Take my picture, please!

Last night, we were sitting at dinner when Maren points to the camera and says "Mama, picture". OK. This is the child that turns the other direction everytime you point a camera at her. I asked her if she wanted her picture taken. "Yes, mama". So I took the opportunity and snapped some goofy pictures of her and then, of course, Tate wanted his picture taken, too. I think this is the first time they both asked to have their picture taken. So here's a few of the silly kiddos :)

Tate's afternoon teacher loves to use alot of gel and put a mohawk in his hair everyday. He loves it! Probably not my preference but it's cute for the evening then we take a bath:)

QT with the family

We have been so busy lately that this weekend was filled with not much except spending some quality time together.

Saturday started bright and early with another entertaining soccer game at 8am. The weather in SA is becoming quite fall-like which included a chilly 70 degree morning and wet, dew covered benches. What a change from the 102 degree day we had last weekend! The kids may not have been fully awake. We never scored a goal or even got to our end of the field for the most part. The normal 4 yr old behavior came out--chasing our own teammates, sitting down in the middle of the field, and pouring the water out of the cooler just because.

We headed to the Riverwalk for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, rode the boat around the river, and got ice cream before heading home with 2 extremely tired kiddos. (I am so disappointed I forgot my camera:( )

On Sunday morning, the kids and I headed to church for a very inspirational sermon based on "The Story"(http://www.thestorynow.net/) while Jason worked for a few hours.

We attempted to go to the pool in the afternoon but even though it was 90 degrees, the cool mornings have made the water really, really cold. Maybe that is why noone was there! We ended up leaving after about 30 minutes when Tate couldn't stop chattering. He was the only

one actually swimming anyway. See you next year, pool!

We played and played outside before the mosquitos chased us in and grilled hamburgers for dinner. What a great weekend!

Who needs a plate when you have the floor

This would be Maren eating Cheetos off the floor after dumping the entire bag out. She was in heaven! (until Mom came around the corner)

New York City!

My wonderful friends/neighbors/mommy companions headed to the Big Apple for a relaxing, childless, husbandless weekend. We left Friday morning and came back Sunday evening. As far as I can tell, the house was in order, the children were all in one piece, no catastrophes and no Ike,which makes for a successful weekend.

Some highlights---

*getting a Starbucks and a USA today and enjoying them uninterrupted on the airplane

*watching a movie on the portable DVD player that hasn't ever played a grown up movie

*listening to a child screaming on the airplane and it wasn't mine

*eating a fabulous dinner at Babbo with lots of laughing

*seeing Wicked on Broadway

*going to bed and getting up whenever we wanted

*spending time with the girls

*browsing through Tiffany's

*getting chased down the street by a purse peddler

*playing Frogger with the 30,000 runners in the Susan G. Komen breast cancer 5K in Central Park while trying to cross the street

Much Needed Quiet Time

We have been battling naps/quiet time with Tate for over a year. Maren, of course, naps routinely every afternoon between 12:30-1:00 for an hour and a half or so. Tate did the same thing at her age. The bonus for me was that, with Tate, I had an hour and a half or so to myself to get whatever I needed to get done done without much interruption. At about 3, naps for him became few and far between. Now, my "quiet time" gets interrupted one million times with..mommy, mommy, mommy...for a little one who refuses to either stay in his room or even just upstairs. I've tried setting an alarm and telling him he can't come out until it goes off, let him watch movies, letting him have free reign of the upstairs, he only wants to do whatever I'm doing. Now, I'm quite flattered but I get nothing done! On the rare occasion he is so tired that he actually takes a nap, I literally, do a dance in the hall after sneaking out of his room once he's asleep. Today though he, unbelievably, stayed in his room, quietly playing for over an hour. I got soo much done in such a short amount of time..made calls, got dinner started, packed for NYC!!...it was much needed quiet time for us both. After an hour or so, I went upstairs to find him playing with his cars on the floors. After a "Hi, Mommy! Am I done?", I was ready for his company.

Here is the wild one today..Whew..NYC here I come!

My First Picture

Ever since last year when we visited some of our friends in Indiana and their little girl, who was 3..almost 4, could draw trees and pretty pictures of actual things, I ask Tate on occasion to "draw me a tree."His response is always "I don't know how. "I always think..what are they teaching you at school:) He'll color pictures in a coloring book and is getting pretty good at coloring in the lines but never a random picture on a plain piece of paper. His little imagination runs wild, though, so I knew it was in him to draw me a picture.

Today, while Maren was napping, we sat at the table with a box of crayons and a plain piece of paper. He proceeded to draw me a flower, a tree with apples on it, a bird (which he was mad that I added some legs because he didn't think they had any), a sun, some grass and, of course, a sky. I was so proud!! I know throughout his life I will have one million drawings, most of them that will get tossed, but the first one, to me, is so special!

Soccer Game #2

Today was our second soccer game! Again, very entertaining! One of the girls on the team decided that the red teams water was better than ours. She had no idea she was sitting on the wrong bench. Hilarious!! They chased the ball well today but need to work on actually kicking it. It was very hot and the kids seemed a little overheated. We need a little practice:)

The Purple Sharks

Tate had his first soccer game this morning! They are called the Purple Sharks. He did so good! 4 year old soccer players are probably the most entertaining thing...ever! All 12 kids were decked out in their oversized purple uniforms. The numbers were carefully chosen. The girls pretty much knew right away which number they wanted to be and why..Kate is eight because they rhyme and Chloe is four because she is four. Being the OCD boy Tate is, he changed his from 4 to 5 then finally 6 and for no apparent reason. They all were placed on the field and the game started...no one moved. We need a time out to have a refresher on what soccer was all about:) By the end, they had gotten it down for the most part. We scored a goal (the other team had 1 kid that scored all 8 of their goals...but who is keeping score). Tate kicked the ball down the field and will be challenging David Beckham before you know it! Yeah!

We have another priceless game tomorrow!

Labor Day Weekend

What a busy weekend!
Jason headed to Virginia Beach on Saturday morning with his friends, Stevan and Frank, to run the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon. Jason finished the race in 2 hours and 3 minutes without any injuries!

Jason and Frank after the race

The kids and I went the opposite direction and headed south to Port Aransas, TX. We stayed at our wonderful friends, the Clarks, new beach house. It was beautiful! 6 couples met there and enjoyed a fun filled weekend of relaxation, playing in the water and hanging out with friends. Tate was an expert boogie boarder once the weekend was over.

Trying to get all 13 kids to smile :)