New Nephew

My sister, Amy, had her fourth baby - Samuel was a Labor Day baby, born on Sept. 5.  He is so sweet.  I was able to take a few pictures of him in the hospital.  Here are my favorites.








Sam and his momma.


Sam, with his favorite aunt (sorry, Andrea).

Hillcrest Orchard

We had such a great time at the apple orchard last year that we decided to go back again this year.


Lera was really excited to be involved in the activities this year.  She was just a baby last year (see link above).




Chess was the perfect size for the John Deere tricycles this year.  She rode them for a long time.


Stacy was so sweet to help Lera.




Lera, jumping with cousin Halle and her friend.


Lera loved this cow.  She did not want to leave her.  Both girls got a turn to milk Buttercup.


On the wagon ride.  This smile is priceless.


Our family.


I love this picture.  Everything about it.


Everyone got involved in the sliding action!  Lera was fearless and continued to climb that big hill by herself and go down the slide over and over again.






Cool picture I got of Lera at the top of another slide.


These were the pedal carts for adults.  Lera HAD to ride and this guy was so nice to push her around the track, twice.  Those things are not light.




Raven enjoyed her first farm experience, too, I think.


Getting ready to watch the pig races.  They were especially entertaining this year since Bob and Halle got to participate!


Sweet sisters sharing a delicious apple cider slushy.  That thing was heavenly (when I could get the girls to give me some of it).

The end.

W.W.

Elvis

Nan-Naw and Paw-Paw were kind enough to take Jared and I on a double date.  We had a great dinner and saw Elvis!  



He was a great Elvis and Nan-Naw and Paw-Paw have seen him several times.   He really put on a good show and had a wonderful voice.



Look at that lip!  He had the whole personality!



Thank you Nan-Naw and Paw-Paw!  We had a great time!

Momma School

I wanted to do a little bit of an organized learning time with Chess this year.  She is three and asked to go to school (after hearing about it from her cousins).  Well, I am not ready for her to go anywhere, but I thought, "I'm a teacher, I can do some school with her!"  Thus, Momma School was created.



I used my fridge space to put our calendar up.  We do "school" on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour or two.  The girls love singing the days of the week song and using the pointer to find the date.



I bought Chess a Kumon workbook.  I love the way they start with the most simple letters to write, instead of going in ABC order.  Chess has just started to hold the pencil correctly consistently.  She is doing great with straight lines and the letters L, T, and H.  Although her name has some of the most difficult letters to write, she loves working on her C's and tracing her name.



I love that this time gives the girls time to work together and practice sharing.  That is something we need a lot of practice with.  They did great putting this puzzle together.  Lera is very good about finding pieces that go together, but doesn't have the ability to line them up easily.  She would give the pieces to Chess, and Chess could see the correct placement and make it work.



We also made some homemade wheat bread together.  The girls always want to help me cook, and I must admit I need to learn some patience with this.  I tried to relax and let them help as much as possible.  There were a few tears, but overall it was successful.



I just love this picture of Lera.  Our little shadow student.  She thinks she is as big as Chess and wrote and colored right along with us.



Chess loves her color by number/shape book, but I have to work with her on doing it nice and slow.  She's used to just scribbling on each page in a coloring book and flying through all the pictures.  As she was working on her butterfly, she kept wanting to do the bird on the next page.  I really want her to learn to put time and energy into one thing at a time and make it beautiful and feel proud of her work.  She's learning how to fill in the shape instead of just putting a little scribble inside.



Here is our bread all finished and ready to snack on - yum!



I made the girls their own boxes.  Those letters have already been ripped off.  Hmmm.  I think all three of us will be learning a lot from this Momma school experience!

Wordless Wednesday

Cleveland/Helen Get-Away

We took advantage of a day off for Jared and went on a little day trip.



First we went to Babyland General.







I made the dress that Chess is wearing.  Read more about it on my craft blog.





Then we walked around Helen for awhile.







We enjoyed some chocolate from Hansel and Gretel's candy store.



And we played in the river.  Here we are watching some people tubing.  It was such a beautiful and fun day.