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.