so much to do, so little time to blog

Well the summer flew by! We've been back to school for 2 months and have been traveling for most of September. We visited my parents in NC to help them pack up their house as they're moving. When we returned to MD, my dear, sweet husband and mother-in-law watched the older 3 kids while the baby and I flew to Chicago to spend 5 days with the Trents (friends who use to live in MD).

I'll try to give a quick note to things of interest:

• Connor has learned to play piano using both hands, at the same time!


• I've barely cooked the entire summer...we've eaten McDonald's WAY too much (I didn't say this was a list of good things to note, just things of note)


• Lillee and Isabel have started gymnastics


• Connor and Lillee start art classes in the morning. Lillee can't stop talkign about it. Art is her true passion!
  
• I put together the coolest Lego group for Connor, called Archimedes' Workshop. We, of course, build with Legos but we also discuss history, math and science as we study who Archimedes was and what he accomplished.


• The kids had a fun class at the nature center on turtles


• Chess Group was cancelled for lack of participation (I'm secretly happy about this as our schedule this semester is NUTSO, but I'm sad because Connor was really lookinng forward to it)


• Connor has memorized his multiplication facts 0-5!! He's not 100% on recall all the time, but pretty close....now we have to review addition and subtraction, again LOL


• Chase is racing to be my earliest walker, he's letting go when standing and cruising all over the place.


• I've decided I want to learn Spanish. I took two semester in college and know a bit of vocabulary and remember some conjugation, but I cannot speak it or understand it when heard.


• I splurged on a gadget...those things I always make fun of Al for having to have. I needed to get a new cell phone so I decided to find one with a good camera in as I'm always wanting to take pictures while I'm out, but I never have enough pocket space for phone, camera, snacks, wipes, etc. So I found a nice camera that just happens to be a phone! I've had so much fun with it.


• My raspberry bushes are fruiting like crazy and I'm loving it! A friend of ours gave us figs so I made yummy raspberry and fig jam.



• We have tomatoes coming out our ears! So I've been trying to get creative with tomatoes. I made a delicious roasted tomato soup, you can find the recipe here.

• We grew a 12ft sunflower!

I'm sure there is so much more that I'm not hitting on, but my memory seems to have faded with age and the more kid I have :>)

Thanks to my awesome husband for allowing me to stay home with my kids and funds to have such a great time with them....oh and that 5 days away from home with just the baby, well that was really cool! And how you make life fun, all the time!

The picture below was taken in a hotel room....we were driving home from my parents when the baby decided he didn't want to ride any more so he screamed and screamed and screamed. It was raining and I had not slept the night before so we decided to stop for the night. We found a hotel room and tried to find enough space for everyone to sleep. That evening was so difficult. The kids had pent up energy from being in the car all day, but with it raining outside and the room being so small there was nowhere to burn off that energy. Al and I were tired and just wanted to rest but the kids were having none of it. Everyone was hungry and we had no idea where to find food. It was a grumpy night all around.

The next morning, we were trying to get ready to get back on the road so there was a bit of hustle and bustle. But once our things were out of the room, Al gathered the blankets and covers and made a fort of the entire room. They played a game under the covers and had a grand ole time before climbing back into the van to hit the road.

I love that man!