Strawberry Picking Time!

Strawberry picking May 2007 - LAST YEAR!!! I can't believe how much Josiah has grown (and thankfully I have shrunk...good grief!)

Josiah and Jacob - I just can't believe how little they both look!
And this was Callie last year in her strawberry picking outfit!!

STRAWBERRY PICKING - MAY 2008

Callie had SO much fun walking up and down the rows of strawberry plants...happy as can be!
The two best buddies - they were good workers too!

We asked a lady to take a picture of all 5 of us...and she took about 5 pictures like this - before anyone was set or ready! It was so funny when we got back to look at them!

We all wore RED today in honor of strawberries! (Josiah wanted to wear green shorts like the "stem" but I forbade it....)

They were SO intent on getting only the perfect ones. Josiah, my little pleaser, showed me EVERY berry he picked - he was so proud of them!
Got one shoe off...the other one followed closely behind!
YUMMY!

I remember blogging about strawberry picking last year, because it was one of my first posts. I remember posting about the strawberry ice cream and how yummy that was! It was so funny to look back at the pictures from last year and see how much the kids have grown. We had a great time this morning - although we missed our extra helpers...last year Mom & Kristen were here to help!!! It was a perfect morning!

Two Giraffes

Callie and Carter both had on giraffe shirts today - go figure!
Boy Giraffe...
Girl Giraffe...
Somehow, scraped knees on girls look much more pathetic than on boys...they sort of look like they "belong" on the boys - because they are ALWAYS there. Callie's a tough one though - I didn't even notice she had this until I picked her up to go in. Whenever she fell and did it, she just got back up and kept going!

I have the Power to Read!!

We discovered a new show on PBS while we were at Tutu's house last week. It's called "Super Why" and is fabulous! It's about a little boy named Wyatt that dresses like a super hero, and his power is "The Power to Read". He has little friends who have the powers of spelling, etc, etc. When they have a question, they "look in a book" - it's all stories and reading. Beth told me about this show several months ago, but we never got around to seeing it. The boys normally watch either Curious George or Little Einsteins after they wake up in the morning, and then that's it for the day. Well, they LOVED "Super Why" last week and have chosen that as their show each morning this week!


It's really resonating with Josiah because his reading has really taken off in the last two weeks. I pulled out this set of "Bob" books that my mom had gotten him a few months back, and he went to town reading them this morning! He has always loved books, and he thinks it is so cool that he can read them himself now! I couldn't help but record him! I'm so proud of my little super reader! There's something about seeing it all click into place that just excites the teacher in me! It's the beginning of a whole new phase of learning for him. So this video is primarily for daddy, Tutu, & Aunt Kelli who I KNOW will love seeing this! (Well, never mind about the video - for some reason I can't get it to upload. Oh well!)

Another Convert!!!

It's official - David is signed up and registered for HIS first half-marathon!! He'll be running in the Rock & Roll Half-Marathon here on August 31, 2008!!! He's going to do GREAT!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had dinner at Pei Wei's - it's owned by PF Chang's, and is the same food, but more of a "fast food" type environment...and cheaper. Totally delicious..and of course the boys loved the chopsticks!! Notice Callie posing?!
Mom opening her present from the four sisters...
We had a book made with all our pictures from our Williamsburg trip back in February. It turned out SO great! Took lots of colaboration and cooperation, but we were so excited to see the finished product, and Mom was so excited. The book turned out so great that all four sisters got a smaller copy of it too to remember the weekend!

Seriously - how many shoes can my family possibly bring? Actually, Mom bought the kids Crocs, so that added to the pile, but this was hilarious! Sorry mom!
How blessed I am to get to be the mother to these sweet children!
Callie LOVED playing Tutu's piano with her!


What a wonderful weekend we had with my Mom. I was so thankful to be able to spend Mother's Day with her. My kids have an incredible relationship with her, and I am so grateful for the bond that she has with each of them. She is such a tremendously encouraging mom to me, and I strive to emulate some of that for my own kids. Thanks for having us for the weekend, Mom!

We got home safe and sound last night a little before midnight. The weather was terrible driving home - it was a monsoon! - but we were safe, and the kids slept so it worked out. I always love the drive home because the kids are all totally out and I have 3 hours of quiet to catch up with all of my sisters on the phone while I drive! It was great to see David when we got home, and he showed me all the things that he was busy doing while we were gone. He finished several projects that we've had laying around for quite a while - painting doors and trimwork in the hallway, building a shelf for our new entertainment center, staining the cabinet we replaced over the microwave, fixing the doorbell, replacing the hardware on our fence - he was a busy boy!! It was a great Mother's Day present for me!

Mothering is a hard job - the hardest one I've ever done. I know that I fall short so many times. It's exhausting some days to have 3 small children at home with me all day every day. I know that there are things I wished I had done better. But I do my best and I want more than anything else for my kids to know that I love the Lord, that I love their dad, and that I love them wholeheartedly. I don't care if they know other moms that keep a cleaner house, or that has made a better scrapbook than me, or can decorate a house like a catalog. I just them to grow up to love and serve the Lord with their whole hearts, and to know just how much they are loved.

Fun Food at Tutu's House

The kids always get so excited about the special treats that Tutu always has for them - one of them is Fruit Loops! It's such a big deal for them to get to have sugar cereal in the morning! She also had gotten them some special ice cream bars for dessert one night - a big hit, of course! I took the picture of Callie in the high chair because of how she had her feet. She would hook her toes on the ledge of the tray and sit like that the whole meal - I guess she was getting settled in!

Dear Friends

Courtney's 4 year old, Joshua, was our photographer (hence the tilt...and our laughing faces!)
Our boys - Jacob driving, Josiah in the middle, and Joshua in the back
Callie and Bailey

You'd think we went to a water park with how wet everyone was...oh well!! It was so fun!
Again, Joshua was the photographer, so who knows why this is blurry. I wanted a picture of our Odysseys with "Runner Girl" stickers on them. Courtney is a runner too, and got me my sticker before my race. One day soon we are going to run a race TOGETHER! :)

Here's the photographer...taking pictures of his own cute self!
This reminded me of the thing on the Eliminator of "American Gladiators" - that hand crank thing!

On Thursday, we met up with my dear friend, Courtney, and 2 of her 3 children (I always miss out on seeing Pat on these visits - the husbands are always working, and now I often miss out on seeing Rebekah because she's in school!! :( ) at a playground. I should have taken pictures of the playground - it was amazing!!! The weather was sort of iffy, but we decided to take a stab at it anyways. It ended up being pretty drizzly all morning, which didn't seem to bother the kids at all! We probably should be thankful, because we ended up with the playground mostly to ourselves! Courtney and I have been friends since high school, when we first met and planned a Christmas Banquet together. We have been through life together - dating, college, marriage, kids, job changes, moves, everything. We each have 3 kids, and the six of them are 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 year old!!! It is always so wonderful to pop in and reconnect with her. The blogs have been a great way for me to pretend that she lives next door (like we always planned to do!) and check in on her daily and see what they are up to! She is expecting her 4th baby this summer and looks FANTASTIC (I felt terribly guilty later when I realized that we were standing and walking around this huge playground all morning...) We had a great morning with them - it's never long enough, but we sure do love them!

Vacation!! On a Tuesday???

I think they were being "Spiderman" at the time...jumping off into the sand.

We had this fabulous Chicken & Bacon Ranch pizza for dinner - it was very similar to the Chicken Alfredo pizza that I do alot (thanks to Courtney!). The difference is that it had ranch dressing as the sauce, then mozzarella cheese & topped with chicken (it was fried, but you could totally do with grilled) and bacon. Yummy - all 5 of us loved it!
What a good math teacher, right? Eating at a PIzzeria - get it? The value of PI?? Everyone remember that from algebra?
They had SO much fun with their bikes on the boardwalk - it was the first time we'd taken the bikes down there.
Jacob wouldn't take his eyes off the ice cream for ANYTHING!
Callie loved it too. She kept grunting for more, so the boys were reminding her to sign "more" instead, and of course she complied!
Love, love, love this picture of Jacob - this is classic!

David was planning to take a half day this afternoon in order to go to a doctor's appointment that he had scheduled. Yesterday, the administration asked him if he wanted to just go ahead and take the whole day since he has the time to use up...and of course David said "sure!" So what a fun day of vacation we got to enjoy today!! He came WITH us to the gym this morning - I LOVE running together with him! It was quite a fun treat. We were able to read the paper, have a leisurely morning together - so nice. This afternoon after naps, we headed down to the oceanfront. The kids played on the playground and in the sand for a while, then we headed down to a pizzeria for dinner. Afterwards, the boys ride their bikes on the boardwalk, and we even stopped at DQ for ice cream cones. A super fun "vacation" day in the middle of the week - I loved it!! It was especially nice since he doesn't get to come with us tomorrow when we leave to see my Mom! So we were very grateful for the unexpected family day today!

A Great Weekend and a Short Week!

Nothing really "huge" happened this weekend, but it was just great! The weather was beautiful, and we had some fun family time. I went to a women's ministry kickoff brunch on Saturday (I know I've said before how much I LOVE brunch food) and then met David and the kids afterwards for an afternoon at the pool!!! Since David was there with us, Callie enjoyed having the freedom of climbing in and out of the pool over and over again. The weather was perfect (I know I've already said that, but it was!) David sang at a wedding that afternoon and we had a fun family game night. David and I both were able to get in some good runs this weekend too, which felt great, as always.

We're looking forward to a short week this week. I'm taking the kids up to see my Mom this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with her! Poor David has to stay here and work, but we're excited to get up and celebrate with her. So it's a short week for us this week - hooray! :)

Ice Cream for 9 People - Less than $3.00

Julia, Josiah, David, Callie, Jacob, Lauren, and Scott

Baskin-Robbins was a big hit!! We went after church - the kids did great in their classes, and then had to sit with us in church for the Q&A with the pastoral candidate, but were VERY good (phew!). It helped that they knew we were planning to go get ice cream afterwards, but only if they behaved!!! We were able to snag the Komarnicki's and convince them to come along. They were going to bail out when they saw the line going out the door, but at my persistence, they stayed. Sure enough, the line was fast and we had our ice cream within 5 minutes!! Yummy - what a VERY yummy two days!