Why Ryan Rocks...

My hubby is batting a thousand these days. We celebrated our 7th anniversary on Friday night (our anniversary is really on Monday, but who celebrates on a Monday?), and he took me out for a lovely dinner at a fusion tapas-style restaraunt in Portsmouth that served the best food EVER (called Still, for the local readers). We got to take a nice walk downtown afterwards in the beautiful fall air, then after getting into the car we noticed the radio was playing our wedding song- too cool. The night could not have been more perfect.
Then, on Saturday I had my first day back at work... I was sooo nervous about leaving Caleb for the day since he's super attached and still won't take a bottle. Then, when my workday extended from 6 hours to 8 hours due to unexpected evaluations I needed to write before leaving, I was so worried I'd come home to a screaming baby and a frazzled Daddy. Moreover, when I got in I found my kitchen spotless, fresh home-made donuts on the table, the kids were getting out of the tub while Ryan was dressing a freshly-washed Bubby-boy (what we call Caleb). Come to find out, the day went perfectly smoothly... so much in fact that I had to ask myself if it's just me imagining that my days with the kids alone are really that hard (to which I answered myself, "duh, yes!"). Ryan ended up making a pudding (as only Ryan can) out of Caleb's formula and feeding him that mixed with fruit, which he apparantly loved because when I got home looking forward to feeding him he only wanted a snack from Mommy, leaving me asking for someone to find me another hungry baby so I could get the milk out (I detest pumping!). The girls said they had a great day, too, and loved making donuts with Daddy. I had to laugh because my Hubby can't just settle for simple things- no, he goes all out and makes donuts, and not just the frosted ones, but frosting-filled gnasch-topped ones and cinnimon twists. So way to go Daddy, you get several gold stars for taking excellent care of my little ones and letting me come home to a clean house, too! Add dessert (donuts) to the mix, and you had a happy Mommy on Sat. night.

How an engineer dries hair...

Ryan bathed the girls tonight and dried their hair afterward... I caught this pic - Ryan's commentary..."I was just trying to speed up the drying process"

He said Sarah's hair dried twice as fast after Hannah's hair was dried. It was a really cute moment. Look at Hannah's face, like a puppy trying to figure out something strange it's seen- "Mommy, what's the deal here?"

Cookies

My kids really know which side their bread is buttered on. This morning we've been really busy, so I wanted to take a nice break and have some fun, and offered to bake some cookies with them. They got really excited, but then paused. "Mommy, are you going to make cookies like Daddy does?" "Yeah, sure... sorta. Well, I can't promise it'll be as good as Daddy's, but I'll try."

So we baked the cookies and they had a great time. Unfortunately, though, 3 out of the 4 dozen had to be thrown out because they were terrible! I'm not sure if I forgot an ingredient or just haven't calibrated the oven right to change over to convection oven settings, but they looked like flat soupy-in-the-middle and burnt-on-the-outside-and-bottom messes. They actually had holes after baking... what kind of cookies have holes in them?! The girls' follow-up commentary: "Mommy, can we make cookies with Daddy next time instead?"... sad thing was, I couldn't take offense because they were sooooo right. I need to leave the baking up to Daddy.

Sandy Screamers...

We headed to the beach today. I had promised the girls they could go all summer, saying that once it cooled down and the big kids went back to school they could head to the beach. Well yesterday I gave them a choice; they could head to the beach or the Botanical Gardens, and they enthusiastically chose the beach. Thus far, they've been to the beach less than a handfull of times, and each time they refused to even approach the water and screamed bloody murder each time we attempted to creep near the shore. Since the last time was over a year ago, though, I hoped for better luck. NOPE.

We met with my buddy Holly and her preschool age gang of cuties, Linda, Ryleigh, and Jack, who all LOVED every minute of their time there. Caleb enjoyed himself, too, and I learned that to babies, sand must taste much better than their baby food, because he was loading it into his mouth hand over fist! First we played at the park structure at tenth street, but we headed to the shoreline at all of the kids' insistance (including mine), so I was hopeful. Alas, as we approached the water, they dipped their toes in for a moment, showed a fleeting smile, and then Hannah lost her balance and landed on her butt in an inch of water. They then BOTH then proceeded to scream bloody murder and throw a hissy fit as if we'd dipped them in acid. We never did get Hannah into the water (except for the few moments I tried the "just throw her in and let her see it won't kill her" approach... unsuccessfully), but Sarah did allow me to hold her hand whilst she clutched my leg for dear life... she stayed in for about 2 minutes and then announced she was done, too. They sat there in the sand watching their three friends and Holly and Caleb and I play for about 20 minutes, after which time we ate lunch up on the boardwalk.

So all told, they spent about 30 minutes at the park structure, much of which was spent in either time-out (Hannah) or begging to go in the water, less than 3 minutes in the water, and the rest of the time either eating or sitting watching others have fun. After loading them in the car to go home, their first comments were:

Sarah: "Mommy, I wish we could spend all day long at the beach"

Hannah: "Yeah Mommy. Someday we can go back to the beach again?"

Huh? We're these the same children sitting screaming on the shoreline just moments ago?

Fat chance, kiddos... as they say, fool me once...

Maybe next year. Thanks to Holly and the kids, though, for meeting us. I don't think I could have managed the three without their help, and I'm really glad her kids had a great time :)

First day of school!!

Those of you who know me really well know I am so stinkin' excited about this... we started homeschool preschool yesterday for the girls. We're using the Horizon's curriculum by Alpha Omega and so far, I love it. It centers the entire week's learning around a bible lesson and a key bible verse... this week, it's Genesis 1:1. The girls are learning about creation, the letters A and B (this is more of a refresher... we get to the phonics lessons in a couple weeks after a quick breeze thru recognition of the letters), the no. 1, as well as learning their address, 911 procedures/safety lessons, and lots more. We're having a blast so far. I think the girls really enjoy the focused attention from me and the special activities that go with each lesson. They (unprompted) thanked God for school yesterday before dinner, and that just made it all worth it. I really hope they continue to enjoy learning and school. So far our only trouble spot has been keeping Sarah's energy under wraps during circle time, as she fidgits most of the lesson more than she listens. I'm going to try to incorporate that energy into more action/drama during stories and explanations, though, and hopefully that will help. Hannah, who is normally a stubborn learner, seems to really enjoy this format so far, too. Above is a picture of them with one of their first projects, a letter A formed out of kix and cheerio cereal.

dualing hypochondriacs and other silliness

So Sarah is sick with a cold, and yesterday Hannah bit her tongue badly and so it's been a little sore. Now, they're competing with each other to see who is more pitiful, and each has decided to have the same exact ailments as her sister when one complains. Sarah claims her tongue hurts if Hannah should happen to complain... Hannah says her nose is "tuffy" if Sarah says she doesn't feel well, and manages a few very fake coughs as if to prove to me she's sick. If Sarah gets cold medicine, Hannah MUST have some too, and when denied, throws a fit of hysterical fake coughs to convince me she needs it (with a few fake wheezes to try to get a breathing treatment on top of it, too). I keep warning them, be careful what you wish for, knowing that Hannah will likely soon have the same cold anyway. Pitiful.
On a lighter note, Sarah yesterday asked me the best question: "Mommy, why can't we have a merry go round in our house?"...
Hmm... why, indeed?

Camping

Here's a few photos of our most recent trip to Lake Gaston. We call it camping, but it's not really camping... there are no saggy tents, only air conditioned trailors; no leaky canoes, only high-style bass boats; no leafy wipes and piddling behind a tree, but a trailor bathroom with "real" flushing, and a pump out service; no swarms of mosquitos, only hourly baths in bug spray (ok, the mosquitos are still there, but highly pissed at having NO FOOD, with the exception of poor Hannah, who apparantly can't get bug spray to stick to her skin and makes delightful bug fare); no stinky dirty campers, only freshly washed, slightly sticky and overly full-from-too-many-smores faces after visiting the posh bath house; and if you need, there's a laundry facility a short walk nearbye; and did I mention there are not 1, but 3 pools, a baby pool at the "campsite", and a big pool and a children's pool at the campground's center. Am I complaining, NO WAY! I love it. The part that makes it camping for me is there is no TV, no cell service, and we are forced to (gasp!) talk to entertain ourselves in the evenings or play games. And, much to my delight, there is fishing. Here fishy fishy... Mommy needs to land a big one! And no matter what my Dad says, he did not land a 20-some inch bass until he can evidence video or photographic proof :)... next time remember your camera, Dad.