Friday, October 18th

Our attending the Wizard of Oz show at the Center for Puppetry Arts was sort of a happy accident.  I had signed us up 6+ weeks ago, but then the night before $$ was due, I canceled our commitment to attend, because we'd been to a few shows recently and I certainly don't want the kids to lose their enthusiasm for going!  However, the tickets had already been purchased and I didn't want the organizer to be out any personal funds, so I opted us back in and I'm so glad I did :-)  What a fun, well done production by the Frisch Marionettes - a twist on a traditional tale that had the kids swaying to the music and clapping along, and even Waverly watched attentively!  

Post-show we headed to Chick Fil A for lunch and play time.  The baby was *so* good the entire time (drive there, show, drive to CFA, during lunch) and then when we went to leave, my sweet, overly tired WaverCakes just pitched an absolute F-I-T!  At first I was just going to go ahead and leave anyway and deal with the yell-screaming as I drove, but that's always stressful and not to mention more than a little distracting.  So instead, I got her out of the carseat and brought her up front with me where we just played and snuggled for about 15-20 minutes.  I was way ready to be home, but sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and enjoy sleepy snuggles with a little one while your other three chat your ear off about all the awesomeness that has transpired.

Ready to depart and drive in-town to the show with my goofballs~

My three lovely ladies and handsome dude.  Please note how my four-month-old is roughly half the size of my 6-year-old :-o

This blurry picture of some of our SASCH group kids running around is indicative of how it actually feels when you're there, watching in person.  Just a blur. lol  It looks like we had the place to ourselves, but on the opposite side of the wall (on the right) was about 100+ school kids.

Olivia wanted to hold Waverly when they were seated - so sweet :-)  But she was all, "I'm done, she's heavy" lol

Post-CFA, post-angry fit in the carseat, post-27 rounds of "Old Rugged Cross" which the kids call either "that song that calms Waverly down" or "On a hill."  Much calmer and self satisfied :-p

Finally chilled 100% and ready to go back in the carseat - she fell asleep about 20 seconds into our drive home :-)

Wednesday, October 2nd

The kids and I headed out on Wednesday morning to attend a new show at The Center for Puppetry Arts called "Everybody Loves Pirates."  It was so, so cute!  Afterward we went to our usual - Chick Fil A, where the kids played and played for over an hour.  As we traveled here and there in the car, we listened to more of our Egyptian audiobook and the kids loved it :-)  When we got back home in the afternoon from our fun field trip and lunch with friends, the kids had a bit of downtime before becoming entrenched in a doctor game.  We were planning on going to karate, however Jim had a free chunk of time in the afternoon and Grammie and Nana kindly agreed to a spontaneous movie date - so off we went to see Rush!  

Love these kids~ they were excited to check out the new show!  We're so fortunate to get great, inexpensive ticket prices via our homeschool group, which allows us to go often and enjoy this awesome storytelling medium.

Once we made it through the whole arrival procedure (getting everyone out of the van, trekking inside, all of us need potty breaks since it's a 35 minute drive, then change the baby's diaper, consolidate a few necessities from the diaper bag into my purse, park the stroller, get seated...) and seating arrangements were hashed out, I asked Judd if he wanted to hold Waverly.  He has such a sweet disposition toward Waverly and always has!  Love it :-)  He held her for a few minutes, but girlfriend is *heavy* haha~ I took her back and she kept lunging for him.  I can already tell that she is going to be wanting to do everything the big kids are doing and won't tolerate being excluded!

Chick Fil A fun!  I so relish this stage - it's a sort of magical one wherein I'm not having to be hands-on with the three big kids while they play and have fun - I don't have to be worried about potty accidents or that they're too small to climb up the playscape successfully, they can open the doors themselves... yet they are still little enough that the play place at Chick Fil A is a fun destination and keeps them entertained for an hour or two :-)

Jim had found a great deal online for kids' cots, and ordered two - one each for Lincoln and Victoria.  It was a great purchase, as they fold up into the size of a kids camping chair and come with a little tote bag - we'll be able to use these in hotel rooms on trips, for camping, etc.  And this allows us to skip dragging around a couple of air mattresses on such trips!  Lincoln thought his was pretty swank and wanted to try it out right away while he lounged and watched a Curious George. 

While at Chick Fil A, Victoria had "doctored" Judd when he hurt himself.  She spent several minutes asking him if he was okay, putting lotion on his boo-boo and placing bandaids as needed.  This transferred home, where she and Scarlett both doctored Grammie for more time than she probably cared to be a patient, hehe.  But she was a great sport!  Then it was just Victoria doctoring up Scarlett, Lincoln and Waverly :-)  So many patients to see!

Wednesday, September 18th

Wednesday was a fun field trip day - we attended the Center for Puppetry Art's "Peter Rabbit" with our SASCH group.  The show was really great and done in a table-top Bunraku style of puppetry which was unique and different from any of the other performances we've attended. The kids really enjoyed it and Waverly watched, snoozed and chuckled her way through :-)  Afterward we did our usual and went to Chick Fil A for lunch and playtime with friends.  Somehow I ended up only snapping a couple of pictures throughout all of this - I guess my hands were full! Such a fun outing.  At home, the weather was so nice and only in the mid-70's... the kids started playing outdoors and were having so much fun that I opted to miss karate - the class can be made up, and sometimes I think kids just need to not be rushed! 

Victoria, Lincoln, Scarlett with their friends N & J, standing on the giant Pinocchio's foot.

Victoria and Lincoln, cheese'ing it up in this mini stage :-)

Friday, August 23rd

We had several errands to run on Friday, and because I'm not at all above bribing, I had told the kids that if we could accomplish what we needed to with good attitudes then I would treat them to Chick Fil A for lunch.  I was so pleased with their good attitudes!  Although we couldn't get to every place I'd hoped before it was lunchtime, the kids were really fun and well behaved.  Later (during naps) I was able to run out to the grocery story by myself thanks to my mom!  A bit of cleaning in the evening and we were feeling ready for our SASCH Back to School party the following day.

During a stop at Party City, the kids were eager to point out all of the many Halloween decorations that are already on display.  Scarlett was not a fan of the mask kiosks and conveniently thought "they would scare Waverly" and pushed her sister away in the stroller and then half-hid behind it (see her in the background??). lol  Victoria found this mask and thought it was great.

Of course, Lincoln found the creepiest mask ever and insisted on riding around the store with it on.  A little distracting...

A few stops later, it was time for lunch.  The kids were famished and polished off all of their food and ice cream treats, then played and played.  I think they must have played for at least an hour and were still sad to leave!  Victoria is such a good sharer (most of the time!) and when Lincoln asks for a bite...

She happily serves it up.

Waverly is just the best baby - so content to just be in the middle of the action! :-)

Chick Fil A is promoting their new milkshake, "mocha cookies and cream," and passed out little mini samples - the kids were more than eager participants.

My super handsome guy - he melts my heart!

Recently I was looking through one of Gram's old boxes of pictures and came across this one of me (left, obviously) from when I was 3 or 4.  As I was looking at this picture of Lincoln I was just really blown away by how much we resemble each other!  I'm used to everyone saying that Lincoln looks just like Jim, and he does in a lot of ways, but I'm seeing that he's much more of a mix.  I can definitely see some more resemblance between little-me and Scarlett, too!

Afternoon pool time with Nana!

Tuesday, July 30th

With a fun puppet show to attend, followed by Scarlett having a Daddy/Daughter in-office work day while the rest of the crew and I joined our fellow SASCH friends for lunch and play, Tuesday was a full, fun day!  We had a wonderful time.

Waverly's first puppet show! :-)  Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts is truly a gem of a place for kids, and we have enjoyed every show we've attended.  This time we were excited to watch a performance of Rumpelstiltskin.

There were several other families from our SASCH group there as well, but these were the kids available at the moment so I snagged them all for a picture.

N, Olivia, and Scarlett all sat in a row together.

The boys sat together - J, Judd, and Lincoln.  J was not in the mood to have his picture taken!

The kids and I drove Scarlett to Jim's office and dropped her off there.  She was really excited to have lunch "in the city" and then to be able to work with daddy all afternoon!  They had lunch  at Front Page News in Little 5 Points.

At Chick Fil A, the kids had a blast playing with a gaggle of their friends, and I enjoyed chatting with mine!  Lincoln was especially thrilled that Meredith was there - on the way from the puppet show to drop Scarlett off he told me, "I love Janice AND Meredith."  Uh-oh!  Such a cutie pie :-)

Meredith also spent time charming Waverly, who was sitting with my friend Amanda P.  I was impressed with the smiles that Meredith was able to get out of the baby!  While we were eating lunch, a nice lady (probably mid-50's) struck up a conversation with me and after a while said, "It's okay if you say no, but... can I hold your baby??"  There was a time when I would have found that odd, but I love that people want to snuggle and be sweet to my babies!  I gladly handed her over and she shared a bit of their (her and her husband were eating lunch together there) personal story.  When she handed her back over after some time, she thanked me profusely and said that holding Waverly had blessed her immensely :-)

Meanwhile, back at the office, Scarlett was setting up her area.

 One of the gals on Jim's team set Scarlett up to do some game user-testing.  She thought that was awesome! 

Afterward, she spent a long time designing a game (app) that she thought Jim's company might like to create.  She called it "Noc Thu Gieant" (Knock the Giant) or "Noc" for short.  Love it!  It was a cross between the story of David vs. Goliath and Angry Birds. 

Her second design page was how the "Noc" store might work.  There would be different players available, with different slingshots and even swords if you earned LOTS of coins from defeating the giants in the various levels.  Very creative!  Maybe she will follow in daddy's footsteps :-)

Friday, July 12th - Cow Appreciation Day

The way the kids came rushing into my room on Friday morning yelling "It's Cow Appreciation Day!! It's COW APPRECIATION DAAAAAYYY!!", one might have assumed this was some sort of major national holiday ;-) We LOVE Chick Fil A, and this was our fourth year dressing up in cow garb and heading to our nearest location to join in the fun, festivities, and free food!

 First thing in the morning, Grammie took the three big cows to the nearest CFA to get free breakfast and bring it home to enjoy.  So cute!

While they were gone, I enjoyed some sweet snuggle time with Waverly and had the opportunity to snap a few pictures.  She is just growing too quickly!  I'm so thankful for this precious girl!

I was talking to her, and telling her all about the outing we would have later, and that I did in fact have a cow outfit for her.  Right at that moment, she made this funny face with one eyebrow raised and it made me laugh out loud :-)  It was as though she had understood every word and was thinking, "A cow outfit? Really?"

Serious Face.

I call the next four pictures "Working up to a laugh:"

I love that I can see a big smile is coming just in her eyes first.  They're so expressive and she gets a little gleam!

Her legs and arms start going and her mouth opens.

The smile pops out!

 And then a belly laugh and huge grin!  Oooh, I could just snuggle her all day! :-)

Haha, I don't know what kind of face this is, but it reminds me of Dr. Evil :-)

My baby love.

The kids had a pretty chilled rest of the morning - they were tired and I think sometimes kids just need to veg out for a while when they are in the mood.  They played their Nooks, watched a tv show or two and lounged around.  Pretty soon it was time to get all of us into our Cow garb!

Our littlest "calf" :-)  Scarlett kept saying "Awww! She is SO CUTE!"

The first attempt at the kids picture didn't go to well - Lincoln was insistent that he needed his frog boots on and it took some convincing to assure him he could put them on for the group picture.

Well in that case, he was happy to put a smile on :-)  LOVE MY KIDDOS! Scarlett was so pleased that she got to hold Waverly.  

"Okay, we see your frog boots!  Now get in the picture with the rest of us!!"

Our whole Herd ;-)  Fourth Cow Appreciation Day!

Of course, this made me need to look back and find the FIRST Cow Appreciation Day. Scarlett was 3, Victoria was *almost* 2, and Lincoln was just a month old (you can't really see him, but he's in the car seat behind us to the right).

There wasn't as many outdoor activities this year (I think because we went during an in-between time), but the kids were just happy they could still get their faces painted!

Scarlett went for a butterfly.

Lincoln and Victoria went for cow spots.

It was really too late in the day for naps by the time we got home and washed up, so I opted to just let the kids get in the pool instead (they'd had a lot of rest time throughout the morning).  This made for a full week of no naps for all of the kids, and they did really well.  Definitely a little more arguing, but nothing terrible.  I will be happy to get us back to our regular loose routine next week, but it's nice to know that they have all reached ages where I can mix things up and skip naptime for several days and there are no major meltdown/attitude repercussions. 

After swimming for 90 minutes, the kids tried to start squirting Nana with their water guns.  She got the last laugh though by breaking out the hose :-)

Lincoln, flying his "redneck kite" (construction paper and yarn) by running through the yard and letting it sail behind him. 

A tired crew by the end of the evening!  Lincoln wanted to hold the baby for a while on the sofa - he watched Curious George and Waverly watched him :-)