I haven’t posted in awhile because we’ve been swamped…at least this week. I got spoiled last week because we had so few things to do. Now I’m getting ready for MOPS to start up next Monday. I’ve been packed with that. We have that next week and then a trip to see Mark’s college roommates and their expectant wives and then we “start” school on the 21st.

I’m looking forward to teaching Zoe and Ace. We’re using a pretty laid back curriculum this year called Little Hands to Heaven it’ll get the basics under us and then we’ll go for something a little more involved next year. I don’t want to push them too fast too soon…but I definitely need curriculum in my hands to teach them or I’ll just not get it done.

Oh yeah, Zoe starts ballet next week and Awana next Sunday. I’ve already started preparing her for Awana. She’ll have to memorize verses to earn things but we’ve been explaining to her that she will also have to memorize other verses at home, too. She’s memorized about ten or so verses since she was about 2 1/2. However, we don’t reward her with prizes if she memorizes them. We are all for her doing Awana but it’s not the most important thing for us since what they encourage we try to do in our home without it. We just feel it’s our main responsibility to teach her about Jesus. If she’s able to get a little extra at church, that’s great!

Cutsies on the kids now: Ace is a little mockingbird…especially when it comes to big sis…he’ll get on a kick and whatever she says he’ll repeat it. His favorite thing right now is quoting Dennis Lee from Nana Puddin’ (see archive posts)…he’ll say “Up, up, up, Bad stuff away!” And of course, whatever makes us giggle he’ll continue to do over and over again.

Last weekend, Mark went to check on the kids during nap time. First off, Zoe is not taking naps as much as she used to…they are getting few and far between…One of his favorite songs was playing on the radio and Zoe had her sleepy bear dancing it on Ace’s head while he slept. Of course, he didn’t get video!

And Liam is now propelling himself forward on his belly. He loves rolling to anything and everything and he’s pushing off with his toes and pulling with his arms to get things…basically, the beginning of commando crawling!

I’ll post some cute pictures soon (including our latest fingerpainting masterpiece).

Okay…the weekend before we went on vacation in June, Mark was out cutting grass and I was rounding up kids for clean up time and nap time and Zoe kept disobeying me. I was getting utterly frustrated until I walked up from the playroom and saw what was disturbing her. Our sliding glass door had shattered! At first I thought it was all the way through but then we realized it was just the outside part on the stationary side of the door. We’re not quite sure what happened with the door but the safety glass worked and kept it from going all over the patio. After vacation, we ordered french doors (what I’ve always wanted instead of the sliding ones) and that’s what Mark and my dad worked on a few weekends ago. We’re waiting on another piece to come in before we are completely finished so I’ll wait until the finished product to take pictures. Now we’re trying to teach our dog Sunny to not jump on the door when she wants in…so far so good
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The place where it all started…a big hole there…the glass actually looked really pretty as it cracked (two to three hours after the first hit)…but alas…it fell down a week after we were back from vacation!

Ace ended his birthday celebrations this weekend with a visit from Papa & Grandmere. He had so much fun visiting them. We took Papa & Grandmere to see Nana’ Puddin’ at our church on Friday. It was a ventriloquist named Dennis Lee who presented a great show for kids (and adults). The kids loved it although they were a little tired towards the end. We got one of his DVD’s & they have already watched it twice! Everything we go to church now, Ace points at church and says “Puppets!” Liam enjoyed it too. He talked back to the puppets until he got sleepy and daddy got him to get a little rest before heading home.

Ace is now in the same Sunday school class as Zoe. This started this past Sunday. I think they did okay. He is also coming to worship with us now. He did excellent sitting through worship and looking intently for our friends in the choir and orchestra!

Zoe is getting ready to start a lot of new things this fall. She’ll begin in Awana on Sunday nights and choir on Wednesday nights and also ballet on Tuesdays. I took her today to get fitted for ballet slippers and to purchase her leotard (her ballet class requires specific outfits). I thought she was going to jump out of her skin she was so excited! Ace really wants to do ballet too. We keep reminding him that he’s still too young. I’m wondering if his energy may be better spent in tumbling/gym classes but we’ll wait and see where God has placed his interests.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Papa helped model Ace’s new apron.

We had Ace’s birthday party today! It was a “choo-choo” party. We have two local theaters that show free movies on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer. One of them, it just so happens, showed The Polar Express this week. That happens to be Ace’s all-time favorite movie (in the running with Narnia though). So we invited his friends to the movies and then back to our house for pizza and cake. It was a lot of fun. Siblings, parents, and friends all took up a row and a half at the movie theater. We put on the invitations that everyone should wear their pjs like the kids in the movie…most of Ace’s friends did. They looked so cute. Zoe had to wear her slippers too (and of course I didn’t get a picture). We got full on popcorn then made our way back to the house for pizza and cake. Of course, all of the kids would have rather played than eat but they had a great time.

And here are pictures from our days adventures:

All the kids waiting on pizza!

Waiting on the movie to start. This was the first time we had seen the movie in the theater…It was much better in the theater than at home!

Ace’s cake! It’s a choo-choo train. For some reason the top layer split as soon as I started frosting it. Then I squished the ‘H’ in “Happy.” It still tasted good though.

Digging into some “moon sand” from Miss Nette Nette!

It’s now Ace’s official birthday! He’s two. We celebrated with cupcakes and one of his favorite meals, hot dogs and mac n’ cheese. He also got to open presents from us and his Uncle Ben & Aunt Betsy and cousins (he loved the baseball and started beating the bat on everything he could find…he’ll learn it eventually though…thank you!). Did he get what was going on? Not really but he does enjoy opening presents!

His stats from his doctor visit: 34 lbs (95%), 34 1/8 inches tall (50-75%), 20 1/4 inches head (97%). He’s doing really good healthwise! Enjoy the pics:

More dress up clothes!

Of course I had to include pictures of Zoe and Liam…Mommy’s dressy black shoes.

Liam is definitely rolling everywhere. He rolled himself into the middle of the dirty clothes piles on laundry day on Monday. He actually buried himself in the clothes and was having a blast. His brother and sister used to do the same thing.

He starts pt this week!!! We met with our “team” on Friday and created his IFSP (plan) for therapy, etc. It was a great meeting. I really like everyone who is working with him. They are genuinely concerned and willing to help give him the push he needs to get on track with his gross motor skills. Still not sure the exact date we start but at least I know it’s this week. It’s going to be …yet again…a busy week! I promise I’ll get to our door story later. Gotta run fix breakfast for all of us.

This weekend marks the start of Ace’s birthday celebrations! He’s going to be 2 on Wednesday. Wednesday is a doctor’s appointment, Thursday is his party (a trip to the movies to see Polar Express and then pizza and cake with his friends at our house), and then Friday, Papa and Grandmere are coming up to celebrate! What a fun week this is going to be.

This weekend my parents came up to visit and help with installing our new french doors (more on that later) and organizing our utility room.

While visiting, we celebrated Ace’s birthday with them including a sugar-free pudding pie (my mom has diabetes) that was really really good! We ate dessert on Superman plats and he got some cute Superman toys and he said “Superman” all day…do you get the picture that he really likes Superman??!! Ace got to open presents from them. He is still trying to figure out this whole gift thing. The opening present part was a breeze. He loved his toys. We thought we’d share some pics from our gift opening and subsequent dressing up adventure (he now has “boy” dress up clothes…no more wearing Cinderella dresses).

The favorite for the day was the Superman “action figure” (aka a Superman doll). He had to go night night with Ace for the night.

Ace got some cool cowboy guns and real baseball caps…which he chose to wear backwards…not sure why.

Dressing up as “The Thing” from Fantastic Four. He looked so cute with all those muscles…I mean handsome.

Is thing on?  I finally got a second to try my hand at this blog thing.  Ya’ll come back now, ya’hear?

Mark