Sorry you haven’t heard from me this week!  Recovering from the beach vacation was incredibly exhausting for some reason.  My mom flew in on Wednesday for 8 days with us, and we’ve been keeping busy with the kiddos (who were much more of a handful this week than normal) and craftiness.  Hopefully, I’ll post some pictures of our fun crafting projects soon.  She made a cute board with ribbons on it to hang bow clips. Now
she’s recovering my dining room chairs. And she’s hanging random things
that I’ve wanted to hang for a while, and helping me redecorate parts
of the kids bedrooms. Love it when she gets things done that I can’t
seem to!

Mom and I got out to Kohl’s last night… 8:30-10pm. Love Kohl’s hours and shopping with my mom. I did remember my wallet so I could pay for my own stuff on this trip, unlike several other shopping trips this week!  Good thing she was there to save me at Michaels, the grocery store and the Dollar Store:)

She babysat Josiah this evening, while Brian and I, and
Analise went to church for a meeting. The two of them were playing until
it was time for bed, and they came into the family room just as he was
about to go to bed. He looked up at the mantle and saw our family
picture, and started pointing and sobbing. He was inconsolable, poor
boy. My mom turned on Baby MacDonald, which took his mind off things,
and he went to bed for her with minimal fussing. But I can’t believe he
would recognize the picture and put together that he missed us. Love my little man.

It’s been quite a birthday party summer with Analise having three of her own parties, Josiah having one, having fun at her friend Jacob’s birthday party, and finally a great big family party at the beach in South Carolina. Here are some pictures from her Chuck E’ Cheese party in early July after we returned from our Minnesota/Wisconsin vacation.

Analise and Kristine pose with the Little Einstein cake.

Kristine found these cool Little Einstein toys but they were a little too heavy to sit on top of the cake.
Note how Quincy has sunk down to his waist and June is sort of stuck on front of the cake.

Jacob and Analise jumping and dancing in front of the TV camera.

Josiah enjoys playing with the table cloth.

I love reading parenting blogs that have ideas for things to do with the kids.  I came across Z Recommends recently, and it’s got interesting reads like reviews of toddler/kid products, creative activities and other parenting ideas.  They recently posted about a DVD series called Brain Candy.  I submitted a sensory activity of playing with colored rice, and it’s listed in their top 10 list here, and I won a DVD!  Fun!  Good ideas, too!  Enjoy!

I’m just picking up toys this evening, and I came across Analise’s play-doh in her kitchen area. She loves play-doh, and she got a bunch of it for her birthday right before we left for vacation.  It was one of the exciting things she found when we arrived home last night. But play-doh drives me crazy. She loves to squish it through her fingers, mash the colors together, and make little murky-colored balls, which she passes on as muffins or cakes. Everything in me wants to keep the beautiful, bright play-doh colors separate so we can create pretty little colorful creations when we play together. But inevitably, play-doh ends up all mixed together, all the colors lost into the swirly little balls.

It’s kind of a picture of my life… I’d love to keep my house neat and orderly right now, everything picked up and in its place. And there is a time for that… between about 9pm and 7am, and the 15 minutes before we get company. But the rest of the time, there’s a little chaos and disorder, blocks and Little People jumbled together. Play kitchen pieces cluttered with play-doh. And though it looks a bit messy, it signifies creativity and fun, imagination and busyness, and in the end, I give in and let that take precedence. There will be a time for a neat house, with everything in its perfect place. The play-doh will stay in its separate colored containers, waiting for little fingers that have outgrown it and are off doing things and going places being too busy to clutter up my house. So now we’ll mash our play-doh together and make cakes, and when I crave a little brightness, I’ll pull out a new container from Mommy’s "secret place".

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We’re home again! Lovely, wonderful, relaxing beach vacation. Brian’s working on pictures right at this moment, so maybe you’ll find some tomorrow. It was really a great time, and it did wonders for me. It is nice to be home though, after living with all 4 of us in a room for 12 nights. And to make this week even more wonderful, my mom is flying in on Wednesday! Yeah!

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[From Brian] – Here’s the promised pictures…

Josiah explored a lot on the beach and had a great time, but most of the time
he had a frowny face because of the bright sun, cool water, and sand everywhere.

Uncle Matthew takes the little guy for a walk. My mom and me (Brian) are in the background.

Josiah also got to play in the pool some.

When we weren’t playing in the ocean or at the pool, we relaxed on our balcony and enjoyed the view!

Our one major excursion of the trip was a visit to Brookgreen Gardens. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

Ok, Dena commented on the last blog that she liked my suit, and I’ve been wanting to rave about it, so here’s my chance.  I haven’t bought a suit since I was in Nicaragua before we got married, essentially 5 years ago.  Needless to say, 2 kids later, it doesn’t fit, and the thought of swimsuit shopping was really disheartening.  Several people recommended Land’s End, telling me that though they were expensive, swimsuits from there were well worth the money. 

So I found one I liked and ordered it, just in time for our beach vacation.  Yes, it was expensive, and I couldn’t believe I was going to pay so much for a swimsuit.  Unfortunately, I was in between sizes, and when it arrived, it was too big, and we were leaving for Pennsylvania the next day.  AG!  I found out that Land’s End is in Sears’ stores in some states, so we planned a stop in Pennsylvania on our way to New York. 

At the Sears’ Land’s End, I returned my suit for a full refund, and I found this cute pink one that fit.  It was marked at the same price as the one I’d returned.  But when I checked out, it was on sale for 40% off!  AWESOME! 

All that to say, I *LOVE* my Land’s End swimsuit.  It’s very well made, and I’ve worn it twice a day to the beach and pool here on our vacation.   Very comfortable fabric, and most of all, I feel very comfortable in it.  It’s so nice to have a suit that fits, looks cute, and I know I won’t have to worry about getting one for a while.