Sarah at the beach

Tonight, Sarah and I met Kathi's family at the beach to take their pictures. I couldn't resist snapping just a few quick pictures of her. We had fun chatting to and from the beach. I had to take a few work calls during the way and Sarah had a play phone and pretended she was working too. She wants to be an online teacher one day!

scrapbook page

I guess I have caught the scrapbooking bug again. It started when I saw the Husted family blogs and the fun scrapbook weekend they went on recently. Then I was at Keela's sorting pictures and couldn't wait to get creative again.

I guess I will take a break from facebook, twopeas, welltrained mind and all the other non-work computer stuff I have been doing. Scrapbooking has always been a nice retreat. My goal is to finish all of December and get it sent off to make a book by the end of April.

Here is just one page of Katie playing on the steps at Mammaw's house in December.

Wicked

Tonight, Emily, Sarah and I went to see Wicked at Barbara B. Mann. It was wonderful! If you get a chance to go see it, definetly go.

We loved Galinda and Elphaba. The story line tells the true story of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and what happens before Dorothy arrives in town.

I love that Emily and Sarah enjoy doing things like this with me.

Katie 18 months

Katie is officially 1 1/2 years old. She is now closer to 2 , then 1. :( Our 'baby' is growing up.

She is still a delight and a very good child. We have had to discipline her over her diaper antics. Mark vows to make the girl wear pants until she is potty trained. If I see her smeared in poop again I might agree!

She is getting more and more verbal each day and we love to hear her little voice. Lately she is into her babies and likes to wrap them in blankets and look at books with them. I love it! She loves animals, especially neighborhood dogs.

Jeff Kinney

This weekend we attended the Southwest Florida Reading Festival with Chandler and Holly. We had a chance to see Lois Lowry and meet Jeff Kinney.

Jeff Kinney is the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We got lucky and were able to find him hanging out under a shade tree signing autographs. He was a neat guy, seemed humble in the face of his rising popularity. When it came time to go into the auditorium to hear him speak it was chaos. The scene was similar to Black Friday at Walmart. Craziness. He talked for about 20 minutes and then they started the autograph process. Imagine 1,000 people crowded in a room that should hold less than that, all wanting autographs.....except for the six of us. We happily stood and strolled out the door with autographed books in hand. Nice moment. :)

Emily-Double Digit!

Hard to believe, but Emily has hit double digits! On March 10th, she turned 10 years old. We celebrated and had a great time!

On Friday before her birthday, she invited some of her friends over for a party.

They started off in the backyard with silly string, squirt guns and a water slide. They had loads of fun and there was lots of high pitched, girly screaming! I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed it. :)

All the girls made flip flops to take home. Emily picked out the fabric and I think they looked great.

On her actual birthday we decided to head to Fort Myers Beach to go Parasailing. I just love this picture.

This is the reason I am chicken to go. Makes my stomach turn, but Mark, Emily and Sarah loved it!

Smiley Sarah! Emily is hoping we do this for Sarah's birthday too! She wants to reap the benefits.

While we waited for them to finish, Katie, Ty and I just hung out on the sand. Katie thought that would be a great time for a sand facial. She patted the cold, wet sand all over her face. She loved it. Several people passed me and told me she had sand in her face/eyes. The girl was all smiles and didn't seem to mind. I just let her play.

She was a teeny bit excited.

My mom had planned to go with them, but my Grandma June was feeling sick so she bowed out to go check on her. Grandma is in the hospital with pneumonia. Please keep her in your prayers.

That evening we headed to Lakes Park to fly kites and have cake.
I had to put this picture in. I couldn't believe I didn't have another one of Mammaw. She was at the beach with us and Lakes Park and the only picture I have is of her untangling kites. Sorry Mammaw. We did keep busy with those kites!

Some more kite fliers! Tay, Randy, Logan and Chloe were there too! I think I chased too many kites and didn't get enough pictures.

Our four sweeties! 10, 8, 3 and 1.

Here are some more pictures of our 10 year old.

recently...

We went to the Annual Edison Festival of Light 1 1/2 weeks ago. The Roberts Family joined us and we had a great time. I have been going to this parade since I was a kid and I love to take my own. (They are watching fireworks in the pics below.) I always appreciate my mom going early to save our spots. Thanks mom!

Brooke, Sarah and Emily

Parades are Katie's thing. It means sitting and watching fun stuff and.....eating! Yum. I think she sampled EVERYONES snacks. She also enjoyed waving to everyone. She waved with such devotion. I think she thought they were all waving at her, not the crowd, just her.

Katie and Chloe are so cute together. Chloe is getting used to the very affectionate hugs that Katie gives her.

Katie is also our thumb sucker and hair twirler. Emily and Sarah just being goofy.

My latest garage sale find is this wondeful Library cart. I love it! The man I bought it from got it from Edison College Library. He works there and they were getting rid of the awhile back. I love it because it is compact, rolls very easily and fits all of our homeschooling books.
I seriously love this cart.
Here it is in action. This is a typical morning at our house. Mark working. Emily and Sarah schooling. Ty and Katie coloring. Me taking pictures.
Here is another day. This is pre-cart days, so notice the messy pile of books on the table. (I just love my cart.)

Sarah got her hair cut and looks so cute! She went for a layered look and takes pride in fixing it herself. I think she looks much older!

We enjoyed having Mammaw over for lunch and to play games. She loves to play bananagrams, 300 wishes and Blokus and so do we!

Just wanted to share my youngest students!

Nice cheese smily from Katie!

Geotrax Party

Ty is quite the Geotrax fanatic. We have amassed quite a collection since his birthday in October. We bought some pieces used from Kari, found some on Craigslist, hounded the nice ladies at Once Upon a Child and faithfully checked Kohl's to combine discounts to get the newer pieces cheaper. Needless to say, it has been fun to collect geotrax.

We are lucky to have a great group of 2 and 3 year old boys at our church, so we decided to get together and have a Geotrax party. Ty was thrilled, as was Mark. (Sometimes I think it was more for Mark than Ty. :) )

Here are the party guys.

Sarah is awesome at setting up everything. She meticulously places each sign and tree in just the right spot.

Emily loves her little Ty. On a side note, Ty is finally potty trained. We were frustrated just before Christmas because he just didn't seem to care about the whole diaper thing. He was content to be a 'baby'. Our doctor said to just wait and try again in a couple of months. Last week he said he wanted to wear underwear and it is going great! Still a few accidents, but no complaints here! Emily and I were watching him running around in his underwear and she said that she is just so proud of him. I love how she loves her brother.

Mammaw and Mom stopped by to visit for a bit. Katie thought Mammaw was so funny.

Katie and Chloe enjoying the house.

Grandpa and his train loving boys.See--doesn't it look like Mark's party! I wonder what is so funny! :)