Getting up to speed

The time between the last post and this post has been the longest absence of an update of the families' activities in over a year.  As such, I have a lot to cover which I will split up into several posts.  I will not promise pictures at this time, but I can tell you that we did purchase a camera shortly after Thanksgiving and the products of that purchase will be forthcoming just as soon as my tech guy frees them from their current home.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a new tradition we started with the kids.  I've wanted to do this particular activity for a couple of years, and finally did it this year.  (Procrastinators UNITE!!).  This activity consists of me making a very crude body of a turkey.  I was intimidated by this, which is probably why I have put off doing this activity for a few years.  However, after a little research I discovered that one can create the body of a turkey by cutting out a couple of rectangular shapes (one slightly smaller than the other), and then cut a triangle for the beak and a red squiggle for the beard.  Add an eye and bada-bing-bada-boom, one has a passable turkey body.  You will not win any awards, but your elementary school aged sons will be suitably impressed.

The whole point of this exercise is to make a turkey where the feathers have various items that we are thankful for.  My goal had been for us each to write on a feather every day of November leading up to Thanksgiving.  This happened three times.  Then the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the kids and Eric and I sat down and each filled out 5 feathers.  We had a lovely turkey with plenty of plumage to impress.  Though not much meat.

The following are the various things our family is thankful for in 2012 (in no particular order):

Our new house
The piano
Coffee, coffee, coffee
Halloween Candy
Silly jokes that make me laugh
Christ Our Redeemer Church
My nephews and nieces who inspire me to keep learning, playing, and dancing (Special entry from Mitzi)
Nerf Guns
Beaches and Sunshine
My Blanket
Daddy getting Donuts
Birth Dates
FooFoo
Mommy
Our entire extended Family
Candy
My Whole Family
That I turned Six

There were a few repeat items mainly about family.  Overall, I will give this activity a successful status.  And now I will go remove the turkey from the wall.  I apologize for not having a picture.  I didn't think to take one before I removed the feathers.  Trust me, whatever picture you have in your mind is probably a little nicer than the finished result.  But, we had fun creating it!

Florida Pics!!

My wonderful sister-in-law, Megan, came and visited for a week and besides being a great help, she took loads of pictures and has written up a blog post about her Florida Adventure.  Despite the fact she didn't go to the beach, I think she had a good time.  Anyway, here is her blog for our fans to see some pictures of the kids:

http://megascoob.blogspot.com/

In other news, we caved and bought a camera today, so hopefully I will have some pictures of my own to post soon!

Everything is better in Florida

Several weeks ago, Eric bought William a shirt with the phrase "Everything is better in Florida" on it.  He wears this shirt proudly and often quotes it to prove a point.  Though, not always effectively.  Not far from our house there is a McDonald's with a jungle theme.  Unfortunately, it is not the McDonald's less than a 10 minute walk from our house. Or maybe fortunately, come to think about it.  Anyway, we went there last week with Aunt Megan and we were all impressed.  They have various robotic animals hanging from the ceiling, a tree (Will was super impressed by this), a couple of slides, a few tvs, and a few game stations.  And the bonus for me was that it didn't smell bad.  I tend to think that McDonald's play areas have a unpleasant odor associated with them.  The kids loved it, they ate pretty well, and Will walked away feeling that his shirt had once again been proven true.
  Later we were telling Eric about it and Will got into an argument with him about the quality of chicken nuggets available there versus the chicken nuggets available at Chick Fil-A (the parental fast food restaurant of choice, which has a quality play area as well, though without all of the technology).  There is a Chick Fil-A within walking distance of our house as it turns out. Will eventually brought out the big guns with the well-known fact that "Everything is Better in Florida" unable to comprehend that this argument didn't work when comparing two things that both exist in Florida.  Eric, understandably, remains unconvinced and I very much doubt he will go to McDonald's anytime soon.  His loss.

In an unrelated story (though I could tie it in to the general theme if I had more energy) relates to our adventures in Homeschooling.  Which is going quite well, by the way despite the following anecdote.  We just finished our first quarter and Dom is doing very well and continues to have a great attitude.

Anyhow, we had gotten away from doing state collages as the move came up and I've yet to begin them again.  However, I purchased a coloring book of the states and each page contains the general information that we covered on the collages anyhow.  State bird, State tree, State flower, State capital, and so forth.  They also have a picture of the state with rivers, lakes and mountains.  Dom knew that the lines denoting rivers were areas of water, but understood them to be the border of a larger body of water and so tended to color the area to the north of the river blue as well.  As he worked on North Carolina, I explained to him what the rivers were.  He was disappointed not to color more areas of water and so I pointed out that he could paint the area to the east of the state blue because it was the Pacific Ocean.  He didn't look convinced, but went ahead with his coloring.  Eventually he asked me why it was the Pacific Ocean and I started to explain about it being more calm than the Atlantic.  He then asked if there were two Pacific Oceans.  I silently congratulated myself on understanding his confusion since we live on the Gulf side of Florida and therefore there are two areas of the ocean we are closer to.  But, before I could start to explain this misunderstanding he goes "You know, because Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean".  I was properly humbled and am proud that my son is better at geography than I am.  Perhaps we will do a study abroad to ensure that this subject is properly covered.

Florida

We have been here for a little over three weeks and since the kids are otherwise occupied, now is as good a time as any to give a run down of everything we have been up.  No pictures though, sorry!  We lost our digital camera and have yet to replace it.  Though, I'm hopeful a couple of house guests will provide ample photographic evidence that the kids are as adorable as ever.

We got in late afternoon on Friday, October 12.  Saturday morning some guys from Eric's new unit were roped into unloading our truck.  I am grateful to them as well as grateful that it took less than an hour, so they didn't have to give up too much of their Saturday.  The kids and I made ourselves scarce by inviting ourselves over to our friends' house.  The next few days were a blur of trying to empty and put away as many boxes as possible before Eric left for his SOS course.  We were pretty successful, if I do say so myself.  There are a few boxes in our room to unpack still and all of the boxes of pictures have yet to be emptied, but for the most part, we are pretty settled.  Which is great, because I was correct in my suspicion that I would have no motivation to unpack as a single parent.  This is evidenced by the fact there are two boxes of my things still sitting on the floor of our bedroom.  I'll get to them tomorrow...

We have loved the weather here.  The kids can play outside every day and they do.  We have four kids on our circle that are close to the boys ages and a new infant next door.  He doesn't hang out as much as the other kids, but I'm sure he'll be in the mix soon enough.

We also live within walking distance to a post office, grocery store, library, coffee shop, McDonald's (though not the cool one...more on that later), the high school (with great sport events), and a Chinese Restaurant.  We had no idea when we rented this house we were hitting the jackpot as far as location.  It also is great that Dom just started riding his bike and his confidence and ability has grown by leaps and bounds since we moved in.  I am not exaggerating when I say he has ridden his bike 2 hours every day. 

We have visited the beach three times and as we left it yesterday, I realized it was getting easier and easier each time.  Now that I know what to expect, I can prep a little better and it doesn't feel like such a chore to get the kids de-sanded after our venture. 

We started attending a great church with a priest who is very welcoming of young children.  In a lot of ways, the architecture reminds me of St. Lawrence.  There seem to be a lot of families there and I am looking forward to enrolling the kids into the religious ed program so they can start meeting some of them.

The kids and I have been doing pretty well with Eric's absence.  Homeschooling really helps give an organization to our day as well as a lot of activities to fall back on when the minutes start to go by slower.  It is also very helpful that Megan visited last week and Mitzi is coming this week.  And then, it will be Thanksgiving!!  Though, you'd never know it based on the weather here.  82 today and yesterday.  I see pictures of people bundled up and remember that it is November and not the summer.

Ok, that is enough for now.  I will try and get a post up about our Halloween.  Will is still celebrating it.  He has worn his costume at least a part of each day since Wednesday!

My Shot Glass Collection

About 15 years ago I took a band trip to New Orleans over the New Year.  A friend of mine was on the lookout for souvenir spoons, and as I helped her look for the perfect one to mark our journey to the Big Easy, I determined that I also wanted to start a collection.  Now, those that have known me for a while (and those who have only recently met me will not have to stretch their imaginations that much), know that I was (and am) the squarest of squares.   I barely drink now, and there was no question whatsoever that I would imbibe in underage drinking.  Therefore, I thought it would be great and hilarious to commence a shot glass collection.  I jokingly told people that I would aim to get 21 by the time I was 21 and then line them up.  With water.   I picked out two shot glasses that trip and quickly surpassed the 21 goal in the next couple of years with a trip abroad as well as many additions from friends who enjoyed the joke of the law abiding friend having a useless shot glass collection.

Over the years, I have collected many shot glasses from around the world of various sizes, shapes, and colors.  I do have a cabinet to display them, but my collection is too big to be contained.  I'm not sure how many I have, but it has to be over 100.  It's been moved now 4 times.  I didn't even unwrap most of them at our last house.  I did think about disposing of them somehow during this move as we were facing the possibility of not being able to bring everything from our home due to space constraints.

I am so glad I didn't.  As I was unpacking and finding places for various items, I found myself with an empty shelf in the kitchen.  Since Eric had already placed a couple of shot glasses out, I figured I'd go ahead and see how the others fit.  At first I just stacked them 4 or 5 high to save space.  But, then I started really looking at them.  Memories came back from the last decade and a half of places I'd been or friends who had thought of me on their own trips.  You see, an added bonus of collecting something as simple as shot glasses is that people often think of you or if you off-handedly say "bring me back a shot glass", they will.

I also realized how much the kids will enjoy looking at them as we do lessons about different geographical locations.  I even have a shot glass from Florida already that a friend brought back several years ago.

During our Honeymoon, Eric and I elected to start a new souvenir collection of Christmas ornaments.  I highly recommend this method of trip rememberance as it will insure that you will look at the souvenirs once a year.   Even if I did drink more, there is no way I would get around to looking at each shot glass once a year.  And, I'm not a huge fan of decorating with shot glasses.  But, I am glad my 15-year-old self decided to start collecting them so that on a hectic October day, my 31-year-old self could take a walk down memory lane and around the world.

Happy Birthday, Dominic!!

I have been waiting six years for this date:  10/11/12.  Even doped up on morphine following the c-section, I knew this would be a great year.  Though, I had no idea we'd be moving to Florida on this very day.  So, we aren't getting to celebrate it in the mega fashion that such a date deserves, but we will manage a few celebrations along the road.

 It has been a full year for Dominic Joseph!  I was perusing pictures and kept seeing things I wanted to add to his year in review, but eventually had to go back and cut a lot of them. But, you probably had already seen them in previous posts anyhow.

 Dom started his 5th year with a big road trip to Oklahoma and Kansas.  AND he got to see the Kansas Jayhawks get destroyed by the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  Luckily, his year went up from there.

 Dom has continued to be a super older brother.  He leads by example and has learned many valuable lessons in patience and sharing. Dom loves his siblings and constantly asks when we are going to have his other 5 brothers and sisters. 

 Dom and Will have played countless hours of Mario Kart and have both become very good at it. Their mother continues to be left in their electronic dust.

 In the last year, I discovered that I could let the boys play outside without me and they would be fine.  What started as Dom and Will playing in the back yard in January, has developed into Dom riding his tricycle outside alone as well as Dom dropping off Molly with the neighbor to babysit.

 Dom has learned so much in school over the past year.  Most importantly, he is developing a love of learning.  He is always able to come up with several activities for school and is generally happy to complete all of his lessons.  He can read simple books, complete patterns, and do simple math problems as well as science experiments.  His enjoyment of coloring and doing his best work has also greatly improved over the last year.

 In April, we got to see a B-25 flyover commemorating the Doolittle Raiders bombing of Tokyo. That line does not really give enough significance to the event, but I really hope Dom will be able to remember watching the planes flying over our heads on a beautiful spring afternoon.

 Dom has shown a wonderful willingness to eat vegetables and fruit.  Again, setting a solid example for his siblings. 

 After months of fearing that Dom would never want to color or have anything to do with art, Dominic has taken off.  Every day he wants to color something new.  Generally a country's flag or some sports' team emblem.

 With all of the road trips we've taken, Dominic developed a great interest in the United States and has learned several state facts including about half of the state capitals.  He had the vision to make a US cake to celebrate our Nation's birthday and the faith that his mother would be able to accomplish the task. 

 Dom thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics as well as the Tour de France and wanted to constantly re-enact events.  My favorite part of this?  When the boys would do the instant replay.

 Dominic played two seasons of soccer this year and loved it.  He has also become very interested in professional soccer. I'm sure his father's new interest in the sport has not had any effect on this at all.

 We are very proud of Dom's accomplishments on the field.  He is very good at forward, but awesome at defense.  He plays with wonderful enthusiasm and is also a great sport. After the last game, the coaches both said they really enjoyed having him on their team and would miss him in future seasons.

 The coming year will see a lot of changes in our lives.  Dom was introduced to LEGOs and I suspect it will be a presence in our new lives in Florida.

 Dominic has faced our upcoming move with great maturity and helpfulness.  He couldn't wait to pack up his toys and is always ready to lend a hand.  And he is very excited about the propect of making new friends.  And with this attitude he is being a wonderful example for his parents.

In our finals days here, we've been doing as many activities of the fall that we can manage.  Including a hay ride and a corn maze.  Because we know the next few birthdays will be spent on the beach!

Dominic has been looking forward to this post since Will's birthday in July.  And now I would like to take this opportunity to let Dom know how much he means to us.  I love his smiles and the way he will grab my hand as we walk down a sidewalk.  He will get up from wherever he is just to sit by me and let me know that he loves to snuggle with me.  Even on my crazy days (of which I've had several) he will come up and give me a hug and tell me he loves me.  It always brings tears to my eyes and makes me refocus on what is really important.  Eric and I often comment that we are so lucky to have the kids that we have and it all started with Dominic.

Have a wonderful birthday, Dominic Joseph.  We love you more and more each day. We are so proud of the little man you have become and look forward to the great man you will be.  Now, go eat a lot of chocolate!

Love,
Mom

PS check this out:  10/11/12 :  1+0+1+1+1+2 = 6.  How cool is that?  And it will work for several years to come!

This is football!

I don't remember the last time that I, DAD, posted to the blog, but I write today to praise our tough little footballer -- Dominic!

Faithful readers will recall that Dom played in the YMCA league earlier this spring, his first foray into organized "soccer." He always had enthusiasm, but was only able to score a single goal throughout the whole season (8 games).

Over the summer, we enrolled him in a 1-week British Soccer camp, to get him ready for the fall season - this time playing with our church team, the St Helen Trojans. 

Liesel has posted once already about this season, but its my turn to tell you how the season ended.  The regular, 10-game season ended tonight (a 4-1 St Helen win!), and Dom scored in all but 2 games!  He even got a hat-trick -- twice!  Usually, I was so busy cheering for him that I didn't record anything, but this is a strike on goal he had last week, in an 8-2 loss at St Peter.

 

Dom has shown ability at every position: striker, defender, & keeper.  At tonights game he volunteered to be keeper, and had a clean sheet through the whole quarter!  I love it especially when Dom plays keeper, because just like US National Team keeper Timmy Howard, Dom wears #1.

As much fun as Dom has in the net, he is a one-man wrecking crew on defense (Disclosure: I played center back as a kid; my mom said I was good at it).  Dom stays in position, attacks the ball, and is actually able to clear the ball out of danger.  (No pictures of this, so you'll just have to trust me).

So finally, tonight, at our last regular season-game, we (my wife and I) see our dream lineup on the field - all three of our top scorers up front!

The game is in our favor, but its pretty physical (for 5-6 year olds).  Dom had an assist, and though he looked bummed that he didn't get the goal, he told us later that he was happy for his team mate (#7).

Like I said, the game was physical.  See that big kid just on Dom's left?  Those two had a pretty good collision down at our end, with Dom going down grabbing at his head.  It was clear he was in distress.  BUT, while still holding his head, he blocked a shot, cleared the ball, blocked another shot, and finally kicked the ball out of bounds.  Then he fell over crying.  Coach took him off the field, and Liesel ran over to him.  After a drink of water, Dom finished out the quarter on the bench. But he was the first kid up, asking to go back in on offense. 

But the drama doesn't end there.  In the very next quarter, Dom goes down while going for a shot on goal.

 

This time, he stays down, grabbing at his leg.  Coach helps him up, and this time he's limping.  I go out to him, and the two coaches tell me he stepped on -- on the kneecap! The boot marks are still there!  Dom is fighting back tears, rubbing his leg, saying: "I want to stay in, I want to stay in."  So, we make sure he has full range of motion, give high-5's, and he stays in.  (parents on the sideline: "They stepped on his knee? And he wants to keep playing?") 

Of course, having been knocked down twice, and credited with an assist, Liesel and I can tell Dom is determined to get a goal of his own.

Its now the 4th quarter.  Dom's coach has let him start the 4th, and this is highly unusual - kids aren't supposed to play the whole game.  But Dom gets after it; you can tell from the pictures that he's usually going up against the same kid, the #8 from Mad River.

 

In the dying seconds of the match, as coach is calling out the seconds until he blows the whistle, Dom takes a kick from the edge of the box, and it.... rolls in, just past keeper for a goal.  Dom tells us on the ride home that he was trying to hurry up and score, since he heard the coach counting down!

By the end of the season, Dom could pass to an open player, get open and call for the ball, defend, score, play every position, was the designated free kick taker, and played every minute he was on the pitch.  I think he really learned to pass when we would all play as a family in the backyard, and he and Will would team up against me and Liesel.  It was great to see him take that practiced skill to his games.  On the way to dinner (Dom: "I want tacos!") I remarked to Liesel that, for all my excitement about football, and encouraging and practicing together with Dom, and having nets up in the backyard basically for the last 8 months -- it is still Dominic out on the pitch, making a conscious decision to play hard be competitive, especially after requiring on-field treatment!  Other kids on his team asked to sit on the bench rather than play defense - but Dom always wanted to go in!  

I feel lucky that he is our son, and today he really showed us his heart and his desire to play.  

Beautiful Ohio

It was June 2005.  Eric and I had been married for three days and we were at my parents' house to pick up some of my childhood possessions when Eric received a call from the ROTC detachment. His orders had been cut and his "Report No Later" date had been given for June 25th.  My world started spinning.  Though I had known since we got engaged that marrying Eric meant I would be moving from the only place I had ever lived, I had comforted myself with the idea of spending one more summer there to experience everything one more time.  I cried.  Okay, actually I threw a tantrum.  I'm not proud, but it is the truth.  Then I realized that this date meant that we had already gone to St. Lawrence for the last time as we were going on our honeymoon during the last week before we moved.  It also meant that we had already seen several friends for the last time and I'd probably only get to see my 4 month old niece 1 or 2 more times.  This did not make for the happiest of honeymoons as every day of it I would think about what I would be doing one week later.  I felt like I was being torn apart.  When Eric received word from his sponsor that they had some flexibility about his arrival date, I asked him to try to get it changed and promised I would never do such a thing again.  I just needed time to adjust to life as a military spouse where your choice of address isn't always your decision.  

As luck would have it, while driving back into Lawrence, preparing to move within a couple of days after our honeymoon, we received a call from Eric's dad telling us that there may be a change to our plans.  Eric's dad was a Colonel with the same last name as Eric, so he was mistakenly called about the order changes before Eric was.  For the next few hours I prayed that we had been given a reprieve.  And we were.  Eric's orders were changed to report to AFIT at the beginning of August.   It was still hard to leave and I missed my home for several months, but I was so grateful to get those extra few weeks.  And after living with two roommates, I was more than ready to see what it would be like to only live with my husband and actually use our wedding gifts.

Now, here we are 7 years later and getting ready to move again.  Somewhere along the way, Ohio has become home.  It probably has a lot to do that we have had three children here and have matured from newlyweds to a growing family with a mortgage and a slightly more realistic view of what married life is.   But, we have also made many wonderful friends.   Friends that I know will be in our lives in one way or another for a long time.  Even if they aren't available as readily to socialize with.

We also have a wonderful church.  I've cried the last two Sundays as people have come up to me to express their regret that we are moving.  Many of them I do not know, but they have been familiar faces at the 8 AM Mass for the last 7 years.  They have seen us childless, wrestling 1 child, wrestling 2 children, and then adding a third (while still wrestling 2 children).  They have been nothing but supportive and thrilled to welcome us into their fold even as a child or two interrupted the Homily.  I'm pretty sure most of them know our children's names better than they know ours.   And since Molly has been held by half the parish, that isn't that big of a surprise.  When we left St. Lawrence, we were warned about what may be waiting us in parish life, but St. Helen's has been a joy to be a part of, and I hope that as we leave St. Helen's, we will be so lucky again at our next church.

The day in July when we got our orders to report to Eglin AFB in October, I commented to my neighbor that 7 years ago I felt that I was being ripped from the only home I had ever known, and here I am having that same feeling again.  However, the biggest difference is that having experienced this time in Ohio, I know that just because you leave one home does not mean the next place will not be a home.  So with that thought, as sad as I am to leave this wonderful place, I look forward to meeting new friends and experiencing new things that will make the next place a home, too.

A post on Will

I was reading through the last several posts and realized I had given considerable attention to Dominic and Molly, but not as much to William.  This happened for several reasons.  But, perhaps the biggest reason is because William is very self-sufficient.  I realized a few months ago that William was no longer my "problem" child.  Not that I've ever had a real problem child, but Will had more than his fair share of events that caused me to lose my temper.  Whether he has matured out of it, or I've come to understand my second son more, I'm not sure.  But, either way, Will and I no longer butt heads as frequently as I remember we did.

That being said, let me give an update on William.  Since turning 4, he has found more and more things that he didn't like doing when he was 3, but now that he is 4, he does.  Eating vegetables is something that neither age will own, though.  However, root beer is something the 4-year-old Will enjoys much more than the 3-year-old Will, by his own admission.

I love the way he will phrase things.  I don't know if he uses more words than necessary, or he just speaks so precisely that it feels like it.  I have tried to listen a little more carefully to his phrasing to give a good example.  I think I've zeroed in on the fact he does not use the the contraction "won't".  He always says: "will not".  As in, "I will not spill it" as he takes a nearly full cup of juice into the living room.  Or "I will not fall" as he climbs precariously on stacks of boxes.

We like to play a game called "Declarative Statements by William Buschelman".  He doesn't know he is playing, but Eric and I love it all the same.  This game occurs when William just says something out of the blue that is irrefutable.  For example, nearly daily he will declare: "I like sugar".  As sure as he is about most of his positions (for instance on a recent drive home during the early evening he refused to concede that it was a beautiful day because it was no longer day as the sun was descending in the west), he recently has started adding "Right, Mom?" to many of them just to give his opinions that much more weight.

William has a very vivid imagination.  I realized one day as I tried to get him to be quiet during Mass, that he may not have the ability to turn it off.  He is so intent on playing out whatever story is going on in his mind, that he isn't intentionally disobeying, he just wants to get to the end of the plot.  When he puts on a costume, he is in character.  Always.  For a few days, he was either Mario or Luigi.  We were playing soccer and every time I mistakenly called him "Will" as I was giving directions, he would correct me in a gruff voice to call him by his correct name: "Luigi".  Though, good on him, he was never truly offended, but always said it good-naturedly.  Unfortunately, as he stopped to correct me, Dom got several goals.  Ah well.  We all have our priorities.

Three Kids and a Wedding

Last weekend we traveled to North Carolina for our friend Jeff's wedding.  Those who are faithful readers of the blog will recognize Jeff as Molly's Godfather.  In reciprocation, he asked Eric to be best man (or as Jerry Seinfeld would call him "a pretty good guy").

For a brief time, Molly was going to have the role of flower girl...until her lack of proper church etiquette got her sidelined for the main event.  Apparently proper flower girls do not go running around the church, play on the organ pedals, nor scream at random intervals.  Luckily, this was discovered at the rehearsal, so I got to spend the wedding relaxing in the cry room as opposed to being stressed out during the actual ceremony afraid that Molly was going to expose my poor parenting skills.

Molly did get to wear the dress, however, and looked quite pretty.  Jeff's nephew, Colby, who we have known about for seven years, but only met last weekend, was the ring bearer.  And he is a very cool kid.  Dom and Will never wanted to leave his side.  Just the other night we were playing the popular game "Name my favorite state" at dinner.  During the second round (where people guess your second favorite state), Dominic declared my guess of Connecticut for him was correct because that was where "that big kid who played with us is from".

Eric with his little princess.  I couldn't help but think that some day there will be a similar picture taken and tears came to my eyes.  And then Molly threw herself on the floor and I was immediately back in the present.

The boys did an INCREDIBLE job at the wedding.  They definitely knew I had my hands full with Molly's antics and were like altar boys.  Even Will.  Though, Will randomly yelled at the end of the wedding.  But, as he pointed out, he did it in the cry room and not in the sanctuary.  Point to Will.

Molly climbing a tree.

I don't have any pictures of the reception, but it was really wonderful.  I'd venture to say it was my favorite reception in recent memory.  It was held at a spacious old home with gardens around it.  The kids and I had explored these earlier in the day while Eric helped to set up the reception.  But what made the reception truly great was the fact Molly fell fast asleep as soon as we got there.  She slept for the first few hours in a room with a couple of couches.  Once she woke up, she was ready to party and entertained the guests with her own version of a break dance move.  As is her habit, she also made friends with several of the guests who were delighted with her and offered to take her home with them.  Dom and Will had a great time running around with Colby, until about 9 when Dom informed us he was ready to go back to the hotel because he was "bored".  I will comment on this during a later post.  (Dom has just educated me on the fact that "little kids don't like weddings")  Eventually Eric was able to get Dom to sleep by substituting his blanket with his first teddy bear which happened to be in the car (we don't clean the car that often apparently).    Will, not wanting to be left out of the slumber party, soon followed.  And Eric, Molly, and I enjoyed the rest of the reception immensely. Particularly when the cigars and hula hoops came out.  Yup.  So you see why this party was pretty much the best reception ever.  Oh!  Did I mention that Sunkist was available for refreshment?  Case closed.

Congratulations to Jeff and Tracy on a wonderful reception and best wishes for an even better marriage!

Catching up

Just another post of random pictures.  Molly and I have made incredible progress in the hair department (though this picture is not my best effort).  Shortly after an earlier post detailing my lack of ability, I succeeded in putting her hair into to somewhat neat pigtails.  For the most part, I've been able to keep her halfway presentable.

My dad returned from Germany at the beginning of August and brought all of us FC Bayern Munchen shirts. I believe other members of the family received similar souvenirs, but I will go out on a limb and state that our family was the most excited seeing as we followed this team's run to the Champion's League final game.  (Did I get that right, Eric?).  I spent an enjoyable afternoon in the ER watching them lose during the penalty kick portion.  Dom was actually in tears about it, poor kid.  So, yeah, we were really excited to get matching shirts and we wear them proudly.  (Though Dom is still hoping for a German National Jersey)

Dom started soccer at the beginning of soccer and we are all very happy with his progress.  He has a couple of really great coaches and a wonderful team of happy kids.  He's scored in every game so far.

A closeup of Molly.  As much as she can drive me crazy, sometimes looking at her will take my breath away.  Lately, she is trying harder and harder to communicate with us.  She will look at you so seriously and jabber away about something.  I really wish I knew what she was talking about, as I feel my responses are almost always inadequate.

Along with soccer, Dom is making great progress in riding his two-wheeler.  After some really frustrating days, I was wondering if we had maybe made a mistake in foregoing the training wheel phase, but then one morning, he just balanced on his own.  I'm sure it helped his grandpa was here and he wanted to impress him.

Naturally, Will figured he should be able to do anything his brother can do. He isn't quite ready for a two-wheeler, yet, but stay tuned.  I'm sure it won't be long!

Let's see...in other news, Homeschool is going extremely well.  Dom has a great attitude about it which keeps me disciplined about it.

Molly is a little bit of a problem in the classroom, but I can generally distract her with shiny objects.  As in, I let her put coins in a bank.  If that fails, she gets relegated to the crib.

William has shown a great interest in math.  He sort of does his own thing until the math portion, and then he will start answering the questions along with Dominic.  One day, after the math section, as I worked with Dom on reading, Will just started taking out various workbooks I picked up at Target and started doing pages.  

My biggest surprise is how much the boys like doing music.  We pick a few songs and sing them and often I hear them singing throughout the day.  Last week's song was "Jesus Loves Me This I Know".  They've just about mastered the first verse.  Though, I have a very small repetoire, so any suggestions for songs are welcome!

For handwriting, I'm having Dom write out The Lord's Prayer.  The great thing about this is that we discuss what each section means and he is saying the actual words, not words that sound like the actual words that he uses on a more regular basis.  It's slow, but I think worth it in the long run.  And he didn't put up any fight about using lower case letters.

Next:  Molly goes to a wedding reception

A family trip to Young's Dairy

When we moved to our current house, our kind neighbors brought over several empty Mountain Dew cans.  We quickly learned that this odd housewarming gift was actually a wonderful treasure of free ice cream.  We have spent the last couple of summers attempting to get through as many cans as possible and always fall short.  Until this year!

 Along with the free ice cream, you can also use the cans for free games of miniature golf.  And let me tell you, we can play many more rounds of golf than eat scoops of ice cream.  The boys - particularly Dominic - enjoyed playing speed golf.

 Dom actually was pretty good on a few holes when he tried, but for the most part they just enjoyed swatting at the ball until it eventually found its way into a hole.

 Molly found other ways to amuse herself.  One way was to watch you hit the ball and then run after it and bring it back.

 Or she crawled under a fence and climbed onto a tractor.

 Luckily, there was a lower part that I could climb over and get her after a few pictures were snapped.

Eric attempting to show Will a proper form.  This lasted...5 seconds.

 William came down with a weird stomachache and did not finish his game.  But, don't worry, it was nothing a scoop of ice cream couldn't fix.  I have yet to check Web MD to see what possible stomach ailment could be remedied with ice cream.  Though, that does seem to be Will's favorite remedy for any illness that befalls him.

 After ice cream we all got to ride the little train.  I have watched my children ride this several times over the last few years.  As we were getting ready to buckle them in, the driver told me that I could ride for free if I thought Molly should be accompanied.  Truth be told, Molly would have been fine.  I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  With all of the rattles, I was a little concerned that I was surpassing the weight limit, but we arrived back safe and sound.

 And, I don't think Dom and Will were that thrilled that their mom was coming along for the ride.  But, they didn't complain too much and proceeded to ignore me the entire time even though  I waved wildly at them.