The kids worked together to catch a butterfly.  They gave it a name that I can't recall.  This butterfly did make it out alive, a spring miracle for sure.

Spring 2012

Spring came and went.  Carys and Poppy's birthdays, tulips, planting seeds and hiking in the cool weather.  We are ramping up for swimming, popsicles, bike rides (well maybe not me:) and sprinkler days with BBQ.

Cooking Again

Well, I'm always cooking but not always with the kids. We had a really special time today, not without our fusses but the kids were all high participants in dinner tonight and it was such a huge blessing. This afternoon Walker and I made zucchini meatballs. This evening the girls each made a dish, Carys made a wheat, barley, sweet potato stir fry (aka Tabby special) and Helen made sweet potato latkes. It was all so yummy and the kids really did enjoy eating the dishes they cooked. I did not take photos b/c we were cooking the dishes together and I wanted to concentrate on getting all the ingredients in:). Just needed to document this, it's been so long since we were all in the kitchen cooking and fussing away.

Been too long...

I know it's been too long in case anyone is still reading this, sorry for the absence. We've had a fast paced 2012 and I don't see it slowing down either. In case you've nt heard through the grapevine,we're expecting baby number 4 in September. We've had 3 birthdays already and Helen's is coming soon. Our Winter was so unbelievably, wonderfully warm that Spring has been so enjoyable. Looking forward to an awesome summer!

First Big Snow 2012

Cullen has been taking the dog and kids to the forest preserve lately in the warm weather but a few times in the snow. This time I joined them with coffee and my snow pants I was toasty warm. We are trying to have more fun outside and get away from computers and TV. It's been great for the kids to wander around. They still find things to fight over like who's going to pull the sled or ride down the hill first but they can cooperate sometimes.

Challenge

"Poppy" Book 2 in the Poppy Series by Avi

Carys is in the gifted reading program for now. She is challenged to maintain reading and writing skills but also she is given special projects. She had to develop a board game based on the Poppy series books. She needed a bit of guidance mostly because her great ideas were too big for the short time we had left on Christmas vacation. Here we are testing it out.

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas Cookies

It's good to know people who bake and people who will take you and your three kids and bake with you. These are brave, loving people. We were blessed to have a cookie fest at our friends house this week-end. She had prepared the dough already and all the kids had to do was sprinkle, roll, squish, and stamp. With a lot of energy and patience from all of us we got the cookies done and even were sent home with a box. Thanks friend!

Fort Tamra

I have a very creative friend who gave the girls one of the best gifts. A fort pack. Included were self charging flashlight, clamps, one large sheet and a fun book. The girls made a fort immediately and are constantly looking out for new places to make forts in our home. This was a sleeping fort, shelter for the night.

Caged

Before anyone freaks out at this photo, this was completely voluntary on Walker's part and as soon as I took this photo, I made him get out. So I think it's pretty safe to say Walker and Robin best friends. Best friends in destruction and rough and tumble play. I recently discovered that Walker has been encouraging a nasty destructive streak in Robin. He'll provide the material for destruction and she'll provide the teeth. I think we could make some real money in the shredding business seriously. Most recently Robin has destroyed:

Her bed
Our packet of songs to practice for the Church sing
Walkers instruction pack for his new building set
A tree ornament
Carys' calendar from highlights (this was was salvageable with teeth marks)
My winter gloves
Cullen's winter gloves
Carys' gloves currently have a hole in them (she has a thing for gloves)

This is only in the last week and I'm sure there's more I could list if I had a great memory.

Robin is really lucky the kids love her.

Rag Tie Curls

We had some fun last night and tied the girls hair in rags last night. I knew we would get curly hair but I forgot how curly it would be. The girls were a bit shocked and we did have some tears but once we got past the fact that it was temporary they enjoyed their new look.

Helen's First Loose Tooth

Helen has a loose tooth AND a new tooth coming in quickly behind it. The new tooth, thankfully is normal shaped and appears healthy. Now, we've been encouraging Helen to wiggle her loose tooth!

Hot Lunch Failures

Turkey crescent rolls and zucchini chips, carrot sticks and grapes. Sounds yummy right? WRONG, if you're under 10. So that in addition to yesterday's homemade macaroni fiasco (yes, I did use velveeta and no I did not have a recipe), I'm hurting for quick hot lunch ideas. Tomorrow, I may do Ramen, that'll probably be a hit but I'm not doing so well in the forecasting department.

Biscuit Pizza

I'm bringing Helen home for lunch to be sure she takes the time to eat and give her a little support since lunchtime supervision at the school is minimal and she's a little immature for her age. So far we are having a great time visiting and eating a good lunch. I'm trying to have lunch prepared for her so this time Walker was able to do lunch prep with me and the mini pizzas were a super hit with them both.

Change Purse

Thankful Tree

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I saw this tree idea at a friends and it was so easy, we had to do it. We made leaves and the idea is to write something down when it comes to you that you are thankful for and you'll see your tree with more and more leaves on it. You can read the leaves on Thanksgiving and recall your thankfulness later. I admit I had a hard time stopping myself from the busyness of life to put leaves on the trees (I've got to get better at that!) but the kids enjoyed it and stopped to write on them. I'm going to re-purpose this as a Jesse Tree for our lead up to Christmas.

Happy Birthday Walker

Our Dear Boy turned 3 today. Easiest birthday ever. Bacon and eggs, cake and gifts. Thanks to our family for everything. Time is short, these moments are so precious.

Wild Woods

This week-end we went to the forest preserve by our house Sat and Sun. The dog and kids had a blast and we adults enjoyed it too. It was warm enough to enjoy the outside tromp through the woods. The kids even had a splash day in the puddle left from overnight rain. No one complained afterward and they were all smiles about getting super muddy. Poppy had to talk me into letting them but I'm glad he did.

Pumpkins

Poppy helped out with the pumpkin carving this year. Actually he basically did it all so I was free to help with kids clean out their pumpkins and harvest the seeds. The kids made their own designs, I think they did an excellent job! We soaked our seeds and Poppy made a delicious sugar and spice coated roasted pumpkin seed recipe. Next year we may do a few more pumpkins just to make the seeds!

Treats!

This year we did a different kind of Halloween. We stayed in our neighborhood and went early before dark. The kids still had a great time running from house to house and were polite. Since we were in our neighborhood, they were able to meet their friends all dressed up and meet some of our other neighbors we don't normally see. We were back home in time to catch trick or treaters and Carys stayed outside with Poppy to hand out candy. It was very relaxing and fun for all.