Simple Joys

ahh!! the sweetness of a beautiful summer evening filled with happy sounds coming from the backyard. The kids are getting along on the swing set. Ella swinging and Carter in the sandbox (of course). Scott was playing around in the yard as well. Christian and I walked out to the play set to get in on the action. I stuck little man into the baby swing (not sure why it has taken me so long to think of this but this is his first time in it) he was in absolute Heaven. Of course Christian is highly entertained with Ella singing and dancing around him which also fills him with joy. It was one of the simple family moments that you hope continues to play over and over in life. Nothing exceptionally special about it just that it was absolutely picture perfect, everyone was happy, together and enjoying the moment. In the sometime chaotic ruckus life as a family of five, I find myself enjoying these sort of spontaneous, quiet moments and refer to them as my simple joys. A sweet moment with one of the kids, a perfect cup of coffee, a chocolate treat, or great trashy magazine also fall into this category! No matter what the simple joy is, I am trying to get better about enjoying the moment. Unfortunately, with school just around the corner I think that it will have to be a more conscientious effort to slow down and live in the moment.

One sweet parade

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have sheltered Ella and Carter so much that they've never been to a parade (outside of the annual 4th of July boat parade at my parents). So in order to broaden their horizons, we ventured out to Greenville this morning for the Danish Festival Parade. The kids were eager with anticipation with all the fun and excitement. Here are are a few pictures of the big event.

Elle was sitting in her lawn chair 30 minutes before the parade started anxiously waiting!

First up in the parade was the loud but very cool firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars. Carter LOVED it but was covering his ears from the noise.

Scott bipped across the road to catch this shot. We didn't want all the pictures to be of the backs of their heads. You can see Ella's bag-o-sweets was filling up fast! I could NOT believe how much candy each of the kids got. It was worse than Halloween. I had to sit in the laundry room ditching all the pixie sticks and broken pieces.

Carter is so proud of the new football he caught.

It was a perfect day for a parade. We parked at Aunt Janet's house, loaded the kiddos in the wagon along with all our stuff and made the 6 block trek to Jeff & Cathy's house right on the parade route. We had great seats. The kids loved every hot minute of it! It was adorable to come home and watch them form their own parade. Carter had a stick and an empty coffee canister and Elle took the big yellow flag from the bike cart and was twirling away! Carter petitioned me to join the parade as he handed me the tambourine from the music instruments from the basement. He instructed me I had to "MARCH" like him. We made our way around the house and yards a few times while Scott drove the lawn tractor. It was one of those precious moments that connects my childhood to theirs, since Evan and I did the same thing. Gotta go! I've been ping-pong-ing back and forth between posting, the Olympics, and making Ella's birthday invites. Hard to believe she turns 5 in two weeks from today! She wants a My Little Pony party so we're working on it! :)

A Glowing Friday

T.G.I.F.....or so I thought. Yesterday began like many Friday's at our house, the normal early risers hyped about breakfast and the lack of cereal choices I had available, followed by whining because I said no to the plea to watch T.V. (by the end of the summer Elle is going to think using her imagination is a terrible thing), then I finally banished the older two to their rooms for "space to play by themselves". (at this point I can still mask that this is NOT a punishment but rather a fun chance to play with their special toys all by themselves. While they were playing I cleaned out my closet, downed a couple cups of coffee (realizing early, that this day would require caffeine) and managed a happy 'mommy mentality'. Ella & Carter emerged from their rooms a much happier crew and even went outside to play very nicely on their own while I nursed Christian. At this point, I thought the day had turned itself around. Our agenda was a planned one for the afternoon. We had to go to Grandville to 1st pick up Ella's new glasses (that's a whole other blog in itself), drop her off at a friends birthday party, and then the boys and I were going to head to the mall to pick up new tennis shoes for the family.

We had a quick lunch and an even quicker nap time. I ended up waking up Carter (....I know sacrilegious) forcing him into his car seat while he is screaming "not yet mom, I need more sleep!" Ella was eager to get this afternoon off to a good start since it was filled with all things fun for her! We got to the optometrist's and the glasses fitting went well. Shockingly, the boys were quiet and good..so I even managed to pick myself out a new pair of specks! Ella helped, she definitely had her opinions about how the things looked on me! She looked adorable and was more than thrilled with the case and cleaning cloth they sent her on her way with. She was really excited to wear the glasses to the party that was until we got there. As we walked up the driveway the birthday girl says, "I don't recognize you with those glasses!" with that, Ella took them off and told me she really didn't want to wear them, "anymore,anyways!" (Lovely.....ok, I didn't plan for that).Kissed her good bye and was on the way to the mall with the boys. All went well there. Then we headed back to the party to pick her up and head out to meet Scott to get hair cuts and dinner out. Ella had so much fun at the party. It made me a bit sad to see her independently trot off to this big girl party and then come back so thrilled! She shared a few things from her goody bag with Carter which brightened his spirits since for some crazy reason he thought we were going to his party when we left home. It took me a long time (and buying him icecream at the mall) to try to reason with the half sleeping boy that he would not be having a party OR turning 3 until April. He is adamant though, that we will be having a race car party. Ok-will deal with that later!

We got the hair cuts (which was a bit hectic) and went out to dinner. All pretty uneventful. Then we got home and the kids slipped into their pjs just a wee bit to easily. I should have sensed something was up. Scott had stopped to pick up diapers and some other necessary materials at Home Depot. He phoned on his way home to say he had a smashing, nauseating headache and needed the bed and some drugs. So I got Carter down and was just about to put Ella down when Christian decided he was starving. So there I sat, reading bedtime stories to Ella nursing Christian. She was just a chatty cathy recalling all the fun from the day and dreaming of the fun we'd have at Saturday's parade. I wrapped things up with her and sat at the bottom of the steps, nursing Christian, on the look out , for any child who may attempt to come out of their room. Finally, figured it was safe to go upstairs to check on Scott. He wasn't feeling much better. Whew! It seemed to have been a long day. I was ready to relax. All of the sudden I hear Ella crying in a panicked way and I met her in the dark stairway to see a shocking sight. Her mouth was glow-in-the dark-purple! In the favor bag she had gotten these glow in the dark bracelets and thought they were so wonderful. With all the commotion at bedtime I failed to notice that she had them in bed with her. I am sure she saw the shock on my face turn to panic as she started howling about how her mouth was tingling and burning. I quickly called the mom from the party to ask if she had the packaging. No luck, but now I had two moms worried. Ella is now in hysterics because she overheard me say something gruffly to Scott about the possibility of this stuff being a "poison". So in my attempts to get to the bottom of this, I started to dial 911 thinking that would connect me to poison control but then realized they have their own separate number. I hung up the call before it ever went through. I talked to poison control and they assured me that this was a very common call to get and that she just needed to drink a glass of water and eat a few crackers. During all this craziness, I stopped feeding poor Christian, laid him in the middle of the floor and tended to my daughter with the glowing mouth. Finally, picked him back up, called the sweet and concerned mom from the party back and attempted to finish feeding him so I could put him to sleep and sign off on the chaotic events of the day. I was chatting along with the mom and all of a sudden a police officer is knocking at my door! For what, the third time now, I stop feeding Christian, hang up on the mom in mid sentence, and make myself presentable to the police man standing at the door. (this late night knocking brings Scott back out of the bedroom with eyes as big as saucers to see me talking to the officer). He was responding to the 911 call that had been placed from our residence. YIKES! I apologized profusely and wanted to crawl into a deep dark hole by this point. Miraculously, Scott was feeling better so we sat in the living room together chuckling over our excitement as I finally finished feeding the poor, starving, baby!

Sorry I don't have pictures to post on this story. They would have been some good ones!

A day trip to the zoo

Mom, Dad & the kids looking for the 3 new lions that moved to John Ball Zoo this summer. Poor, Christian he will get in the pictures as soon as he stops riding in the Bjorn.....oh that'll be around his first birthday!


Carter loves animals, here he is in the aquarium.

Ella in her glory, brushing the little goats. I think she named that one Polka Dot!


To add adventure to the day, we decided to go for a camel ride. Of course, Grandma wanted in on the fun and rode along with. Now the kids have ridden a horse and a camel!

One of Ella's favorite parts of the zoo last year was petting and feeding the manta rays. Here she is waiting for Grandpa to give her another fish to feed to the Manta Rays. I love her adventurous spirit.

It is so fantastic to have the summer off to enjoy time with the kids. We have had a great summer filled with sun, sand, trips to the library, the YMCA, and play dates with friends. However, we are now approaching that time of year that transitions us back into more of a routine and earlier mornings! I honestly can not believe that Ella is going off to school in just two weeks. The boys will be heading to a new daycare which is just up the way from us. I am looking forward to a great school year, as well. I have lots of new ideas that I am excited to implement and I won't need to be prepping for maternity leave! Whew! I just love my school, East and am so excited to have Ella coming with me for kindergarten. It will be special that I can bip into her room on special days, for parties, and see her projects displayed in the hall. We will just be up the hall from each other.

Speaking of school, Ella had a special day with Grandma Blackmer on Monday. They went shopping for a special 'back to school' outfit. After much deliberation, she finally settled on dark jeans, a beautiful 'sparkley" teal shirt and a bright hoodie. She gave Scott and I a fashion show when she returned home and we were shocked. It was as if our little girl turned 7 with the change of an outfit. Wasn't she just sucking her thumb and twirling my hair??

I am soaking up all the extra special snuggle times right now. Time just flies too fast. I could fill my whole day with cleaning, organizing, and prepping but I won't get these stages back with the kids. I am in a stage of constant battle with the laundry. With Carter back on the potty training kick, we seem to be doing a bit more than usual. He has firmly proclaimed that he WILL be peeing standing up. LOVELY! I am all for him exercising his independence which he does frequently, but this standing up business is messy! I swear the upstairs either smells like pee or vinegar! Constant disinfecting of the bathroom is neccessary. Ella has temporarily moved out of that bathroom. I guess I can't blame her. :)


Each summer, about this time, I find myself in a bit of a frenzy. I am trying to cram in all the playdates and day trips that we haven't done yet. So last Friday, mom and dad went with the kids and I to the zoo. (see above pictures) This will go down in my mind as one of my favorite summers. We have so many fantastic memories. I better go, Christian just woke up. He is cooing in his crib.....man I love that baby boy!

We are His hands and feet

We have been blessed with a wonderful group of friends through our small group at church. Tonight we got together and had the kids--yep all 10 of them--stuff backpacks to give to St. John's Home kids who need them for the coming school year. It's hard to believe but in a short span of 10 minutes they crammed 20 backpacks with markers, paper, pencils, folders, and all the necessary things for a good start to the school year. It was great to see the kids do something amazing for others. They had fun doing it, too! This is the same crew that helped stock the food pantry last winter. A bit chaotic but so worthwhile!
After stuffing the backpacks they played: as you can see they get along REALLY well. God has blessed us so richly with each of these wonderful friends. We look forward to our next project!

Weekend fun

Beating the heat

The weather has been hot here lately so we have
doing all we can to beat the heat AND have fun. Ella and Carter decided to going "camping" in the front yard. Poor kids--their picnic consisted of pink lemonade and pretzels! Christian got in on the fun for a bit too. He was excited just watching the other two.

After spending time in the tent, they were a little hot so they had some sprinkler fun. Christian wanted to play with the colorful ball. He was SO excited just to watch! I had to put him down for a nap since he got so over stimulated.


Sweetest story about Ella: in the last weeks before the baby arrived Ella was constantly on the look out for the perfect stuffed animal for baby. Considering she was determined it was a girl, we put her off many times from getting something pink or purple. So she had found the just right girl animal and the perfect blue elephant if it was a boy. Well it turns out she picked one that Christian loves! Lately, she has been crawling up into his crib to read/play with him when he wakes up. Isn't that fantastic that he wakes up happy enough to let her do this? He was "wrestling " with his elephant the other day so I had to grab a few pics.

Peek a boo! Chewing on the tie...like he chews on EVERYthing else these days.