Loving Life

Remember my one and only apple from my tree this year?  I picked it and here is my pictoral review of how it was. Perfect!  I even shared it with the kids, since I'm such a nice mom. What is your favorite kind of apple? - this was a Golden Delicious, which is my favorite homegrown apple.  Gala and Pink Lady are my favorite to buy. PS - Do you like my cutting board decorations?

In history yesterday, we learned about the Arabian peninsula and the start of the Arab nations.  This obviously led to the making of an edible oasis as we discussed deserts and oasis.  Wheat thins became sand, tinted coconut was our water.  Tootsie roll tree trunks with mint sprigs for leaves made the oasis complete.  The best part of it all? Why eating it, of course! David's oasis Abby's oasis Ana's oasis in progress.

... but didn't take any pictures.  Last week, the kids and I took a little trip out to visit friends and family in Indiana.  I had a great time.  Here are things I could have taken pictures of, but failed to do so: visiting Aaron's grandma visits with Grandma Kay & Grandpa Tom (Aaron's folks) and their cute little apartment 1st birthday party of my only niece on Aaron's side very delicious family meals staying with Aaron's aunt visiting with several good friends eating ice cream making noodles for the first time fun vehicle trips to and from Indiana I decided if I ever need a retreat time, I will go to Indiana now that Aaron's folks are out there.  I arrived and dropped my kids off for several days.  I popped in and out for meals and to say good morning and good night to the kids.  There is enough family out there now for the kids to be spoken for most days.  We did one day of school while "on vacation".  I hung out with friends I hadn

Remember my raving about my sis-in-law's photography and the gorgeousness of my sister?  Well, here's some proof .  Check out this link.  Right now.  Be amazed.  Leave me a comment to tell me what you think.  I love my family. 

The girls are at it again with their creative play.  This time the theme is sports.  They realized that they had matching shirts (thanks to Grandpa Tom & Grandma Kay), and both had black shorts.  So they donned matching outfits and declared themselves football players.  Ana made them matching pink helmets too.  They went outside to practice and Ana came in to tell me that they are much improved from last year so perhaps they might win some games now.  I was glad to hear the report. They also set up a Nascar circuit in our house.  They put a number on their little wagon and took turns racing around like madwomen in the house with it.  Of course every good driver needs a good pit crew.  The one who wasn't racing at the time stood in the pit stop area (also marked with their car number) and waited until they needed their tires to get changed.  And I was happy to see that safety came first - they each wore helmets, gloves, goggles, and boots.  Here are the two Nascar drivers posing

My apple tree produced one apple this year.  I have one chance to get it right for picking it at the peak of its perfection.  I think it's getting close.  Wish me luck!

Abby hit a big milestone yesterday in her five little years of life - her first time of loosing a tooth!  She was pretty nervous about the event, afraid it would hurt, afraid it would bleed (all of my kids are pretty wimpy when it comes to the sight of blood).  Here she is with her very loose, hanging by a thread tooth. Another tooth shot.  She wouldn't let me touch it. Unfortunately, I was gone when it finally came out - she was over at a friend's house.  But she was super excited to show her new gap to me.  Thankfully the tooth fairy remembered to show up last night while she was sleeping.  It would be bad of her to miss her very first appointment with Abby. I'm curious - do any of you remember losing your first tooth? Or any tooth for that matter?  Any fun tooth losing stories? I really don't remember losing any of my teeth.  I do remember hoping I would lose one at school because the teacher had these cool little certificate she would give to any kid who lost a to

So perhaps you were thinking I had died or something since I haven't posted in awhile.  I want to assure you that I am alive and well.  Life got pretty busy this past little while, so blogging took a back seat for the time.  One of the biggest (and most fun) things that happened just this last weekend was getting to be at my lovely sister's wedding.  Here is the beautiful couple (my sister definitely got the beauty genes in the family!) Here is their family with five beautiful girls! My brother's wife was able to fly out from VA and be the wedding photographer.  She does AMAZING pictures.  If you are ever in the market for pictures that make you look like you should be in a magazine check out Keesha at RubySky Photography ! (plus when you check out her website, you'll hear one my favorite bands ever, but more on that later!).  Here is Keesha working her magic. The wedding was outdoors at their house.  They had rented a big tent canopy for the ceremony/reception.  The

We're nearing the end of week two of school. I think I'm liking our new schedule.  It makes sure that we keep in the "fun" stuff instead of feeling too tired and lethargic after lunch.  David is the only one who still has school work to do after lunch and I can just sit down and help him or get some things done until he needs me for a question or two.  Yea for kids getting older and more independent!  The kids all seem to be adjusting to our new schedule and are enjoying their one on one time with me and I don't feel like I'm being pulled in three different directions at once.  They are all learning to not interrupt my one on one time and to hold their questions on a particular item until it's their turn.  I wish I would have done this earlier!  At least I'm learning now. We have had two monarchs emerge this past week.  The first one, our rogue caterpillar , emerged on a day we were gone.  We came home to find his little spot under the cabinet had bee