Berry Picking

We awoke bright and early and headed out the door to go and do some berry picking! Today was the perfect day for it too, very overcast (looked like rain for the first couple of hours) and cool with a lovely breeze. And we pretty much had the orchard to ourselves (see the advantages of being early birds?! lol). We picked blueberries and raspberries. It's still a bit early for the raspberries so we didn't get a ton of them (we'll go back in a couple of weeks) but we ended up with a little over half of a flat of blueberries, so not bad for 4 little ones and a Mama! ;-) We picked and just enjoyed the incredible surroundings - they have a couple of lakes on their property and some woods and it's just amazingly beautiful. We did some berry picking and some nature studying all wrapped up together today! We will be making some blueberry jam with the blueberries, yummy!

My Little Helper

I love mornings. . . early mornings. . . right after Daddy leaves I am up moving around the house and working on this and/or that, getting things ready for our day, starting some baking and cooking. . . it's just so quiet and peaceful. Well, this morning, littlest man came out to the kitchen and wanted me to "snuggle" him into the great room so he'd still be within eye-shot of me, so of course I complied. Well, along comes Miss Georgia to snuggle up in the chair with him and keep 'watch' over him while he went back to sleep. And she proceeded to stay there until he awoke about an hour and a half later! Yes, she is indeed my little helper. ;-)

Roots & Relations

This is the new unit study that the boys and I are working on and man are we loving it! It's so fun and exciting. Today we made our weekly trip (sometimes more than weekly! ) to the library and scored these fabulous books to do a bit of reading and studying and gleaning to help us in our creating some Heritage Books. The boys are each making their own. They've already started making calls to family members with questions and requesting info, like favorite recipes (hey, ya didn't think we'd leave out food, did ya?! lol), favorite books, favorite and/or unique stories to share with us. I see this as something they will add to over the years and what a collection of information and memories they will have to share with their own families some day.

My 'Replica'

My sweet, sweet little man (DS3) made this for me. . . he very proudly presented it to me and announced "It's you Mommy - I made you, see the smile on your face? 'Cause you're always smiling." (I'm glad he thinks so! lol)Awww, how precious is that? I literally cried. This picture just doesn't do it justice, but I hope you can see some of the detail. . . like the broad smile, medium length hair, shoes. . . it's just so touching that he took such immense time to fit all the details in to this creation. . . and just for me. I love it!

Happy Birthday to me!

Isn't it just beautiful?! I'm just gazing at how intricate the design is. . . and well. . . I just love it! It has fabulous rubies that just shine like the sun. . .it's just so pretty. I love things that are 'antiquish' looking and this is exactly that. My wonderful husband is so funny - it's kind of like a joke between us. . . how early will he be with giving me something he buys? Today is not actually my birthday but he's like a kid in the candy store - he just can't stand it! ;-) He knows I LOVE surprises and will gladly wait until the specified day but he on the other hand, well, he just can't do it! So, ya never know when things are coming from him (which is a surprise in and of itself!). . . it could be a week early. . . or three weeks early! lol I love him. . . and I love the way he loves me. Yes, I appreciate the gift and the thought that I know he puts into selecting just the right thing he wants to give me, but above all I just love his steadfast and amazing love. God really blessed me with him and I thank Him for that every day. And thank you Huney - it's absolutely beautiful and I love it! :-) Love you Babe!

Angels vs. Red Sox

Yep, we are the "Angels"! (Have they MET our boys?! lol) Just kidding. . . we have SOOO enjoyed baseball this season - what a joy to watch the big boys have their first experience as part of a team for baseball. These kids are truly a hoot to watch! We are pretty much an all boy team, with the exception of one little girl and boy is she a doll, not to mention she has quite a little arm! Could be the fact that she is one 8 children and definitely knows how to play and keep up with her siblings! ;-) The boys have just really enjoyed playing and Daddy is helping coach so that's been extra special for them too. As our baseball season is coming to a close, 2 of our big boys are now asking about basketball, so we'll see what the schedule looks like. S1 absolutely loves to play basketball so we'll certainly do everything we can to arrange that for him. :-)

Weekly Nature Study

I just love the first pic. . . one, it's a cute pic of all the little men and Georgia (who loves to accompany us on our walks/hikes) and two, it truly represents their enthusiasm for just being out in nature and exploring - it's definitely one of our favorite weekly affairs. Notice our little spider buddy in the bottom picture - we observed him for quite some time and he didn't seem to mind us (or the noise) the least bit - what a trooper he was! :-) We've got some wonderful ideas for new notebooks for our nature studies. . . stay tuned and we'll try and post some of the creations.

Fresh Lemonade anyone?

We made a huge batch of some freshly squeezed lemonade on Sunday and boy was it good. Daddy bought me a new glass container/ dispenser (you can kind of see it in the background) and even our super huge batch only filled it about half way up. So, this morning, I bottled up what we had left and put it in the fridge to enjoy through this week. We tried a new recipe and as soon as I have time to figure out how to properly post a link, I'll share it with all of you. Mmmm, good!

Bye-bye Nummies

DS4 so happy with all the festivities - what a blast! (Notice the cherry-stained face?!)
Happy faces from everyone - they all got to enjoy a great time! Notice the lovely decorations. . . courtesy of our fabulous Daddy!
He's like his Daddy - there is just nothing better than ice cream. . . so of course we had some ice cream sandwiches - yummy! :-) Here he was saying "bye-bye nummies!" Awww, what a big boy!
Enjoying his super yummy treat!
Daddy and I decided to plan a little party to help assist the final phase of saying good-bye to nummies and honestly, it worked very well! Plus we all had a lovely time. . . Daddy did balloon creations for all the boys and decorated all of our chairs. We had some lovely leis to wear and after dinner we served up a little treat with some sparkler candles for littlest man to blow out - sooo fun!

Stitches and Rocky Road

We were at a birthday party for the boys' best friends (also triplets) who were turning 6yrs old and had only made it about 15 minutes into the fun when this little accident occurred. . . oy! DS3 got hit in the head with a balloon that was weighted down by a rock. . .yep, you read that right. . . a ROCK! Who ties up a balloon with a rock?! That just doesn't sound safe to me and as evident from the picture above, it is NOT safe. We had to load up and make a visit to the local ER/Urgent Care, where my baby got 2 stitches. I must just say, that the entire staff there was absolutely incredible. . . truly just amazing! They were so friendly, kind and just overly gracious in their dealings and treatment with our whole family. The nurse made sure all of the boys had toys when we went back to the room then proceeded to get them each a coloring book and box of crayons. Then to top it off, she brought them each a Popsicle from the freezer. . . God bless her, she was amazing, and really touched my heart with the wonderful care and graciousness she displayed with all of us. It was the best of a bad and unfortunate situation.
My Mom and sister and niece had come down to visit and watch the boys baseball game that night, but unfortunately we didn't make it (and our big boys represent 1/3 of the team - yikes!). But as always, Nana knows how to make ya smile. . . she had Rocky Road ice cream waiting for us when we arrived - yep, 3 whole containers! lol Boy, does Nana know how to fix boo-boos! :-)

My Turn!

We had just finished our devotions and littlest man yelled, "my turn Mama!". So he climbed up in the chair and started pointing to the words and giving us his version of what we had just read. . . it was just so cute, my heart was quite joyful.

Playdate

We spent the whole day with our dear friends, the F family, and what a lovely time we had! This place had a quarry with water park stuff for all the kids to enjoy. It was amazingly beautiful! We had visited this place previously while searching for a new seasonal site location. They have tubing down the river, kayaking, paddle boats and canoeing - so much to do! We all swam and it was such incredible fun to watch the kids just thoroughly enjoy themselves. Our boys were pretty tired for their baseball game later that night! :-) (Mental note to Mommy: No all day swimming excursions on game nights! lol) ;-)

Growing. . . Growing. . . Growing!

And of course, we haven't seen anything yet! lol ;-) She's getting so big and growing so fast! She has such a lovely disposition and has been a real blessing to our family. The boys are just in love with her and of course the feeling is mutual! :-)

Water Play

It was another heat-fest day again so we pretty much stayed wet all day. . . it's just too hot to not be in the water. The boys had fun running through the sprinkler and using their super-soakers and playing games of tag and chase. We pretty much begged Daddy for a pool, but his common sense and level-headedness gently reminded us that we do not have a level yard for a pool. Geesh, who said reality rules?! ;-)

Creations With Pegs

DS1 started out playing his peg game but then progressed to building. . .
Here is the house that he said he is going to build for me. . . what a Sweetheart!
And here DS2 was using the pegs as his gear shifter in his motor home. He took me for a ride and even made me my own "bed" area so I would be comfortable on our "bumpy ride". :-) Ya gotta just love that sweet, thoughtfulness - it just makes me so proud they understand showing God's love and compassion in all we do.

Happy 4th!

One of the ladies who was in charge of the festivities here graciously offered to take a picture for us so we took her up on that kind offer!
DS4 and his creation of a "mower". . . he was rolling the ball with the stick and "mowing" the outer perimeter of the field. . . very creative if you ask me!

DS3 - Our champion bubble blower! lol
DS1 LOVES basketball - and he's pretty good! He was keeping up with the big boys pretty well! :-)
DS2 enjoying the last of his ice cream treat right before the fireworks show began.
DS2 took this shot of Daddy and I. . . he loves to use Mommy's camera! Perhaps a budding photographer?

We had such a fabulous day from beginning to end! We got up and grabbed some granola bars and made a big batch of smoothies and then the big boys and I headed out for a date with Mommy while littlest man had some individual time with Daddy. The big boys escorted me to the movies and we saw Wall-E, which I thought was pretty good and the boys enjoyed. While we vegged at the movies, Daddy and little guy did some shopping and then we all met up at the mall later. Then we grabbed some food at home, rode bikes and played and then took a little nap before we headed to the fireworks festivities. We tried a new place this year and we really enjoyed it - it was not too packed, peaceful, the people were very friendly and they had lots for kids of all ages. First we grabbed some dinner, then we enjoyed some play time for a few hours before the big show. Daddy treated us to some ice cream (do you see a theme in our family??? We LOVE ice cream!) and then we all snuggled up on our quilt and watched the fireworks. . . they were great! Oh and the really great thing about our new location - we weren't stuck in traffic for 3 hours trying to get home. . .oh yeah, that was great! ;-)

Reading Creates Readers

We were playing and doing a bit of dress up and then DS1 & 4 switched gears and popped a squat to do a bit of reading. I LOVE the fact that they love to read and be read to. . .it's a fave around our house! I have read to the boys since they were literally inside the womb. . .weather reading God's word out loud or just a good classic, living book. . . now they take turns reading to me and to one another. . .wow, how far we've come in 5 short years. . .