Camping!

Chris decided this past weekend to take Jonathan and Catherine camping for a night. (It was Catherine's first time.) Looking at the pictures and hearing the kids tell stories of their adventures it seems as if everyone had a grand time! They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for a couple of hours- though, the kids didn't actually like eating the marshmallows or smores... whose kids are they anyway?? It was also humorous to hear that they wanted to be sleeping in the tent by 7:30- because they were so excited to sleep in a tent! Originally, they wanted to go to sleep at 6:30, but Chris talked them into staying up later! So, poor Chris had to go to bed too at 7:30. If it wasn't for the fact that the blow-up mattress had a hole in it, he would have gotten a very long and good night's sleep. ha ha

Then, the next morning they went fishing. No fish were caught, but a good time was had.

Catherine's First Day

Catherine is also starting "school." We enrolled her in a Parent's Day Out Program at the same preschool Jonathan is attending. She's going on Mondays and Fridays at the same time as Jonathan. (So, yes, I will only have one little kiddo for 2 1/2 hours twice a week!! YEAH!)

I'm impressed, thus far, as that there is a great little cirricuulum for the year. It seems as if some of the things she will be learning about are: God's love, creation, kindness, forgiveness and prayer. I'm also looking forward to her getting out to meet other kiddos and getting some interaction with another "superior," other than me during the day. :-)

This is her first day:She was more than excited! And, she wanted to stand in the exact spot Jonathan did for his picture.

Since, the first day of Jonathan's school was rainy I didn't get an in front of the school shot; so, I did on Catherine's. I tried to get a decent one, but...

She's crawling!

At 7:30 on Wednesday evening, Abby crawled for the first time! YEAH!

How could I not post these?

I know I'm partial... but Abby is just the cutest, happiest little girl!

My Garden

She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

- Proverbs 31:16

I'm two (sort of three) years into this gardening thing. It has been exciting, yet interesting! There is a group of us women reading a book entitled, Graced and Gifted: Biblical wisdom for the homemakers heart together. The book shares insights from Proverbs 31 (which is a chapter in the Bible inviting the reader to consider what being a good wife entails). This last section we read in the book was about gardening. It was an interesting read, especially as I reflected on my experience. I have realized that I like the actual planting of the seeds, weeding the garden (because I don't have much of them) and watching everything grow: as everything I planted this year did! What I don't particularly care for, is the harvesting, if you will. I have found that I have pure satisfaction of the fact that what I planted and took care of actually grew. "Something grew! WOW!" The carrots, cucumbers and green beans have all been tasty- but now it's the actual 'what do I do with all of this?' that I don't really like. I'm not really excited about all of the "aftermath," if you will. I could take or leave actually eating all of it, I'm just excited it grew!! I guess I'm pretty peculiar... but that was already a given. ha ha

With that being said, here are some photos:

My peppers are growing beautifully! I think I have about 8 or 9... now, I'm just waiting for them to turn red.On this plant, these are starting to turn colors! YEAH!It was Jonathan's idea to grow cucumbers- which was interesting as he didn't eat cucumbers until they started growing in our garden. We got about 30 cucumbers with our one plant! (we have been eating and sharing a lot of them!)We have slowly been eating on our carrots. Right before a meal we have been known to walk out and pull a couple to eat- which has been fun for the kids. But, I pulled them all up on Wednesday. Last year I blanched some, made some carrot soup with more and continued eating on the rest. This year, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of these (there are about 30).Though, with some of them I already decided to make some baby food for Abby. So, I cut them up and steamed them:Then pureed them:

Now, they are freezing in Abby sized portions in the freezer!

Look who's sittin' pretty

At 7 months old (time sure flies, doesn't?), Abby has started sitting on her own. It's adorable! She loves being able to see what's going on around her.

P.S. She's also working on crawling... gotta get some pics of that too, soon.

First day of Pre-Kindergarten!

It's true! Jonathan started his first day of Pre-Kindergarten today! Jonathan will go on Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings to a great little preschool down the street from us. He was excited, and a little nervous right before we left. Though, when I picked him up he was in a good spirits and said it was fun. We celebrated by driving through McDonald's (Jonathan's choice) for lunch!

Craft Center

We also made a couple of trips to the Craft Center they had on site. There was a wide variety of projects you could choose from: basket weaving, jewerly making, ceramics, mosiacs, painting on wood or silk, tye dying and leather working just to name a few. The kids were excited to paint a box, dinosaur, firetruck and star (all made of wood, of course). Abby did come along on one of the excursions, and did great hanging out in the stroller.

I made a trek back, without the kiddos one afternoon and enjoyed painting a travel ceramic mug- sorry, no pictures available of that.

Thoughtfulness

The other day Jonathan came in from outside holding a fistful of leaves. He walked up to me with a big smile and said, "Mom, these are for you!" My heart melted. "I picked the greenest ones for you," he continued. I thought he did a pretty fantastic job, don't you?!! I love my son!