Only child

So, Gabriel and Mya are spending a long weekend at my parents house in VA. It was kind of a last minute deal, but this is the first time in three years that Nae and I have only had one child to take care of. Funny how, when you only have one child it seems like a lot, and it is a lot because going from none to one is a huge step. But, when you have three children and only have to take care of one for a few days it seems almost easy - my how our perspective has changed.

I was afraid that Alena would be totally lost today without the big brother and sister around, but oh how wrong I was. She has thoroughly enjoyed her only child status - pulling things out to play with that Gabe and Mya would never let her play with and following me around the house with constant baby chatter. We went outside after lunch and I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.




She has the camera all figured out. So, she would go "pose" on the step and then hop right up and come sit by me and want to see herself on the screen. She was so quick it was hard for me to get a picture of her actually sitting.

Our preschool projects

For Gabe's preschool work this year (and Mya participates too, of course) I've been using a book entitled Five in a Row. The general idea is you read the same story once every day for five days, and each day you do a different little project/activity that goes along with the book. We're also working on reading, printing, etc but this little part of our morning is usually the most fun for the kids.

Anyway, we've been reading A Pair of Red Clogs this week. The book is set in Japan so today we made some "sushi" I'm not usually one to try food projects with the kids, but this one was very easy and turned out pretty cute, I thought.

We all thought it tasted better than real sushi - we'll leave the real sushi eating to Daddy!

Another day we talked about how in the book the Grandmother is reminiscing and telling a story about something that happened when she was little. I had Gabe tell me a story about something that he remembered happening, I wrote it down and he illustrated his little "book." He picked a story I would have never thought of: when were coming home from the beach this summer, we stopped at a small restaurant for breakfast and while there we got to meet a man who played the harmonica. Here's his version of the story (this is mostly for the fam since it probably won't make since if you weren't there. Also, sorry about the poor videoing - I was trying to video over Gabe's shoulder. Hope it won't make you motion sick) Notice that Gabe still calls a harmoinca a "remoninca." That just cracks me up!

Outside pics

I'm a mean Mom and make my kids go outside everyday (weather permitting, of course). Occasionally, I'm met with tears and "I don't want to!" when I tell them it's time to go out. That's what happened today so I told Gabe and Mya (Alena was staying in with me) that they only had to stay out until I got lunch fixed. (Just like my Mom used to tell me, "You don't have to take a nap, just lay in here until the clock goes off." Of course, I always fell asleep.) They ended up eating lunch on the deck, and stayed out until 4:00. The weather was gorgeous and with the window open I could hear them having the best time playing everything from Star Wars to being animals in the zoo. It provided me some peace and quiet and they got lots of fresh air and exercise.

Alena napped for most of the time they were outside, but once she woke up I took her out too. She went right for the sandbox.

After dinner cookies

We all enjoyed some after dinner cookies tonight and we ate outside so as to minimize the mess.

Gabe who loves to be silly - at least the sunset is pretty behind him.

The best picture I got of Mya - which wasn't that great.

Alena. Do try to ignore how dirty this child is - she did go right into the bath after this.

My girls cute little feet.

A trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Today we went on our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch to enjoy some farm activities and to get us all in the mood for fall (despite temps in the high 80s). This years trip was extra fun because we met up with our friends the Crooks. For the record, Gabe had a soccer game this morning before our little outing and I did bring along a change of clothes so we might get some nice pictures, but he insisted on wearing the uniform (although we did have him take the cleats off) and I just didn't fight that battle -thus the clothes.

One person in our family is really not into taking pictures these days - I"ll let you guess who that might be. Here the kiddos are at the start of the morning.
The Crooks little girl Anna Claire really, really likes Nae so he spent part of the morning like this: (Alena's not asleep, btw, I just snapped the picture while her eyes were closed)
do you think people thought they were twins?

and just because she's so cute and has the prettiest blue eyes, here's another picture of Anna Claire
Gabe and Mya took a turn on the tire swing, although it was a lot scarier than it looked once they got up there.

Alena picking out her special pumpkin.
Three best friends going on the "hay ride" (there was actually no hay involved, just two big wagons pulled by a tractor)
This picture just cracks me up - the Crook children are posing so nicely and then there are my three. Mya would only stand away from everyone and didn't want anyone touching "her" wheel, Alena is very unhappy and trying to escape, and Gabriel is about to pull Alena's arm off too keep her from escaping.
After the picture above, we should have just given up but no, we also attempted a family shot which would have turned out fine except that said just turned three year old decided she would not look at the camera no matter what we tried.
It reminded me a lot of this picture, also taken at the pumpkin patch, and also where Mya is not looking at the camera of course that is because she is only 14 days old, only 6+ pounds, and buried inside the carrier instead of because of just refusing to do it. And as an aside, look how cute 2 year old Gabriel was; not that he's not cute now, but man he looks like a baby and we thought he was so big.

Birthday Party

Okay, so this is the last post chronicling Mya's birthday, but I wanted to be sure and put a few pictures on of her party we had last night. She had two requests for her party 1. she wanted a "princess party" and 2. no boys - she only wanted to invite "my best friend Ellen." So, that's what we did. Ellen and her family came over and I also invited "my best friend Mrs. Kristin" and her little girl, Anna Claire.

So, here are the two princesses showing off their party hats which looked very cute but didn't want to stay on their heads.

Our activities were decorating "treasure boxes" and stringing bead necklaces.

The little girls got in on the dressing up as well.

Sam did not have to wear a fairy skirt but he did get a knight sword.

The big boys entertained themselves and didn't participate in the party activities, but they did join us when it was time to eat, and they didn't mind eating the pink cake either.

The princess (dressed in a power ranger costume) gets ready to blow out her candle.

This was the easiest party I've ever done - very low key which fit Mya just fine. I'm so thankful to have such wonderful friends who love my children and want to celebrate their lives with us. It was a great ending to a wonderful birthday for our not so little Mya.

Birthday morning

Mya was so excited to wake up this morning and learn that today was finally the long awaited birthday. Here's a few pictures from our early morning celebration.

She really likes her new purse, Emma.

Alena was happy about all the celebrating too. In fact, a little too happy - she didn't understand why she didn't get to open any presents.

Our princess happy to show off her new dress up clothes.

Tea party, anyone?

It was so fun to have Grandaddy and Grandmama here for a few days. They left this morning but did get to see Mya open her presents. We snapped this picture right before they left and I can't believe how good it turned out. (It's nearly impossible to get them all looking at the camera at the same time.

I'll post pics from her little party sometime tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Mya

Three years ago today our little Mya made her grand entrance - five weeks early and the easiest baby ever. I am so thankful that God allowed me to be her Mom. Happy Birthday, My-My; if I could choose any three year old in the world, I'd choose you.

Here's Mya's answers to the list of questions I like to ask every year.

How old are you today? ummm, three

What is your favorite color?purple and pink

What is your favorite food? peanut butter crackers

What is your favorite book? The Gruffalo

What do you want to be when you grow up? a Mommy

Where is your favorite place to eat out? McDonalds

What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? clean up the room (I wish this was true)

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? cook

What is the best thing about having Gabriel for a brother? he plays in the sandbox with me

What is the best thing about having Alena for a sister? I can love her and when she screams in the bed I sing "Jesus Loves me" to her

What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Play in the back yard

What can't you wait to do when you get bigger? drive

Where is your favorite place to visit? Ellen's house

What do you love about going to Mathu and Pathu's? Playing with 'Nannah

What do you love about going to Grandmama and Grandaddy's? Playing with RuthAnne

What is your favorite thing to play? dollhouse

What thing do you most dislike doing? I don't like it when Alena screams.

What is your favorite part of the day? Playing with my friends

What would you do if you could stay up all night? I wouldn't go to bed and I'd be really tired

Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world? Subway (I think this is the restaurant and not riding on the subway.)

What makes you happy? A smiley face

What makes you sad? When I cry and you and Jesus don't like us to cry

What do you wish you could do? Be nice to brother

What would make this the best birthday ever? opening presents

A weekend off

I'm leaving this afternoon for our church's womens retreat - yeah! Won't be back until Sunday afternoon. Nae is all set to handle the kids this weekend. I've laid out their clothes and stocked the pantry with kid friendly foods like chicken nuggets and Easy Mac. Trust me when I say that Nae won't be eating kid friendly food in fact he will probably be concocting some very elaborate stir fry dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The only two places they need to go are Gabe's soccer game on Saturday and church Sunday even though I have been assured that they will be busy all weekend. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Until then, here's some pictures of Alena (thanks RuthAnne for the shirt!). I need to get Alena some more orange to wear - she can definitely pull it off.


My parents are coming Sunday evening and Mya's birthday is Wednesday, so more pictures to come...