Family happenings

So, instead of studying today as I should be for the ACLS recertification course I have this weekend, I went ahead and made a new template, anyway! I just have to change with the seasons! I figure this one should last me until Christmas. :)

In other news: today marks 20 weeks of pregnancy! Sorry I don't have a cute belly shot to share, but even if I had one of the kids take a picture of me right now, it most assuredly would not be cute. I feel huge! I have an appointment for my 20 week ultrasound on Monday and I am SO EXCITED!!! Monday also happens to be Dylan's eighth birthday, so it's going to be a big day for our family!

I have these photos from the first day of catechism that I promised my mom I'd post. Note the three fresh scratches on Dylan's cheek! One of our kitties got a little too playful just as we were about to leave that day; it looked awful! Still, he managed to look mighty handsome! And Caity looked so pretty. I am absolutely loving these school uniforms! :)

Caitlyn really enjoyed her first day. She's been looking forward to going with Dylan ever since he started back in Kindergarten! She really liked her teacher, and Dylan's is one of the sweet volunteers who remembered him from this past summer's VBS. Cheers to another fun year!

Out and about

I'd love to fashion a nice new fall face lift for my blog, but have absolutely no desire to sit in front of the computer for hours on end as is always the case when I get drawn into a project. I took a look at a few free pre-made backgrounds, but eh. They just didn't seem quite right. So, yeah. Guess I'll be sticking with the irritatingly springy template I've got now, much as it's begun to grate on my nerves. I am ready for fall!

Our days are developing again a pleasant, although more activity packed, rhythm now that school has started and it's quite a nice change from the directionless days we endured throughout the summer. Laziness does have it's fine points, but only in minute doses and for a very limited time. Months on end is just too much! Next year, for sure, I'll have to be more careful about keeping us active over the summer, even if we are officially on a break from schoolwork.

Seemingly overnight, we've become quite involved in various out of home activities and I'm just thrilled with how happily my children are responding to their new pursuits! Dylan and Caitlyn have actually been enrolled in a gymnastics class for homeschoolers for a few months now, and we plan to keep them there for a while! It meets for an hour once a week and is run by a husband and wife who are just wonderful. Meghan can hardly wait to turn four in December so she can join, too! Dylan and Caitlyn just love it there and look forward to it all week long!

After seeing an announcement in our church bulletin, we recently signed Caitlyn up for the American Heritage Girls program sponsored by our church. She LOVES it and there are so many sweet little girls involved with whom I just know she will make fast friends! And so many of the moms are women I've admired from our parish, so I, too, am so glad for the opportunity to make new friends! Caitlyn and I are really looking forward to a great year enjoying this special interest together!

I think I've mentioned before that my younger brother is such a talented musician. I've always dreamed of him teaching my children, and today that dream became a reality with Dylan's first private piano lesson! I can't believe I forgot to take my camera, but Dylan was just beaming. He was so happy, and so enjoyed his lesson! He came home and started practicing right away, and is already asking when he can have his next lesson. (Which should have been next Monday, his birthday, but I had just scheduled an OB Ultrasound earlier this morning for the same time! Oops! Looks like we'll have to work that out.) I am so proud of him, and how well he did today, and so proud of my brother for being such a great teacher!

Finally, Dylan and Caitlyn will begin their CCD lessons at our church this Wednesday afternoon. Dylan's been going for two years now and really likes it, and I think Caitlyn will really enjoy the classroom setting. I'm looking forward to having that hour each week to run some errands with my two littlest girls! :)

I'll be decreasing my hours at work beginning in October, and I'm really looking forward to having more weekends home with my growing little family! These days have just been so exhausting, but it is so worth it. I was afraid that today I would just be a mess and was actually near tears last night as I fretted on the phone to my mom. I had worked all night Saturday and didn't sleep for as long as I would have liked on Sunday, and then had to go back to work until 1 a.m. Of course, I didn't actually get home until a little after 2 this morning (I would have done better had it not been for that admission I got just before reporting off!) and my alarm was set for five. Darren actually took Dylan to work with him for a few hours this morning, though, and surprisingly, I couldn't even fall asleep again after they left! I got up and instead greeted my girls as they woke, then made chocolate pancakes and gave them all a nice warm bath together. I took Caitlyn with me to the appointment I had with my midwife this morning, and we were so happy to hear that strong heartbeat! We all ate lunch together when we got home, then Darren went back to work for a while and the rest of us worked on school. Dylan's piano lesson was late this afternoon, and, while the rest of my family is in the next room watching Monday night football, I'm still wide awake at nearly 9:30! I can't believe it! All that worrying for nothing! I thought there would be no way I'd be able to make it through today. I don't usually fare so well after so little sleep. ;)

Camping

We've had a great first week back to school, but still, I have to say--it was awfully hard returning home from this:

As we were driving home, I asked the children what they liked best about camping. Caitlyn was quick to respond, "No TV and no computers."

I couldn't have agreed more.

Life is nice in the mountains.

A Book About Me

Megan asked in the comments of my previous post, "Would you be willing to share the questions you use for the "Book About Me"? I would love to start these with my kiddos!"

I'd be happy to, Megan! Thanks for asking! These are really just simple questionnaires that I created at the last minute for our first day of school last year, but I really liked them and wanted to continue the tradition! To respect my children's privacy, I'm only showing the blank templates I made, and really, there is so much more that could be added to these! In the future I might add more, but I think for now these few simple questions are enough. I loved their responses to some of the questions, and I know that one day they will enjoy seeing them, too! Here's how Caitlyn's "Book About Me" looked:

I almost forgot to mention that the final page of their books is titled Here is a picture of my family, with ample room for their illustrations. Also, I'm not clever enough to come up with sweet little poems on my own, so the verses that accompany their handprints were found by googling "children's hands poems". I can't remember at which specific site I found the poem for Caitlyn's book!

These really are fun to make, and I know we will treasure them for a long, long time!

Back to School!

We started back to school yesterday and it was wonderful! Our morning began with a yummy breakfast of monkey bread, fresh strawberries, and some delicious hot cocoa. We had hoped to make it to Mass at 8:15 (the children at our parish school have Mass every Wednesday morning), but unfortunately, Darren's truck had a flat tire so he ended up taking the van to work. To be honest, though, some of my children overslept and we actually weren't even sitting down to eat until after 8:15! So, obviously that plan never would have worked even if we HAD the van, but Wednesday morning Mass is definitely a goal I want to strive for in the future!

I couldn't wait to get them all dressed and ready for school! We're trying something a little different this year with the implementation of school uniforms. They are something Darren and I had been considering for a while, thinking that they might help put us in more of a mind set to "do school", and I had even browsed around online at a few retailers. I found one site that had some darling little jumpers, but decided to wait for just a bit more while we thought about if for just a little longer. The very next day, though, I had to make a quick stop in Goodwill and happened to find two of the exact jumpers--in Caitlyn's size!--that I had been looking at online! And a shirt to match, too! I tend to view finds like these as a sign, and snatched them right up for $3.75 a piece. :) I had been thinking of any combination of navy and dark green, so these work perfectly! Dylan already had a brand new pair of khaki pants that were still a little too big last year but which fit him perfectly this year, as well as polo shirts in both navy blue and forest green, so he was set. And Caitlyn's new jumpers, combined with two navy/green plaid skirts and white tops she already had, complete her school wardrobe! I'm not really worrying too much about the two littlest girls, although I have to say that I was just giddy to find the most darling little dress for Meghan during that same trip to Goodwill...green, navy, and white plaid, with little apples adorning the collar and smocked top! Too, too cute!

Dylan, a big second grader!

Caitlyn, our sweet Kindergartner!

Meggie, ready for preschool!

Kristen, our merry mischief maker :)

Everybody was excited to start lessons after morning prayers! I had them start with another "Book About Me" with the same questions as last year so we could compare how their answers change from year to year. They really loved these! They also loved their boxes of brand new school supplies. :) Meghan was so happy to be doing school with us this year, and we all really loved working on the state-by-state scrapbook we'll be making this year.

We're looking forward to another fun day today, with homeschool gymnastics this afternoon and Caitlyn's second meeting of American Heritage Girls this evening! Another exciting school year is off to a great start!

Here's where we spent our weekend

It was spectacular, and I hope to share more about it later, but for now I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry and cleaning and errands and last minute lesson planning. (School starts again tomorrow! We're so excited!) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!