first day of school

christopher's first day of preschool was on the 8th of september.  he was very excited to go, and very confident and independent.  he was also a little bit nervous, but unpacked his backpack and went right in to class without any fuss at all.  i even had to remind him to say goodbye to me and give me a hug and kiss!

he's learning a lot, and is so close to reading.  he can spell a lot of consonant-vowel-consonant words, but gets a little frustrated when i encourage him to read them in a book.  he can also tell you the first letter of just about any word.  chris definitely likes to do things on his own terms.  he spent a lot of time this summer practicing his writing - just because he wanted to.  his "R"s used to look like a drawing of a stick figure with legs sticking out the bottom - so cute! - but now he writes them properly.  i didn't help him with it at all, in fact, he would get mad at me when i would try and help.  he figured it out all on his own.  i know this determination will be good for him, so i try and let him go for it.  i am learning patience. :)  we love him like crazy, and are so proud of him!

every time we drop chris off at school, naomi says, "i miss chris" first thing.  aww!  she loves her brother, and misses having him around when he's at school.  we do have fun together, though, and she likes having me all to herself.  it's fun for me, too, to get to spend time with just her.

summer surprise

even though i grew up helping with the family garden, i have been a little nervous to try my hand at it myself, until this last spring.  i was really in the mood to plant a vegetable garden, but we were in the process of moving and selling the house.  so, i put it off.  when we got all settled here, i decided to try container gardening - even though it was late in the season.

i tried some flowers (which didn't ever bloom - i'm sure it was because it was too hot for them), and tomatoes.  i wasn't sure that i would get any tomatoes, either.  then i got one flower.  and then two tiny cherry tomatoes (you can see the other little green one in the corner).  i watched them every day, waiting to pick them until the exactly perfect moment of ripeness.  i absolutely love homegrown tomatoes.  so juicy and full of flavor.  i very generously offered to share my bounty :), but my family kindly allowed me both tomatoes.  and were they ever heavenly!  the best fruit or vegetable i ate all summer!

now that i'm a little more confident, and knowledgeable, i'll be doing this kind of thing a lot more often!

labor day weekend

so, august was pretty much the same as july.  a few crafts/activities with the kids, the library, a tupperware party, girl's night out, and kids' birthday parties.  fun, summertime, relaxed stuff - but no pictures.  i feel better when i tell myself that my lack of picture taking is just because it was summertime.  i'm taking more pictures now.  really, i promise!  (i'm feeling a little guilty about that statement.  i am taking a few more pictures, but really, i'm just remembering to ask dave to take them. :)

dave's brother and sil, sam and tanya, flew in for the weekend.  they came to visit before their big move to hawaii.  yup!  hawaii.  sam's going to school and working, and tanya is working and has an internship.  we're really excited for them and their fun adventure (and a little jealous!).  hopefully we can afford to go out and visit them.  we had a great time with them; i'm glad they stopped by before the move.  chris and naomi love spending time with their uncles and aunts.

they had to fly out monday, which was labor day, so we partied on saturday.  we went to a lake that's about 45 minutes away.  it was perfect!  my idea of a fun day.  great sand for sandcastles, roped off swimming area, picnic tables, and a playground.  it was pretty hot, though.  i was glad for my hat. :)

the month of july

so, i took a total of 4 pictures during the entire month of july.  katie took the ones from the 4th.  i am such a camera slacker!  i need to do better, but in the meantime will rely on the skills of those more prepared than i. :)  

the kids had their cousins over for a sleepover, which was fun.  i had bought these plain canvas bags a while ago, and decided to get them out for a fun craft.  who doesn't love fabric paint?  i saved one to make for myself :)

other than the sleepover, there wasn't much else (in the way of blog-worthy material) happening.  we did get sick for a solid two weeks, which was miserable.  my kids don't get sick too often *knock on wood*, so i was a little unprepared for the long haul we had with that.  i got it too, so we all just stayed home feeling miserable.  good thing i keep my pantry well-stocked!  it was a bummer, too, that when we were finally feeling better - it rained for a week!  luckily dave and i had such a fun date while we were in washington, because i was sick on our anniversary.  7 years!  sounds like a big number to me. :)  they've been a great seven years.  we did get to go out a couple weeks later, though.  it's fabulous to have grandparents in town - for more than one reason!

4th of july

next in line to blog about is our 4th of july celebrations. don't worry, people. i'll get caught up eventually! :) luckily, as far as the blog goes, there was little to nothing that happened in august. so, things should get up-to-date pretty quickly from here on out.

a few days before the 4th, katie did these fun crafts with the kids. then they had their own little parade. it's cute how much fun they can have with simple things like that.

waiting for the parade to start. it was fun to have dave's parent's here with us this year.

we watched the parade together for a bit, but honestly, it wasn't worth braving the heat for. oh well. maybe next year's will be better. there weren't even any floats that were throwing candy!

after the parade the boys checked out the car show. i think they really enjoyed themselves.

the girls opted for some shade! lily and naomi were adorable together.

our little monster :)

after our downtown fun, dave and i took the kids to lunch at dickey's bbq. the kids are free, and we all get free ice cream. fabulous! after that, we all needed a rest to recuperate from the heat. donald and stella watched the kids while jonathan, katie, dave, and i went to watch the fireworks. it was great of them to do that for us, and really fun to just get to watch the show with just the four of us. a fun 4th!

family picture

Okay, so I'm going to end this family reunion blogging saga with the family picture we got. Yay for family!

p.s. i'm finally over the 100-posts mark! took me forever, but i'm still here, pluggin along :)

fun with my family! part 5

Sunday - Day 9 - was Amy's birthday. Happy 18th, Amy! She's off doing the college thing now. I can't believe my *little* sister is in college! (As you've probably noticed from the pictures, she's not exactly smaller than me :) I got the short genes.) We got her stuff for school, and since we couldn't be there for her graduation, I combined the gifts for birthday and graduation together. I had fun shopping for dorm room stuff.

Then, of course, was dinner chosen by the birthday girl. She chose pasta salad, and then gave us free reign on the rest. She's quite easy going like that. Here we are singing to her. Naomi's looking so excited about the whole thing. I'm not sure why Chris is hiding in Dave's arm, or why Dave has his hand over his mouth. Probably just got caught by the camera at the wrong moment. :)

Happy Birthday, Amy! We love you!

Day 10 - Monday - And also our final day. :(

We decided to go back to the beach, this time with Dad, and see if we could show him how awesome it was the last time we were there. Unfortunately, it didn't even compare. But, we did have fun. We played in the "sand" for a while (it's more like gravel), and then decided to build a fort to eat our picnic lunch in.

So, that was the end of our trip. We had such a FUN time! We spent the next day traveling, and were so sad to leave. It was nice to be home, but we definitely don't see enough of my family! Love you guys!