A "peace" of Heaven....

The following story, incredulous as it may seem, actually happened!

As I was trying to get dinner ready one evening last week, I noticed that it had gotten strangely quiet inside. I walked to the sliding door to see if the kids were outside. I was treated to this wonderful scene of the four of them playing peacefully and contently.









I grabbed a camera and took a picture to actually prove that this happened, but was very careful not to disturb them or alert them to my presence. Wish this could happen more often!

It that time of year

It that time of year where our lives are ruled by soccer. Actually, with only one child playing this year, and neither parent coaching, it promises to be the most laid back year yet. Katy had her first game on Saturday. Its amazing how different soccer can be from one town to the next. Its not necessarily better or worse, just different. Katy was excited to be playing again. She loves soccer! Jared may have been a little sad not to be coaching but it sure was nice to have him helping with the kids.

A visit from Bunny

Two weeks ago my brother Martin stopped by on his way out to BYU. My children (as well as all his nieces and nephews) adore him. When Katy was a toddler she loved Veggie Tales. Uncle Martin used to sing the song from "Rac, Shac, and Benny" to her. Part of it went:"the bunny, the bunny, oh I love the bunny". One day she started calling him "bunny" and it stuck. He is referred to as "Bunny" or "The Bunny" by the majority of the kids. The kids had a blast with bunny even if his stay was short. I love how he gets down and interacts with them. He doesn't play the cool college kid too cool to play with the kids. He played game after game with Bella. And even though at times I bet he was bored to death, he humored her and made her feel important. Even little Jacob was enamored with Bunny. We love you Bunny, good luck at school this semester.

Tea Party in the Orchard

One of the main reasons we went to Cleveland last week-end was for my cousin Asha's bridal shower. It was at an orchard in the Pittsburgh area. The orchard had a petting zoo, little kid sized village, gift shop, and a huge farm market (Around 3-4 times the size of Pickering Hill) In the back was another building... the tea party place. When we walked in, the first room was filled with coat racks full of dresses, hats, boas, and gloves to adorn yourself. After you had sufficiently "dressed up" you went into the next room. That room had several long tables running down the middle of the room. It was set with unique pieces of china and teapots kept continually full of hot water. There were little containers filled with every flavor of tea- regular and herbal imaginable. Well maybe not quite EVERY flavor imaginable, but more than enough for someone who has trouble making choices. (Wonder who that could be?) Since I couldn't decide I had about 3 cups...it was a long ride back to Cleveland. There was even chocolate tea! Anyhow, the "hostess" was picture perfect for her job. She had long wispy hair topped with a straw hat. Her voice was very sing-songy. Basically, if you close your eyes and picture someone in a garden having a tea party, you picture her.

We rotated between playing games and eating. Props to the sister of the bride for having unique games and not the same old tired bridal shower games. I was hungry on our drive to Pittsburgh and we almost stopped for lunch. Boy were we glad we didn't. The first course was homeade scones: blueberry, cinnamon, and cranberry orange (my personal favorite) served with cream cheese butter and raspberry sauce. The second course was fruit served on pedastal platters with strawberry marshmallow dip. The third course served was cheese, crackers, veggies, and the best dill dip ever! The fourth consisted of chicken salad on croissants and heart shaped cucumber sandwiches. At this point we took a break and Asha opened presents. Then it was back into the dining room for dessert. I know, we already had scones and fruit why did we need more dessert? Because, we still had not eaten blueberry cheesecake, brownies with chocolate icing, and cream puffs. And yes, I tasted each dessert. C'mon how many times in your life do you get to go to an actual tea party? I was going to live it up.

It was a fun and enjoyable afternoon and a great change from your normal bridal showers. The groom made a guest appearance (just in time for dessert) so I even got to meet the lucky guy. It was so much fun I can hardly wait for the wedding!

The future bride and groom:

The sisters:

The cousins:

Mother and daughter:

Attack of the Killer worms

When we came home last week-end we found the top of one of our tomato plant had been eaten off. We were puzzled at first. Did a 3 ft rabbit come into our yard? Did an olympic high jumping deer somehow manage to jump the fence? And what was a the little black poop looking things all around the tomato pot? After taking a closer look we found around 4 of the fattest worm/caterpillars on our tomato plant. (No wonder they were fat they ate a good 6+ inches of the top of our poor tomato). Turns out it was a hornworm. We found the following explanation online: "Colloquially known as the "tomato bug", the tomato hornworm is the caterpillar of the Tobacco Sphinx, Manduca sexta or Manduca quinquemaculata, large night flying moths."



No wonder Rabbit (think Winnie the Pooh) was so afraid of these bugs!! They do some serious damage. But, FYI, they can really squirt when you step on them. I accidently hit a few little girls with guts (he he he).

Cleveland Rocks

We went back to Cleveland for Labor Day week-end. We packed the week-end full of fun and it went by way too quickly. I determined over the week-end that you can take the girl out of Cleveland but you can NOT take Cleveland out of the girl. We went to the Indians game Friday night with some of our awesome friends! It was a blast- even though we lost. The guys accused us of not having watched any of the game, but we did manage to watch parts in amongst our conversations. One time Jared interrupted our conversation to ask me what the score was. He was testing me to see if I had paid any attention at all. I think he about fell over when I correctly stated the current score to him. There were fireworks after the game which I always love. Saturday, Jared, my dad, and my little brother took my four kids and my nephew to the Indians game. They lost again but everyone got Asdrubal Cabrera bobbleheads that more than made up for the loss in the eyes of the kids. Mom and I went to my cousin's shower- but thats a whole different post. Sunday was church and visiting with friends and family. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone. The hardest part of the trip was pulling away without my 3 yr old darling Bella. Bella is staying the week with Mima, Pop-Pop and cousin Weston. She'll have a blast but Jacob and I will miss her. When we got back last night we ended our trip at Chick-Fil-A where we were treated to 3 free chicken tenders a person (even Jacob) for wearing our college appearel. Xandy and I sported BYU attire while Jacob, Jared , and Katy went the Ohio State route. We added a couple waffle fries and cookies and cream shakes to share. Then it was home to unpack and unwind.

The girls:

The boys:

The game:

The Indians sign that I got emotional over:

Pink Badge of Honor

Katy is very proud that she can pass the test to earn a pink bracelet which allows her to swim in the deep end of the pool. We went to the pool one last time last week. The pool closed for the season this week-end. The crowning event of our last pool excursion was Jacob and the frog slide. Jacob hates slides. All of our other children absolutely loved slides when they were his age. He screams and cries even when riding on your lap. Maybe his love for water finally won over his fear of slides. He wanted to go down the frog slide over and over again. I would hold him as far up as I could and then help him slide down and splash into the water. He couldn't get enough of it. The first time we went to the pool Bella wouldn't go down the slide. When asked why she responded "The frog might close its mouth and eat me" No amount of persuasion could convince her otherwise. The next day her Daddy took her back. Apparently she felt that Mom would be no match for the frog, but believed Daddy could save her. She timidly went down the slide after making sure Daddy was standing at the bottom. By the end of that day she was a frog slide pro. We will miss the pool until next summer. I guess its on to the indoor pool we go.