Rain

It has been raining lately and my children have been playing inside more than usual. I broke out the colored rice yesterday morning and it was a hit for most of the morning. The girls were the "bakers" and my son was the delivery guy who picked up and transported his "load" of "baked goods" to the appropriate place. They all go along and played for a few hours at this. The mess that was made was worth it as I watched them enjoy playing together and using their imaginations. My son even broke out his maps and mapped out his truck route. Much fun was had by all. :)

Here are my two girls "baking". < >

< >

Below is my son delivering his "load" of baked goods with his little helper. < >

< >

Below you can see them all playing together. Notice the hand mixture that my littlest one is using? I still use this at times. They love to get it and play with it. I did too when I was their age. :) < >

Gardens and other such stuff

One of my favorite things to do is gardening. The whole process is just awe inspiring to me. I love planting the seeds with my children and then watching them grow into delicious veggies. I even find weeding calming (weird I know). The whole process is a reminder of how awesome our Lord is in his creations. I also enjoy canning and freezing our bounty to enjoy during our cold winters. The kids always ask, "Is this from our garden?" This year we have had to fight with both the weather and the animals. It is a battle I am determined to win, but can honestly say I cannot guarantee I will succeed. Unfortunately, our beans suffered from deer who devoured the whole row. Fortunately, one of my son's friends mom's had an abundance of beans and gave us some. I spent a good part of the day yesterday canning them. Here is my first batch cooling on the counter. < >

< >

My two youngest have been having some "girl time" and have enjoyed playing with play dough. Here is my 6yr old's creation. < >

< >

They all also went out and picked blackberries for our muffins that we made. The leftover blackberries were used then as paint and ended up being used as make-up. Just goes to show you what a little bit of imagination and some mashed up blackberries can create. My son created the blackberry paint and painted a picture. My daughter decided to use it as make-up. :) < >

< >

They are so cute!

Summer

Where have I been? I have been enjoying my time with my family. I have been too busy enjoying life. I just have not had the time to blog about it. I chose to cherish each day and try to enjoy it to the fullest. We have been to museums, gone to our cousins, have been swimming in the river, enjoying the parks, catching fireflies and camping out in the yard, and also spent some time at the beach. Amid all this we have been travelling about for my oldest softball season. The games were over an hour away at least once a week. She started off the season with beautiful weather and basic skills and ended it with a hail storm with thunder and lightning which we played in between the storms, and much improved skills. In her final game she made an awesome catch for an out. What made the catch so hard was the water logged ball and field. Her team played a great game and led the majority of the innings. The game was supposed to start at 6:00pm but it was hailing with torrential rain and thunder and lightning. The weather cleared so they played at 7:00. Unfortunately they had to stop the game 2 more times due to the lightning and when it was all over it was almost 11:00pm and her team had lost. We were a soggy cold bunch when it was over. I think all the stops, the weather, and the late hour all contributed to their losing. I wish they would have just rescheduled it. One of the things that has been the hardest for me was keeping all my little ones safe at the games. Their were so many foul balls that I was constantly on the alert. I was so scared one of them would get knocked in the head with one that I tried to be vigilant in keeping them aware of the danger and in reach of me or out of reach of those crazy fly balls. At the final game I warned my 6yr old to watch for "pop flies" so she wouldn't get knocked in the head. I did not stop to think that she would not know what "pop flies" were as it was late, cold, and I was exhausted. The next day while we were eating lunch I made a comment about all the pesky flies flying about our food. She piped up and said, "Yeah, ever since you warned me about those pop flies I've been scared that one is gonna pop me on the head!" This caused the rest of us to erupt in laughter while she just smiled away and continued to eat not knowing what was so extremely funny to the rest of us. When we could catch our breath's we informed her what "pop flies" really were. It still makes me laugh thinking about it! I can picture her covering her head whenever she spotted a fly flying about! :) Now that softball season is officially over and my oldest starts high school in a few weeks. It is amazing how fast this summer has flown. We are trying to enjoy the last few weeks by just spending quality time together. We have gone on walk/bike rides, played outside a lot, explored together, just enjoyed our time. We were also blessed in that their dad has been able to be home on a more regular schedule with a surprise trip home in the middle. We enjoy having all of us together and hate it when he goes back on the road. Our son is looking forward to going out with his dad for a few weeks. It is all he talks about. We are trying to work out the timing of this. It will all come together I am sure. < >

< >

Here she is up at bat.

< >

< >

Here she is right before she made that awesome catch! The bad lighting is due to the rain and darkness.

< >

< >

My 6yr old at the Museum of Life and Science in Raleigh, NC. She became a butterfly! She dressed her little sister in a squirrel costume. They had a blast.< >

< >

I had to include this shot of all of them in daddy's truck. They love to get up in it. They are in love with daddy's home away from home.

< >

< >

Here they all are yesterday on our walk/bike ride. The weather here has been beautiful. It has been in the 70's and great for long walks exploring. I hope it stays this cool for August. It feels like the NY summers I grew up in. Nice summer days with cool nights. I have even had to use my comforter the last few nights! I love this weather!!

Video Game War's

I have come to the conclusion that PlayStation was created by satan. There, I said it. Why do I think this you ask? Because it has turned what I presume to be normal 8yr old boys into mean little aliens. I first discovered this when my son had a sleepover with a few friends. It turned into a night from hell. His two friends did nothing but fight over the PlayStation. Fight to the point that they had to be separated into different rooms. I tried numerous ideas for getting them to share the system. Nothing worked. My son whom never got a turn was so busy trying to keep the peace between them two he ended up frustrated and crying and asking me to please turn it OFF. I did so only to have the two friends turn on (gasp) ME. I was ready to send them home when they made a peace treaty and played something else. Then last night my son had another sleep over with two different friends. Again the two friends fought over the PlayStation. The irony was that my son did not fight to play at all even though I had it put up for the past month or so. The one boy I swear is addicted to video games. He played it for an hour while the others played outside. When they came back in and the other friend asked to play he did not want to stop. When I told him he had been playing long enough and it was time to share it he got mad and got his stuff together to go home. I told him that was fine that I would take him home and would be happy to let his mom know the situation. He changed his mind and stayed. He still wanted to do nothing but play video games. He even asked to play at 10:00 pm before he went to bed and then asked as soon as he got up at 7:00am. I told him NO both times. His parents have no problem letting him play all day. They are happy with that. The other little boy from the first sleep over is the same way. Would play 24/7 if you let him. Both these boys think I am mean when I make them stop playing. Amazing. I really don't care if their parents let them play all day, it is not my concern. I just don't like how mean they get when they are made to stop or share it even. I wonder if they have seen this side of their children. I know I have. These two are not going to be invited back during a sleepover situation. I cannot nor will not tolerate their behaviour. I will invite them back one at a time though, especially when the game system is put up. :)

Weekend recap

This weekend I hung out with a 13yr old version Jekyll and Hyde. Need I say more? I think there is some type of training going on to see how far I can be pushed before I totally lose my mind. So far I have withstood the rigorous testing process. I think I am still intact. :) I have only had a few visions of running away to some exotic beach and hiding out until they are all grown. :o But those are fleeting and I would miss all the laughing and shouting and snuggling that goes along with them. We did have a late evening walk last night which we enjoyed. We saw a pair of geese with there goslings floating down the river and my son and daughter loved that. "They are so cute!" They wanted to follow them down the river, but it was getting dark so we had to head back home. I do love taking walks at this time, it is so peaceful. The other highlight of the weekend was my son found a wild strawberry patch in the field near out house and they spent a lot of time down there picking and eating strawberries. They also made houses in the tall grass and played until the sun was setting. I loved watching them run and play like that. It reminded me of when I was little and I remembered how much fun it was to hide in the meadow grass. My 6yr old showed me their "room" and they had trails that led to the different "rooms". They all enjoyed it very much. I did not have my camera with me and I wished I had because it was pretty neat how they had there "house" set up.

We are walking along and my 6yr old is talking non stop about everything she see's or hears.

My 2yr old was sleepy so I opted for the backpack in case she fell asleep on the way. She didn't, ofcourse, so I ended up just carrying around 30+ pounds on my back for nothing. These mountain hills are fun with this load. :)

I LOVE this barn. The picture does not do it justice. It is so huge and is just beautiful. I have seen people by the side of the road with their easels out painting this barn scene and tons of people stop to take pictures of it so I guess I am not alone in my love of it.

The end is near...

Of school that is. I am so ready for it. My children are so ready for it. They are looking forward to summer with wild abandon. Endless summer days of frolicking in the sun, swimming in the river, skipping rocks, catching firefly's, stargazing, bike riding, late night games of cartoon tag, all the fun stuff that kids love to do. I love just watching them. We do slip in some learning on the sly, but it is so much fun that they don't even realize they are learning. We also have fresh veggies from the garden to enjoy, along with all the fun of planting, weeding, then harvesting them. ;) We are counting down the days. We get a double bonus in that when school ends their daddy comes home! YEAH! All are looking forward to seeing him and riding in his big truck. Until then though we are busy with school function after school function. With 3 in school, the end of the school year is very hectic. I am trying to enjoy everything while maintaining or shall I say restraining my very active 2yr old during all the hour long functions. I am somewhat successful. For some reason she does not find all the programs as stimulating as the rest of us. I am sure that if she were in the program it would be much different. If we did some program like the following picture it would be a huge success. She does love to dress up!

The wood fairy meets the island princess.

Summer means more time for just hanging around and blowing bubbles. :) I love how kids let you be a kid again! Who can resist bubbles???

MIA

Sorry family and friends. I have not had a phone nor Internet access for 2 weeks. Can you believe that? You actually get used to it. At first it was annoying, but it kinda grew on me. But we have it all back again and I thought I would update y'all, or you-uns as they say in my neck of the woods. :) The weather has been monsoon weather lately so all my beautiful flowers are gone, but in place is lush greenery. My yard is part pond, part meadow. If it ever stops raining I will get to mow it. If not, I am going to invest in a goat! Maybe 2 goats as big as my yard is. My potatoes are up and I have yet to plant my onions nor the rest of my garden due to the lack of dry weather. I really am not complaining though. We have had a drought for the past 2 years so the rain is much needed. Tonight my son and I walked in the drizzle up the path to a spot up on hill where their is now a stream from the water rushing down the mountainside. The little trickle of water we used to have flowing behind us in the woods is now a full fledged stream complete with small waterfalls. You step outside and all you hear is the water rushing down the mountain stream. I love where my house is. The house and front yard are all open space with just a few trees and expansive lawn. Behind our house is nothing but woods and mountains for miles. The mountains stretch all around us and the woods are so dark and mysterious now that they are full of foliage. We have seen so many animals in there lately. Speaking of animals, my kindergartner had her school play in which she was a dinosaur. It was a big hit and the kids all loved it. They did a spook on American Idol only using dinosaurs instead of people. It was cute. We also went to visit cousins again for my sister's oldest birthday party. He was turning 8 and was having a Luau. It was a big hit. The funniest part was when my sister pulled out sacks for the sack races and after demonstrating how to do the race she lined everyone up and started backing up saying, "Ready, set, " then "OOF", she fell flat on her fanny turning her ankle in a hole. I, being the sweet sister I am, immediately turned the camera on her to get a picture. Then I ran for ice before snapping it as I could see that although she was laughing, she was in pain. It was nothing too serious and I did manage to snap a picture of her on the ground icing her sore ankle. We made it through the rest of the weekend and believe it or not nobody got sick. Amazing I know. Here are some pictures from the missing weeks.

Sis down and out with family gathered around.

My fierce little dino. Love ya dino star!

My little monkey dressed up with her monkey. She dressed him up too.

This is what my oldest taught my youngest. Now when you tell her NO she says "Please" and dows this. I thought I was immune, but at times it is downright irresistable. ;)