"Quack Quack, Eat!"

I was hoping to post an update about speech services, but our weekly session was cancelled today. After our old SLP was reassigned to the school system, we had four solid weeks without any services. Last week was our first session with our new SLP. It went really well, but I received a text early this morning that our new SLP was sick. Bummer!

Instead of rushing home for speech, I took the kids to the park right by Jackson's preschool. It's been uncomfortably humid this week, so mornings are the only enjoyable time to be outside. 

I brought a quarter to feed the ducks. James was very excited to get the food.

All three of them kept yelling, "Quack quack, eat! Come on! Eat, quack quack."

The ducks and geese were a great source of entertainment and topic of conversation. I led the toddlers to another shaded area with large rocks. I honestly don't know what Amelia was laughing at in this picture, but she joyfully played and climbed. 

Maddie was so sweet and cautious on the rocks. She held out her hand and would whisper, "I want help. Up, please."

You would think James would be the most eager climber since he's a big boy and can be impulsive. He was hesitant and crawled backwards when he didn't feel as confident. Amelia conquered all of the rocks. She's most likely to be the athlete of the family.

We walked back towards the van, stopping at the playground. The picture below might seem like an outtake, but it's most assuredly not. The play structure was quite high and required a lot of climbing to reach the top slide. Amelia was so fast and strong, she kept lapping James and Maddie. She started to push Maddie out of the way, so I scolded her and said she needed to wait. Maddie was showing fatigue but wanted to go down the slide again. I asked Amelia to help her. Maddie already had one leg up on the ladder so Amelia lifted Maddie and hoisted her up top, then pushed her down the slide.

I love our laid-back mornings together!

Big Kids Update

Over the years I've written various posts where I report how much the kids have grown and how big they are. It's fun for me to look back on the milestones and think back to times when I thought the trio holding their own bottles was the greatest development ever or when Jackson's potty training put him as "official big kid status". I feel more and more like the kids really are kids, not babies or toddlers anymore.

Jackson is starting to really make sense of letters and numbers. His teacher this year told us to expect homework throughout the week. He seems so young, but not when I think about him being in kindergarten next year and learning sight words. It's fascinating for me to see how he processes things. He can consistently write and recognize numbers 0-9, but he'll say something like "Is twelve 1 and 2?" He's making progress so quickly. He completed his homework independently today and gave himself a sticker. I have flashbacks to doing the same thing as a young child. Jackson is surely a teacher-pleasing, school-oriented, learning-loving child.

A friend of mine dropped off a variety of toys, cups, and games for the kids today. (My house is Goodwill drop off for my friends!) Jackson loved using the dry erase marker to practice letters and numbers. He can make the sounds for many of the letters and will randomly whisper things like "B. Buh, buh, Batman".

Jackson isn't the only big kid in the house. James, Amelia, and Maddie are growing up faster than I care to admit. We're finally making progress in reducing pacifier use. They only get pacis for nap and bedtime. It's harder to take the pacifier away after their nap, but they're very good about giving up the paci from 8 am-2 pm.

The other exciting thing is I've been forgoing the stroller more and more. They've held my hands and walked across the parking lot to walk Jackson to school, to go to the gym, and to run into a store. Amelia and Maddie are good at holding my thumb and pinky finger, whereas James needs a whole hand or to be carried.

I organized a weekly playgroup for the trio and a few other two year olds. The other toddlers are the younger siblings of Jackson's former classmates. Jack was a bit jealous when he found out I took the trio to his friend's house without him. It's definitely a shift for us to realize James, Amelia, and Maddie can have friends separate from Jackson. They've spent the past two years tagging along to whatever Jackson wants.

My babies aren't babies anymore!

Apple Picking at Carrigan Farms

Our weekly field trip was to a local farm to go apple picking. I tried and failed to take the kids apple picking last fall. Even though today's forecast said sunny weather, I was worried I'd have a repeat of last year since it rained most of the drive there today. Thankfully, the sun began to peak through the gray clouds just as we arrived.

I was a little disappointed that we had to buy $20 worth of apples. I would have been perfectly content with a small bag, but it's $10 per person (over age 2) so we had to get the $20 bag. We were able to fill a half-bushel bag, which held dozens of apples.

I learned that the proper apple picking technique is to lift the apple up and twist, rather than pull down or out. If the apple is ripe, it will easily come off this way. The lady at the stand also informed me that many of the apples on the ground were great picks. I don't know if she said this to try and get us to pick them before they rot, or if it's true.

I pulled the toddler-filled-wagon down to the orchard, then let the kids roam freely until they tired.

They each took turns plucking apples.

The farm employee encouraged us to sample the apples. As soon as the kids saw me take a bite out of an apple, they all began eating apples. It seems like the apples should probably be washed first, but she assured us we could eat them. 

Jackson served as quality control. He inspected each of the trio's apples for bruises before putting them in the bag. He also picked mostly green apples because, "We need to make pie". 

Despite being surrounded by trees, there was little shade. We stayed hydrated, but grew quite hot and tired in under an hour.

The bag of apples became too heavy for Jackson to carry, so we loaded it in the wagon with the trio. Once again, the toddlers kept pulling out apples to eat as Jack and I added freshly picked apples to the bag.

We made our way to the pond for a picnic. There was a perfect size rock for all four kids to sit on. They were so cute sitting in a line. We climbed rocks and ran around in the shade after eating.

Our afternoon at the farm continued with a walk to see the farm animals.

They have rabbits and chickens in unlocked cages that you can open and pet the animals. James thought this was hilarious! Maddie did not.

Amelia loved all of the animals and fearlessly touched all of them.

Maddie was curious and approached the goats. As soon as one started bleating, she began yelling "Go away!" over and over.

Jackson loved all of the animals.

After the long walk back around the pond and through the orchard, we headed back to the van. Jackson did such a great job today. He walked the entire time, never once complained, and was so helpful distributing food to his siblings and inspecting apples.

When we approached the van, an employee came out and asked us if we wanted to sample some fresh apple cider. I was a sweaty mess by that point, so my only response was, "It is hot?" He laughed and informed me it was cold. I didn't even realize people served cold apple cider. We cooled off with our refreshing drink in big kid cups. (Sidenote: I've been trying to fix Amelia's hair in the mornings but she pulls on it all day.)

Surprisingly, none of the kids fell asleep on the way home. I now have more apples than I know what to do with. I didn't even fill the bag completely because we ate so many while we were picking them. I suspect there will be more apple pies, turnovers, and whatever other recipes I can find in our immediate future.

It was another entertaining field trip with lots of fun learning taking place at the farm!

Labor Day Weekend

Our three-day weekend was an unbalanced mix of busyness and laziness. We celebrated another week of school ending with beer (or pink lemonade) and pizza. James has spent nearly every free moment lately building train tracks and playing with trains.

Jackson helped me decorate the cake after the trio went to bed. Then the big boys went to bed while I stayed up entirely too late planning baby shower games and photo scavenger hunts. 'Tis the life of a procrastinator.

I may have over-committed myself Saturday. After a summer hiatus, the youth group kicked off another year with a photo scavenger hunt uptown. We tried to do this activity during the 30 Hour Famine, but the mall cops kicked us out. I revised the list to make sure everything could be completed in public outdoors, then prayed the rain held off. It was a really fun bonding event!

"copy a statue"

 My favorite photo didn't turn out. It was "Team must have a group hug with another group of strangers." There's always sports teams, segway tours, and various groups uptown on the weekends, so I knew this would be reasonable to accomplish. Some of the youth approached a group of tourists that were taking a picture in front of a famous statue. When asked if they would be willing to participate, they responded joyfully, "Of course! Spread love and peace, not hate."

I barely made it home in time to pick up the cake and games before driving to Gastonia to celebrate this mom and dad-to-be. Ellen is one of my oldest friends and I'm so excited for her to experience motherhood. Plus, it will be fun to swap baby stories and add another layer to our friendship.

The shower was a success. If you're looking for a way to make people competitively pay attention to gift opening, play baby shower bingo. I used an old science vocabulary Excel document that generates 30 different Bingo cards. As Ellen opened her gifts, women would randomly shout, "Is that lotion or diaper cream?" Fun times!

Jackson spent Saturday evening at the lake with his cousin, Levi, then had a sleepover. I appreciated the photo updates my sister-in-law sent. 

I chose not to go to church Sunday morning, so that I could sleep in and lesiurely eat breakfast. I've got a lot of big events coming up at church so I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity in the immediate future. Jesse, the trio, and I ran errands Sunday morning. We found a new discount store, Gabes. It's similar to Ross, Marshall's, and TJ Maxx, but is larger with a wider range of brands offered. Jesse would have probably spent hours there if he were alone.

Everyone napped/relaxed once Jackson returned home. I went grocery shopping so I could prepare for the week and pick up some ingredients for a last minute cookout. Jesse's parents came over. One of my favorite things Jesse's dad does to the kids is "take the bad out of them and put the good in". He always has the kids take turns laying down and he performs "surgery". He also pretends to cut their hair or put make up on the girls. The kids literally wait in line for this individual attention from their PaPa.

I absolutely love that the kids adore their MiMi and PaPa so much and that their grandparents are so involved. Yet, I'm surprised to find myself completely overwhelmed at random moments with thoughts of my own parents. Oh, how I wish I could watch the kids interact with my mom and dad.

Monday morning came too early. With all that I had planned Saturday morning, I chose to delay my long run until Monday. Two hours and eight miles later, I was a smelly, sweaty mess.

The girls were having an off day, so I stayed home with them while Jesse took the boys out.

The boys had a fun afternoon shopping and eating.

I required a post-run nap. Apparently, Jesse required a post-shopping nap, too. We spent the remainder of the day cleaning, cooking dinner, and preparing for another school week. Before we knew it, our weekend was over.

I ran out after the kids went to bed for a few errands. The sunset was so gorgeous I stopped at the top of the neighborhood to take a photograph.

Goodbye, summer. You were so good to us!

Room Cleaning Update

It's been one week since we introduced the cleaning sticker chart. Jackson eagerly cleaned his room every night, and gleefully picked out a $2 Care Bears blind bag on Saturday. 

Let's hope Week 2 is equally successful!

Sous-Chef

My love of baking must be contagious since Jackson is my reliable sous-chef. Admittedly, he likes to overstep his boundaries and I have to constantly get on him about washing his hands. I think the main reason he likes baking is because he knows I'll let him lick the spoon, taste the icing, etc. 

I like to find reasons to bake, especially when I get to make whatever I want and share it with others. My favorite reason to bake this week was to make a cake for a close friend's baby shower. I had really lofty goals of a 3-dimensional sailboat (her nursery theme) and checkerboard cake inside. Neither of those worked out due to poor planning, a power outage, and a youth group event taking longer than expected. Still, Jackson and I made a decent cake. Jackson helped dye the fondant, roll it out, and cut out circles.

The next excuse to bake was having our in-laws over for dinner. I always feel obligated to make dessert when we have company over, and I was still on an apple pie kick from earlier in the week. Instead of mini-pies, I made the regular pie. I'm sure I've made a pie before at some point in my life, but this is certainly the first one in several years. I tend to stick to cakes or cookies.

I think the pie tasted better than the cake. Not much is better than warm apple pie and ice cream.

I began letting Jackson help me bake two years ago, when he was 2.5 years old. In fact, the photo below was my TimeHop from yesterday (2 Years Ago).

While I'm proud of Jackson's progress and interest, I realize this means I need to start letting James, Amelia, and Maddie help in the kitchen, too. Three toddlers fighting over measuring cups seems like a recipe for disaster, so I'll try to find a way to give them individual attention. Either way, I've got a lot of sous-chefs to train!