Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Maggie's grade took their first field trip.  The went to a great pumpkin patch in Saraland put on by College Park Baptist Church.  At first I was wondering why were were going to one so far away when there are other closer, cheaper, ones near by.   But my questions were soon put to rest.

The church really does a GREAT job with their field trips.  They had several activies for the kids - two story times, a pumkin decorating area, a general store where they could choose their snack, a "hay" ride (although there was no hay but I wasn't complaining), individual pictures of each and every kid (including a print out!) and a group photo for the teacher! All the stories and even the hayride had biblical truths in them.  Their many volunteers were WONDERFUL with the children - so engaging and creative!  I was impressed.  And the kids had a GREAT time.  And they were so well behaved throughout the whole experience.

But my favorite thing of the whole day was really just getting to be with the class - to put faces with names, meet a lot of the parents.  I've been feeling very disconnected from the class since I can't volunteer at the school that much with Abby.  So this was a special opportunity for me.  (Siblings aren't allowed on field trips, so Ben took off work and stayed home with Abby so I could go - thank you!!)

Class Photo:

(one child was home sick.)

 

 One of the Storytimes:

 Yes, Maggie was enjoying herself:

 Hayride took them to the baseball field behind the church:

They had a story along the edge of the field to read as you rode along:

Maggie with Reagan (left, tablemate) and Blakely (center, buddy for day - we rode together)

 Of couse we had to take one home.....love that smile!

So what do YOU do with YOUR leftovers?

This small trifle was made from leftover birthday cake, leftover cool whip and some chocolate pudding.   I put it in a hurricane vase because my trifle bowl would have been too large - made for a nice presentation!   I almost forgot how fun leftovers can be!

Nursery Rhyme Day

There was a little bear

Who had a little hair

Right in the middle of his forehead.

And when he had fish was very very good

And when he had none he was horrid!

Wait.... that's not how it goes.... let's see if Maggie can do it right:

Top 10 Favorite Things about OctoberBaby

The movie October Baby opens this weekend in Alabama and Mississippi (sorry everyone else! You have to wait till next spring!).  So if you are looking for something to do this weekend that DOESN'T involve costumes.... here's my top 10 things I liked about this movie...

10) The oil rig  - almost every beach scene has this one oil rig in it.. . .no matter what beach they are supposedly on. :-)

9) Alabama Theatre - this is an absolutely beautiful theatre - if you've never been to one of their movie nights I highly recommend it.  Watch the OctoberBaby trailer and you'll see it in the first scenes....

8) Evelyn - who doesn't love a good road trip movie?  Especially one taken in a VW Bus? Evelyn, the VW, rocks.

7) Mobile and Dauphin Island - home, sweet, home!  It's fun to watch a movie on the big screen and say "Hey! I know where that is!"  "I've been there!"  The bad part about knowing the locations is knowing that it doesn't really take a day to travel from DI to Mobile.


6) Truman - the comic relief.  He's so funny and his timing is great! 

5) Jasmine Guy - any Different World fans out there? Can I get a shout out?  I loved seeing Jasmine Guy in this role.  She was great!

4) Birth Mother - the actress that plays her has an amazing story.  Watch it here.

3) Jason - I LOVE that Jason does things the right way.  He treats Hannah and her father with respect when it counts the most.  Most Hollywood films wouldn't have played it that way.

2) Directors' father - he was at the screening in Mobile and told us a great story.  When his two sons were small, they said "Dad, we think God is calling us to make Christian movies".  Did he say "That's nice, boys" and pat them on the head?  No.  He bought them a camera and a computer.  Now they've won Dove awards for their music videos and have created their first motion picture which hit it out of the park.   Way to nurture your kids' dreams, dad!

1) Helping a good cause - 10% of proceeds will go to crisis pregnancy centers and orphan agencies.  Can't beat that!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Around this household, that means fall, baby!  Cooler weather, football (that's for you, honey), fall food - chili, sweet potato pie, etc - and our annual trip to the mountains of NC to visit my folks!

But first - a sidetrack!

One of Ben's all time favorite bands is (anyone? anyone?) . . . .Chicago.  Ben found out they were performing in a SMALL venue in Anniston, AL and this became a top priority for him. :-)  So, as an early Christmas present Ben got 2 tickets.  However this created a dilemma - who would go with him? After much thought we decided to let Maggie attend.  1) It was a family friendly venue  2) if I had attended the necessary travel plans probably would have caused Abby much stress 3) while I'm always happy to attend things like that with Ben, Maggie really wanted to see Chicago!  She's been listening to their music for years (literally) with Daddy and I figured she had earned it. :-)

Both of them had a GREAT time, and Maggie made it through MOST of the concert - she conked out about 20 minutes from the end. ;-)

The next morning we finished our drive up to NC and had a great time!  Saturday the girls went downtown to the Apple Festival....


where Maggie got to enjoy her very first funnel cake:



Sunday we had a picnic and hike in Joyce Kilmer forest.



You remember Joyce Kilmer, don't you? No?  Well, you probably know the first line of his most famous poem...

          "I think that I shall never see
           a poem as lovely as a tree..."

Everyone went on that hike - even Abby!



Although this is how she traveled most of the way.....



Hiking's not to hard when you get to ride, eh?

Monday we left Abby at home with the Grammy and Grumpa and took Maggie to a hike up Water Rock Knob, a short drive up the parkway from Grammy's house.


We had a GREAT time on this hike - got to talk to lots of interesting people, although it was mostly about football.   The weather was great.  They had a fabulous visitor's center with a real stuffed black bear that you could PET! I was enthralled.  It was an 18 month old cub and was SO soft.  I left my camera in the car ("What could there possibly be to photograph in the Visitor's center??" I thought).  Maggie and I loved it - we touched it's teeth, it's claws, and pet it over and over.

Confession time: when I was younger I frequently daydreamed about owning large wild animals - Siberian tigers, etc.   Getting to put a wild animal, even a stuffed one, is pretty stinkin' cool in my book.    Ok, back to the program....

Maggie's favorite part of that hike was receiving a certificate of accomplishment from the Park Ranger!  It was officially stamped and everything!  It's only a short hike, but they said it's the steepest 1/2 mile hike on the parkway! And our little trooper did it all by herself - I was pretty proud!

The next day we had to book it on home so Maggie wouldn't miss TOO much school.  But even that was ok because then we got to enjoy my FAVORITE thing about coming home from our annual fall trek into the woods:

Movies, movies, movies!

If you know me well you know that I LOVE movies!  When I was younger I would watch them over and over until I could recite the whole thing.  To this day I still have Princess Bride pretty much down cold.   Of course having children changes things and it's a rare treat these days to get to watch any movie, much less in a theater.  Much less two in one week!!  Much less for free!!!

Sunday night Ben and I went to go see Courageous.  You've probably heard us talking about this movie since we got to see the screening in April.  We've been looking forward to seeing it again and had a great time.  It was kind of fun for me to watch it again in the theater because I could pay attention to the reactions of those around me since I already knew what was coming.  Ben had received some free movie passes for his birthday so that was an extra blessing too!

At Courageous, there were several trailers that looked interesting.  One was for a movie called October Baby.  On Monday I received an email inviting me to a screening for ... October Baby! The screening was the next day however so I had to scramble to find someone to go with me!  Thankfully my friend Ashlie was free!

We had a great time at the movie!  It's a coming of age flick (one of my favorite genres) about a girl named Hannah.  She finds out that she was adopted after a failed abortion attempt and goes in search for her birth mother.  Her journey takes her to none other than MOBILE, ALABAMA!

The movie was filmed entirely in Alabama with several scenes featuring Mobile and Dauphin Island.  The Alabama Theater in Birmingham also features prominently as does St. Paul's Cathedral (also in Bham).

The story was good.  The acting was very good.  The message is great.  Plus, 10% of the movie's proceeds will be donated to crisis pregnancy centers and orphan agencies.

Although the movie doesn't open nationwide until the spring, there is a special limited release in Mississippi and Alabama starting on Oct 28th!  So visit the website, look for theaters near you and mark your calendars.  You won't want to miss this one!

Sleep - Snuggle Theory

As I mentioned earlier, both of our girls have blessed us by quickly learning to sleep well. Both of them, dispite rocky (scream-y) starts began sleeping through the night by about 2 - 3 months old.    I don't know that our "techniques" can completely account for this, but we did what we could to encourage it.  We didn't rock our children to bed.  Ok, I did with Abby for a little while. But when I got tired of her crying for me all the time I stopped.   We didn't "do babywise" (a parenting technique that relies highly on schedules and teaching your children to self soothe among other things), but when they cried I would let them cry for about 3-5 minutes and then go in a try to sooth them without picking them up.  And when Abby wakes up in the middle of the night (or at nap time) I've learned not to go rushing in there but I give her just a couple of minutes to see if she will settle herself down.  More often than not she does.

But. . .

Neither of my children seem to be very cuddly.     Maggie is most definitely NOT cuddly.  Even at bed time - she wants us on her bed, but not actually touching her.   This has improved a slight bit since Abby's arrival.  She will actually let us put a hand on her.  Sometimes, if we are very lucky, I can put my arm around her when I read her a book.  Now does does enjoy a good hug, but usually she is just NOT cuddly unless she is VERY tired or sick.

Are you familiar with Love Languages?  Both Ben and I have "touch" as our primary love language.  We knew that our kids might not have the same "love language" as us so when Maggie started pushing our attempts at snuggling away we tried to take it with a stiff upper lip.  And we hoped (and yes, I prayed) that our 2nd child would be more cuddly.


Now granted she is only 1 and perhaps this is just a phase she is going through but right now Abby is NOT CUDDLY at ALL!   If you put her in your lap she IMMEDIATELY starts squirming to get down.    So sad.


Sigh.


So this is what I'm wondering:  Is our children's lack of snuggliness a by product of their sleep training?   If we had rocked them more as infants, soothed them quicker  - would they be more snuggly now?


Even if that is true I'm not sure I would change what we did - I sure do love my sleep - but it's interested to ponder.    I would welcome any comments from moms - have you noticed a similar trend?

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Our precious baby girl turned 1 on Tuesday, Sept 13.    Abby's birth was an answer to years of prayers.  The last 12 months has been an interesting journey for us as we learned just how true it is that the 2nd child is totally different from the first.

Of course you wouldn't know that just by looking at them:

Maggie: 1 year

Abby: 1 year

But in many other ways the addage holds true.

Maggie was a smaller child, Abby is our little chunk.

Maggie fought the weaning to milk for two valient weeks.  Abby peacefully transitioned in two days.

Maggie loves to read books.  Abby loves to close them as I try to read to her.  Then she goes and yanks them all off the shelf.

Maggie is talkative.  So far Abby is content to let Maggie do all the talking.

Maggie is quiet.  Abby is loud (not so much in the talking but in the crying).

Maggie is order.  Abby is chaos.

Thankfully there are some similarities too . . . both children have been quick to learn bedtime routines and are good sleepers. (Praise God!)

Both had/have the absolute cutest toes

Both can melt daddy's heart with a smile and a wave.

Neither are particularly cuddly except when tired or sick.  At least that gives me something to appreciate when they are tired and sick.  (I have a theory on this, I try to explain later)

A dear friend gave me a plaque when Abby was born.  It has a beautiful sculpture of a baby's head resting in it's mother's hand.  It reads "For this child I prayed".  I cried when I received it.   Oh! How had we prayed for Abby!  The sculpture sits in her room and was a constant reminder to me during the first couple of months, before she got the sleep thing down, before we switched to formula when she would scream at night for hours:

For THIS child I prayed.  Not just for the happy cute adorable child.  But for the screaming one too. :-)

Thankfully as she's grown this year the screaming thing happens a whole lot less frequently, and the happy-cute-adorable happens more.  And I am reminded to KEEP praying for her.

So happy birthday to our "source of joy", our beautiful mess, our wonderful little chaos!  We love you!

My whirlwind Florida trip

Last weekend Abby and I took to the road for a visit with friends and family.  The reason for the trip was a family reunion in St. Augustine to honor a family member who is sick.  We made a couple of stops along the way.

First Stop: TALLAHASSEE

We broke our trip by spending the night with our good friends, the Whithaus'.  It was great seeing them all again although their son was QUITE disappointed that Maggie didn't make the trip with me.

Isn't she cute!

Wow - isn't Abby a little carrot lover?
 


Next stop: St. AUGUSTINE - CASTILLO de SAN MARCO


I met my sister Kathy and her family there - we had a great time touring the fort!

We especially enjoyed the firing demonstration.








FUEGO!


Here I am after the canon demonstration with a nice "spanish soldier" holding, um, something that is, um, used to aim the canon.


Give me a break, I was standing all the way on the other side of the fort during the demonstration so Abby's ears wouldn't bust when they fired the thing.  :-) 

Me and my niece, Mina.


Mina was also disappointed that Maggie did not come on the trip.  Sigh.


Next Stop: JACKSONVILLE

I took a quick detour back north a little bit to have dinner with my good friend, Ildi.  Ildi and I are old buddies from my days in Seattle and it's always great to catch up with her!

Next Stop: St. AUGUSTINE - Family Reunion!



I spent all day Saturday hanging with my parents, my mom's siblings, various cousins and other relatives I haven't seen in 10-20 years, if ever. It was great.  Uncle Perry is a videographer and he was making a DVD of the event, so he asked me to help him film as I was able (between taking care of Abby).  It was great - I got to float from room to room filming conversations and listening in on all kinds of stories.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

Because of the filming I didn't get to take many family shots, but here is one of "Queen Mary" - the honoree of the shindig (on the left).

 Everyone was "plum wore out" by Saturday night.

While in Florida my mom gave Abby the little "tutu" swim suit below, so she could dress up like a ballerina with Maggie.  Of course Maggie insisted on them both trying theirs on - getting Abby to sit still for a picture was another matter altogether....

It was a really great trip and now I'm glad to be home!  Tomorrow we celebrate Abby's 1st birthday!  But that's another post for another day.

 THE END!

Star Student, Chapel and first admirer?

Maggie was blessed to be picked as the first star student for her class.  She's had a lot of fun learning about all the privileges and responsibilities that come with it.

The fun started on Friday when she got to bring home the Star Student Poster.  She spent the weekend coloring it and filling in the blanks.  Mrs. Robbins told us during orientation that we of course could help them fill in the blanks.  However, Maggie insisted on doing most of it herself.


Monday she got to present her poster to the class.  Her favorite book that she listed on her poster is rather obscure - it's called "Winter's Gift " and was a gift from Grammy last Christmas.  We stuck it in her backpack and Mrs. Robbins ended up reading it to the class during story time.

This week Maggie gets to be Mrs. Robbins helper - collecting papers, etc.  She gets to be line leader which means she must also hold the doors for the rest of the class.  Today in chapel she was recognised by the principal, Mr. Currie.  She also got to help him lead the pledge of allegiance.  You can watch that video by clicking here or on the link to the right.

During Chapel, the kids recited their memory verse.  The K5 class did great at this! Everyone that tried got it right.  Also, Mr. Currie told them the story of Samuel and Eli and the kids really enjoyed his interpretation. :-)

On the way home from school today Maggie told me that there was a boy who yanked her hair while standing in line to go to the playground.  My first thought was "Oh! Maybe He likes her!"    I tried to explain this phenomenon to her but she didn't get it.  I can't blame her.  Boys are often hard to understand. :-) 

They finally came. . .

 . . . the tears that is.

Today, for the first time, when I dropped Maggie off at school I just dropped her at the curb instead of walking her into class.

The school has lots of helpers - older students and the principal - out there to greet students and walk the younger ones to their classes.

She took it like a big girl.

I wanted to bawl!  It didn't hit me until I was pulling away, but as I watched her being led into the school in my rearview mirror, I thought "There goes my heart."

 

First Day of School!

Well today was the BIG day! Daddy took off work so he could go with us to drop off Maggie and pick her up.  We all did a good job getting out the door on time - I have to say I was proud of myself. :-)

Maggie showed signs early on of being nervous.  We let her have Fruit Loops for breakfast - usually she only gets them on her birthday!  But she just picked at them for a long time.    Then on the ride to school she was very quiet - I started taking a few pics to document the day and asked Maggie to look at me.  She just said "no."   I didn't bother correcting her. :-)

Once at school she did ok until we got the door for her building - I had to give her a couple of gentle nudges to get her to walk forward.  And while waiting for her turn to enter the classroom she was VERY quiet indeed!  

But she did smile for the picture with Mrs. Robbins and didn't make a fuss about going into the room.

Mommy and Daddy did quite well today also.  It felt weird not to have her with us but there were no tears. :-)  

When we picked her up, she looked like she had a fun day! 

Her attitude in the car was back to the usual happy girl we know and love.

And she even got a prize out of the trinket box.  Apparently the whole class did so well today everyone got to pick out something. :-)

We took her out to lunch at Moe's - her choice.  By the way, I was very disappointed in that the restaurant seems to have stopped greeting it's customers in the usual manner.    I digress.


She told us all about her day, well, as much as she could remember.   She found out today that as the "Star Student" for next week, she'll get to be line leader and Mrs. Robbin's helper for the class! She was very excited about that!  
We're all looking forward to day two!

Summer's Last Blast

Maggie wanted to go to the beach again before school started so while most of our county was already in school, we took the opportunity to go to Dauphin Island!  Daddy even took the day off so he could come to (which was a life saver because there was NO way I could have hauled at that stuff by myself!

Maggie had a great time.  We set up a little canopy so we could have some shade.  We had lunch on the beach - Maggie and Daddy got to spend quite a bit of time in the water in a shallow spot.   The water was very very calm - it was the perfect day to go!

Even Abby was a good sport! She also proved to us that she will eat just about anything - even if it's covered in sand.  Her favorite part was just watching her big sissy play though.

Every time I go to the beach I think "I should do this more often!" 

Did I mention it was hot?  This picture is a little deceiving - it didn't feel quite that bad except for the sand - the sand was BURNING hot by the time we left.  Once again, I was very thankful for our cheapo canopy.  It's a pain to put up and take down but the shade is worth it!

Abby's lunch was finger foods which she eventually just dumped on the blanket and ate off of that.  I gave up and let her.

Eventually this fellow came peeping around looking for some crumbs.  We also saw several fish in the water.

It was a great end to summer!  I think we should make this an annual event!