I do dots?

Mom arrived last night. I left this morning. Tomorrow morning I'll be in Santiago with Matt. Hooray! I'm currently enjoying a long layover, realizing that I am great at sitting in a comfy leather chair and doing nothing.

As usual, Mom arrived with a suitcase full of interesting crafts for the kids. Remember the magnetic fish from the last post? One of the first things that Ella told my mom was that she needed to fix the broken fishing pole. After that pronouncement they proceeded to show her each of the crafts that they did with her. Once the display of treasures ended, Mom pulled out the dot paints. They painted for a LONG time last night and then first thing this morning (as in 7 am) Noah asks me if he can 'do dots.' Sweet boy.

I can't resist a little compare and contrast here. Ella really likes filling in the shapes in her coloring book.

And Noah likes completely saturating the page with one color and then doing the same thing on the other side of the page.

*humpf*

So, I finally decided that I'd load some photos to the neglected blog and I seem to be having some technical issues. Photos of our time in Chattanooga and Nashville will have to wait.

I can share a little story from today though. A friend at church is pregnant and her baby shower was this afternoon. I was telling Noah that his favorite babysitter was going to come over because I was going to a shower and he responded with 'you dry your hair, momma?'

Forgetting (again) that my kids don't know what a baby shower is, I later told Ella that I was going to a baby shower this afternoon. She responded in her you-are-so-silly voice saying 'my baby does not have a shower!' over and over again. You are right Ella, your baby does not have a shower.

King Fisher, Queen Mother and Boots

Current pictures for dad...

Queen Ella

The King and Queen showing Daddy their hats and fish. Notice Boots with his crown as well.

Going fishing for a 'd' for Daddy.

She insisted on Baby having a hat and then asked that we take a picture of it.

Water and Bunnies

Matt is in Argentina right now and requested a few pictures of the kids. I'm sorry to say that I have not taken any pictures in the last month. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did. In lieu of new ones, here are a few from the August archives.

I love this picture of Noah for a few reasons. 1) his long hair 2) his care in watering the garden and 3) right after he finished watering the garden he told me 'Mama, I go pee-pee.' I told him that he could just go by a bush and so he proceeded to take off his diaper and go on the ornamental grasses.

I don't think I need to explain this one. I just love it. I adore her.

E feeding the baby bunnies a stubby carrot from our garden.

The little bunnies. This was our third litter of the year as Mama bunny seems to keep very busy. I kept thinking that she'd figure out that it was not a good idea to nest in our yard as Moses has full access to it and insists on uncovering them. Amazingly though, on the third nest we all seemed to get along. Moses did not bother the bunnies as much and mama bunny did not seem to mind the fact that E & N regularly petted the bunnies. I don't have an image of it, but I have a very clear picture in my head of Noah squatting down by the nest to check on his little friends.

Union Pier, MI

I don't think that the beach could have been any better. It was empty and absolutely gorgeous --it is amazing that this is less than two hours from home.

Noah getting his bearings.

Ruthie and Baby Owen

Digging in

Making pools

Burying himself

Probably about to make a sand angel...she was crazy. I'm still finding sand in this one's hair.

Rinsing hands

Ruthie and Aunt Barb

Barb's sister and Baby Owen

Attempting to make drip castles. They did not really get it.

Nicole and Barb

First Day of School

Okay, so it is not really school. The schoolish part is the lunch boxes and the fact that I drop them off and pick them up. Really, they are just spending a morning a week in a whimsical play land with a couple of other kids and an amazing woman. They do free play, songs, stories, crafts...everything that they love.

Noah with his 'suitcase.'

Neither of them batted an eye when I left the first morning. When I went to pick them up, Noah pointed to the outdoor play equipment and exclaimed 'Momma, playground!' Ella just darted around between all the little houses outside yelling 'no go home, no go home!'

Toddler Summer and Goodbyes

We are going on our third week of Matt away during the week so I've been extra eager to get out of the house and do fun stuff with the kids.

Last week, Meg and I decided to take the kids on a final adventure before they head down south for Dan's new job. We hopped on an early train to Geneva to spend the morning together. The kids were beyond excited to ride the train again. Noah kept saying 'all aboard' before we got on. Notice Isaac putting his little arm around Noah in the shot below.

I was sitting across from Ella, Noah and Isaac. Noticing that she was missing out on the photo op, Lily spoke up and asked that I take a picture of her. Done.

I was truly amazed at how easy it was to travel with 4 kids, three and under. Yes, we contributed significantly to raising the volume level in the car, but other than that, the ride there and back went perfectly.

Once we arrived, we headed up to the bakery in town to get snacks.

Feeling full, we crossed over the Fox River and headed down to Island Park. Again, the kids were so thrilled to be together and to be running, as fast as they could, to the park.

After the park, we walked back across the river, this time under the train bridge, and had lunch at a little deli in town. We killed a little more time by letting the kids play in a fountain. Ella won the award for getting completely soaked.

Here is a shot of Meg and I at their going away party last night. We are so thankful that God has been so clear in providing the right position for the Orrs...it makes the parting a tiny bit easier.
We are going to miss the adventures, the silly play dates, the crazy dinners and everything else! We are so thankful for our dear, dear friends.

Sigh...

Moving on...This morning my neighbor Rae and I took the kids to Morton Arboretum. If you are in Chicago, have kids and have not been there, you really should go. We had the best time and we did not even cover half of the Arboretum!

In the Children's Garden there is a maze...

...and little places for kids to sit.

Ella fell in LOVE with this little house. I'm seriously considering making one for her. Okay, I should say that I'm seriously considering asking Matt to make one for her. I even took pictures from all angles to that I could remember how it looks.

Noah was a little bit harder to capture on film as he was in little boy heaven and constantly moving.

I did manage to catch this shot though.

After that section of the garden, we headed over to the frog pond where you can take off your shoes and wade in the water. Perfect, huh? I tucked Ella's dress in her collar so that it would not get totally soaked.

Noah thought that he should do the same.

Grabbing hand fulls of little rocks, a very Ella-ish thing to do.

Tomorrow we are off to the beach in Michigan. More pictures to come.

Non-Waffle Food

At some point last week I realized that we were eating lots, and I mean lots, of pancakes and waffles. While I realize that this was my diet and the diet of my husband for the majority of our childhoods, I figured that I should at least try to get some vegetables into the kids. So, determined and resolute, I found recipes on this website for kid friendly food that includes vegetables.

I started with Sweet Beet Cookies because Ella used to eat beets, I had fresh beets from the garden, and the cookies are pink. Pink food = good. At some point in the baking process, Noah pulled marshmallows out of the cabinet and hence the topping below. The verdict? They ate them. They do taste like beets but it is not overpowering. I can't say that they loved them. Noah kept taking small bites and then telling me that it was 'for Daddy' which I think is code for 'I'm kind of okay with not eating this.' I think that I'll try them again, maybe with frosting next time.

Feeling ambitious, and also realizing that it was 7:30 am and we had nothing better to do, I decided to follow our cookies with some Carrot Snack Sticks. These ones basically taste like Cheez-It crackers and you really don't notice the shredded carrots. The verdict on these? We'll be making these again really soon.

Going to get ice cream

Take a note from Ella and Noah. If you are going to get ice cream, you should put on your sun glasses.

upside down.