From batteries to storing candy in the little "flap." Which really begs the question, does anyone actually use that little flap rather than pulling down their pants?

There were many a day that I thought this day would never come.  But it did!  Brady is potty trained! I wouldn't call myself on an expert on this topic by any means but this is my third kid to go through the process so I feel that I'm fairly knowledgeable on the topic. Perhaps I could even write a book on it.  Fear not, if you are already bored by this topic, I have good news.  The book has only one chapter and it is very short.  It goes like this, "If you wait until they are ready, they will pretty much train themselves." That is exactly what happened here.  On Monday morning, Brady came downstairs wearing his underwear.  Since then, he has gone pee on the potty every time save for wearing diapers on Monday and Tuesday when I was too nervous to go out in public with him in underwear.  There has been one poop accident on Tuesday and now he's even doing that on the potty.  But seriously, I don't remind him to go or anything.  He just goes on his own.  It's really quite unbelievable.  I'm so glad that even though my kid will be four in four months that I didn't force him to potty train because he "should be potty trained by this age."

There has been some humor.  At the beginning, he was going on a particular tree in the back yard.  I had told him that he could have an M&M each time he went (although it really wasn't necessary since he does it so well).  On that first day he was still getting the hang of it and about every two minutes he would tell me he had to go.  The first time he came running back in and I went out to investigate and found some leaves with a liquid on them.  A little thrill went through me as he had never had any success peeing on a tree or in a potty in previous months when he said he wanted to try.  But then I wanted to see it in action to see if it was really and truly happening.  He kept saying he was going to go and then we would get out there and he'd stand there but nothing would happen.  After a bit, he would get frustrated and he would start twisting, pinching, pulling, turning this way, even pulling it up to peer at it.  Why won't the pee come out??  Made me laugh at least.  Welcome to the world of boys, I guess!  Oh, and then I was thinking, is there any greater joy as a parent than when your child poops on the toilet for the first time?  Sure, riding a two wheeler and learning to read are pretty cool but not changing a poop diaper is pretty darn special.

Yes! Yes!  I see moisture!!

I had told him months ago that if he started going in the potty, we would convert his crib to a toddler bed.  Man, we milked that crib set up for as long as possible.  We have been fortunate that none of our kids tried getting out of their cribs at a young age.  By the time Brady tried it, he was old enough to understand my threat that he would lose his binky if he got out.  After the binky was gone, I told him he could die if he tried to get out and landed on his head.  Well, it IS possible!!  Last night was the first night and all went well but I was pretty annoyed to still hear the "GET ME OUT, GET ME OUT" at 7:15.  I went in and told him he could get himself out now which apparently he forgot or maybe old habits die hard.

I tried to take a picture of the four of them but this is what Colby does when he hasn't seen me in awhile (aka, three minutes).  He forgets all else and tries to get to me ASAP.

Last weekend Cory, Amanda, and the boys came to stay at our place on Saturday night since they are down for some meetings for Cory.  We decided to have a little get together for those of us that all lived here in our community (since Cory and Amanda were the first to live here before they moved) and so we invited the Isidros and Ottatis over.  The weather was perfect and we had such a nice time roasting hot dogs over our fire pit and enjoying the nice set up we have outside...thanks to my hubby, of course.  The kids spent much of the time playing around in the back yard with the couch pillows. But as soon as the last person went out the door, Calleigh promptly stated "I am SO glad Gaby left. She is SO bossy." Gaby is four.  It totally cracked me up.  I had to explain to her that Gaby is the oldest in her family just like Calleigh and so Gaby probably thinks she is in charge just like Calleigh thinks that SHE is in charge.

I made brownie delight for the special occasion and Colby was...delighted.

Earlier in the day, Cory caught a lizard which wouldn't let go of Noah's thumb.

The kids named him and were convinced that he wanted to live with them rather than go free because he wouldn't run when they put him down.

No qualms about touching reptiles.

Last Sunday they gave the awards (to every child) for soccer since today was going to be the last week and many of the kids were going to be participating in field day at FLEC.  Calleigh has decided that she likes to play on defense and rarely goes on offense.  She's gotten very into it knowing what weeks they've won and which weeks they lost even though it's supposed to be just for fun.  Now she'll start saying things like "Oh, I hope Taylor isn't going to be there today because he's the best...he's better than so & so, and so & so, and so & so all put together" (don't want to name any names).   Of course, Taylor is 10 which is the highest age that league goes up to so obviously that helps.  Aubree is holding her own.  She loves it but sometimes still seems a little bashful to get into skirmishes for the ball.  The next session is starting at the end of March and when I asked them if they both wanted to sign up for it again, it was a resounding "YES." Now if only I liked soccer...Actually, I will admit I do enjoy watching them play.





On Monday morning the girls had their gymnastics and we were all saddened to learn that their teacher Corey/Cory/Kory (just not sure how she spells her version) is leaving.  She got an internship doing something with music at a church and has to cut back on her hours.  We are so sad to see her go because she has been so incredibly kind and good to the kids.  We had actually dropped the Thursday night gymnastics because the girls seemed to be dragging their feet a little going to that one because they didn't like the teacher nearly as much and I figured they had enough going on anyway. We are anxious to see tomorrow who the new teacher will be.


The girls had their third piano lesson also last Monday (we have now decided to make it permanently on Monday afternoons as morning lessons were interfering with various field trips we are taking). On the Sunday and Monday morning before lessons when I asked Calleigh to practice she dragged her feet and told me "It's boring." And I thought, "So it begins.  Only took about 2.5 weeks." But, what I realized is that it was boring because she had only learned the one song and already had it mastered. Ethan taught her a new song on Monday and so then she had a new challenge to work on and has done so admirably.  Meanwhile, Aubree is doing really great too and when he said, "She's six, right?" And I said, "No, five" he was surprised and said, "She does really, really well for a five year old.  I have many seven year olds that aren't able to do this well as far as only playing one key at a time."

I forgot to mention last week that I am no longer nursing Colby at night so we are down to the morning and random other times that he decides to contort himself into some weird position and nurse.  Some days it's no other times and some days it could be two or three.  We shall see if it peters out on its own or what.  But in the meantime, I'm very pleased with the faster bedtime routine.

Here are some pictures of other stuff we've been up to:

Calleigh and I went to her friend Lindsey's 9th birthday party then got to make a clay cupcake and paint it.  Reminded me of ceramics from summer camp.

You know you are a mom when....you look down at your plate and realized you just mindlessly cut up your own waffle.

I found a joke and riddle book at Goodwill and Calleigh loved it.  She had no idea she was doing all that reading!

Tuesday morning we met Amanda, Noah, and Jake at the "Peacock" park.

As I've said, he loves my hair.

Tuesday night met up with the Reeveses and Isidros (minus Tangie) at Winter Garden Pizza.  Duncan played a game of Simon says.

Clean laundry building up outside the laundry room makes Colby a happy boy.

Potty training sure wears a fella out.

Colby was freaking me out trying to climb on this horse so we moved it to the gym some odd months ago.  He has been so happy to see its reappearance in the playroom.

This kid loves to put his plate on his head or his food on his head for that matter.

Went to a consignment sale next to a playground on Friday.  Love how this pictures makes it look like Calleigh and Aubree are looking at each other and smiling.

Brady bought a Lego set with money he has been saving.  When he asked Calleigh to put it together for him, she tried to be all nonchalant about it but she was all excited because she LOVES to do Legos.

Colby ADORES books.

Love this boy. I could stare at him sleeping for hours.

Colby pushed Brady all around the downstairs.  Love how they are playing together.

Conversations with the kids:

As we walked through a parking lot to go to Lindsey's birthday party, a car with a Christmas tree on it's roof drove by.
Calleigh: "Mom, look at that car with a Christmas tree on it. "(Voice drops to a whisper).  "They must have Alzheimer's and they forgot when Christmas is."

One evening after supper...
Calleigh:"Mom, can we watch Busy Town?  Please?
Me: "I don't think so.  You guys have had enough screen time today."
Brady:"We won't scream any more, I promise!"

Calleigh:"One of the worse things would be to die."
Me:"Actually, it won't be that bad.  Just think, one second you are in the ground like you are sleeping and the very next second it seems to you, you are going up to heaven because Jesus has come. Besides, we may never even die. Jesus may come first."
Calleigh:"I sure wish he would come before school starts."

Have a great week everyone!

Photo courtesy of Camille.

This blog has been on a hiatus because we were preoccupied by a visit from my brother Shawn, wife Camille, Camden, Acadia, Winslow, and of course, my mom.  They (my brother) were last here at the beginning of 2014 and we were adamant that they needed to return for another winter visit but we weren't too sure it would happen.  But alas, a really bad winter up north motivated them enough to make the long drive down.  So see, long, bad winters CAN be a good thing!  

Snapped this picture of the four kids playing matchbox cars together.

Brady took this picture of me nursing Colby one morning.  Yup, this is what it's like to nurse an 18-month old.

This was the week of crafts.  I've wanted to get into sewing myself and teaching the girls.  So we got some embroidery thread and dullish needles and started "sewing" on Styrofoam plates.

We graduated to cloth.  The problem now is that the girls want to sew so many more things and I'm like "Whoa, slow down.  First I need to learn how to do it myself!"

Next up were some Perler beads.  We thought it was a fun Sabbath afternoon craft to make animals out of beads.  You then iron them and they melt together.

Brady blew me away by doing a workbook page that he found.  Between the potty training, big boy bed, and doing this stuff, I feel like he's aged exponentially in the last few weeks!

This is what I deal with almost every meal.  He loves to put food in his hair.

The two kids on the "blue eye team."

Found this at a yard sale and had a flash back to my childhood.

So close but yet so far.

Celebrated Duncan's birthday which was Sunday, March 8.  I told his mother that he found a new recipe for coffee that uses butter and coconut milk.  She got him some coconut milk for his birthday off Amazon but when he opened it, it looked like suntan lotion (or coconut oil).  We got a good laugh out of it.  Turns out it really was edible...I have no idea why they would put it in this kind of bottle.

Calleigh just "fake" reads the Primary Treasure so I was so excited to see Aubree sitting there actually reading a story out of one.

Can't beat the view!

Together again!

Camille and I took Winslow and Colby to Publix on Wednesday morning.

Playing together chewing on some frozen yogurts.

Just don't get too close to that railing!

Love these boys!

And these ones too!

Even though we didn't swim in the ocean, we had some nice walks along the beach.

Winslow couldn't figure out why she couldn't get to the Cheerios on the table!

Tub time!

Enjoying a treat.  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Cool picture my brother took of the fort.

The Putts came over Sunday evening for some supper.  Tim and my brother have been friends since college and Tim took the pictures at Shawn and Camille's wedding.

"Yo Winslow, we're too little to go on any of these rides so we have to just watch the other kids having fun through these stinkin' bars."

Trying to figure out where the water went.

A mommy/Colby selfie on the carousel.

If you pretend she's really high up, this would almost look real!

Buddies!  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Love this picture of these guys!!  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Colby hanging out in the waiting room.

This is how we roll at Casa de Grodack.  Who needs a big pool when you can have this??  But seriously, I will take a back yard for the kids to play in any day over having a pool if I had to choose one or the other.  This was us on Thursday afternoon about 4 pm.  We had finished all our school work in the morning so we were able to enjoy this after Colby's nap.  I sat out there with my magazines watching my four kids play and I thought "It doesn't get any better than this."

Can you play hide and seek under a regular pool?  I think not.

Starting to get to the point of wanting to climb up stuff on the play set.

Daddy took them to the big neighborhood pool this afternoon.  Warming up!

Last weekend we started a new hobby - - geocaching.  Some of you may be scratching your heads and saying "What the heck is that?" Well, according to a geocaching website, the definition of geocaching is "a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." I'm part of some homeschool groups on Facebook and one of the moms posted about it (I had heard about it before but never had taken the time to investigate it) so I finally looked into it and saw that it was easy and fun.  Of course, having cell phones that work as GPS devices make it much simpler than I'm sure it was way back when.  

As you might imagine, there is really no actual treasure.  It's usually just a piece of paper where you write your name and the date as record that you found it.  Sometimes people will leave some small inexpensive item like a dime or cheap toy and you can trade it out with something you brought.  At any rate, clearly the excitement is in finding the treasure, and not getting a treasure.  We are using an app called "Geocaching Intro" and it's really easy to use.  You just open it up and it shows you all the caches around you and gives you directions to find them.  They can be hidden anywhere like in a sign, a tree, under some brush, etc.  It doesn't tell you THAT much detail because it would be too easy...rather, it just gives you the coordinates for the general area.  

We decided to try it out on Sabbath afternoon after nap time.  I will say that it will be up to you, of course, as to whether you find this to be a Sabbath activity.  We thought about it and determined it was motivating us to get out in nature and there really wasn't anything involved that I thought was a distraction from keeping Sabbath.  That is our take anyway.  We found some spots marked along the West Orange Trail (a great bike trail that goes for miles) and decided to walk along that and search. What a great time!  There were four different ones to find and we found all of them.  Duncan found the first one and then Calleigh and I (more me but I think she thinks she was first) found the second and third and I found the fourth.  The last one was actually along the shores of Lake Apopka where we ended with a picnic supper.  There are millions of these caches around the world so check it out!

Duncan finds the first cache.  It's in a 35 mm film case.  Can people actually still buy film or do folks save the cases thinking they may need them someday?

The next one was buried underneath a pile of leaves next to this tree.

The third one.  Located next to a butterfly garden.

The last one was in a box.  We had to be careful getting that one because there were a lot of people around.

Picnic supper.  I would have added the word "Nice" in front of picnic but there were a ton of bugs flying around which kind of put a damper on things.

Since soccer is over, our Sundays have been a little more peaceful.  I can sip my tea and read the Sunday paper!  But, no time to waste as there are kids clothes to go through (Colby transitioned to size 2T for shirts and 18 months for pants/shorts, Brady transitioned out of 18 month shorts into 2T and 3T, Aubree went to 6 for shorts, and Calleigh completely left 7/8 for all her shirts).  The never ending cycle of clothes going out and coming in.  I can only imagine what people with more kids go though.  We also went through the girls shoes and got rid of a bunch that we too small.  You would have thought they were pets.  Calleigh wanted to take a picture of a pair that she was apparently particularly fond of and didn't want to say goodbye and then Aubree had to follow suit. Oh the drama!  People may make fun of adults that wear Crocs but I honestly couldn't live without them for the kids.  The girls haven't had a pair that fit in a few months so we made the trek to the outlets so we could go to the Croc store.  I'd buy them on-line but Aubree is so tricky with her sizes.  She fits like a 10 in dress shoes but a 12 in sandals/flip flops. Crazy kid.  

Evidently these were very precious to her.

I don't know Aubs...they look like a regular pair of flip flops to me.  Unless you were trying to show what a pair of dirty, used flip flops look like in which case you have a winner.

Monday morning it was back to gymnastics for the girls after a two week hiatus.  Coach Kory is officially gone and now they have Coach Adam.  This is the first time they've had a male coach but they said they like him.  And, in fact, he seems to be doing more gymnastic-y stuff with them as opposed to Coach Kory who kind of did it more as a PE. We will see how things go.  Duncan actually came and picked the girls up because he was home for a little while before flying out of town up to Charlotte for work.  Thankfully it was just one night and he was back home Tuesday evening.

Tuesday we had a field trip with our homeschool group to the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park.  We were going to have a free 45-minute tour for our group of eight families.  On the way there, I started really questioning myself..."This is a MUSEUM.  Do you really think Colby is going to be STILL and QUIET for 45 minutes?  Am I insane?" He really hates being in a stroller (I think he thinks he's a big kid and wants to do what they're doing which is walking around) and chasing a kid through a museum is just not good.  But, we persevered (one of our words of the week) on.  When we got there, we were the first ones so we took a trip to the potty.  The tour was at 11:00 am and when we came out of the bathroom, we had about five minutes to go so we waited in the lobby for the other families to arrive.  We passed the time by looking at a few artifacts they had displayed there.  At one point, Calleigh walks over to something and puts her hand up to point to it (I knew she wouldn't touch it) and in a matter of 1.5 seconds, an employee had made a beeline to her and was pushing on her hand.  Good grief.  She knows better than to touch!  

Time ticked by and no families arrived.  I was completely befuddled.  I checked my email and there wasn't anything I missed about it being cancelled.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any one's phone number who was supposed to be there so I couldn't call.  The odd thing was that the leader of the homeschool group was supposed to be there.  You would think a leader wouldn't forget!  At any rate, the lady was nice enough to give us our own private tour since not a single other person showed up. Works for me!  It was definitely nicer having someone to tell us the information rather than having to read it off signs.  The only thing that was really weird is that when she was talking, she would only look at Calleigh and not any of the other kids.  Brady and Colby were clearly not interested in what she had to say but Aubree was right there and yet she barely looked at her.  I guess she must have thought Aubree was "too young" to be interested in this stuff.  But the girls both were very interested and I was really impressed on how they took it all in and were engaged the whole time.  Most of the stuff we saw were blown glass, lamps, paintings, etc by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  I do not consider myself to be an artsy person by any means (afterall, this is my worst category in Trivia Crack) but i did find it all very interesting.  She took us around the museum for maybe 35 minutes and when it was done, I had to pinch myself that it had gone so well.  I had Colby in the Bjorn and he didn't make a single loud noise.  Brady was in the stroller and was silent until the very end when he said "Can we go now?" I sure heaped praises on the four of them for their amazing behavior.  Gives me hope!  

Nothing like a good bathroom photo.  But I thought he looked cute.  Calleigh looks like she's guarding someone in basketball.

Of course, you can't actually take pictures in the museum so we had to take this one to prove we were there.

After we left, I sent an email to the leader, Jennifer, asking if I had missed something and she said she wasn't there because her grandmother had died and then one other family had said they couldn't make it so that left five families that must have just plain forgotten. Poor Jennifer said she was so embarrassed because the museum was probably thinking poorly of her for organizing it and hardly anyone came that was scheduled to come.  Oops!

We had a pretty good week of school this week with only a few minor complaints from Calleigh (who else?)  Aubree's big accomplishment was finishing her "100 Reading Lessons" book.  Calleigh finished it on 2/11/14 so Aubree is 11 months ahead of Calleigh's schedule (not that we're comparing here).  Aubree is reading so well that she didn't really need to finish the whole book but I think it's nice to finish something you start.  



The kids are still on their puzzle kick.  It's funny how they go through spurts of things they like to do.  I had gotten like four or five new puzzles at a yard sale last Friday so I'm sure that's what also spurred it on.  The seller was a teacher and when I bought them she said "You know, I'm a teacher and it's amazing how many kids don't know how to do puzzles so I think it's great your kids like to do them." Mostly they've been doing floor puzzles but now we are transitioning into more pieces and I'm on the hunt for some good ones with 100 - 200 pieces.

Phew!  Brady had shorts on for the last picture. I didn't want you to think he only ever wears just his underwear. Because that would not be true.  Sort of.

Duncan has been working on another big home project that he had forbidden me to talk about or post pictures but now that it's almost done, I've been given the green light.  He's been building a rock climbing wall in our gym.  It's not quite done but it's usable and as you can imagine, the kids are very pleased with it.  I don't know where he gets these inspirations from but keep them coming!

Brady climbing the wall...in his underwear!

A few conversations with the kids:
Aubree had worked on a craft for John 3:16 which had the text in much plainer English than how many of us learned it.  Aubree was showing the craft to Grandpa when Calleigh butted in.
Calleigh:"I know that memory verse except I know it in a different way."
Grandpa:"Oh yeah?  What is it?"
Calleigh:"For God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son..."

I guess she wasn't that far off actually.  We do know that is how Jesus felt when he was dying on the cross.

Yesterday the girls got into a skirmish and I had to send Calleigh for a time out which then prompted some disrespectful words to me.  
Me:"Calleigh, because of your disrespectful words, you are going to have to clean your room by yourself."
Calleigh (sighing and half crying):"WHY does it have to be SO hard to be a HUMAN?"

A few more pictures...

Another Lego project for Calleigh.  Whoever thought up the idea to use the same pieces to make three different project and include instructions for all three...GENIUS!

Wish I had a picture of us together but Aubree and I both wore white shirts and blue skirts to the museum and styled our hair the same way.  I had to take this picture to prove her hair was the same as mine.

Aubree does my hair every night while I'm reading a book to them.  I sure hope that when I get to heaven, there will be someone there who can just brush my hair all day.  I would be..in heaven.

When you get rained out in the back yard, the only solution is to come inside and play in the tub!

Loved Brady's face in this one!

Nothing like falling asleep with black loafers three times too big on your feet.

Have a Happy Sabbath!
  

Spring has sprung and with it birthday season and outdoor activities.  What we have decided it has NOT brought is the soccer league.  It was supposed to start this past Sunday and go for eight weeks but I finally took a moment to think about it and realized that we would miss at least half the weeks due to birthday festivities and the church campout.  The girls were not at all pleased with this development but I finally got them to somewhat see reason.  The first conflict was on that very first Sunday - - this past Sunday. Our Adventurers club was hosting "Fun Day" which is when all the Adventurer clubs from Central Florida come together to do...fun stuff!  That included a bouncy house, petting zoo, face painting, earning honors, and most interestingly, booths with a "country theme" displayed by each club.  For example, our theme was Russia so our (I say "our" loosely because it's not like I actually set the booth up or anything) booth had Russian nesting dolls, some Russian food, etc.  Anywho, this was going on from 9:00 - 2:00 but then we also had a birthday party for the Z boys and Luke D. from 10:00 - 12:30.  Soccer would have been 9:00 - 11:30 so something had to give!  Some of us adults were sadder than others to see the soccer league not happening (and it's not who you think).   

Calleigh playing goal - - her favorite position.

All the birthday party kids.  Brady isn't in the picture in case you were looking for him!

Brady's best friend that isn't related to him.

The birthday boys - - Kaleb, Zachary, and Luke.

The country of Indonesia - - my favorite booth.  This girl showed us how to play these instruments.

Greece

Pina Coladas

When I picked Aubree up from SS, I realized she had her skirt on backwards.  All I could think about was that she was in front of the whole church improperly dressed!

The first find.

It was in the "V" of this tree.

We got the clues for the coordinates from this sign.

These were all over the place.  Baby grasshoppers?  We weren't sure.

This one was a big one.

The Geocaching crew.

Colby was being a real pain and only wanted me to carry him on the way back. Come on man.

The keychain trackable.

We had supper when we got home and Duncan got to hold London while the moms ate.

It's the Village People!

Climbing up at gymnastics.

And sliding down...over and over and over and over again.

One of the crafts for Adventurers.  They are a great group of kids.  Five is a really nice age I decided.

My mom got these magnetic cars at a yard sale down here a few years ago and they are his favorites.

Science experiment this week.  What's the difference over time with popcorn kernels between wetting the napkin and not wetting the napkin?  A no brainer!

The kids are in their pool every afternoon.  I honestly believe that they have just as much fun in theirs as kids with an actual swimming pool.

Found at a yard sale today.

Ta da!!  Okay, I have to brag a little bit here.  It is actually true that you can teach old dogs new tricks because I made these.  Can you believe it?!  Camille showed me how and I actually pulled it off although I should probably wait until the boys have worn them to church tomorrow and they haven't fallen apart before I say anything!  These are "no sew" just super glue so anyone can do it.

Our big activity of this past week was, of course, Easter.  We have had our annual tradition for Easter going for quite a few years now and we were happy to continue those traditions this year.  First off, we are at Ron and Elaine's for a breakfast and an egg hunt with the Bergherms and Isidros.  Like last year, Duncan and Allen rode their bikes over via some lenthy route and met us there.

I had decided this year that I was going to have a "golden" egg of sorts and put in a $5 bill in a random egg.  I stuffed them all Saturday night and was proud of my egg with the bill all folded tightly - - in fact, it was an egg within an egg.  So Sunday morning I mentioned to the kids that there was going to be special egg that might have some money in it.  And Calleigh says "Oh, I bet it will be $10!" Poof, my excitement vanished!  Now it would be a letdown to only find $5.  Guess I should have kept the info on the money to myself.  Lesson learned.

We had a lovely breakfast and then Duncan and Allen went out to hide the eggs.  Ron herded all the kids into the living room and put the TV on and was going to show us some footage they had recorded of  some boys stealing a bike out of the garage next door.  Ron and Elaine have like five or six security cameras set up around their house recording and keeping footage for at least several days and they so happened to catch the thieves red handed.  Very exciting!  Anyway, after Ron showed it, the footage went to a live view and suddenly we could see Duncan and Allen and where they were hiding all the eggs.  The kids thought it was pretty funny.

Pretty sure Brady is going to be my only lefty :(

We missed Bruce who was reffing at Disney.

The kids were out running around in the backyard and Blake said that Calleigh was sitting on him and his head bumped into the tree...or something like that!  So we got some ice for his head.  He was fine.

The hunt went great.  We let the kids start in waves and Colby was up first but he had NO idea what he was doing and it took him a minute to catch on.  But then all the other ones came tearing up behind him and it was a mass of kids running all over the place.  In the end, Brady ended up being the one with the "golden" egg and fortunately $5 is exciting enough for him.  

Annual kids photo.  It is now complete with baby London.

Waiting for Duncan to tell them "GO!"

Brady discovers the money

Family picture in our orange.  It's okay to wear it in the football offseason.

We went home for a few hours - - long enough for Colby to sleep and for me to make a fruit salad and stuff another four dozen eggs and then it was off to the Hilliards for the annual Hilliard/Bergherm Easter party.  It is always a nice time to catch up with people I don't get to talk to that often although some of us kept interrupting ourselves to see where our small children were due to the close proximity of the pool.  It's potluck style and I always find that I stuff myself so full because everyone brings such good food.  And then there's Brady who ate some chips and a fruit truffle because that's all he liked.  Arghhhh!

Men's table.

At least we know Colby enjoyed his meal.

The second egg hunt went well too although as I expected, Colby was completely freaked out by the Easter bunny just as Brady was at the same age.  The kids must have collected like 40 eggs each and seriously they have more candy than I don't know what.  I will be slowly confiscating about 90% of it over the next week.  And no, not to eat it myself because I can't stand the stuff.  I will never be able to do that Jimmy Kimmel joke on the kids where you tell them "I ate all your Halloween candy" because they know that would never be true.

Braelyn happened to be wearing the same dress as the girls.  I had gotten them the night before at Old Navy and I had even thought right before the party, "It would be cool if Braelyn had the same dress." I have NO idea why that thought crossed my mind but it did and there you go!

There is a vast, vast area to be covered on this hunt.

Buddies

The moment Colby spotted the bunny.

Going back to Sabbath...we switched services this week so we could enjoy the Easter service that went on during third service.  Typically we do church first (which is second service) and then go to Sabbath School.  We are actually planning to reverse services in July when the new year starts and the kids will be switching to their new classes.  The music, among other things, is a little too contemporary for my taste.  I know that makes me sound old but so be it!  The problem with switching things up is that the kids are attached to their friends in their Sabbath Schools so you hate to change it.  But, a lot of their friends go to the first SS, so I think it will work out just fine and in fact, Calleigh has already asked to go back to it.  And oh, the music!  How nice it was to hear the choir and sing from the church hymnal.  I am a traditionalist at heart, what can I say!

After naps, the Isidros came over for a visit and we took them on their first Geocaching expedition. Such a good time and Braelyn even found the first cache so that was extra exciting.  The kids were begging to find more but we had to stop after three and go home and eat.

One of the finds along the West Orange Trail

The kids open it up.  Look at Colby even in there.

 

Calleigh found the second one.

I think she found the third one too.

So, the other big thing of this week is that Colby is no longer nursing.  It kind of pains me to say that. It truly is the end of an era.  My body is my own once again.  I have either been pregnant or nursing since August of 2006 and it's kind of a weird feeling that I don't have to think twice about taking medicine or what have you.  The stoppage happened very naturally.  He is sleeping in much later now (between 7:30 and 8:00) and often Brady is already up by the time Colby wakes up so Brady will go in with me to get him up.  Who can think about getting milk when your big brother is there to play? Last Sabbath Colby slept in so late that I had to wake him and there was no time to nurse.  The next morning, I put him on to nurse and he put his mouth there for a half second, didn't do anything, took it off and that was that.  The end.  He went to 19 months which is the same as the girls (Brady went to 20).  I'm a little emotional about it but now at least there is theoretically nothing to stop me from sleeping in on a Sunday morning or going overnight without him!

Why have milk when I can eat asparagus instead?  That kid was shoveling it in.  Hopefully this means his eating style will be more like Aubree than the other two.

This week was such an amazing week of school.  Calleigh didn't whine, complain, cry, or throw a fit, at all!  I don't know what happened.  It's like having a baby and they have a good night of sleep and you try to figure out EXACTLY what you did leading up to it so you can duplicate it and have it happen again.   I couldn't figure it out but hopefully it wasn't a one week fluke.  I made sure to praise her up and down and in front of Duncan too.  We are doing some of the Southern states right now in History so we learned a lot about Rosa Parks, George Washington Carver (made a sweet potato pie in his honor), and Helen Keller.  I found a great movie on YouTube (seriously, what would I do without YouTube?) about Rosa Parks and then we watched the Disney version of "The Miracle Worker" also off YouTube and it was fantastic.  Brady actually watched the whole thing and was completely engaged.  I highly recommend it to anyone with kids.

A couple of conversations with the kids...

The kids had dumped all their candy on the futon in Brady's room and did I mention there was a lot? Fortunately they know they aren't allowed to take any without asking permission.  But then I came into the room and saw Brady licking various items.
Me:"Brady, were you eating any of that candy?"
Brady:"No, I was just licking the gum to see what it tasted like."

Note to self - - don't give any of the gum to Calleigh and Aubree.  But poor Brady...I told him he couldn't have gum until he was four so I guess this was his solution.

Our back door got messed up in the wind and it's a little harder to open and close so Duncan was working on it one day.  He was on a ladder pounding a hinge or something.
Brady:"Daddy. what are you doing on earth?"

Well, the words are right just not in the right order!

Some more pictures...

The bow tie I made last week.  It lasted longer than Brady.

Cushion fort.

Calleigh has switched her favorite color from green to blue (although a lighter blue) and Brady has switched to green.  And Calaubra has unilaterally decided that Colby's favorite color is yellow.

Puzzle mania has continued.  Brady is now doing these puzzles on his own and he's very proud.  He puts it together and then breaks it apart and does it again.

We did some Geocaching this afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa came to drop off Duncan's bike (he left it at their house on Easter).  The first two we couldn't find but the third Aubree found.  Her first find!

Have a Happy Sabbath!

Yes, I am still alive.  I realize I have been "off the grid" for at least five weeks but I've had good reason.  We were in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Maine (campmeeting) for over a month.  It is atypical that all this would happen on the same trip but we can blame our church leaders for it all.  We are usually at campmeeting at the end of June and in Nova Scotia at the end of July/beginning of August. But due to the General Conference in San Antonio being scheduled during campmeeting, the leaders of the Northern New England Conference got the "bright" idea to move campmeeting all the way to August 7.  We were all quite displeased with this decision but we are at their mercy.  So, what normally would be two trips up to New England/Canada, turned into one big trip.  My wallet may have been happy but that's about it.

Clearly I will be breaking this all up into at least two blog posts as I don't have the next seven hours free.  Although...come to think of it, I could probably sum up the Nova Scotia part of the trip very quickly.  It rained.  And rained.  And rained some more. There was a lot of mud and the kids got very dirty but had lots of fun.  Okay, there you go.  Done and done!

On a more serious note, we left home on Thursday, July 16 to fly to Providence (we will probably always fly into Providence now because we have the Southwest credit card and get miles for them.  You absolutely can't beat the two free bags when you are buying five, soon to be, six tickets.  Not to mention that Providence is SO much nicer than flying into Boston.  Your bags are already waiting for you when you get to the baggage claim).  Since Colby is not quite two, he still got to be a lap child.  It occurred to me on the way to the airport that he may literally have to be a lap child if the plane was full which isn't THAT bad when he's a baby but at almost two, can be quite tiresome.  I put him in the middle seat between Aubree and me and said silent prayer after silent prayer that the plane wasn't completely full and we lucked out.  It was the last empty seat on the plane!  The flight left at 7:15 pm and as I suspected, he didn't sleep a wink on the whole flight but I was able to keep him entertained pretty well...in between shooting daggers of jealousy over at Duncan who was sitting peacefully watching a movie on his device.  Must be nice.

Four duffle bags, two suitcases, a garment bag, two boosters, two carseats, and a stroller.  Yeah, a lot of stuff but we were going to be gone for more than a month.  That was my rationalization.

We weren't leaving until Saturday night to drive to Nova Scotia but we like to go a day early so we have time to get groceries to take, etc.  Even though the Canadian/US dollar exchange rate is more and more in our favor these days ($1 US Dollar = about $1.28 Canadian), when you add in the tax (like 17%!) it's still cheaper to bring as much food as possible. For example, a gallon of milk is now $8.10 up there! So Friday we used the day to get all the done. In addition, I helped my dad out by going into his radio studio and recording a 30-minute segment for his radio program on motherhood/homeschooling along with another lady/friend from his church.  I thought it went well but I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to it yet.  I hate hearing myself! It was fun to do though.

Had a picnic supper with the Rondinellis and Irrgangs at a beach near my parents' on Friday evening.

Had a picnic lunch with the Braintree church on Sabbath afternoon in Hingham.  That is the Boston skyline way out in the distance.

Saw this bumper sticker on a car in the Target parking lot while getting groceries.  For some reason, it made me laugh so hard.  Not that this EVER happens in our family.

We left after sunset on Sabbath for the roughly 13-hour drive.  My parents went in my dad's car and we were in their mini van.  This is the first time in years that we've gone up at the same time as my dad.  Usually he precedes us because he spends a week at campmeeting in Nova Scotia but because of the schedule changes, that would occur at the end of the trip rather than the beginning.  It was special to be able to travel with him this time.  The trip started out very poorly however.  Within the first hour, three of the four kids were crying.  Both Calleigh and Aubree couldn't get comfortable in their boosters.  I think this is the first time they weren't in car seats for an overnight trip and boosters just aren't as comfortable as a reclined car seat.  Not to mention that we had stuff on the floor which wasn't comfortable for their legs.  Clearly we didn't realize how tall they've gotten and that they need more room!  Anyway, I was a little worried that it was going to be a VERY long trip but once we got those issues worked out, it was pretty smooth sailing.

I wasn't the only one glad to have Papa with us on the trip!  Here we are stopped for breakfast in Antigonish on Sunday morning - - about 1.5 hours from our destination.

Now, if you have a good memory, you may recall that last year, our big cabin in Nova Scotia burned to the ground.  That was July 5 to be exact.  Since that date, the G8, as they are affectionately called (this is my mom, her three sisters, and their husbands who all jointly own the property), have been working tirelessly with the insurance company and the builders to have a new house built in time for us this year.  Honestly, if I had been a betting person, I would NEVER have bet that it would be done in time because it seems like things have one speed up there...SLOW.  But the builders told us it would be done on July 2 which even gave a little wiggle room.  We got pictures every week and as the weeks were winding down and it still looked like a lot was left to be done, some of us were getting pretty nervous.  What would we do if it wasn't ready? Well, God is good because it was done just in time.  My cousin David arrived there on the Friday morning, July 17, and that was literally the day it was completed.  Amazing!

It was with very mixed emotions as we drove up the long driveway on Sunday morning. Such sadness knowing the old house was really and truly gone but with great anticipation as to the new and improved home that replaced it.  We were not disappointed!  The pictures didn't do it justice.  The new place is almost double the size of the old one (once the basement is finished) at around 4500 - 4800 square feet (not sure the exact amount).  Yes, that seems big, and it is, but there are now 46 of us if the whole entire family is there!  The old house had the tiniest, itty bitty, kitchen you have ever been in and now we have a huge island, three refrigerators, two sinks, stoves, ovens and microwaves, and two dishwashers (none before).  We had three bathrooms (but only two showers) in the old house and now there are six.  The space is just amazing.  Everything smells new and there aren't bugs everywhere.  The fire was a terrible, terrible thing but the upside has been a big game changer.  All of us were blown away by how great it all turned out.  A prime example of something bad turning into something good.  Thank you Lord!

From the back.  The four windows on the top floor are the bedrooms of the four sisters.  My parents' is the one to the far right.

The fabulous kitchen.

Dining room.

The view from the porch.  The third cabin from the left is the one that Sean and Shannon built this year and the one on the far right in the one that David and Yully just built.  They all worked really hard the whole vacation to get these done...often working in the rain.  Only two more cabins to go!

Living room.  This is before we finished the decorations for this year.  We got 10 couches for free from a hotel that was remodeling.  We were thrilled!

Upstairs sitting area outside of the bedrooms. The stairs down are at the far end of the picture.

My parents' room.  Each of the four sisters have a bathroom in their room.

Their view.  Would like a lot nicer on a sunny day!

The six little cabins that the cousins have built were spared so there was no problems there although ours did need to be shored up before our arrival as the blocks for the "foundation" were moving a bit. It was good to be in our little yellow cabin as it had been three years since we last were.  Two years ago we weren't there because of Colby being born and then obviously last year.  The bugs were atrocious but after some vigorous sweeping and vacuuming, we were good to go.  The cabin is a decent size at 12 x 16 but with six of us, things got a little tight.  Another upside of the fire was that Duncan and I were able to get a mattress brought up.  We had been borrowing one out of one of the "spare" bedrooms in the old cabin each year because buying a mattress in Canada seemed costly and then we had to figure out how to get it to our property, etc.  But since folks were making trips up to NS prior to our arrival to bring everything for the new house, we were able to send up a mattress and box spring on one of the trucks.  So we had our new bed, the girls shared a blow up double mattress, Brady was on a cot, and Colby was in his pack and play.  They were all right next to each other, pretty much in a line.  Not a lot of spare room but it all worked out fine.  The kids slept great although I would have to hang out with them each night until they fell asleep and then I had the monitor with me in the main cabin.  A few of the nights, Colby would end up in bed with us at some point but fortunately, it wasn't every night. It was pretty cold though!  The night time temps were in the mid-50's and in a place with no insulation, it's pretty much like camping.  I had anticipated it though, and had gotten a bunch of "new" blankets at a thrift store in MA to bring up.  For some reason, I didn't have any footed pajamas for Aubree so Camille had brought a couple of Camden's with her for Aubree to borrow.  Aubree was quite perturbed about this and refused for anyone to see her in "boy" pajamas which complicated things a bit when she had to go to the bathroom.  She would wear a second pair of pajamas underneath those and take off that top layer before she would go anywhere.  Six year olds!!  Fortunately, I found two pairs at a thrift store before went to campmeeting so we didn't run into the same problem there.

It gets even more crowded when Brady joins in.

Did I mention it rained?  Did I mention that there is virtually no grass (the seed hadn't been planted yet) so when it rained, it turned into a big mud pit?  I know a few years ago we had a big problem with lots of rain so I guess I can't say this was the worst year ever but it was right up there.  I know we were there a few weeks earlier than usual but I don't know if I can blame it all on the timing.  To be sure, it wouldn't rain the whole day, fortunately.  But it was off and on most days.  A few days it may not have rained but the sun didn't come out.  Not until the evening before the morning we were to leave.  Seriously!  The temperatures weren't exactly warm either.  I don't know if it ever got out of the 60's (it's hard to say for sure because all the weather reports I looked at were in Celsius) and when it's in the 60's and there's no sun, it's actually kind of chilly. The wet conditions did not get us down, however.  Well, mostly.  The kids spent many hours outside in the rain/mud doing what kids do best, getting dirty.  Which brings me to the next topic...

The conditions didn't stop Papa from taking the kids for hikes down the driveway.

This is how it looked between our yellow cabin and the main house.  Those extension cords are how we all got electricity to our little cabins.

The aftermath is not nearly as fun.

"No shoes on this." A constant battle to keep the mud at bay.

Since we were going to be gone for more than a month, this presented a challenge for packing.  I figured campmeeting would be hot so I would need at least 10 changes of hot weather clothes for that (I do NOT do laundry while at campmeeting).  But I also knew that I would certainly need some cold weather clothing by looking at the forecast for NS.  With four children, this creates quite a bit of luggage.  Duncan, of course, was playing the stereotypical husband and giving me a bit of grief as to how much I was packing.  But kids often wear more than one outfit a day.  They get stains on stuff.  I know.  I'm around them every day.  I've been doing their laundry for 8+ years.  Duncan reminds me that I can wash stuff there.  My reply was that I was on vacation and I didn't feel like doing laundry while I was on it.  Nevertheless, I was able to condense everything so that the four kids were packed into three duffle bags.  I thought I had done quite admirably.

The first day we are there and we've arrived in the rain and I see that we are needing to change into new outfits after the first hour, I say something like "There's both a washer AND dryer here, right?" I mean, it's a brand new place and although this seems like a dumb question, I ask it just to be sure.  "Nope," My mom says.  "Neither." What and what??!!  This is a big blow.  It means I will have to go into town now to do laundry at the laundromat.  That means probably a few hours out of my day.  A few days go by and my Aunt Sherrie decides that she's going to go into town (about an eight minute drive) and do laundry.  A little while later, she comes back and says "Well, the laundromat just closed down a few months ago." WHAT?!!  Now this has REALLY gotten serious.  Now to do laundry, we have to go about 30 minutes away.  Ugh!!!  Had I known this all ahead of time, Duncan and I would have bought a washer and dryer to send up and put one of those little money boxes on it. Ah well.  It was definitely an inconvenience to be sure but I did feel a little bit smug that I should have packed MORE so I wouldn't have had to do any laundry.  Right after we all left, some of the G8 went and got a used washer and dryer so it's now ready to go for next year.  They also tried to get a second set but when they got it back (after driving over an hour and half away to get it) it didn't work.  If you need a laugh, please have my Uncle Terry tell you that story.

One of the big things we did up there involved Colby.  We had pretty much let his hair grow and grow with only a couple of small trims.  I have always been a big fan of short hair on boys but for some reason, we just let Colby's keep going so that it basically was in his eyes.  Both grandmothers loved it that way so I kept it.  But, the last month or two, I was getting pretty fed up with how messy it would get because he loved to put food in it.  Drove me nuts.  Finally, after some pressure from some peers (aka, my brother) to cut it, I decided it was time.  Since so much was going to be cut off, I wanted it to be done by a professional rather than Duncan (no offense).  Plus, this way Duncan could take him and I didn't have to watch it.  About the third or fourth day we were there, Duncan took him in and the deed was done.  It was like a whole new kid! I'm loving it. Goodbye to surfer Colby!  Probably never to be seen again.  Well, at least as long as I have control of his hair.

Just after the hair cut.

Ta Da!  My two boys.  Their hair may be similar now but I don't think they actually look anything alike.  At least not in this picture.

As far as who was there this year, it was everyone but Rick and Ana and then the Jonathan Wall family.  Ricky started a new job as Boys' Dean at Bass Academy in Mississippi and had to report on July 1 (it was that early because it is the first year). There were 42 of us which was the G8, eight of the ten cousins and their spouses, Uncle Terry's mom, "Nanny," and then 16 children of the cousins plus Mia's cousin, Jack.  Despite the large house, when kids are trapped in it because of rain, it can get pretty loud and crazy.  Fortunately we all like each other (most of the time).

All the kids, whether happy or sad, with my mom's relative who lives in NS.  The two missing kids are Zasha and Luccia.  We hope they can come next year.  Oh, and Kaitlyn doesn't appear to be in the picture either.

I'm going to let the pictures do the rest of the talking as I don't want to have to write what we did every day or anything.

Oh, actually, I do have an anecdote I wanted to add.  We had noticed that on Wednesdays, a place in town was having a special event for kids aged 4 - 8.  Perfect, since it was such crummy weather.  They would do crafts, play games, etc.  The first Wednesday they went, a lady who has a big organic garden nearby came and showed the kids a bunch of her vegetables, had them help wash and cut them, and so on.  We were so impressed with it all that we decided to go visit her garden to see it for ourselves.  Her partner (in more than one sense of the word) was there and showed us all around and we were now even more impressed.  It was remarkable how she used every square inch of space and she knew SO much about all different vegetables.  We just loved it and bought a bunch of stuff too.  Anyway, at one point, Aubree says she has to go to the bathroom so I ask the lady if she wouldn't mind if we used her bathroom.  She was very nice and led us into their rather old and eclectic house that was in the midst of some remodeling.  When Aubs and I went into the bathroom, I kind of had to force the door closed because there was a cord in the way.  When we were finished, I go to open the door and it won't open.  It was completely stuck...probably because of the cord.  The door had to be pushed to be opened but because it was so old, I was afraid that if I pushed too hard, it would break!  Fortunately I had my phone (which we did get the Canada plan this year) so I tried calling Duncan.  Of course, it's not always the best reception since we are sort of in the "middle of nowhere" up where we are.  I don't know if it was that or what but Duncan, nor either of my parents were answering their phones.  By now, Aubree is starting to panic and cry "We're going to be trapped in here forever!" There was a window but it was kind of high up and opened up into an enclosed greenhouse area so at worst, I knew I could get out there if I needed to.  In the meantime, I opened the window and started yelling out of it but because it opened to the greenhouse, I must have been muffled because nobody heard me.  I could see them off in the distance but they couldn't see me.  After a bit, I tried calling everyone again and finally I think it was my Mom who answered and had the lady come "rescue" us.  Yes, it does that sometimes, she says.  Well, there you go. But we were saved and poor Aubree could breathe easy again.

Calleigh cutting a veggie in the class

The boys washing something.  I thought it was funny that Brady was handling these vegetables considering he doesn't eat a SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

Viewing the garden.  Just a beautiful piece of property.

The kids clowning around.

A new vegetable called "kohlrabi" that we discovered and the girls loved it.  Had a bit of a radish taste but not as tart.

Colby absolutely loves him some Papa.

The door!

Okay, on to the rest of the pictures...

One of the best things about being in NS is the games.  Here we are playing Mafia after all the kids went to bed.  This is the game we play the most as a big group.  For some reason, Aunt Lori and Devin would end up being mafia over and over again even though there were more than 20 of us playing.  The only one to ever win was Camille.  It came down at the end to Alison, Rad, and Camille and since the girls weren't going to vote for themselves it was up to Rad.  He teetered back and forth but at the end, thought it was Alison.  Wrong!!

Monopoly Deal was a game that got big for people last year.  I was impressed that Aubree could play because I found it complicated the one and only time I played.

Playing "Head's Up"

Sequence

The Name Game.  We love playing with the older generation because they are so funny when they have to do charades.

Winslow (16 months) and Colby had a good time together, getting into a lot of mischief.

Sneaking up to the second floor.

Winslow's favorite thing was to eat food off Colby's tray...even if she had just eaten herself.

Their other favorite thing was to steal stuff out of my cupboard which had all the snacks.  Here they've stolen a bag of fish.

Aubree loves to hold the babies.  Here's Kaitlyn who was only three weeks old.

Levi, 9 months

Duncan got these three fishing poles at Bass Pro Shops before the trip and they were very excited to try their hand at fishing.

All she caught was a clam but that didn't dampen their spirits.  They kept wanting to fish again.  Heath took his boys out on their little boat one evening around dusk and caught a ton of fish so we'll have to try that next year.  He also used live worms.

Brady didn't fish but had fun!  This was a typical look for Brady, wandering around outside in his rain gear.   He spent loooonnggg periods of time with Gracie (the dog), just walking here and there by themselves.

Since the weather wasn't great, Duncan only got out once on a kayak on our lake.  But it was beautiful.

Calleigh found a frog out in the yard.

One of the nights it wasn't raining, we went to a ballgame with my dad.  When my generation was growing up, we went to many, many of these while in NS.  The kids loved it!

Acadia wanted to know why there weren't any girls playing.  We asked our friend, Eddie, who was umping the game about it and he said a girl did once back in 2004.  (I say "girl" but these are all adults playing.)

The kids got several foul balls (you just throw them back) and thought that was pretty neat.

Spent some time at a playground.

To look at this, you would think the weather wasn't that bad.  It was all a big farce.  It always ended up being way worse than the forecast.  I surmised that the weathermen were in cahoots with the Nova Scotia Board of Tourism.

This is hard to read but what it's telling you are all the rules for trash and recycling that MUST be followed.  You have Blue Bag # 1, Blue Bag # 2, Trash (which goes in a clear bag), and then Compost.  It's all a bit stressful and I would sometimes save my trash and take it somewhere (like a store) that hopefully would have a general trash can that I could sneak stuff into.

We usually go for a Sabbath afternoon hike here in Little Anse but when we got there, we discovered the tide was in so we couldn't get across.

Found an alternate spot and Calleigh discovered this bone.  Anyone know of anyone missing on Isle Madame?!!

Kids sporting their Norway shirts that Papa and Gigi brought back from their Europe trip.

We took our usual day trip to Baddeck, my Dad's favorite spot on earth.

Sitting outside the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.  Bell had a home in Baddeck and thus they erected a museum in the town.  I hadn't been in probably decades.  The older kids enjoyed it and the younger ones enjoyed the big play area they had for kids.

Haha!

St. Peters, a nearby town, was having a festival going on for the week so we got in on this event for the kids.  We had only been there like 15 minutes when they said they had to end it because of a water main break in the town.

Brady named his bunny "Gracie" after Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Kevin's dog, Gracie, that he took a big liking to.

We tried to take a group picture of our kids but then strangers thought it was a group photo and moved in on it.  Ah, well!

Colby with the above mentioned Gracie.  In addition to all the people, there were also five dogs.

Brady and Acadia hanging out.

You find fun wherever you can find it.

Brady seemed to develop a little crush on Mia.

Aunt Sherrie massaging Devin's neck.  Devin was helping Sean build Sean's cottage and a beam fell on him.

So glad we got a fire place in the new one, like the old one.

As I said, fun wherever you can find it.

What would Nova Scotia be without some kind of road adventure?  I made a scavenger hunt and we had about five teams who braved the elements.  We didn't really have a winner, just calling it a "fun time." The teams were by family and here is my family taking a group photo in front of a ball field.  The kids all had a great time and little Bode asked me the next day "Can we do another treasure hunt today?"

Group photo on a bridge.  Love all the faces.

Random group of kids.

The girls.  Finley, Acadia, Winslow, Aubree, Mia, and Calleigh.  Missing; Kaitlyn, Zasha, and Luccia.

The boys.  Westin, Bode, Griffin, Camden, Brady, Colby, Tyson, Caleb, and Levi.

Not sure why they had their shirts off.

The sisters in front of their pictures from when they were girls.

The whole Copsey clan.  Shannon (front left) is due at the beginning of October with a boy.

So that is that.  Despite the weather, we really did have a great time.  Another memory for the books!

Have a great rest to your weekend.

We wrapped up our stint at the cabins in Nova Scotia on Friday, July 31 and headed off to another part of Nova Scotia - - Pugwash.  It's "famous" for being the hometown of singer Anne Murray and the Maritimes (New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia) Conference campmeeting.  Chances are you've heard of neither.  I hadn't been to Pugwash in decades and Duncan and the kids had obviously never been so we decided it was a good year to stop in and see where my dad goes every year to be with his "other family." By that I mean, he and his siblings built a small cottage on the campmeeting grounds.  It's sort of a thing as many other folks have done the same. After you see the place, you can't blame them. The campground is set right on the shores of the Northumberland Straight which is the body of water separating Nova Scotia from Prince Edward Island which you can just make off in the distance. Wouldn't you know that it was a gorgeous day and we could almost, ALMOST, forget all the lousy weather we had been subjected to over the last two weeks.

The view from the cottage

We arrived mid-afternoon which gave us enough time to enjoy some beach time which is literally, RIGHT THERE.  How nice is it to have a campmeeting that includes a beach?!  We could only dream that ours in Maine was so well equipped.  That evening we stayed at an incredibly charming bed & breakfast not far away.  The lady and her two daughters running it were so lovely, the rooms were big, we had WIFI (a big deal after not having Internet at our cabins), and the breakfast in the morning was excellent. We promised ourselves we would be back!

The cottage

Since it was the end of the summer for the campgrounds, they pulled in the raft using this bulldozer.  It was quite an interesting way to go about it.  It ended up knocking down a sign and tearing up some lawn when they got it on dry land.

Bed & Breakfast

Our bed in our room.

If you go down some stairs, this was part of the same room.  A nice pullout for the girls.  Calleigh slept on this one and Aubree slept in the one in Papa & Gigi's room.

Colby found this in the living room at the B&B.  Love those lips!

They had a bunch of stuff outside that the kids were posing on.

Breakfast

Trying to take a picture with Papa.  The sun was so bright though!

This was us Friday night eating at a restaurant nearby.  It took like 50 minutes to get our food but they did warn us ahead of time and they were really nice.

We made it to campmeeting in time for part of Sabbath School and then church which we enjoyed sitting outside under a tree in the bright sunshine.  There was a sandbox right nearby so the boys were busy playing there (the girls had a longer class for part of church) while we sat and listened to the service and it was all pretty much perfect.

The main auditorium

Trying to get bubbles with Papa during Sabbath School

This is the life!

If only the kids could be doing this every Sabbath during the sermon!

Hanging out with Aunt Mary and Aunt Shirley after lunch.

Sabbath afternoon walk along the beach.

I got a jolt while reading the program.  "Decorations - Treva Sharpe." That is the exact full name of my friend who passed away last year from the carotid artery busting.  I've never even heard of another person with the name Treva and then to finally see another one and it be with the EXACT SAME LAST NAME.  Disconcerting.

After lunch and a quick car nap for Colby, we were off for the journey back to the US. It was not an altogether pleasant trip as it was still Sabbath for part of it which disallowed a number of viewing options for the kids.  But, we were anxious to get back to my parents with a good chunk of the night left to sleep - - it stinks when you get there at like 6:00 am and the kids are all ready to start the day and Duncan and I are dead tired from driving all night.  Also, leaving at that time allowed us to pass through Bangor at a reasonable time so we could stop in and see Shawn and Camille (the kids were in bed) and have one of Camille's delicious meals.  One thing that was a little humorous was when we stopped at the border and the agent, who clearly had some type of New England accent asked us if Brady was named after "Tom Brady." I gave my typical answer which is "No" (it really truly was not after him - - I've always liked the name) and we were joking about a few other things and I said something like "You don't like the Yankees do you?" And he says "Ah HELL no!" He suddenly realizes there are four little faces all looking at him so he starts apologizing profusely and got us out of there as fast as he could!  It was good to be back in the USA.  What's the very first thing you do once you cross over that border?  Turn your "Cellular Data" back on. I missed you, phone!!

The sad thing about being back was that it was time to say goodbye to Duncan when he flew back home on Sunday afternoon.  Alas, he had to get back to work.  Someone has to do that to make this all possible I told the kids.  Things just aren't quite as good when he's not around but we picked ourselves up and continued on.  I rented a car for my mom to use so that we could use her van and have a mode of transportation. We didn't want to sit home while she was at work all day.  Monday afternoon/evening we met her at a nearby lake for a late day swim and then went out to Noodles for supper. As I have extolled on here before, we love that place and were excited to introduce her to it.  Tuesday morning my dad and Bruno joined us on an excursion to what we thought was going to be the Boston's Children Museum. Note to self: take the train during the summer.  We couldn't find a single place to park after driving around for a good 20 - 30 minutes to about 10 different parking spots. We finally gave up and headed to the Science Museum. Fortunately, I had a reciprocal agreement to get in free for both places using my Orlando Science Center pass.  The Science Museum isn't that far away but with traffic and a wrong turn (quite unlike him) by my dad, it took us longer than usual to get there and then its parking garage was full and we had to park some distance away. After all that, we finally got in.  My pass only covered four of us so my dad had to pay for his, which was $20. A few days later, I realized that I could have used my Central Florida Zoo membership and gotten his half off. Shoot!  I know it's only $10 but it makes me so mad when I don't think of these things until afterwards! We ended up only staying at the museum for a few hours due to my dad's schedule but we had a good time.

Papa teaching them to shuck corn.

My parents also have a VitaMix and make a lot of smoothies.

So nice to not worry about alligators when you swim in a lake.

Watch out for the snakes though :)

Noodles.  Brady is finally chowing down after a long wait.  Freddie went to hand him his garlic bread and it all flew off the plate and onto the floor and it was awhile before the new order arrived.

The boys and I hung out while my dad took the bigger kids to Ben Franklin's "Lightning" show.

The gift shop.  Although Bruno is 11, Calleigh is almost as tall as he is!

Freddie and Kathy recently got a bunch of chickens which we all think is hilarious because they're vegans.  "So you don't eat meat or eggs but still got chickens?" we asked.  I guess they just like them as pets.

Wednesday I took the kids to a place called Southwick's Zoo which is in Mendon (about a 35 minute drive from my folks).  We had been there when Calleigh and Aubree were three and one, respectively, which they didn't remember.  It's actually quite a nice place with most of it in shade (thankfully) and they also have a few rides which makes the place extra fun.  Sure, there were a few frustrations with the day (you could only use cash since the Internet was down so we had to stand in line for 20 minutes upon arrival to use the ATM, Brady had to pee right when we sat down for lunch so we had to put everything into the stroller and carry it and all walk over to the bathroom which was in this tiny little trailer) but looking back, it was just a really, really nice day with just me and my kids.  I don't know why I keep thinking about that day and how special it was, but I do.

Hard to see but Colby's face is pure joy!

He's trying to explain to Colby not to put his hands on the fence. There is another fence though.

Train ride.  I can see Colby's mouth is saying "cheese" but he isn't actually looking at me as usual.

They have a whole big section where you can walk around and feed the free roaming deer.

It was such a great experience for the kids!

The ride to the themselves.

This is the goat petting section.  The goats were pretty aggressive and Brady was freaked out so he retreated way back next to that big tree - - he blends in but you can see him if you squint.

He finally warmed up to them.

This was the other best part - - the bird aviary.  They gave you these popsicle sticks with food on them and the birds will hop on the sticks to get the food.  We spent about 30 minutes in here.  So much fun!

Yikes!!  I will stand way back here behind the camera, thank you very much.

Just my sweet boy hanging out at Papa and Gigi's.

Thursday was spent running some errands to get ready for Friday which was the day we left for Freeport, Maine and campmeeting!  I had thought that I would spend those evenings at my folks writing in the blog but alas, I completely underestimated how much work it would be to do all those loads of laundry that we brought back from NS and then organizing and repacking everything back into the duffle bags.  There were a few late nights doing just that.  It may have been all one trip up there but I did, in fact, have to pack twice.

We left late morning and met my mom part of the way up.  She went to work in the morning and then met us in the rental car.  As we were driving up, I was thinking of what I would need to do when we got there.  They provide you with four beds in each tent but they are pretty subpar to sleep on.  The springs are old and they sink way down when you lie on the bed and they are as noisy as all get out.  The first two years, we brought an air mattress but I got sick of that and decided to follow Shawn and Camille's lead in getting two pieces of plywood to put under the mattresses (I put two beds together to make it a double for Duncan and me).  Voila!  Suddenly the bed is pretty decent.  We had gotten the boards last year but couldn't fit them in the car to take home so I knew I would have to get them once again this year.  Of course, last year Duncan was around to do all that but now I was on my own.  Thinking to take care of this problem ahead of time, while we were at Freddie and Kathy's house on Tuesday, I had asked if I could leave the kids there while I ran quickly to Home Depot to get the boards and then they could take it up in the back of their truck with some other stuff we were sending with them.  But then Freddie says, "Oh, I probably have some pieces of plywood in my garage so just hold off." Great, I'm thinking.  That saves me a trip.  I don't give it any more thought until Friday morning, just before I'm leaving, when my dad gets a text from Freddie saying "Tell Corey I couldn't find any plywood in the garage." Arghhhh!!  Seriously?!  I love ya, Freddie, but really, this information would have been a lot more helpful like two or three days ago.  Now I would have to make a special trip to get it myself which meant a 15 - 20 minute trip one way to Home Depot while trying to unpack and corral four kids without a husband.  Anyway, guess it wasn't that big of a deal but it was very annoying at the time.

We have six tents amongst all the family.  I have two tents - - one for sleeping (the girls slept with my mom for the first few nights and then moved in with me and the boys when my mom left to work a bit) and the other for clothes/food/toys and sitting in at night when we want to chit chat but it's too buggy out.  My mom has hers, Shawn and Camille, Toni and Terry, and then Sean and Shannon.  Alison is there with her boys but they stay in their camper now.  Kelly is usually there for the whole week but due to having a newborn and the change of dates (Steve's side of the family all go but some couldn't because the dates didn't work), she was only there for a a couple of days. Anyway, the point being is that we have quite a bit of family there which makes it especially fun.

The adult meeting tent.  Part of the impetus for changing the date to August this year was that they haven't put this tent up in like seven years because one year it rained so badly that the tent had some problems.  Apparently history shows that it rains less in August than late June so they will only put the tent up if campmeeting is in August from here on out.  Otherwise, they hold the meeting in the school gym.

Our row.  We have the first three tents on the right and the second - fourth on the left.

The Grodack sleeping tent.

The play tent

I had looked for this air mattress with sides on Amazon before campmeeting but it was like $70 or more and I didn't want to spend the money.  Instead, I put two mattresses on the floor for Brady to sleep on but they kept separating and he'd fall in between.  He was not sleeping well.  Shannon had the same mattress and said she had gotten it for $35 from Walmart.  So on about the third day, I made a trip to good old Walmart and got one.  So much better!

One big difference this year was the food situation.  With Shawn being a pastor, the conference has kindly given them the option of either cash or to eat at the cafeteria for free for the week.  They've always taken the money, because it seems more economical, and then we would all share the cooking duties (at least for supper).  This year, they got a bit frugal and said the cash was no longer an option - - only eating at the cafe.  Shawn was not pleased with this option but it was what it was.  And I jumped on it!  With Duncan being gone, it sounded especially tedious having to prepare meals and watch the kids at the same time so I decided to splurge and buy the pass for the whole week which was $139 for adults and $92 for kids.  So yes, kind of a lot (although I didn't buy one for Colby).  BUT, that's 25 meals and if you do the math, it comes out to $3.68 per kid and $5.56 per adult.  I knew I would spend a bunch of money on groceries anyway and really, can you put a price on NOT having to cook?  Well, you can but I think in this case it was well worth it.  Let me just say it was WONDERFUL.  I actually felt like I was on vacation.  Let's face it...when you have to figure out what to eat, go to the grocery store to buy it, bring it home, put it away, cook it, and clean it up, does that really seem like a vacation?  No!!  As for the food, there are times when it could have been better but I'm sure people say that about any cafeteria. Sorry Shawn, but I hope they never give the option for cash again.

Cafeteria

Waiting in line.  We always tried to get there early so that we didn't have to wait too long.  Makes perfect sense, right?  Get there ten minutes early so you don't have to wait ten extra minutes once it opens.

The menu one evening.

The week went great for the most part.  We had just a few small bumps in the road. One was that Brady seemed to come down with a little something just before we arrived.  He started coughing and having a bit of a runny nose.  Just great.  You hate to bring that into the camp but what can you do?  He really didn't cough much during the day but at night, I'm sure because he was lying down, he sounded pretty bad.  I started getting worried that it was going to end up being the croup and Duncan told me I better figure out a plan in case I needed to do something in the middle of the night. Fortunately it never came to fruition.  But, he did pass on some sick germs to Colby who got a runny nose and worse, gunk in his eyes.  He wasn't rubbing them and they weren't particularly red but Leigh, who happened to stop by for the day and is a nurse (along with other relatives, of course), said she did think it was pink eye.  Of all things to have!  I knew that would pass quickly through the crowd.  As luck would have it, there was a walk-in clinic literally two minutes from the campgrounds and I took him in Tuesday morning.  The doctor wasn't positive it was pink eye but said it probably was and gave me a prescription for the drops.  It cleared up in about two days and I thought all was well.  We all thought maybe it really was just an allergic reaction or something because the eyes were never pink nor itchy.  But then my mom got the gunk the next Monday and Finley and Griffin both got it around then too. So I guess it was pink eye? It seems so odd that it would take THAT long (five days) for them to get it and then none of the rest of the immediate family got it.  Weird.

Waiting room at the clinic.

The girls very much enjoyed their classes and their friends.  Calleigh was in Primary which was ages 7 - 9.  Aubree was in the last year of Kindergarten, ages 4 - 6. Unfortunately this year, whether because of the date change, change in leadership, or what have you, the sisters that we loved, were not back to teach Kindergarten and they ended up getting some other ladies to teach at the last minute.  I never actually sat in any of the classes so I didn't see it first hand but my understanding is that they weren't quite as good as the sisters.  But, it was all good.  I tried to get Brady to go to Kindergarten but he really had no interest.  Really, he has no interest in going to any class.  I can't even imagine what would happen if I tried to get him to go to Pre-K or something!  I ended up taking him to Cradle Roll with Colby because at least Janel is a wonderful, engaging teacher.  Nevertheless, it was like pulling teeth most of the time to get him to participate.  Seriously, I went from Calleigh who loves to do everything and has no fears (she tells me that she's the one who is always answering questions and doing prayer in Sabbath School at our church) to Aubree who would hate to be left alone in class but would mostly participate to Brady who doesn't want to be left nor wants to do anything in the class.  Really, just doesn't even want to go.  Have mercy. I'm dying to see what Colby is like.  Cradle Roll had only one meeting which was in the mornings.  In the afternoons, I mentioned going to Kindergarten to Brady.  It was a no go except for the one day when I said I was going to CVS.  Apparently CVS was worse.  I really hope he grows out of this.

Primary, the first night. There is no Kindergarten for the evening meeting (7:30 - 9:00) so Aubree and Camden would join Calleigh here.

Calleigh's class would play games out on the field in front of our tents every afternoon.

Kindergarten

I never get sick of seeing the "twins" showing affection.

Cradle Roll

Brady may not love going to class but he sure loved Teacher Janel.

He does love to do crafts though.

Campmeeting wasn't nearly as fun without Duncan there and honestly, was a lot harder without him.  When my mom was there, it wasn't too bad but when she had to go back to work for a few of the days, it presented some challenges.  When you want to take a shower, you hate to make Camille watch all the kids when she has her own to watch, particularly Winslow who is at the age to get into everything.  To combat that, I left her with the three older ones but then took Colby in the stroller while I showered in the handicap bathroom which can fit the stroller.  In prior years, there was always a handwritten note on the door saying "Handicap ONLY" in big letters.  Since it wasn't there this year, I figured I could sneak in!  Brady, meanwhile, showered Sunday when my mom was there and then not again until Sabbath (or did he?  Maybe not!).  What can I say, it's tough to make it happen. Anyway, back when I was booking the airfares for the vacation, I knew Duncan couldn't come the whole week because it's such a busy week at work but I went ahead and booked a flight for him to come up Wednesday evening, hoping he could get off the two days.  But, it turned out that he had a big meeting on Thursday and there was no way to miss it.  I checked the airfares for Thursday night, flying into Portland like the original flight, and they were like $416! The Wednesday flight, which of course I had booked weeks or months ago, had been way cheaper and I, in fact, had even used miles on it which we were now mostly out of. I was thinking there was no way we were going to spend that much on a one way flight (I had also already booked his flight with us to return Sunday.  The good thing about Southwest is you can cancel them so it's worth booking even if you think you may not use it).  As we pondered it, and Duncan talked forlornly about how awful it was being in the house alone, and as I though about flying home with all the kids alone, we decided to just shoot the moon and go for it.  At least we would get the miles back from not taking the Wednesday flight.  The next evening, Wednesday, I was talking on the phone with my mom (she had worked and gone home) about the plan for picking Duncan up in Portland at 11:30 pm the next night and she said "Oh, your father will do it.  He was going to come up Thursday morning but he has a funeral and can't go until the evening." After I hung up and relayed this info, Toni and I both had an epiphany. Why doesn't he fly into Boston instead?  I was thinking surely at this late of date, the prices would be ridiculous but just for kicks I went on and looked.  What do you know but there was a flight into Boston, leaving Orlando at almost the same time, and arriving at 9:05 pm, for only $160!  A push of a few buttons and the flight is changed from Portland to Boston and we've saved $256.  Man, I love Southwest! But
really, when Duncan burst through that tent flap on Thursday night, it would have easily been worth the $416.

Daddy!  The guy in the picture with him is Nathan who is a man with Down Syndrome.  He was very friendly with us (well, everybody) and he would eat with us at the cafe and play with the kids.  One evening he was at our tent and the bigger kids had left for class.  They left behind a giant mess and the next thing I knew, Nathan had cleaned it all up for me.  He was a sweet guy.

One of the interesting things from the week was that there was this gentleman I'll call D, whom we met on Sabbath afternoon.  Shawn actually knew him as one of his parishioners from his previous church although he rarely went.  D was about my age but seemed a little off.  He would just meander around the campground by himself and talk to anyone he came across including little kids.  We heard that he was staying with his dad who was a big, interesting looking man who walked with a cane.  The next day, Sunday, I heard that D had spent hours in the playground just talking to the kids.  He would hear someone say a kid's name and then he'd say the kid's name to get their attention and start talking to them.  I don't think he ever said anything inappropriate or anything and people that knew him, including Shawn, all said he was harmless.  But, as you can imagine, this behavior with the kids didn't sit well with a lot of folks.  Then later in the day, I discovered that D was in the tent RIGHT next to my mom's in which the girls were also sleeping.  Again, we have no reason to think this D was NOT a good guy but you just never know and I will admit it made me a bit nervous.  One morning my mom had to leave at 5:00 for work (which is just about light out) and we were discussing if it was okay for the girls to be in the tent alone for the next few hours (I was in the tent next to them).  I decided immediately that it wasn't and the girls moved permanently into my tent.  The good news is that I resolved the problem for next year.  Cory and Amanda have been talking about coming to campmeeting next year so I told them I would try to get a tent for them near us.  During the week of campmeeting, you have through Wednesday to pay a deposit to reserve your tent for next year.  Then, Thursday, any unreserved tents are up for grabs.  I was thinking to myself, "I don't think this D and his dad are going to be astute enough to reserve their tent by Wednesday.  Or, they probably don't even care where their tent is." I went first thing on Thursday morning and sure enough, their tent was available so I snatched it up.  The kicker was that as I was waiting in line, the dad ambled by the line of us waiting and for a moment I thought he was going to get in it and then would shout "That's MY tent!" when I asked if that tent was available. But he didn't stop.

On the second Friday night, the girls and I had a chance to perform.  Kathy ended up being the teacher for Juniors (again, like with Kindergarten, because of the change in dates or whatever, they were having a tough finding teachers.  Kathy isn't even a member in the Northern New England Conference but obviously they didn't care!) and wanted to get folks to dress in character as someone from Adventist history and then tell a story in the first person.  She asked me to be Ellen White and who can refuse that?  I was happy to help and she found some clothes that sort of, kind of resembled Mrs. White.  After my presentation, which I heard went well, the girls sang the song "Faith" from VBS.  They had been singing it for weeks during worship and were very excited to get to sing it in front of a group of kids.  They did great!  I'm pleased that they have no stage fright whatsoever.

Someone did tell me I looked like a witch.

So what do we do for fun at campmeeting?

Walk around

Hang out with our cousins

Play with cars

And animals

A Play Doh table!

Play in the pool at Alison's camper

Go for an ice cream treat at McDonald's (while the big kids are at their meeting)

Plant some branches we found on the ground.  This is one of the things I love most - - the kids are outside ALL day (other than meetings) and they will just find random things to work on in the great outdoors.

Set up a "lemonade" stand.  One morning we brought back a few things from the cafe that we couldn't finish and they got the great idea to sell it to people, along with snacks and drinks of ours. They sold a bunch of my water bottles and when I told them I needed to have some of the money so I could go buy more water, Acadia says "You can just buy some from us!"

Ride and fight over this tractor.  We have no idea whose this was but it was always just sitting around.

Go to the beach.

Go to Winslow Park, after which Winslow was named.

Visit LL Bean.

Some more pictures....

Sorry - - can't get enough of these two!

The only time we cooked a meal was for lunch the first Sabbath because Shawn wanted to invite some friends.

Colby and Griffin.  Obviously Shannon had a lot more faith in Griffin's neat eating habits than I did with Colby.

It did rain off and on on Wednesday and then again the second Sabbath afternoon.

Calleigh's new friend, Megan.

Megan had a younger sister Allison.  Megan and Allison were just about to turn 6 and 8 like the girls.

Shawn had security duty one day and got to drive the golf cart around.  The kids took rides but all I could think of was the person who fell off it at another campmeeting a few years ago, banged their head, and died.  The driver either stopped or started quickly and the person wasn't hanging on tightly.

Colby took a nap faithfully every afternoon despite the heat.  At night, however, it was very chilly.  The kids could sleep with one blanket whereas I was in several layers of clothing and had four blankets on.  It got so bad one night that I was totally relieved when Colby woke up in the middle of the night and I brought him in to sleep with me to keep me warm!  This actually happened most nights, whether I wanted him to or not.  One night was really bad and I literally would rotate the boys in and out of my bed.  One came in, went to sleep, the other would wake up, I'd move the first one out and the second one in.  Happened two or three times during the night.

Campmeeting isn't complete without a trip to Popham Beach.  We saved it until Friday so my dad and Duncan could join us.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!

Camille's mom, Karon, is the new teacher at the Cape Cod school so she moved to MA from Texas allowing her to visit the grandkids more often.

Proof I was there.

Colby fell asleep on the way back from the beach and I figured he wouldn't go back to sleep when we got him out of the van and walked back to the tent.  But we threw him on Brady's air mattress and he went right back out.

Spending time with Mia at Winslow Park.

He was very intrigued with Nanny's booboo.

The boy cousins

Getting into some mischief

Busted!

Colby did cuddle with Aubree for a bit so that helped.

I don't mind the packing nearly as much as the unpacking. Ugh!

Vacation catch up is over and now it's back to reporting just regular old life which, if I do say so myself, is pretty darn good.  I'm now nearly three weeks behind so I'm going to try and comment on just some of the big things.

Adventurers Starts

This one took me by surprise because it usually starts the last Wednesday of August. But, this year the club is adopting a new schedule - - the first Sabbath and third Wednesday of the month and the third Wednesday was August 19 so off we went in a torrential, and I mean TORRENTIAL downpour.  Earlier, there had been a downpour - - of tears - - from Brady who did not want to be in Adventurers. We finally deciphered (other than his natural inclination to not be involved in any kind of classes, etc) that he didn't want to go up on stage.  Adventurers ended in April with all the kids going up on stage at year end to get their awards so that must be on what he was thinking.  After some assurances that he wouldn't have to do that (although we hope he will come around!) and Calleigh mentioning "If you are the Adventurer of the year you'll get a $10 gift card," he begrudgingly capitulated.  Of course, I had to stick like glue by his side all evening, but it appeared he was finally enjoying himself when we got to the craft at the very end of the evening.  Hopefully things will improve as we go along!  The girls, meanwhile, are very excited to be back and we noted that there seem to be a bunch of new people this year.  I think it's the biggest group of kids in it since we started five years ago now with Calleigh.

Colby will be a "Little Lamb" honoree this year.

CPR Class

I took a CPR class about six years ago because I wanted to be prepared now that I have kids.  I had been thinking about taking it again and noticed the church was offering a class on a Sunday morning. I never got around to registering for it - - until Jennifer did the Heimlich on Bruce and saved his life.  He was choking on a piece of Naan bread.  That's all the additional motivation I needed and Elaine and I took the class on August 20.  We were delighted to find Amy in the class as well.  The guy teaching it was an actual EMT so he had a bunch of real life stories to impart on us and it was amazing how quickly the time sped by.  The interesting thing is that while we were on vacation Duncan had listened to a podcast that basically said that the Heimlich was overrated and that it's the pounding on the back that is really the most helpful when someone is choking.  I asked the teacher and he said "No, pounding on the back is BAD because it could get the item more lodged in." So now I don't know what to believe!  I guess I'll try both if need be.

Elaine pretending this guy is Ron.  Unfortunately, he would have choked to death.  It is HARD on a big person like that. If it were to really happen, you'd have adrenaline on your side though.

Meanwhile, Duncan took the kids to the American Girl store while I was gone.  I guess Brady was too embarrassed to show his face?

Apparently not too embarrassed that he couldn't play with the dolls.

On to Bass Pro afterwards.

Colby Turns 2!!  

Colby had his birthday on Thursday, August 27.  In keeping with my anti-party persona, we just had Ron, Elaine, and Aunt Wanda over as a small, family gathering.  What more does a kid need, right??  Especially when they are too little to know the difference....I made supper for the group, and then we had presents and ice cream cake.  About an hour later, I was doing a major face palm when I remembered that I had promised myself I wouldn't give Colby sugar before bedtime.  Because, yup, he didn't go to sleep until like 10:40.  I have GOT to do a better job at remembering that little problem.

Gigi seems to think Colby will be potty trained sooner than Brady and gave him some underwear.  Colby thinks it's very funny!

Love the excitement!

Not the best lighting but you get the drift.

He seems so grown up to me!

Sitting with Grandpa after the cake.  Probably thinking of ways to annoy Mommy when he's on the sugar rush.

Earlier in the day we took him in for his annual checkup.  Ahhhh, how I love it when the kids are all back in school.  We were in and out in 25 minutes.  Everything was in good order and here are his stats:

                                 Calleigh            Aubree             Brady              Colby
Weight                      30 lbs                  26 lbs             24 lbs, 11 oz      26 lbs  (25th)
   
Height                      34.5 inch             33 inch           33 inch              32.5 inch (10th)

Clothing Size: 2T
Shoe Size: 6

So basically, he's about the size Aubree was.  It's amazing how much he's started talking in about the last six to eight weeks.  He knows, I would say, hundreds of words now and can repeat, fairly intelligibly, anything you ask him to say.  He calls his siblings by their names.  I like to thing that he's growing out of his obsession with me but then things like this happen:

We were at church and I had taken all the kids to the front for the children's story.  As we walked back to our seat in the last row, Aubree says she has to go potty so I let Calleigh and the boys file into the pew as Aubs and I quickly push the door to go out. Unfortunately, Colby spotted my maneuver at the last second and makes a dash for the door.  Not in time!  The thing bashes him off the face and he starts to wail.  I pick him up as we walk to the bathroom and this is what happened.
Me:"Colby, you should have stayed with Daddy and not tried to come out the door."
Colby (deadpans from the crying): "Nope!"
Me: "But then you wouldn't have gotten hurt.  I'm coming right back with Aubree."
Colby (as he hugs me tighter):"Nope!"
Me:"Next time you stay with Daddy."
Colby:"Nope!"

There you have it in a nutshell.

Call to Worship

Last Sabbath, August 29, we were asked to do the Call to Worship, in the form of a responsive reading for third service.  They were having families do it for the month of August and my friend Irene from the hospital was in charge of it, hence why we were asked, I'm sure.  There were two parts where the leader speaks and naturally, Calleigh and Aubree were very happy to do those parts.  I knew there was NO WAY Brady would say anything on stage but I was hoping to get Colby to say "Happy Sabbath church." He could say it but would he do it on command in front of a bunch of people? We had to gather in the back about ten minutes before going on stage and as we waited, the guy coordinated things hands us two handheld microphones.  Well, as soon as Brady saw those, everything changed.  Apparently talking into a microphone is very, very cool because now Brady was all excited about saying "Happy Sabbath church" too. I was seriously astounded! I was curious to see what would happen.  We got out there and indeed, he did it! Colby said it too. I was very pleased.  The girls did a great job too although Calleigh stumbled for a few seconds on the word "splendor." They had memorized their parts but I guess you don't use that word everyday so it slipped her mine for a second.

If you want to watch us, click HERE and pick the date of 8/29 and go to the 3:00 mark (that means, three hours in).  It is first/second/third service all recorded together.

Kids and Family Expo

This past Sunday we went to the annual Kids and Family Expo at the Orange County Convention Center.  Oddly, despite living here now for 17 years, I have never been to the convention center.  Check and check.  The expo was a big event with a ton of booths from local vendors, shows, food, a petting zoo, etc.  They also had bounce houses, bull riding, and a zip line.  I was pretty sure that there was going to be an extra charge for those and sure enough, $15 a kid.  Um, no thank you!  To their credit, the kids didn't complain about not doing it at all.  We really had plenty to do without it and we were there the whole time it was open from 11 - 5.  We had such a great time!  We saw shows of girls doing Irish Dancing, acrobats, Medieval Times, Gatorland, and martial arts.

View from above

Petting Zoo

Checking out a gator.  He offered to let them hold it but there were no takers.

Medieval Times

Irish Dancers

I told Jennifer if she just did a few of these a year, she'd be set.  Yes, that says $5,000!

It was so funny.  This princess was next to the guy below.  Everyone stopped for a picture with her first.  The girls had no interest in her - - they just wanted to get to the guy.  But I made them take the picture with her anyway so she wouldn't feel bad!

"What is that?" I say.  "A transformer?" What do I know.  Apparently it is Iron Man.  The kids had no clue either - - just thought he was cool.

Trying out some new scooter type contraption.

Practically every booth had a wheel to spin to try and win prizes.  My favorite was when we won the chicken Mcnuggets from McDonald's.

Some little animal, native of Australia.  I think it's called "Animal in your pocket" or something like that.  Apparently you take it with you everywhere?

Saw this lady walking out ahead of us.  Look at her shoes.  HOLY COW!

The Medieval Times was Brady's very favorite, as you can imagine.  One morning last week he started talking to me very excitedly about what the fastest creature on earth is: a peregrine falcon.  This was a tidbit he had learned on Wild Kratts and a fact I admittedly didn't know so I felt duly impressed at his knowledge.  Well, as we were waiting in line to get into the expo, several men dressed up as knights walked by us and perched on one of their hands was...you guessed it, a peregrine falcon.  Oh, the look of joy on Brady's face. So, combining that falcon with knights brandishing swords, well, I'm sure it made Brady's month or even year.  He is such a boy! At the end of the show, which lasted about 15 minutes, I was thinking to myself, "You know, maybe we should get tickets and go see the actual show." They were selling tickets at the expo at the discounted prince of $30.  Still quite a bit for five of us so I pushed the thought aside for now.  About fifteen minutes later as were strolling along, I suddenly heard my name over the loud speaker followed by a few more names and then..."Please pick up your prizes by Stage 2." I wasn't quite sure they said my name because people can botch it but I definitely heard "Courtney" and a Gro-something.  I made a beeline over there and sure enough, there stood a lady handing out prizes.  One other lady was there ahead of me and I heard the prize lady telling her what all the options were.  That lady took tickets to Fun Spot which left the Medieval Times tickets available for me! Jackpot!  Apparently the prizes were just randomly being given out to people who bought tickets to go to the Expo and I got lucky.

Speaking of lucky, while we were watching the Medieval Times show, they asked for a volunteer and who gets chosen out of about 100 kids but Aubree.  They have her go up on stage and try to get her to hold this big, long weapon that a knight would hold in his hand while riding his horse to try and unseat his enemy.  Of course, Aubree couldn't actually hold it up but then, I think that was the whole joke.  A little while later, Duncan takes the kids to the Gatorland show while I shop nearby at the consignment sale (yes, they had a consignment sale AT the expo.  Nice!).  As I'm wrapping up at the register, I look over to the stage and who do I see on it but Aubree!  Yup, she got picked again.  A minute or two later, the whole show is over and the girls spot me and run over to meet me.  Well, the look in Calleigh's eyes would have lit a piece of wood on fire.  She was SO mad that Aubree had been picked twice and her not at all.  Thus followed the dreaded..."IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" Fortunately, she got over it pretty quickly.

Look at that face!  Doesn't look too excited.  I think she had to hold a lizard.

Well OF COURSE you know what the kids were playing as soon as we got home!!

Celebration Health Assessment

With Duncan's change in responsibilities at work, we have been privileged with the benefit of getting "executive" physicals at Celebration hospital where they run you through a whole gamut of blood work, tests, you name it to assess how healthy you are.  We both were looking forward to it although on some of it, I knew it might not be the prettiest - - like an EKG stress test where I would have to run on a treadmill to see how fit I am.  Yikes!  Nevertheless, it would be good to have someone tell me to my face that I need to get my act together.  It was an all day event from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm which necessitated some help from the grandparents with the kids. We were most grateful! Duncan and I left the house at 6:15 am.  Kind of reminded me of going to the hospital for my C-sections - - the kids all still asleep in bed.

It was a good day.  They provided us with breakfast and lunch and everything flowed so great.  We barely had to wait at any time.  I did my stress test and she kept pushing me to get to a certain point and I finally made it there right before I could go no farther. It turns out that I was at 50% - - perfectly average.  But as the doc pointed out "Not bad for someone who basically doesn't exercise." I'll take it!  The neat thing about the day was that the majority of the results from everything were available at the end of the day and the doctor discussed each thing in detail.  Everything looked great with me (I've never had my cholesterol checked before so thankfully it turned out to be excellent - - the doctor actually said that the ratio of good to bad cholosterol was the single most important piece of data to use out of everything they did for the day to assess your overall health.  Interesting.) except that my Thyroid level was slightly high.  He recommended I get it rechecked in three to six months.  Of course, everything that they did to determine that you are healthy, doesn't necessarily mean you won't keel over in two months from a heart defect or something but it is nice to know generally speaking, things look good.

I don't think he's read a paper newspaper in like 12 years.

At the mall with Grandma and Grandpa

The one lowlight was when we got massages at the end of the day.  The same lady did both our massages, Duncan going first.  He had a dazed look on his face when he came out and I soon found out why.  The lady, Gina, was unbelievable - - and not in a good way!  I asked for very light pressure but it was not.  AT ALL.  I had to ask her several more times.  It didn't take long for me to silently start praying that it would be over soon.  At one point, she was crawling up my back on her knees.  I started looking around for the Candid Camera.  Seriously.  Who does that?!  When I finished and saw Duncan, he confirmed it was the very worst and he was afraid she was going to break him!  Mercy!  We will not be doing that again.

School Starts

I have been ruminating for the last few months, at least, about what to do for a math curriculum for Calleigh.  We did Math-U-See last year but we only made it through like 22 of the 30 lessons before she just really completely lost all interest in it.  So we switched to doing Life of Fred which is math in more of a story type format which she loves!  There are many people who attest to it being good enough as a stand alone curriculum and I've been willing to do that but there's always something that nags at you....is it enough?  We looked at Teaching Textbooks at the convention because I thought that something on the computer might hold her interest much better.  She didn't express huge enthusiasm so I came to terms with just doing Life Of Fred.  Well, about two weeks ago, out of summer boredom perhaps, she tells me that she wants to do the Teaching Textbooks.  So I go ahead and buy it and it has been AMAZING.  Now, granted, it's been mostly review from last year up to this point but she loves it!  She's been doing Math at all hours of the day.  I pray, pray, pray this holds up when things get a little harder.  She has always hated to write so I think doing it on a computer and getting that answer instantly is very appealing to her.

Doing her Teaching Textbooks

We had our first day of school this past Tuesday, September 1.  It's different now - - I actually have to prepare a little more than I did before now that I have two official students.  I registered Aubree with Florida Unschoolers (an umbrella school) as I have done with Calleigh which means we don't have to report to anyone.  That is what I like best.   Calleigh, my girl that generally says she doesn't like school, was actually quite anxious to get started.  Summer boredom again, perhaps?  Aubree, of course, kept asking every day when we would start.  Things started out poorly when Calleigh got upset that Aubree's "First Day of School" sign had color on it while her's was black and white (a total fluke) and then she was mad that Brady got the new green clipboard and she got blue (she changed her favorite color from green to blue months ago so hence why I gave them as I did).  It was utterly defeating to have things start off with her already in a funk.  Fortunately, she pulled herself together and everything went smoothly after that.  As a little treat, I had made school shirts with our new name on it, school I.D. cards, and then gotten them each new clipboards.  I had all these waiting on the table for them when we started and they were delighted.  So yes, we officially have a name as we start our third year!  Green Gables Christian School.  I will feel terribly sorry for you if you don't know where the Green Gables comes from but just in case you don't, it's from the book/movie Anne of Green Gables.  I feel like it is very fitting since we love the movie so much and it's in Canada which is so near and dear to our hearts.

The boys occupying themselves while we do school.  I recently picked up these used desks for $20/each.

Clearly they had OTHER things they were doing besides hanging out under desks.  This is typical of how our school room looks at the end of school.

We are doing "Exploring Countries and Cultures" this year so Calleigh had to do a pre-test to see how many countries she could label at the beginning of the school year.  She was VERY excited about the assignment.  She got 22.

Colby got to help with an art project.

Aubree's finished one.

We are three days in and everything is going better than I expected.  You get a little "worried" because while we do joint subjects like Bible, Geography, Music, Art, and Science, that still leaves Math, Reading, Phonics, Spelling, and English that are done on an individual basis and I can't be helping two kids at the same time.  Fortunately I have been able to maneuver it so that when one is working on a subject that requires my help, the other one is doing something where they don't need my input.  I say I worry about it but then I think of all the teachers who teach multiple grades in a one-room school so obviously it can work!  Again, three days in but Calleigh says to me "Third grade is so much better than second grade." I'll take it!

Each evening I clip a checklist to their clipboard so they'll know what they need to do for the day.  We don't use the columns on the far right but I don't know how to remove them.

On Wednesday, we were trying to do her spelling words and I couldn't find our boogie board that she likes to use to write down the words.  She asks me "Can I use the computer instead?" I agreed and thus was born the computer being attached to her hip.  She and Aubree got the bright idea that they could type up stories.  For the last three days, the girls have both been working diligently on their stories.  Yes, it has been driving me CRAZY with the constant "MOM, HOW DO YOU SPELL ANNOYING?" from the other room.  Me: "You spell it C-A-L-L-E-I-G-H." But no, seriously, I'm really happy to see them doing this and it just goes to show me that Calleigh may hate to write but it's only the physical act of writing she doesn't like - - not coming up with the ideas.

I told Duncan we need to get a new laptop.  When they are both using these, I'm left with nothing!

I think that gets us almost to the end.  I'll leave today for next week.  Before closing, a couple of quotes:

I was going to the consignment store with Calaubra to pick out a few gifts for Colby when Aubree says she has to go to the bathroom.  I told her she would have to wait until we got there.
Brady: "I have to go potty too!"
Aubree:"You know what they say.  Girls before boys."
Brady:"Only if you're a gentleman.  And I am not."

We were at a yard sale last week and I noticed a TV, like the one I had in my bedroom at our old house three years ago, sitting on the curb as if someone was throwing it away.
Me: "Look what someone is throwing away!"
Brady:"An old-fashioned TV!"


A few more pictures...

Love how he always uses whatever he can get into for his toys/weapons.  Nothing like a beater to really threaten someone!

Just one of his faces he makes that endears him to me.

Went to a painting class with some ladies to support Jennifer and Ashley who were putting out new goodies and doing an Essential Oils talk, respectively.

The artist's rendition.

My rendition.  The girls told me "Wow, it is ALMOST the same." Yeah, almost!!  Have I mentioned that I am NOT an artist AT ALL and do not find it an enjoyable hobby?  Sometimes we have to leave our comfort zone.

"Look Mom!  A heart!"

Girls started gymnastics again on Thursday.  Big class as you can see!

Aubree designed these popsicle stick dolls on her own.  I thought it was pretty clever that she came up with cut up rubber bands to use for the hair.  She made our whole family, a house, and furniture.

I guess this is why we keep all the old boxes.

Have a great rest of your weekend.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had won tickets to Medieval Times.  Well, it was time to make good on those winnings so Sunday evening the family was off for a night of eating, horses, and swords (please note the importance of commas).  The "castle" is down in Kissimmee so not too bad a drive.  A few years ago we attended a show at Arabian Knights which is pretty similar in theory but we quickly determined why Arabian Knights closed down and Medieval Times did not.  The latter was much, much better which we could tell as soon as we walked in and saw a great hall alive with activity - - tons of souvenirs, people dressed up in costumes, and a knight talking to us high above on a bridge overlooking the hall. Excitement was in the air and I couldn't take my eyes off one little 4-year old boy whose eyes were just drinking it all in.

Three or four months ago, our homeschool guru, Vasti, forwarded us fellow homeschoolers an email from Colonial Williamsburg which mentioned "homeschool days" with the message "Ohhhhhhhh, road trip, ladies!!!!" To which I responded, "Let's go." Vasti thought I was just joking but I surely was not.  And thus, Home School Road Trip 2015 was born.  I say 2015 because we are already planning 2016!

Our group consisted of Vasti and her boys David (10) and Jonathan (7), Jennifer and her three: Blake (9), Evan (7), London (9 months) and myself and my four.  I don't think they need an introduction :)  That made a total of 3 adults and 9 kids.  The seven of them could fit perfectly in Vasti's mini-van while the five of us would obviously go in our van.  We talked about switching off drivers but come on!  Who are we kidding?  There was no way Colby was going to ride in our van without me in it.

We looked around a little at accommodations right in Williamsburg but the prices weren't very good and who would want to stay five days in a hotel when you can just rent a place with a kitchen big enough for all 12 of us?  Of course, that is what we did and it worked out perfectly.

Here was our itinerary:

Thursday 9/17
2:00 pm: Depart Orlando
6:30 pm: Arrive Savannah

Friday 9/18 
9:30 am: Tour Byrd's Famous Cookies
11:00 am: Leave for Williamsburg
8:30 pm: Arrive Williamsburg

Saturday, 9/19
The Living Museum - Newport News

Sunday 9/20
Jamestown

Monday - 9/21
Colonial Williamsburg

Tuesday - 9/22
Colonial Williamsburg
The Living Museum

Wednesday - 9/23
Children's Museum and Science Center - Rocky Mount, NC

Thursday - 9/24
Travel Home

Since the girls have gymnastics at noon on Thursdays and I didn't want to miss it, we told the others to go on ahead and we would leave when we got out.  It put us about an hour behind them.  The trip up went fine.  We only had to stop once for a bathroom break which was at the Georgia border.  The kids watched movies while I got to listen to Boston sports radio on my phone.  Good times!  Incidentally, we at first thought we were going to go straight to Williamsburg but seeing as Vasti and Jennifer both love Savannah, I had never really been there, and Jennifer could arrange a field trip at a bakery her friend runs, it was an easy decision to break up the trip by stopping there.

Hitting the road.  Brady already looks shellshocked.

Rest stop.

We all checked into our hotel (it appeared to be in a potentially seedy part of town but all went well) and then headed to the riverfront to get some supper.  We ate at an Italian restaurant that Vasti had eaten at on her last trip when they met up with the Isidros.  The food was pretty good but the service was so s-s-s-s-l-o-w-w.  I felt like I was back in Nova Scotia!

Afterwards we strolled around and went into some of the shops along the waterway. It's a very pretty setting.  The girls are now pin collectors - - we started in Nova Scotia - - so it gives us a purpose to go into shops while we are on vacation.

David and Blake were SO great with Brady and Colby.  They often would either carry them or walk hand in hand.

We left to go back to the hotel before the others and just as we got out of the main part of town, a cop passed me going the other way.  As soon as he saw me, he put on his lights and did a u-turn.  Uh oh!  I knew I wasn't speeding but boy, it's a little disconcerting when you know a cop is after you!  I told the kids to remain calm, that we were about to be pulled over.  He pulled up right beside me and I rolled down my window.  "Turn on your lights," he says.  Oops.  My lights are automatic but when it rains, I put them on manually because sometimes it isn't dark enough for them to come on by themselves.  We had a little rain on the way up and I had turned them on manually and forgot to put them back on the automatic setting.  It was so bright in the "city" that I hadn't noticed they weren't on.  I was very glad it was a minor thing and thankfully it all happened so fast that the kids didn't have time to get all worked up about what was going to happen to us!

The hotel room had two double beds.  I thought it was going to be an easy time of things. The girls, who share a bed pretty much EVERY night (even though they have their own beds), would take one, I'd take the other one, Colby would be in his pack-n--play, and Brady would sleep on the floor in his sleeping bag.  If only it had been that simple.  The girls got into a big fight about how the other one hogs the bed and Brady said he wanted to sleep with me.  It turned into a big circus with every one switching spots.  The other problem was that nobody wanted to actually go to sleep so I was forced to put the Broncos game on and everyone fell asleep to that.  It was after 11:15 by the time every kid was asleep but you gotta do what you gotta do.  I was going to make some wisecrack about how Peyton is so old and slow these days that he puts kids to sleep but he actually staged a last minute comeback in the game so I'll hold my joke for another time.

If only it ended on this score!

One of Aubree's complaints was that Calleigh hogged the bed.  Well, I woke up in the middle of the night - - sharing the bed with Aubree - - because she was spread out like this!

Friday morning we had our free breakfast in the hotel and then it was on to Byrd's Famous Cookies. On our way there, I noticed a sign that said "Seventh Day Adventist Church Welcomes You" with an arrow pointing towards the road for the church.  I thought to myself "I'm in a strange place, I don't know where I am, but when I see that sign, it just gives me a warm feeling inside." That's what being part of a church does for you!

Jennifer's friend had broken his leg a few days before our trip so sadly he wasn't there to show us around.  Nevertheless, another very nice gentleman was our host.  They let us into their gift shop and we tried a bunch of the cookies.  Very delicious.  They have a bunch of interesting kinds like Orange and Key Lime.  Not your typical cookie flavors. After that, we were supposed to go to a viewing window to see what was going on in the actual production area. But when we couldn't see anything from the window, they decided to let us come back and see everything up close. It was really, really neat. One thing I thought was interesting was when I asked him if ever gets sick of eating cookies, he said "Nope, never do!" Another interesting thing is that they make cookies that are sold at Harrods Department Store in London so you know they MUST be good!

Our tour guide giving us some info

We got to try all the cookies in these jars.

This was the attached restaurant.  It was SO nicely decorated.

Not at all happy with the hairnet situation.

Colby was cool though.

They gave us all a bag of cookies in these really cute bags.

At the conclusion of the tour, it was time to be on our way - - the longest time to be in the car of the trip (at least for us).  The GPS said it was about 7 hours, 20 minutes.  It sure felt like it!  When you are traveling with a group of 12 people, there are sure to be many stops. We had quite a few bathroom breaks and we also made a longer stop to have lunch at Cracker Barrel.  In the end, it probably took us closer to nine to ten hours but really, the kids did great, even Colby.  As we were nearing the hotel we saw some signs that showed the miles to various places:

Me:"Look, only nine miles to Jamestown.  Do you remember Jamestown?"
Silence
Me: "Remember the person who was at Jamestown? Pocahontas? We studied it last year."
Aubree: "Well, I don't remember because I wasn't a REAL student last year."

Well played, Aubs.

Cracker Barrel

Our accommodations were at Wyndham Resort - Kingsgate.  It was just about perfect, really.  It was only a five minute drive from Williamsburg.  We got a 3-bedroom unit which was actually a 2-bedroom and 1-bedroom unit put together.  Since I had more kids, I got the 1-bedroom unit which had its own living room (with a pullout for the girls) and a kitchenette.  Once again the girls got into a big "discussion" about having to share a bed but finally resolved it by putting up a big barricade of pillows in the middle of the bed. Seriously, they kill me.  They sleep in a double bed together at home like 95% of the time, by their own choosing!! Geesh.  Brady fell asleep most nights in my bed but I would move him to the floor before I went to sleep, if for no other reason than if his brother needed to come in with me during the night, there would be room available.

Trying out the coffee table as a bed.

Dividing up the bed.

Our kitchenette area.

Our first day there was Sabbath which limited some of our options for things to do. But, we had found that we could get into a place called "The Living Museum" in Newport News (about a 35 minute drive) for free with our Orlando Science passes.  It had gotten great reviews on one of my homeschool groups I'm in on Facebook.  I told the kids where we were going and Brady didn't seem particularly happy.  I said I was surprised because I thought he would like the animals.  He says "But it's a museum. The animals are probably all dead." I laughed at that and said "No, it's the LIVING museum." So yes, the animals were mostly very much alive.  What a great place!  The first part took us outside along a trail to see things like otters, birds, wolves, bald eagles, etc. Calleigh was a real pill - - complaining the whole time how hot she was. You're from Florida, girlie!! But yes, it WAS hot. We were thinking we would be getting a break going north but the first couple of days were very hot in the upper 80's. Once we got inside, it was happier times for the rest of the visit.  They had a section where the kids could act as veterinarians with stuffed animals.  It was very, very well done and the kids probably played there for nearly an hour. All four of them loved it and didn't want to leave. We, in fact, stayed longer than the others who went back earlier in their car.  While the kids played, I talked to a couple of ladies that were overseeing the area, and asked them for recommendations of things to do in the area with kids.  We hadn't finalized any plans yet for the next day.  They highly recommended Jamestown and that they thought it was better than Williamsburg for little kids. We had been thinking we were going to skip it because it was somewhat similar to Williamsburg. But after hearing that, we decided to go for it.

Planning our route

Aubree is pointing to a couple of snakes that we spotted outside (which weren't part of the display).

The vet area even had X-rays.

Of course this happened!

Petting area

It was a good day.

Saturday night the we ladies hung out in the hall since every room had sleeping kids in it.

Sunday morning found us seated around our little table having breakfast.  Colby finished first and was walking around the room, apparently looking for mischief.  At one point, he walked over to me and I looked down at his feet - - they were bright PINK!!! Oh no!!!  I looked behind him and there was a trail of pink.  Many, many trails of pink. Huge, dark pools of pink at ground zero.  You guessed it.  NAIL POLISH!!  It turns out that, even though they don't actually wear the polish, Calleigh had brought a bottle of it with her in her "treasure box." She had gotten the polish at some birthday party. Apparently Aubree had opened the bottle the night before, why, I have no idea, and hadn't closed the cover properly.  The rest is pretty self explanatory.  I saw dollar bills being flushed down the toilet before my very eyes.  Thank goodness for the Internet is all I can say.  After a few Google searches, I was advised that non-acetone nail polish remover and window cleaner can get it out.  I picked some up at CVS on our way out and then later that evening, went to work. That is some hard work!!  It's not like you put it on there and off it comes.  You have to scrub and scrub and scrub.  Some of the lighter trails come out pretty well but where the initial spills happened, it was another story.  The night before we left, I did more research and found that regular nail polish remover and hydrogen peroxide are also helpful.  I used those and scrubbed and scrubbed some more and finally, it got to a point where you could still see some hints of color, but it was hopefully light enough not to be that noticable.  So far, I haven't heard anything about our deposit so I'm hoping that means good news!



Nail polish fiasco aside, Sunday was a very nice day.  The weather was kind of overcast so walking around Jamestown was better than walking outside the day before.  There were lots of things for the kids to see and touch including wigwams, ships, weapons, etc.  They have a very nice cafeteria (with Pepsi products!) with lots of vegetarian options which is a nice change.  We walked around in the museum and saw a short movie about how Jamestown was settled.  We marveled that there didn't seem to be very many other tourists around despite it being a weekend but maybe September is slow because of back-to-school.  All in all, we were VERY pleased with our choice to go to Jamestown.

Anything resembling a weapon is right up Brady's alley.

Helping hollow out a canoe.

Listening to a talk about a compass.

Even Colby got to help raise some cargo.

It's a little harder to get a nice picture of the boys.

Love these two!

Monday morning it was time for Williamsburg.  Because of homeschool days, we were able to get in for the very reasonable rate of $19 for an adult for a two-day pass.  It's normally $51.  There were some special programs going on for the homeschool days but because we had gotten our tickets so late (we procrastinated), those were all full. But we were fine with that because we knew there was a lot to see just walking around.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I suddenly realized I had forgotten Colby's binky. That's not going to work being gone for a whole day.  The kids were perturbed we had to go back to the hotel but I reminded them it was only five minutes away.  I set the alarm for five minutes and promised we would be there before the timer went off.  Sure enough, there were still 23 seconds left when we got back.  I was very glad to be so close!  I was also glad I realized it before we were in the "town" because we had to walk for a good 20 minutes, at least, to get there.  They do offer shuttle service but I had so much stuff loaded down on my stroller that it wouldn't have been worth it.

Since we weren't doing any special events at certain times, we decided to just walk down the streets and stop at each house.  The houses had different themes like "weaver,""book binder,""dressmaker" etc.  In theory, these themed houses were a good idea but it didn't work out exactly as I had hoped.  Most of the time when we would walk in, the person "working" there would already be in the middle of talking about what he was doing or he'd be answering questions from an adult on things the kids couldn't hear or had any interest in.  Also, I noted that the people weren't staying in character, really.  For some reason I had it in my mind that it was like Plimoth Plantation where, try as you might, the people will not break out of character.  Nope. Finally, the other downside was that it rained pretty much all morning.  We had rain jackets and I had an umbrella but the kids, particularly Brady, got wet.  It was in the mid-70's, maybe, but when you're wet and there's no sun, you can get chilly which happened to Brady.  All of us were very pathetic as we walked down the street looking for a place to get dry and find some lunch (Jennifer and I had brought lunches for the kids but I needed something and so did Vasti and the boys).  We quickly determined that Williamsburg isn't really set up to deal with the rain.  There was only one restaurant that had non-sit down service and it had no tables or chairs.  Arghhh!! We had to eat our lunch sitting on a porch.  But we managed.  I also realized that it's not the best place for a 2-year old and probably not a 4-year old either especially when you don't have Daddy with you to offer a helping hand.  We had the stroller but the stroller couldn't come in any of the houses.  Both the boys wanted to be carried and held which really just isn't feasible.  I also made the totally BONEHEADED move of bringing my purse with me.  Totally a rookie mistake which I am not.  I have no idea where my brain went. But since I had the purse I couldn't leave it on the stroller when we went inside places so I had no choice but to carry it in with me which just added to the challenge.

One of the houses had this really cool maze in the back.  One of their favorite things of the day!

Eating our lunch.

Basket weaving

I had discussed with the kids several times during the day that they could get something for no more than $10 at the gift shop.  Clearly Colby was paying attention because when we got into the gift shop at the end of the day, he picked this up and says "$10."

These two are always clowning around.

Despite all that, we still had a good time!  The girls were over the moon about getting to dress in costume.  They wore their pilgrim costumes and the first place we went into, one of the ladies in the place said to the other one "Looks like we have some visitors from Massachusetts" so that was cute.  I also had bought a pilgrim costume before we went so all three of us were decked out.  The girls only lasted about two hours in theirs but I wore mine the whole day if for no other reason than the warmth.  It was funny - - I was walking around in the gift shop at the end of the day and a British lady came up to me and asked me what exactly the item was in this box she wanted to buy.  She was a bit embarrassed when I told her I didn't actually work there.

The girls in costume

And mine.

We had the two day pass but I was thinking that it just wouldn't be a good idea to walk around the place again the next day.  There were still some houses we hadn't gone in but we had probably done about 80% of them.  Instead, we noticed that there was a museum that was a part of things so we decided to hit that up in the morning.  When we got there, we quickly realized we should have done that the day before when it had been raining. Costly. We got to see part of a violin concert, walked around and looked at a bunch of old dollhouses, pianos, furniture, etc.  About 1:30, I decided the Grodacks had seen enough and the five of us got in the car and headed back to the Living Museum.  The kids had been clamoring to go back and play in the vet area again and since it was free to get in... Incidentally, it almost wasn't free to get in the first time.  The girl working at the register told me that the pass was only good for "2 adults, 2 kids" and since I had 1 adult and 3 kids, I'd have to pay for one of the kids (Colby was free).  That just seemed so silly to me but she kept insisting.  I finally asked for the person in charge and fortunately they stepped in and saw how ridiculous she was being. The second time around, the lady let me right in without a peep.  We spent a few hours there, including the gift shop.  The girls really wanted a pin and we hadn't been able to get one the last time since it was Sabbath. Mission accomplished.

At the art museum.  Isn't this a precious picture?

And we're back!

I wanted to say just a little more about Colonial Williamsburg.  A few thoughts (1) It will be so much better to go back in about four or five years when all the kids are old enough to appreciate it (2) I don't know if it was the rain or what but all three of us women thought it was kind of dead.  Nothing was going on outside (like parades or firing cannons or whatever, even when it wasn't raining), there were no groups of homeschoolers taking part in events like we thought we would see, nothing.  It was really strange (3) Why don't they incorporate Felicity, the American Girl doll into the place?  Her story is that she lived in Colonial Williamsburg.  The girls would have LOVED that!  After a little research, it looks like 10 or 15 years ago, they may have had a thing like that but what happened to it?   (4) They do have this really cool looking scavenger hunt for the kids that looks like it's very well done but it wouldn't have worked with the rain and by day two, we weren't up for it. Definitely want to do that if/when we go back. (5) They really need more counter service restaurants in the place. (6) Workers should be in character at all time.  Disappointed with that.

After the long trip from Savannah to Williamsburg, it didn't take me long to figure out that I wasn't going to be driving straight home in one day from Williamsburg.  There was no reason I HAD to so why do it?  One of the beauties of homeschooling (although we did miss piano lessons and gymnastics.  No worries!) On the other hand, Jennifer did need to get back so she and Vasti left early Wednesday morning to get back Wednesday night. We left a short time later but our destination was the Children's Museum and Science Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina which was about a 2.5 hour drive.

We made a sad discovery about an hour into the trip. Calleigh brought her teddy bear, also named "Calleigh" that she has had since birth, on the trip.  The second evening in Williamsburg, Calleigh was looking for her and couldn't find it.  Aubree insisted that the kids had been playing with it so we just figured it was misplaced somewhere and we would find it eventually, especially when packing up.  Well, we never did.  I then figured that we must have left it at the hotel in Savannah.  I had checked the beds, but not super carefully, so it had probably been under the covers in the bed Calleigh had slept in.  I called the hotel and left a message and then they called me back to say they couldn't find it.  I told Calleigh and she just lost it.  She started crying hysterically that we needed to go back to the hotel in Williamsburg to look more for it there.  Of course, by this time, we were more than an hour away and I wasn't about to turn around.  I had looked very carefully in our part of the rooms but hadn't looked in the other part although I assumed Vasti or Jennifer had checked it for their own stuff before they left. She was devastated when I wouldn't turn around and started saying stuff like "You can have my tablet and my American Girl doll if I could just have Calleigh back." It was all I could do to not start bawling myself as I drove down the highway.  We never did find her (I really do think it MUST have been at the hotel in Savannah) but thankfully, Daddy stepped in with the great suggestion of making her own bear at Build-A-Bear which she has wanted to do for a long time.  We went there Saturday night after returning home and that has fortunately helped greatly with her grief.

Old picture of Brady holding "Calleigh." May she R.I.P.

At Build-A-Bear choosing what kind of heart you want for your animal.  Calleigh picked "sporty," Aubree picked "kind," and Brady picked "strong."

Pressing on the pedal for the bear (actually, it was a snow leopard) to get stuffed.

Giving the animals a final washing.

Introducing "Cuddles,""Blizzard," and "Grizzly." Sorry, Colbs.  Wasn't spending that kind of money on a 2-year old!

The Children's Museum was also free with our Science Center passes.  It was in a really cool old tobacco factory which I guess is okay to call cool because it means it's no longer used to package tobacco, right?!  The building was great but so was the museum part and we were the only ones in the whole place.  It was perfect!  They had a cute little restaurant in it where we had lunch and we also saw a movie in their planetarium which is like an IMAX.  The kids did not want to leave but after a couple of hours I told them we needed to move on.  Next stop was South of the Border which is on the North/South Carolina border for those not familiar with the drive along I-95.  I was hoping to make it a longer stop because their website says they have rides and a reptile encounter among other things but when I called ahead of time, they said all that stuff is closed except on the weekends.  What a scam!  You see their billboards from like 150 miles out touting all these things but none of it is open.  At any rate, it was just as well because I wanted to keep moving to our hotel anyway.  I had booked us in the Hampton Inn in Santee, South Carolina which was a little more than half way home, I would say.

South of the Border

The kids were looking at all the magnets and Calleigh says "Look at that bare butt!" Yes, Calleigh, THAT is definitely what this magnet is about.  Look again if you don't see it right away...

We got to our hotel about 9:00 pm and the kids, particularly the boys, were bouncing off the walls. I didn't even think two seconds about making everyone go to bed right away.  I turned Disney Junior on and the kids sat on the beds while I made myself a cup of tea.  As I was getting it out of the microwave, I hear a big thump and a cry and I knew immediately what had happened.  Colby had fallen off the bed - - a bed that was very high.  I rushed over and it was apparent he had fallen on his head.  I grabbed him and he took one of those big breaths that kids do before they're about to let out a huge cry but the cry never came.  After a few seconds of holding him while I waited for the cry, I put him face up on the bed and his face went completely blank, his eyes open but focused on nothing.  It was a very, very scary thing.  I felt his pulse going strongly so I knew he was alive and all that although both Calleigh and Aubree were standing there next to me crying "Is he dead?  Is he dead?" Having just taken the CPR course, my mind was racing, trying to remember all the steps on giving CPR to a child.  Should I call 911?  After about 20 - 30 seconds, his eyes came back into focus and he "came to." I guess maybe he just had the wind knocked out of him?  While he was out, I had felt all over his head and body and didn't feel anything bashed in or bones sticking out. My pulse finally slowed down a bit and I couldn't stop hugging him.  As I did so, his hand moved up to play with my hair and that's when I knew he was really alright. Thank you Jesus!  I had him sleep with me so I could keep an eye on him all night, just in case.  I'm sure I must have woken up like 10 - 15 times but it was worth it for my baby to be okay.

The far bed was the scene of the crime.

Snuggling with big sis afterwards.

We had a great breakfast that came with our hotel stay and then we were off to finish our trip, leaving shortly after 10:00 am.  I had found a really cool outdoor children's museum in Savannah that I had planned to stop at to break up the trip but after seeing the forecast called for rain, we tabled that and decided to just go directly home.  We got caught in a little rush hour traffic when we were almost back but pulled into our driveway at about 5:45 pm. Indeed, we had spent quite a bit of time in the car over the last few days but as strange as it sounds, I really enjoyed it.  I know I'm with my kids pretty much all the time but there's just something about going on an adventure together that bonds you even more.  The museums, being with friends, and all that was so great but I liked just being with them in the car, even when it was a little crazy. I told Duncan that he needs to take the kids on an adventure by himself even if it's just for one night somewhere. Of course, I absolutely love it when it's the whole family but it's also a different dynamic when you're the only parent - - you get more involved.

So, in summary, it was a great trip!  The kids all get along really, really well and I couldn't ask for better friends and fellow home-schooling moms than Jennifer and Vasti.  As I said, we are planning our trip for next year.  Perhaps Atlanta and Tennessee?  We shall see!  Perhaps Texas in 2017...

There have been no dull moments since getting home.  For some reason, there were several field trips that just happened to come up this first full week back so we didn't open a text book until Wednesday after an almost two week hiatus.  But, it's all good. I'm a big believer in life experiences trumping book work especially in these lower grades.  We were outdoors on a farm, went to a musical, had an art lesson, and went to the zoo.  I'm not going to take the time to go into details, since I'm trying to get caught up here so I'll just show the pictures.

Took Calleigh to Marley (8) and Macey's (10) birthday party.

Marley

Macey and her Mimi.

Pin the tail on the horse.  That's Calleigh blindfolded.

Went to Stanley Pond Adventure Farm with a small homeschool group on Monday.

The girls enjoyed the huge slide but Brady, of course, didn't want to try it.  Colby kept trying to climb the stairs to do it but it's not conducive to a kid sitting on an adult's lap.

They had this tricycle track that you'd think would be "okay" but the girls especially loved it despite the heat.

He was too little so I rode around with him on my lap.

The boys LOVED this!

This is the really old fire truck that used to be at Cypress Gardens before it closed down and became Lego Land.  Stanley Farm bought it from them.

Duck race

A giant pile of sand can go a long ways with little kids.

The finale was this giant "jumping pillow."

They put on some music and oh my word, watching Brady jump and "dance" to the music was hysterical.  I took some videos.

Guess we need to work on some manners.

Tuesday we went to the Orlando Repertory Theater with another homeschool group to see "Fancy Nancy, the Musical." Fancy Nancy is a set of books for girls.  The musical was excellent.  We don't know these girls from the homeschool group but they were sisters age 9 and 7 and Calleigh and Aubree became fast friends with them.

Why am I showing you a bottle of shampoo, you ask?  This is what I had to clean Brady with after he had a poop accident at Jennifer's house.  We were there for art class and I left Brady playing in the play room while I made a trip to Costco during the lesson.  While I was gone, apparently Brady had to poop but didn't know what to do without me so he pooped his pants.  Oh, what a mess.  Fortunately it was contained to his pants (and leg) but I had to give him a bath there.  Took like 20 minutes to clean everything up right when I was trying to get home to get Colby his nap.  Grrrr!

They worked with special crayons on these.

Nothing warms my mommy heart than seeing them get along nicely with their little brother.  They had invited him to sleep in their bed this night.

Wednesday afternoon we went to a special program at the zoo.  Last year it was from 10:00 - 12:00 but this year they changed it to 1:00 - 3:00.  Not the best for nap time but we made it work.  This was an o'possum.  Their life span is only two years!  Guess it makes sense when you see them as road kill.

Answering some trivia.  I thought Colby (in orange and brown shirt) was so cute here as if he was one of the big kids.

They had to answer questions, by stepping on one side of the line, about whether a particular animal gave birth to a live animal or laid eggs.  Calleigh got all 10 - 12 right.

Colby loves clowning around with Addison!

They had to do a little obstacle course pretending to be a mom carrying her babies. This was a kangaroo.

A penguin.  Guess this would be the dad.

Carrying alligator babies on their heads.

They made "enrichment" bags for the wart hogs.

We finally got to some actual school work on Wednesday and I had Calleigh do a test to correctly place all 50 states on a blank map.  She got 100% on the first try.  I was so proud.  Aubree did really great too - - 35/50.  By the way, in case you are wondering, that is my handwriting.  As you know, Calleigh hates to write so I wrote it all in for her.

Picked up this cute handmade dress up dress from a yard sale on Friday.  The lady had made it herself for her daughter over 40 years ago.

Brady collected offering at the church for the first time.

Adventurers meeting.  Duncan finally got Brady to stay with his group by himself.

Brady getting used to his bigger bike.

Things that happened before our trip but I hadn't written about yet:

Duncan went on a backpacking trip with Shawn, Garett and Cameron (Camille's two brothers) the weekend of 9/12.  They climbed the "Presidentials" in New Hampshire.  They had a great time although got a bit sunburned.  This is them eating at Toni and Terry's after the hike.

While he was gone, soccer "kicked" off for the season...in the rain, no less.

Hung out at the Isidros with the Reeveses who were in town.

Jake's 6th Birthday.

Art class using pastels.

Rosa drew the fruit for them in both of these pictures and they did all the coloring and shading.

Things got just a little messy but my art girl loves it all!

Induction at the church for Adventurers.  Brady was SO excited.  Ha!

Look at that face.  I only got him to go on stage with the promise of ice cream (with Jake and Noah) afterwards.

Moved a little more to his left so he was more part of the group.

 Thanks for sticking with me through this very long post.  Have a great week!

I've mentioned on here before that we have become big fans of the Gaithers over the last year.  What better way to enjoy our fandom of them than to attend a concert?  We discovered they were having a big 'homecoming" concert the weekend of October 9 & 10 in Myrtle Beach which worked out perfectly with my mom's annual "fall" trip to come visit us.  She is also a big fan along with Freddie, Kathy, and Bruno Rondinelli who were already going to be in Florida and could hit up the concert with us on their drive back to MA.  We had never been to Myrtle Beach so it was a win-win.

Each May we go to Camp Kulaqua with the church for family church retreat.  This year, we shook things up a bit by going again - - this time last weekend with Adventurers.  In past years, Adventurers has gone to Pine Lake Retreat which is a much closer drive but that's the only thing I can think of that's better about it than Camp Kulaqua.  I think the conference is selling Pine Lake or maybe people strongly suggested it would be nice to go to Camp Kulaqua - - I don't know - - but whatever the reason, we went there instead this year.

My enthusiasm for going was about the same as it would be if someone tied me to a chair and made me watch a soccer game.  That is, it was non-existent.  We had gotten back from our Myrtle Beach trip on Sunday evening and spent the next few days with my mom and all I really wanted to do was just be a homebody and get my house back in order, not pack for yet ANOTHER trip especially so soon.  On Thursday I got this wild idea about Duncan going with the kids and letting me stay home.  When I made the suggestion, he looked at me like I had three heads and said "You're kidding, right?" Well, yeah, I guess.  But don't you wish you just had one day to get caught up on everything where you don't have to cook or watch the kids or whatever?  I do have my Corey days, for which I am VERY grateful, but I obviously like to use those to go to Goodwill.  I need a day with nobody in my house but me.  How can I make that happen?!!

I knew once I got to camp I would be happy.  And I was.  We arrived in town about 6:30 (it's about a two hour drive), had some supper, and then headed to our cabin (#5) to unpack.  We lucked out in that it was just us and the Bergherms in the mini-lodge. These were the same accommodations that we stay in for family camp.  There were five other church groups staying at the camp for the weekend so we didn't have any other options of where to say.  Most likely we would have picked the mini-lodge anyway although one of these days we are determined to try the "hotel."

The weekend went great.  The weather was perfect - - 80's during the day and 60's at night.  The kids did a bunch of stuff - - science experiments, bike riding, canoeing, visiting the zoo, hay ride, bouncy house in the gym, making smores, and finger painting.  Fortunately, there was no swimming involved.  Calleigh was looking forward to doing the blob in the spring like she did last year but when I saw that it wasn't going to happen until 11:00 am on Sunday morning, I was perturbed that we would be there that late.  But alas, it was only going to be like 66 degrees at 11:00 am so they decided to keep it closed.  Sorry Calleigh!

Calleigh leading in prayer.  Notice Colby up there next to the microphone.

Helping out in an experiment.

One of the perks for bunking with the Bergs.  Jennifer's cookies!!

Trying out Karis' bike to see if Colby would like the bike seat.  He did!

Brady admiring the panther.

Colby was trying to mess with Brady's bike.

Brady tried to distract him with some food.

I think it might have worked.

Later on, watching the fish in the spring.

All was well for awhile...

It looked much worse than it actually was (hence why I took a picture instead of rushing to help).

I kept trying to take a picture of them on the hayride and EVERY SINGLE TIME, Aubree had her eyes closed so I gave up.

Bouncy house.  I ended up going on with Colby, in my dress and all (I had to climb a wall to go down the final slide so that was fun).

Waiting for their turn to do s'mores.

The older three groups of Adventurers did s'mores first so Calleigh was in this group with Duncan accompanying her while I was with the younger three in the gym first.

Working on the finger painting honor.

The nice thing about being there with Adventurers rather than the church is that the meals were included in the cost of the weekend (which was cheaper too).  I should have had the foresight to bring some extra food though for Brady, my picky eater.  For breakfast they served biscuits and gravy (which was delicious), scrambled eggs, and I think oranges.  Brady ate a biscuit.  For lunch, it was spaghetti, bread, and salad. Brady ate bread.  For supper, it was haystacks.  Brady ate chips.  So he ate a biscuit, bread, and chips as his three meals.  I did have some snacks with me, including apples slices, so at least he got that but still!  This kid....

There is a cafeteria there but since there were so many other church groups at the camp, this is where our meals were.

The girls helping to serve lunch.

The Little Lambs had to help with supper.  Brady refused to help serve the food but finally found his passion - - the drinks!

We got back in the early afternoon and stuck around the house for the rest of the day. That evening was the big Patriots/Colts game.  The kids were all excited about it so I said they could stay up and watch for awhile and we would make popcorn.  At about 9:00 pm, just as the kids were finishing their popcorn, I see Brady make a beeline out of the movie room and he doesn't return.  I thought maybe he was in his room playing or something.  I had Duncan go check on him and this is what he found.  I guess camp must wear you out.



As for the rest of the past week, the big news is that we have some new bikes in the family.  Actually, Duncan got me a new bike a few weeks ago although I have yet to pose with it for a picture or really ride it!  But I'm excited to finally have one.  Aubree had outgrown her 16-inch bike so she inherited Calleigh's 20-incher while Calleigh got a new 24-inch ride.  Duncan also got a new bike since his current bike was not conducive to pulling a trailer.  Lastly, we got this cool Weehoo IGo bike trailer for the boys which came today.  Duncan says it's much easier to pull than the regular trailer. The Grodack family is now set for riding bikes!  Actually, we don't have a way to get them all somewhere but at least for now we can go on rides from our house.




With the weather, finally, sortof, cooling off (it's gotten cooler but then it was back in the high 80's today at yard sales and we were massively sweating), it's been nice to take walks in the afternoons around the neighborhood with Calaubra riding their bikes and me pushing Colby on his tricycle.  He's able to do the tricycle on his own now (just pushing himself with his feet), so we have been hanging around in the front yard with all the kids on their bikes/trikes.  Very enjoyable in the cooler afternoon temperatures.

They like to fall in the grass and pretend they've crashed.

Duncan took them on Brady's first ride ever on the West Orange Trail this afternoon.

On Wednesday the kids had their bi-annual dentist appointments.  All went well and they are still cavity free although the hygienist did report that Brady and Calleigh both had a little plaque build up in certain parts of their mouth.  The hygenist cracked me up because she said stuff like "When he's brushing, he seems to be missing this part." Or, "When she brushes, make sure she gets here." I found it very ironic that she was speaking like that as if the kids were brushing their own teeth when it very clearly states on their handout that parents should brush until age eight.  So what's with the "he/she?" So I finally said "Don't you mean 'YOU' are missing these places since I'm the one brushing?" Perhaps she didn't want to outright accuse me of being a bad tooth brusher-er. But then I gladly took credit for Aubree whose mouth was in perfect condition.  What am I doing differently with her?!

Conversations with the kids...

Aubree and I were sitting on the couch looking at books when she just randomly comes out with this.
Aubree:  "I told Siri to show me a pictures of Venus and she showed me a picture of a penis."
Me: "What??!!  Are you serious??
Aubree: "Yes, ask Calleigh."
Calleigh comes over.
Me:"Calleigh, is that true?"
Calleigh:"Yup."
Me:"Did you look?"
Calleigh: "NO!!!"

So yeah, that was a bit disturbing.  I asked Siri specifically to show me a picture of a penis just to see what would happen and fortunately it didn't bring up any blatant pictures but it was still strange stuff. The kids mostly only use Siri in front of me but sometimes they steal my phone.  Obviously I need to keep a better watch on this.

Wednesday evening we had Adventurers and I was able to get Brady to sit with his group in the beginning part where everyone is together, doing the song, devotional, etc.  When we broke up into our groups afterwards, his leader told the kids to buddy up and hold hands as we walked across the parking lot.
Liani (one of the little girls in the group who Brady knows from his Sabbath School):"I want to hold Brady's hand."
Me: (Brady clearly doesn't want to hold her hand):"Brady, hold her hand while we walk to the class." He finally grabs it.
Brady (as we are walking over, whispers):"Can I let go now?"
Me: "No, wait until we get inside."
We get inside the church so I tell him that he can let go of her hand now.  After about 20 or 30 seconds, I look down and notice that he's still hanging on to her hand.
Me: (thinking he didn't hear me the first time):"Brady, you can let go now."
Nothing happens.  They are still holding hands.
Brady (looks up at me with a pained look on his face): "I AM letting go."

Someday you'll appreciate that more, my boy!

Colby has been an awful sleeper this week.  Typically this is what happens when we get back from a trip but it's been especially bad.  He's woken up every night and I've been up there sleeping in the chair in his room, on the floor in front of his door, etc. One night I was just going to bed at 1:30 when he started crying.  I finally got him back to sleep and I started to sneak out of his room about 2:30 when he wakes up again to see me trying to leave.  There went another hour of me trapped up there.  I finally got into my own bed for the night at 3:30.  Then it was up at 6:45 to go lie in his room again.  At any rate, one of those mornings, Colby and I were cuddled sleeping on the floor when Brady comes in, having awoken for the day.
Brady:"Come on, Mom.  When are we going to go down and get some breakfast?"
Me (glancing down and seeing Colby is still sound asleep): "Brady, I just don't think I can wake Colby up yet."
Brady:"Well I can.  Do you want me to R-r-r-r-o-a-r in his face?"

Some other pictures of what we've been up to.

Sporting his new haircut at gymnastics.

A morning tea party.

Brady working on his "Jump" honor at Adventurers on Wednesday night.  This is how ya'll jump, right?

What Colby does at home with Daddy while we are gone to Adventurers.

Finished up the United States in Geography class by making a New England Pumpkin Pie Cake.

It was delish!

How I found the kids sleeping one night.

Finished the United States, on to Mexico!  I printed some fake plane tickets off the Internet, got some fake passports, cut out some Pesos, and they pretended this was a plane flying them to Mexico.  It included an inflight movie of their destination and even beverage service.  You should have seen their excitement when they realized they were being served juice boxes (which are typically reserved for special occasions.)  Apparently AeroMexico is not a completely safe airline so Brady decided to wear a helmut for the flight.

Off to art class with their lunch boxes (class is at 1:00 and we often eat en route to save time).

While the girls paint, Mommy and the boys go to Costco.

Spray painted some picture storage boxes to be used as the "ocean" for a special Science project.

These boxes will be used for the rest of the year and we will be adding different sea life as we study them.

Colby getting a jump on the course.

This is for you Mom!  I saw this on Facebook and thought it was pretty funny.  We've all been there.

Have a Happy Sabbath!

The weather certainly doesn't feel like it but the calendar tells us it's fall which means it's festival time.  The kids just love them and keep begging to go to more.  This past Wednesday evening we went to one in Windermere at the Harvest Bible Chapel Orlando (otherwise known as a church...the name of it is sort of odd).  It turned out to be a little more of an adventure than I had hoped.

To back up a little, I had the day leading up to that all to myself.  Have I mentioned how wonderful my in-laws are?  In my last post I talked about having a day at home sans kids and without even reading my blog (they hadn't read it yet), they told me they wanted to take the kids for a day.  That hadn't been my intention at all with what I wrote but how could I refuse?!  It was most welcome.  They came and picked the kids all up a little after 10:00 am and then I was home alone in the eery silence.  It was so great.  I was able to clean out and rearrange my closet, stuff about five bags of clothes and boxes of toys and books for Goodwill, and get out and start washing Colby's 3T shirts and 2T pants (he's moving up a size).  Sounds like an exciting day, huh?  It actually was for me.  I had my Dr. Laura podcasts playing and it was perfect.  The only snafu came at 12:27 when the gatehouse called and said that so and so, the appraiser, was there and should I let him in?  He wasn't due to the house until 1:00 but I thought maybe he was there early to look around the neighborhood.  Nevertheless, I ran around like a mad woman, getting dressed, brushing my teeth, and combing my hair in three minutes flat.  Sure enough, at 12:30 he rings the doorbell.  Who does that??!! You don't come to someone's house at 12:30 when you have a 1:00 appointment.  His excuse was that "I'm trying to beat the rain." There was only a 30% chance of rain and I don't think it actually ever did.  So annoying!  But what can you do?  We are refinancing our house and he was there to appraise it so of course, I couldn't be rude (not that I would have been anyway).

Ron and Elaine got back with the kids and Duncan got home early from work so off we went to Windermere.  My favorite festivals are ones where everything is free and you don't have to buy a $10 wristband or something like that to use the bouncy houses (because 4 x $10 isn't happening).  Fortunately I don't think the people of Windermere are hurting for cash so it was indeed all free.  They had food trucks (you did have to pay for that), Trunk or Treat, games, a train ride, and about 10 bouncy houses.  Since I didn't want to push around a stroller with my stuff, I wore a little backpack to keep a diaper, drinks, and my phone.  I had thrown on a dress hurriedly when the aforementioned "gentleman" had stopped by and hadn't changed into something else when I had more time.  Costly.

Looking for the one with the "X" on the bottom.

This game was Calleigh's best - - knocking down these characters with a beanbag.

Brady threw a football successfully into the hole so he was quite pleased with himself.

Trying to throw a ring on these bottles.  It was VERY hard.

Train ride.

Isn't this pizza food truck really cool with the glass wall?

The festival ended at 8:00 and we all walked through a little maze inflattable right before heading to the car.  I put Colby in his carseat, got in the front, and reached into my backpack to get out my phone.  Except...it wasn't there.  It was a pretty small backpack so it was pretty obvious it wasn't in there.  I looked around Colby's carseat, nothing.  Major panic!!  That's a really crummy feeling.  I figured that I must have bent down to maybe put Colby's shoes on or something and it slid out.  Duncan haphazardly parked the car a few feet from where we pulled out and set off to go look for it.  First, he tried to call it and it went right to voicemail which was very odd because I knew I had charged it before we left the house.  Unfortunately you can't use "Find My Phone" when the phone is off so that feature was no help.  I at least knew that whoever had it couldn't get into the phone since I do have a passcode on it.  While Duncan was gone, both the girls started crying, especially Aubree who was practically hysterical.  In a way, I guess it helped me since I had to keep reassuring them that it was just a phone and it wasn't like one of them was lost.  I kept telling Aubree it was going to be okay and it wasn't that big of a deal but then she finally says "But you said it was a nightmare!!" Apparently I must have used those words when I realized it was gone. Oops!

Duncan came back - - empty handed - - about 15 minutes later.  He had searched the ground everywhere with no luck.  There was a cop standing right near the car and Duncan told him what happened and he was confident that it would be found and to just give Duncan his name and number and he'd call him when it was.  In the meantime, I remembered that I had looked at the phone to see the time right before we left because I had thought about how they were letting us into the maze even though it was after 8:00.  I must have lost it right at the end of the night.  I told Duncan to go and check one more time and find someone in charge of the whole event to see if it had been turned in.  We also discussed how it was odd that the phone was off.  Duncan theorized that the person might be up to something nefarious because they were smart enough to turn it off thus prohibiting us from using "Find My Phone." Once again, he came back empty handed and we had no choice but to just leave.  Duncan had me drive because he wanted to see if he could come up with a way to outsmart the potential perpetrator.  Meanwhile, the kids had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at a Walgreens nearby and I took them in.  When we got back to the car, I told Duncan that the thing that really stunk was that I was out of iCloud space and my phone hadn't been backed up in like 50 days so I was going to lose all of that stuff.  Duncan was now in the driver's seat and started driving - - back to the church.  Someone had found it!  Duncan was able to send a message to my phone so that if it was turned on, a message would show that would say "This phone is lost.  Please call (Duncan's number)." That is just what someone did.  We went back and I went to the main stage and one of the organizer's handed it to me and said that when it was given to her, it had been turned off so she turned it back on and saw the message.  How it was off, I have no idea.  But no matter.  I had my phone back!!  All was right with the world again. And note to self...wear something with a pocket next time.

The kids took their candy into this tent in the girls' room to organize.  The next morning, I couldn't find Colby anywhere and it was very quiet.  This is where we eventually found him.  He had helped himself to a lollipop!

Going to this festival worked out really well because we needed to bring a bag of candy to the our church's fall festival last night.  The kids got a ton of candy and I told them they could pick out a few pieces and then I was taking the rest to our church as our bag of candy.  But not to worry, they would get more there.  So yes, last night we were at our church.  We had a nice vespers service, roasted hot dogs, played some games, and went on a hayride (which was pulled by a Grand Marquis of all things!).  They handed out paper bags of candy to the each of the kids.  Apparently Calleigh didn't open hers until she got in the van as we drove home.  A minute later, she starts yelling that all of her candy is chocolate and "I can't BELIEVE that I gave away all the Laffy Taffy and Skittles and all my other good stuff that I had to get all this CHOCOLATE!!" Her whole bag somehow ended up being chocolate candy of which she is clearly not fond.  Thus followed all the tears and then when I told her I didn't know if we were going to anymore festivals, she cried even harder.  Fortunately we discovered that Brady had a lot of non-chocolate in his bag and since he loves his chocolate, trades could be worked out.  Phew.  Crisis averted!

Vespers.  It may not look like it but there were several hundred people in attendance.

We were some of the early arrivals.  Hence the sparse crowd around us.

Look who got to stay up past her bedtime!

The boys waiting to try their hand at putt putt.

Last Sunday I made my bike riding debut - - at least, as far as riding my own bike goes. Ron and Elaine went to watch the girls at soccer in the morning and then they came over here so that we could all go on a ride along the trail.  Our intention was to stop somewhere along the way for brunch.  I have never ridden the trail from our house so that was a brand new experience.  I will say that the way there was much better than the way back.  We rode into downtown (about five miles, I think), eventually finding a place to eat.  When we got back on the bikes to come home, I quickly discovered that my backside was in a bad way.  The seat on my bike was far more uncomfortable than the seat on my rental a few months ago.  I had to ride kind of in a side saddle position all the way back.  Not good!  The girls were also pretty tired from the soccer so they weren't as peppy as they usually were.  I think we were all glad we hadn't gone any farther.  Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to more rides but hopefully with a new and improved seat!

Found a turtle on the trail.

Everyone was really wiped when we got home.  Aubree took a nap for, at least, several hours, here on the couch.

I can't think of much else that was exciting over the last week so I'm just going to end with a few more pictures.

Duncan took the boys on a ride last Sabbath afternoon while...

....I took the girls to the church for drama club practice.  They will be performing at all three services on Thanksgiving Sabbath (11/21).

Brady showing a book to Colby in Brady's Sabbath School class.

Goofing off in the back yard.  Colby has a binky in because I found him flat on his back on the kitchen floor, crying.  He had tried to get himself water from the dispenser on the fridge but had spilled it all and then slipped in it.

Finished a whale puzzle.

I babysat London last Saturday night while the rest of the family went to a party.

Out with Daddy on Sabbath afternoon while Mommy may or may not have been napping.

I wish every yard sale had this sign.

Found these awesome old fashioned dresses at a yard sale for $1 each.  I need to get Aubree an "Anne of Green Gables" wig to go with her puffed sleeve dress (Anne always dreamed of wearing a dress with puffed sleeves).

Tried to eat outside on Friday night but the bugs were just too bad.  We can't wait until the cooler weather is here and wipes out the bugs.

Have a great week!

***I am having technical difficulties so pictures will be posted at a later date.***

The hospital had it's annual leadership weekend this past weekend and when I told the kids we were going to Hollywood, they got all excited - - "We're going to Hollywood, California?!!" I had to repeat myself about three times that no, there is a Hollywood in Florida too.  Fortunately, that was still exciting for them.

Hollywood, Florida is on the Atlantic coast between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.  Last year we went to Marco Island which is on the Gulf side down near Ft. Myers and it was so terrific we were hoping to go again.  But alas, the hotel is under renovations so we couldn't go.  Instead, it was the Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood.  In prior years I might have thought "Wow, it's great we are going so far south so that we can still swim in the warmer weather and water." No need this year.  It is seriously still in the upper 80's here and the kids were swimming in a non-heated pool just yesterday.  I think we are skipping fall this year and just going straight to Christmas.  Global Warming at its finest.  Ha!

We left early Thursday morning for the 3.5 hour trip there.  Duncan's meeting started at 1:30 so the plan was to get lunch on the way down.  We were in the mood for breakfast and after some digging on Yelp, we found a place, Giorgio's Bakery & Bistro, about five minutes from the hotel that served breakfast until noon.  We made it just in time.  What did we do before smart phones?  The restaurant had seating right along the Intercoastel so we had a great view of boats passing by.  The food came really quickly and was excellent but the best part was watching the kids, especially Brady, chase all the birds that kept coming and trying to steal food off our plates.

I was curious as to what our sleeping arrangements would be at the hotel because unlike prior years where they've had suites which have pull-out couches, etc, this hotel did not have that.  It is getting a little crowded for all of us sleeping in one room (although technically, it still works because Colby sleeps in his pack and play - - actually that's a joke now that I think about it -- and Brady sleeps on the floor) but we were hoping to have more room than that.  We called the evening before and found out we indeed had two connecting rooms so the girls were very happy since it meant they would have their own beds.  Of course, you know as I write this they are snuggled up together in the same bed in their room despite having another bed at their disposal. Apparently they have different standards while on vacation.

We were very pleased that we could check in early at 1:00 before Duncan's meeting so that we could get settled and then go down to the pool and ocean while he was occupied.  The kids had high hopes for the ocean but as we walked into the pool area to make our way to the ocean, their friend, Sarah Chobotar was standing there talking to an employee about how she had just gotten stung from a jellyfish.  Yikes!  That put a damper on things.  The story was that this time of the year the jellyfish are in abundance.  Shucks.  That limited it to just playing in the sand.  The odd thing was that the kids kept finding dead jellyfish everywhere and it turns them into this white translucent squishy object that they were picking up and playing with.  Turns out hunting for dead jellyfish is a lot of fun.  So at least it wasn't a total bust.

The weekend went very well.  The kids had a great time with their friends - - David and Jonathan Biri, who they see frequently and then also some they don't see often like Carlos and Isabella Poloche.  Calleigh was in a separate class this year for grades three and up which was overseen by Tracy Mastrapa who does an excellent job.  Aubree was also by herself for K-2.  Isabella will be eight soon but she is in second grade so she was Aubree's companion for every session. It was so cute seeing them because they are the exact same size and they would go everywhere arm in arm, giggling. Most of Aubree's friends are Calleigh's friends so it's nice to see her with her own (although Calleigh was also hanging around with them too).  This left me with the boys, of course.  I could have left Brady but the little ones have to be three and potty trained to be left in the class.  The question is - - will Colby be potty trained by next year?  If he's anything like Brady, that will be a "No!" A few years back, they had a nice older couple (who were from Massachusetts so obviously they are nice!) who would do a whole Sabbath School type class but since they've left, it's been more like a babysitting service where you drop off the kids (if they're potty trained) and they have stations where you play cars, do crafts, watch a movie, etc.  There isn't a program or anything. So mostly I would just sit there on the sidelines and watch the boys play with the cars which it seems like they did for hours - - especially Colby.  It all went fine but then Sabbath morning, when a program would be nice, the lady ended up putting on Tom & Jerry!  Because we all watch Tom & Jerry on Sabbath morning, right??! I suppose I should have said something but you kind of just redirect the kids to a different spot. But then it got me thinking, I need to recruit someone to come do an actual program here like they used to do.

Friday afternoon after we had lunch at Panera (you're on your own for Friday lunch), part of the family headed to the beach while the other part headed to the room for a nap (lucky me!).  For whatever reason, the jellyfish weren't a problem any more.  I don't know if they died or what but the kids all got into the water with no problems.  Go figure.

Tom and Jerry aside, Sabbath was a neat day.  The hospital organized this whole event where all of FH leadership would help pack bagged meals made of rice, beans, and seasonings for the needy.  We have taken the kids to do this each year (at our church, etc) so we were very familiar with the process.  The instructions were that it was for grades three and up but we were confident that Aubree was capable and since Duncan was a table leader, we knew it would be fine. The neat thing was that when we got there we found out that the food was being shipped to Haiti.  Each week for our Bible class, we read about a country - - it's population, religion, challenges the people face, etc and then we pray for the people.  On Tuesday of that week, we had learned about Haiti and prayed for those people and now we were packing meals for them. Pretty awesome.  The girls did so great.  They packed for over 1.5 hours with not a complaint.  Brady really wanted to do it too but it was just too quick for him.  I could probably have helped him but I had Colby to contend with.  In the end, everyone together packed over 250,000 meals.  I hope they do it again next year.  Great idea whoever thought of it.

Saturday night, though, was the pinnacle for the kids.  In prior years, Saturday night has always been a night of fun whether it be some bouncy houses, face painting, ice cream sundaes, etc.  Some years have been better than others.  But this year, wow, they set the bar REALLY high.  It was a whole carnival in one of the giant ballrooms.  It was amazing.  You really felt like you were at a carnival.  They had clowns, people on stilts, giant balloon characters, a bunch of bouncy houses and rides, ice cream, popcorn, and a whole section with midway games complete with prizes (like giant stuffed animal prizes).  Best of all, to me, was the man walking around with the monkey you could hold!  It was like a dream come true for a kid.  About thirty minutes in, things took a scary turn when I heard them calling some of the big wigs over to this particular ride where you have to jump over and duck under this swinging arm (it's just a blow up so you wouldn't get really hurt if it hit you).  The game has these platforms you stand on so they got some of the VP's to stand on each platform, I guess for fun to see who the last man standing would be.  Well, right after it starts, Rob Fulbright who is/was the Administrator of the Orlando campus, tried to duck out of the way or something, and ended up doing a back flip off the platform.  It wouldn't normally be a big deal because it's all padded (like a bouncy house) but somehow he hit something metal with his back.  They made an announcement for everyone to leave the immediate area and we saw the paramedics arrive.  Thankfully after about thirty minutes, one of the doctors from FH who was there, announced that he was okay but they were taking him to the ER.  As he was being wheeled off, Rob gave a thumb's up - - like how a football player does it during a game when he's carted off.  We all breathed a sigh of relief.  We found out later that he had broken three vertebrae.  Scary!

The only thing stinky about the weekend, literally, was having to share a bed with Colby.  Duncan took the other double in our room since I knew I'd be bunking with Colby.  He fell asleep in bed with me and when I tried to move him, he woke up and started crying so it ended up being an all night thing which meant I kept waking up seemingly every hour.  At some point, I realized that the bed smelled like pee - - sure enough, he had wet through his diaper.  Yay for me!  At least I didn't have to change the sheets myself.  The next night I was like "Yeah know, just take the whole bed for yourself." After he fell asleep, I put pillows all around the edge to keep him from falling off and then I moved over to the bed with Duncan.  I was worried that he might be perturbed that he didn't have any hair to fiddle with all night but he slept fine. So that's how I played that and it worked much better.  Of course, most places we go, I don't have the luxury of another bed to move to so it would be nice if he could kick this habit!

Last year they changed how they do the weekend.  They no longer have meetings on Sunday mornings so it was nice to be able to eat breakfast and then leave.  There is always much to be done at home!

Going back to the week before to get caught up with events...We had a field trip on Tuesday (the third) to learn about the Jesus film at the headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ.  I knew virtually nothing about it but when one of my homeschool groups sent on an invite, I thought it sounded good and it worked with our schedule.  I had totally forgotten about it until the night before and it only ended up being us and one other family but it was so, so good and so, so perfect for what we are studying in school.  This year for Geography we are studying various countries.  Every two weeks, we "fly" to a new country and focus on that country for the two weeks.  We started off with the US (which really was a review from last year since we studied the US for the whole year) and then our next country is Mexico.  To go along with that, we are studying about various missionaries and their work in the corresponding countries.  We are doing a read-aloud right now about Cameron Townsend who went to Guatemala (not exactly Mexico but close enough!) as a missionary and ended up translating the New Testament into a language for some local Indians who didn't even have a written language yet.  We are still reading the book so we don't know all that he has done yet but I've heard through the grapevine that he started Wycliffe Bible Translators, which is here in Orlando, and which is the entity that translates this Jesus film into many languages.  This Jesus film was made in the late 70's in English, but then over the years people realized that when you are trying to reach people about Jesus who have never heard of him, it is so much more meaningful if Jesus is speaking to you in your own language.  Thus was born the idea to "dub" the voices into other languages (subtitles aren't good enough!)  It is truly amazing how you can take recorded voices in say, Swahili, and have it look like the film is actually in that language.  The tour we did was showing us how they they do that.  They have translated the film into over 1,300 languages.  It was really, really remarkable and I was truly touched by our tour and even shed a few tears when they showed us footage of people watching the film and learning about Jesus for the first time.  We will go on a field trip to Wycliffe later in the year and then the kids will see how Cameron Townsend has been so instrumental in making this Jesus film come together.  Such a great tie-in with our school year even though I didn't even plan it.

For the past week and a half, I've been diligently working on getting clothes tagged and organized for a consignment sale this week.  I missed out on doing the one in September but they are having a special holiday one this week and I jumped on it.  I literally have 18 bins of clothes (AFTER I consigned) sitting in my guest room right now and I feel like I have clothes coming out of my ears.  I got a lot of clothes in the early years from Jennifer and I didn't want to consign her clothes so I had been waiting for her to go through them and take her stuff back.  That means that I've had like two years worth of Colby's clothes accumulating without getting rid of them.  You can only consign 200 articles of clothes at each sale so I'm never going to catch up.  I need to come up with an alternate plan of what to do with all this stuff.  It would be nice to find someone needy.  

A little anecdote although not really about the sale - - I went a few days ago to drop my stuff off and since it was the evening and Duncan was home with the kids, I thought I'd do a few errands while out.  About a month ago, I made crepes for the first time.  I so love the crepes at First Watch and have been wanting to try it at home but never got around to it.  While I finally did and I have to say, I nailed it.  It came out perfectly and really tastes like the ones from there.  The only problem is that strawberries (they are strawberry and banana crepes with strawberry yogurt on top) are not exactly in season right now.  They are $3.99 a pound at Publix but I have been able to find them at Costco for like $5.50 for two pounds.  Well, last time at Costco, they had no strawberries at all.  I have been yearning to make the crepes again so I thought to myself "I'll just make a stop at my old Walmart while I'm here in Casselberry and pick up some strawberries." Low and behold!  When I got in there, they were $6.94 a pound!  I checked the label to see if they were made of gold.  I mean, the only thing and I mean the ONLY thing Walmart has going for it are their prices and if they don't have that, what DO they have left?!  Case in point, as I was walking around (yes, I still stayed because I'm also out of Stripples and I know those are cheaper than Publix) I see these two guys standing there and I'm not lying when I say the guy's pants were down in the back to his knees.  He had boxers on underneath so I couldn't see anything but that's how he strolled around the store as if it was perfectly normal (and sadly, maybe it is).  But then, ironically, these same two guys get in line behind me to pay and when I look at them, they only have about 10 things in their cart and six of them where Morningstar products!  I started looking at them in a whole new light.  I guess if they are fellow vegetarians then maybe they aren't so bad!!

Usually I would show pictures to tell what else we've been doing but I guess that will have to wait.  Technology is both a blessing and a curse.

Have a great week.

I am still having problems with my pictures which has impacted my desire to write on here.  But the show must go on, they say, so here I am.  I'm trying to utilize another picture method so we'll see how it goes.

I have no idea where I last left off - - the picture thing has totally thrown me.  I guess I'll just touch on some highlights over the last week and a half.

A week ago Sunday we attended London Bergherm's first birthday party.  She doesn't actually turn one until 12/2 but the holidays are so busy that Jennifer did the party a few weeks early to avoid any scheduling conflicts.  As you would expect, Jennifer out did herself on it all although I can proudly say that I tied a couple of bows so I'm taking partial credit for how great it all looked.  Ha!  She had a face painter there which always thrills the kids especially Brady these days.  I thought for sure he was going to get some animal (since animals are his passion) but he caved into peer pressure and got Batman.  As he was waiting in line, I questioned him on it and told him I really thought he should get a lion or a tiger.  But he held firm and Batman it was...along with like five other boys.  Later in the day, he came up to me and says "Sorry, Mom, that I got Batman.  Next time I'll get a tiger." Apparently he felt really bad for disappointing me which was really sweet.

Our friend Fiorela made these flowers out of paper.  She is amazingly talented!!

You can't get much cuter than that!!

Snow Leopard

Bear

Prior to the party, the girls wrapped up their fall soccer league.  Calleigh finished off with a bang - - scoring two goals which I missed (I was home getting ready for the party so Duncan was there). She's scored goals playing with Aubree's team (the four to six year olds) before but never on her own team. She typically plays defense which I'm sure is part of the reason but I guess Duncan gave her a big pep talk before the game and she became really aggressive on offense with positive results.  They will play again starting in February.  In addition, the church is going to have a team playing in the City of Apopka league on Thursday nights and Calleigh wants to sign up for that too.  Aubree had fun too although she hasn't been as vocal about it as Calleigh but she insists she still wants to play at the church when it resumes.



Thursday I took the kids, along with Jennifer, Evan, Addison, and London, to see the play/musical "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." We enjoyed it because it was Christmas but I didn't think it was nearly as good as Fancy Nancy we saw a few months ago.  We were a little pressed for time as the play started at 10:30 and the girls had gymnastics at 12:00 with a 25-minute drive to get there.  But the last one had finished in less than an hour so I thought we'd be good.  Alas, at 11:17, they broke for an intermission which was not a good sign.  And then, about a minute later there was a big commotion behind us and low and behold a little girl had thrown up all over the floor.  Yikes! Fortunately it didn't land on any of us but it did delay the start of the second half which caused us to be about twenty minutes late to gymnastics. Ah well.


On Sabbath the girls made their church drama club debut.  They were having a special Thanksgiving program at the church and asked the drama club to participate.  Each child got to hold a letter that spelled "Thanksgiving" and recited a short description. Since some kids weren't going to be around, they needed kids to do multiple services and Calleigh and Aubree were happy to do it multiple times - - they ended up doing all three services.  Aubree held "K" and said "K is for Kindness we can show to those in need." Calleigh did both "V" in one service and "S" in the second and third which was "V is for Valuable friendships strong and true" and "S is for Sharing and doing good deeds." I got to go up on the stage too and hold the mic and arrange the kids.  It all went really well and they had a lot of fun.  Grandma and Grandpa came too to see them.  But, the highlight of my day was when the choir sang "How Great Thou Art." Seriously, it was like one of the best performances I have ever seen from a church choir and I had massive goose bumps.  I encourage you to look it up online and watch it. That was Exhibit A of why I love the traditional church service.

Getting ready in the choir room.

Getting ready to go on stage.  I don't have any actual photos because I was on stage too and the one time I wasn't, I took a video.  For some reason I guess Duncan didn't take any either.  Oops.

Sunday was the Florida Hospital Gala at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort.  Last year Duncan really didn't want to go so Jennifer and I went together but this year I told him he had no choice. He was able to get four tickets so Bruce and Jennifer were able to go with us.  It was critical for Jennifer to go because she was asked to do a basket to put up for bid with the proceeds going to the Florida Hospital Foundation.  She did a Thanksgiving basket with cookies, breads, pies in a mason jar, etc.  As you can imagine, it was really great looking but she was nervous that no one would bid on it. Her fears were completely unfounded because within about 45 minutes, it had reached the "Buy it Now" price of $550 so it was a huge success!  We were really excited.  

I got my hair professionally done this year - - by Ashley's sister, Marya.  I was very happy with it.

Chilling with Grandpa while Mom and Dad are gone.

The entertainment was Kristin Chenoweth (actress and singer) and Katharine McPhee (singer and actress) whose claim to fame was American Idol some odd years ago.  Duncan was anxious to leave but we did stay for the whole program.  The ladies sang fine but it wasn't something I was overly excited about.

Kristin Chenoweth

Katharine McPhee

Later that evening, Ricky and Ana arrived for the week from Mississippi.  We are thrilled that they are closer now, unlike last year when they were in Montana.  Ricky is the dean at Bass Memorial Acadamy which is about 10 hours from here.  They also brought their Miniature Pincher, Libby, with them and the kids have had a great time running around with her outside.  We are now getting the dog itch again!

Happy to be back on Uncle Ricky's lap!

Brady almost fell asleep with Tia Ana rubbing his head.

This cracked me up.  When Ricky and Ana left for a few hours, they left the dog in her crate.  She started barking and crying so Aubree got the idea to make this Ana stick figure to put next to the crate to calm the dog down.  Not sure that it worked but what a great idea!

Supper at a mutual favorite - - Noodles!

Some other pictures...

What the boys get into while the girls are doing school.

At least this activity isn't messy...

Adventurers last week.  Colby wanted to be with Brady.

It was the Thanksgiving party and they had a bunch of games, treats, and crafts.  In this game, you had to roll the die and then put a clip on the corresponding number on your game card.  I was actually impressed that Brady could do it all by himself.  I didn't even know he could recognize the numbers 1 - 6!

A food craft which quickly got eaten.

Discovered a slug on the back patio.  Time to bring out the Nature Hunter supplies.

Worked on a whale puzzle to go along with our Science theme.

Bike ride with Daddy.

Why it's a horrible idea to run out of straws when you're having smoothies.

Since we were studying Mexico for school, we decided to have a Mexican fiesta complete with Mexican food, music, a piñata, and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Making tortillas

We all laughed hysterically when Brady put his last tail way over on the other wall, totally unintentional.

Just what we needed.  More candy!!

Science experiment.  Learning about how sound travels better over a string.

Patiently waiting for the girls at gymnastics.

Animal parade.

This past Saturday night I went to a "Mom's Night Out" at the church to watch a movie by the same name.  The kids were with Daddy and it appears they went somewhere although I can't tell where.

Duncan made a Lowe's run early Sunday morning and took Brady with him.  They stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. That's all I've got.  Have a great Thanksgiving!