lake of the ozarks

We got away for a quick family vacation last weekend. It's the off season at Lake of the Ozarks so we were able to stay for next to nothing and have some down time together. As quickly as the time passed, we were able to really enjoy each other and the beautiful fall weather.

The biggest news of the trip was that Ella caught a fish all by herself! Mind you, this came right before she brushed her face with the hook which ended up catching in her hair. And then she threw the pole in the water on accident and Bryan injured himself trying to retrieve it (another story to be told at a later date when Bryan can laugh about it.)

The fish! So glad she hooked him and not herself!

There was a pumpkin festival going on not far from where we were staying but the kids didn't want to leave the condo. I found it rather sweet actually. It seems like Ella is so in need of real bonding time with her family, that she would much rather spend the moments lounging around doing "normal activities" rather than play in a bounce house or whatever...Fine by me. That is so much easier! Simon was the same way...every time we left the condo (like, to go buy a first aid kit a Walgreens...again, another story) he would ask, "Are we going back to our vatation now?" meaning, back to the condo?

So, aside from all around RELAXING, we visited the little playground on the rental property which consisted of a slide, monkey bars and a teeter totter. Ella mastered the monkey bars so the kids were quite content to visit this small, unimpressive playground multiple times. Next to the playground was a pecan tree that was dropping hundreds of nuts. We gathered up two bagfuls in hopes of cracking them open and enjoying them in some oatmeal or something (well, that was my hope. Nobody else really likes oatmeal.) But even after I bought a nut cracker, the cracking didn't really produce an "uncrushed" nut. Oh well. We had fun collecting them all.

In order to convince our kids to go on a long walk, we turned it into a treasure hunt. The kids loved that idea and were very successful at finding all the things I listed off, like:

1. a red leaf
2. something white
3. a purple flower
4. an acorn
5. something orange

I will definitely use this game again when trying to manipulate my children to exercise.

The loot

 As we packed to leave, we discovered a turtle outside our door. The kids were mesmerized and tried to feed it lettuce. Ella wrote a story/list of observations to show her teacher. Under a rather lovely drawing of the turtle were these sentences:
I saw a turtle on my vacation. It had red spots all over it. I gave the turtle some lettuce. But it wouldn't eat it.
Ella is in school even when she's not in school!

Other happenings were:

1. Making s'mores with marshmallows we roasted in the fireplace. (Oh how I wish we had a working fireplace at home!)
2. Playing lots of Miss Pac Man
3. Reading on the front deck
4. Simon falling out of bed
5. Attending Christ's Church (one of our sister churches) and reconnecting with our friends there. What a great group of folks!

Reading in the crisp morning air. Bryan-The Bible, Ella-Curious George, Simon-Harold and the Purple Crayon

Every time we visit Lake of the Ozarks, Bryan gets the itch to buy a used boat. He almost has me convinced! Almost.

toofer

The last couple of weeks have had some tooth excitement! First, Josie has had some seriously rough nights of sleep which means I've had very little to speak of. Turns out, she was sprouting a tooth! I have yet to catch a glimpse of it with the camera since she is weird about opening her mouth for me unless I'm filling it with a big spoonful of food. But I certainly feel the rough little sprout when she chews on my finger!

And then tonight, Ella lost her first tooth! We had gone over to Memaw's to visit since Daddy and Papa are away. After carving pumpkins, we sat down to dinner. Ella accidentally bit down on her fork and it was enough force to seriously nudge her already loose tooth out of joint. I was so relieved to be at Memaw's because she is very well accustomed to the removal of teeth. Having had six children all go through the process, she knew the correct procedure and stepped right in to assist. Ella sat very bravely as Memaw gripped the tooth with a paper towel and gave it a firm pull. Out it came and Ella was thrilled! All night she kept saying dreamily, "I can't believe I lost my first tooth!" We went out for ice cream to celebrate and skyped with Daddy so he could get a good look for himself. Now, we need to decide if we are going to promote the tooth fairy around here...

we got schooled

We played "school" tonight after baths. At first, it was just me and the girls while Simon bathed and the game started out as "Mom, sister and baby". Ella was the mom, I was the sister and Josie was the baby, obviously. But then Ella morphed the game into school. She was still the mom though so we were homeschooled. But there was a principal (played by Josie) so I guess it was some kind of crossover between the two. I sat on the floor with my "backpack" (an H&M bag with a pouch of pencils, small notebook, storybook and erasers) while Ella sat in a chair with a quilt on her legs. She instructed me to get out my notebook and write the sentences she gave me. It was so fun to pretend to be like Ella for a moment. I kept raising my hand to ask for spelling help which she tired of quickly and said, "Let's just pretend you're in the first grade so you know everything, ok?" 

When Simon and Dad entered, the game morphed further. Simon wanted to be the dad who came to pick me up in the car, so he was awarded that role. Daddy played another student in my class. Ella decided we all needed make believe names. I was Susie, Daddy was Freddy, Ella was Miss Isabella and Simon was Johnny. Josie was still the principal.

Again, I kept raising my hand; this time it was mostly to tattle on Freddy. "Miss Isabella?!" I said, "Freddy keeps touching meeee!" She put down her book and got up from her chair. "I guess I need to write down the rules and go over them with you." She said in a stern voice, looking at "Freddy" with a sideways glare and clenching to hold back a smile. She posted rules on the wall that said: 1. No touching, 2. No yelling, 3. No looking at other people's papers.

Then it was time for a test. The test was to draw a picture of our house. "Freddy" was lying down in the bed and seemed to doze off. When it was time to turn in our test to see what grade we got, I got a 4 (which is an A in Ella's real school). "Freddy" didn't draw anything on his paper. He got a 1 (which is a D). As we wrapped up our game, Ella handed back "Freddy's" homework. On it she had written next to his sub par score, "Next time, do what we do."

Then we all loaded up in Johnny's car (two miniature chairs, a step stool and a bouncy seat to act as Josie's car seat) and Johnny (dad) buckled us in. As we "drove" home, he told me, "When we get home I am putting you straight to bed and I'm going to change over the laundry."

It was a very educational evening. :)

apples, bikes and a couple of gorgeous girls

We made our annual trip to Eckert's Farm last week to pick apples. I look forward to this event every year for multiple reasons: 1) the kids have a blast, 2) it's one of the first signs of autumn for us, 3) the apples are AMAZING and 4) I always make it an opportunity to take lots of photos of the kids.

Simon and Ella in the tunnel

Looking Back: The tunnel photo from two years ago. They change so fast!

The new rocket ships were a big hit

Looking Back: No rockets last year. Last season was all about the airplanes.

 

More news: Ella still loves wearing all her bike gear. But it's not motivation enough to learn to ride without training wheels. She's still too jittery about it and won't let Bryan let her go. It didn't seem to make it any more tempting when I told her how my dad taught me how to ride a bike by taking me to the top of a hill and letting go without warning. I learned quickly. Maybe we're just too warm and fuzzy?

The gear: all looks and no action!

And here is one extra sweet little squish. Man is she adorable. Her personality is so enjoyable, her smile is warm and friendly and she's started sprouting a silly little tooth! Now if she'd only start sleeping a little more at night I might officially change her name to "Angel Baby".

Gorgeous Girl #1

 

 

The original Gorgeous Girl. She just gets prettier every day I think.

And this one is just for good measure. She is such a little lady. She's getting prettier all the time and it's a little scary. What happens when those little boys she tells me she chases on the playground (I shudder at these stories) decide she doesn't have cooties? I'm praying she thinks they're dumb dumbs by then. :)

And that's a wrap for now...

poor ella

Ella developed a bad cough over the weekend. Saturday night she came into our room and asked if she could sleep with us. I felt so sad to tell her no but Josie is often in our bed at different points throughout the night and I didn't want her to get sick. So I sent Ella back to her bed and instructed her to prop up her pillows so her head was a bit more elevated so maybe she would have less drainage issues. Such a champ she is. She went right back to bed. A few minutes later, I hear her call out with alarm, "MOOOMMM!!" I bolted out of bed and found her sitting up in the top bunk. She said, "I threw up in my bed." Poor little thing. Sleeping on the top bunk makes it hard to get to the toilet in time for a puke. (As a side note, our older two are pros at puking. They don't cry. They don't moan. They just head to the toilet, lay their arms and heads over the bowl, and let 'er rip. I'm a proud Momma.) Anyway, it was the description that followed that got me. She said, "I was coughing and coughing and then all of a sudden, I like, exploded." After I stripped her bed, got her freshened up and back in the (bottom) bunk, she said, "I hope I don't explode again Mom." Poor Ella. She did make it through without another explosion.

simon's sense of humor

Simon has changed so much over the last several months and since he and I have had a lot more time together lately, I've really gotten to see more of his uniqueness. He's a real sweetie pie and loves to love on me and cuddle at bedtime. These are the most rich moments when I can just lie back and listen to him gab about whatever he's thinking about and I find myself giggling and encouraging him to continue. Last night we were lying there and he pointed to the one inch, circular dent in the plaster wall next to his bed. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Remember this Mommy?" He knew he was pushing my buttons since I felt so guilty about how that dent got there. (Find out how right here.) I stuck my bottom lip out to signify my sadness about the dent and he smiled brightly trying to cheer me. He said, "Don't worry Mommy! I tould hit my head on the wall and make another cirtcle and we tould have two eyes and a nose and make a smiley face out of it!" Oh my. I had a good laugh at his optimistic solution to my grief!

Another entertaining moment was after his nap today. Bryan and I decided we'd like to walk to Ella's school to pick her up rather than driving since the weather was beautiful and we needed to get a little exercise. As Bryan got Simon ready, this was the conversation that ensued:

B: Hey Simo, we're going to walk to Ella's school today to pick her up.
S: Why? Don't we have a tar anymore?
B: Yes, our car is fine. But we want to take a walk just to get some exercise.
S: (Each word dramatically enunciated) What-in-the-WORLD?

So I guess that means Simon isn't used to us actually wanting to exercise.

In other news, Simon is finally really enjoying preschool. We just went on his first field trip to a little pumpkin farm where we had a hay ride, played on the playground, had snacks with his friends, and got to take home a couple of little pumpkins which he hand picked. He had such a great time and especially loved the different slides on the playground and running through a few short, dark tunnels with his light up Toy Story tennis shoes.

Here he is humoring me with a pumpkin pose

The playground had some super fun stuff to climb on!

~Peekaboo!~

I just had to throw this one is because, man, does he look like such a big boy!

Simon, I just enjoy you. Flat out like you. And I love you more than I have words for. You make your Mamma happy!