​I’ve taken a bit of a blog break the last few months, and in some ways I regret it, but in others it was refreshing.  I’ve been doing a lot of whatever-I-want-to-do, and also taking care of the kids.  I spend a lot less time at the computer, so it’s not front of mind to be typing away.  We’ve had an up-and-down sort of spring.  The kids are all doing great with lots of sweet moments mixed in with the craziness of 3 pretty small people.  We also decided to sell our house of nearly 10 years to gain some square footage and a bigger garage.  It was a whirlwind, we sold our house in 6 days, and bought a new one a few weeks after that.  Today is the last day that the kids will spend in this house, the one they came home to when they were born.  We have loved this house and done a lot to it to make it special for our family, but we are outgrowing it.  It only gets smaller as the boys (and I suppose tiny Alyssa) get bigger.  Because this blog is a chronicle of the things that we have done in this house, I think it’s necessary to honor its walls with a sweet goodbye.  While it is a place that I love and cherish, it is only walls and a roof, and the memories that we made here are the important part.  Our new house will bring us joy and adventures all the same.  

Updates from the kids:

​Alyssa is a very busy little girl.  She keeps up with her brothers and plays hard, even though she is tiny!  She is trying to potty train, but hasn’t quite figured it out yet.  I’m being patient, but I really hope it clicks soon.  She LOVES to swim and has no fear of the water.  It’s a good thing and a bad thing, and luckily she is pretty good at obeying boundaries once they are set up.  We have been back to the pool a few times this year, and now she is constantly asking me to go to the “baby pool.”  The first time we were there I put her swimmy vest on and set her loose with a watchful eye.  She figured out how to slide into the baby pool on her belly, and then took a few cautious steps forward. When she lost her footing and fell face first in the pool I could see a moment of panic on her face, until she floated with the swimmy.  That was when she got a BIG knowing smile on her face that she OWNED the pool.  Two trips to the pool later and she has now ditched the swimmy entirely and splashed around the baby pool like a pro. 
She also has already mastered the loft ladder at the lake.  I’m not saying that her brothers couldn’t do it when they were 2-and-a-few-months old.  I think I let them try and they either chickened out or didn’t want to.  Maybe I freaked them out, too, with all my rules, but both of them took an extra summer to master the ladder.  It was always my rule that you had to be able to do the ladder, up and down, unassisted before you could be up in the loft.  The full story goes that Grandpa and Grandma were in charge of Liss and Luke for a few hours at the lake until John, Preston, and I joined them that night.  Grandpa told Alyssa that she was not allowed to climb the ladder.  But while Grandma and Grandpa continued to unload the car, Luke climbed up the ladder, Alyssa climbed up the ladder, Luke climbed down the ladder, and Alyssa climbed down the ladder.  Then Alyssa marched over the Grandpa and said “I ALLOWED to climb the ladder, Papa.”  And because she did it unassisted, I suppose that was the truth. 
 

​Luke finished pre-school and then went to a week of pre-school camp at the beginning of June.  He had a great year, and is learning all about numbers and letters.  He can help me with the produce scales at the grocery store by punching in the numbers for the fruits and veggies that we buy.  I’m very proud of him!  He’s also a good swimmer in the baby pool, but prefers to wear his swimmy.  I think he likes the way it helps him float while he keeps his face in with his goggles on and looks for toys on the bottom of the pool.  He is doing GREAT on his balance bike, and now prefers to take his bike on our walks.  Luke got to take a special trip to Dyken Pond with Grandma and Grandpa when they opened things up in April.  When the weather was rainy they decided to take a trip to visit Liora and Talia, so Luke had a very special day with his cousins!  It’s tough to get time by himself when he is the middle child, so it was a nice break for him.  Next year he is going to go to the same preschool.  It’s a longer drive, but we like it, and it will be fun for him  Plus, I don’t want to shop around for new preschools and get waitlisted and whatever else. 

​Preston finished first grade with a good report card!  The last week of school was mostly playtime for him, so he calls it his “camp.”  He was jealous that Luke got to go to school camp after his school was done.  He’s excited to go to cub scout camp later this summer, and all the kids are spending a lot of time at the lake.  Preston can be a very sweet kid… at times.  One afternoon the boys were chasing around and being wild a crazy like usual.  They were up and down the stairs and all over the place.  Preston took something away from Alyssa which made her cry, so of course I had to go comfort her before I went upstairs to scold Preston.  But as I got upstairs Preston jumps out at me and yells “Ta DA.” 
And then Luke yelled “look Mommy, we made your bed!” 
Preston explained “We wanted to make your bed to be nice to you, and look we even put chocolates on your pillow!  I had to make Alyssa cry to distract you so that I could sneak the chocolates and bring them up here.  Wasn’t that a great idea?”
What is a Mom supposed to say?  We all ate the chocolates.

We were at the pool the other day waiting for John to join us after work.  I had packed dinner and needed to grill some burgers.  The kids were getting hungry and cold, so I decided to get a head start on grilling.  I told them they had to get out of the pool so that I could focus on dinner.  Of course Alyssa didn’t want to come out of the pool.  So I asked Preston if he could take care of her while I fired up the grill.  I could see the whole thing happen.  Preston climbed in the baby pool and held his sisters hand while he coaxed her out of the pool.  Then he took her over to our towels, helped her get her floaty off, and then wrapped her up in a towel and gave her a water bottle.  Then he marched over to me and said, “Ok, Mom, I got Lissie out of the pool.  What can I do now?”

Apologies in advance that photos will come in a few days.  John hasn't had time to edit them yet.  
          
It has been another fly away month for us!  I have so many things that I want to get done and to share with you all, but my time is no longer spent at the computer, so I miss out on writing/typing time.  I’ll admit that January has mostly been devoted to a certain flamingo quilt that is the subject of my current obsession!  It is tedious, exciting, time consuming, fun, challenging, and laborious all at the same time.  I DID find time to host a super awesome 7th birthday party for Preston.  I’m planning to put some of my projects and ideas on my OTHER blog, the one for Cherry Lane.  Speaking of which, I have big plans to get Cherry Lane back up and running this year, and John spent a lot of time last weekend getting my NEW website launched!  So many things, so little time.
Also, one of our brand new fish had a baby.  He's tiny and his name is Hex.  We will see if he lives!  But his is super cute.

As mentioned, Preston turned 7.  I always say it and I know I always will, but 7 years went by in a flash.  Somehow my tiny baby is now a kid with 2 little siblings.  Preston has his breakdown moments, but 7 is going to be a good age, I think.  Just tonight he did a bunch of chores, just because he could.  He took the milk jugs out to the recycling bin in the freezing cold, just because they were on the counter.  He’s doing great at school, and he’s actually starting to focus and work harder at gymnastics. 
We had a pretty crazy birthday party here at the house for him.  He wanted to do it here so that he could show his friends all his cool stuff.  We had 11 kids for 2 hours!  We did 2 crafts: a paper plate chameleon and decorating flower pots.  And we played a game of Photo Scavenger Hunt, which was a huge hit.  I also made a Chameleon Train Cake, which was no small feat.  When Preston first saw the cake with the Chameleon his initial reaction was “cool, but where is the train?”
 
Luke had a good month, too, but January is tough for him because it’s all about Preston.  John and I had an early Bach rehearsal over the weekend, so Gigi offered to take the kids for an overnight stay.  It was fun for Luke to have his own bedroom at Gigi’s house.  Luke really thinks that I can read his mind, and it is super frustrating for both of us.  Things like me opening the garage door instead of him turn into major meltdowns.  He’s a sweet boy most of the time, though.  He wanted to be totally involved in Preston’s birthday party, and he did alright.  I have to remind myself that he is still only 3 and that I need to get down to his level sometimes.  I think I expect too much of him, because Preston can do so much more now.  But Preston is 3 full years ahead of him.
Alyssa is a challenge!  She’s 2 through and through.  She’s having a tough time sleeping through the night, and I’ve been sick with a cold or some other thing for the whole month of January.  So I finally broke down and told John we had to put her crib back together, because I don’t want her in our bed at night……..And she can climb out of the crib.  Even with the spring off and the mattress all the way to the floor.  We are leaving it like it is for now.  When the flamingo quilt is done I think we’ll move her to a double bed.  At least that way I can snuggle her for a bit in her own bed in the middle of the night, instead of having her kick me all night in MY bed.
She really loves to work on spelling her name, and has now added “S” to the mix.  A – L – ….. S  - A!  So close! 
He latest phrases are “Leave me alone”
“I see the bus”
“NOOOO – I can do it”

She helps herself to juice and snacks and crayons and coloring books and anything she can get her hands on.  She is Miss Independent, and I know that I need to be enforcing more consistent rules with her.  I try, she’s all over the place. 
On to Feburary!

New Years Eve 2017       

This year has been a big one for us.   I quit my day job for a much busier one carting the kids all around.  I’m now working for a fundraising consultant.  I help her with presentations and documents for her clients.  I love it!  I can do it whenever I want, and it is work that changes every day.  I also have some level of expertise which she appreciates.  Anyway, it’s good for now, and my hope is that I can find some time to get Cherry Lane Designs back up and running with a more diverse product portfolio. 

John is very happy at Olympus, and keeps himself busy at home with various projects: computer, home improvement, fixing things, etc. 

The kids are all having great years too!

From Preston:

My favorite part of 1st grade is recess.  You get to RUN.  I also like to get on the bus in the morning.  My bus number is Bus 10, and I leave the house every morning at 8:08, and if I am ANY later than that I have a small meltdown.  My teachers name is Mrs. Mollica, also Tara.  We have a fun system called Class Dojo where you can earn dojo points for good manners, and you lose dojos for bad manners.  Sometimes you can earn special rewards like: eat lunch with your teacher.

For Christmas Preston got a 20 gallon fish tank.  It’s been a big project for us to get it set up, but it now has 2 tiny fish in it as testers, and hopefully we’ll be able to add a few more over the next few weeks. 

From Luke:

My favorite part of school is Calendar.  My favorite job at school is snack helper.  My friend at school is Sam and my teacher is Mrs. Gross.  Sometimes I get to stay longer at school for Lunch-a-bunch! 

Luke got a Polar Express train for Christmas, which he really loves, and also his own balance bike from Uncle Joe!  It has been below freezing here for over a week now, with no end in sight, so we haven’t been able to play outside much to test the bike.  He loves school, and he’s getting to be a great helper around the house.  He plays best when he is all by himself, add a sibling and there is a lot of screaming.  He’s also very interested in letters right now, especially L, U, K and E. 

Alyssa:
Alyssa is nearly 2 and definitely showing her 2-ness.  She throws tantrums sometimes, and has opinions about what she wears and what activities she does during the day.  Her new favorite phrase is “NO, I don’t LIKE it!”  She speaks her own little language still, but I spend enough time with her that I know what she is talking about most of the time.  She loves CHOO-choos, babies, and puppies.  She also still really loves Jack, but the love is not reciprocal.  She is very independent.  Today we made Luke some scrambled eggs for lunch, which he of course didn’t eat.  But 5 minutes after he abandoned them at the table there is Alyssa, with a giant fork, standing on a chair, eating Luke’s eggs.  This happens a lot during the day.  She helps herself to her sippy cup in the fridges, gets the step stool so she can reach the snack basket in the in the laundry room.  She feeds the cat by giving him one grain of dry dindin at a time (which makes Jack both crazy and excited at the same time).  She cleans up her dishes and her garbage when she is done eating.  She’s basically a tiny functional human.

John also switched  her bed to a toddler bed last week.  She loves it.  She thinks she is such a big girl!

Sometimes when I drop Luke off at preschool, Alyssa wants to participate in the morning drop off routine which includes “signing – in” for the day.  Luke can sign in all by himself, but when Alyssa wants to do it I help her write her name and tell her all of the letters.  She caught on a bit and now insists that her name is spelled A – L (skip a few) A.  And she loves to tell you that she’s two, even though she has a few weeks to go. 

From Mommy:

Christmas was really great this year.  I think it’s nice that Alyssa isn’t a baby anymore, and all of the kids can really enjoy the experience.  It, of course, lasts the entire month of December.  We make cookies, have a million parties with all of the activities that the kids do.  With the help of my Mom I made the boys Christmas shirts for church, and a tie for John.   Mom also whipped up matching dresses for her 3 granddaughters, and hosted Christmas, all while working on a ton of tailoring for a local dry-cleaner.  I don’t know how she does it.

We went ice skating with Ted, Liora, Talia, Debbie, and Grandpa while we were all on Christmas break.  Liora is an awesome ice skater, and Talia is super comfortable on the ice especially for a 4 year old!  I was super impressed!  This was the first time Preston or Luke have ever skated, and I explained up front that they would do a lot of falling down.  Preston took to the ice like a baby giraffe.  He legs were everywhere all at once.  One of the rink employees handed him a traffic cone pretty quickly, and that was a huge help.  I was incredibly proud of him.  He fell SO many times, but just picked himself up and stuck with it for the whole hour that we were there.  He took small breaks on the bench, and then he was right back at it.  For the final loop around the rink he was still using the cone, but he didn't fall once!  I think we'll have to go a few more times!  
Luke liked it, too, but he always wanted a grown-up to hold him.  He was too nervous to even try a cone.  He LOVED it when Uncle Ted zoomed him around the rink at top speed!

​Maybe I’ll blog more in the New Year!  But either way, I hope 2018 brings joy to all.

November was another busy, fun month for the whole family!  We took a trip to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia to meet Daniel Tiger.  We celebrated Thanksgiving.  John and I had Preston’s parent/teacher conference. And the kids all got flu shots.

Aunt Emily filled us in on the special exhibit at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia feature Daniel Tiger.  Luke is a big Daniel Tiger fan right now, and we were excited to find out that there would be a chance to meet Daniel Tiger!  So we all trekked down to the museum, Grandma and Grandpa came too.  And we met Emily there!  It was fun to meet Daniel Tiger, but the rest of the museum was even more fun!  We had been there when Preston was a little younger than Alyssa is now.  It was good then, but the boys are really good ages for all the activities right now.  We stayed for 4 hours, and probably could have stayed longer!  The especially loved the construction site with the foam bricks, and they really got into it with costumes and everything.

Luke and Preston also started swim lessons this month at a new place.  Luke is still cautious about swimming on his own and relies on his teachers to help him float while he practices stretching out his body and using his arms and legs to float.  I’m hoping that he’ll be a really confident swimmer for the pool next summer, so that he can be a bit more independent!

Luke having a great year in preschool!  I only hear about bits and pieces of his day, but he is always excited in the morning to find out if he has a job at school, he loves talking about the weather, and he is learning TONS of new songs.  We now sing HIS grace at dinner at home, the one they sing before snack at school.  A few weeks ago he was randomly singing it in the bathtub, and I made him do it a few times so that I could write down all the words.  It’s easy to memorize once you know it, but it flies right by.

Early in November the whole family went to Preston’s Pack meeting to watch his rocket race in the space derby.  He worked really hard on it with Daddy, and it was a fun night for all of the kids.  The little ones got bored at the end, but there were snacks as a distraction.  Preston’s rocket was in the very first heat and it blew away the other 3 rockets!  He was SO excited.  Then the second time it raced it went even further than the first time!  They measure how far the rockets go in each heat and then add the two distances together, so winning a heat doesn’t matter – just the distance.  When it came time for the awards, Preston was super antsy.  We thought that he probably won something, but when it came down to first and second prize, and he name hadn’t been called yet, we knew it was going to be good!  Preston’s rocket won first place!!  He was beaming!  That night we finally got home and settled down for bed, but he was SOO amped up.  He kept bouncing around, way past his bedtime, and talking about how he couldn’t BELIEVE he won the BIGGEST TROPHY.  We ended up giving him half a melatonin pill.  I’m not sure if it worked or if the placebo effect kicked in, but he settled down after that.  It was SUCH an exciting night!!!!

Right before thanksgiving, John and I met had Preston’s conference with his teacher.  He is doing really well in class, which we basically knew.  His one challenge area is reading, which we also knew.  He’s not falling behind, in fact we see a lot of progress, but he was getting frustrated with the reading group that he was in.  His teacher moved him to an easier level group, and he’s less frustrated, which is a good thing!  But he tells me that the books he is reading now are easy.  Anyway, I asked his teacher if he could stay with the easier level group in school, but send home the harder books to read at home each night.  Yesterday was the first day that she sent home reading homework, and he came home a bit confused.  He was like “no one else gets TWO books, Mommy.”  I told him that it was my fault, and that I wanted him to practice both books.  He is totally fine with that, thankfully!!  And when we read the harder book at home he doesn’t get as frustrated, because he’s not with his friends who find it so easy.   We were also SO proud of him on the trip home from Thanksgiving.  He decided he was going to read to Alyssa to help her fall asleep in her car seat for her nap.  He read an entire chapter of Dog Man (his favorite chapter) out loud to all of us.  It took him half an hour, but he never gave up.  When he was having trouble with a word he would spell it for us so that we could help him out.  And Alyssa fell asleep.  Luke was already asleep and missed the whole thing!  Ha.

Alyssa loved the Please Touch Museum.  It was really a good thing that we had a 4:3 Grownup:kid ratio.  The kids were ALL OVER the place.  It wasn’t like they were being naughty or trying to run away from us; it was just that there were a million other kids and a million things to see and do.  It also is a very open floor plan, which means there are no boundaries for toddlers.  At one point, Grandma and Grandpa were both watching Alyssa while she played in this crazy maze thing.  It so hard to describe, but there were big plastic flaps that hung down tightly together.  If you wade into them it feels like you could be underwater.  But you could exit out of any side of the group, so Alyssa probably followed some other kids out to another section, and then Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t find her.  They looked for a few minutes in the same section and then alerted the staff that she was missing.  Grandpa found her after 5 minutes (which is kind of a long time when a tiny person is missing) ALL the way across the museum.  Luckily for me, I didn’t know that any of this happened until it was over and she was safely found.  I was in another section trying to wrangle the boys to have lunch.  This child will probably need a leash – she’s too much of a free range chicken!!

All the kids went to the pediatrician for a flu shot.  It was a clinic so we all just piled into one room and the nurse went from arm to arm administering shots.  They were all incredibly brave, with NO crying.  I was so proud of them!  Alyssa didn’t cry, but she did sort of yell at the nurse and gave the nurse a dirty look after the shot was over.  I’m sure the poor nurse has dealt with a lot worse!  They all got a lolli-pop at the end, so we went home happy.

We had a fun Thanksgiving at Aunt LuAnn’s house.  The boys got to watch a movie on the third floor, and Alyssa even took a nap in the pack and play.  We stayed over at Gigi and Grandpa’s house that night and helped her to get Christmas decorations down.  We even managed to decorate our own house that weekend. All we are missing is the tree!
Tomorrow we dive into December, and we already have an action packed month planned.  It’s full of concerts, train rides, cub scouts, swimming, Bach Choir, getting a tree, etc.  I need to make a Christmas activity list so that I can organize all of the things that I want to do.  There are so many traditions and so little time!!!  
​

 6 Pumpkins that I grew in the backyard (7 but one rotted and got composted early)
2 from the orchard
1 from Luke's field trip the orchard
3 from the pumpkin train
1 from Cub Scouts

And one bonus weird one that I didn't count because it's not a true pumpkin. ​

​We have had a fun October so far, making sure to fit in all of the usual fall activities: Pumpkin picking, pumpkin train, apple picking… and more to come!  We had a VERY busy weekend last weekend.  John and I participated in the German Partnership service at church; I did part of the sermon, John did the AV related details.  It was also Lukey’s first time singing in church with the junior choir, and he stole the show!  He danced and sang through the whole thing, knew all the words, and was very enthusiastic.  And he’s only 3!  Preston sang, too, but was conveniently distracted by the button on his sleeve the whole time.  Alyssa joined the boys for the children’s message, but bailed early when I wouldn’t let her run around the pulpit willy-nilly. 

Gigi and  Grandpa Walt joined us for the church service and then we all drove over to ride the pumpkin train!  It’s my favorite train ride, because there is a pretty sweet caboose, and it’s short.  The boys, of course, LOVE it, and this year they had a cute hay-bale maze that the kids all enjoyed. 

Tonight Luke has a solo sleepover and Grandma and Grandpa’s house so that he can be up bright and early to catch a bus to another train ride tomorrow!  He was so excited to go stay at Grandma and Grandpa’s house by himself, and it’s good for him to have some time alone.  Preston is a bit jealous, but John let him stay up a little later to work on their cub scout rocket project, so it all worked out. 

Alyssa is starting to do a lot more talking - I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who can understand her most of the time - and she has some pretty cute commands:

ahwaBITE - I want a bite!  (Yelled to multiple people multiple times during just about every meal - especially breakfast because Daddy always makes himself a super delicious sandwich)
Up - Down - for when she wants to go up or down - she's not sure which is which
A!  - Means sing the ABC's - I had to fill John in on that one
Hapoopoo - Means something happened in my diaper and it could be anything - adorable
NighNighBaby - Every baby in every photo everywhere is apparently sleeping
"Wagon" - Means wagon

Her favorite toys are Baby and Meow Meow, who is a stuffed cat.  And loves to put hats on her head and the almost immediately take them off again.  She's already learned how to push chairs around the kitchen so that she can "help" me to cook.  Apparently every toddler everywhere knows the sound of the kitchen aid mixer and MUST participate in activity.  One time I made cupcakes after the kids went to bed, and it was as if I was the fastest, most efficient cupcake baker that ever lived. 

In other news, there is a chipmunk in our house right now.  I’m not sure how he got in, although it might have something to do with the back door being open for a long time.  Jack found him and chased him around, and then we lost track of him, and the Jack found him again and chased him around, and now we’ve lost track of him again.  Hurray.  We set a have a heart trap with some peanut butter, so hopefully when things are quite and dark over night he’ll venture out for a snack.  Wish us luck.

This coming week is all things Halloween, so it’s going to be sugary and chaotic, but fun!  Costumes are done except for a few finishing touches, but I have a lot of obligations that I can hopefully keep straight through the week. 
Here are some photos from the weekend!

​Fall is in full swing here!  Both boys went back to school, Luke got his cast off which was quick by traumatic, and Alyssa has started dance class! 
Our weekly schedule is a little nuts.  We have soccer three times a week, preschool, choir, cub scouts, gymnastics, and dance.  And then John and I do Bach Choir, too.  I don’t know how I did all of this while I was still working. 
Updates:
Preston is in soccer, choir, and cub scouts, and they all keep him very busy.  Between all of his activities, school, and homework, he seems to be managing it all pretty well. 
Last week John was gone on a business trip.  But before he left he read through all of Preston’s songs and rhymes in his take home book.  John has a FAVORITE song in the book; it’s about apples.  On the day that John left for the airport Preston asked me to text Daddy the words to his favorite song so that he could sing it while he was away on his business trip.  That night John called home from the hotel and they sang the song together over the phone.  They did it a few more times throughout the week when John was gone, too.  Preston can be so thoughtful when he wants to be! 
Luke is back in preschool, and it has really helped him at potty training.  He is finally taking some responsibility for going potty!  He loves preschool, and has some really nice friends!  He has gotten really interested in numbers and letters this year, and loves to write his name.  He also started choir this year, as a 3 year old.  He seems to be doing well at choir.  He’s good at learning new songs, and he really likes to sing.  He also does Gymnastics.  At gymnastics last week they had to bring a stuffed animal and “teach” their stuffed friends how to do  each of the activities – climbing, tumbling, bars, trampoline, etc.  It was so cute to watch them all making their animals do their tricks!  Luke got to do a special train adventure with Grandpa all by himself while Preston was at soccer practice.
Alyssa is naughtier than ever.  She has learned how to push around kitchen chairs so that she can climb on them and get things on the table and on the counter.  I set her up with crayons at the dining room table the other day while Preston was doing homework.  A few minutes later Preston started yelling that Alyssa had paint!!!  She had climbed up on the table, grabbed the red paint that I had been using to make Halloween costumes, opened the lid, and was smearing it EVERYWHERE!  It was a major crisis.  Thankfully we caught it early enough that the only major casualty was my already junky dining room chair upholstery.  She also climbs up on the toilets to get into tall cabinets, dumps out just about any basket or box she can get her hands on, takes the lids off of anything she can get her hands on, licks all sorts of bottles and canisters, and does it all defiantly and on purpose.  She’s crazy.  She’s also adorable.  But crazy.  This morning I was raking the acorns off the lawn, and she managed to find the one little pink petunia left in the planter and pick it. 
 
I’ve been working on Halloween costumes.  Preston want to be a dragonfly, and Luke wanted to be a tree.  Thankfully, Mom is making Alyssa’s costume, so I only need to focus on the boys.  It’s taking me forever, though, because I have a lot of distractions and other projects happening around the house.  They will be cute when they are done.
We went to the orchard over the weekend to get some pears and some pumpkins.
 
Here are some pics!
​

First Day of School for each boy:

Alyssa climbed into the sink to eat toothpaste - apparently:

Pear Picking:

Luke got a cast on his arm today; he picked red, of course.  He'll have the cast for 3 weeks.  He has been a model patient, no crying or tantrums.  Who will be the first person to sign it!?

​Luke broke his wrist yesterday, or more accurately Preston pushed Luke off a rock and Luke landed on his hand and broke his wrist.  We weren’t sure it was a break, but when he was still treating it very gingerly this morning I decided we should get it xray-ed to be sure.  He has a buckle fracture, and his little arm is in a splint.  We need to go to the ortho tomorrow for a cast.  This is not quite as dramatic as a broken leg, but it puts a bit of a damper on our fall activities.  Hopefully it will heal quickly!

​Fish Tank Mystery – Unsolved

​I loved to read mysteries when I has a kid.  The box car children were a favorite, and also the standard Nancy Drews.  They were so exciting!  I also couldn’t believe how these kids always had some mystery in their lives, like every five minutes something goes missing, or they find a secret door in a house, or something crazy like that.  I could have solved some mysteries if they ever happened in my life, but they never did.  UNTIL NOW!
We have the oddest mystery in our house.  I’ll try to include as many details as I can, and it likely will never be solved, but here goes.
To begin at the beginning, we have a very small fish tank; it’s a little less than a gallon.  It’s current occupant is a tiny yellow fish named Sun Swimmer.  Sun Swimmer has lived happily on the ledge in our kitchen for many months, but has recently been moved to the top of our toy shelf in the family room, next door to our resident hermit crabs.  The tank is plain still water with a black lid – the lid has a tiny hole in it through which the kids drop fish food.  We also have a bubbler, which is a tiny pump that gets plugged into the wall and a plastic tube that get inserted into the fish tank with a small turtle shaped pumice like stone attached to the other end of the tube.  The pump pumps air through the tube, the air goes into the turtle, and comes out as tiny bubbles (minute details, but they will be come important!). 
Yesterday was the first day that we used the bubbler, because we had just bought a new turtle pumice rock.  Sun Swimmer enjoyed the bubbles, but he’s such a tiny little guy.  I thought we should give Sun Swimmer a little break from the bubbles.  So last night around 10:20 as we were heading up to bed John detached the tube from the pump and the pump from the wall.  The turtle and one end of the tube were still in the tank.  We went to bed.
This morning John called upstairs to me and said “Carrie!  We have a mystery!  The fish is dead and there is NO water in the tank.”

I hurried downstairs thinking I would have a big wet mess to clean up, but there was no water, anywhere.  A gallon of water had disappeared.  Miraculously there was the tiniest bit of water just at the level of the stones in the bottom of the tank, but before you pull the “syphon” solution, it was well below the level of the plastic tube in the turtle, the tube had never been fully submerged, and the tube goes UP and out of the tank above the water level.  The fish was alive!  He was in a low part of the rocks with enough water to keep oxygenated.  So we filled the tank back up and the fish is doing fine.
So where did the water go?? 
I thought for a second John was pulling some practical joke, but he swears he is not.  We looked in the toy bins to see if anything was wet – on the floor, underneath the furniture, in the ceiling on the room below….. nothing.  No sign of a gallon of water.
Our next thought was maybe a tiny crack in the tank.  So after we refilled the tank I put a paper towel underneath it and put a mark on the edge where the water level was.  8 hours later it’s still at the same level.
We have an open investigation into the case of the empty fish tank, and are taking any leads we can get!

We have a few photos from the month of August to share, and a bit of an update.  August has been a busy month with a vacation to the beach, our 8th anniversary, John's Birthday, and a few other adventures in between.

This month I discovered the Pool Wildlife Sanctuary of the Wildlands Conservancy, and I have taken the kids 3 times this month.  It's a fun little park to add to our repertoire, and has some mucky ponds with tons of frogs - a little boys heaven.  Last week we went twice, because I had to bribe Preston with a second trip in order to leave from the first trip and get the little people home for a nap.  When we went  back the next day with took Preston's friend, David, with us and ran into a big group of kids from our old daycare!  It was fun to catch up with them for a few minutes.

We had a birthday party for John at the pool today!  The weather was beautiful, I got him a banana cream pie, and the kids had a blast in the pool.  Alyssa and Luke even made it through the day with no naps and no melt downs!

I know I need to share more stories about the kids!  They do and say a lot of really cute things.  But here's a quick anecdote about each before I post some photos:

Preston announced at the dinner table yesterday that his strawberry popsicle was "better than sea water."  Apparently sea water is the flavor by which he rates his food, and by that standard everything must be truly delicious.

Luke is learning to tell jokes, which include gems like: What did the light say to the seltzer water?  I'm lighting you!!!  
Alyssa and Luke also played the basement together for at least an hour the other day with NO crying.  Fingers crossed that we are turning a corner!

Alyssa has learned a few new words like: Yucky, and Get Down - Twice now we have had to fetch her out of the middle of the road on her trike.  She knows she's not supposed to be in the road, but I think she has already figured out that it's fun to go fast down the driveway.  She went to the pediatrician last week for her 18 month check up.  It was chaos and otherwise uneventful.  I took all three kids which meant that there was at least one kid in  my face at all times requesting me to blow up mickey mouse glove balloons, or asking if Alyssa was going to get a shot.  She is 22lbs - I didn't catch how tall, but still 50% for both.  She had no shots this time, but they put fluoride on her teeth.  She refused to stand on the scale, even though she was all about it last time.  She's strong and growing!

Here are some photos! And you can find the full album here  

Photos from the beach  Full Album of beach and lake HERE:

And a few from the lake in late July:

I got a new computer, and I love typing on it!  It seriously makes all the difference, and hopefully this means that it won’t feel like such a chore to blog anymore.  My old computer, may it rest in peace, was great for a while, but went through a series of unfortunate accidents which left its screen literally hanging on by a thread.  Anyway, I am very happy to have a new computer, especially because I don’t sit in front of one all day at work anymore.
So this is my inaugural blog post on this computer, and because it’s been a LONG time, I have a lot to share. 

Summer 2017 – It has FLOWN by.  John and I took a trip to Germany with a church group to visit our sister church in Melsungen.  It was an unforgettable trip, and a wonderful experience for me and John.  I had a lot of anxiety about leaving the kids for 10 days, but it turned out much better than I ever could have imagined.  The kids had a blast at the lake and at the beach and according to the grandparents “Didn’t miss you guys at all.”  It felt to strange to wake up every day and not have anyone to take care of but ourselves.  I’ll try to write about Germany and share some pictures in some upcoming posts, I have a ton of stuff that the kids want to tell you about.

From Luke:

My summer has been really fun so far!  I loved going to preschool camp at church and learned things like “Put your marshmallow in!”  which means that you pretend to put a marshmallow in your mouth and then talk funny until you pretend swallow it.  I randomly tell Mommy to do it throughout the day, and she’s so funny when she talks!  I also love to pretend to be animals like puppies, giraffes, lions, etc.  I make everyone in the family pretend to be an animal with me: Mommy Giraffe, Bissie Giraffe, Lukey Giraffe, Preston Giraffe, Daddy Giraffe.  We also have to narrate when we talk for example: I would like some cheese, said Lukey Giraffe. 
Last week Preston went to Zoo camp.  On the way there I spotted a brand new playground that I had never been to before, and Mommy let me and Bissie try it out on our way back home.  It was a super fun playground with a pretend tractor, a sheep see-saw, and piggy spring rider, and some swings.  Alyssa liked it to.  She’s getting pretty good a playgrounds.  We also went to the grocery store without Preston, and I was so good that I got to pick out a new hot wheels car! 
I got a new type of floaty for the pool, so now I can swim in the big pool unassisted.  This has made things a little simpler for Mommy.  One time I was just floating there in the big pool and Mommy could tell that I was starting to doze off.  It was so soothing to just float in the warm pool.  I took a nap in some towels and then was ready to go again.  Pool naps are one of Mommy’s favorite things!
I’m getting pretty good at writing my name!  I love to practice on anything that I can find.  I’m also super interested in letters and numbers. 
May favorite thing to eat for lunch is Wiggly Worm Noodles (aka Raman noodles). 
One day, when Preston was at Zoo Camp, Mom let me use the scooter to take a walk around the neighborhood.  I was SOOO good at the scooter, but I got tired about halfway through and decided to stop literally every 2 feet to: look at a tiny rock in the road, look at the clouds in the sky, whine that the scooter ran over my toe, pretend to scoot forward but actually scoot backwards.  Mommy got pretty sick of all of it and eventually took the scooter away and made me go in the wagon.  But I won’t learn if she doesn’t let me try!
 
From Preston:
I have some pretty big accomplishments to share; it’s been a big summer for me!  The summer of SIX.
Pretty much out of the blue I can ride a two wheeler.  A few nights ago Daddy decided to take my training wheels off, and I climbed on my bike and rode down the street.  I could just do it!  My bike is kind of small, but I can ride around the block with no problems, and my favorite is going down hill!!!  Today I got to have an all-day play date with my friend David, and Patrick and Quentin came over, too.  David went for a walk with us, and he said HE could ride a two wheeler, too.  Next time he comes over, he is going to bring his bike so we can practice together.
I also went from white band, to orange band, to BLACK BAND at the pool, and it’s not even the end of the summer yet.  Black band is the hardest one to get, but I did it!  I had to swim the long part of the pool – out and back – and then tread water for a minute to get my black band.  It was tough, but I did it. I was also on swim team at the pool this year, which really helped to make me a stronger swimmer.  I caught on pretty quickly and practiced every day. 
​I also went to Zoo camp, which was really fun.   I had an awesome time every day with no complaints. I didn’t even mind the heat at all!  My favorite things to do at Zoo camp where: Feed the birds, feed the giraffe, play on the playground, eat lunch outside, and find the wild toad by the big tree.  I also decided that my new favorite animal is the snowy owl, and I learned that the Zoo has an electric eel!  I got to meet few creatures up close like an armadillo, a ferret, and a penguin.  I also got the feed the giraffe THREE times (and am so spoiled that I told Mom that I fed the giraffe enough times that I didn’t need to do it again – {I mean seriously, who doesn’t want to feed a GIRAFFE anymore – Mom})
When I was chasing trains with I decided to take some pictures on my tablet (picturing taking is another grandpa habit I’m picking up). 

Here are some of the pics I took:

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​From Alyssa:

I’m “CUTE BUT NAUGHTY” and everyone knows it.  I’m famous at the pool because I walk up to people and stare at them until they give me snacks.  All the big girls are obsessed with me and follow me around the baby pool.  I make new friends every time we go, and I’m not at all shy.  I think all the Moms secret love to watch how cute I am, but are just a bit glad that they aren’t the ones responsible for keeping track of me.  I’ve not learned out to stay upright in the baby pool, and prefer being free instead of in the floaty anymore.  But it means that Mom has to follow me everywhere I go, because sometimes I tip over into the water and can’t recover on my own.  Sometimes she needs a break and puts me in the floaty anyway.  The floaty is ok.  I can still find toys and put my face in the water and stuff.  But it’s limits my freedom, and that’s just not cool.  I always have to have a diving ring on my head, and 2 are 3 are ideal – especially if they are pink. I also like to find a bucket (any bucket will do) and dump water on my own head thousands of times.   Then I try to be sneaky and dump water on Preston’s head, except that I haven’t figured out that motion and just end up dumping it on myself…. Again.  Mom thinks the super cutest thing that I do it throw things away.  She’ll give me snack wrappers or juice boxes and tell me to throw them away.  I diligently take them to the garbage can which is just slightly taller than I am, so I have to stand on my tiptoes and give it a little toss to get it in.  I’m always so proud of myself when I finally get it in! 
I’m learning new words more quickly now, so new ones include: piggy, cracker (which sounds a lot like “Jacky”), get down, get out, and nose.  Luke and I have a lot of jealous issues with each other, which makes for and exhausted Mommy, especially because Mommy is the most popular item to compete for. 
I still don’t really like to read books.  I like the idea of books and will bring them to Mommy to read, but I’m only interested in page one, and then it’s time to look for a new book.  What I DO love, though, is headbands.  I love to put on ALL of my headbands like they are necklaces and wear them around the house.  Sometimes I’ll get one on my head, or Mommy will help me to do it.  It doesn’t matter where they end up, as long as I am wearing them!  I also love shoes, taking things apart, and stealing things that I know Luke wants to play with.
Just in the last few days I finally figure out how to safely go down the stairs by turning around and going backwards on my belly.  It might be time for Mom and Dad to get rid of the baby gates for good!!!!!! Daddy will be so excited.

As I'm searching for pictures I realized that I skipped right over the end of Kindergarten and pre-school for the boys, and also the end of gymnastics for the spring, so I'll post some of those pics, too.