Catching Up

Stephen goes back to work tomorrow, and I have one more week with Nate before he starts kindergarten. It's been a busy summer, but somehow we don't have many pictures to show for it. I'm posting the few we do have.

One of the best parts of this summer has been riding around in a brand new Honda Odyssey. Stephen was Teacher of the Year for his school district, Burleson ISD, and each year Honda of Burleson awards the teachers of the year with a brand new Honda to drive for the summer. Needless to say, the 2013 Odyssey is quite a step up from our 2001 Sienna. We have to give it back this week, but it has been so much fun to ride around in all summer!

A family photo with the Odyssey. You can see this picture a little better here.
Thank you, Honda of Burleson!

 Nate reading to his sister. Nate has really taken off with his reading this summer.

 And I don't know why he's holding her hair bow. 

 My bright-eyed baby.

 Nate and Evie still love to hold their baby brother. He's just not as hold-able
as he used to be. Sitting behind him works out much better for everyone!

Stephen reading to his boys. Simon was a bit uninterested.

Road Trip

Another summer means another insane road trip for us. This time we drove from Fort Worth to Lake Forest, IL to Lewisport, KY to Fort Thomas, KY and back to Fort Worth. Simon handled his first road trip like a champ. He fussed and cried some, but then again so did I. Who wouldn't after being in the car that long? Nate and Evie took turns throwing up - Nate on the way there and Evie on the way home - but other than that they traveled well. I love my family, but I really hope I don't have to be closed up in a car with them for that many hours again for a while. Here are some highlights from the trip.

First stop: Lake Forest. We spent the first weekend of our trip with my brother and his family near Chicago. We hadn't seen them in a year and a half, so it was really good to catch up with them. They live near Lake Michigan, so we got to go to the beach one day.

It was a beautiful day for the beach. The high was only in the 70's, 

so the water was too cold to swim in.

Simon getting his feet wet.

Evie and Sam taking a chip break.
I thought they were SO cute sitting there talking and eating!

This girl loves chips!

Stephen and Simon with Nathan and Will.

Erica with her three boys.

Nate and Sam

High five!

My boys.

Next stop: The Lewisport Blans. Highlights in Lewisport were riding Granddad's tractor and four-wheeler, watching Cameron and Katie play softball, Evie's first haircut, "camping" with cousins, fishing with Granddad, and roasting marshmallows for smores. The kids went nonstop while we were there and had a blast!

Aunt Annie gave Evie her very first haircut. All her baby curls are gone, 

but at least she doesn't whine and complain every time I brush her hair now. 

Thanks, Aunt Annie!

Looking even more like a big girl with her haircut!

Making monkey bread with Cameron and Katie. 

Shaking the cinnamon sugar onto biscuit dough.

Big Timmy and Little Timmy (and Nate). 

Simon Timothy was named after his Uncle Tim.

Fishing with Granddad: they used these little minnows as bait.

Evie was a very patient little fishergirl. She caught two fish!

Nate had a hard time sitting and waiting for the fish to bite. 

He's too busy to sit and wait! He kept reeling his line in before 

any fish could bite. He did somehow manage to catch one fish. 

One of the catches.

Watching Granddad unhook the fish to throw him back.

Looks like she's about to take a bite!

Even I got in on the action - as long as I didn't have to bait

my own hook. Thanks, Granddad!

Last stop: Northern Kentucky. We planned our trip around the birth of my sister's baby, so her house was our final stop. We didn't want to be waiting around for a baby to arrive. :) Ellen Ruth made her entrance on June 18th. Unfortunately we didn't do a very good job taking pictures while we were there. Too many babies to take care of I guess! Here's a few that Stephen captured.

Good morning! Simon and Ethan catching up on life. 

We hadn't seen Ethan since their visit shortly after Simon was born, 

so both of these little boys have changed quite a bit since we last saw each other. 

Ethan is still just as sweet and cuddly, but busier than ever!

Soaking up some time with baby Ellen. Sweet girl!

 Simon couldn't keep his hands off Ellen either. He's ready for her 

to run and play with him. Maybe next summer, Simon.

They started construction across the street from my sister's house 

while we were there, providing great entertainment for the kids.

Simon got to sit and watch them from inside.

Evie said again the other day, "I love baby Ellen." We miss you!

I really would've liked to visit more family and friends than we were able to this trip. My hope and plan is that we will in the future - when the kids are older and we don't have a baby in tow. Traveling will get easier, right? If it won't, please just lie to me and say it will.

Preschool Graduation

We had our first of many graduations last week. Nate graduated from preschool. No, I didn't cry. But I was there for all of the graduation rehearsals since I teach at his school, so there were no surprises. My baby boy is headed to kindergarten, and he couldn't be more excited about that! I'm so thankful that we've had this extra year together, but I have to admit I'm really excited about kindergarten too.

I've been teaching music the last few months, so I was sitting on the front row to help the kids with their songs. Nate kept me entertained with silly faces. He's his father's son!

We can't seem to get Simon in our pictures. He was too busy socializing to join us. :)

Evie's 4th Birthday

Evie started talking about her fourth birthday as soon as her third birthday was over. She made it very clear that she wanted a butterfly birthday cake. She's been waiting, not so patiently, for an entire year for this cake. That's a lot of pressure for her cake baker! I should've known she would love it no matter what, but I was pretty stressed out when it wasn't turning out like the picture in my head. When will I learn?

Evie loves being four! She keeps us laughing, and most of the time we're not sure if she has a quick wit or if she's just a little ditzy. I'm hoping it's the former. :) She's effortlessly creative, loves to dance and sing, and lets her imagination run wild. I'm blessed to watch this sweet girl learn and grow. I can't wait to see what she becomes. Happy Birthday, Evelyn Ray!

I love her silliness!

 We took her picture with one of her brothers. 

The other one was too hard to manage for a picture. Oh well!

 

 Last year we celebrated her birthday at the park, and it was too windy for candles. She started asking weeks ago for there to be candles on her birthday cake - ones that she could blow out. She was pretty excited about those candles!

Tea Party

All Evie wants to do these days is play "baby." She must be mourning the loss of her days as the baby of the family since Simon has replaced her. Because ALL she wants to do is play "baby." At least ten times a day she comes to me and says, "Mom, let's play you're the mom and I'm the baby," and she proceeds to tell me exactly how we're going to play. I've tried and tried to explain to her that I play "baby" all day long and it just isn't a very fun game for me to play. But she doesn't understand.

So, on Tuesday I thought I would distract her from this obsession with the baby game by playing "tea party" instead. That's something every little girl knows how to play, right? Wrong. Evie kept serving me pretend rice. Who eats rice at a tea party? I realized I had a huge task ahead of me - to teach my daughter how to host a tea party.

I promptly scheduled a real tea party for Wednesday afternoon. Nate and Evie looked forward to it all day. We made cookies and planned what snacks to have. I told them stories about when we lived in Turkey and the afternoons I spent with my neighbors drinking tea, eating snacks, and passing the time together. It was a lot of fun. And hopefully by the end of the day Evie knew how to host a tea party. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when she asks me to play "baby" and I offer a game of "tea party" instead.

 We had popcorn cookies from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook (a recipe I've had my eye on for a few months), popcorn, dried apricots, almonds, pistachios, and cashews. We used our Turkish tea glasses, but I admit I served their tea with milk, which isn't very Turkish. That's how I grew up drinking it, and they like it better that way too.
Stephen thinks it's silly.

When Evie was finished with her tea and snacks, she went off to play.

 But Nate and I sat and chatted for a long time. It was the best part of our little party by far. The dirt on our playroom floor (someday I'll have time to clean my house again) reminded him of the story about God turning the dust to flees, but how Pharoah still didn't let God's people go. And then he told me the rest of the story, which led to a conversation about following Jesus and our need for Him. I often forget that my rambunctious little boy has a very tender heart inside of him.

 I left our little party refreshed and reminded to be thankful for these days
with my little ones, as hard as they sometimes are.

I think Simon had a good time too. 

I had to keep him at a distance so he wouldn't spill our tea or sneak a cookie. :)

Soccer

Because we love to torture ourselves, Nate and Evie both played soccer this season. Evie was begging to play, so we finally gave in and signed her up. As much craziness as it added to our lives, the joy of watching them play definitely outweighed the pain of two practices and two games every week.  Evie thought she was big stuff! We were SO proud of her. She listened well to her coach and never cried or wanted to stop playing like we thought she might. She wasn't very aggressive - she mostly trotted along behind the crowd - but that's what Nate did the first time he played too.

Nate also had a great season. His age group was much more competitive this time, but he played really hard and was always right in there getting after the ball. It's been so much fun to watch him improve with each season. Here are some of the highlights:

 I don't think this smile left her face.

 Evie's coach was SO good, and she loved having a girl coach. I think that had a lot to do with how well she did this season. I'm really thankful she volunteered to coach!

 We got a picture of every time Evie had the ball. This was one,

 two,

and three. :)

I think this is the best picture we have of Nate all season. The field he played on was bigger and it was really hard to get a decent picture of him in action.

 So we'll move on to the cute baby pictures instead. Simon mostly hung out with me during their games. We're learning quickly that his life these next few years will be spent on the go.

Such a good little sport!