Photo dump!

Get ready for lots of random photos, with no attempt to put them in chronological order.
Here I am with Carolina, the same day she sang "Nothing But The Blood."

 Her curls become extra springy when they're damp. This was after the beach, on our first day in Florida.

 On the couch with Poppy in Florida, finding his nose.

 The same Florida trip.

 Trying on glasses at a shop. The glasses are funny enough, but his expression makes the photo. Unfortunately, this is basically what I looked like for, oh, third, fourth, and fifth grade. Allegedly giant glasses were stylish in the 80's, but it's not my best look. I'll be eternally thankful that my parents decided in fifth grade that I was mature enough to handle contact lenses. But anyway, it's a lot of look, and Finn just might be able to pull it off.

 With my dad after the ING Kids Marathon. I might have put this one in already.

 Swimming at my dad's pool. Why is it sideways? Who knows. PS-This was Maggie's old swimsuit.

 Wearing a cute headband made by my friend Christin. She looks cute and she knows it.

 I might have put this one on the blog already, too. Her hand cracks me up.

 At the beach in Seaside.

 A loooong time ago, with a bike helmet that actually still fits her. We're hoping to get some use out of it now that Finn's in school. I have a new bike seat for her that fits on my bicycle and I adore riding my bike. It makes me feel like I'm a kid again. I'm hoping we can go for lots of bike rides when the weather cools off. I'm guessing she was somewhere around 12 months here.

 Maggie and Grant at Doughnuts with Dads at the end of her kindergarten year. There was also a Muffins with Moms but I didn't get a photo.

 We were eating ice cream and Finn ate all of the scoop that was sitting on the top of his cone. He didn't really know what to do next (we don't eat much ice cream, unfortunately!) and we told him to take a bite of his cone. He held it up above his head and then bit the very bottom of the cone completely off. It wasn't exactly what we meant, and it made a huge mess, but we were dying laughing. Obviously he's a rookie ice cream eater.

 Wow, a really old one with Carolina and Grant. She is totally bald! I think maybe she was between 6-9 months here? This is such a cute one of Grant.

 At Maggie's school every kindergartener is assigned a 2nd grade buddy (kind of like a big sister or big brother). The older kids help the younger kids learn the ropes around school, and they work with them on academic things, like taking turns reading to each other. Maggie loved her buddy, who was also named Maggie! They're pictured here at the school Easter egg hunt.

 Maggie made a leprechaun trap for St. Patrick's Day. The outside had lots of shiny things and a rainbow, to attract the leprechaun. The top of the box was held up with a stick, and when the leprechaun went inside, the stick falls out of the way, trapping him inside. She very conscientiously made sure the inside was comfortable for the little guy, with lots of soft things to lay on.

 Swinging in our backyard after school. I love this one.

 Silly face, big blue eyes.

 I love this one, too. It captures her personality so well.

 This writing exercise from school says "If I had $100 I would buy an American Girl doll and accessories." I texted this photo to my friend Tiffany, who is a teacher's aid in a kindergarten classroom, to test her, because she told me she was fluent in Kindergarten writing. Sure enough, she knew exactly what Maggie wrote!

 She normally sucks her thumb, but this day she decided her toe tasted better.

 Maggie occasionally sneaks my phone away and types sweet notes for me.

Phew! That was a lot of photos! Thanks for looking at them all. I'll probably do another one of these in a few days; I'm trying to clean out/organize my photos on my computer.

A video a day!

About six months ago all three children watched the movie "Madagascar." In case you haven't seen that movie, there's a part where a group of lemurs sing the song "I Like To Move It." Apparently it made a big impact on my kids because they now sing it all the time. Unfortunately, it sometimes digresses into Finn saying, "I like to move it, move it." Then Carolina says, "No, I like to move it, move it." And they go back and forth until I make them stop. In this video, Grant coerces her into saying it a few times, but normally she says it over and over all on her own.

A video every day! Poppy saves Carolina

This video is from the same beach trip as yesterday's video, but it's pretty exciting because it shows my step-dad, Benton, saving Carolina from a near wipeout. Well, it's not that exciting, but I like it anyway. There's also a random fact from Maggie about sharks.














It's possible this might not be the most exciting video in the world, so I'll include a bonus photo from that same evening. I totally love this photo, mostly because of Maggie's amazing hair. She looks like Medusa here. And yes, they were pretty well soaked from the waist down after this, but it was completely worth it; they had so much fun.

A video every day! At the beach

I went to Florida with my mom and Benton (and all three kids, but no Grant) in July. I am not much of a beach person so I'll admit to being a little apprehensive about the trip. I was so excited to have the time with mom and Benton but I was worried about the car trip down (about 7 hours, I think) and all the work that goes along with being at the beach /(sunscreen, swim diapers, eating sand, not drowning, etc), on top of not loving the beach to begin with! It ended up being tons of fun and I'm so glad I went. The kids loved the beach and that made it ten times more fun than it normally would be for me. One night we went down to the beach in Seaside and there were large swarms of families, all dressed in white and khaki, taking photos on the beach. I'm not picking on anyone in particular, but why does everyone feel like they need to do the exact same attire for their beach photos?! It was crazy. There were probably ten groups of people dressed like this, with an average of ten people per group, all at the same time. It was actually comical. Anyway, here's a very short video of the children (not wearing white and khaki!) playing in the water that night.

A Video a Day! Carolina singing "Nothing But the Blood"

We sing a lot around here. Both Grant and I come from very musical families and we hope that our kids will love music as much as we do. Right now they seem to have a love for it, and maybe even an aptitude. When music comes on, Finn stops what he's doing to listen, and after a few minutes, he can't help but dance. He also sings with a hilarious vibrato sometimes. Maggie can sing every word of every song of her VBS CD (and do all of the motions), and Carolina has been singing entire songs since she was around a year old. She can sing every word of the Doxology, Twinkle Twinkle, and at least ten other songs. I'm amazed by my little sweetie!

A video a day - Excited for homework

When Maggie started asking if she would have homework in first grade (because she wanted it), I told her that in several years when she was tired of homework, that I would remind her of this day. Then I realized it would be even better if I filmed it, so she could see it for herself! May she always be so excited to do her homework.

A video a day! A, B, C, cha cha cha

I have all these little snippets of video so I decided I would post one a day for the next week or so. Nothing is longer than two minutes, and I think most are less than one minute. I hope you enjoy them!

This particular video is of Carolina singing her ABC's in the car on the way back from our beach trip. I love that she adds a "cha cha cha" to the end of most songs. Also, I am pretty impressed that she can sing the entire song, and has been doing this for months. Is it considered bragging if I acknowledge that God gave her her amazing brain and I know I had nothing to do with it?

So Many Milestones In Two Days

Today was Finn's first day of preschool! He's going to the same preschool Maggie went to, which is, in my totally biased opinion, the best preschool in the world. We had no hesitations about Miss Heather or her school, but the day still held some uncertainties for us. Miss Heather, Finn's teacher, requires all children to be potty trained before starting school. I have literally tried every piece of advice that I've been given in order to potty train Finn. He was totally uninterested. Even when Carolina (22 months, compared to Finn at almost 3 1/2) started using the potty, it stirred no competitive spirit in him. Instead, he happily cheered her on saying, "Hooray, Carolina! I'm so proud of you!" So I didn't know what would happen when he was supposed to start school. After talking to Heather last week she said to send him on and we'd work on it together. I should have known that Miss Heather, the Boy Whisperer, would be able to get things going on the potty. She called me at 11am today and when I saw her name on my phone I immediately thought she was calling to tell me it was a huge disaster and I needed to come get Finn. Instead she was calling to say that he had peed on the potty twice already. Hooray, Finn!
Here are Finn and Miss Heather, with Carolina in the background.

 I'll come back to Finn in a minute, and you'll want to watch the 10-second video at the end. Stay with me.

Maggie started First Grade yesterday. She had a great day, her BFF from last year's class was in her class, she got the teacher we were both hoping for, and she is absurdly excited about the prospect of homework.

As a sidenote, this little navy blue shirt dress is my favorite school uniform dress EVER! I got it at TJ Maxx and it is totally adorable. I would wear it, if it fit me and I thought it looked even half as cute as it does on her.

 In her classroom, at her new desk!

Today Maggie went back to Miss Heather's school for Finn's first day, as her school was off for the day. This is pretty common for Miss Heather's graduates. They LOVE her school. Because Maggie went to school with Finn, our family had another little milestone, which was my first day with Carolina at home while the older two were at school. We had a great morning running errands, having a little date with a coffee (me) and a muffin (her) at Whole Foods, and then when we got home there was a little surprise awaiting us.

When we pulled onto our street I saw lots of big trucks close to our house. It's so funny how things change when you have kids. Before, if I had come home to see such a spectacle, I probably would have barely noticed it, but now that I have these three little people in my life, it was 5-star entertainment. Carolina and I immediately walked down to watch Metro Water install a new storm drain under our neighbor's driveway and she charmed the socks off of these big, burly guys. They chatted with her for about five minutes and then got to work. There was a dump truck full of gravel, some kind of backhoe or excavator, a big semi, and a large Metro Water pick up. We probably stood there for ten minutes watching them. I was so bummed that Finn and Maggie were missing this excitement practically in our own front yard. (I realize this sounds crazy but little things are big deals around here, and Finn loves heavy machinery, like most little guys.) Suddenly I had the idea to take some photos and even film some, so I could show the older two after school.

After I filmed a little of their work, they stopped for a few minutes, and inspiration struck me. I am friendly, and I think I have developed pretty good social skills for someone as introverted as I am, but I do not like to talk to strangers, especially not large, manly ones, nor would I normally ask them to do something somewhat embarrassing. But I love my kids and I was so proud of Finn after my phone call from Miss Heather, which happened right before all of this construction commotion. So watch the video and see what I asked four manly men to do for my sweet, sensitive, stubborn Finn.





I wish you could have seen Finn's face when I showed him the video. He was so proud and excited, and we did watch it about 15 times in a row! Yay Finn!!!