Thursday, August 22, 2013

Some summer fun

The shmuffin kids started school this week, but here's a little about our summer.

The big kids got to do two weeks of vacation bible school this year (out of the four that our church did), since Patrick was helping out.  He played a cowboy in the skits, and he and the kids had a grand time pulling out all the stops dressing up.

The big kids also had three weeks of swimming lessons in July.  They loved it!  Elijah continues to struggle with taking risks and being persistent in things that are not immediately easy for him.  Swimming was a good change to practice those things, and he still had a lot of fun.  Molly jumped into all of it with her usual enthusiastic abandon and even made a friend - who also happens to be in her class at school!  She worked her way up to jumping off the high dive by the second week - brave girl!





We also got to spend a long weekend visiting Rhode Island.  This was our first chance to go back since we moved away almost three years ago!  We had a great time catching up with friends and going to the beach.  It was Finn's first beach experience, and he had a great time!  The big kids loved going out as far as they could stand and jumping in the waves (with one of us, of course).




We also enjoyed plenty of low-key, regular fun.  We played outside and took a few picnics to the parks, went to the library and played inside when it was too hot.  All three kids played really well together most of the time.  We read and listened to some fun chapter books together too, which we don't usually have much time for during the school year.








At the end of the summer, Nana came to visit for a couple of weeks, and the kids packed in pretty much everything they wanted to do before school started.  They did lots of crafts and played and went to see Planes in the movie theater, and had tea parties and special dates with Nana.  It was great.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Party on, Garth!

When Elijah turned 7 in July, we celebrated with a couple of his favorite friends.  He invited the Grove kids (our good friends from church and our small group, who also go to school with E) and his best friend from preschool, Isaac.  Elijah chose a Lego theme, and we had a fun picnic lunch and spent the afternoon playing with water outside.  Isaac got sick that day, but he got to come over and spend the morning with us the next day, so it was like two days in a row of celebrating!

Birthday morning pancakes









Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Party on, Wayne!

In June, Miss Molly turned five, and we threw her a big ol' party!  She's not really had her own birthday party before (although the one she shared with Tallie was super awesome!) so we figured it was her year.  She chose a cowgirl ballerina theme (so Molly - totally unique and fun and PINK) and we had a great time planning it.  It was such a fun day - Molly was thrilled, and we all loved having our house full of people we love.  It was so neat to watch her be so excited and thankful for every gift, too.











Friday, April 5, 2013

A little ahead of his time ...


Finn really wants to be big, too.

On Monday, the kids had a day off of school, and I was laughing to myself watching them all crowd around Elijah while he tried a new game on the ipad - all about grammar.  He figured it out pretty quickly, and the other two thought it was great.  How much do you think Finn learned about verb tense and adjectives? =)

Yesterday Finn pulled down every book in the playroom - board books and paper books.  But I didn't mind because he took each book over and climbed into the big arm chair and "read" them to himself, and then got the next one.  He was even careful with the paper pages!  It kept him busy for a long time.

Today he was so quiet in the playroom that I got nervous and went to check on him.  He was very busy doing Elijah's math workbook. 


What a funny kid!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Dance, baby, dance!

The kids were enjoying some Saturday morning music and dancing ...


So funny!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Walking!

Finn has been taking some experimental steps lately, and loves walking around with the help of his push toy, and tonight he finally decided to take the plunge!  We are all so excited for him - yay Finn!


Saturday, August 25, 2012

Movin' on up!

I wasn't sure we would see this at all, but today Finn has moved up from his signature "wounded soldier" to a real hands-and-knees crawl!  We were all pretty excited for him this morning.


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Nana's visit

My mom came to visit us for a couple of weeks at the end of July.  Of course, the kids were thrilled to have some Nana time - they played and read and had tea parties and went to the park and the library, and just had a great time together.  I got to get out a little on my own, and Patrick and I got to go on several dates!  It was wonderful.  We are all so glad she could come.

A beautiful tea party




Of course, they read lots of books

Another tea party - with fancy hats and everything

We love Nana!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Swimming lessons

One of Molly and Elijah's favorite parts of summer this year was taking swimming lessons.  Elijah got to take swimming lessons when he was just one, but we haven't done it since then - it sure was time!  The kids went almost every day for 2 weeks, and learned a lot.  They had a great time, especially Miss Molly the mermaid.

Getting brave

jumping in




This slide was really, really fast, but Molly went down several times!

All worn out after a fun day at the pool