L's fun day at preschool

I really enjoyed being with L at her Fall Fun Day. She wore my cheerleading outfit and was all ready to go. I did think about Ek's Fall Fun Day when she was a ballerina and H wore his little puppy hat, it was a cold day that day and they both enjoyed playing on the slide. H's Fall Fun Day he dressed as Spiderman and little L tagged along. When Ek was L's age, it was our first year in Dublin, so now we are starting to do things that all 3 are getting to do. Its quite nostalgic. I will say that of the 3, L enjoyed the games the most. Or maybe the candy prizes, not sure. But she ran from game to game having a blast.

This game she wasn't quite into, she wasn't to sure about digging in sand with her freshly manicured hands, but she managed to get in the sand enough to get her prize.

Please note that she is actually eating a Reece's cup while trying to win at the cake walk.
Ahhh, the duck pond with friends. That is BP dressed as Ironman.
She was very happy over her double cheeked face painting.
She seems to be having a great time at school. One of the funniest things she has started doing is stopping by all her friends classrooms to greet all her friends before she settles into her own. Her door is in a quad door area with the other 3 year old class, 2 year old class and one year old class. She has friends in each. When we get there, she won't go into her room until she speaks to them, once she has, she marches right in and gets to her day. Can you imagine how late she will be to all her classes in high school? :)

What keeps me busy...

Several weeks ago I had one of the craziest weeks with my kids activities. They had me on the go!

Monday, L was off from school for her fall break. You know those preschoolers, they really work hard and need a break from school!! It did give her some time to work on her new photography hobby.

Tuesday, H and I were off to a field trip to an awesome farm. We rode the

school bus together, played, and ate our picnic lunches together. We had a blast.

Wednesday was L's fall fun day. Maybe thats why they needed Monday off, to rest up for the big party! She dressed in my cheerleading outfit and had the most fun. She played every game at least 5 times. Pumpkin bowling was at the top of her list.

Thursday, Ek and I went to the same farm H went to. At first I thought I was seeing the same permission slip over and over again, I finally had to put the 2 side by side to convince myself I was going to the same farm on an hour school bus ride twice in 3 days. And yet, it was soooo much fun. Ek loved it too.

Friday was H's Farmer Brown Day at school. One of the most fun activity days of the year. It is very simple and very fun.

Saturday I stayed in bed all day. No not really. It was a really great week.

Ek's new look

Last Monday, Ek brought home a page of school work that I was a bit confused about. She was to, as she does every Monday, copy her spelling words from the board and write them 3 additional times. Half of them were circled and corrected. When I asked her what happened, she said, "Mama, I couldn't see them good." She was very disgruntled. So we got a work in appointment with her ophthalmologist daddy and were quite surprised at the severity of her sweet little eyes' nearsightedness. We were then surprised at how hard it was to find glasses to fit her sweet little face. But finally today H and I went to pick them up while the girls were dancing and before our soccer games. She was so excited. She put them on and said "wow." All the way to school she was comparing her naked eyes to her new and improved corrected eyes. It was like a whole new world. She said she had been able to see close up just fine but everything far away was blurry, and now with her glasses it was clear. She was so impressed. I am so thankful. The details of her new specs are: they are a pinkish burgundyish metal with pink butterflies on the temples. And she is adorable.

Preschool friends

These 2 have become quite the buddies being in the same class this year at preschool. Their teacher says that they are behaving well, but she does have to separte them sometimes for having a bit too much fun. Their most favorite thing to do on the playground is swing. They have 4 tire swings and I think that comsumes their outside playtime. The report they like to spin as fast as they can while talking, giggling and screaming. And they like to swing, "higher! higher! higher!!" I think they manage to get a teacher to push them some to reach their aspired heights. Last week at Picnic with Pops, B's Grandaddy and I had to drag these two off the playground swings when we were the only ones remaining. I love that they are having such fun together!!

Between, part 2

We were really excited that our dear friends, the G. We met up with them at half time and planned to meet after the game and walk to a field for the boys to play a bit of football. WGbrought his ball to the game, that's commitment. So we quickly made our way to a wonderful field full of tailgaters for the boys to finally get their chance to play some ball. I mean, enough of watching other boys play! They immediately lined up to play. Sometimes they start from a line of scrimmage and hike the ball, and other times they kick off to each other. Considering their soccer background, they seem to really like the kickoff method a lot. And they have gotten really good at catching each other's punts. There is a lot of tackling involved. Funny note, at one point during the first quarter of the UGA game, H did ask if they were playing tackle. hahahaha The girls started out playing ball but quickly changed to tag. Good choice. It was a blast.

Saturday between the hedges, well not us, but the players were

I realize they are my kids and my husband and I get to see them everyday, but somehow I just can't get enough of them. Saturday John and I were blessed to get to take Ek and H to a winning UGA game and really had fun. I love holding their little hands all the way there, sitting close to them and trying to explain college football, watching them take it in and try to stay entertained, watching them eat a bag of cotton candy as big as their head, listen to my boys eagerness to find some grass to play on, watching my girl desperately trying to find the mascots in the binoculars, and wondering what they were thinking when John and I shot up in excitement over a touchdown. It was really a nice day and I appreciate the Dawgs going ahead and winning it. Oh, and the weather was perfect. And L had a blast with her Mops and Pops. Oh and I didn't even mention J and my run through campus with more runners that I have even seen in my life, past the band warming up and past 100 tailgaters with the most delicious smells, and J wasn't 10 steps ahead this time, yeah!

Starry night

Ek has been asking for more than a year to set up the tent in the backyard and camp out. I'm not quite sure why it has been as difficult as it has to get it done but finally yesterday, while J was at a meeting, I decided that it was time to give it a try. I drug the tent to the yard, put those poles together, got out the directions and got the tent up. The kids were super impressed and I was very glad that I went for it-- those camping Y days had adequately prepared me for that moment!! When J got home, he was only happy to sleep in it if we all were, I think he was really hoping one would run for the house so he could follow. But when we got out there all tucked away in our sleeping bags and could look up at the stars surrounding the tall trees, we were quite in awe and happy. They also loved hearing all the night sounds. The kids settled into sleep about 30 minutes later and all slept through the night. There was a bit of a chill during the night, but I didn't hear a peep until this morning when L couldn't find her puppy, who was under J. Ek was just giddy that she got to finally sleep in a tent and couldn't wait to see the sunrise.

This morning, Ek and I got out her assignment sheet for the week and were going over her Bible verse, books of the Bible, spelling words and some math to get a good start on her week. Her Bible verse was "Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6. We got out the Bible to read the passage and what a perfect day it was to read that passage. Abram was concerned that he still didn't have an heir, so God took him out and told him to look at all the stars, so also shall his children be. How amazing to look at my girl and say, Abram slept in a tent just like we did last night and looked up at the same stars and look what God did for him. God always keeps his promises. Wow, that was some good timing.

the still resting this morning just before dawn... J is the blue lump in the middle, don't miss the little polka dotted thing next too him or the little head popping out of the G bag.

thank you b and m for this fun night!!

L's first day

Don't you just love preschool? L's preschool is the sweetest place. All 3 have gone to the same preschool and managed to have different teachers. L's teacher this year has been teaching for over 30 years and wanted just what I do- for L to learn how to go to school. She wants them to know how to be a part of a class, listen and make friends. She was very excited to start school and didn't seem to have a bit of hesitation. I convinced her to wear the same dress Ek wore on her fist day of school. She has been waiting for the day she finally got to wear her brand new backpack! So we got dressed and took our pictures. L took a few pictures and we were off. She waited patiently with her friends, marched right in, hung up her book bag on the hook that had her name and sat down to play next to BP. When i picked her up, she was in a bit of a daze, tired but happy.

Two ballerinas

YAAAA HOOOO! Her day finally arrived! L got to go to dance for the first time last Thursday! She was so excited! She wanted to wear her dance clothes all day but managed to wait until afternoon, she did wear them to H's soccer game after dance though. And yes, I did put her hair in a "bun." Ahhh! So cute. The only time she got anxious was when Ek's dance teacher called for Ek to go to class and L's hadn't called for her yet- "But I want to go to dance class!!!" I said "You will, you will, your class is here and Ek's class is here!!" Then she was ok. She walked right into her class and was all smiles. I know she had a blast. H and I came home and he sat at the counter with me while they were there, he worked on his number words and I fixed supper. L's class is only 45 minutes which H thought passed pretty quickly. The girls were all smiles when I picked them up. I think they are going to have a blast there this year!

What my ears hear

I'm not sure how the following all tie together except that I got to hear them...

Addition to Ek's prayers, yesterday she prayed that her daddy would be very "thinkable" while he operated. Love that and I know God knew just what you meant sweet girl.

H has asked 2 awesome questions as a result of the Bible lessons at school. "How many faces does God have?" and "What did God do on the 8th day?" Love that boy. He wanted to know with the first question how God could see everything at one time. What a great way to ask that question. We talked a good bit about God the Spirit. To the other question I told him he enjoyed what he had done. H told me that was what He did on the 7th day! J told him that He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.

We were praying for J as he left go operate on Saturday on call. After Ek and H prayed, L asked who she could pray for. I asked her who she wanted to pray for and she said "Mopsey." "Dear God, please help Mopsey have a beautiful day..."

Today I asked what I was going to do with her and she said while laughing, "Keep me forever!" Ya hoo!

Love them all.

one and oh

Fall soccer season is underway! The girls and I skipped all the practices since school began and they needed to get to bed at a reasonable time (practice started t 7:45 several nights!), so I was so excited to see him play! He was so excited to get out they and play a game. It was 1000 degrees and 1000 percent humidity, I'm sure, but we were ready. After a quick team photo, they were off. H played great- he paid attention to what was going on, and stayed involved. He scored 2 goals to help their 7-2 win. He also played very hard on defense, he and JP really chased the other team down and tried to get the ball away and take it the other direction. He was not anxious to kick it down the field but tried to dribble the ball- in high traffic and even tried to position himself to receive the ball from JP. It was fun, most of all it was fun to see his huge smile and know he was having a blast playing ball with his friends.

Trust me on this one--- H aka #9 is headed for his first goal of the season, in about one kick...

See what I mean? Having fun...
2 goals today. Sweet boy though- team player wanted to hold up 7.

Learning my girl

Yesterday I was wrong. Big wrong. L and I took the kids to school and came home. She was so pitiful. I held her, fed her breakfast, read to her, rocked her, toted her around, gave her Tylenol and Clartin for her runny nose. She was just literally rolling around of the floor, whining and fussing all morning. I put her down for a nap at 11:30. I turned down an exercise class and a lunch out because I just thought she didn't feel well enough to get out. She slept for a normal 2 hours and we got big bro and sis back and suddenly her energy was back too! She was playful and happy the rest of the day! cured! by some playmates. So I thought she needed to stay home and rest when maybe she needed to get out and play! Silly me! So today I decided to get her out and about. We ran errands, visited friends, ate lunch out and took lunch to J. She was bouncy and smiley and happy all day. Not to say she doesn't doesn't like some time home alone to play, because we have had some great days of playing babies and restaurant this week, but I guess too much of a good thing is too much. I asked her this morning who she wanted to play with today, her responses, in order, me, B and HH, EK, H. sweet girl. she just loves to have Ek and H around. So, note to self, keep that girl coming and going!

Ek's prayer

Somewhere along the way, it was discovered that Ek likes to pray for her Daddy on the days he operates. So for a long time now, he will ask her, "Ek, will you pray for my surgeries today?" Well, sometime this summer her prayers have included this, "Dear God, please help Daddy's surgeries go well today and please help his patients come back the next day and say, 'Wow Dr. W, I can see so much better now!,' Amen." Love so many things about that. :)

Despite the shirt, it really is fun

J's first reaction when I told him H could take golf lessons was "I knew this day would come." I'm not too sure how to take that, but I am so glad this day has come. H is having a ball. (pun totally intended) He has, for the last 2 months, taken golf lessons once a week with his friends. They are the cutest little group of golfers I've ever seen. Their coach has taught lessons to kids for years and has them chipping, putting and hitting range balls. He has taught them to stand like a golfer and be quiet and watch while another golfer has his turn, that may be as hard as hitting a hole in one, but one can try, right? I have to admit that he was not too sure about this golf thing in the beginning, he totally disagreed with the wardrobe. You would think that collared shirts have razors in them the way he avoids them, but as time has gone on, it has improved. Ek put a collared shirt on yesterday and said, "I don't know what the big deal H makes about collared shirts is all about, they are not that bad." Once he is dressed, there and with his friends, he has been having a great time. Just tell my H to hit or kick or throw a ball as hard as he can and he is happy. I'm proud him for trying something new and if his persistence has anything to do with it, he will be a great golfer in no time. The group picture will have to come later, one was missing at the time of these pics.

That was a great game.

We had a really great time at the Braves game in Cincinnati. We always like to look and see who will be playing anything professional when we travel, especially baseball. J has been know to even just drive by empty stadiums. Boy were we excited when we saw not only were the Reds going to be in town when we were going to be there, but that they were playing the Braves! Well that was just about too much. J booked those tickets within 30 minutes. Now we only needed to register for the meeting and hotel and figure out how to get there, but those we just details compared to where we were going to sit!!! Ek was a Brave this year and H got a jersey for his birthday and L was cute enough without either. We decided at the last minute to drive the 5 blocks to get there knowing for sure that the 5 of us would not walk home~ a few more years and we'll take that walk easy. Well it was one of those instances where lucky was better than good and J ended up in the best parking spot ever, we crossed the street, went up an escalator, and walked into the stadium. We walked around to our seats that we directly in front of the $1 concession stand, bathrooms and a playground. wow. Good seats, babe. J could recall all the details of the game but I'm sure you could find those on a sports blog- that's not what this is. The kids made 3 trips to the play ground, at hotdogs and sprite, L tasted a neighbors peanut and decided she must have some, played a great game of I spy, and sang "take me out to the ball game" with joy and gusto and they all ate their own bay of cotton candy- L finished hers first. We managed to even get one inning of free baseball to see them pull it out in the 10th. And we got post game fireworks. Did I mention it was amazing? It was. Perfect baseball weather, breeze off the Ohio river and in the shade. Really it was amazing. Good find babe, way to go!

Summer poolin

Ahhh, summer, how we loved thee. sigh. One of the best parts of our amazingly playful and fun summer was the pool. I would watch the clock until about 9:30 and then we would dash into our swim suits, gather the towels, add them to the back of the car where the toys were waiting, slather on our sunscreen, hop in the car, sit very still, and drive the 3 blocks to the pool. We were always super excited to be the first to arrive and after saying hello to Cathy and signing in, I would hear, "Can I get in now?" in the sweetest little voices I ever heard. I loved the first time we went this summer and H was so excited to get it that he forgot to take his flip flops off. Sometimes we would meet friends and sometimes we would go alone. I loved one day when it was just the 4 of us and Ek said how much she liked it that way, wow did that do my heart good. At the beginning of summer, L was very cautious. She wanted me to hold her 100% of the time, no matter who was with us, me hold her, only. One day along the way though, she discovered her wings. We tried vest, inner-tubes and wings and one day, the wings won. From that day on, she wanted to swim "by herself." She still wanted me to be in the water with her, but she would piddle around, kicking her little legs and leaning back to get her hair wet. Once she began doing that, we could venture into the deep end where the big 2 loved to play. Ek worked very diligently on touching the bottom and taught h diligently until they could both touch at 9 feet- first with their feet, then with their hands, first from the ladder and then from the diving board. They both worked on their dives and H even tried to help JP with is dives. H had the cutest, I mean, awesomest cannon ball you've ever seen, he'd keep his little, I mean awesome, legs all tucked in until he made his splash. I could watch him do cannon balls all day. He also loved to jump in silly, the duck was my favorite- tucking his little legs under, flapping his wings and quacking off the diving board. We also played a fun game of shark and boat, we would swap roles of chasing each other around the shallow end, I usually had H and L attached to me and Ek got pretty fast with those flippers on, the shark would usually go for big bites out of ribs to get good laughs. They also loved swimming under my legs at different levels without touching. I loved hanging out in the water with them. Toward the end of the summer, we started taking a tea set and would have all sort of tea and then have to gather tea cups from all over the pool. The water guns drove us crazy all summer as we would get slapped unexpectedly in the face with water from time to time, "not in the face, up in the air!!" They loved for Cathy to fix lunches of mini corn dogs, chicken finger, fries and fruit, oh and powerade and nothing is sweeter than ice cream at the pool. We went alot. One week I think the kids swam 5/6 days. We usually went in the morning for about 3 hours, ate lunch there, came home, showered and rested for several hours. It was so hot this summer that I just couldn't stand to be out much unless we were at the pool. I am so so thankful that we got to spend the summer there together, laughing, playing, seeing friends, seeing each other. It was so fun.

PS there are no pictures because I was in the pool! We did though take several underwater cameras that I will have developed soon!

First day pics, take 2

So, I just love taking pics in the same spot in my yard every year for the first day of school. I call it the first day of school spot. My kids know it, they hear it and they get ready. Ek and H put their back packs on, grabbed their lunch box, walked over and gave me a subtle grin. Perfect. H needs to take a quick break and L steps to the spot. There are no words to describe it. So here it is.






I'm not sure what else to do but just keep her forever and keep loving her. Mostly because I can't wait to see what she does next. This girl keeps us smiling.

First day of school!

First day of school! First day of school! First day of school!

This year, the overwhelming thoughts in my head regarding going back to school are this: Number one, I am so thankful my kids get to go to school. What an amazing gift. What an amazing blessing. Just thinking of all the kids all over the world who don't have the chance for an education at all and my kids have this amazing school where they are challenged and loved, disciplined and prayed for, where they must sit still and work and then run and play. Its amazing. I am so thankful. Number two, summer if fun, but it is not the life I long for my kids to live. It is not their potential. The are too smart and too eager to wake up and eat breakfast at 10 am on their way to the pool. I loved it and am a bit mopey when I think that its done for the year because it was so fun, we had such fun together, I'll need to write just on pool memories here soon, but back to number one, I am so glad for them to get to go to school.

So off to school. Today began very well. They were happy to get there. We ate cinnamon toast for breakfast, I packed their lunches, they got dressed, brushed their teeth and we were ready for our first day of school picture. We loaded up and headed to school. When we rounded the corner to the school Ek said her stomach was hurting. I think we were all a bit nervous. We walked Ek to her room first and after settling in, she quickly asked if we could walk H to his room. When we arrived at H's room and attached his new desk bag, newly finished that is, the tears were on the brink of making their appearance. I kept telling myself to be brave. I managed to make it out though. H was very nervous and not quite ready for me to leave, but I knew he would be fine, he had several friends there and a big fish to color. We walked Ek back to her room and she quickly and quietly settled into her seat. Neither were too happy to have their picture taken but sorry that was not an option. L and I managed to make it to the car before the tears exploded. I just felt like I had left my arms there! J said the kindest things to encourage me- he told me to rest knowing how great our summer had been and how I had invested in them all summer. The Lord blessed me with that all day. When we pulled away from the school, L was so quiet, I asked her if she was ok and she said yes. I asked her if she was sad and she said "No, (pause), mommy, why are you sad?" hahaha I told her I just liked for us all to be together, she said she did too.

After school the kids bounced into the car with huge grins. The had the best days. They were literally singing how awesome their day was. Their lunch was awesome (who knew a turkey sandwhich and a banana could taste so good!). Ek learned how to write "a" in cursive and H learned again what "i" says. H was excited to get to the 100th day of school and Ek was excited that today they got to go to computer. ahhhh school. what a gift. We had the G's over to celebrate the first day of school. Us moms celebrated the peace of the Lord and his working in our hearts to help us. Great day.