Rhode Island Road Trip

As many of you already know my beloved cousin, Julie, and her family recently moved from Colorado to Rhode Island. While some of you are lamenting their loss, I am overjoyed at their change of address. As opposed to being 4 plane tickets or a two day drive away from us, they are now only a paltry two hours away. So, this past weekend we drove out to spend the day with them for the first time since they have gotten settled in. The day turned out to be beautiful and we were able to enjoy a nice walk around Newport watching people, boats, and lobsters. We also played at the park and enjoyed lunch and dinner together in their apartment. It was so good to just be together again!

I had missed them so much. I hadn't seen Elijah since he was a few months old and now he is a walking, talking, brilliant almost 2 year old. I am excited to be around when their new baby girl is born and hope to be able to help out when she comes.



And now that we have visited, I can show you my latest knitting project: a hat and sweater set for Baby Girl Tanner:


And in completely unrelated news...I am saddened to report that the tadpoles are no more. I have been relatively successful so far with the raising of two children but somehow baby toads are beyond me. I researched how to raise them and thought I was following the right course but apparently not. Thank goodness there were a million (at least) other eggs in that pond and we have not harmed the species at all in our attempt to watch a complete metamorphosis. I think from now on we will just let nature take its course where it should--in nature and not in my house. Oh, and that reminds me, the caterpillar didn't make it either. I finally found a picture of the actual coccoon of the Tiger Moth and it didn't look like Fuzzy's cocoon. I think maybe he died in the process of forming the cocoon. I think I am not cut out for the hands on method of teaching science. That's what we have the internet for, right?

Update

Yes, I know, it has been a while. I fear I have lost the blogging bug. Part of it is the loss of my camera--I don't feel like taking many pictures since they all come out poorly and part of it is a lack of any interesting anecdotes or happenings that seem worth sharing. Then again, I think it might just be that I have the winter blues. There is also the fact that any free time I have is spent reading. I am a Jane Austen fan, right? Well, my sister, Jen, told me of a website, the Derbyshire Writer's Guild, on which is a plethora of Jane Austen FanFiction. There are so many fun stories to read some that are complete and others that I wait ever-so-patiently for their weekly updates. I can't seem to get enough of Darcy and Elizabeth and all their fellow characters, some new some old, in whatever form the story of Pride and Prejudice can be told. It's fabulous! My very thoughtful father has enabled me in this new addiction by gifting me (and my sisters) with books on Jane Austen for Valentine's Day. What goes better together than Valentine's and Jane Austen, I ask. It was very sweet of him don't you think?

But I do manage to get other things done during the day too. As little as I mention it, I should make it known that we are still homeschooling. Noah is doing so well too. He is now able to read out of level 2 readers and his favorite are the Henry and Mudge books. A couple of days last week he actually brought them to me to read instead of waiting for me to tell him it was time and instead of just reading one chapter like he normally does he read the whole book through. I think he is starting to see how much fun reading can be and that is the most exciting thing to me! We have been working a lot on telling time too. I remembered an old clock that I had put away in a drawer so I got that out and took the plastic cover off and wrote the minutes around the outside and we use that to practice. Now, when he wants to know what time it is he can figure it out for himself and he doesn't even run to the digital clock in the kitchen any more to do it. The living room clock, which seemed so daunting at first because the numbers are Roman Numerals, is a piece of cake to figure out.

For the past couple of weeks we have spent our Thursday afternoons at the Children's Museum because someone organized a series of homeschool science classes. The first was "Bugs and Botany" the second, "Edison's Attic", this week's is the third session and is on inventing and the fourth is "CSI 101" in which the kids will get to solve a crime. Noah has really enjoyed them and Lily has been well entertained exploring in the museum. We will soon start a new session of Monday Homeschool classes as well and this time Lily will have her own pre-school class to participate in and Noah will be playing soccer. If he enjoys it, I will probably sign him up for town soccer in the spring.

This past weekend was a bit out of the ordinary for us. Noah went to his cousin, Alex's, birthday party on Saturday and then spent the night as well and Grammy and Grampy were nice enough to take Ariel and Lily overnight so Luke and I were left childless for most of a day and night. We went and spent the afternoon with U2 at the theatre and finally used a gift card for the Macaroni Grill that we had received for Christmas. It was rather enjoyable and was especially nice to be able to sleep in the next morning and wake up at our own leisure not have to worry about feeding the kids and getting them ready for church and what-not. It of course went by too fast in my opinion but it was also nice to see the kids and know that we had been missed.

Since the last pictures were taken, Noah has lost another tooth. We asked him if he wanted to put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy but he said very matter-of-factly that she isn't real so why would he do that. This of course made his father very proud. He did suggest that maybe we could send them to Grandma because, wouldn't she really like to see his teeth? While I found this very 'endearing' I guess, I thought maybe we shouldn't. He has since forgotten about them and they still sit somewhere in an envelope awaiting the addition of yet more baby teeth. Apparently this marks some sort of rite of passage for him because he announced that he was quite ready to give up his Batman toothbrush for an adult one.

I regret the lack of information on our dear Liliana but she seems to be in a bit of a lull developmentally. Not much is changing for her. Actually she seems to be attempting to remain a baby for as long as she possibly can. She has completely stopped any and all potty-training business and absolutely refuses to give up her pacifier. And all may say, just put your foot down and get it done. Well, I have tried that. I have tried it all. I have gone to my wits-end and back trying to get it done. I have decided that the strain on our relationship is just not worth it and I would much rather that my daughter like me and I like her at this point in her young life. So, those battles have been abandoned for the time being. Please, don't tell the pediatrician, ok?

She does have a new favorite past time and that is playing computer games. In one sense this is a good thing because it does mean that she has mastered the hand-eye coordination necessary to work the track-ball. However, from the moment she wakes up til the time she goes to bed she asks me if she can play games. As I am unwilling for her to spend the entire day staring at the computer screen, the words "Not right Now", "No" and "Maybe Later" are heard more often than normal around here. I will say at least that the games she plays are mostly educational. So, they aren't a complete waste of time. Hopefully soon the out of doors will be more appealing than they are right now and will provide a better distraction from said games and other sedentary pursuits. I cannot wait for spring.

So, that is our life in a nutshell. Sorry for the absence of posts recently. You'll have to wait and see if the lull has indeed lifted...

Christmas

Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebrations. We had a very Merry one full of traditions of our own and shared time with family. It really was wonderful.

Christmas Eve at Nina and Boppy's

Christmas Morning at home

Cousins around the Advent wreath at Grammy and Grampy's house

and a sweet LilyBean

(Lily and Ariel's dresses were made by their Grammy. Aren't they gorgeous?)

Deck the Halls

So, Monday was my birthday. And, well, I'm not 30 anymore...

For the last three years it has been our tradition to go and pick out our Christmas tree the weekend before my birthday so that's what we did Saturday. Usually we would come home and decorate it as well but this year we opted to go over to Becky and Charlie's to help out with the work that is required after deer hunting. 'Tis rather interesting having a brother-in-law who hunts. This year he was especially successful and that means we have our own stash of venison in the freezer. I never thought I'd say this but I am going to make venison stew this year... Never thought I'd actually eat the stuff but it is rather enjoyable and really, really good for you.

So, anyway, that left the decorating of the tree til Sunday, which was also the day we celebrated my birthday with the extended family. It was also the first Sunday of the Advent so we celebrated that as well. It is the beginning of the Christmas season and every year it becomes more rich as we seek to dig into the true meaning of the Holyday and share that with the kids. Celebrating the Advent has really helped us to do that.

When we got home we pulled out the boxes of decorations (amazing how much you can collect over the years) and got busy decorating. It was a fun time and the kids had a good time helping to make it pretty. Here are some pictures:






Then yesterday I let the kids make their own ornaments that they can give as gifts. We made them out of salt/flour dough (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1/2 cup of water) and used Christmas cookie cutters to make the shapes and then microwaved them. Then they got to decorate them. They had a lot of fun doing that...and so did I.

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday we decided to head to the beach instead of languishing in the heat for another day. Luke's parents were staying with friends in RI who have a "bungalow" (that's what they call their camper at a campground) near the ocean so we called them up and asked if we could join them for the day. We headed out nice and early to make sure we could get a parking space since the lots tend to fill up quite quickly. We hit the sand with our wagon filled with all the necessary accoutrements: towels, beach blanket, chairs, the cooler full of drinks and fruit, and of course, sand toys. Luke's parents and their friends, the Greenwoods, arrived and brought an umbrella and beach shelter for us to use and a boogie board for Noah.

The water was great--pretty warm and the waves weren't too big. The kids got braver and braver as the day went on though Lily wouldn't leave our arms she would let us go further and further out with her to enjoy the waves. Noah had a blast jumping the waves and even tried the boogie board. He's not quite big enough to actually stay on it though and got flipped upside down several times before calling it quits. When they weren't in the water they were digging in the sand and looking for neat rocks. We tried to build a castle but the bucket broke on one of the first attempts.

I of course managed to get a nice sunburn even though I put on sunscreen and spent a lot of time in the water. Somehow the sun is so much stronger on the beach--probably because it's not only beating down on you but also being reflected back at you from the sand and the water. I did enjoy swimming in the waves and even attempted to 'ride' some of the bigger ones in. It was a lot of fun.

I took a lot of pictures but a lot of them didn't turn out for some reason. Here are the ones that did.

The Greenwoods invited us back to their campsite for dinner so we headed out around 4pm. We got to shower and get all the sand and seaweed off and enjoy a great meal cooked on the fire. By the time we left the kids were more than ready to go to sleep, which they did shortly after we got in the car. They went straight to bed in their new bunk beds when we got home. The perfect end to a great day.

Summertime Fun

Becky and I took our kids to a friend's swimming pool today. Ann has offered the use of her pool every summer but this is the first time we decided to take her up on it and am I glad we decided to today because it was H-O-T hot! The kids had a blast too.

Ariel was brave and got a running start off the diving board

Noah and Alex playing in the shallow end

Lily waving to the crowd before her first jump to Auntie Becky

Beautifully executed!

Noah's first leaps into the pool

Noah and Lily both love the water and they seem to get braver every time they are in a pool. Today they both jumped in from the side and from the diving board. Of course, they were wearing floaties and they jumped into waiting arms but I still think it's pretty cool that they did it. Noah starts swimming lessons next week so hopefully he will learn to feel safe in the water without the mask and floaties.

Finally, some pictures...

Luke fixed the computer and I was finally able to upload all the pictures from our trip. There were a bunch so here is the link to my web albums so that you can go and check them out. Enjoy!

There and Back Again

We have returned home from our vacation in Pittsburgh with my family. What a great week we had! We left last Friday and drove the 9 hours to my parent's house. The kids did well and we had no traffic. We didn't get in til 11 PM though so it was straight to bed for us after a warm greeting from Mother and Daddy. Saturday, Loey and Craig and their kids, Ana and James joined us from Philly and Brian came over with Seb and Oren (Jen was still fighting a bad cold so she had to miss the fun of our first evening). We all went to my Dad's church on Sunday and then all had lunch together, including the great-grandmothers. We went swimming and to an amusement park and did several Bruster's runs (one of our Pgh traditions) and just plain had a lot of fun together. The kids had such a great time with each other--they had a sleep-over every night in the living room, ran through the sprinkler, played spies, and built a house for the Hershey Kiss Fairy. Lily of course had everyone wrapped around her little finger, especially Grandpa and Uncle Craig, her 'buddy' for the week. She did warm up to Grandma and her Aunties too and even let Grandma rock and sing to her. I hope that made up for some of the disappointment she faced with her youngest grandson, Logan, whom she visited in Colorado 2 weeks prior--that story can be read here. We missed being able to meet Logan and see Evan and Matthew and Sophie as well as my sister, Melissa and her husband, James, this summer but hopefully we will all be able to get together again soon. At least we can keep up with them on Melissa's blog.

We spent a couple of mornings at the nursing home where both of my grandmothers live. I'm glad we decided to go back the second day because the first day wasn't enough time for the kids to really warm up and interact with their great-grandmothers but they did during the second visit and gave them a glimpse of their true personalities. Since we don't get to see them very often, I am glad to have the opportunity for my kids to build strong and lasting memories of their great-grandmothers, Grandma Jennie and Grandma Nadzia.

Thursday night I had a couple of my college friends, Erin and Jess and their families over for dinner. It's always a short visit but it was so nice to at least see them and talk for a bit and it was especially nice to meet Erin's new baby, Caleb, who is 4 mos old and terribly cute. Jess's son Maxwell (19 mos) is also a doll and it was fun to watch them interact--the squeezing, pinching, biting--such wonderful displays of mother-son affection. We've all changed so much from our college days--but then are still the same in many respects. Very neat to see. They both have their own blogs as well. Erin's can be seen at "'Burgh Baby" and Jess' at "the Bovard Family Singers" over in my side bar.

We returned via Philly and my sister's house where we stayed over night Friday so the kids could have more time together playing in their nice big yard. So we arrived home Saturday evening just in time to head over to Luke's parent's house where the extended family had gathered. Luke's uncle's father had died during the week and they were all in town for the funeral, which we missed but at least got to see them for a short while before they headed back to their homes in California, Mexico, and New Hampshire today. It's been a long week of late nights of fun and reminiscing and building new memories and we are all tired. It's nice to have today to relax and recuperate before we get back into the daily grind. This week that will include a day of potty training for Lily according to the book, Toilet Training in Less than a Day, which I am praying will work well.

I do have lots of pictures but I am not able to download them from my camera yet and I know I have a lot of weeding through to do. I wanted to at least post about our experiences and soon I will upload all the pictures to my web albums and link you to it so you can see for yourelves what a great vacation we had.

Father's Day

Here are some pictures from Father's Day. I think Luke would agree that it was an enjoyable day...the kids helped me make a t-shirt for him by decorating it with their handprints and I made his favorite banana pancakes for breakfast and then we spent the rest of the day with his family at his sister's house. We had an excellent meal including Charlie's famous ribs and two kinds of dessert: strawberry shortcake and chocolate-frosted orange poke cake made by the resident cake artiste (Becky)...yum.

I couldn't help taking this picture--it was hysterical how much Lily really enjoyed her bread

Luke played 'baseball' with the kids (Alex at bat)

I know, I wasn't very diligent with the camera again...sorry.

Charlie's story

On Sunday, my brother-in-law, Charlie, shared a story about something that happened to him at work. He maintains and installs large-scale battery back-up generators and last week he was working on one in a medical lab. He spent most of the week by himself surrounded by machines in an automated lab. By the end of the week he was lonely and getting bitter about it. He'd finally had enough and cried out to God about how he didn't want to be alone anymore and didn't want to do this job anymore. No sooner had he said that then a woman he hadn't seen before (not someone who normally came in to check on the lab) entered the lab to do something at the computer. The next thing Charlie knew, she had her hand on his shoulder and said to him, "I was walking by the door and God told me to come in here and tell whoever was in here that He loves him", and then walked back out the door. Needless to say, Charlie was overwhelmed.

When he told the story, I was overwhelmed. It struck me on so many levels: First, that the woman was paying enough attention to hear God in that moment, that she obeyed and walked into the room and, after seeing Charlie, (who, if you haven't met him, is a rather big guy and bald to boot can be rather intimidating) continued to obey and give him the message. And second, that God was there listening to Charlie and answered his cry. God cared enough about Charlie to, in that moment, reassure him that he wasn't alone-- the Creator of the Universe was there in that room with him wanting to share his life and not only in the room but living in his heart. That is how deeply God loves each of us. That is the kind of relationship that He wants to have with each of us. It is not a common occurrence that God speaks and acts on such a real and personal and immediate level--something sort of similar has only happened to me personally once--but when it does happen it is a reminder to all of us and that is why I wanted to write about it.

I hope that I can walk close enough to the Lord that, when He needs me to speak into someone's life like that woman did, I will hear Him and respond.

Mother's Day

My kids were extra special nice yesterday and slept in til almost 9am, which is very rare so very wonderful. Luke made a pancake breakfast and then I was presented with my cards and gifts including a pink lei, which Noah picked out especially for me. He also got one for each of the mothers we would be seeing later too: Nina, Grammy, and Auntie Becky. He can be such a sweet and thoughtful kid sometimes.

We went to Luke's parents for church and then a family celebration at lunchtime, which Nina and Boppy joined us for. The guys did all the cooking, which was a nice change. Charlie is a wonderful chef and made a gourmet grilled chicken salad, Boppy brought the bread, Dad bought and (Charlie) prepared some coconut shrimp with Thai dipping sauce, which was amazing and Luke made (from scratch) an incredible chocolate mousse cake garnished with strawberries and raspberries that was to-die-for. Yum.

It was a gorgeous day and the kids had fun playing outside on their bikes and the swingset and even got to 'swim' in the hot tub while the rest of us relaxed and talked. What a lovely day. I hope you all had as wonderful a Mother's Day as I did.

Here are some pictures from our day. I was very remiss in my picture taking and didn't get one of me with my kids but here are the rest:

Mother's Day Tea

Yesterday, Noah's Grammy and I attended a Mother's Day Tea at his preschool. The kids colored placemats and made a tablecloth runner and painted heart pins, to which the teacher then affixed their pictures. They performed a song for us and Mrs. Oliphant read, "I'll Love You Forever", which is the sweetest most heart wrenching story ever written and had us all wiping our eyes. It was all very special and we enjoyed it a lot.

This is Noah's teacher, Mrs. Oliphant. She is the most wonderful teacher and one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. She adores Noah and he adores her. We couldn't have asked for a better teacher.

Thursdays with Nina and Boppy

Nina and Boppy are Luke's Grandparents. For more than 5 years now I have been having lunch with them on Thursday afternoons. I started going when I was pregnant with Noah and it has been a much loved tradition ever since with only a few hiatuses here and there. The kids and I look forward to it every week. Today was beautiful and the grass was mostly dry after a lot of rain so we were able to play ball outside and take a walk up to the construction site behind their complex to see the 'big machines', which of course Noah loves. They should provide some entertainment for many months to come. I forgot to get some pictures of the machines but here are some of the kids playing outside with their great-grandparents.







When I was pregnant with Noah, Nina tried to teach me how to knit. For some reason (having nothing to do with Nina's teaching ability) I did not get the knack of it but last fall decided to give it a try again. The second time was the charm apparently and I have done several scarves and hats and am now working on a more involved project. So, Nina spent some time today helping me out with that, thank goodness because I probably would have ruined it otherwise. Hopefully it turns out well and I will be able to post some pictures of it.