the whole time.  He was perfectly well behaved but kept trying to grab all the berries off the branches so Duncan finally had to just start mushing the berries in his fingers and giving them to him.  Colby was quite pleased with this.  So there you have it.

Classic Brady face.

Those would soon be gone.

Her giant blueberry.  Or is her hand just small?

 Eventually Duncan's back could take it now more so we left thousand of berries behind and went to pay. We ended up with fifteen pounds of berries at $4 a pound.  Not bad for a little over an hour.  So what does one do with $60 of blueberries?  We froze about 2/3 of them and the rest we have been enjoying our our cereal, of course.  Or, if one is Allen Isidro, you make fancy salads and salad dressings.


As for the rest of the week...Monday was a home day for us per our usual and much to Calleigh's delight. Tuesday we just HAD to go to Target because the girls had to get something with Aubree's gift card from Adventurers.  We also stopped at Payless to look for sandals for the girls.  Aubree has pretty much the most confusing feet ever.  I guess it must be because they're thin or something but if you measure her foot, it comes out to an 11 or 11.5.  But yet she's wearing a size 9 Croc because a 10 is too big.  If you put her in a size 10 sandal, her toes are getting to the end but most of the time, it will at least fit properly around her ankle.  If you go to an 11 sandal, it's too loose around the ankle although the toes fit correctly.  She's inherited many shoes from Calleigh, obviously, but if the sandals have a regular clasp, rather than the Velcro, you can't get it tight enough.  This all drives me nuts!

Tuesday night we hopped over with the Begherms to Chik Filet for their family night which included Easter festivities complete with a mini petting zoo, egg hunt, and face painting.  They used to have the kids eat free deal every Tuesday night but stopped it last year so we rarely ever go unless they have some big event going on.  Of course, their menu is full of chicken, strangely enough, so it presents a challenge sometimes when ordering.  We used to ask for a grilled cheese (a hamburger bun with a piece of cheese) which they would just swap out of the kids meal for the chicken nuggets.  We would get all the kid's meal items for free...drink, fruit, and toy.  Well, now that we hardly ever go, apparently they are out of practice with this request because when I asked for it, the lady seemed all confused and had to ask a manager if they could do a bun with cheese.  Come on.  Could it get any easier than that?  She found out they could but then she had to ring it up all separately which makes it comes out way more expensive then the kid's meal.  I politely expressed my frustration with this concept but to no avail.  Sometimes it is a real pain to be a vegetarian.  I dream of going into a restaurant one day such as this and they just swap out the real chicken for Morningstar chicken. If only it were that simple!

He still only gets his arm painted.  And always a shark.  Can you see him holding his left hand steady with his right hand?  He stays SO still.  Who says toddlers can't stay focused?

What's up with that face, Brady?

 Wednesday morning we went to the consignment store to find some summer 3T pajamas for Brady. Apparently Camden never wore 3T pajamas in the summer because all he passed down were cold weather ones. But then, after this past winter up there, I can see where a kid could perhaps go through a whole size and never need clothes for a different season.  I found about six or seven pairs of pajamas and Brady was just thrilled. This is good and bad.  I'm glad he liked them but unfortunately he also is starting to display displeasure with some of this clothes.  For example, the handsome shirts.  You may recall that these are the button up shirts that he often wears to church...the name being derived from us saying he looks handsome. He doesn't like to wear these and he'll put up a fuss if I try to put one on him.  Each morning over the past few weeks, he's been picking out his own clothes and bringing them downstairs during breakfast.  As you can imagine, they mostly don't match.  But you know that saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day?  Well, about once a week by pure chance, I'm sure, it ends up matching.  At first, he would want me to get him dressed but he's now starting to take his pajamas off by himself and put his outfit on.  I think this is something they asked about when he turned two, if he was interested in doing it.  So maybe he's a little behind on that front but at least he's doing it before hitting three!  But yeah, don't know if I'm completely thrilled with the interest in clothes.  I thought I was leaving this all behind by having a boy.

Yesterday was to be my book club meeting with my neighborhood ladies.  I forgot to mention the meeting last month which went very nicely.  The lady who was hosting the meeting last night got to pick the book we were reading this past month which was "The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" by Fannie Flagg.  It's about a 60-year old lady who finds out she was updated as an infant.  And boy, was she whiny.  I quickly determined that I didn't care for the book but I plowed ahead so I could contribute to the meeting.  On Tuesday morning, Duncan told me that there was a 5k race on Thursday evening at Lake Eola (downtown Orlando) and that a bunch of people from work were going to be in it.  A babysitter did not work out so alas, I wasn't able to go to the meeting.  On the one hand, this was a little bit of a relief because then I didn't have to finish the book.  On the other hand, it also meant that I had read 2/3 of a book that I didn't like for nothing!  Ironically the meeting was in the house pretty much across the street from mine so I sat outside as the ladies arrived and was able to make a few comments on the book before they went in.  And really, the more I thought about it, I suppose I would feel bad for saying I didn't like the book or else the lady picking it might feel bad.  How does that work in book clubs anyway since I'm sure there are many times when people don't like books?  Not sure what book club etiquette dictates.  As the ladies went inside, I told them I would be at the next meeting...until I thought about it for a second and realized I had just texted my mom that in four weeks we would be together.  Oops.  Yup, my mom is coming for the weekend next month and will be arriving at 7 pm on book club night.  Oh well.  You're worth it Mom!

At the playground while Daddy is at the 5k.

Every parent thinks their kid is adorable, right?  So you will indulge me when you see that I've posted a bunch of the same picture just because seeing Brady's different faces makes me smile.

Due to some crummy weather and it being Good Friday/Easter weekend, there weren't many yard sales today although I still found a few things.  We did, however, make another stop at a consignment store as I'm only the lookout for some sandals for Brady this time.  Since I've posted about several bad experiences I've had at the Once Upon a Child on East Colonial in Orlando, I thought it would be fitting to post a positive experience I had at one, albeit at a different location in Altamonte Springs.  As a refresher, a few years ago I got annoyed because my purchase came to like $29.93 and the lady wouldn't give me a third stamp on my customer appreciation card.  You get a stamp for every $10 and when you get 20 stamps, you get 15% off a future purchase.  Today, my total came to $26 something.  The cashier, who I believe must be the owner, let me pick an Easter egg out that happened to have a coupon for 10% my purchase.  So now it was $23 something.  She started a new card for me and as she stamps it she says "$10, $20, and up to $30" as she gives me three stamps.  I said "Oh, so you gave me three stamps even though it only came to $23?" She says "Yes, I always round up." I proceeded to tell her my bad experience at the other store and she couldn't believe it.  She said "Why would they do that?  It doesn't make any sense.  It's a customer appreciation card. You should make the extra effort for customers to feel appreciated.  Besides, you have to have 20 stamps to get 15% off.  It's not that much!!" Yes, lady, it does seem like common sense that some people just don't get.

Also went to Costco today...and ran into Allen and the kids.

I thought for sure I would be reporting that Colby was crawling but he's just not quite there yet.  He is moving and getting from point A to B but I wouldn't precisely label it crawling.  Next week!  His food repertoire is expanding however with first bits of ice cream, macaroni, strawberries, blueberries, and watermelon.  All but the first he's had in baby food form or sucked on through a strainer but now I'm giving them to him as the real thing, cut up very small, of course.  So far, no problems.  He loves everything.  I'm feeding him meals for breakfast and supper with little snacks at lunchtime.  We're still nursing five times a day but the three sessions besides first thing in the morning and in the evenings, are very quick...often less than 10 minutes.  I need to look and see at my nursing history to see when a session can be dropped.  It would be nice to wear a dress to church that doesn't have to be nursing friendly.

His eye is on the prize...ice cream!

Checking out, or should I say, pulling out books at the library.

We finally got his name up.  When Duncan first hung the letters up, he stepped back and realized he had spelled COBLY.  Oops.  Obviously he fixed it.

Finally, I'll wrap up with a quote.  Let me preface this by saying it is involves Aubree being in time out and as I gave her the timeout, it occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time she was in a time out. Calleigh and Brady have been in them plenty of times but it's clearly been a LONG time since Aubree was in one.  I always thought the middle children were the ones more to act out so they could get attention (at least, that's how it was with my siblings!) but that is definitely not the case in this family...although I guess we have two middle children so Brady could be a different story.  Anyway, Aubree was in timeout because in the morning I had discovered she had left a cup with water in it on her bedroom floor which had subsequently spilled all over the carpet.  This wasn't the first time this had happened so I told her if it happened again, she would be in time out.  A few hours later, she does the same thing downstairs and of course, that cup gets spilled too. So off she goes into my bedroom for a short respite, tears flowing.
Me:"Aubree, I told you that if you did that again you would be in time out."
Aubree:"But I forgot!"
Me: "Well, hopefully you will remember next time since you've had this time out.
Aubree:"But that's not fair.  I didn't remember that rule so you're cheating!"
Me: "Please sit on that chair and think about it."
I close the bedroom door but I can hear her wailing in there from the living room.  Brady seems to be very upset at Aubree being upset so he says he wants to go in there and see her.  I kept telling him no but finally he runs over to the door and lets himself in.  He comes out a few seconds later.
Me: "Brady, I told you not to go in there.  Aubree is in time out and we don't talk to people in time out."
Brady: "I saw Aubree and I support her."

Support her?  Where does he get this stuff from??

Have a Happy Sabbath!

That's right...there may have been a fire but that didn't stop us from going!  We weren't crazy enough to stay in our little yellow cabin without any running water, electricity, or bathroom facilities.  Instead, we stayed at a "resort" (more about the quotes later) about 20 minutes away.

About a month before our departure (before the fire even), Duncan asked me how I felt about flying up with all the kids by myself.  We were supposed to fly up on Thursday, 7/31 but it turned out that he had a critical meeting in Kansas City on the same day.  He would go to KC and then fly to Providence to meet us there. The thought of flying with four kids alone, especially with one who is a moody infant, is enough to scare the bejeebies out of the most seasoned of mothers, I would think.  I was no exception.  Thank goodness we were flying up on Southwest.  After a little manuevering, I was able to change out tickets to Wednesday so that we could all fly up together to Providence.  Duncan would stay at the airport and catch a flight a few hours later to KC via Baltimore.  The next afternoon he would fly out via La Guardia and meet us in Bangor at 11:30 pm.  From there, we would travel over night to our final destination, West Bay, Nova Scotia. Fortunately, it all went off without a hitch.  The flights all went great (Colby slept a good portion of our flight) and we literally pulled up to the curb in Bangor just as Duncan walked out the door.  Not bad considering we had left four hours earlier to pick him up!  The only small kink in our travelling was that we had to squeeze seven people and tons of stuff into my mom's minivan. (My dad meets us there because every year he spends the week in Pugwash - - campmeeting in Nova Scotia - - with his siblings).  It's pretty tight in the backseat with a car seat and a booster. Not an ideal set up for travelling overnight but we would not be deterred.

A lady a few rows ahead kept her purse/bag over her neck (may be hard to see the straps around her neck).  I guess so no one would steal it if she fell asleep?

We had a day with no car to kill at Papa and Gigi's.  A walk to the farm was in order.

We really weren't sure what we were going to do this year.  We had thought about renting a house near our cabins but that would obviously only hold our immediate family and the big thing about being in Nova Scotia is being with all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  There is a golf resort, Dundee Resort and Golf Club, not far away that some folk visit every year to golf.  It's a gorgeous location along the Bras dOr Lakes and we discovered that we could get a pretty good deal on cottages they have there (they also have a hotel).  Sure, we would be in our separate building but they would be pretty close together and really, it was about the only option we had.  Personally, I was pretty excited because they had an outdoor and indoor pool (we would be set if it rained) and also a beach within close walking distance.  Not only that, but they had free Wifi which means I wouldn't have to go to the Internet Cafe to get online like I did every other year. Well....it was all a farce.  The outdoor pool was under construction (rumor had it that it had been out of commission for years), the indoor pool was FREEZING because it had a leak and they were filling it every day using a hose, the beach was rocky with hardly any sand, and the Wifi was impossible to get in the cabins and most of the time, even in the hotel. A lessor person might have taken this as an opportunity to *itch and moan about things but you know what? We still had a great time despite not getting what we paid for!

Our cottage.  It was the one on the right.  The one on the left was a one-bedroom and was empty most of the time.

Our view.

Down on the beach.

Our room.

Kids' room.  We had to push the beds together to fit a pack and play in there.

We had a two-bedroom cabin to ourselves which worked out splendidly because they were pretty small but we knew that going in.  We had a bathroom, living room, a kitchen, and a big deck with a great view. My parents stayed with Shawn and Camille and a lot of other families doubled up since we had obviously all planned on having a mostly free vacation at our own cabins.  Calaubra stayed together in one room and Colby bunked with us.  However, he did not sleep well at all and I think six out of the nine nights, he and I ended up on the pull out in the living room.  I was very thankful for having that option.  Part of the reason for his sleeping problems, I believe, was that he was running a fever for about three days.  He didn't have any new teeth coming in and then on about day four or five, he got a rash and I self diagnosed him with Roseola. The rash didn't last long and it all ended well.  We did have a little snafu with accidentally over medicating him though - - a story I won't mention on here to protect the guilty.  But it was all fine.      

The wonderful thing about little kids is that they don't get bothered by any of the things that adults do.  We may have thought the resort had fallen a bit short but it didn't phase them at all.  They had their cousins to run around with and that's all that really mattered.  As Brady as gotten a little older, he's gotten more attached to Camden and has played with him more and more although really, all five of them spent much of the time doing stuff together.  It was incredibly sad when we parted ways with the Braces..we said our goodbyes at a nearby park and they left for home while we went back to the resort for one more night.  A few minutes after we got back, Brady showed a Lego car that he had made and declared "I'm going to go over to Camden's house to give him this." We told him the Camden was gone, he went back to Maine but Brady just couldn't get it.  A few minutes later he said again that he was going to see Camden, even going out the door, as if we hadn't told him all that.  It was really quite pathetic.  But I am so glad the cousins love each other even though we only see them 3 - 4 times a year.

We were there for ten days.  We arrived on a Friday and stayed for nine nights, leaving on a Sunday morning.  Some people stayed longer than others but in total, there were 38 of us plus four dogs.  The only ones missing were Ricky & Ana, and Jonathan, Marcela and the girls.  Here are some of the things we did while there:

• Went to Little Anse on the first Sabbath for a beautiful walk.  One of my favorite places in Nova Scotia!
• Played Volleyball (well, not me).  They played some four on four and then the guys also played a lot of two on two.  This was one of the highlights for Duncan.  We definitely need to rebuild our volleyball court at the cabins.
• Had a Bean Bag toss tournament.  I played with Kelly and we stunk, probably because we never played before.  Rad and Camille were the winners, I think.
• Spent a lot of time down at the beach although the kids didn't really swim much because there are jelly fish (it's a saltwater lake).  BUT, they did have a great time trying to catch said jellyfish in their buckets so a great time was still had by all.
• Went to Pondville Beach.  It was a windy day and the water was a bit chilly but still fun.
• A couple of afternoons were spent at our lake at the cabins.  The cabin may be gone but it's still our property and the beach is the same as it always was.  We didn't put the raft out but just swam off the shore.  The water was really warm which made us feel pretty bad that we didn't get to be down there every day.  
• Made our annual trip to Baddeck.  This was the one day where the weather wasn't the greatest but I love that place.  
• Played many, many hands of Dutch Blitz with Alison and Kelly.  We played four nights and modesty does not prevent me from saying I won each night.  Glad I can still keep up with those young pups on something.  But seriously, one of the biggest things I missed about missing last year was playing games with the girls.  That's what Nova Scotia is all about!  
• Had a surprise baby shower for Jen one evening.  Terry and Toni stayed in the hotel and they had a nice big living room that we could all gather in.  Rad and Jen are having a boy in October. At one point, a gentleman in a maintenance uniform knocked on the door and passed through the room into the bedroom.  Alison, Shannon, and Aunt Sherrie, sitting together on one couch, were dying of laughter apparently because Aunt Sherrie had inquired if he was our entertainment for the evening. But alas, he was just there to fix the a/c. I'm also pretty sure there is no entertainment of such a nature at a baby shower!

We went to our property soon after we got there and this was what was left.  The tears came.

View from the lake.

All that was left standing.

Kids seemed to handle it fine!

Our little cabin is doing fairly well...having some foundation issues that need to be repaired.

Little Anse.  Two men and their babies.

Brady and Camden

Kelly and Caleb

Aunt Sherrie and Brady with a fake smile.

The parents are looking at one camera and the kids at another.

Brady was really excited for a quick ride he went on with Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie.  For some reason he called this a "shark."

Canoeing

Kayaking

Eating on the deck.

We picked up a table at Walmart for $17 which made it a lot easier.

Brady and Acadia played on these two things for like an hour at the playground.

Trying to teach Calleigh.

Griffin and Colby trying to entertain themselves.

Jen opening her present from my mom and me.

All the ladies at the shower.

Kids dressed up for pictures hiding from Gigi.

It's really HARD to get good pictures.

With Rad and Jen in Baddeck

My boys!

On the pier in Baddeck.  He has pictures of boats taken from this pier hanging up in his room.

Eating at Shirley's Spud Wagon.

Berries were scarce this year but we found a few.

Having a watermelon on Sabbath afternoon before the younger Braces left.

On the second Friday we were there, we had gone over to the cabins to swim in the lake with my parents and Shawn, Camille, and kids.  As we were just sitting there, Shawn casually mentioned something about a baby dedication.  Holy cow!  I had completely forgotten!  All of my parent's grandchildren have been dedicated down at the lake and that was obviously our intent with the newbies...Colby and Winslow.  But the fire threw everything off.  We didn't think we would be back before we left so we had the shower right then and there with my dad reading the scripture off an iPhone and with half the group in their bathing suits. Ah well!

Today marks two days since Brady gave up his binky which is a pretty big deal if you've met him.  His binky was basically his best friend and I was very hesitant to remove that friend considering that Brady still takes long afternoon naps which I did not want to mess with.  But...after a trip to the dentist (more on that later) and taking into account that this is about the age that we removed the binkies for the girls, we knew it was just a matter of pulling the plug so to speak.  I just didn't expect it when it happened.  Sunday evening after I put Colby to bed I had a brain splitter of a headache.  I have been prone to headaches all my life and most are not THAT bad but this one was a doozy...so bad that I actually went to bed for the night at 8:15 and left Brady to put Calaubra to bed.  Fast forward to about 6:20 and I hear Brady making noises through the monitor. This is a little early for him, considering it's still somewhat dark, so I went in to try to find the binky. I couldn't find it anywhere and I suddenly came to the realization that there was no binky.  Since I had gone to bed before the kids, I didn't know all that went down.  I got Brady out and told him to go snuggle with Daddy because I had to feed Colby but he insisted on grabbing his present on the side of the crib.  So what, exactly, would entice a 3-year old to give up his beloved binky?  A remote control helicopter?  A guitar? Thirty new match box cars?  A Lego castle?  No, no, friends.  A simple snack sized box of Nutella with dipping sticks.  Yup, that's what sucked him in.  What can I say...my boy has a massive chocolate sweet tooth (I know Nutella isn't chocolate but it looks like it to him!).  And apparently it did the trick.



We've had a few challenges.  The most notable is that it's reduced his nap time from 2 - 2.5 hours to about 45 minutes - 1 hour.  Not good.  I'm hoping that will change as he gets accustomed to his new reality.  But the poor dear.  I had to rub his back this afternoon to help him get to sleep.  As a reformed thumb sucker, I can take pity on his plight.  It's tough.  But praise the Lord we seem to be over the hurdle.  Now if only potty training could be as simple...(and no, we haven't started nor will we be soon, I suspect).

Yesterday was our first day of school.  Gone are the days of my somewhat relaxing 1 - 1.5 hours of quiet time in the afternoons.  I am the opposite of non-homeschooling parents.  I love the summer and don't want school to be back in session.  But that's not really a fair thing to say because I do very much enjoy the teaching and the excitement of learning but I do so miss being able to fold clothes in virtual silence at 3 pm rather than 10 pm. Ah well.  It was a good run.  We've had fun getting our school room organized and adding some new things like a big United States map rug.  Our main curriculum this year is about the history of the US so it seemed like a fitting thing to add.   Since we have a little more that we've added to our school day this year (Spelling, Language Arts) my new plan is that we will do some school in the morning, during Colby's nap, and then do the rest in the afternoon....during Colby's nap.  Do you sense a theme here?  Have I mentioned he can be a bit of a pill sometimes?  If you've met him, you'll know that it makes perfect sense to get things done when he's not around!  He can be a bit...clingy, shall we say, at times.




The first day of school was met with great exuberance on the part of Aubree. For the week or weeks leading up to it, she would ask me every day how many more days until school started. And then, at the end of the first day when I said it had concluded, she was so disappointed she declared "But I want to do more school!" Calleigh, meanwhile, kept saying "I love our schoolroom!" in the preceding days but I couldn't help but note that there weren't any comments such as "I can't wait for school to start." Nevertheless, she did appear to be pretty enthused when we got started.  And then...low and behold.  I found something that she seems to be engaged in.  Spelling!  Who would have figured?  I gave her a pretest of 10 words of which she got 8 correct.  She actually wrote them all down without complaining about the handwritting and was taking it all quite seriously.  I'm quite thrilled with this development.

First science experiment of the year. What happens to an egg when it is put in salt water?

What I wasn't thrilled with is how things went yesterday afternoon.  So we did a little school yesterday morning before needing to leave for gymnastics.  That left the bulk of things for the afternoon.  We're going through the work and then Brady awakes from his short nap.  I immediately note that he is very grouchy, I'm sure from the short nap.  We had gotten him a present - - a firetruck - - to use when he got up.  This was part of his incentive for taking a nap without the binky.  Now I have to open the darn thing and you know how it is to open kid's toys.  It tougher to get into them than Fort Knox.  It took me a good 15 minutes to get that toy opened and set up and all I'm thinking is "The clock is ticking and we are wasting precious Colby nap time on this instead of doing school." And then I couldn't get the remote on the firetruck to work and that set Brady off on a crying tantrum for the next 10 minutes.  I finally got him calmed down with a snack and we got back to school.  The girls each have a US notebook for their work and I had them pick one to use.  There were two blue ones and Calleigh picked one of the two which left the other one for Brady (yes, he gets a notebook even though he's obviously not doing anything real with it!).  Well, if that didn't set Brady off on another crying tantrum because he didn't like that blue one as much as the other blue one.  Just at this time, Colby woke up and I brought him into the school room and set him down.  Big mistake.  He started bawling too.  Now both boys were screaming and I could barely hear Calleigh saying "I can't concentrate" and THAT is when I sent Duncan the text saying "Thank you for picking the first day of school to remove the binky!" And then I thought, "One down.  Only 179 more to go!" But I told Duncan last night, "I wouldn't have it any other way." Well, I wouldn't be mad if Colby was a little less crabby.  But seriously...it's
challenging but I love it.

Oh, one funny thing.  We are doing our "Life of Fred" book for math and today it was talking about a million. I wrote various numbers on the board like 10, 100, 1000, 100,000, 1,000,000 and then a billion and trillion. When I got to the last number, one trillion, Calleigh very seriously asked me, "Is that how much money you have in the bank?" Clearly, they have no concept of numbers yet!

Last Tuesday was our adventure to the dentist.  Yes, it was an adventure thanks for Aubree.  After she ate some grapes for breakfast she started complaining that her belly hurt.  She has a flair for the dramatic so I told her to go lie down on the couch.  A bit later, it turns out she wasn't being dramatic.  She vomited all over the couch.  I won't say where in case it scares people away from sitting on it.  Actually, it wasn't that bad because it was just grapes.  She seemed better but then about 30 or 40 minutes later we had a repeat. Now, the girls kind of have a history with this.  They will have no other symptoms except vomiting.  It's probably happened three or four times to each of them and I figured this was another of those times.  We had a dentist appointment at 10:40 and I did not want to miss the appointment as we had already rescheduled once and also because Calleigh needs some major help with her upper teeth coming in all crooked.  Plus, this was Brady's first appointment and we had hyped it all up.  When we loaded up, Aubree hadn't vomited in awhile so I was hoping it was all over but brought a bowl just in case.  I figured she didn't have to do her appointment but at least the other two could.

We get to the front desk and I'm explaining to the receptionist about Aubree not having her appointment and what do you know but Aubree starts vomiting right then and there.  I whipped the bowl out of my diaper bag and got most of it (it was just watery looking liquid at this point, thankfully) but some landed on the floor.  I am certain that the lady was judging me, "What kind of mother brings her sick kid the dentist like this?" But I forged on.  I told her I could wait in the car with Aubree while the Calleigh and Brady had their appointments (since we don't go back with the kids anyway). I said I REALLY wanted Calleigh to have her appointment because of my concerns.  She went and talked to the doctor who said that he would see Calleigh but not Brady but only if I could get someone to be with Aubree so she wouldn't have to stay in the waiting room.  I put in an emergency call to Elaine who dropped everything and came.  Bless her.  I finally talked them in to seeing Brady too.  For whatever reason, they wouldn't let them start their appointment until Elaine was there with Aubree even though I could have just waited outside with her while they were in their appointment. Kind of silly but I do appreciate their willingness to let us still have the appointment even though it was starting considerably late.

Brady did great.  He had no problems with going without me...I'm sure in great part because big sister was there with him.  When the doctor came to meet with me to discuss Brady he said "So Brady doesn't use a binky any more?  He threw them away?" I was like "Ah, no. He definitely still uses them." The doctor said "Well, he was VERY convincing." As I suspected, the doctor said he needed to get rid of them because they were doing a number on his teeth and "he will definitely need a corrective device." Duncan basically thinks it's hogwash because he was told the same thing and he never got braces or anything and his teeth are perfect. On the plus side, Brady didn't have any cavities or an extra tooth like Calleigh.


Yes, that extra tooth that Calleigh had is causing all sorts of problems.  Her front left tooth is coming in, or has mostly come in, completely turned thanks to the extra tooth (that was removed last year) jacking it all up. Her adult tooth next to it doesn't have enough room to come in so it's at a weird angle too.  We have now scheduled her an appointment to have two upper baby teeth removed to help alleviate the problem and then they are going to take panoramic pictures of the bottom since they suspect the same issue down there.  Sorry kid!  But, at least she's cavity free too.

Meanwhile, on our way home from the dentist, Aubree takes a little snooze.  We get inside to have lunch and Aubree tells me she feels great and wants to eat.  And it's like she never had a thing wrong.  All is well and I feel partially vindicated from the judgey dental receptionist.  See, I told you she wasn't really sick!

Gymnastics has being going very well.  The girls had their second class on Thursday evening which is SO different than being there at 11 am on a Monday morning.  In the mornings, there are five - seven kids in the class and they are literally the only ones in the gym whereas in the evenings, there are kids everywhere, as you can imagine, since school is out.  I took them to the Thursday evening one but Duncan was kind enough to pick them up which they were thrilled about.  They really wanted daddy to see them in action.  Yesterday at their Monday class, a boy about Calleigh's age was added to the mix.  He didn't seem particularly athletic (nothing wrong with that) and at one point when they were having a relay race and it was his turn to run, Calleigh remarked to him "You're slow." She didn't mean it to be mean, just said it in a matter-of-fact way. Nonetheless, I was appalled and quickly had a discussion with her that it wasn't appropriate.

One of the things they learn is to do a hand stand.  Now, I noticed that some of the other girls, some that are quite good at gymnastics from the look of things, do these hand stands but they don't actually stand on their hands.  It's more like they get into the position for the merest of moments and then drop back down the way they came up.  Of course, the girls had never done anything like this before and could barely make it partially into the position.  Naturally, they've been practicing it like crazy at home especially in our gym because we have mats on the floor.  Aubree, in particular, has been doing it over and over again and she told me last night, "I really like do to hand stands.  It's my thing." On the other hand, Calleigh, seems to be more cautious with it and told me that a girl, Mia, in their class told her that if you flipped over while doing it, you should try to get in position to do a somersault so you don't break your neck.  I've noticed that Calleigh can be a little bit of a worrier and I don't think learning this information about how to avoid breaking your neck has helped at all.   She's still been trying but probably not with quite the enthusiasm as Aubree.  Aubree was watching her work on it at one point last night and told her "Just believe in yourself!"  I had to laugh.  Turns out this was another juicy tidbit courtesy of Mia.

Teacher helping Aubree with a cartwheel.

Since they've started gymnastics, I think I've heard "Look at me, Mom" about a thousand times and I"m sure that will continue.  One of those times was Aubree this evening doing more hand stands and low and behold, she went all the way up and over, landing hard on her back.  At least, I thought it was hard but she was unfazed.  I need to ask the teacher what they're supposed to do to avoid going over.  How do they balance themselves to stay in an upright position?

Before I close, here is a quote from Calleigh.  On Thursday we had a ton of errands to do which took us from getting gas - to the libray - to the bank - to Michaels - to Target - to Costco.
Me:"Here we are at Costco."
Calleigh:"Do we really have to go here?  I am sick of doing errands.  I just want to go home."
Me:"But they have samples!"
Calleigh:"Honestly, I could live without them!"

A couple more pictures.

A trip to Ikea last Tuesday for a new set storage shelf.  Stopped at the kids' section.

Supper for five in the cafe for $6.36.  Love kids eat free!

This little face turns 1 tomorrow!

Have a great week.    

Well, he actually was one about 10 days ago but I've had one thing after another keeping me from writing on here....fatigue - - helping a friend box 800 cupcakes - - headaches - - company.  Yada, yada, the list goes on and on.  But I'm finally back.

He didn't cry about the candle but almost did when I had to jerk him away quickly because he put his hand in the candle.

One of his favorite expressions.

"Was I supposed to do this?"

We had the usual group over for the little supper party on a Tuesday night.  I wanted to do it on his actual birthday which would have been Wednesday but the kids had Adventurers.

 So yes, on August 27, the little bugger turned one year old.  I made it!!  Having my baby get to one year is always my personal goal because it seems like it should get easier after that somehow.  Just wondering when that kicks in with this one because so far, he's just as ornery as ever.  Case in point...Typically I would take my shower in the morning once he's down for his morning nap.  But because I want to get in as much school as possible while he's sleeping, I got the bright idea to shower before his nap which meant he would go into his pack n play while I'm in the shower.  Yup, great idea.  He literally cries the ENTIRE time I'm in the shower.  Your sisters and brother did not do that, mister.  They just sat there and played like a normal person.  And when they were your size we lived in our old house and there was a shower curtain blocking their view of me so they had to trust I was behind there.  Meanwhile, you get to see me through the glass. What a stinker.  At any rate, I've had to go to Plan B which is to shower at night.  One can only take 15 minutes of straight crying for so long before they go a little crazy.
Turning one isn't without a few accomplishments, at least.  He started walking in much more earnest around the time of his birthday and I would say is doing so about 75% of the time now.  It was so strange because he started taking a lot of steps about six weeks ago and I thought for sure that was it.  For the other three, once they started taking steps within about a week they were off to the races.  But it didn't happen that way at all for him.  It's almost like he said "Ah, well.  I have another few months to go before I hit the age that my siblings walked (13, 13, and 15 months) so I think I'll just chill for a bit." He finally decided to pick things up a notch.  I will be very glad when he's completely stable on his feet and he doesn't sit and crawl around on the floor in public bathrooms.  As far as talking, he's got the "Mamamama" down pretty well and interestingly, not so much with the "Dadada." I thought kids always did the Dada first.  He knows where his bread gets buttered, apparently.  He also seems to be saying the word "ball."

I had still been nursing five times a day but now that we've introduced whole milk to him, which he loves, it's down to about three or four.  The best part is that I'm no longer nursing during church which means I get about half my Sabbath wardrobe back.  Yay!!  I was getting sick of either not wearing some things at all or having to contort myself in the most uncomfortable of positions to try and get a portion of myself out of the dress.  The nursing is still going well and we will probably just continue on until it wears itself out like the other kids did.  Although...the other day it seemed like he was trying to play around and kind of bit me and I gave him a strict talking to: "Listen pal.  You are one.  This is now a privilege and not a right.  So watch it." That seemed to do the trick.

Birthday at church.  He looks SO excited, doesn't he?!

We had his check up last week and everything went great although he is getting smaller.  Well, not really but compared to the rest of the population he is shrinking.  He's down to the 10th percentile for weight after being up over the 50th, I think.  The important thing is that he's still on his own upward curve so no worries from the doctor.  And on the plus side, maybe he won't catch Brady in the near future.  Here are his stats:

Weight - 20 lbs, 2 oz (Calleigh - 20 lbs, Aubree - 18 lbs, 8 oz, Brady - 17 lbs, 4 oz)
Height - 29 1/4 inches (25th)
Head - 18 3/4 inches (75th)
Shoe Size - 3/4
Clothes Size - 12 months

Just chilling...waiting for the doctor.

Let's see.  What else has been going on non-Colby related?  Last weekend Duncan was gone on a trip up to Maine.  He went with Shawn and Camille's brother, Cameron, on a backtracking trip up Mount Katahdin which is the highest mountain in Maine and also the northern end of the Appalachian Trail.  He left on a Thursday morning, flying on Allegiant Airlines straight from Sanford to Bangor. They stayed on the mountain on Thursday and Friday nights and returned to Shawn's house on Saturday afternoon and then he flew back here on Sunday afternoon.  Everything went very well but because of poor cell phone coverage, as expected, I went to bed both those nights without having talked to him or gotten texts.  That was a strange feeling!  He had a great time and they are already working on plans for a trip for next year.  I'm perfectly happy to stay at home with the kids.  Ha!

Glad I saw this AFTER he got back.

Awesome picture taken by my brother.  That's Duncan.  When Brady saw it, he said "Is he going to jump?"

School has been going pretty great.  The first two weeks have exceeded my expectations.  I think Calleigh has only given me a hard time about three or four times.  At the end of the first week, we didn't do school on Friday, as our usual, and BOTH girls told me they wanted to have school.  Perhaps Calleigh was particularly bored at the moment.  I don't know.  But I'll take it!  They've both been engaged in everything we've been doing and will even run upstairs in the morning before we start school and get the books all spread out on the desk for me and get their papers out (we start with Life of Fred for Math and their is always some questions at the end).  We are doing our school in two sections.  As soon as Colby is down for his morning nap, school is in session and will go from about 9:30 - 11:15 although Colby is awake for the end.  In the afternoons, we start at about 2:45 or 3:00 and go to about 4:30.  Brady is obviously awake for our morning session and boy, what a difference a year makes.  He is so much calmer at age three than at age two.  He will sit peacefully on the floor doing puzzles or playing with blocks now.  He is also sometimes now awake in the afternoons as well.  Without the binky, its been taking him longer to fall asleep and the naps are shorter. Sometimes an hour now compared to 2+ hours before.  To his credit though, he has done great with the binky.  There have been binkies of Colby's (same kind he used) all over the place and he's never once put it in his mouth.

Here are some anecdotes from our school/learning time:

We were on our way somewhere in the car and I was asking kids questions about that week's school work.
Me:"Remember, there are many different kinds of scientists.  For example, a biologist who studies living things.  What about a scientist who studies flowers?"
Aubree:"Um, a plantieologist?"

We are doing a word of the day each day which has been a lot of fun.  We go over it and then the girls have to try and use it throughout the day.
Me: "The word of the day is 'Inquire.' Does anybody know what that means?
Calleigh:"Is that when you like play an instrument or you like sing in a group?"
Me:"You mean like you are in a choir?  Nice try!"

Another trip in the car.  This time we are almost home and it was obvious the high school had just been dismissed as bus after bus was passing us by.  I took it as a teaching moment.
Me: "Okay, let's count how many buses go by.  1, 2, 3...10, 11, 12, 13. Brady, what comes next?"
Brady: "Another bus!"

Science experiment.  Moving sheets of paper by flapping cardboard behind it.

We studied Christopher Columbus last week and I made Christopher's boats out of tinfoil.

Alas, only the Santa Maria floated which is ironic since it's the one that ran aground off San Salvador and had to be taken apart.

We had Cory and Amanda and the boys at our house this weekend as Cory needs to be here for meetings for Monday - Wednesday.  We had a great time as usual, especially all the kids.  Cory brought his bike and he, Duncan, and Allen went out this morning on a 50-mile ride.  We decided to do a brunch afterwards at First Watch and sent Duncan and Cory out ahead since we knew it would be a long wait.  It turned out to be even longer because the governor of Rick Scott happened to be eating there.  He is out on the campaign trail since he's up for reelection in November.  He was very nice and posed for pictures and talked to the kids.

Waiting for our table.

Love this picture!  Aubree is right next to the governor with her Brady jersey on, Calleigh is holding the sign, and look at Kohlden with his arms around Brady.  Isn't that the cutest thing!

Being goofy after Sabbath lunch at the Isidros.

Parting ways after First Watch.

The four boys playing (sort of) together in our sandbox.

I'm going to close here and just post the rest in pictures!

First night of Adventurers.  Some firemen came by and gave a talk and demonstration.

Hit up the playground at the mall after getting Colby's 1-year photo taken at JCPenney.

Watching the girls at gymnastics and Brady wanted to get in on it.

"Watch me, Mom.  Watch me." This is what I hear ALL the time now.

Colby's first Popsicle.  It didn't end well.

Riding in the pink Barbie jeep at Grandma and Grandpa's.  That's my boy!

Colby got to take his first ride in the more manly jeep.

Waiting for Daddy to get back from Maine.

A trip to Uno's for supper after he got back.  Brady made his own pizza and ate the entire thing (big deal for him).

Went to Jetty Park Beach on Labor Day with the Isidro's.  Great time!

Saw this cruise ship come in.  Oh, to be on it.  Only two more years to go until we will consider it.

As I said before, what a difference a year makes!  Last year we couldn't get her in the ocean.  This year, she's the last one out.

Our tax dollars hard at work.

Brady dressed in Aubree's leggings for some sort of activity.  Not sure what.

Cupcakes and more cupcakes (many more than this elsewhere too.)  Jennifer made over 800 for EA Sports.  I helped bag and put the bows on them.

Have a great week!  

I have a confession to make.  I HATE soccer.  I consider myself to be a fairly sporty person, so it's not that I'm some chick who doesn't like sports in general.  It's just that I find it so incredibly boring. Given the choice between watching paint dry and watching a soccer game, well, it would be a hard decision.  When the World Cup came on a few months ago, apparently I was the only one who couldn't give two fig newtons about the end result.  I watched it for about 10 seconds one time, by accident, and the only thing I got out of it was that whoever invented it must not be too bright...I mean, who counts up instead of down when keeping track of the time?  To figure out how much time is left in the game, you have to take 80 (or is it 90?) minutes and subtract out how much has been played.  But wait!  Nobody actually knows how much time is left because the referee (?) may decide to add on additional playing time because someone stepped on his foot or one of the goalies is ugly.  I don't know.  All I know is that we had to play it a few times when I was in seventh grade and one of my classmates went after the ball wrong and the sound of the bone in his leg breaking is a sound that will stay in my brain forever.  I think that was a sign that soccer and I don't like each other.

I tell you all this because, believe it or not, I am now a soccer mom!  That's right, my kids are now playing the sport that I detest.  Somehow it's not quite so bad when it's your own kids running to the ball like dogs to a bone.  We found out that the Apopka SDA church was having a fall soccer "league" for seven weeks for the age groups of 3 - 6 and 7 - 10 on Sunday mornings.  Every time we've asked Calleigh if she wants to play the piano or the violin, she always responds that she wants to play soccer, as if the two were mutually exclusive, so her wish was finally coming true.  Not only that, but Brady would get to play too and all I could think about was how cute he'd look in his jersey.

It started this past Sunday and it all went very well.  It starts at 9:00 for Calleigh's age group so Duncan took her and I would follow with the other two a little later.  We had a short moment of panic when we couldn't find Calleigh sneakers...I didn't want to buy cleats or anything until we assessed the situation.  Duncan wasn't too happy about the thought of showing up at the game with his daughter wearing Crocs!  Fortunately Calleigh finally found them in her backpack at the last second.  Whew! There ended up being about seven or eight other kids in Calleigh's age group including her good friend Lindsey.  They have several guys that are coaching all the kids and they seem like really nice guys.  For the first half hour, they work on various drills and such and then the second half they play a game.  It worked the same way for Aubree and Brady.  However, there were about 20 kids in their group.  My heart melted into a big puddle when I watched Brady run around the field in his jersey for the first warm up activity.  He looked so little!


Brady did all the drills with Aubree but then when they took a water break before the game, he came over to us and said, matter-of-factly, "I'm done" and plopped down on the blanket.  It was pretty warm out and I couldn't blame him.  There were really too many kids playing in the game and I think Aubree only touched the ball a handful of times but it didn't squash her enthusiasm at all.  A little later in the day she remarked "I love soccer.  I really wish we could play more now." Next time they will separate out the 3-year olds which I think will be much better.  At any rate, a good time was had by all, including me!

Brady practicing kicking it on goal.

Duncan got them a new soccer ball and he's doing great practicing in the back yard.

I am trying to limit the amount of things that we do during the day during the school week so as not to interfere with our school schedule but last we had a few things to take care of.  On Tuesday I had a cleaning at the dentist so I took all the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's.  I'm glad I don't have to worry about Colby anymore.  Of course, though, as soon as I returned and walked in the door, he started fussing for me.  On Wednesday it was another dentist day...this time for Calleigh and Aubree. Aubree had her cleaning which she had missed when "sick" a few weeks ago.  No cavities so we were happy. Calleigh was there to get her two baby incisors pulled on the top.  She's had teeth pulled before so it wasn't that big of a deal.  I confirmed with the dentist, again, that getting these teeth pulled should help with her crooked teeth and he said that yes, but it will take time.  A year from now, her teeth will look a lot different.  No doubt she will most likely still need braces but at least things will look better. On the way home, we went through the drive thru at Chick-Fil-A to get milkshakes since Calleigh could only have liquids.  Boy, what an ordeal that was...going through the drive thru during lunchtime. The line wraps all around the building.  Mercy!

Colby killing time at the dentist.

In Colby news, he's now walking full time and I'm loving watching him walking around with that "new walker" gait.  As far as nursing, he appears to be done with nursing during the day so we are now just nursing first thing in the morning and before bed.  Those are my favorite times with him...he's not distracted or crying.  There aren't too many of those moments to go around.

In Brady news, naps are becoming few and far between.  I thought he was completely done but he did nap on Sabbath and Sunday because Duncan went and laid down in the room with him.  Oh, to have the binky back but we can't go back now!  He's had a few grumpy afternoons while we've been trying to do school because of those missing naps.  Unfortunately the lack of naps hasn't made him sleep later in the morning, at least not yet.  I've still been putting him in his crib every afternoon though and making him stay in there for about 30 - 40 minutes which means it's been about 3:30 when he gets out. He's now catching on to it and today he very seriously told me as he pointed to the 6 on the clock on the wall, "Now, when it gets to that letter, and I yell 'Get me out' you have to come get me." 

Sabbath afternoon nap with Daddy.

In the interest of my getting to bed at a respectable hour, I will end here and just post pictures for the rest of this entry.

Daddy won this belt at work for winning in some games they had one day at a budget planning session.

One science experiment this week.

...and another.

Duncan made his own iPhone 6 Plus to see how big it would be.  Thinks he's going for it.  I'm on the fence.

I've been trying to find some old fashioned toys at a yard sale to decorate the playroom.  Finally found some!

Working on a puzzle on Sabbath afternoon.

It was 48 inches tall so we had to verify that it was indeed taller than Aubree and Brady.

One of their favorite things to do at gymnastics and it's not even part of their class.  This is on the swing set there.

Playing the Money Bags game.  My mom had gotten Calleigh this years ago before she even knew about coins and I just found it again.  Great game for learning to make change!

Any time another kid is outside, Colby goes to the door and cries to get out there.

Have a great week!