And School Begins Again

I can't believe summer has ended and the school year has began again.  It was a whirlwind of a summer and I think we were all ready to get back to the school routine.  Ethan is so excited to be in First Grade (which he figured out quickly last year was much cooler than Kindergarten).  His teacher is much more outgoing and fun and he really likes her.  Unfortunately I think she is going to be way too easy and he will take full advantage of it.  It was nice to hear him come home on the first day of school and say it was "awesome".  It is so easy when so many of his same classmates are back for the second year.

Taylor had to wait a week until her preschool started and it was a long week for both of us.  She went from a house of 3 playmates to just me in a very short period of time and it has been a hard adjustment.  And she was so excited about starting school that it was just hard to wait.  But finally preschool started again for her and it has been good.  I should have done a better job of explaining how "pre-K", as she likes to call it, will be different from last year but I didn't. So she was very disappointed in the amount of play time they have compared to last year where it was 90% playtime and 10% learning.  It doesn't help that the learning time is spent on ABC's and very basic skills that she isn't thrilled about.  Just like Ethan, she came home from the first day of school disappointed that she wasn't reading yet.  She did tell me that on the first day of school one of the boys told her that she was his girlfriend.  I asked her if he was nice or cute or anything and she just shrugged her shoulders pretty unimpressed.  I asked if he was as cute as Keaton (her crush from preschool last year) and she just got a silly grin on her face and said "of course not".  I guess that crush continues.

Taylor has been amusing me lately with how grown up she can be.  She is so logical for her age.  We were at a playplace and she was annoyed that Ethan wasn't playing with her.  I suggested that she go and play with some of the other girls that were there.  She walked over to them and talked for a minute and then came back.  She said "Mom, they are going to play freeze tag and I think that is a bad idea.  We are inside and someone is going to get hurt.  I don't want to run into anyone so I'm not going to play."  It was really hard to argue with that.  I just love that cute, sweet girl.





Summer Vacation

I can't believe it is already August and summer is coming to an end.  We have had a fun summer and managed to stay busy.  Abe has had a very busy June and July so I think that made the summer fly by.  In June he worked in the ICU and worked long hours six days a week and we barely saw him coming and going.  Then in July he went to NYC for a month.  So we knew we better have some activities to keep us from going crazy without him (well mainly to keep me from going crazy with 4 kids under the age of 6).  I signed Ethan and Taylor up for volleyball camp at the YMCA and they had a great time making friends and playing volleyball.  It was totally worth the money to see them having so much fun (and it gave me a good excuse to work out a lot that week).  After a few weeks of playing with friends, going to the zoo, playing at the park and going to the pool it was finally time to go on our family vacation. Since Abe was going to NYC the kids and I planned a trip to Virginia to see my parents and spend 2 weeks with them.  There was lots of drama leading up to the trip because I had been told earlier by the foster agency that they had respite providers that could watch the foster kiddos while we were gone and a few weeks before the trip I found out that we had to find our own person to watch our little wild extra children because there was just no way I could do 6 hours of flying with 4 kids by myself, especially when 2 of them have some "challenging" personalities.   Needless to say we didn't have a long list of friends willing to take on this type of crazy for 2 weeks.  But after a near meltdown and threats to leave them on someone doorstep they were able to find someone willing to take the extra kiddos while we were gone.  And it was a much needed break. 

It was so wonderful to reconnect with my sweet kids again.  They were angels in the airport even though we had to wait almost 5 hours in San Antonio before we could leave because of delays and being rerouted.  They were troopers as we had to run through the Dulles airport pulling our suitcases because their mother is too cheap to check them and just making it as they closed the doors behind us.  Even though it was WAY past their bedtime when we made it to Richmond they still were able to have a good attitude and be my helpers and I couldn't have been prouder of them.

 Here they are passing the time in the airport. Gotta love free wifi in the airport and Netflix on the iPad.

 Ethan is such a super reader.  I couldn't believe he finished this chapter book within 2 days.  I think we might need to work on slowing down for comprehension but he does amazing.

 Of course no trip to Grandma's house is complete without some time at the park by the lake.

 Mom and Dad treated us to a wonderful trip to Myrtle Beach while we were visiting.  The condo was right on the beach so the kids loved being able to play there every day.  Even though the weather wasn't always the best we always found some time to play in the water.

The kids had a little patience for posing for pictures on the first day since we got there too late to really play in the water.

 It is always a family tradition since we lived in Myrtle Beach years ago that we eat at least one meal in Calabash, which is a little town on the NC/SC border with amazing seafood.  I still remember eating at this restaurant as a kid.  It was delicious.

 Taylor and Ethan talked Grandpa into helping them boogie board in the very rough surf.  They had so much fun!

 One of the highlights of the trip for Ethan and Taylor was a dinner at Medieval Times.  I had never been to the knight themed dinner but I had a feeling it would be right up Ethan's alley.  They had Ethan hooked when they pointed out that there were no utensils and they would have to eat with their hands.  The kids loved cheering for their knight and really got into it all.

Our knight started throwing flowers at the crowd and Taylor caught one of them.  She was so excited about it and couldn't stop talking about how sweet our knight was.

 It was so fun to see how excited they were and how they couldn't wait to tell Abe all about their adventure.

 

My parents also agreed to watch Ethan and Taylor for a long weekend so that I could go and visit Abe in NYC.  The kids couldn't wait to get rid of me.  They can't wait until Grandma can be in charge.  It doesn't take much to get them excited, just extra desserts, waking up early and watching too much TV.  But it is worth it to have two kids that have no problem with me leaving and are good for their grandparents so they will watch them again.  So I took the train from Richmond to NYC to meet up with Abe.  I didn't know what to do with myself with so much time to read and just be alone.  I definitely picked the wrong time to visit NY because it was around 100 degrees and miserable when you have to walk with a suitcase around town.  And the air conditioning in NY just can't keep up with that kind of heat so even when I got to Abe's apartment I wasn't greeted by fresh, cool air.  Our timing wasn't great since we really only had one evening and a Sunday afternoon in NY because we spent the rest of the weekend in Boston visiting friends.  So most of my time in NY was spent walking around rather than doing anything exciting.  But it was enough time to make me realize that I have no desire to live in a big city.





So Friday morning Abe and I went and rented a car and drove to Boston to visit with a wonderful group of friends from Virginia.  I can't believe how well it worked out that we had to be on the east coast during the same time that the rest of the gang had come up with a plan to meet up in Boston.  We had such a great time hanging out with some great friends that we hadn't seen in two years and their adorable children.  We spent lots of time eating wonderful food and being given a great tour of Boston from Elicia.  I think I came back a few pounds heavier at least.  It was also nice to be childless for a few days and not worry about any of my little ones complaining about being tired or about walking.  I hope we can do another fun vacation with our friends in the near future!

 

Our two week vacation went by way too fast and none of us were ready to get back to reality.  Ethan and Taylor weren't thrilled that we knew we had to go pick up the foster kiddos when we got back but they are troopers.  It helped that we knew Abe would be home just a few days after us and the kids were really ready to see him.  Now I can't believe that the summer is almost over and we only have 5 weeks until the baby is due to come.  Time will continue to fly I'm sure.   I have a million things that still need to get done so I should probably get on that now.

The Year Has Come to An End

I really can't believe that the school year is over and Ethan has finished kindergarten.  He had such an amazing year and learned so much that it even exceeded my expectations.  I have to brag about my smart little boy for a few minutes. 

 End of the Year

 

    Beginning of the school Year

His kindergarten was a Spanish/English class and it has been so fun to hear all the Spanish he has picked up over the year.  He has such a great accent that I can't wait to hear how well he speaks after next year. I definitely can't remember back to what I learned in Kindergarten but it blows me away with what Ethan knows now.  He loves math and is so good at it.  He has started doing multiplication and can do all sorts of math facts in his head.  We were talking about something and when someone asked what 60 plus 99 was he responded quicker than Abe and I with the right answer.  He is a great reader and is so sweet to read to Taylor and the other kiddos at the house when I need a break.  He reads chapter books amazingly well.  I hope that 1st grade will be able to find ways to challenge him like kindergarten has.  I was listening to him and Taylor talk in the car the other day and the discussion turned to what they were going to do when they grew up.  Taylor really just wants a job that makes a lot of money so she is hoping that a professional singing career will work out.  Ethan decided to explain to her the differences between jobs like being a police officer that didn't require a lot of school but weren't as challenging and how if she wanted a really good job she was probably going to have to go to school.  Ethan's plan is to become an engineer and own his own company.  So he told Taylor if she wanted she could come and work for him and they could see each other everyday.  He did clarify that she couldn't just sit around and do nothing at his company that she would have to work hard.  I love how they plan things and how they want to be together (even if it doesn't appear that way on a day to day basis).  Here are a few pictures from graduation.  I love just this little boy!

 

 

 

 

I have fallen behind

Life has been busy and there has been little time for blogging but maybe I will get caught up one of these days.  Long ago, back around Easter, we had a wonderful ward Easter egg hunt.  The kids were so excited about getting eggs.  It was like watching a swarm of ants take over the park as they ran looking for eggs and destroying any small trees that stood in their way.

 We celebrated Easter with some fun bunny pancakes.  The kids love pancakes in any shape but chocolate chip eyes make it even better.

 The weekend after Easter Abe had Saturday and Sunday off so we decided to take a trip to Dallas and visit the family.  We had such a fun time, as always.  We spent Saturday going to the Science Museum in Dallas, which was just amazing.  It is brand new and so high tech.  The kids loved trying to race the cheetah (you can guess who won that one) and fly like a bird with 3-D glasses. We finished off the evening with a great meal at a Mexican restaurant without the kids.

On Sunday the kids were willing to quickly pose for a few pictures before we went to church.  All our sweet cousins were so great about showing Ethan and Taylor around at church and making them feel welcome in their classes.



 I tried to get Ethan and Taylor to take a picture together since Taylor was sick on Easter and I couldn't take any pictures then but there was no cooperation from the troops so this is all we got.

 Sunday was also Abe's birthday so we had a delicious dinner and some marble fudge cake to celebrate before we headed back to San Antonio.  No one was ready to leave after all the fun we had.  We always appreciate our wonderful family in Dallas and how great they are to us.

Canyon Lake Camping

The kids have been begging to go camping again and the weather has been nice enough lately that we made plans for a quick trip during spring break. Abe schedule didn't allow him to ask for any additional time off other than Friday so we just did a one night campout close by. But it was tons of fun and the kids were great. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was early enough in the year that no bugs were out.

 Ethan giving his univeral "thumbs up".  In this instance I think it means "no really mom, its not too cold for swimming."  But on other occassions it means "no, that really didn't hurt has bad as it looked" or "I totally meant to do that" or "don't worry mom, this next trick of mine will end fine."

 The water was still pretty chilly even though it was in the 80's during the day.  The kids tried to swim but they mainly just played in the sand.

 The weather in the evening was perfect for hanging around the campfire and cooking some hotdogs.

 Ethan did have some doubts about Abe cooking his smores.  He can be quite dramatic when he wants to be.

The morning was a little chilly so Taylor decided to crawl back into bed.  Abe and Ethan just decided to get comfy in the chairs.  And yes it appears that Abe is a bigger wimp about being cold than Ethan is.

We braved the strong winds on the lake to do some canoeing.  It sure made for a good workout but I think I will stick to river canoeing.  Ethan can't wait until he is big enough to go out in the boat with Abe by himself.

Sometimes these two can be adorable together. It usually just last for a split second though. I love these two cute kids more than anything.

Our Newest Addition

I can't believe it has taken me so long to annouce this on the blog but we are thrilled to tell everyone that we are expecting Baby Fish #3 September 14th!  We had been hoping for this for a long time and were starting to have our doubts it would ever happen so we feel very blessed. 

Ethan and Taylor are so thrilled and are fun to listen to as they talk to the baby and make all sorts of plans on what they will teach it and what they will be responsible for.  I was going to post the video of when we told them about the baby but I have yet to get it off the iPad so it may never happen.  They weren't crazy excited in the video (not that Abe or myself get crazy excited on the outside about things either) but it was  pretty cute later that night when I saw Ethan smiling at me and I asked him what he was thinking about and he said "I just can't believe we are really having a baby."  We asked the kids to keep it a secret when we told them but poor Taylor just couldn't keep such a good secret to herself.  I think her preschool teacher and class were the first ones to find out then followed closely by her Sunday School teacher.  She did mention to her that it was a secret and she wasn't supposed to have told anyone.  And what a sweet Sunday School teacher who pretended not to know for weeks until Taylor told her it was no longer a secret.  Ethan on the other hand has decided that he won't tell any of his friends until we know if it is a boy or a girl.  He said "they are just going to want to know if it is a boy or a girl and I don't have an answer. I'll just wait until I know the answer and then tell them."  Completely logical, why waste time on unnecessary conversations Abe junior.  We do have an ultrasound scheduled for April 17th so we all can't wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl.

The first trimester is officially over and I am feeling really good.  It was definitely a hard first month with Abe out of town and me feeling under the weather all the time but we are now doing amazing.  Exciting times and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Valentine's Day

I guess I have once again gotten a little behind with the blog but we had such a fun Valentine's Day that I have to put the pictures in.  The kids remembered that last year I had made them a fun, heart shaped breakfast so the bar was set high.  This year Taylor had heart shaped french toast and Ethan had toast with an egg in the middle in a heart shape.  The kids were pleased and were surprised by the heart shaped sandwiches in their lunches.

The kids decided they wanted to make a dessert for their dad so we decided to do chocolate covered strawberries so they could do it "themselves".  We had a fun time and were pretty impressed with how good they turned out. 

We had a good laugh when later that afternoon a package was delivered for me from Abe and it contained chocolate covered strawberries.  Great minds think a like.  But we enjoyed them all.

Since Abe was working late that night and there was no chance of going out to dinner I decided to try my hand at making a steak for Abe, which is usually his favorite.  I am not one to cook red meat because I never seem to get it right but I gave it a try.  Ethan got lucky, since there were three pieces of meat in the filet mignon package and he got to be my guinea pig.  Yum, bacon wrapped steak.  Ethan was in heaven with his love of meat.  Taylor, my non-meat eater, even decided it looked good enough for a taste or two.

 

It was not a healthy dinner to say the least but I would have to say that mine was restaurant quality. 

Of course by the time I spent all evening putting this together and waiting until 8 to eat it I was exhausted.  So maybe going out is still the better option.

 



 Valentine's weekend was also when Ethan's school did their family sock hop.  Ethan had been looking forward to the dance for a long time and it was pretty cute to see all the kids playing and dancing together.  Ethan has the tough kid look down pat in this picture!