It's Been a While

So…it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I have missed blogging. Well, I should say that I’ve missed blogging for myself. I have been blogging regularly over at Real Mom’s Disney, and while I absolutely love it, it’s not the same as sharing thoughts over here in my own little corner of the Internet. Even if nobody reads them anymore. (Or ever?)

I can’t really blame my absence here on busyness. Sure, I’ve been busy. But it’s really been more of a writer’s block, so to speak. I didn’t decide to quit blogging or even forget about it. In fact, I’ve thought about it quite a lot over the past several months. It just seemed like I never had the right words to say.  Or the things I wanted to say would take way too many words. Things have seemed to be much easier 140 characters at a time.

A lot has happened in life since my last post. We managed to make it through almost all of 1st Grade (we finish up next week), and I’ll update on that later. Caedmon is growing in so many ways right before my eyes. He has gotten 2+ inches taller since his birthday. He’s a kind, smart, helpful boy, and he’s a great big brother to Honor. He’s spreading his wings a bit, becoming a little more adventurous in lots of ways…except he still doesn’t like avocado. (I’ll convince him one of these days.)

Honor turned 4 last month. FOUR, people. She’s also growing like a weed, keeping pace with her brother’s 2+ inches since the fall. She’s spunky, loud, and lovable. She also keeps her big brother on his toes. There’s never a dull moment around here, to say the least. She’s loved going to Mother’s Day Out this year, and next year will be her last year before kindergarten. And with our swimming lessons, she might actually be full-on swimming in the pool this summer (score for Mom!).

We’re all looking forward to summer over here. It’s going to be a bit different for us – at least, different than the past two summers. We only have one trip planned. One. Caedmon isn’t playing baseball. We’re doing some “summer school” (I’ll update on that later), and relaxing. After the crazy schedule we’ve had this winter/spring, I’m really looking forward to spending mornings at the pool, evenings in the garden, and straight chillin’ in between. Ok, so there are other things to be done too, but I think you get the idea.

Maybe I’ll even be able to find some words to string together.

Caedmon Turns 7!

We have a big seven year-old now! I can’t believe how time has flown. And we celebrated for an entire week.

The Thursday before Caedmon’s birthday, we invited two of our homeschool friends and their siblings (and Moms!) to go bowling with us. Oh, and we brought cookie cake.

We had a ton of fun with these friends and are so grateful they could celebrate Caedmon’s birthday with us.

Caedmon loves all things Minecraft these days, so of course he asked for a Minecraft birthday cake. It was my first time to use fondant, but I think I managed pretty well. We celebrated on Saturday, the day before his birthday.

We invited some friends and neighbors to come have cake and ice cream with us.

The kids had a blast, and Caedmon enjoyed his birthday celebration and gifts. And now, he’s a big seven year-old!

Oh, and this kid enjoyed all the birthday partying, too. She’s already planning her next party.

End of Summer

Whew! It’s been a busy one around here.

Let’s see…what’s happened around here lately?

It’s been a busy summer over here. We visited family and have had enough guests ourselves to hang a Bed & Breakfast sign on the front door. We’ve picked strawberries and made jam. We’ve grown a garden with lots of cucumbers and made pickles. We’ve even made Lemon Zucchini bread with zucchini from our garden. It’s been busy, but fun.

We took a great weekend trip to Louisville. We toured the Louisville Slugger Factory, went to the Zoo, and the Mega Cavern (where Caedmon learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis). Also, Honor wiggled her little behind out of her booster seat at a restaurant and almost knocked out her front teeth. It was special.

You know what’s more special? The fact that the dentist instructed us to make her stop sucking her thumb so that her teeth would stay in her head. That has led to desperate things like cutting the fingertips off of gloves that have the thumbs sewn to the palm. And then safety pinning and/or taping said gloves to her sleeves. Then, I discovered that she can still get her hands out of the gloves, even while they’re pinned to her sleeves. I don’t know what to do with that girl some days.

We spent about a month passing around a lovely summer cold/respiratory virus. That kind of put a damper on the end of our summer. But we’re trying to make up for our lost pool time now that everyone has gone back to school.

We have started school. I know, it’s still super early. But public schools have already started here, and Caedmon was ready to go. We’re full-blown into first grade. I know this is optimistic in our second week, but I think we’re going to make it. And that’s a good thing. Honor starts back to her Mother’s day out program next week. Now, if only we can get the bedtimes under control again, we’ll be in good shape.

In Summer

It’s summer, y’all! We’ve been busy the past few weeks, but we’ve been soaking up summer as much as we can. I know some of y’all are just now getting out of school, but we’ve been out for almost a month. And we’re loving it.

Every day, Caedmon asks if he has to do school work. When I reply, “Nope, it’s summer,” it’s almost as good as saying, “It’s Christmas!” We’ve hit the pool, played with friends, gone to the zoo with friends, attended VBS, and finally played on the slip n’ slide.

Caedmon’s baseball season has started. He’s playing for the Bulls this year, and loving every second of it. (The teams are named after AAA baseball teams, so we’re the Durahm Bulls.) Honor is still so attached to the “baseball shirt” I made her last season, I hope I can convince her to wear the new team colors. Maybe since Caedmon’s jersey number is also her age, she will be more inclined to wear it. Who am I kidding? A new shirt with something ruffly on it? She’ll wear it. I might have a challenge finding a brownish orange ruffle, though. We may have to go with royal blue and be happy.

It’s no secret that Frozen has been everywhere lately. And I know that most of y’all are all about “Let it Go.” However, in our house, “Summer” is the favorite. Every time it comes on Disney Junior as a little between-show short, we stop what we’re doing, and we sing and dance. I think this sums up how excited we are about summer at our house.

Lately

We’ve been busy bees lately. Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to.

We dyed Easter eggs.  (Yes, it’s been that long since my last post.)

I made a “smoked”  brisket in the crock pot for Easter, using Rudy’s Rub Husband brought back from a business trip to Texas. Because that’s what you bring home from Texas, and this is what you do with it.

We discovered that Caedmon is allergic to wasp stings, and joined the EpiPen club.

We ran a couple of drive-thru errands one day, and took Oz with us. He enjoyed the trip.

We got our garden started.

We spent some time getting our “safe place” ready for spring storms. We haven’t had to sit in there yet, but Honor has her spot all picked out.

Caedmon’s homeschool enrichment class had Field Day, and he brought home these awesome ribbons.

Our homeschool group visited a diary farm. We went on a hay ride, got to meet a dairy cow, pet her, see how cows are milked, and pet a new calf. We also ate some of their freshly made ice cream and played on the playground.

Caedmon’s end of the year ceremony with his sweet teacher, Mrs. J.

Caedmon received the “Detailed Historian Award” from Mrs. J. It was appropriate that when we got back in the car, this was sitting on the front seat.

We bring home a bag full of books just like this every time we go to the library.

Honor got some new goggles.

We went to pick strawberries. (She’s teaching the kids how to find the “grown up” berries.)

The pool opened the day we went to pick berries, so we had to go! (Caedmon got a new mask & snorkel!)

And then that afternoon, I made strawberry jam.

It didn’t quite set up, but it tastes so good, I don’t really care.

We had errands to run while Honor was at MDO one day, so Caedmon got to do math while we took a break at Starbucks. He’s quickly learning that “school” can be anywhere…and he kind of likes the idea.

Today is Honor’s last MDO for the school year. It’s about to officially be summer at our house, y’all! I don’t know when we’re going to find time to relax!

Family Pictures 2013

We had our family pictures taken last month, and I’m in love with them.

After a few friends helped me decide what we should wear (Thanks, girls!),

Husband and our photographer found a couple of fun places in downtown Nashville.

Mom was in town at the time, and we were able to get a few shots with her.

It was a fun session, and our friendly family photographer was quite patient with our goofy selves.

Aunts and Uncles

My kids have awesome aunts and uncles.

Aunt Squirt taught Caedmon to ride a horse,

and played on the trampoline with Honor.

Uncle NLB is hilarious.

Aunt Fidget jumps out of perfectly good airplanes.

(It actually takes a long time to jump out of an airplane. Or so it seems when you’re waiting on the ground.)

Uncle Deputy Guy policed (Punny, I know.) lunch with the munchkins.

Uncle HLB cleaned up the ‘vette for the kids.

And they finally sat still for just a few minutes.

Aunt Fidget was busy chasing kids (or holding Cousin C), so we didn’t get many pictures of her this trip! And Aunt Trump was busy with Cousin C most of the time, so there aren’t many pictures of her, either. That’s ok. They’re still awesome.