Camping

Our poor, sweet little Nicole has been asking us to take her camping for about 2 years now.  Last year was a wreck...and during camping season here, we just couldn't.  So...this year rolls around and we are in transition from moving our lives.  We kept trying to find a weekend to go, but it just wasn't working.  So...finally, a few weeks ago in early April, we put the tent up in our own backyard.

Nicole was appeased...all she wanted was a campfire and a tent.  Mommy was happy because I really didn't want to be in the woods with three children and a puppy dog.  Daddy..well...there was a fire, so that made him happy too:)

The kids "helped" set up the tent and loved every minute of it.  Nate and Hannah enjoyed playing inside the tent together and yelling at Lucy the dog to stay away. 

The best (ok, scariest...looking back now, we can laugh but this could have been really bad) part of the night was when the kids wanted to roast marshmallows.  Jeremy said to them "First you have to find a stick".  Nathan reaches into the fire pit and grabs a stick that is on fire!!!!  Jeremy was right there and controlled the situation immediately.  Nate was perfectly fine.  Mom and dad...well...we were a bit on edge after that ;)

Nathan got stung by a random wasp at night while exiting the tent.  That was weird.

Surprising the  kids all slept in the tent all night long! (yes...I stayed in the tent too...even though I kept thinking about how close my couch (or even my bed) was.  Lucy stayed in her kennel...maybe sometime she can stay out with us though.

I very much enjoyed camping the backyard.  Clean up was fairly easy.  I wasn't afraid of wild animals since we have a fence, and bathrooms were close by.  All in all...it was a great family weekend.

Hannah turns 4!

Every time someone looks at me and says, "Cherish these years, they may be hard but they go by quickly."  I always look at them and say "I do".  Because although I am young, and my children are very young, I am already very aware that these years are going by faster than I anticipated.

My sweet little girl, Hannah, turned four yesterday.  I can remember the moment she was born better than almost anything.  She has brought more laughter and joy and sweetness into our family that I could have ever imagined.  I love watching Hannah grow up.  I love her comedic timing...it's nearly perfect.  I love that her favorite place to be is still in mommy's arms (or daddy's...or really, anyone who will hold her.  But, since I'm the one writing this...then, it gets to be MY arms ;)  I am sad that she is getting to heavy and to big for me to carry around. 

I tried to bribe her with $10 if she wouldn't turn four...it almost worked, until smartypants Nicole reminded Hannah that no matter how much money I gave her, she would still have a birthday. 

I love that she tells me she needs "lonely time" with just mommy when she wants to go to the store  with me and no one else.  Or, when she needs "lonely time" with daddy so she can get a jeep ride ;)

Hannah is a story teller...and I can not wait to see how this develops in her.  She is constantly playing pretend and making up stories.  I caught her laying next to Nathan the other during at the beginning of his nap time.  I asked what she was doing and she said, "I'm telling him a story".  It went on for 10 minutes, until I told her she needed to end the story.  I hope this is a trait I can allow her develop as she learns to read and write.

I love that Hannah still can't say her "S" sound and that when she is sick she says, "Mommy, I can't fwallow my fit".  I think she only says "sebygebby" now because she wants to make us laugh laugh.

Hannah loves to wear dresses and skirts.  It is rare to see her in shorts or pants.  So much so that I had to force her to wear shorts for a while because she cried over not wearing a dress.  She told me that "she can't look pretty in shorts".  This made me so sad.  I don't want her to think that her clothes or hair or shoes define her beauty.  This is something I'm glad I discovered about her when she was three..and not thirteen, or seventeen.  I am praying that the Lord would help me to teach her to find her beauty within..from Him.  Not from her clothes.  She also loves to wear "high heel shoes"

Hannah is strong and can be adventurous.  She learned to ride her bike at only 3 1/2 years old.  She loves her puppy dog "Princess Lucy".  And, she simply adores her brother and sister.

Hannah is always ready to give a smile or a hug or a laugh.  I am so thankful that God allowed Jeremy and I to be her parents.  It is a precious gift that I don't ever want to take for granted.

We love you Hannah Girl!  Happy Birthday!

Playing Hookie

We played hookie today....well, sort of.

Jeremy has not felt well this week, and it's been questionable if the kids were battling what he has, or if we all just have allergy issues (pollen levels are high).  I would prefer to chalk it up to allergies, but this morning when we woke up to go to CC....the kids all said their throats hurt (this may have been their excuse for a cough drop), and all still had the sniffles and sneezes pretty bad.

So....for the sake of the other kids in the nursery, we skipped CC this morning.

However, my poor husband would have come home to a crazy lady tonight if I had to stay in this house one more day with the kids.  It's been a rough week (lots of boo boos...lots of potty training, and some bad attitudes and fighting).  We needed out....NOW!

We packed the van up with our bicycles, lunch and snacks and took off to Lettuce Lake Park.  I had no idea what to expect because I had never been to this park, nor do I know anyone who has been the park.

Riding down a bike path

It was the perfect day for us!  I love this park!!!

We rode our bikes around a 1.25 mile loop (twice), walked on their beautiful boardwalk through the woods and to Hillsborough River, played on the play ground and even saw a (homeschooling) teenager riding a unicycle!

It was just what I needed with the kids.  A new adventure, outside, with few rules and lots of fun. 

We saw alligators and turtles

Alligator (there were two here, but I just took a picture of 1)

click on this picture to make it full screen.  You can see two alligators and several turtles on the same log

I'm so happy this came out...this turtle was really far away, perched on a log sticking out of the water

And...a few more turtles

Some familiar birds....

A white ibis I think

A White Egret.  This one was hunting.  It was motionless...and then it would see it's fish and snatch it out of the water.  It was cool to see.  We saw him get a couple fish.

and some strange birds.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is.  I've never seen one.  It was huge and very fluffy

If you click on this and make it full screen...you can see it's beak open as it's catching a fish

We climbed an observation tower

Nate is saying "Shhh" as we climb the tower

And this was our view

A view of the river from the tower

This is the same picture above, except zoomed in as far as my camera would let me.  I saw a bird...and my camera got it!

We saw an Eagle's nest (if you click on the picture it will go full screen and you can see the bird getting ready to take off.)

I don't know if this was an Eagle or an Osprey.  We saw it fly into the nest...stay a moment, and then fly away.  I think we saw it later with a fish in it's talons.  Click to zoom this one in and you can see the bird's wing....he was getting ready to fly away again.

Nate ended up falling asleep on our last bike ride. 

We took one last bike ride...and it knocked Nate out :)

Nicole had a journal and would draw pictures of animals and insects she saw...and we talked a lot about ecosystems and math....that counts as a school day, right?  I love homeschooling ;)

The Family Bike Ride

Our sweet Hannah has been asking...several times a week...since she learned to ride a bike to go on a family bike ride.  Much of the time we had to say No because Jeremy's bike tired needed a new tube.  It finally got fixed a few weekends ago, but it took until last weekend to actually hit the sidewalk with our dear one and take her on a family bike ride.

Nate - enjoying his ride in the toddler seat

Nicole LOVES to ride her bike!

That little cutie's smile went from ear to ear.  She just LOVED riding with every member of the family.  And, Nathan enjoyed riding on the back of daddy's bike (usually he's in the trailer behind my bike).  And, I enjoyed NOT pulling the trailer:-)

Hannah likes to stand up and ride her back...especially when she knows someone is watching.  She's such a show off!

We got to explore our neighborhood a bit, which was fun...but Hannah's joy made the time perfect. 

Jeremy decided we should ride around the cul-de-sac before heading home....just in time for the tube to pop again, hahaha.  I think it was overfilled...needless to say, we had to walk home (good thing we were close)

Then, we had a little family silly-ness a few nights later.

U-Pick....We-Pick

Today....after almost 5 years of waiting, I finally took my children to a U-Pick farm (we went when Nicole was about 11 months...which, she obviously doesn't remember :)

We had fun.  There are lots of U-Pick places fairly close by, so this will hopefully be something I do with them more often (blueberries are in a couple of months...can't wait for that!)

We picked oranges and strawberries.

Hannah's first pick :)

Nathan enjoyed getting in there and picking out the best orange

Pull Nate!  Pull!!

We are VERY serious strawberry pickers!

This was a really small strawberry patch...and they were planter, not in the ground like we've seen before.

Hannah would say, "Strawberry" every time she saw one

Hannah was a very good picker ;)

Nicole carried our box for a while.  It looks like she yelling commands in this photo :)

Nate would say "Red" each time he picked a berry.  This tied in nicely with our "R" letter this week.  By the way...Nate knows most of his colors...it's amazing.

My little pickers with their loot.

Best Friends Forever...these two are.

Hancock Groves is really easy to get to.  I believe it's exit 257 (ish).  Take a right off the exit and it's about a mile down the road, just around the curve.  If you are ever driving in western Florida, you should stop by.  It's mostly an orange and grapefruit grove.  Their strawberries weren't terrible impressive...but the oranges were good:)

Soccer

Nicole and Hannah both get to participate on their first ever sports team...Soccer!  Although this is not the sport of choice for Jeremy or I, it is convenient and rather inexpensive, so we gave in and signed them up. 

Their first practice was last week.  Hannah is on a team for 3 & 4 year olds, and Nicole is on a team for 5&6 year olds.  It's amazing the difference between the two teams.

Hannah's team had at least one (but usually two or three) children crying at any given time (it was never Hannah though!).  The kids looks like a swarm of birds all following whoever was in front at any given moment.  However - Hannah scored a goal! YAY!!!!  She ran with her tongue hanging out the entire time and a huge smile on her face.  She was very excited and had a lot of fun!

Hannah getting ready to kick the ball (all of Hannah's pictures are on Jeremy's phone)

Nicole's team (no one cried), was more competitive.  She got the best coach for her (besides her daddy)...a father who had been preparing for this day since his oldest child was born (this was quite obvious).  Nicole's coach came out and did running and dribbling drills and really practiced the kids hard (I didn't see any other teams do that).  They played a scrimmage game where the kids still looked like a flock of birds headed no where, except for this one boy.  There is a super star on Nicole's team - we'll have to get his name.  This kid would explode from inside the "flock" with the ball at his feet and score a goal almost every time.  Nicole tried to stay out of the "flock" and wait for a ball to get kicked near here, when she would then study the ball and prepare a big windup of a kick, just for the superstar to come steal her glory....well, sort of.  I think she got a few good kicks in there, but aggression is certainly something we need to work on.  She is such a sweet young girl, that I think she was more concerned about others getting a turn than scoring a goal herself.

Nicole learning to dribble

Oh, by the way...Nicole has the BEST Assistant Coach Ever! Daddy of course!  Jeremy was asked to lead the stretching routine, which he quickly answered "sign me up".We may not know much about soccer, but we know how to stretch :)

Nicole dribbling the ball

Below are a few videos taken from my phone - these videos are usually less than 30 seconds each. (again...Hannah's videos are on Jeremy's phone). 

In this video, Nicole got a nice little kick in (then the ball go between her legs)

This video starts with Nicole pulling her pant legs up.  She had just got hit in the shins and was excited that it didn't hurt because of her shin guards, so she wanted everyone to see them...then, she changed her mind :)

OK, this time, Nicole got to kick the ball into play....then watch what happens:)

This is Jeremy's favorite.  It's the end of the game and they are clapping each other's hands...then, at the end, the coach has them huddle up and yell "Blue Bombers!"