Fall Shopping

This is for Brian. We did a little Fall school clothes shopping today and he wants to see what we got. I got a great deal at Gymboree, they were having a sale and I had a coupon on top of that. Guess how much I had discounted!?!?  $100 crazy, eh? Kendall also got a pair of shoes and they both got a few hair clips and socks but I'm returning them to exchange for a pair of jeans because the shoes hurt her feet and I realized she needs a pair of jeans today.

Kate was less thrilled to get her picture taken so I didn't make her model everything.

Another One?!

Just had to share today's Kids Quote of the Day:

The girls and I are watching Mary Poppins for the first time. I love sharing things that I loved as a kid with them. It all started the other day in the car we were listening to kid music when "Spoon Full of Sugar" came on. When it got to the line  about the bird having a "merry tune to toot" the girls laughed so hard they couldn't breathe. To them 'toot' means something completely different.

So on to the Quote of the Day. As you know Mary Poppins is set in London so they have accents. Kendall is watching intently and then turns to me and says, "Does 'pahk' mean 'park'?" Why do they say it like that?" Now she is walking around the house saying, "Mary Poppins is taking us to the PAHK" and giggling.   It cracks me up to hear how well she picks up the accent!

A Day in the Life Part II

When the morning bike ride is over we start getting ready for the beach. Haul all your goods one block down to the water and get your stuff all set up.

Spend the day digging holes (or laying in them), jumping waves, boogie boarding snacking on 'water ice' and playing with family and sometimes FRIENDS TOO! Depending on behavior one of us may go back to the house with one or both girls for naptime but then right back out to the beach afterward and if you are really blessed (like us) your in-laws will take a few shifts at the house during nap time too! If you get bored during that nap time you may choose to streeeetch until you can reach your mom's makeup bag on the dresser and entertain yourself that way.

After all of that it should be around 4:30 and you need to start packing up to get home and shower for dinner.

One More Thing

The girls are in bed and I am here snuggled in my quilt browsing blogs and the first one I read brought tears to my eyes.

Parenting is hard, and we all have days that you just feel like you're not doing it well enough. Today isn't one of those days that I'm wallowing in it but I kind of felt like I was on the verge of one of those days. Well, evidently Stephmodo was feeling that too and she asked on her blog for parenting tips. The first response made me cry:

...God picked you to be the parent of your children despite your flaws. It's not always about teaching them but it's about teaching us too. And for whatever reason, He wanted us to be parents.

Journaling Prompt

On the Wildflowers and Marbles homeschooling blog that I read she often uses these journaling prompts. I think it's a nice record of your day, your space, your plans, your life and will be interesting to read in the future so I'm adding this 'label' and hope to incorporate this kind of post occasionally. 

Outside our window...is a soft slow rain. We love these kind of days every once in awhile. The girls and I did our errands this morning and were excited to get home, change into our pjs, grab our blankets and snuggle onto the couch with a movie and books (and a laptop sometimes too).

I am thankful for...so very very much. Our family,  my relationship with my husband and our home. We've been here almost a year and daily I have think about how much I love our home. There is still a lot that I would like to do, still a lot left to do but regardless I love it.

I am wearing...brown sweatpants, a long sleeve grey Harvard shirt and pink stripped socks. Fancy, I know.

In the kitchen...Is a PLETHORA of fruits and veggies because we went to the farmers market this morning. We also stopped by our favorite bakery and picked up a hearty multigrain bread and had them slice it thickly. I plan to grill it, top it with ricotta cheese and grilled veggies for dinner one night. Yummy. 

I am reading...Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange. I'm on a Pride and Prejudice kick lately. I just finished (and recommend) Darcy's Passions a retelling of Pride and Prejudice through Darcy's eyes. 

I am hearing...Kendall's movie which is sadly covering up the sound of the rain (but only 5 minutes until nap time)

In our learning spaces...I picked up a nice stack of books at the library and I have big plans to sit down with the stack and plan activities for the rest of the summer.

Around the house...Things are actually pretty clean however there are comfortable messes around: vegetables sitting out on the kitchen counter, papers and crayons strewn over the girls' desk, and books all around...just the good 'life is getting lived' kind of mess.

I will claim a moment for myself...Even though I feel stretched for time alone, I will say that I cherish those quiet naptimes and early evenings when the girls first go down. I'm blessed that Kendall will still take a nap at 4. I think that I'm pretty good about balancing that down time with a little bit of productivity and a little bit of relaxing. Today as the girls nap, I will sit here snuggled with my Grandmother's quilt and relax, with a book, a blog, or maybe even a little snooze.

A few plans for the rest of the week...We're very excited that Dani is coming to visit us. We're planning on cooking together in the evenings, taking a picnic to a local farm, and maybe working on some artwork for hanging in the girls' rooms.

A picture to share:

I will resume our Day in the Life Ocean City posts soon.

A Day in the Life...

...Of Our Ocean City, NJ Vacation. In order to avoid one post with 4000 pictures this will come in installments. As soon as you wake up you dress and head out on your bikes to the boardwalk. You ride the 2.5 miles (one way) and look at the people, shops, houses, gardens, and usually grab coffee and breakfast too. Donuts cooked right before your eyes are always a favorite but this year I really liked this yogurt, fruit, and granola from the Ocean City Coffee Company that Brian likes to frequent. Often times you will run into your other family members that are there eating, riding or jogging on the boardwalk too!

Ocean City, NJ

I  have big plans about a "day in the life of our Ocean City trip" blog post with lots of pictures (I still have to download some pictures). But we just made it home today and there is a lot to do. So to hold you over until then here are a few of my favorites. We had a blast and none of us were ready to come home!

Postcard from the Boardwalk

I Know This is Weird

But I'm really proud of my spacial reasoning right now. 

Not shown in the before picture is Brian's suitcase but it is in the packed car picture

 along with:

• K & K's suitcase
• My suitcase
• Four beach chairs
• 8ft umbrella and sand anchor
• Huge cooler
• Dry good groceries
• Pack and Play
• 2 umbrella strollers
• The essential Diet Dr Pepper
• set of twin, queen and king sheets 2 quilts and a beach sheet
• 4 beach towels
• 4 bath towels and washcloths
• box of diapers
• laundry detergent
• Sand toys
• Toys for the beach house in case of rainy days
• In the car for the 7 hour drive toys

When we wake up I'll load up the cooler and throw in our toiletries (and two kids) and be off. We can't wait!

• 

What We're Doing

I'm reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I just started and I haven't had much time for reading but I really like it so far. Cooking and blogging, what's not to like? Actually, I like the writing. Powell uses all the senses so you really feel like part of the scene. Like I said, I have barely started it but I would recommend it. Here is the Amazon review:

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film version is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm tired. I fed the girls early just because they were all over me and whining. Then we followed the chain of events and had a bath and got ready for bed. I looked at the clock then and noticed it was only 5:45. What to do!?! The girls sensed the panic and started winding themselves up. They played in the basement for a short time and then made their way up the stairs and started asking for snacks (a sure sign they are bored). They wanted to play outside but we were already clean so here we sit. Kate is sorting our little counting animals and Kendall is working in a workbook. Our scene reminds me of a blog Jennie sent me not long ago. She, like me, is intrigued by the home school lifestyle. Neither of us have any desire whatsoever to do it ourselves but we both love to read about it and see their spaces. I think my fascination is rooted in my deep love for school supplies and maybe my favorite childhood game of playing school (remind me to tell you how I turned the tack room of our horse barn into a school house, complete with teachers edition books and large chalkboard. I would come away from my day at 'school' smelling of leather, horse sweat and hay.)

Anyway, these pictures make me want to turn an area of the basement into a school room like this. Again, not going to happen but it would be fun and beautiful. For now we'll just continue to work together on our "projects" as Kendall calls them at our kitchen table.

When the kids get a little older I look forward to the removal of the large plastic toys in the basement and setting out all the art supplies. Kendall is more than ready for that but Kate still eats crayons and uses glue sticks like chap-stick. She probably runs with scissors too, spoil sport.

Tie-yurd

Official request for a day off. Urgh, I'm tired.

I sat down to upload photos for a blogpost and found ZERO new pictures on my camera. So here is a quick recap: make trip planning list, gather supplies that aren't perishable, make another list of things to get closer to leave date, start washing, folding, collecting clothing needed, break for the pool, have friends over (learn that the 4 year old needs friends over more frequently to practice sharing), take girls for their haircuts, plan dinner party to occur 1.5 days prior to trip departure, gather more stuff, stack large piles of everything on guest bed, another pool trip, make a few more lists. Wake up in the middle of the night multiple times 3 out of the last 7 days with a (teething-2 year molars??) two year old. Decide that going on vacation is a LOT of work. On the very bright bright side: the umbrella, sand anchor, and beach chairs I ordered all arrived, Brian took us to the outlets (great surprise, great hubby) to get a couple of things, we're super excited

 about time at the beach and time with family, and only TWO more days (not counting today since it's almost over right!?!?!) until we leave.

Brian is having dinner out with some work people so I think we're going very easy toni

ght. Veggie burger or hot dog anyone? Tomorrow I'll get dinner party and trip groceries. Friday Brian is off work, I may take the early morning off (still have to talk to Brian about this) and go to a few garage sales with Jen :) then finish packing and loading. Leave first thing Saturday. Phew, we can do it!

Since we can't have a blog post without a picture here are a few Photobooth pictures that the girls and I have taken. Have I posted these yet!? I don't even know.

What a fabulous day we've had. Our friend Jen had a garage sale this morning so  we grabbed up our leftover stuff from last weekend and headed over there. They have such a fun backyard with a goldfish pond and a fabulous garden as well as a great play area for the kids. We had so much fun but we only lasted until 1:00. The girls were getting tired so we took what was left over to the used clothing store. The girls took a late nap and then we headed out to the library for a little BBQ and jazz on the patio. It was such a nice day and to top it all off Brian gets home tonight!

Beauty

Brian is out of town. I have just put the girls to bed and the only sound is that of my fingers on the computer keys and the dryer running. There is a lot of beauty in this kind of silence. It seems as though I can hear the walls of our house breathing a sigh of relief, winding down at the end of another fun summer day. In my head snapshots of the day are passed through and filed into memories, memories of my kids' lives that are flying by way too fast. I will never have this day again. While my heart is a little bit saddened by this thought I'm also excited about what tomorrow will bring, what silliness will come out of their mouths and make me smile, what discovery will be relished, what accomplishment will bring pride to little hearts and little hands that are just itching to grow, and learn, and become that much more independent.

I. Just. Don't. Want. To. Forget.

I don't want to forget that Kendall learned to swing all by herself or that Kate picked up a little Spanish from a Dora doll. 

And just to give you one of those smiles that comes about from silliness out their mouths:

Kendall: Mommy, is the guy in that car little?

Me: No, not really.

Kendall: Then why did you say, 'Go ahead little dude'?

Also in the car today I must have called someone a maniac. Of course Kendall proceeded to play 456 questions about the meaning of maniac and why I would use it and under what circumstances using such a word might be appropriate... Tonight before bath the girls were getting into their crazy hyper mode and I most have raised my voice or done something to get their attention (honestly, I really don't know what it was) but Kendall just looked at Kate and said, "She's a maniac." Great, I just loved to have my words turned on me.