These boots were made for walking...

and kicking, and stomping, and marching, and fighting, and dancing, and working, and running...

Simeon just wanted to show off his new boots.

Thanks for the boots "A", we are loving them!

Gettin' ready for fall

We got back from vacation in time for a birthday party. Can you guess the theme? You can read more about the party here.

Doing a little jig.

lovin' the camera

Our trip to the farmer's market on vacation inspired me to go to our local farmer's market. And guess what? Ours is small...notice that I am not even using quotation marks. It really is small. I was a little disappointed, but I did find one little treasure - a bag of peanuts. The whole family was excited about this. So, off we went to go home and roast peanuts.

You'll need 1-2 lbs of peanuts

1-2 T. of peanut oil

1-2 T. of kosher salt

And if you are like us, you might want a little more salt.

Rinse the peanuts and pat them dry. Coat them with oil and salt. Put them on a baking sheet and pop in the oven. Oven temp. should be 350 and cook about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and enjoy!

My kids asked if they could throw the shells on the floor. I think my answer went something like this - "ha, ha, hhha, hanha, gasp - NO" .

That didn't get their spirits down, they still enjoyed the peanuts for a very long time, and I got dinner done while they attempted cracking peanuts.

the Newport Aquarium - part 2

After my parents, we headed to Mark's parents. We spent a day at the park - which the kids loved! Simeon showed off his climbing skills, Abbi showed us how she could go through the tunnels and Abraham enjoyed the swing and slide!

The next day, we all loaded up in gramma and pappa's van and headed to the Newport Aquarium. It was very fun and educational. In fact, I can't wait to take a field trip there again when the kids get older. Simeon loved the sharks, going through the tunnel and petting them. Abbi....um..not so much. She and Abraham enjoyed the frogs. They had three frog statues for the kids to climb on as well as a maze for the kids to go wind themselves through and end up at a slide.

After gramma's and pappa's, Mark, the kids, and I went to a hotel just to relax and have our own little family time before our vacation was over. One last stop along the way (Chuck E. Cheese's) and then home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Up to Colombus - Vacation part 1

Enjoying the ride...

and cool at the same time.

For our vacation this year we went several places and included all of the grandparents. Our first stop was to my sister's to see her family, my grandmother, and a close friend. From there, we picked up my parents and headed to the zoo. I didn't really take a lot of pictures at all - I just enjoyed the vacation. Honestly, I don't think I could have kept up with the camera anyway.

After the zoo we went to a nearby hotel and "vegged" for the evening. We left the hotel the next afternoon and headed back to my parents. Our one rule for our vacation was "to be relaxed and if we saw something interesting along the way, stop and enjoy it." So our first stop was The Santa Maria. The kids enjoyed touring the boat and learning how sailors lived. A "dream come true" for a four year old who spends a lot of time pretending to be a pirate.

Our next stop was Renick's farm. A cute "little" farmers market somewhere in OH. They had a hay maze for the kids to play in as well as this slide. Lot's of yummy local foods and root beer for the road.

a cup of tea, four arms, and a good reminder

Summer is over and fall has begun and I find myself still very busy. In fact I spent all day working on this one cup of tea. I re-heated this same cup of tea 5 times throughout the day and still never finished it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. In fact, the day went very well, and even though it seemed like every minute was taken, much was accomplished. We had homeschooling, cleaning, playing, feeding a baby, dealing with a sleepy baby, a few "disagreements" and the list goes on.

Finally the sleeping/nursing baby time came and I plopped myself on the couch with the computer on one side and a very impatient baby on my lap. As I sat there with my almost sleeping baby my mind started to drift away ( it does that sometimes when it is quiet in my house). This time I sat and wondered why God only gave us 2 hands. Why not 4? Just think of all I could get done with 4 hands. I would have one hand for my cup of tea, one for the baby, and two for the other kids and cleaning! Amazing...then again, maybe not. If I 4 hands, I would probably think that I was "super mom" and could do twice as much, which would then result in me wondering why I didn't have 8 hands. All this to say, God obviously knew what he was doing. I am thankful for my 2 hands and also for nursing babies, which is my time to sit, nurse the baby and with my free hand surf the web (only while the older 2 are sleeping that is). During my post-daydreaming time I came across this encouraging note. It was funny that I found this in the middle of such a busy day.

I'm not generally a wordy person, and this time I went over my "personal word quota". So I will end for now and maybe next time catch you up on our vacation.

Same name, New look

I'm not back but will be shortly. For now I am just messing with the look of the blog, experimenting, and seeing what I can do. Things may look different when I get back or may stay the same ...

Gone for a while

I know it has been a while since my last post and I think it will be a while longer before the next. I feel like I have so much to do and need to prioritize my life. So for now I will be planning our family vacation (in September) and getting things organized for homeschooling (curriculum, baby on a schedule, house organized, me on a schedule, etc, etc, etc.)! Simeon starts kindergarten this fall and I want to make sure I'm ready for it as well as the rest of the family. So enjoy the rest of your summer, I will be back in September (unless I just get real industrious before then)!