Look who's walking. . . .

To tell the truth, she's been doing this for over a week, but I can't seem to catch it on camera, because she is usually whining while trying to catch me so I can pick her up. Enjoy!

Weekend Treats

A dinner at Bonefish Grill with 3 girlfriends Thursday night. A dinner out with my husband and his co-workers Friday night followed by a movie. Our sweet friends/babysitters saying "Don't bother coming to get the kids tonight, just come get them in the morning!" And today, an afternoon downtown with just my big kids while their daddy watched the babies at home. Here are some pictures of today:

first we went to the Art Museum for the first time. We watched Tibetan monks make sand paintings, and tried some of our own.

In the architecture section, Sam built a replica of our church.

We were hungry after the museum, so we walked over to Panera and split a soup and sandwich combo. Sam LOVES broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls.

Sometimes it gets pretty hectic around our house, so times together like these are such a blessing! (And I think quiet Saturday afternoons with two sleeping babies are a blessing for my husband as well!)

cloth diaper info and give away

A great blog, Simple Mom, is doing a review of cloth diapers, including a giveaway! So go check it out if you're interested in cloth diapering!

Si's birthday--how we celebrated

We hadn't really planned to do much for Si's birthday this year, just a special family day. However, after attending 3 HUGE birthday parties for friends (you know who you are!) out of the blue one day he said "Mom, I really want a friend birthday." Siah doesnt really have an AUDREY, so I wondered who we would invite. All I had to do was ask, though, and he knew exactly: Mary Kate. So Thursday night I called up Mary Kate's mom and invited their family over for a dinner/party Saturday night. We are lucky Mary Kate also has an older sister and a younger brother, bringing our birthday party total to 7! That's a party!

So Saturday night we had hamburgers, hotdogs, and a Dairy Queen icecream cake. Man I've come a long way from the Martha Stewart cakes and fondant cakes I made for earlier birthdays! Si wanted a Spiderman cake, so we stuck Spidy on top. Actually, Spidy is doing a bit of a seductive lounge on top. I have to admit I feel slightly guilty for buying a cake instead of making it. And it frustrates me that the DQ people couldn't even center "Happy Birthday". But after a couple of pieces of cake I feel fine.

Si got an assortment of Star Wars toys, including 2 lightsabers. Sam watched Barny at 3! Si, however asked for an "evil" cake and acts out the emperor's use of the force on Luke. We apparently encourage it, since the last few toys we've bought him were 1) a toy pirate knife and 2) a lightsaber. Guess that's what happens when you're number 3.

Then comes Tuesday. I told Si I would take him out to lunch and the big kids told him all about Chucky Cheese. Shoot. I told them I couldn't do Chucky Cheese without Daddy. Then Daddy called and suggested Chucky Cheese. Double Shoot. So Si's second celebration was at my least favorite restarant. Here he is singing to himself:

THEN, today, his package from Mimi and Rachel arrived, so we had ONE MORE birthday at dinner. He's too young to understand all this. He says "Daddy, I turned three AGAIN."

He's excited about this gift!

Now it's time to start planning the big kid's early-so-they-can-invite-friends-before-we-move party.

Goodbye, Veritas!

Oh, how we love our school!!! We love the classical curriculum, the half-day schedule, the Christian worldview, and the loving teachers. This has been such a treasured place for us over the last two and a half years and we will miss it. We will sorely miss it. Today we enjoyed treats and games in the park on the last day of school.

Sam's sweet class:

Sam on a relay race. Even the teachers had to join in on the fun!

Sam and a couple of his best pals. This is why moving gets harder the older the kids get.

Adeline in the grass (did I really need to caption that one?)

Now a few from Ella Rose's party. Kind and patient, Mrs. D took a screaming Ella in her arms many a morning.

Some friends

As sad as we are to be leaving, we're celebrating summer tonight by letting the kids stay up, play games, and watch Wipe Out on NBC. Hopefully, they'll also celebrate summer by sleeping in!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Si!

Josiah Thomas

Kansas born

Georgia raised

Little Brother

Big Brother

Lefty

troublemaker

tons of fun
afraid of water

but not dirt

early riser

ready to go with the flow--used to getting toted around

a little rough

but always quick to offer kind words

nature lover

good eater

really good eater

book lover, puzzle whiz, tantrum thrower, and sweet SWEET BOY!!!!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, sweet Si!!! We love you!

Disney World-wrapping in up

On Wednesday, we cleaned out our hotel room, packed our car, and hopped on the bus for Epcot. (And by hopped on the bus, I mean lugged our four children, a cooler, a sling, a backpack, and a bag full of dry clothes in our stroller, took it all out of the stroller, folded the stroller, and hoped everyone made it on the bus). We actually started to see some blue sky! The kids enjoyed the bush sculptures, or fairytale topiary, or whatever you want to call them.

We spent a few hours riding Nemo, Turtle Talk, and "the Land" ride. Of course, Si was scared of Nemo, but he survived OK. As we walked around the countries, the skies began to darken. Is that thunder, or a big jet? A few minutes later we knew. A storm was blowing in. We jumped into the Moroccan restaurant and found a place to sit for lunch. Moroccan! We all tried some new things! We stayed there as long as we could, and then escaped just around the corner to the Moroccan stores. Here we spent most of our day, it seemed! The storms were just too much to brave this time. The kids made a mask, and we listened to fun music and sat on some couches until we were sure Josiah would break something expensive. But we were thankful for a dry place to rest.

Addie just crawled away from Jess, and he's wondering why I'm still taking the picture. I'll tell you why--he's hot.

Finally, we decided to walk on, and walk fast. Since Morocco was pretty close to half way, we sped past the 2nd half of the countries and rushed into the big "character meet" building. I put my foot down (for my poor babies, of course) and refused to go back into the rain. So Si, Addie and I hung out in a back hall, eating cookies and giving hugs to Chip and Dale, while Jess and the big kids headed back out to find another ride. It was a nice little break. We finished the day with a ride in the space ball? What is that thing called? The kids LOVED it. I think it was their favorite of the day.
When we got back to the hotel, we had to buy 17 snacks for the ride home. See, we were on the Disney Quick Service Dining Plan. I think it worked really well for our family. We only got meals for the adults and big kids, but all 6 of us ate our fill for three days. The only problem was that, because of the weather, we didn't snack as much--(who wants to stop in the rain to get ice cream?) so at the end, we had 17 snack credits. We loaded up on muffins, pb&j, juice, yogurt, etc and didn't have to stop for food on the way home. After a little locking-our-keys-in-the-car incident, we were finally on our way home at about 6pm. The kids were asleep pretty quick (OK, so was I) and Jess got us home quickly and safely.

Overall, it was a fun trip, and we had a great time together! Treats like these will not come around often for our family (especially when we have to start paying for four children!) Si was a little nervous, but he wasn't quite as scared as last time. Addie, who had been throwing tantrums when tired, did fine, thanks to my new ERGO baby carrier. I LOVE it. It looks like this, and can be worn on the front, back or hip. Adeline could even nurse and no one ever knew. Of course, she's become quite the acrobatic nurser, and we ARE weaning now, I promise. I came away thinking, "My children and my husband are awesome." And I think the kids have come away thinking, "Disney? Yeah, it's fun. It rains a lot so no one ever goes there."