A few weekends ago we headed to Ohio to visit our college friends Mark and Jenny. For the long weekend away my mom and Paul took Cassidy and Andy’s parents had Ben. Friday we went to a huge indoor market to pick up supplies for dinner. Afterwards we just hung out at their house and watched Ender’s Game.
Saturday morning we slept in until 9, it was wonderful. After a big breakfast we headed out for a tour of Amish Country!
Quilt shops, wine and cheese tastings, bakeries, country stores, Amish restaurants, oh my! It was the first time I’d ever pumped in a car too ;-) As nice as it was to not have kids that weekend, I was still tied to that darn milker machine.
Telephone booths outside of the Amish businesses. They can use phones, just not have them installed in their buildings.
It was so much fun driving around hitting special spots all day. Mark knew all the fantastic little places to visit. We got to chat along the way too, here we were talking about Andy’s beard. They hadn’t seen us in a while and were quite surprised by it ;-) Actually, one of the college students at church has given the beard the name Brutus. Quite appropriate. And for anyone wondering, no, I am not a fan.
Such a fun day!
Saturday night we went to an ice carving festival in town. It was cooooold, but some of the sculptures were so pretty.
Before we headed home Sunday, the boys got a little target shooting in too.
Thanks so much for the wonderful weekend guys!
I think we’ve decided to do the 5 day Pre-K program for Ben next year. I’d initially wanted to do the three day (which actually is sometimes two days, Monday Wednesday and every other Friday)…but because of his October birthday he’s going to be a very young Kindergartener next year and I think the 5 day program will help better prepare him. Ideally I’d like to give him an extra year before K, but our only options with that are a Montessori type Kinder prep or homeschooling for a year. Neither option really works for us, the Kinder preps are SO expensive. I was looking at this Transitional Kindergarten and while it looks like a great program, we can’t afford the $2,000 a year to send him. And homeschooling for a year kind of defeats the purpose of getting him confident, able to problem solve with others and in control of his emotions in a classroom setting. Plus, I am so not prepared to homeschool (even if it is just for a preschooler).
So while he’ll be one of the youngest in his class (thanks to the NYS age cut off of December 1) I think he will be fine. Or rather, I hope. Just one of those things with parenting I guess, you always hope the decisions you make are the right ones. He’s a very smart little boy, I’m just a little worried about how overly emotional he is. He feels everything so much. Pre-K is 2.5 hours and I’m hoping the 5 days help get him in a school routine and the classroom experience helps prepare him for Kindergarten. Right now we’re at a “we’ll see how he does with it” and if he’s really NOT ready for Kindergarten next year, we’ll reevaluate our options.
Can I be honest, my house is gross right now and it’s driving me nuts. Crumbs on the floor, dishes in the sink, laundry in baskets, cob webs on lights, cat fur tumbleweeds. There just isn’t time. And when there is time I’m just so tired that I can’t bring myself to clean. People have weekly cleaning schedules, maybe I should try something like that? Then again those people scrub their walls and baseboards. I don’t think I’ve ever cleaned my baseboards. I think I get discouraged that even if I do clean, it just gets dirty a week later. Someday my house will be clean. Along those lines, as SUPER excited as I am for spring…it just brings with it a whole ‘nother host of chores. Weeding flower beds, mulching, mowing the lawn, the garden, cleaning windows and siding (because that hasn’t happened in years). I’m looking on the bright side of winter, I don’t have to do anything outside just yet.
I have a bunch of photos to post from our trip to Ohio a few weekends ago. I was joking with Andy, that who goes to Ohio in the middle of winter for a weekend getaway? This guy! We had fun visiting with college friends and enjoyed the long weekend sans kiddos though.
The scowl. Daddy, don’t dump water on me.
Ok, it’s not so bad.
Cassidy is 7 months old! She’s still a tiny little pipsqueak, although she can put away sweet potatoes like it’s nobody’s business. She tends to like the “orange” vegetables (squash, carrots, sweet potatoes) much better than the green ones (peas, green beans). Oatmeal seems to not agree with her tummy so I’ve tried barley and rice which are fine. She’s loved all the fruit she’s tried.
Her two bottom front teeth came in. They were bothering her for quite a while until they popped through. She’d wake up 3 or 4 times a night…now she usually just wakes up once a night around 4am to eat and then goes back to sleep. There were a few nights where she slept 7pm-7am, it was wonderful. Apparently the key to getting her to nap more than just 40 minutes is to forgo the morning nap all together and make her cranky self wait until 2pm to nap. Then I can get 2 hours out of her. Mean or mommy self preservation?
I don’t understand how such a tiny person can need so little sleep…but she’s generally a happy girl. Smiling and squeaking and she loves to snuggle :o)
She started to scootch herself around in a circle as well as backwards. It’s so cute, she’ll get herself stuck too.
The kitties are the object of her affection.
The feeling isn’t mutual.
A few extra pictures of little miss from the dedication. This one cracks me up.
So snuggly.
Last weekend we dedicated both Ben and Cassidy at our church. We don’t do baby baptisms, instead we did the dedication as a way of giving the kids back to God. Recognizing that they were gifted to us and are only “ours” for a short time before they head out to their own lives. They’re ours to love forever, but we only have a certain number of years to teach and influence them.
We got the chance to share a little bit about the kids, their personalities and what we see in them that points to their purposes in life. Pastors and other church members were able to pray over them and us and give words of wisdom. We also spoke about how we wanted to be intentional in our time with them, not just letting the day slide by…but intentionally finding moments to love on them and teach them.
The weekend started with family sleeping over at our house.
A quiet moment with Ben before we went up front at church.
Sharing a bit about the kids.
Our friends Matt and Grace dedicated their little girl too. They’re the ones whose daughter was born at 29 weeks and in the NICU. Baby Evie is doing great by the way :)
After church we had friends and family back to the house for lunch. Andy wasted no time changing back into a t-shirt ;-) Neither of us really enjoy dressing up, although I must say Cassidy looked stunning in her little purple dress. Andy’s mom made it for her, it is SO cute!
Thanks to everyone who came out to be a part of our family’s special day, it really meant a lot to us :)
And thanks to my mom, Leslie and Heather B for their pictures!
