Long-Lost Blogger

After a couple of months of serious slacking - blog-wise - I'm going to try to get caught up on our news and happenings of the fall...

Norah has completely settled into her school year as a Panda (her class is the Prayerful Pandas). She and her classmates are flying through the letters and numbers and are busy practicing writing and pre-reading skills. Last year, they worked mostly on capital letters, but now they're working on the lowercase ones as well and talking a lot more about how letters are combined together to make words. Outside of school, she decided to take gymnastics this year instead of dance, so she's working on her balance beam and cartwheel skills instead of her shuffle steps. She loves the trampoline, bars, and air track (see below).

In other Norah-news, we finally got her first haircut! As you can see, the change was less than dramatic... but at least we got a much-needed clean-up of the ends.

Maddie continues to find new ways to be curious. She's a forward-facing car-seat rider now and is finding new ways to communicate with us every day. She's still not using a lot of words (though "uh-oh" and "baby" have become early favorites), but she has mastered the art of showing both excitement (usually some combination of point, smile, laugh, scream) and displeasure (vigorous head-shaking, animal-like roar, body rotation [away from sister trying to take toy], throwing of self on floor). She has, after all, spent the last fifteen months watching her sister and learning how to act... so cute (or not so cute, depending on the day!).

Our biggest event of the fall was Maggie and Jake's wedding! Maggie, Jake, and my mom planned a really beautiful weekend and it was so fun to have lots of family members in town to celebrate. Maggie and Jake got married at the parish in which we grew up and went to school - St. Anthony's - and had the reception in the garden at San Joaquin Country Club. Norah got to be a flower girl, a duty which she took very seriously. She had lots of fun playing with all the other kids in attendance (Jake has ten nieces and nephews, and my cousin Julia was here with her boys Liam and Owen). Of course, we've been honored to include Jake as part of our family gatherings for many years, but now it's official. We're really happy for Maggie and Jake as they start their married life together. I didn't take many pictures myself, so I'm borrowing some shots from Laura and Maggie's friend Adam (amazing photographer!) to include below.

 

Post-wedding, we shifted to Halloween mode. First on the agenda was the pumpkin patch. We have our old favorite patch, which is a u-pick farm on the outskirts of Fresno. Norah remembers all her favorite traditions there (corn maze, hay ride, etc.), and Maddie had fun getting to help pick and cut her own pumpkin this year.

 

Norah and Dan even carved one of her pumpkins into a jack-o-lantern, a project that apparently grosses Dan out...

Next up was costumes. I usually start on the girls' costumes by mid-September, since a) it takes me forever to figure out how I want everything to work and b) I get interrupted A LOT. This year, though, two and a half weeks would have to do. I ended up having plenty of time (if you count finishing the costumes the morning of Halloween as plenty of time), but luckily Norah chose a pretty easy assignment this year - peacocks for both - or we could have had a major costume disaster!

Norah and Maddie had lots of fun trick-or-treating together. Norah was such a good big sister, taking Maddie by the hand and showing her how to hold out her candy bag. Maddie got the hang of things pretty quickly, and both of them ended up with lots of candy. We did let Maddie have a small taste of a candy bar, then quickly confiscated the rest of her haul for consumption by Mommy and Daddy.

Yesterday, we had the honor of celebrating Veteran's Day with Dan.  We took him out for our traditional Veteran's Day lunch, but he also took advantage of some Veteran's Day freebies this year, treating himself to breakfast at IHOP and dessert at the CVS ice cream counter. We're so thankful to Dan and all the others who have served (including our grandfathers and a few uncles and cousins) and continue to keep current service members and their families in our prayers.

Dan's first deployment to Iraq... with his friend Blair Nahm

Dan's second deployment to Iraq... with his friend Dennis, commander Col. Mitchell, and an Iraqi General his team was advising

Dan's second deployment... he was part of a small team of advisors to the Iraqi Army

Finally, since the timeliness of my blog posting has been poor lately, I'm going to go ahead and wish Dan a happy 9th wedding anniversary in advance of the actual day tomorrow. We've made a wonderful life together, and I'm blessed that he promised to be my husband nine years ago. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

Maddie's Newest Adventure

After several weeks of taking a few hesitant steps at a time, Maddie is walking! It is so fascinating to me how quickly one or two steps becomes all-out walking, but once it clicked, Maddie was off. She's excited to be able to keep up with her sister more easily and is having fun practicing her new skill.

We're all settling into our fall routine. Norah loves her new teachers and is making some good friends at school. Maddie has been a good sport about being my running buddy as I attempt to get back a workout rhythm. And Dan is, as ever, busy at work... but definitely still finding time to prepare for the upcoming ND football season (that is, he reads a bunch of football blogs) and to play the occasional round of disc golf.

I was lucky to be able to spend a wonderful weekend a couple of weeks ago over at the beach celebrating Maggie's bachelorette party. It was my first overnight away from Maddie, but both she and Dan survived with no problems. (Thanks to Grandpa and Jake for the assist!) Maggie wanted a (mostly) low-key affair, so we stayed away from the usual activities in favor of wine tasting, eating, an art party, and some good stories. We're looking forward to Maggie and Jake's big day in a little over a month! And thanks to Maggie's friend Adam for some great pictures!

Laura and I toasted Maggie with some Middle Sister Sangria

Bachelorette cookies - this was as racy as the party got!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and go Irish!

A New School Year

After what seems like just a flash, our summer has come to an end with Norah's first day of school this week. I was a little nervous back in the beginning of June about keeping her busy during her break, but we all fell into our summer routine (that is, lack of routine) quite nicely. Norah's "Box of Summer Fun" provided fifty days of activities and outings... and even a little bit of learning. We started with the ABC's, but at Norah's request added some number projects and more "Daddy Activities," bringing us all the way from the Monday after school got out to the Saturday before school started. I'm glad she was so enthusiastic about our projects. Thanks to Pinterest and some mommy blogs for some great ideas. So here's a quick recap of some of the favorite activities not mentioned in past posts...

For "E" day, we did an "E"xperiment with "E"ggs. We tried the classic dissolving eggshell test, where an egg + vinegar + eleven days = a egg that will bounce (at least a little bit). Norah had fun making her observations every day or so and was amazed (and a little grossed out) by the end result. The egg did, in fact bounce... but only if dropped from a low height. Dropped from too high, the egg splatted into a gooey, vinegary mess. (Luckily we tried this part of the experiment outside!)

"B's" activity involved making our own butter. This usually easy (but very time-consuming) project took a turn for the worse when Norah sustained a butter-making injury. She was so excited about shaking the jar (at least for 30 second bursts during the 15-20 minutes of shaking required for butter to form) that she hit herself in the face with the jar. She started crying, which made Maddie start crying, which made for a big teary mess. Everyone recovered, and we finished the butter. We even added some fresh herbs from the garden... so delicious. But please note: butter-making is more dangerous than it first appears!

While some days involved somewhat elaborate activities (as in "E" above), others were pretty simple - but still much enjoyed. "Q" brought Norah the chance to be queen for the day. Her royal proclamation: an extra dessert at dinner. For "S" day, we went to the park and counted how many things we could find that begin with "S." "W's" activity was a water-balloon fight.

We even took our projects on the road. During a long weekend in Aptos, we did a few days of "Beach Activities." We went berry picking at a local farm, and then headed to the local cage-free egg ranch to buy eggs from a vending machine and watch the dancing chickens. (Yes, it was a little hippie dippy, but it's Santa Cruz, after all.)

Back in Fresno, we took a field trip to the San Joaquin River parkway to learn about the wildlife...

...and then ended the whole thing with a final Daddy Activity. After Dan's backpacking trip a couple of weeks ago, Norah wanted to try sleeping in a tent, so she and Dan spent the night out in the backyard. They cooked hot dogs and s'mores on the grill, then enjoyed sleeping under the stars.

Maddie wanted to get in on the fun the next morning. Norah made it through the night with no problems and was ready to do it all over again the next night. (Dan decided one night was enough for now!)

So that was our summer of fun. This is the first year we've had a true summer off with Norah - since I always worked through the summer before - and I do have to say we were all a little sorry to see it end. Norah was, however, also VERY excited to go back to school this week. She is a Prayerful Panda this year, and her class has about half of her friends from last year plus a lot of new kids. We're looking forward to another great year!

Happy Birthday Sweet Maddie

Maddie celebrated her first birthday last week - how time flies! We had a fun day with her, including cake, presents, and lots of play time. She was a little unsure of how to get into the presents at first, but she was pretty quick to dig into her cake... and kept eating it until we had to take it away.

Norah was happy to help her little sissy, and the two of them had lots of fun playing with all of Maddie's new toys. (And yes, as you saw from Norah's concern in the video above, we eventually did give her some cake.)

In honor of her first birthday, we wanted to do a review of all things Maddie. She has developed a cute little sense of humor, which mostly involves her putting things on her head and laughing at herself...

...or blowing raspberries on my arm and laughing at herself (apparently the silliness of toot jokes is recognized early!).

Her favorite activities are climbing...

...and climbing some more.

Favorite foods are yogurt, cheese, applesauce, and popsicles. (Oh, and the crumbs she finds on the floor and the occasional snail from the garden. Luckily I caught the snail before she got it into her mouth - though it was quickly heading in that direction - but I don't always catch the crumbs.) And her favorite person in the whole wide world is her sister. (Especially when she gets to be in her sister's room and play with her sister's toys, but even when her sister "borrows" the toy she is in the middle of playing with. Oh, the toils of the youngest child)

It is fun to see Maddie develop her own personality. She is sweet, cuddly, curious, observant, and loving. We are so blessed to have Maddie in our lives. What an amazing year it has been!

 

Happy birthday sweet Maddie... we love you so much!

Family Time

Is it really August already? We're getting ready for Maddie's big birthday tomorrow and enjoying the last couple weeks of Norah's summer vacation. More on Maddie in our next post, but first, pictures from our trip to Festus.

We were lucky to be able to head to Missouri in mid-July to catch up with Dan's family, introduce Maddie to everyone, and give Norah some time to play with her cousins. Norah, Ember, and Autumn spent lots of time playing, giggling, and swimming - fun to watch them reconnect!

 

As part of Judie's birthday present, Dan and Matt organized a tea party and a trip to the Magic House, which is a children's museum in the St. Louis area. The girls all came up with princess names for their tea party, and enjoyed fancy (PB&J) sandwiches and fizzy drinks served up by the daddies. (Maddie decided to take her morning nap in lieu of the tea party, since she wanted to stock up on energy for later!) Then it was off to the Magic House, which had play spaces for kids of all ages. Maddie especially loved the climbing equipment for babies (no surprise there, since climbing is her favorite activity ever), and Norah, Ember, and Autumn had fun in the play village - where they could play in a pizza shop, serve pretend ice cream, go fishing, drive a car, and more. The highlight of the day for the big kids, though, was the three story twisty slide, which they went down over and over again. We were all pretty tired by the end of our trip... but luckily we had a nice car ride back to Festus to take naps and get ready for more swimming with Granny Franny that evening.

 

The fun continued the next day with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. We chose a VERY hot day for our zoo adventure (we're just not used to the humidity!), but we still got to see lots of animals, check out the sea lion show, and ride the carousel. Norah loved the sea lions and penguins, and Maddie was just happy to be along for the ride.

 

The best part of the trip was being able to spend time with family, since we don't get to see them nearly enough. We're so grateful for the time we do have together, and love watching Norah and Maddie get their Grammy/Grandpa/Granny/great-grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousin time. We're already looking forward to seeing everyone next time!

 

When we got back home, we had some monster zucchinis waiting for us in the garden. (We missed some heat in Fresno, too, which made the squash grow and grow and grow.) Once zucchinis get big, they're not good as good for eating, but they are still good for baking. The one zucchini below was enough for two loaves of zucchini bread, a big pan of zucchini brownies, and four dozen zucchini chocolate chip cookies. Now if only I could come up with enough recipes to keep up with all of our peaches!

Dan followed up his trip to Festus with a backpacking trip to Yosemite with Jake (Maggie's fiance) and Mike (Laura's boyfriend). While I love hiking, spending the night in the woods is really not up my alley, so Dan was glad to find other people to share this interest with. (Norah wanted to know why she couldn't go, but after a short explanation of the [complete lack of] bathroom facilities, she quickly changed her mind.) The guys arrived home smelling pretty manly and with a few blisters, but overall had a great weekend and saw some beautiful scenery.

And last, we finally made it to our first baseball game of the season (and Maddie's first ever) this week. The weather has cooled off just a bit, so it was a perfect night for baseball.

Love to all!