Football Season Is Here

We have been knee deep in zucchini, school, and football. The zucchini is a post all its own. Those who grow it know what I am talking about. We will not starve that's for sure. My son has been asking to play for a few years and I kept saying no, but finally this year I said yes. He has enjoyed getting all the gear and putting it on and off and on and off. He has enjoyed the 4 days a week 1 1/2 - 2hr long practices and scrimmages. He has really adapted to it well. The girls have enjoyed the practices and games too since they are at a local park and they get to play while brother gets knocked around. It has only started, we are only a few weeks into it and we will live this crazy football life until October. Below are some pics. < >

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This is my son all geared up for his game. Handsome little guy!< >

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Here he is again in his "stance". He is on the line of defense a lot.< >

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Here he is in his game. He is #11.< >

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Here is how we entertain ourselves while watching his game. When they are not playing on the playground that is. Pretty flowers for my pretty little girl! < >

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Here is my 6 yr old displaying her fairy flower crown. Notice the football game in the background. We were busy making fairy crowns while the boys roughed it out on the field. :)

Fishing

Each day that cousin Tristan has been here he has requested to go fishing at the river. My son is loving all the fishing since he normally does not go fishing. We often go to the river, but my son will swim and play around in the water instead of fishing. Not to say that the fishing last long with the boys. Normally they fish for about 20 minutes and play the rest of the time. Skipping rocks, looking for fools gold, searching for frogs, you name it. I end up toting the poles back to the bank so they can play. Yesterday the ducks were down at the river and kept going after my son's line. They were very friendly and people must feed them. Today I think we will take some bread down just in case we see them again. I tried to get a picture, but my batteries were going dead so by the time I zoomed in the camera would shut off. I did manage to take some pictures of our river time. They enjoyed fishing, floating, and skipping rocks. I had the fun of throwing sticks for the many dogs that came to visit. They are big friendly dogs whom apparently love children and water. They enjoy chasing sticks that you throw in the river and will keep bringing them back time and time again. The only problem is when you have anything in your hand they will assume you are going to throw it for them to fetch. Thus the skipping rocks takes on a whole different theme. It wouldn't be so bad if the dogs weren't so big and easily excited. My favorite is a huge plot hound who we call Red. She loves my daughter that is away, but still allowed us to pet and love on her regardless of her missing friend. At least we got some fun time in before the storms came. Tomorrow we leave to take Tristan home and collect my 6yr old. I can't wait to see her!! I sure have missed my little Catbird! We will miss Tristan though. My son will especially miss having another boy around to pal around with. < >

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Here is my youngest and her friend tubing in the river. < >

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Here is my youngest again trying to get down to her brother who is fishing up the river.

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Here she is again floating downstream in her tube. I love this place in the river because it is shallow enough for her to stand in yet deep enough for her to float. It is the perfect combination.

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Here is Tristan demonstrating his skipping rock skills. I think he got up to 4 skips!

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Here is "Red" as we call her. She is HUGE. She comes up to my waist and even Tristan could not believe how big she is. She is very loveable though. My dog would LOVE her.

Visitors

Cousins came to visit this past weekend. Luckily the weather was nice for most of the day on Sat. so we were able to get some playtime at the park in. The big ones went fishing while we enjoyed the park. When they went home on Sunday we decided to switch children and I kept their oldest and they kept my 6yr old. It was hard to let her go but as you can see here http://4boyzhavinfun.blogspot.com/ she is having a great time. I am looking forward to getting her back soon though. Meanwhile we have been enjoying Tristan. We have gone fishing, tubing, playing at the numerous parks we have, crafting, just having fun. We still have a few things to squeeze in before he goes back home, but so far they have had lots of fun. I keep forgetting my camera, but maybe today I will remember to take it. Today my oldest had her first day at high school as it is freshman orientation day. She has been so excited to go to high school, but this past week she became nervous. Last night she could not sleep due to her nervousness and excitement. I was trying to calm her down and reassure her while hiding my nervousness. I can't imagine what it will be like next week on her first full day with ALL the grades attending. Today she is just with all the freshman. She will do fine, but I remember how nervous I was on my first days of high school. I can only hope her days are better than mine were. When I went hazing the freshmen was a favorite past time and I can't tell you how many times I was tripped with fishing line that was held across the hallways by upper class man. It's a wonder nobody was hurt. Luckily they would let it go so you wouldn't fall, just trip over it. At least that is what they did to me. Maybe others weren't so lucky. I am hoping that as busy as they keep the kids now that their won't be a whole lot of time for that. We also did not have a police officer attending our school either. This is almost like a familiar yet foreign world to me. I will be praying for her.

Below are some pictures of our weekend. < >

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Monkey girl and her cousin playing on the climbing chain ladders. She beat her cousins every time because he is part monkey. :)

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Here they are playing in the little log cabin. Aren't they cute!

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"Don't worry mom, I have my protective gear on!"

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Each time we go to the river we end up collecting rocks. We came home and I baked the rocks and then they melted crayons on them and created these gems.

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". < >

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

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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. < >

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

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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. :) < >

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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. < >

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Here she is up at bat.

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

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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.< >

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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.

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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. :)