Camping for Mother's Day

The kids were with their Mom for Mother's Day so Adam and I took the little ones camping. It was the first time we have been away without Jaden and Kirsten since we've been married and it felt strange. It was very quiet and peaceful and a lot less messy!

The campsite was next to a lake so the kids could play on the beach, fish with Daddy and play in the gravel by the camper.

It is such a wonderful feeling to pull up to the campsite, take 10 minutes to level the camper and just start cooking! No pulling out a dozen plastic boxes, setting up the tent, hoping it doesn't rain, trying to set up the stove. I would happily go camping every weekend if we could.

While we were away I could just relax and not worry about all the things I had on my list to do at home. Weekends at home always seem to be so busy trying to do things with the kids and get caught up on all the stuff that needs to be done.

I read a book, played with the babies, talked by the fire with Adam, watched him fish with Nicolas (just so cute to see) and thoroughly relaxed.

The weather was perfect for paddling but a bit too cold to actually swim.

We could play on the beach and watch Adam fish.

Sam gave Nicolas his own fishing pole for his birthday and all he wants to do is fish. I hope he carries on loving it so that it's something he and Adam can do together. He fished for about 30 minutes at a time and can real and cast already. He never caught anything so when he does he'll be even more excited!

It wouldn't be camping if we didn't roast marshmallows!

They had a little playset which Leo loved as he could dig in the sand. It amazes me what an efficient digger he is, he shifts mounds of dirt with each scrabble of his paws.

Sunday was Mother's Day and a bit cooler. Somehow I've turned into my Mom because I never dreamt I'd be so excited to get a non-kinking hose for the garden as my Mother's Day present from Adam!! It really is what I've dreamed of for years. My old hose made me curse so much as it kinked, got caught on stuff and drove me crazy. Only Adam would know how happy a new hose would make me!

I actually towed the camper for about 10 miles on the way home. It wasn't hard but it required HUGE concentration so that I stayed in lane, made it through intersections in time and didn't turn too sharply. My elbows were locked and I couldn't make conversation I was so focused! I'm going to try to drive up to Lake Lanier next weekend as it's only about an hours drive and there is a bit of interstate. I think it will be a while before I can back it up, but I have to try.

I felt wonderful after the weekend, unstressed, well rested and very loved. I have the best husband and the cutest kids!

My Last MOPS Meeting

I joined MOPS (Mother's Of Preschoolers) when Nicolas was a baby and I've had the best 3 years there. We met every two weeks on a Thursday morning. I've made great friends and was on the steering committee for a year, but now as Nicolas and Adison will be in preschool next year, I decided that I'd rather have my Thursday mornings to catch up on stuff and maybe even exercise!
The steering committee for this year.

And this is Emily who ran MOPS this year.

We played a white elephant game as it was our last meeting and it was just a relaxed end to a fun year.

I find it interesting how quickly our lives move on; when I first joined MOPS I was bored because I only had Nicolas, and Jaden and Kirsten only visited on weekends.

Now just 3 years later Jaden and Kirsten live with us, Nicolas and Adison will both be in preschool and I can't wait for those 6 hours a week to myself!! Having said that I'll probably use the time to get more involved with Jaden and Kirsten's schools. I've gone from being bored with a newborn, to having children with me 14 hours a day and I wouldn't change it for the world (most of the time!!)

Building Houses and Scary Spiders!

Nicolas will happily spend 30 minutes in the morning building houses or caves out of my cushions. He gets very frustrated when Adison knocks them down, but she is getting better as crawling under the cushions rather than walking through them!

He has also rediscovered his duplo blocks and loves to make me 'pecial towers'. He can now say his 'f's' and we are working on 's' sounds. He just drops the s so he says 'nake, 'pecial, 'now and it's very nasally. If he tries, he can say the 's' sound but part of me doesn't want him to speak properly, I love his little boy voice and all the cute things he says.

When Kirsten gets home her relaxation time before homework is to play with Nicolas and she made some great houses last week with him.

Adison is always carrying at least one or two babies, so Kirsten made her a baby sling for her pony out of a scarf. Adison was very impressed!

We also had a trial run making scones for Jaden's class.

The passed Jaden and Blake's taste test and Nicolas and Adison even thought the dough tasted good.

Adison rarely looks like Kirsten but the picture below is one of the few times I can see a resemblance.

Adison is still obsessed with geese so she was so excited when we went to the park and saw a family of geese with goslings.


I was less excited when we were packing up to go camping and Adam told me he'd found a black widow spider in the shed! He had just sprayed it with ant killer so it was dead but it was pretty big. I found lots of brown recluse spiders in the yard at the old house so I know what they look like and I'd always worried I'd not recognize a black widow, but the red patch was very red, so I definitely would if I ever saw one again. The joys of living in a hot country!

Spiders don't bother me but because I never know if they are poisonous or not, I have to squash any that I find. Yesterday I was weeding outside and Nicolas was on his bike in the driveway and he shouted 'look Mommy a snake'! We've found little snakes in the yard before so I presumed it was a little one, more like a worm than a snake. I nearly had a fit when I looked up and there was a 3-4 foot black and white snake raised up about 4 feet way from him! I calmly told him to cycle away from it down the yard and thankfully he did. It slithered off under the truck and into the neighbor's yard and I calmed down a bit. Again snakes don't bother me but as I don't know which are poisonous, I assume they all are. That was the first time I've seen a really big snake here.

Adam of course was all excited when he got home from church and took the kids off with a rake and pillow case to try to catch it! Thankfully the snake was long gone or it would probably be in a tank in Jaden's room!!

School Fun with Jaden

I just feel like I've got used to Elementary School with the kids and now Jaden is off to Middle School! My experience of American schools is limited to vague memories of Degrassi junior high and Beverly Hills 90210 and the reality is somewhat different! We went to his parent's evening at his new Middle School (ages 11-14) last week.

I was really excited to see a middle school for the first time but there were no lockers down the hallways which was disappointing! Adam takes it all in his stride and laughs at me for getting excited and nervous, but because he works such long hours, it falls to me to be the kids support and help out in their classes as much as I can (which is not much at the moment as teachers don't really want me there with Nicolas and Adison in tow!). I get to go in for special things the kids do but next year when Nicolas and Adison are in preschool I'll be able to do much more.

I took really bad photos because I felt kind of embarrassed to be taking pictures, so I took them very quickly. The orchestra played a few songs and Jaden has actually said he'd like to play something in the band next year (hopefully not the violin - I don't think my ears could take it!). We listen to a presentation in the cafeteria and then broke up into small groups for a tour of the school and more info.

We couldn't find a babysitter so Nicolas and Adison came too. They were great until we got to the small group and Nicolas embarrassed Jaden by trying to give him a kiss. Jaden tried to push him away and Nicolas said in his loud 3 year old voice 'I just want to give you a kiss'. I took them home after that (once I could find my way out of the school!) and Adam and Jaden finished the tour.

Then on Thursday they had a United Nations day in Jaden's class. He had to make a poster about his English heritage and then present it to the class. He also had to take in a traditional food from his country of origin, so I made scones with jam and cream. His class is so diverse that there was all kinds of wonderful food for us to try.

Jaden's teacher is second from the right with her hair tied back. She is so young but so motivated and Jaden loves her. Having only had one Chinese kid in my year at school I love the fact that there are so many different ethnicities at the kids school. I was very stressed by the time I got my scones there because they really are only good when they are warm so I made them at the last minute had had to fill 60 of them with jam and cream. The kids liked them and Jaden appreciated us being there, so it was worth it.

Nicolas was a little angel but every time Jaden stood up Adison would shout in her loud baby voice 'der Jaden!'. The kids in the class thought it was funny and luckily his friends think Nicolas and Adison are cute, so he wasn't too embarrassed.

The next week and a half is crazy busy with different end of year celebrations for the kids and I'm binding the books that Jaden's class have written this year. Add to that daily swim team practices, Nicolas getting up at 5:30am and the summer vacation looks kind of relaxing!