Fairy Tale Day at the Library

Everyone at story time dressed as fairy tale characters and listened to the classic fairy tale stories and made a fire breathing dragon puppet craft. The kids dressed up as a knight and a queen. Isabella even got featured in the library newsletter in her queen costume. 9.29.09

Dominic's first Superman Coloring

Isabella and Dominic are very different kids. Isabella was so interested in coloring and drawing as such a young age. Dominic is almost 4 years old and he can only scribble...until this month. He just sat down one day with a coloring book and started coloring pictures and he stays in the lines pretty well. He might end up artistic like his sister...he is just a late bloomer. 9.28.09

Line Creek Train

Every year the northland Catholic homeschool group rents the line creek train and all the kids get to enjoy a ride on the little train. Lots of screaming in the tunnels and smiles all around. The moms even get to ride if they want to. 9.24.09

Apple Orchard Time

Every fall we love to go to the apple orchard and spend an afternoon picking apples, petting animals, feeding the chickens, going on hay rides and eating yummy baked goods from the bakery. Normally we get to do this 2-3 times during the fall but this year we had so much going on we only got to go once. We had a great time and came home with some really great apples. Click here for some pictures from last years orchard trip 9.20.09

Hair trim

I took Isabella in for a hair trim since she was wanting to grow her hair out. While the lady was cutting her hair Isabella kept turning and looking in the mirror to see the change in her look. Finally I said "Isabella you just wanted a trim so there won't be a big difference in how your hair looks when we are done it will just be a bit more even but still long." She looked disappointed since the last time she had a hair cut we cut off 5 inches of hair and the change was very dramatic. She contemplated for awhile and then said "cut it all off!" The hair dresser looked at me and I said "fine with me." (I had been trying to convince her to cut her hair into a wedge like she had it last year and she told me she didn't want it short so I was pleased to have her make the decision to go short again. This will mean less fights when it is time to brush hair.) Here is a picture after the haircut. 9.19.09

Happy Birthday Michael

Michael's birthday got glazed over this year since we were driving back from St. Louis after my surgery. Not really a festive way to celebrate your big 30th. So after I was back on my feet again we surprised him with a little party ten days later. We made a 30th pizza and the most spectacular mint chocolate fudge ice cream cake ever! (this was my first time making an ice cream cake and it was soooo good and fairly easy to do, this might become the adult birthday protocol from now on. I have a few other flavor combinations I want to try out). Michael was so surprised by all the decorating and preparing we did for his birthday he said it made up for his real birthday. 9.12.09

How the "devil" got into the ABC's

So now that Dominic is in "preschool" while Isabella is doing her 1st grade work I attempt to work with him. But first I have to see if I can pull him away from playing Superman or mowing the carpet with his John Deere toys. Today I decided to see if the boy can say his ABC's alone. So I asked him if he would stop burying Percy (a train) for a moment and sing with me (first off I have to explain that the whole reason he was burying Percy under loads of railroad tracks was so that Superkitty....yes, folks his favorite stuffed animal "sugar kitty" has now been transformed into a superhero as well........anyway Superkitty was going to rescue Percy from the wreckage and save the day. I know what your thinking ....why in the world would I interrupt such valiant work and make the kid say his ABC's.....just bear with me.)
Anyway...Dominic dropped the train tracks for a second and started singing his ABC's with me until we got to W-X-Y & Z and he stopped and looked very serious at me and said:
"mom, I didn't know that the devil (pronounced deb-bil in Dominic) was in the ABC's!"
I said "what are you talking about?"
D-"you know, mom, the Deb-bil? the guy that is happy when we do bad things?"
I then said "Dominic why are you talking about the devil? lets sing the ABC's again"
So then we go A-B-C again and when we get to the 'W' (double-you) Dominic gets serious and says "mom you said Deb-bil again, the bad guy that likes to make God mad, Deb-bil!!"

At this point I am laughing so hard I am about to bust a stitch (literally) and I then go on to explain that it is a letter W not the Devil that we are talking about and we tried to work on some pronounciation and then he just went back to saving the day with Superkitty. Maybe tomorrow we will get past W?

The Making of a Lawn Mower

Dominic's favorite past time, besides dressing up as Superman, is mowing the grass. He longs for Saturday mornings when he gets to go and help daddy with the yard work. It is a special time that he shares with his daddy. He uses the fisher price plastic mower that Isabella got when she turned 1. That mower is great for mowing carpet but really difficult to use when actually pushing in the grass.
This created quite a problem for Michael. He was determined to find a mower that would actually work in the grass, when he came up empty handed after many searches on the internet he decided that he would just build his own. It all started with a set of real lawn mower wheels that he found at the hardware store. After he had the wheels he could design the blue prints for a mower that would be strong, sturdy, and Dominic-sized. He spend a LOT of hours making the plans and even more hours meticulously cutting boards and gluing the mower together. It was so cute when it was unfinished a true work of art. But he wasn't finished yet, not until the mower was complete with John Deere Green & Yellow paint and a decal! A labor of love that will get used every Saturday morning when it is time to mow the grass. Dominic keeps asking when he will get a bag for grass clippings and a real blade put on the bottom of it. Hmmmm I don't know that Michael is willing to take the obsession that far! 9.7.09

More than just a crime fighter

Superman protects our home and keeps us safe but it is more than just that....he is a hard worker too. Here is a picture of him mowing our yard. He is such a versatile character. 9.7.09

Dominic's wish

While laying on the couch recovering from my surgery Dominic came over and asked if he could "snuggle" with me. I said yes, as long as he was gentle with my stitches in my tummy. He then proceeded to tell me that he hoped that the doctor fixed everything in my tummy so that he could have a new baby kitty.....or maybe 5!
Unfortunately I had to break the bad news to him and explain that I only grow baby humans and not baby kitties in my tummy. He then asked if he could still go ahead and get some baby kitties anyway....or five. Gotta love that kid!

Turtles everywhere

Very close to our hotel in St. Louis we found this park: Turtle park. It was the perfect park for our turtle-loving little boy. They had a great time climbing and playing on the turtles. 9.1.09

Watch out for that bear!

I know what you are thinking ---how can I just stand there and take a picture of my family happily eating their breakfast when they are about to be attacked by a bear!!-- Luckily the bear is not alive and my family will be just fine. This picture was taken at the Cheshire Lodge in St. Louis the day after my surgery.

Do note however that Isabella is quite proudly showing off the fact that she lost her first tooth the night before. More on that later. 9.1.09

City Museum St. Louis

While we were in St. Louis we had one day free to do something fun. After my surgery consult we all loaded up and went to the City Museum. Jeffrey & Amie had been here several times and they thought it would be a lot of fun for the whole family. They were right! This place was amazing. There were giant tunnels made of metal in the air that you could climb through and slides that were several stories tall. Caves with stalagmites, giant whales to climb inside. Aquariums, trains, art rooms and all kinds of places to explore and climb. We were there for hours and we still didn't get to see and do everything. Here are just a few pictures from the day of fun we had. 8.31.09

Corvette Ride

Isabella loves when my dad takes her for a drive in the Corvette because she gets to stick her head out the t-tops and wave to the neighbors like she is in a parade. I prefer that she be in a car seat buckled up but my grandparents seem to want to spoil their grandkids. 8.30.09

Happy Birthday Trista & Trinity

We celebrated Trista's 5th birthday and Trinity's 1st birthday at my parents house. The kids all had a lot of fun. 8.30.09

Lifecycle of a Butterfly

Since we started school a few weeks ago we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our caterpillars in the mail. They finally arrived a few days ago and within a 30 hour period all of our Painted Lady Caterpillars turned into chrysalis all 10 of them. Now we just had to move the little white paper disks to the butterfly pavilion and wait. Less than a week later the first butterfly emerged and we watched as his wings grew bigger and stronger. It was such a fast process to see them pop out of their cocoons. I always thought it took them a few minutes to get out but really it was seconds! All 10 of our butterflies hatched and a few days later we let them go. Another great science lesson on life. 8.28.09

My kids are the greatest

I had a great birthday weekend this year all though every year is pretty great (click on the links to flash back to birthdays past). Since my real birthday fell on the night that I normally teach we decided to celebrate it over the weekend so we could all enjoy the fun of my 32 year starting.
Isabella had a pretty original idea for wishing me a "happy birthday" with a crayon-bathtub greeting. That was a fun way to start off my birthday morning. Thank you Isabella.
Isabella also made me a scavenger hunt for my birthday which took me all over the house and yard in search of clues that finally led me to a yummy chocolate fudge birthday cake. Luckily I had Superman there with me to blow out the candles. It was a fun and relaxing day with the kids after cake we went for a walk in the park and Isabella got to show off her no-training wheels bike riding skills. All in all it has been a great year. 8.23.09

Look mom no training wheels

Isabella turned 6 this summer and she has done so many grown up things including learning to ride her bike without training wheels. The first time she did it we went to a walking track that was made of recycled tires...I was thinking this would be softer to fall on yet solid enough to learn to ride. She ran into a bush and an elderly lady (luckily she was fine) but in the end she mastered the art of two wheel riding. Here are some pictures a few days later at the park. 8.23.09