Nap Time

Her First Joke

Lydia learned this while staying with Grandma and Grandpa two months ago but she just started telling us the joke over the weekend.

Oktoberfest

On Sunday Wesley's school had an Oktoberfest. It was a very fun way to raise money for the school. The tickets were $12 for adults and included two beer tickets. Tickets were $5 for children. There were brats, sauerkraut, hot German potato salad, Gurkensalat (cucumber salad), and soft pretzels. They also had hamburgers and potato chips. Wesley was so excited to have his own bag of chips and I was very happy to have a brat with sauerkraut and a German beer.

Wesley didn't want to wear the hat for the Webentanz.

When Chris took him to practice on Saturday, Chris had to stand in for one of the kids. Too bad we don't have a video of that.

The kids had their faces painted. They also played on the playground and jumped in the moonbounce.
One of Wesley's classmates gave him this little pop-up toy.

Josiah loves riding around in the Bjorn.

It was a very fun event and I really enjoyed talking with some of the other parents.

Memory Work

Wesley has memory work every week at school. He brings home the memory work on Mondays and then recites it to his teacher on Friday.

This week was the third commandment - Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

The Bible verse was Matthew 4:4, Man shall not live by beard alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

The kindergartens also memorized the third stanza of Lord, Open Now My Heart to Hear. The teacher sent home a copy of the hymn. It should probably be noted that she is the choir director at the church where the school is.

I am so thankful that Chris is musical and that he could help Wesley with this. He was able to play the hymn on Lydia's little piano and practice singing it with Wesley. Chris had the keyboard record what he played and then he just played it back over and over to practice with Wesley.

"Be a Low Drama Mama"

Last week was the first MOPS meeting of the year.

The speaker was wonderful (as the always are at MOPS). You can listen to her talk here.

She made several points that I really need to apply to my life. She asked several of her friends to share with her some of their motherly wisdom. One of them said, “Be a low drama mama!” I really need to work on that one. I often overreact to Wesley and Lydia.

The speaker’s friend went on to say, “Remember your priorities, keep it simple, and keep it real.” Yes, I need to remember my priorities!

When Wesley was a baby I went to visit a family I had worked with for a long time. The mom, Katy, said to me, “Wesley seems like a really laidback baby. I think it is because you are so laidback and calm.” I took that as such a compliment. I am not really laidback or calm most of the time but I can be that way with babies.

When I struggle with dealing with and relating to Wesley and Lydia, I sometimes think about what Katy said to me. I wonder if I learn to be more laidback, a low drama mama, with my children then would they be more laidback. I am sure our house would be calmer. Don’t mothers set the tone in the home?

So, I am praying that I will be a low drama mama. That God will give me a quiet and gentle spirit that pleases him (1 Peter 3:4).

The speaker also talked about how one of her friends complained to her father about her children and some of the difficulties she was having with them. The friend’s father responded, “Don’t they change in a few months away?”

Ahh, they do don’t they? Remember last year when Lydia told me she never wanted to finger paint again? That was in November. In January, I noticed that one day she had put down her paint brush and was painting with her fingers.

She brought this home from preschool last week. She said she had fun doing the hand prints.

I will probably post more about the first MOPS meeting. The speaker was so encouraging and said many things that really touched me.

"My Teeth Were Biting"

Lydia is taking swim lesson through the county. I wanted to sign her up for a higher level class but I couldn't do it online because she is not four yet. I meant to call and talk to the swimming director at the recreation center to get permission to put her in the higher class but I just completely forgot until the night before the lessons started. I decided to go to the lesson and see who the instructor was and what he or she thought. The first day there were only two other kids in Lydia's class. The instructor told one of kid's mother that her little girl had to move down to a lower level class. He said that Lydia could move up to the next level or stay in his class since it was such a small class. I thought it would good to keep Lydia in the class since there was only one other child in the class and she really liked the teacher and couldn't wait to go back to the class.

Well, today she had a private swim lesson! She did great! She was so cooperative and her swimming improved right before my eyes.

First the instructor had her diving for rings in three feet of water. Then he put fins on her and worked on swimming.





Lydia also floated on her back and swam on her back. The instructor was also able to get her to do a real stroke for about five feet. At the end he let her jump in and swim back to the wall.

What was Josiah doing during all of this?
When Lydia got out of the water she told me, "I am worn out." Then she said, "Near the end of my lesson I was cold and my teeth were biting."

If It Is (Almost) Fall Then We Must Go to Cox Farms

On Saturday we went to Cox Farms. I have been going with Wesley and Lydia every fall since 2007. In 2008 we went two times. This was Chris' first time to go since we always went during the week. I feel like kindergarten is really cutting down on my fun time with the kids, but it was great to go to Cox Farms with Chris. We had a coupon for two free admissions (a $30 value) on the preview weekend. I was very pleased that it wasn't overly crowded.

Here we are on the hayride. Of course, Wesley and Lydia had do the hayride twice.
Josiah on his first hayride.
This wagon used to be a school bus. The suspension made for a less bumpy ride.
Wesley on one of the rope swings.
I was impressed with how well Lydia could pull herself up on the rope.
Wesley milked a cow.
Lydia milked the cow also.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday. Josiah on his first slide.
Wesley and Lydia love the movie so they were happy to pose for this picture.
The corn maze was fun. We did the vortex over and over. In the vortex you walk on a bridge as lights spin around the bridge making it feel like you are spinning.
We did the corn maze twice.
Wesley and Lydia with one of the pirates. There was a fork in the road.
We were a little nervous letting Wesley hold Josiah in the big chair.
Josiah was awake but I think he was closing his eyes because the kids were looking into the sun.

Wesley and Lydia loved the farm chores area. They spent a lot of time catching the corn in buckets.

Once their buckets were full, they dumped the corn on the conveyor belt.

Lydia really enjoyed milking this cow. When Wesley squatted down beside of her, she immediately squirted him.

One of the less glamorous jobs at the farms - refilling the cow.

Josiah and Daddy waited patiently for Wesley and Lydia to do the farm chores.

Here is Chris on one of the slides.

In the past, the goats have been very aggressive. Both kids were usually very afraid of them. On Saturday I think the goats were very well fed by the time we went over to feed them. They didn't seem hungry at all.

Another picture of Josiah and Daddy.

Looks like Lydia was having fun on this slide!

Here is a video of Chris and all of our kids on the big slide. I am embarrassed to post this because you can hear Wesley saying, "I beated! I beated!" I haven't heard him say that before and we will have to try to teach him the grammatically correct way to boast. While we are at it, we should probably go over what cheating is again.

We were there for six hours and left when they closed. It was a fun but exhausting day.

Playgrounds on the Road Trip

It used to take four hours to drive from Blacksburg to Northern Virginia and five hours to drive from my parents house to our house. On Labor Day it took a lot longer and we can't even blame most of the delay on traffic. We were only stopped in traffic for about 20 minutes on 66.

On Saturday, Chris brought Lydia a Virginia Tech shirt but we didn't try it on her because she was sleeping in her car seat. The shirt was too small and we decided to take it back to the bookstore. When we got to Blacksburg, Josiah needed to be fed. We went to a very nice playground so Lydia and Wesley could burn off some energy.

Wesley and Lydia enjoyed climbing.
And playing on the caboose.

They also played on this wooden playground. It is called the Hand In Hand Playground.

This must be the modern version of the seesaw.

Wesley and Lydia also played on this playground structure.

This is a very nice playground with the three very different play structures. Next summer when we visit Blacksburg Josiah will be big enough to play a little

We stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-A and then stopped at another Chick-fil-A so I could feed Josiah while Wesley and Lydia played again. They didn't seem to mind the long road trip. They got to watch movies and play on fun playgrounds. We don't usually let them watch movies in the car unless we are on a road trip. They actually look forward to road trips!

Old School Phone

If Lydia was a teenager in the 80s or 90s this is probably what she would have enjoyed doing. Do teenagers even talk on the phone nowadays?

When we took Wesley to drop off his school supplies, Lydia found a toy phone in the classroom and "talked" on it for 20 minutes. She has very detailed (one sided) conversations.

Labor Day Weekend in the Country

For labor day weekend we headed to Southwest Virginia. The first stop was to see Uncle Mike... ... and Aunt Ieda. We went with them to Macado's for lunch. I remember eating at the old location when I was in high school and then the current location when I was an undergraduate student at Tech and then later when Chris and I first started dating. Now I see it as a great place to take little kids.
We spent the weekend at my parent's house.
Wesley and Lydia were excited to go on a walk soon after we got there.

They like running around in the big fields.

Time for a quick rest break.

Here is Wesley with my mom.

My aunt Estelle.

I had Josiah wrapped up with a blanket because it was a little chilly there.

This is what I ate for breakfast on Sunday. I didn't eat the whole thing but I had a huge a piece of ice cream cake. We went to brunch at Chateau Morrisette which was a buffet full of yummy food. That evening my mom and I walked up and down her driveway five times. I hope that three mile walk helped burn off some of those calories.

The kids also cake for breakfast and then at lunch time they had waffles with whipped cream and syrup at the winery. They thought it was a great day.

Before going to brunch, we went to Mabry Mill.

My uncle Kenneth (who was also celebrating his birthday), Estelle, Mom, and Dad.

It was a great weekend. Here is a short video of Wesley practicing hula hooping.