Florida, Summer Vacation part 2

Jun 26th, we hopped on another airplane from Baltimore to Florida. We met up with BJ, his dad, sister and Grandma. We spent two days with his Uncle Steve and Aunt Debra for a Fun Filled Farish Family reunion. Say that three times fast. We swam in their pool and had a cookout and watched a great video that Steve's sister Mary made for his 50th birthday. (watch out Napolean Dynamite!)JK Steve. They were wonderful host's and we had such a good time visiting with them. Thanks Steve and Deb!

Summer Vacation Part 1

School's out, time to head to Virginia, my home town of Stafford! The nice thing about summer in Virginia is that it is actually warm enough to go swimming for more than a month. The kids had a great time in the pool with Nana. We got to play with friends the kids and grown ups. Unfortunately, one of the kids, Eric, played a little too hard and took a tumble at the park in Fredericksburg. That night he was throwing up and ended up taking a trip to the new Stafford Hospital. Not the way I wanted to see the new hospital. After a cat scan, they determined there was no serious concussion but that we should keep an eye on him.


The day before we left Virginia we headed down to Southill to visit the grandparents Minx. We had such a nice time and it was good to be in the south again. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and "dead" green beans. MMMMMnnn Mmmmnnnn! To top it all off grandma made homeade strawberry ice cream. It was so good to see them and grandma Pam!

Justin's Order of the Arrow Ordeal

So my oldest son was elected to be in an elite group of the boy scouts called Order of the Arrow. He was so excited and it really is an honor to be elected by your fellow scouts. He had to go for a weekend ordeal where they send them out into the woods by themselves without a tent and only minimal food. They can't talk for 24 hrs and they have to do a service project the whole next day without talking and very little food, again. I mention the very little food twice because, as most people know, teenage boys can eat us all out of our food budgets. Justin is no exception. He left feeling very excited.

When he came back he looked so much older to me and he said, "Mom, I had a great time but I can only tell you about half of what we did." They are very secretive about what goes on in the Order of the Arrow but I do know that it left a great impression on him and it's an experience that he will never forget.

The Toothless Wonder

Eric has been waiting and waiting to lose his first tooth. I feel so sorry for Kindergarten teachers. This apparently happens daily, because I have heard about it almost daily for the last 3 months. Carson lost a tooth, Alex lost a tooth, Ben lost a tooth. Finally it was Eric's tooth. He wanted to lose it at school because the nurse gives them a cool tooth container but alas, it did not work out that way. Here he is with his first lose tooth. You can see that the other one next to it is all ready coming in so, just 2 days later, out came the one next to it.

Homemaking skills

For Activity Days the week before mother's day, the girls had a mother-daughter activity where Sarah learned how to sew a pillow case. Kate was sick that day. She was so excited. She has helped me cut out pattern pieces before but hadn't used the machine yet. I got a new sewing machine and she wants me to let her have my old one. I love how excited she gets to do new things.



Sarah has been wanting me to teach her how to knit. I decided to teach her how to crochet first so she could learn the hand posititon easier. I taught her the chain stitch and as most of you who crochet know, when you learn how to chain stitch, you don't stop. She kept going until she ran out of yarn. Now I just need to teach her the next step.

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah turned 9yrs old on Apr 28th. She is so full of spirit. She has the best laugh. She has always been our child to laugh a lot since she was born. She is our little entrepreneur, gymnast, pianist, and teacher. These are all things Sarah is very good at. She has the cutest way of giving you the Puppy Dog eyes when she wants something and it always makes me smile. Sarah, I love you!
Sarah got bit by the Earth Day bug this year. She wanted to go down to the Cedar River behind our house and pick up trash. We took two trash bags with us, one for trash and the other for recycling. Would you believe we filled them both up. I'm so happy she cares about our Earth. We had a nice family walk down to the river and it didn't take much to just carry the trash bags back home. Thanks Sarah!

Tiptoe Through the Tulip Festival

Shortly after Easter we heard they had a Tulip Festival up north of where we live. We decided to check it out. It was so beautiful. Not all of the tulips were quite ready but the daffodils were amazing. We did finally find some tulip fields with blossoms ready. Daddy said the kids couldn't tiptoe through them though because there were signs everywhere that said not to.