Family Fun Day

Morgan, Rebecca and their 4 kids came to visit from Australia. My parents and Rebecca's parents shared a flat (apartment) when they were young marrieds, and our families have been friends ever since. Emily and Elizabeth

A family in our ward has a 144 acre farm in Massachusetts, a couple of hours drive from here. They are super generous with it, and every fall have a "family fun day" and invite everyone up to play. This year we took our friends too.

Everyone loved the giant slide.

There are few things as much fun as a ball as big as you are!
Rick playing in the rocks with the kids.
Not kidding, we LOVED the giant slide.

There are lots of games and activities.

This year, they built a new barn. It's awesome, and after dinner we had a square dance. Just the thing to completely finish off the kids - they slept the whole way home!


Such a great day - can't wait until the next one! So much fun to be able to show our Australian friends a little bit more of the country!

Chevre

Just down the road from our friends farm is a goat farm. Emily, Jacob and I are addicted to goat cheese. Rick likes it too, but we usually polish it off before he gets any. (Rebekah and Jane don't care for it.) We thought we'd take the Littles, and head over there to see the milking.It was great - just the kind of place you want to think all your food comes from - big open fields, beautiful trees, etc. The woman came to milk them, and called all the goats in by name.
The kids had lots of fun exploring; blowing "fairies" ...
and playing with sticks and rocks.
We loved seeing all the goats.
Of course, the kids HAD to chase the cats (they love cats.)



Jacob was fascinated with the milking apparatus.
All the goat cheese getting made - YUMMY!
We bought a pound of garlic and herb, 7oz of plain and 7oz olive oil and thyme. I was concerned about buying so much that we might not eat it before it went bad.
Ummm - no problem! I'm embarrassed to admit we finished it in less than 10 days! (Jacob and I really enjoy goat cheese!)

Do You Have This Blender?

We (and when I say "we" I mean Rick,) have broken TWO of these blenders this year. I just ordered a Breville, since it has a different mechanism to turn the blade, that I am hoping will be Rick-proof.

Anyway, I have two of the top pieces left (he only broke the motor section), and I hate to toss them. Anyone (local) have this blender & would like an extra top or two?

Think Pink

It's October, and that means it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Statistically, one woman in eight will get breast cancer. In my family, I have a mother, five sisters, a sister-in-law and myself.

Eight.

It's a sobering thought, and that's not including my 3 daughters, my future sister-in-law (when my baby brother decides to settle down), my future daughter-in-law, cousins, friends, or all the women on Ricks side of the family.

Last weekend was "race for the cure." I'm hoping that by next year my knees will be in good shape, and we'll skip out on church and join it.

In the meantime, I wanted to encourage all the women I love to do regular breast self exams. Start this month, and do them EVERY month. Not sure how? No problem, the Susan G. Komen, site has a great video tutorial, and all the information you'll ever need - check it out HERE.

You can even order a free BSE (Breast Self Exam) card for yourself. I gave these to all my family a few years ago - and for a long time when I'd visit, I'd see them hanging in the shower, but they've begun to disappear .... so here's the chance for new one's guys!

See, so now you have no excuse to delay any longer.

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Margo, (whom I met in Nepal 35, years ago.) Margo, I'm so glad you fought. I'm so glad you're still with us. I love you.

Jacob Was Here!

As I move through my day, I frequently find little things that let me know "Jacob has been here." I swear I supervise him! That kid is busy, and I do have 3 other kids and a household to run, so he occasionally gets into mischief. I am reminded of my sister, Liesa's 4 boys, and the grief they have caused her. I have a chuckle, and remind myself that he'll grow out of this (right?) and I'll probably miss the chaos and antics at some point.

I decided to chronicle my discoveries. Here a some from about a 7 day period....

Discovered the stickers I had left over from teaching about eyes at Emily's school.

Jacob LOVES putting things in containers in the freezer.

I'm forever opening it and finding little surprises.
We got a package in the mail. We opened it. I heard Emily's school bus coming up the street, and went out (to our driveway!) to meet it. When I came back in, he'd done this ... (he's fast.)
What is that weird red stuff on the bathroom floor?
Of course, a dinosaur in dried out slime.
I don't know where I was when he dumped 1/2 the contents out of the games / puzzles cupboard, probably not far and probably not for long - but like I said; he's fast!
I blamed Rebekah for 2 days for losing my compact flash card,
until I went to put a disk in the computer!

Why, oh why, the obsession with opening tampons?
Ummm ..... if you're at the outlet mall, and there doesn't seem to be a price on anything, we apologize.

(Discovered when we got home in his pockets - didn't even notice him doing this one.)

I asked him to "throw away Jane's diaper" - my mistake!

More freezer surprises.

Why is there a sweet picture of Jane? Look more closely at her face. See the two gouges down her cheek? His explanation for this one was "I a leopard." Some of his antics don't make me chuckle - some make me use every ounce of restraint!

Seriously, stop with the freezer! (When I asked why it was there he said "It's Calder's." No arguing with that.)

After the freezer, his next favorite trick is making "fish" - which consists of putting several of any small item in a Ziploc bag of water. His 1st choice is broken pieces of crayon, but really anything will do. This day it was ice cubes. He said they were his "ice fishies."

Speech

This is Jacob with Julie, his speech therapist.

We have loved Julie, aside from the fact that she has really helped Jacob's speech progress in the past year, she was sweet and delightful to have here every week, and it was fun for me to chat with her too.

These are the other pictures we took, before we could get the one above!

Now that Jacob is three, he is too old for Early Intervention. We had him evaluated, and he doesn't qualify for any ongoing services. His only issue is articulation, and he's in the 57th percentile for that - too high for help. He is actually advanced in his vocabulary, and his receptive language skills. He scored really well on his cognitive and psych evaluations (he has the cognitive ability of a 4 year, 10 month old.)

This is exactly what I wanted to have happen - that he wouldn't need anything more than early intervention, but now that we're here, I'm not sure how I feel. He still needs help with his articulation, and I want him to reach his potential, so I worry. We're going to check with our insurance to see if we can get any services through them, and keep working with him at home. He is WAY better at mimicking the sounds we make now - so I am hopeful. If, in January, we feel that he hasn't progressed any further, we'll re-visit it and maybe have him re-tested.

In other "talking" news, Jane is chattering away constantly. Hearing her prattle on, alleviates my fears that she will also require speech therapy. Her favorite word is "No" (she adorably says "nooo"), and we hear that about a million times a day (mostly directed at Jacob.) She also says our names (Mama, Dada, Bepa, Eny, and 'Ob.) She says ball, bird, dog, cat, nurse, please, more, apple, me, yes, Oscar (she says "sca"), owie and a bunch more I can't think of right now.

Her little voice is so sweet, and it's cute to hear her copying us. She gets really excited to see pumpkins, and calls them all "apple" - even when we slowly say p-u-m-p-k-i-n, she slowly repeats back a-p-p-l-e (I think it might be the "p" sound she can't get past.) Looking at her I realize that I have a baby/toddler, who will soon lose the last vestiges of babydom. It's exciting to see her grow, but she's so sweet I'm really, truly in no rush.

Bye Bye Barton

Over Columbus Day weekend, there was no soccer, so we made the most of a free Saturday and headed out for our annual apple picking trip.

For the past few years, we have been to Barton Orchards, so we headed there again - to discover they have made many changes. The most glaring one, was that they now charge $2 per person to get in (to pick apples???) and $10 per person for a "premium" ticket, which included the bouncy castle, go carts (that you have to peddle), etc. My kids like the bouncy thing, but no way am I paying $8 more for them to go on it - especially since we own one at home!

Since we were already there, I begrudgingly forked over the $2 each, after STANDING IN LINE behind a few bus loads of people to get to the entrance. The we took the hayride out to the orchard, where I was instantly stung by a wasp. In the past I would have just figured, "this is a farm" and been OK with it - but this year I was mad. "You'd think for 2 bucks a person, they could at least hang some yellow jacket catchers in the trees!"

It turned out OK, we walked way out to the far trees (for Macouns) and it seemed like no one else was interested in the walk, because that part of the orchard was empty. We ate our lunch - smuggled in, because they now no longer allow coolers (I have a Wild Oats insulated bag, that probably doesn't look like it's for food.) Then we picked our apples, and enjoyed the morning there.

I had realized on the way up there, that I'd forgotten the camera and we've already eaten through our 25lb bag of apples. So next week I'll throw the kids in the car and we'll go and try Stuart's Orchard. Several of our friends went there this year. NO circus - just apples. We'll eat, wander, pick our apples, take pictures and come home happy.

Tender Moment

After I put Jacob and Jane in bed, Emily and I go downstairs and practice her piano, finish any homework she may have, and read together. Then when she gets in bed, I sing her "Emily Kate" (a song we made up when she was 2 days old, and have sung every night of her life.) Then, I like to snuggle next to her, and talk a little about her day, etc.

Her evening routine is just about the only 1:1 time we get. She's not a squeaky wheel in this family, and I worry that she isn't getting enough time with me / us, and so I enjoy the end of the day giving her my whole attention. Last night I was thinking about how much I appreciate her, and I whispered to her;

Me; Em, you know what? I am SO proud of you, and do you know why? Because you are so sweet to your sisters and brother, you are such a good friend, and so patient with everyone. You are great at sharing, and listening to other people. You always try your best, and you never give up. I think you are a wonderful kid, and I'm really proud of you.

Emily; Your breath stinks.

Mmmm, maybe we should work on her developing some tact next!
(Oh, and I did go brush my teeth after that!)

Dinosaur Party

I had so much fun planning Jacob's birthday party. Three is such a wonderful age, because they really get the concept of a birthday and being the center of attention for a day, and that you will be bigger. Of course, we had to go with a dinosaur theme because he loves them, and spends a lot of time chasing Jane around the house roaring at her. Jacob is a very social child, and LOVES to play with friends. The best thing about his birthday, is that all his little buddies were there.

We started off catching bubbles, while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Then, there was a treasure hunt to find the hidden "dinosaur nest" full of eggs. Emily was in charge of this activity, and excited to use her excellent reading skills to help the kids hunt. Of all the things we did this day, this is the thing I would do differently. The older kids got very excited about it, but the 3 (& almost 3) year old's didn't seem to get the idea of a clue leading them to something. Next time (for this age group) I'd just hide a bunch of eggs, and have them hunt randomly for them.
The "nest" was the sandbox in the backyard, and had small eggs buried that they had to dig up - inside each one was a mini-dinosaur.
They all enjoyed digging up the eggs (although most of the kids promptly lost the little dinosaurs.)
Then we ate frosting - oops, I meant to say decorated brontosaurus cookies.

Is there even a cookie under there?

MMM, yummy!
Put a little on, lick it off. Put a little on...
Didn't your Mother ever teach you not to lick your knife?
Then they did scratch art dinosaurs. This was fun, and Emily kept saying "How do they do that ? It's magic!"

To burn off some of the sugar from the frosting-fest, we jumped on the bouncy castle.
Wa - hoo!
The slide was a big attraction.
Jane held her own against the big kids (she's tough.)

Time for lunch.
Chocolate pudding is a great chaser for frosting.
I wanted to make these cups of "dirt" (chocolate pudding and crushed cookies) and add those candies that look like pebbles, and then a little dinosaur to each one. However, I didn't get around to searching out the rock candy, or pick up a "dinosaur toob" so ended up doing gummy worms instead. Didn't match the theme, but the kids still thought they were good. Jacob wan't too sure, but liked it after a taste.
Jane ate a pizza bagel (miracle.)
Jacob was really pleased with his stegosaurus cake. Doesn't he just have the cutest grin?

Nothing rounds out a party like a pinata. After each kid had had 2 hits (and not a scratch on the thing) we let Rebekah at it.
Yay, grab candy.

Then we sent everyone home with a dinosaur themed treat bag.
Jacob got really great gifts from his friends and family. Although he loves dinosaurs, he's still addicted to trains - and we added a few more trains and some cool track pieces.

How old are you? (Note the ASL 3 - love it!)
Happy Birthday Buddy!

We all love you so much, and although you run me ragged, our family would be empty without you. I love you.