Sailing Through September

Everytime I turn around another month has almost gone by. How can it be halfway through September already? Time flies when you have work to do!

The girls had their first day of CYT today. They were nervous, and I was a bit nervous for them, on the way in. I signed them up for a non-homeschool class, and I was wondering if they might feel weird being the only ones in a class with other school kids. GOD is good; not only are there other homeschoolers in there, but they have a friend from Upwards soccer, too! They came out all excited, rehearsing lines from the play they will be doing - acting all silly and dramatic. I also found a neat park that I can take Boogie to during practice on the days Eddie can't come by and get him.

Fresh Pages

Lots of new things are occurring around here. Emi has just turned 13 - a tried and true teenager. It's as though she just fell into the teen "mold" all of a sudden. She thinks everything is so funny (even when it's not) ;o). She goes around the house with her iPod Shuffle attached to her almost permanently with earplugs in place (or whatever you call them nowadays). Now you have to look through the house for her. Where has the little, chubby-cheeked, bouncy-curled, squeaky-voiced girl gone?

Elisha is set to turn 11 this Wednesday. She has nearly completed her first full double-digit year. She will have her gymnastics party next Saturday. That is her current obsession - gymnastics.

We are set to start our new lessons Monday. This will be our first year ever of doing separate lessons for each of them. Erynn will be studying World History and Eli will be doing the first core of the upper ancient world history while Emi will be doing the latter. Will Emi really be ready for high school next year??!!

On our way back from meeting the grandparents this past week, we stopped at the airport so Isaac could see the planes take off and land. We mostly saw them land with only one taking off. It scared him a little to hear the sound following the plane landing. I think he liked it though.

A New Era About To Begin

How can it be that we're about to have a teenager in the house?!? Only 3 more days and then we officially have a teenager. Where did the chubby-faced, squeaky-voiced preschooler go? Where are the cute curls? But on the positive side, I've almost got me a built-in babysitter! Now if only they could all get along!

A Little Variety

Well, it's 7:44 am, and Eddison has been up since 6:00. Woke up to another "flood" in his bed. He doesn't like to sit in it (who would?), but then he sits on his pillow. Eeewww... So more laundry today. Eddie just left a little bit ago, which is different in itself as he usually heads out about 6:00. He took Erynn to work with him. :o) She was very calmly excited. She dressed up in a skirt, dress sandals and bracelets and all. Poor Boogie, though. He wanted to go too. :o( Made me tear up to see him say, "Okay" when Eddie said not this time. He can be so sweet.

Mimi and YiYi have been gone for a little over a day and a half now. Oddly quiet around here. I do miss my help though! I thought it would be easier going to the library yesterday with only two. Nope. Trying to pick out books for them and keeping him with me was not easy. Then we came home to no nap. Nooo!

Ery, Dude and I went to the mall yesterday. Yet another unusual occurrence. I found out Isaac has my shoe fettish. I went in Rack Room ever hopeful I could find some "dress casual" shoes in my beloved size 11 but narrow size. Why do I get my hopes up???? But Dude was very adamant that he try on shoes. It didn't matter if they were girls, boys, the right size or not! He wanted them and he wanted them now! I did slip a pair of Chucks on him. Cute! But I will not pay the price they want for them nowadays. They're charging double what I bought them for when I was growing up! Okay, the price Granny paid for them...

I've decided to move all the girls' toys downstairs. The play room is officially becoming a school room except for the doll condo. I'm also trying to contain all my mess in there, too. Haven't quite conquered that part yet. Hopefully I can make a large dent in that tonight. I need to get organized for this coming year. We already have the books and each has their own shelf with one shelf for the shared stuff. In the other cabinet, Isaac has his shelf, we still have the art stuff and craft kits plus the science lab stuff I couldn't fit in their lessons cabinet. My stuff is going on the desk. The bad part is now all the stuff I've taken out sits in the kitchen and laundry area until Eddie can take it all down! Poor doggies have to meander through a maze to get to their food.

Here's a pic of Daddie and his Father's Day cake that Elisha made. She researched it all on her own. Emi even made him a present without me saying anything to them to remind them. But did I remember to make him a card? No.... woops! I will defend myself though. I looked into getting him a new phone for Pappy's Day a couple of months ago. So I didn't forget the day; I just forgot the card!

Pics

Elisha was adamant that I put new pics on here. So here they are. The many moods of Boogs.

Toddler School - Evi Lou Style

Erynn has taken to teaching Bubba in her very own "Toddler School". I must say she does quite a good job at it. Usually she'll take him all over the house pretending this or that, showing him how to play a certain way or even teaching him about colors, numbers and the alphabet. Today, however, we headed outside for a "field trip". After Mims took her first solo ride up around the next street (sad isn't it these days??), she brought me the camera. I snapped a few, hoping to catch one for Boogie's 2 year pixs, but not putting much hope into it with the condition of his hair after nap! These pixs I ended up putting in because I liked the b/w effects :o).

Two

Baby Boogs is no longer. Little Man is now two. :o( Where did my little (well, big) baby go? It's hard to believe it's all over. No more itty, bitty baby clothes; no more teeny, tiny shoes. No more crib soon, no more high chair soon. Today we took him into church for the first time without a stroller. I need him in the stroller! It's too hard to try to keep track of everything and everybody otherwise! He also went in the two year old class. Yeah! He's back with Jonathan :o). He actually pushed me out of the class, he wanted me to go... Well! I do miss seeing my little dude in back of me in the toddler's class.

He got his first Big Wheel last weekend for his birthday. He has been zooming all around the house on it. So have his sisters ;o9. Today we took it outside. He can't quite get the pedals yet. He also got a JayJay video. He likes it. He's going to be a traveling man with his cars/trucks/construction/planes affinities.

While in search of a special place to take him today, he fell asleep in the car. When we finally got somewhere, he was grumpy, so I held him in my lap. :o) He's usually too busy to do that anymore. :o( At least he likes to read though. That way he'll sit by me :o).

Park Days

We were taking advantage of the warm weather these past few days and exploring different parks, something we've not done much of these past years - I don't know why. My favorite is Crowder off of 10-10. Both the little people's and the big kids' playsets are right there together. We also ventured back to Lake Benson. I haven't been there in a long time! It had been redone last fall, and I had no idea. I like it a lot better now. Before the two playgrounds were separated. Of course, someone wanted to be on each one. We have also tried Bond Park. It's okay to me; a little big to watch 4 go in different directions. This past week we tried the park off Walnut in Cary. Both parts are close together, but apparently it's a teenage hangout after school. We had to share the swings and rocking horse things with them ;oP. There was also a boy there loudly singing the national anthem :o). We found one off Lake Wheeler, but we haven't made it there. The playset looks really cool, but the little people's part is up at the top of the hill, and the other is way down at the bottom. Hmmm... We also tried one off Kaplan and Kent in Raleigh, but they all came home with black stuff that still hasn't come off. 

BTW- Boogie's new word for the day was "sunshine"!

Auto Bell - Homestyle

The girls, Boogs and Daddie washed the Burb today - inside and out. Boy, it needed it! Then Daddie attempted to fix the squeaking brakes on the Honda. Isaac helped him with this, too. They both came in with black hands. Yuck! 

The girls have decided to revamp their "stores". Emi and Erynn are now making soaps. Eli is undecided as of yet. Sam votes for homemade doggy biscuits. Frodo votes for homemade pillows. I vote for stationery or chocolate!

Latest Sayings of Boogs

Yesterday, Boogs said out of the blue, "Ery, coot (cute); YiYi, coot, MiMi, coot, Mama, coot, Dada, coot, Fovo, coot, Ammeh (Sammy), coot." :o)

One of today's words was "cowguhl" (cowgirl). This was in reference to something Erynn was playing with him. Oh, he also said "gapefoot" (grapefruit) and "appuh" (apple). 

His favorite words are still "eee" (eat), "fi" (fish), "dine" (Einstein video), "joo" (juice), "shoe", "sigh" (outside), "pay" (play), "buh" (book).

We've been to several parks lately. He gets so excited but then seems somewhat overwhelmed by it all. He will go right up to anyone and say, "Hey!" and wave. When it's time to leave, he will turn around, wave, and say, "bye!" He even went up to a lady yesterday, pointed right at her hip and the bench she was sitting on and said, "ch-ehh" (chair). It was so funny. 

Chicken Soup Anyone?

It would appear that Emi was generous and shared her germs with the rest of the family. Isaac has a cough - nothing bad. Erynn has some congestion. Eli has the full-blown bug like Emi had - fever, earache, sore throat, upset stomach. I have a scratchy throat and a sinus headache. :o( I hope Boogs isn't coming down with it. I asked him if he was ready for his nap, and he said yes. Hmmm...

Mimi got to go the State/Carolina Women's basketball game with Daddie last night. It was free for kids and $7 for adults. 

A Few Firsts

Not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on here. Mims got some kind of bug that gave her a fever, headache, chills and no appetite for a couple of days. She seems to have recovered without passing it onto anyone :o). Isaac couldn't understand why he couldn't play "night-night" with her. 

We took a walk to the pond yesterday. Isaac threw his first sticks in the pond. Every time I thought he was going to head into the water - my nerves - ahhh. We saw a rather large, dead large-mouth bass floating by the edge. He can also do the slides in the backyard by himself now :o). 

Erynn has a big "fight" scene to do in her puppetry this weekend. She's a little nervous, I think. 

I think we may have found a new idea for Valentine's. We actually bought a WHOLE cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. Mmmm... Since we always share our pieces when we go there, eating a whole slice at once was quite a different experience. It does make more sense to buy a whole one than to pay for each one to get one though! It's a good thing we took it home; there was a two and a half hour wait at 4:00! 

We sold our first batch of stuff to Kid to Kid this week. One miniscule dent in the basement of horrors... we're hoping to put the money in our vacation jar. 

Snow Days

Here's a few pics from the snow...

Date Night In

Eddie and I had a date night in last night. We went to "Oakwood" - the bedroom theater at the end of the hall. The girls put up blankets around our bed so we could have a private viewing of a movie. They asked for our orders, made us dinner, and served it to us. All the while, they took care of Boogie and fed him dinner. You should try it sometime!