Vacation’s Over and School Begins!!

The school year has begun and now I have an 8th grader, a 4th grader and THREE 1st graders.

Yikes.

Those are real grades – no “pre” anything unless you count 8th grade as “pre-high-school” but I really don’t want to do that!

I started this post ages ago to try and post pictures from our summer but failed to get it done! So, before we get too far into the school year I thought I’d post some pictures from the summer.

Caleb and Grandpa working on a project together:

Celebrating Kaitlyn’s birthday at church with Aubree too:

Getting a few goodies from Grandma and Grandpa (sorry about Caleb’s face – it was the only photo that came out!)

Visiting with some great friends:

Since our family is a little on the larger side we don’t get to do too many large activities due to cost but every once in a while we get some fun treats like spending the day with Aunt Kim and cousin Aubree at a Children’s Museum:

Inside the “house” complete with a “garden”

Pretending to be firefighters

Kaitlyn pretending to be a Veterinarian.

Okay, I’m feeling a little bad about this – this is the ONLY picture I took of Caleb in the museum and of course it came out blurry!! He and Kaitlyn roamed together through the museum while I stayed with the girls so I got less photos of Kaitlyn and Caleb.

Caleb climbing the rock wall.

Alyssa and Rachel digging for “treasure” – they were really excited to find some under the sand – too bad it wasn’t real.

Julianna’s shopping at “Publix”

Alyssa’s ready to check her out!

Rachel’s doing some artwork with Aubree!

And once Kirk arrived we headed back to the beach but this time we went to a private island by boat!

Grandpa was our boat driver.

All of us on the boat – photo taken by my brother, Michael.

Even I have to admit we had a great time on the boat and the beach.

Of course, most of our time was spent in the pool!

After the pool, our second favorite spot was the Library! The kids loved checking out new books every week but were also able to enjoy other activities like Movie Day complete with free popcorn and water (hits this mom right in her cheapskate spot!) and Lego day where everyone came in and built whatever they wanted for a while. Not quite Legoland but still they had fun.

 

Our last weekend before school started we went to the Chesapeake on a church retreat. And look who went with us!

Angela came for a visit! We had a great week with her and were so glad she went with us on the retreat.

A walk with friends on the water. Kaitlyn with some of her best friends.

The girls loved their time away and wished it could have been longer.

Playing tether ball.

Fun at the pool! One last dip before summer ends.

After the pool it was time to go Banana Boating!

Everyone enjoyed the crazy boat ride (not pictured: Kaitlyn)

But then it was back to reality. Time to say goodbye again to Angela and get ready for school.

And we once again have the privilege of hosting an exchange student from China. Our new “daughter” is Luna. She’s excited to be here but nervous about learning the language. I look forward to seeing how she grows this year!

Yearly photo of the 1st day taken by the front door.

And in front of the family van.

It’s so hard for me to believe that the years go by so fast. It seems like yesterday that the girls were starting Kindergarten. And what is even weirder is that Kaitlyn was in 1st grade when I was pregnant with the triplets. The fact that they are now that age is mind-blowing.

I am praising God for my children and praying that they have a wonderful year ahead of them!

Catching Some Big Waves in Florida

If you know me, you know I’m not a beach person.

At all.

I must explain. Being there is okay but the sand in EVERYTHING and the coming and going I can do without – the packing to go and then the leaving with all the sand and feeling gross. Yeah, I hate that part.

But it’s Florida and being so close to the beach means you have to go at least once so we did.

And today we didn’t find calm seas but huge, crashing waves. Not surprising given all the weather we’ve had but it meant no calm swimming in the gulf.

No calm seas here – look at those waves! And they just kept coming.

Lunch time in the wind with Grandpa – had to sit on the chairs or they would blow away!

Caleb’s ready to take on the waves. Even if he doesn’t match 🙂 But I’m betting that’s just a mom thing!

Kaitlyn and Caleb keeping Rachel and Alyssa from getting pulled under the waves and away from the rocks.

Julianna’s venturing in.

Everyone but Rachel braving the waves. She is pretty tiny and the waves pushed her right over.

Tiny doesn’t mean she’s not adorable!!

Caleb, Kaitlyn and Grandpa having a great time in the waves.

Kaitlyn’s in that wave somewhere 🙂

All the girls playing in the sand – I think this was their favorite part. When we were done they were still digging!

I did venture in the water but every time I did I had to hold a triplet or two tight to make sure the waves didn’t take her away!

After swimming the kids were feeding the seagulls some leftover bread. Not sure who had more fun, the kids or the birds.

Why oh why is it so hard to get five kids to look forward and smile??!!

Also, Rachel’s eyes don’t open and Alyssa can’t give me a good face. I kept trying and this is the best I got!

And some more pictures because well, I think my kids are cute and it’s my blog so yep, more photos!! Also, I’ve got to get something good out of going to the beach and great outdoor pics are what I get. Clearly, I’m not a photographer but occasionally I get a photo I like and have to share.

Rachel running in the sand.

Just did not want to sit on the bench swing.

The mask just cracks me up.

Even though I prefer the pool to the beach we had a pretty good day fighting the surf and playing in the sand.

Vacation Photos

It’s hard to believe but Sunday makes a month since we’ve been on vacation. I know you’re jealous 🙂 Yes, we’ve been spending our days lounging by the pool, swimming and for the most part relaxing. It’s as much of a vacation as a mom can get. My parents have graciously hosted us for weeks, they have fed us and put up with us and for our size family that’s saying a lot!

This is my view just about every day:

My bathing beauties:

When only mommy is in FL things are a little more calm – kids jumping in and hanging on me, sure but nothing like this:

Or this:

And I certainly don’t do this:

Daddy is FAR more fun than mommy:

I’ve also had a chance to spend lots of time with my favorite niece, Aubree. Wow, she’s gotten so big since I last saw her! She’s a full six months now. Half a year gone already. Looking at my own babies it kills me to see how fast time goes.

I was blessed this time around to get to take care of her overnight (she got up for a little bit) and then a whole day while her mommy worked. Of course, with 2 long naps it didn’t feel like much of a day (boy do I miss naps!!).

While we did do a LOT of swimming – so much so that the all the girls can now swim the entire pool without any vests or other floatation devices – it’s not all we did. My mom and I spent a weekend in Orlando at The Gospel Coaltion National Women’s Conference. We were able to meet up with women from my church in Virginia and spend a whole crazy weekend walking in the rain (so much rain!) and listening to preaching, teaching and fabulous music from Keith and Kristyn Getty. Since Kirk was in Virginia and my mom and I were in Orlando it left my dad home alone with five kids. He did great! The kids LOVED having a whole weekend with Grandpa and I am sooo thankful that he was willing and able to care for all of them while I was away. Thank you Dad!

This past Monday we visited Weeki Wachee – the only place I know of you can see “real, live mermaids” – sadly, these mermaids need oxygen and due to a problem with their air houses we were only able to see about two minutes of one show. Very disappointed that the rest was cancelled!

Our two minutes of mermaid show:

Fortunately for us mermaids aren’t the only attraction. We also took a river boat ride, saw peacocks all over the park and our favorite part, the water slides!

The big kids spent the afternoon on the slides while the little girls spent their time going in and out of the frigid water (because it’s spring water it stays at a cool 74 degrees year round – unlike the pool water which reached close to 90!)

And since it happens to once again be July (I can’t believe it either!) we had a Florida family and friends celebration for Kaitlyn’s 12th birthday. So hard to believe that this beautiful girl was once my tiny baby. Twelve years has surely flown by.

At 12 Kaitlyn still has a sweet spirit. She’s funny and fun to be around. I’m so proud to be her mom.

And I know my dad is proud to be her grandpa:

This year, we celebrated the 4th of July in Florida and at my parents home.

The girls holding sparklers and enjoying fireworks was a far cry from their first 4th of July five years ago:

And today we celebrated Kaitlyn’s birthday in a really big way.  She got her ears pierced! She was certainly nervous about the whole idea. It’s only been in recent months where she was open to the idea itself, before that she was way to scared to even consider it.

Here’s the before – feeling nervous:

Getting prepared:

Clinging to Daddy for help. “Is this going to hurt?!”

Nope, not at all! Once the first one was over with and she realized there is very little pain involved with ear piercing all was right with the world again and ear #2 was a piece of cake. Here’s one thrilled little girl – so happy and relieved that she got them pierced. Now that it’s done she’s quite excited about the whole earring this.

And tonight, a special dinner treat – we got to visit with another set of triplets! These are little ones – just 8 months old – it sure was fun to have my girls see baby triplets and to show them what it was like when they were small. It was a crazy reminder of what life was like for us when the girls were that age and just how much screaming goes on. While it still makes me sad that my girls have grown up so much, I do NOT miss all the crying and craziness of triplet babies.

I can’t believe 4 weeks have passed since school ended, we loaded up our big, white van and travelled south. We were blessed with the time we spent with our family. We will miss them greatly and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Swimming Workout, Mom Style

Summer officially started yesterday at least according to the calendar but our summer started 2 weeks ago when we drove 15 hours south to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Florida. This time around we got to make a stop-over at some friends of ours from school who sadly moved away a few months ago. Fortunately for us their new house is on our route south. It was great to see them again! Our return trip will bring us to more old friends in South Carolina. It breaks up our trip and gives us all something to look forward to as we travel.

The other huge plus this time around is the van. There’s so much room its unbelievable. I love that the kids are not crammed in under and next to stuff. We even have room to pack more on the way home though Kirk has sternly warned against the idea that I could bring home furniture items. Yes, I’m still considering it…

And what do we do in Florida for weeks?

SWIM

But you knew that already!

Fortunately the girls have not forgotten their swimming skills from last year and are each day making steady improvements. Alyssa has learned to swim the whole pool without floaties which for her is  a pretty big deal. Julianna has been doing this for a while but has recently learned how to do the “back scroll” – don’t know what that is? Why it’s the back stroke!

And what am I doing? Some days I sit by the pool and watch them swim (so relaxing) and other days I get in there with them (NOT relaxing!). So I decided the best thing to do was attempt to exercise while in the pool. Swimming laps would work best but that requires wading through children and is quite difficult though sometimes I do the back scroll myself. But, most often, I can be found shredding/shedding water – don’t know what that is either? It’s usually known as treading water.

While doing this alone for a half hour is certainly a workout it’s much more of a workout if you can also be a “safe spot” for the girls when they swim through or jump into the deep end; treading water with a 40 pound weight is certainly much harder!

But that’s not hard enough, not by a long shot. Try treading water with not one but two 40-pound children while also being shot in the face by your 8-year-old son. And when he’s done shooting me in the face with water he too will try and hold on to me and drag me under.

On top of that I have to stop treading (shredding/shedding) water every few minutes to “rescue” a “drowning” five-year-old which leads once again to my previous comment of treading water with an extra 40 to 80 pounds of weight. Mind you it’s never 3 kids because one of them (Rachel) won’t swim past the shallow end. She would much rather I stand in the shallow end while she swims back and forth to me – no workout there – the kid barely weighs 30 pounds!!

I can’t complain though – after an hour or two of “swimming” I feel quite worked out. Maybe I’ll come home in better shape then when I left even if I’m not more tanned (darn light skin!!).

Sorry, no pictures today – maybe next week. This weekend my mom and I are heading to Orlando to The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference “Here is Our God!” – I’m excited about the teaching, the time away with my mom and a chance to see quite a few women from my church in Virginia. Fancy meeting them here in Florida 🙂