And then he was three

As of September 23rd, our family now has a three year old again. It was on a Wednesday, kind of a lame day for a birthday. So we made it fun by going to INK. Then we crammed in some school work before shoveling in some sandwiches and heading off to church. Shannon will be five on Sunday the 4th, so we'll do a joint birthday celebration on the following Thursday. Avery got his present from us, a Spiderman bike helmet so he can start riding bikes with the siblings. He has never learned to peddle a tricycle, however, so we'll see how it goes! (Funny how some things are overlooked when you get past two young 'uns in the house.)

I'm three!!



Your friendly neighborhood SWAT guy.

Yep, this is my ride.

Did I mention I was THREE today?



Amelia used the stage at INK to put on a one woman show. There was singing and dancing aplenty.





Avery wasn't so sure he liked what he chose from the dress up closet. Though he was excited that the sweater looked like Bumblebee from the Transformers. Bumblebee doesn't shop at second hand stores however, so he has a sleeker look.

Act Two.



Elizabeth loves climbing in and out of chairs. She spent her whole time at INK investigating everything that could be sat in or upon.







I did it. I sat in everything they had to offer.

The kids love crawling through this thing. They really get a kick out of exiting the OTHER end. I'll forego reciting the commentary for you.

This guy took me wherever I wanted to go.

Princess in training.



The many faces of Diner employees.







I'm struggling to think of anything else noteworthy that has occured in the past nearly two weeks since my last entry. We've mostly done the usual stuff of life; church, hosting weekend groups at camp (yay for business in the off season!), getting up early to feed and ride horses, playgroups, trips to the library, grocery store, Wal-Mart, and feed store, school with Amelia, reading lessons with Shannon, gymnastics, Thursday night dinners, and Sunday night church skipping so we can play with each other or with friends. We are Sunday night church skippers. It's one of the best things we've done for our family.

James has taken to riding his bike again in the past month. He dusted it off after six years (incidently coinciding with the birth of our first child...the same year I all but stopped riding horses), and has hit the trail at least three times a week lately. He also has a borrowed road bike and is giving that a go. He's on a mission to get in shape, lose some weight, and beat Year 40, which is peeking its nasty head just around the corner. He really does love it, and I'm proud of him for making it a priority in an already over-stretched time budget.

Speaking of James, following are some random photos of the the kids on their jungle gym. This kind of thing is a nightly occurence around here.







Not sure why the middle one is half-naked....

Fall has fallen around here this week. Overnight temperatures have been in the 40's, and daytimes in the high 60's/lower 70's. I've been in a flurry of seasonal clothes changing over for all of the kids, seeing what we can salvage from last season and what we need to buy. I dreaded hemming mountains of pants for Avery again, but turns out he's truly in a 3T. It's Amelia I'll have to hem for this time, as she's just out of 5's but 6's are too long. I haven't been through Shannon's stuff yet, but that's on the week's agenda. Elizabeth is in all of the 18 month stuff I had for Amelia, some of which Amelia wore well into her twos. Elizabeth isn't going to be able to do that.

We enjoyed a fall weather playgroup at the park this week. Elizabeth is on the verge of dropping her morning nap, and can muddle through without one on days we have other things going. Right before we left I found her like this though, all ready for a nap.

She did fine without one though, thankfully.

One thing I always forget about this time of year is that I need to go ahead and add 15 minutes to the leaving the house routine. It takes it to get four pairs of socks on, shoes tied, and jackets on and zipped.

I'm still trying to teach Shannon to pump his own swing. He's on his own after he turns five.

Tozer sends out a, "Whazzup" to all his peeps.

A.J. and Shannon

Who says playgroup is just for the kids? Alison and I agree that the plasticky slides at the playground would be so much better if they didn't generate 168 volts of static electricity as you slide down. Nothing like injuring your kid while you're trying to catch them at the bottom. Besides, everybody knows the giant metal slides from back in the day that send you whizzing down at mach speeds are so much more fun anyway.

Amelia loves finding treasures at the park, like a Coke can with a sharp, jagged hole ripped in the side, just primed and ready to spread tetnus to children.





Avery and A.J.

Alison's mom Mary was visiting from Ohio and wanted to make sure the swings were safe for kids.

This hasn't been a week of big, earth shattering events, but it has been a week of gratitude. Gratitude that God has blessed us with enough resources to own an extra freezer and the ability to have not only what we need, but EXTRA food...even if the plug it's attached to stops working and it thaws for three days. Gratitude for the ability to go to a library full of FREE reading materials, to a FREE story hour, and to own a purse with usable credit cards and cash, even if it does get left at said library and isn't realized until arriving back at home at lunch time with four hungry kids. (It was still there, by the way, being guarded by a very diligent librarian.) Also gratitude for the ability to own a nice vehicle, with four car seats to safely buckle in our four healthy children, and the ability to freely go to church to worship God on a Wednesday evening...even if after getting out the door on time with all kids dressed and fed the vehicle says, "click, click" instead of "vroom, vroom" upon turning the key. And gratitude for the resources to jump off the dead vehicle, even if the male (vehicle fixing) half of the relationship is riding a bike to church for excercise while the female (frankly, scared of jumper cables) half is trying to figure out what to do. And grateful EVEN AFTER 25 minutes of working on the thing with four kids strapped in the vehicle produces no results, and even after deciding to move all the seats to the truck and having no success with the stupid clippy thingy that makes the lap belt in the front seat safe for use with a car seat.

I can truly say I am grateful to have the problems I have had this week, because it means God has blessed us with SO MUCH STUFF!! Now whether or not James was grateful to have to keep the nursery without me while wearing spandex is another story. (I had the clothes he was going to change into in my dead car!)

I'll leave you with a few funny things from this week.

Wednesday morning I fed the horses but didn't have time to turn them out before coming home so James could leave, so I brought the kids out with me after breakfast to do it. A week ago the owner of the minature horses found them a new home and moved them, so I moved a couple of full-sized horses up to the paddock they were in. Amelia looked in it as we passed by and with a very serious and confused voice said, "Somehow I think those minis keep getting bigger."

After breakfast one day this week Avery said he needed to go potty, but told me he was wearing a diaper, which I thought was weird considering he doesn't wear them at all during the day. Shannon said, "Oh, I put it on him. Just in case." Then Amelia said, "I helped with the fastening part." They did a great job, it was placed just right and was fastened tight. I told Shannon I was going to let him start changing Elizabeth and he told me he could just put them on, but couldn't do the wiping part. Hmmm...I think he could be trained....

Shannon is forever finding creative ways to use toys, tools, equipment, whatever. Elizabeth affirmed his efforts by crawling right in the Cozy Coupe "boat."







Until next time, whenever that will be. So long!