Things to Remember

I always like to keep track of the little things that define our family life at specific times as I know that they will be lost to my memory if I don't write them down.

1.  Adelie is still my slowest child.  Slow to get up and ready in the morning, slow to get ready and in bed at night, slow to eat, slow to use the restroom.  Just slow.  The flip side is she is slow until there is a motivation, like getting to school early for Hornet Buzz or Safety Patrol or a field trip.  Then she can pop up and get moving pretty quickly.

2.  Staley continues to enjoy calligraphy and hand lettering.  When she doesn't have anything scheduled after school (which isn't very often), she goes to her room to listen to her audiobook and draw or do calligraphy.

3.  Briggs has found a number of different book series at the library and he's in the midst of reading a bunch of them.  Imagination Station, Dragon Masters, The Underworld, Eerie Elementary, Heroes in Training, and The Secret of the Scrolls are all chapter book series that he is enjoying.  He always has a huge pile of library books on his bookshelf that he's reading.  I keep encouraging him to finish one series or to read the books he already has at home before checking out more, but the pile just continues to grow.

4.  Every single night, Adelie will come downstairs (usually after it's already time for lights out...refer to #1 about moving slow) for hugs and good nights.  She always says, "Good night.  I love you.  You're the best Mommy in the world."  And then "Good night.  I love you.  You're the best Daddy in the world."  And finally "Good night.  I love you.  You're the best parents in the world."  Every single night.

5.  Family movie night is getting easier, but Briggs is still worried about scary parts or bad guys in movies that he has never seen.  Choosing a movie that Briggs is okay with can be tricky, and there are still sometimes tears or freak out moments if he thinks something scary or bad is going to happen.  Finding a movie that bridges that gap between Staley's preferences and Briggs' preferences can be tricky.  Adelie is usually agreeable to anything.

6.  Bluey has become a family favorite television series.  Typically after we've watched a family movie, the kids ask to watch a few episodes of Bluey.  It's very cute and clever and fun.  It's one thing we can all agree on.

7.  The kids continue to get more and more independent in many areas.  Staley walks to and from the library on her own.  Briggs and Adelie can walk to and from school together (or Adelie on her own) without us.  We'll leave the kids home for short periods of time if we have to run an errand or take another kid somewhere or even to go for a run.  It's freeing to be transitioning into this new phase of life.

8.  Briggs was getting itchy feet a few weeks ago, and Zach mentioned that it could be that Briggs wears socks all the time, day and night.  After mentioning that to Briggs, Briggs has now transitioned to sleeping without socks.  It took us years to break him of the hand socks habit, and now he is able to sleep without socks on his feet as well.  The amount of Briggs' sock laundry has reduced dramatically.

9.  Staley is on the cusp of transitioning from child sizes in clothes and shoes to adult sizes.  She is starting to borrow some of my clothes.  She wears some of my socks (which I realize when I look for specific pairs that I can't find), and she has borrowed a few of my t-shirts and sweatshirts for various things.  Now when I clean out my closet, I hold onto more than typical knowing that my girls might be interested in wearing it in just a few years...or sooner. 

10.  Briggs has lost 3 teeth in the past few weeks and Adelie has lost 1 tooth.  In our house, we just refer to the "Tooth Mommy" instead of the Tooth Fairy.  But now the Tooth Mommy often goes to bed before the kids are asleep, so the Tooth Daddy has had to take over some of the duties.  One morning, the Tooth Mommy was making the swap while waking up Briggs in the morning because she had forgotten the night before.  And Adelie has now had 2 consecutive mornings of disappointment when both the Tooth Mommy and Tooth Daddy forgot to leave anything.  Maybe third time's the charm for her???

The only constant in life is that things are always changing.  It's a good thing that I love watching my family grow and change.

Family Milestone #421

All the members of our family got flu shots yesterday.  Nobody screamed.  Nobody freaked out.  Nobody needed to sit on my lap.  Everyone just sat down on the chair, rolled up their sleeve, and bravely handled the inevitable without causing a scene in the middle of the CVS store.  And after the banner display of braveness, everyone walked out of the store with a special treat and got ice cream after dinner.

#itsafirst

#didn'thavetoholdanyonedown

#success

Columbus Day Expedition

For the long week-end of Columbus Day, we decided to take a little road trip to the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois for a week-end of hiking and outdoor exploration.

We filled our 4 hour drive to/from southern Illinois with books on tape.  Charlie Bumpers Versus the Teacher of the Year, Shiloh, and two new Clementine books were all winners.

We drove immediately to the Little Grand Canyon.  Staley decided to rename it the "Not So Grand Canyon."

The 3 mile hike was fun, but the highlight was descending into the box canyon and checking out (aka climbing around on) all the rock formations.

The kids love to climb and explore, and this trip did not disappoint.  Our rule of thumb:  Don't climb up on something unless you know you can get back down.  The kids (mostly) followed that rule.

After the Little Grand Canyon, we popped over to the .3 mile walk to Pomona Natural Bridge.  Although not really a hike, the natural bridge was very impressive.

We enjoyed a yummy fried chicken dinner at Giant City State Park Lodge before checking into our Air Bnb.  We really enjoyed our little house in Galatia.  It had a playroom with toys and games, as well as foos ball and ping pong in the garage.  The lady also provided breakfast food and snack items.  The Pop Tarts and Fruit Loops might have been the highlight of the trip for the kids.

The house was very clean, well-appointed, and spacious with lots of thoughtful little details.  The kids were a little turned off by the "old lady-ness" of some of the decor, but other than that, we really enjoyed it.

After sleeping in and taking our time enjoying breakfast and play time, we headed out to start our next day of adventure at Cave in Rock State Park.  This was a big cave on the Ohio River that used to be a hideout for pirates.

The kids loved climbing around in the cave (and looking sneaky/tough like pirates, apparently).

The kids probably would have spent all day just playing in this cave if we had let them.

We followed up Cave in Rock with a 1.5 mile hike on the Rim Rock Trail.  The highlight:  climbing on all the rock formations, of course.

The kids also enjoyed finding small caves and crevices to explore.

Our final outdoor stop of the day was Garden of the Gods.  Although the observation trail is only a half mile, we spent well over an hour here as we all climbed and explored.

Garden of the Gods was the busiest of the places we checked out, but it still wasn't bad and we really enjoyed ourselves.  

(Here is Staley posing in front of Camel Rock.)

After Garden of the Gods, we stopped for an ice cream treat and a picture with this random Bigfoot statue by the side of the road.  I guess it's a southern Illinois thing???

We grabbed carry-out for dinner (Subway for the kids, Mexican for the grown-ups), played some family games, and then Zach and I watched the Bear's game on Zach's phone after the kids went to bed.

Our last day took us back to Giant City State Park for some more hiking before heading home.  We hiked the 1 mile Giant City Nature Trail.  It was a fun little hike, but the kids kept looking for a long crevice called Fat Man's Squeeze (that I had read about and remembered from a previous trip there in college). They were very pre-occupied with trying to find it during our hike.  After we finished the loop and never found it, we deduced that maybe they had filled it in as I read an article from a few years ago about someone being stuck and requiring first responders and a rescue operation.  The kids were disappointed that we didn't get to do it, though.

Trillium Trail was our last hike of the trip.  It was a 1.3 mile loop.  A little more "rugged" and less traveled than the Nature Trail, which we enjoyed.  The kids entertained us with some songs as we hiked this trail.

After our hikes, we headed for home while eating our picnic lunch in the car.  We made a quick stop at the old Vandalia Statehouse as Adelie had learned about this in her Illinois unit at school and wanted a picture to show her teacher.

We had a great time on our quick little trip south.  We explored new places, enjoyed some beautiful weather, and had fun as a family in a new place trying new things.  What more could you ask for??

Good-bye, September!

September was a busy month full of activities and school obligations, friends and events, beautiful weather and fun outdoor activities to take advantage of it.

I helped out with pizza continents for Adelie's class.  And even though I did not thoroughly read the directions and, thus, our group had to start over once I realized my mistake, I felt like the life lesson of the importance of knowing the plan before you start was much more important than actually making the pizza crust correctly the first time.

Staley and I had a special night out to see the NTA high school group perform 'The Addams Family' musical while Zach took the littles to the high school football game.

Staley always loves seeing her NTA friends perform.

We enjoyed a fun evening in Germantown at the Community Bash with Uncle Rob and Lila.  Since we knew Lila and Staley would be running around with Lila's friends, Adelie and Briggs both invited a friend to join them for the evening of fun.  Dava and Bristol had a great time too.  

Staley ran around with Lila and Lila's friends for the whole evening, so we saw very little of them.

Some of the favorite Community Bash activities were still there like the fire and police demonstrations, exotic animal petting zoo, balloon animals, face paint, hayrack ride, inflatables, and, of course, the fireworks.

The Community Bash has become an annual tradition for us with the Bradfords, so it was fun to continue that.

Staley and Maggie, her friend and partner from Penguin Project, enjoyed an afternoon of rides at the Pumpkin Festival and dinner at Culver's before rehearsal one evening.

We enjoyed watching the Homecoming Parade with friends.  Staley was in the parade with Student Council, but Briggs and Adelie both had friends who joined us to watch the parade.

We also enjoyed the Homecoming football game.  The kids paid no attention to the game, but had plenty of fun hanging out with friends.

Briggs performed in the Monarch Program for school.  He knew all his songs and motions, and also was able to release one of the four butterflies that hatched from the caterpillars he found.

Staley spent a few hours one afternoon helping with our church's youth group car wash.

All 3 kids participated in the Run with Reagan run.  Briggs ran the .2 mile kids dash and placed 4th.

The girls both ran in the 5K.  Staley finished in a time of 30:55 and Adelie (and I) finished in a time of 32:20.  These were both personal best 5K times for the girls (of the 3 5Ks they have now run).  Since Zach's company was timing the event, Staley ran on her own and I ran with Adelie.

Staley finished 1st in her age group (14 and under), edging out the 2nd place girl with a last minute sprint to the finish line.  Adelie was 3rd in the age group.

I chaperoned Briggs' 2nd grade field trip to Tanner's Orchard.

The kids had lots of fun.  They got to take a hayrack ride, pick a few apples, tour the facility, taste donuts and cider, and play on the playground.

Zach and I attended a wedding of one of my co-workers.

Even though I knew exactly 2 people and Zach knew 0, we still had a fun time.

We've also enjoyed playdates with friends and neighbors,...

the start of the NFL season...

cheering on cousins at their cross country meet...

more Rising Stars performances...

and going apple picking.

September was a full, fun, busy, beautiful month.  The weather was the perfect kick-off to fall and made all of our outdoor activities better.  Here's hoping October follows suit.

Busy!!

As kids get older and more involved in activities, life just gets busier.  That seems to be one of life's certainties.  And after a few years of scaled-back activities, the return to scheduled normalcy coupled with the ever-increasing school, church, social, and extra-curricular interests has resulted in one busy start to this fall season.

Our monthly calendar on the refrigerator is full.  FULL!  I actually had to purchase a larger dry erase calendar just so I had room to write in all our activities and obligations.  Having only one or two things on a given day is a rare treat.  It's not uncommon for Zach and I to head in different directions in the evening, trying to get the kids to all the things.  Now don't get me wrong.  These are all generally good things.  These are things we signed up for.  These are things we want to do.  The complaint, if a complaint can be made, would be directed solely back at us as we are the ones that created this situation.  But as a look ahead to our full days and our full weeks, I do find myself searching for those more empty days on the calendar and viewing them as something precious.

Our weekly activities are many.  Although the end of soccer season took a few weekly games off the schedule, we still have plenty to keep us busy.  Staley is currently involved in 3 different plays with 1-2 rehearsals each week for each one of them.  She has Rising Stars and Broadway Dance, piano lessons,  singing lessons, Student Council, and library volunteering hours.  Adelie's obligations outside of the school day include Rising Stars, Stage Kids, Broadway dance, piano lessons, singing lessons, tumbling, Recycling Club, Kids Connection, and the Hornet Buzz News Team.  Now that soccer has ended, Briggs just has piano lessons and Stage Kids that fill up some of his free time, although he is also starting to attend Kids Connection on Wednesday nights at church as well.  I often feel like coordinating schedules and rides and snacks and activity obligations fills my brain with a constant check-list of to-dos...and to-don'ts.  (Like: Don't forget to pick up your kid from their activity.)

Along with our ongoing activities, the kids are also getting to the age where they are starting to want free time to be friend time.  And since free time is somewhat limited, we try to fit in that friend time when we can.  Football games, Rising Stars performances, play-dates, outings...making social time with friends a priority also contributes to our increasingly full schedule.  It's good.  It's fun.  It's needed.  But it's also all part of the busy.

Life is busy.  That is just our reality at the moment.  We are living in the midst of kids who are finding their passions, exploring their interests, establishing their friend circles, improving their skills, trying new things, making their way.  It's all good.  It's all fun.  It's all part of this phase of life for our family.  And it's all making me just a little bit crazy.

Adelie's Baptism

A few months ago, Adelie approached us about wanting to take the next step in her Christian walk by being baptized.  She determined that she wanted Grandpa to do her baptism so we set about finding a time and place where we could make that happen.

Luckily, Zach's sister just bought a house on a lake and offered that we could use her house and lake for the baptism. 

Family and friends gathered together for Adelie's special day.  Grandpa gave a short message while Grammie used her puppets to share a children's message.

Adelie shared her written testimony and recited the 23rd Psalm before confirming her desire to be baptized.

Adelie's testimony

Although it was the end of September, we lucked out with a relatively warm day, and Adelie said the water was not too cold.

It was so special having Grandpa be the one to perform Adelie's baptism.

Adelie's faith has always been so sincere, and it was such a wonderful moment watching her make this big decision in her life.

Adelie was supported by her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Her closest friend, Stella, came with her mom to be there for Adelie.

It was wonderful having all the cousins there as well.

What a great day we had celebrating Adelie's faith.

My prayer is that each of my children will make the choice to follow Jesus and will continue to grow in their faith.  Seeing Adelie express her faith through baptism was an answer to this prayer.  I love her sweet heart and her sincere faith, and I hope that her understanding and reliance on God's truths will remain foundational in her life.