Back to school

I always have mixed feelings about starting the school year. Yes, when the girls are in school I can get more things completed while they are away, I can go run errands a little easier and I am not directing the kids all day, etc. However, the summer is just a slower pace and it is easier because we really don't have to be anywhere important. We can choose to stay in and hang out at the house all day or we can run errands and go to the park whenever we want to (or when Lindsay is up). There is not the rush, rush mentality that comes with school and after school activities. Additionally, I get tired of hearing myself nag Julianne to get her homework completed. This year I told her that I will not constantly remind her to complete her homework. If she does not do it then she will realize the consequences from her teacher. I think this will work and of course if she dodges everything we will go back to nagging but it just really hurts my head when I constantly have to keep telling them to do things and their whining begins. So I think this will work and she is motivated at school so I think we will not have a problem. Mallory generally likes to do her homework and reading so usually it is not a major nagging session with her. Additionally soon all the practices will start and moving and going will be our after school activity. So there are always good and bad sides to change so I am going with the flow and acknowledging the facts and moving on.

The girls were excited about the first day of school. No one was sick or had tears in their eyes on the first day. Julianne was excited that she now has a binder for all her school work so that is something new. Mallory was a little nervous about her teacher since she was completely new to the school and she did not know what she looked like. But those fears eased when we meet her the night before school.

Our vacation

Well we just got back from the beach this weekend. We had a great time and the kids enjoyed their first visit to the beach. The first thing we did when we got to our destination was ... go to the beach. Nathan looked in the sand for sea shells and the girls headed straight for the water. It was great to experience the beach with them and by the end of the trip they were pros at navigating the water, catching sand crabs, applying suntan lotion, discarding of sand trapped in their bathing suits, etc. We were definitely out of our element our fist couple of days. As traditionally non-beach goers and midwestern folks the week at the beach taught us a lot about what to bring and what not to bring.

Our Buddha bank came with us and provided good Karma for our trip.

Day one:
Non-beach family enters the beach with our beach tent, towels, and fold up chairs. We slowly realized that we were the only ones with this tent and no umbrella or pop-up tent. The tent was really hot since it only opened to one side with windows on the other two. The back was not accessible so the wind did not flow through very well. The folding chairs were also too hot and did not sit well in the sand. Nathan was like a dead fish in the water. When he got knocked down he could not get up so he was stuck in the undercurrent while another wave crashed over him. So we had to stick close to him and resuce him many times.



Nathan testing the water for the first time. He wanted to wear the water shoes so that he would not step on a crab. That was the last time he wore those shoes.




Getting Nathan out of the water.

He was so tired after day one he fell asleep under the table while we were playing Life.

Day two:
Set up our breach equipment early because we learned form day one that people stake out their spots early. On day one we were father back and could not see the kids playing in the water from the tent. Traded our tent for our borrowed One Step Ahead tent with an open back. Much more comfortable but still we were the only ones with a tent like this. Went out and purchased a cheap beach chair. D, who is not large a large man, sat in the chair and the chair collapsed after 10 minutes. Darn cheap chair. The kids took our pre-purchased beach toys to play in the beach. Julianne takes the large plastic shovel and digs into the sand. Pulls the sand up and the plastic shovel bends and breaks under the weight of the sand. Yikes. Another bad purchase. We notice that everyone else had wood handled shovels that did not break.

Day three:
We purchased two better quality beach chairs and a boogie board. The boogie board was a blast. D and I loved riding waves on it. We had several good runs and lots of good wipeouts. D suffered sand burn on his back as a result of catching a rather large wave at the wrong time.

Our stake in the beach by day three. Good spot.




Nathan always getting food.


Day 5: We purchased more fun water toys like paddle ball, a ball that skips on water and a football. The kids enjoyed those as well as daddy and mommy.


Nathan's great throwing form and his bony ribs.

By day 5 we finally got Lindsay to take a nap on the beach. She was not a fan of the windy noisy days but did take a few naps in her little One Step Ahead bed and in the front pack with D.

Our last night we took the kids out for a walk on the beach and reminisced about our trip.



Goodbye beach...until next time.


The last night the kids wanted to sleep together because it was a special night.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-taking a great vacation with the family
-not getting into any car troubles/issue on our way there and back
-seeing the kids enjoy the beach for the first time.
-have a great husband who can drive long distances at a time and will hold Lindsay in the front pack on the beach.

Middle of summer?

I cannot believe that is it is the middle of summer already. D got us U2 tickets for Christmas and we just recently enjoyed our trip and concert. I remember thinking that when we got them that it was so far away and our youngest daughter was not even born yet. So time just seems to fly by. The concert was great. We had a great time and rocked it out like a young kids. The weather was perfect and it was a perfect getaway. We slept in and enjoyed our quiet time together. D's mom watched all the kids and everything seemed to run smoothly.

The kids had a few weeks of summer camps ranging from basketball, soccer, art camps, and horseback riding camps. Here are a few pictures from their latest art camp.



Mallory and her toothless smile.

Our lovely tree in the back yard has a fungus. I guess from all the spring rain it has developed this condition but I was told by a few arborists that it does not hurt the tree and an anti-fungal spray will help in the spring. We love this tree and I would hate for anything to happen to it.



Lindsay is growing like a weed. We took her to her 4 month appointment and she was in the 75 percentile for weight and 85th for height. I think so far she is our biggest baby. She is still pretty easy going and loves to just be carried around. She has giggled just a little bit and she is now gaining more control over her hands. Just today I put her in the car and gave her her lovey and she took it with her right hand and put it up to her mouth and put her left hand in her mouth. Before she would stumble to grab it with both hands and hopefully get it up to her mouth. She is a thumb sucker and loves having a blanket/lovey accompanying her thumb. Sometimes she grabs my shirt and buries her face in my chest while sucking her thumb and using my shirt as a lovey. The girls love getting her up after her naps and playing with her after I feed her. While we were gone for 24 hours at the concert I pumped out 35 ounces so it was good to know approximately how much she eats within a 24 hour period.

Here are some pictures of her.







Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-being able to go see a concert with my darling hubby.
-missing my kids then seeing them again.
-listening to Mallory talk about all the horses and their personalities from horse camp.
-watching Nathan just dilly dally around during soccer games but when he had to compete against other kids he was into it. Additionally watching him refuse to wear a soccer jersey.
-Julianne spending an hour reading on the couch because, "she really enjoyed her book and wanted to finish it" (this never happens).
-My hubby organizing and taking the three older kids to baseball game because he wanted them to experience the game with him.