Charlie's Apples

Today we went apple picking as a family with our homeschool group. We went to Charlie's Apples which is in Newark. It's a family owned organic apple farm. They taught us about the apple growing and harvesting process and also about organic apple growing. Then the children all got to pick a little bag of apples to keep. Afterwards they showed them how to make apple cider and let them participate in the process by turning the handle on the apple press. Then we all got to try it. Yum! After that they all ran and played together in the orchard and even found a neat bunch of trees with branches close to the ground they all went underneath and called their clubhouse. It was pretty cute. :)

4 months old!

Ashley is 4 months today. That may not seem like a major milestone, and it isn't. :) But it just hit me today how quickly she's growing. She's no longer this sweet little newborn. She no longer just wants to lay her head on your shoulder and relax or lay back against your chest. She wants to be sitting straight up on your lap looking all around. She's been rolling since she was a little over 2 months. She pushes off the floor with her arms and gets her chest off the ground. She smiles and laughs and coos and babbles. She loves to see new things and especially loves books. When we do homeschooling time she doesn't want to lay quietly on her blanket very long looking at and playing with her toys, but she will sit quietly for a really long time on my lap looking at the pictures in the book I'm reading from or watching her sisters do a math activity. She lights up whenever she sees her sisters. She's trying really hard to crawl - which I hope she holds off on for a few more months. Most of the time she's just really happy and easy going. We're so blessed to have her with us along with our other two sweet girls.

The Lion King

Daddy took Alexis to her very first broadway show last night. I wasn't sure how she'd do since it didn't even start until 8:00 and she's used to being in bed by 7:30. But she atyed awake for the whole thing. We had her rest during the day and Don also put her PJs on her and she slept on the way home. They saw "The Lion King". They really enjoyed it. Alexis loved it except for the hyenas. She said they scared her, so Daddy held her on his lap during that part. At the end of the show the cast came out and bowed and the hyenas took off their masks. Alexis turned to Don and said, "Daddy, they aren't so scary when they take their faces off!" :) She said her two favorite parts were the song, "Just can't wait to be King" and the song the monkey sings to Simba when he's grown.

Family Picnic with the Ducks

We took the girls on a family picnic a couple of weeks ago. We of course ate, played ball, and played on the playground. But the highlight was the ducks. There happened to be a ton of ducks in the creek nearby and we had a stale loaf of bread in the trunk. So we all had fun feeding them and they gobbled up the whole loaf rather quickly. The girls just giggled and giggled at the ducks enthusiasm for taking the bread from them. :)

Bowling

We went bowling as a family a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of fun. We had bumper pads on our lane so we all did very well. :) Emily had a little trouble getting her ball down the lane and once it completely stopped in the middle of the lane. They then brought out this ramp for her to use and it worked much better. :)

Emily's 4th birthday

Emily turned 4 on Tuesday! We celebrated on Saturday with a little party. We had the grandparents over and a couple of friends. She wanted a baby doll themed party - she LOVES babies. :) So we played "pin the pacifier on the baby", "guess what's different about the baby", "baby crawling races", and I read them one of her favorite books, "Baby Dear" and had them all act it out with their dolls. They also made picture frames and we took pictures of them with their favorite doll so they could frame it. We had such a fun time and we're so grateful for Emily's sweet spirit she brings to our home.

Little Archeologists

For history we use a really wonderful program entitled, "The Story of the World". It basically divides all of history into 4 time periods each covered one year at a time. So in 4 years you have covered all of history. We're on the first book now, which is Ancient Times. It's told in a storylike format and includes a fun activity book with review questions, vocabulary, and a choice of several activities to accompany each chapter. We covered the introductory chapter today which was a basic understanding of what history is and how we discover history. One of the ways was archeology and one of the activities was taking common household objects and burying them outside and let your children be archeologists and dig them up and then tell you what the object tells them about how they live their life. They really had fun with this and we're excited to do the next lesson!

Playhouse

We have a neat playhouse in our backyard that came with the house when we bought it almost a year ago. Unfortunately it was high up off the ground with no railings and only a ladder to climb up so I was nervous about the girls using it without an adult nearby. Well, this summer Daddy got the railing put up and stairs installed. He even installed a door with a pink star doorknob Emily picked out when she went with him to Lowes. We're all very happy with it. Thank you, Daddy! :)

I Took Her Hand and Followed

I Took Her Hand and Followed

My dishes went unwashed today,
I didn't make the bed,
I took her hand and followed
Where her eager footsteps led.
Oh yes, we went adventuring,
My little daughter and I...
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the summer sky
We waded in a crystal stream,
We wandered through a wood...
My kitchen wasn't swept today
But life was gay and good.
We found a cool, sun-dappled glade
And now my small child knows
How Mother Bunny hides her nest,
Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.
We watched a robin feed her young,
We climbed a sunlit hill...
Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,
We plucked a daffodil.
That my house was neglected,
That I didn't brush the stairs,
In twenty years, no one on earth
Will know, or even care.
But that I've helped my little daughter
To noble womanhood grow,
In twenty years, the whole wide world
May look and see and know.

Whenever I fear I'm getting too stressed out and/or busy with the tasks of daily life, I reread this poem and try to remember what really matters and how little time I really have to spend with my children teaching them and playing with them before they're grown. It goes by fast, so I hope I can cherish each moment.

Hanging out with Daddy

Don had to leave for three weeks for training for his job and he was nervous that Ashley would forget him when he was gone. The first thing when he got home he picked her up and held her and she gave him a big smile. I snapped the first picture above of the two of them hanging out watching TV together. :) The next picture is of her smiling at Mommy.

Summertime Play

With Alexis in a cast, we've done a lot of things together this summer as a family, but our outdoor play had been somewhat limited for 6 weeks. So ever since her cast has come off we've been taking advantage of water play outside. We went quite alot to a local waterpark we had season passes to. It was a lot of fun with water slides, several pools, a lazy river, and a great kids play area. We've also played alot in our backyard with our slip and slide, a baby pool to splash around in, an Elmo sprinkler, bubbles to play with, and bike riding, of course. :)