Harvest Festival and Hershey Park

We've had some busy but fun weekends! And with October just around the corner, I'm sure we'll be adding even more fun with fall festivals and visits to the pumpkin patch.

Two weekends ago, our small town had their Harvest Festival. The day started off kind of dreary, but we headed down later on in the afternoon and wandered around to look at the vendors. They had a whole parking lot blocked off for fun kids activities that were mostly free. There were some fun farm animals that Noelle was quite excited to pet, and then we spent a good 15 minutes at the sensory tables that were set up. Jonah, of course, decided it would be fun to mix the rice, pasta, and sand all together.

This past weekend, we headed up to Hershey, PA for the day to visit one of my closest friends from our Grove City days. Amy has a 2 1/2 year old, and along with our husbands, we took the kids to Hershey Park (big thanks to Amy and Austin for getting us free passes!) I was nervous about how Jonah would do, thinking he wouldn't want to sit still long enough to go on the rides. I figured he would be trying to stand up while the ride was in motion, and could picture him being dragged around in circles as he fell overboard. BUT he did so well! The kids rides all had belts that pulled pretty securely across the kids laps, and I think he was entertained enough by the motion and scenery that he didn't even try to get up. Even though I didn't get a great picture of the kids actually smiling, Noelle did keep asking to do more rides, so I'm convinced she was having fun!

At one point, the guys took the kids on some rides while Amy and I went off and rode the Great Bear roller coaster. I don't even know the last time I went on a roller coaster, and it was so much fun! I screamed my head off and enjoyed every second of it! We traded off, and the guys went to ride a coaster while we took the kids on some rides. We finished up our time at Hershey with a tour of Chocolate World- with of course a free treat at the end. Noelle claimed that the tour was her favorite ride, which is of course entirely free and not even inside the park. The kids were both asleep within ten minutes of starting our drive home, and slept for most of the two hour car trip. A good first time amusement park experience for both Noelle and Jonah! And a fun time with Amy, Austin, and Micah!

Meanwhile, we'll be soaking in all the time we can get outdoors before it gets too cold!

Kristen and David's Wedding!

It's hard to believe it's been a week since we left for our long weekend in Dallas for Kristen's wedding, and now we're already settling into our new routine of preschool and MOPS meetings!

Last Thursday we took the kids and dropped them off at my mom's house. I bought a new hairbrush for Noelle since I hadn't had one to pack for her the last time we left the kids for a weekend, and she was excited about going to "Nanny's" and using her very own purple hairbrush. She was so excited, she was ready to head over to her house on Wednesday just so she could use it! We took the kids and all their gear inside my mom's house, and then nonchalantly said goodbye and headed off to the airport. Both kids were eating sandwiches, and thankfully did not cry as we walked out. I, however, had to hold myself together as we drove away!

(It's ALWAYS when Luke and I are both leaving the kids somewhere that I think about the fact that we still have no will in place should we die while we're gone!)

Once we got to the airport, we realized that this was the first time we were flying somewhere together since we've had kids- our last flight together was when we spent some time in Brazil with a group from our church in the summer of 2011. Everything went smoothly, and we got to Kristen's house around dinnertime. Her house was wedding central for the weekend and we jumped in to help with flowers, photo guestbook stuff, packing up the U-Haul that transported everything to the venue, and whatever else needed to be done.

We picked up Amy and Austin from the airport on Friday, and I have to say, it was SO great having that time with Amy, especially when Kristen was dealing with preparations and visiting with family and friends who had come for the wedding. I loved being able to catch up with her, and our husbands who have only seen each other a few times, bonded over music and general goofiness (#hashtag! #letsgetreadytobrumbalow). It was also determined that three of us and our husbands should plan vacations together! The entire weekend made me miss those sweet friendships we had in college, but I'm so thankful that we've kept up and still see each other.

Something also worth mentioning- whirlyball! I had never heard of this until this past weekend. It's basically a combo of bumper cars and lacrosse/basketball. I was skeptical and wasn't so sure about trying it, but when Luke, Amy, and Austin all jumped in to play, I decided to try. And I'm so glad I did! It was hilarious- to the point that I may have peed my pants a little! I was dying- I suck at bumper cars (really, I just learned that you turn the wheel all the around to go in reverse!), and it was too funny watching people race for the ball in their car and try to scoop it up. Such a good time!

Kristen and David's wedding was beautiful! It was held at the Venue at Waterstone, which had the perfect little "island" for the ceremony, and a rustic barn for the reception. Kristen did so much DIY, and every detail was thought out, down to a corner just for the kids to play in with a castle and all! The ceremony started at 6, which made the Texas heat a little more bearable, and the sunset was beautiful as we finished up pictures and headed in for the reception.

They had a lot of family to celebrate the day with them, and one of the details I loved from their ceremony was something unique they planed at the end. Kristen's sister-in-law to be made a chalkboard sign for each person in the wedding party to hold as they walked back down the aisle that said "Married for X amount of years." So when the ceremony was over, and I was walking down the aisle, I met Luke who was holding our sign that said "Married for seven years." Then halfway down the aisle, we kissed and the photographer snapped a picture. There was a sign for everyone who was married in the wedding party, each set of parents, and ended with Kristen's grandparents who have been married for 65 years! It was a great way to honor the marriages and to celebrate God's work in each of them.

Meanwhile, Noelle and Jonah got passed off from Nana and Grandpa to Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday afternoon. From everything that I was told, most of that went smoothly, and in general, the kids did great! It felt so good to pick them up on Monday and hear Noelle yelling that "mommy was home!" I definitely missed them, but it was also nice to be able to just have fun with Luke, and catch up uninterrupted with some of my closest friends!

Pre-School Begins!

Today was Noelle's first day of pre-school! It wasn't a true day of school because we just went for about an hour to meet her teacher and get the scoop on how everything would work for the year. Come next Tuesday will be the true first day when I leave her and have a whole morning (okay, really just two and a half hours) without her!

I convinced Luke to work from home so that Jonah could stay with him, and I could focus on Noelle and figuring out how everything would work with her. We watched our neighbors get on the school bus for their first day of the year, and I kept telling Noelle how exciting it was that she was also going to be starting school. Of course her response was that she didn't want to go to pre-school and that she wanted to stay home with mama.

I made a little 'first day of 3's pre-k' sign for her to hold and took the necessary pictures. She gave us her eyes closed, super cheesy smile that scrunches up her entire face. After I made sure we had a few decent pictures, she and I got into the van and headed out. By then she seemed a little bit more excited about going, and I kept talking it up as we drove to the school. Inside I was freaking out and telling myself we should just wait another year, she doesn't have to go to school yet, she can stay home for another year. Which is all true- we are choosing to send her. But we know she is going to love it!

We walked into the school, checked in, and wandered down the hallway to her classroom. I started to get a little choked up and told myself to just HOLD IT TOGETHER! One of the assistant teachers greeted us, gave Noelle her nametag, and told us to pick one of the available cubbys where she would hang her tote bag. She ended up with the purple oval cubby, and it looks like she'll be sharing it with a little boy in her class. We wandered over to where her classmates were playing, and she immediately found the bin of horses to play with.

The head teacher took us parents down the hallway to talk to us about procedures and what the school year would look like. Her teacher was so nice, and seems so excited about her year with the kids. There are two assistant teachers in the room as well, so I know that Noelle is in good hands! It's just so hard to think about hitting the school milestone, and leaving her with teachers!

But as Noelle said when we were leaving, "This wasn't scary, this was so much fun!"

Suprises and Poison Control

I had a real "I feel like such a mom" moment last night. I woke up to a weird noise (probably the cat) around 1:30 and went to check on both kids. I pulled the covers up around Noelle so that she wouldn't get cold. And I felt Jonah's head since he had a bit of a fever when we put him to bed. Of course, as soon as I touched his forehead, he rolled over and I backed away as quickly as possible so he wouldn't wake up. But it made me feel like such a mom, and of course, I loved it!

Luke's birthday was on Tuesday (so glad he's finally the same age as me again!), and this past weekend, I had a surprise party for him. It was at my parent's house since they have a good sized backyard, and on Friday, I went over to clean the main floor since my mom hasn't been able to do much since her hip surgery. Saturday morning, I went over to their house after my run and once Jonah was awake to help decorate, and when I came home I told Luke that I gone up to Starbucks for awhile. The plan was that we were going to my parent's house to celebrate all the August birthdays- Luke and both of my sisters. When we got there, all the cars were parked in the yard, and of course Luke asked what was going on. I just told him to stop asking questions, but he had already figured it out.

We had a good mix of friends there including family, people from our Bible studies, college friends, his old work friend Tim, and our friend Joe, who encompasses childhood through post-college friendship. I'm just glad that I was actually able to pull it off- so hard keeping secrets from the person I tell pretty much everything!

On Monday, I had T and S for the whole day for the last time this summer. I had nothing fun planned, and we ended up sticking around the house for awhile since Jonah didn't seem to be a big fan of taking a nap. T had gone to a paint ball fight birthday party over the weekend, and brought back three un-exploded paint balls as souvenirs. He brought them over to show me, and ended up forgetting to take them back home. Later that evening, Jonah found one and bit into it, and immediately started spitting out the tiny amount of paint that got into his mouth. I wasn't sure if it was harmful, and quickly googled it. This was of course not helpful, and only brought up a message board where everyone said the person was an idiot for letting their child get a hold of a paint ball. (My bad!)

I ended up calling poison control, and the woman I spoke with couldn't find much, but since it seemed like Jonah only got a taste of it, she wasn't concerned. Three years and I've never worried about something Noelle ate, but 16 months in, and Jonah has me calling poison control. I am definitely going to get gray hairs from this kid's shenanigans! Thankfully all was good and there didn't seem to be any repercussions. (Praise the Lord!)

A 5K and A Bloody Nose

August is just flying by, and the MOPS group at our church is just two weeks away from our kick-off night! The last week has been full of lots of emails back and forth between those of us on the leadership team, me emailing moms about turning in their registrations, actually registering moms on the MOPS website, planning a craft play date with the other hospitality leader (which we then missed thanks to all the snot from our summer colds), plus all our usual weekly things like grocery shopping and cleaning.

I'm so excited for the group of moms who will be meeting together, and the relationships we'll build by sharing the joys and struggles of mommyhood. Our leadership team has a retreat this evening to focus on the theme of the year: a fierce flourishing. As MOPS International lays it out, this includes celebrating lavishly, embracing rest, and noticing goodness.

 screentime- motherhood at it's finest

In other news, this past weekend I ran the River Valley Run 5K with my sister-in-law, Lydia. I ran this race last year, and loved the race and supporting River Valley Ranch. It was Lydia's first ever race, and she totally rocked it! I'm pretty sure her time was faster than any of my first 5Ks- and that was even with her having to stop for a minute because she had a cramp. I love when people I love start running! And she's already saying she wants to do a 10K- and of course I say, bring it on!

I ended up being first female, but only in the last few seconds! There was another girl ahead of me for most of the race, and whenever I caught up to her during the second half, she would pull ahead. I booked it at the end and finished right in front of her (which I feel kind of bad about since she had the lead for the majority of the time!). Lydia and I grabbed some post-race food (yay for Chick Fil A), and ended up talking to a girl who is at Grove City currently. It was a fun morning, and way less stressful for me than last year since I didn't have to rush home to a nursing baby!

Speaking of the baby who used to nurse, on Sunday evening I was laying on the couch playing with him. He kept laying down on my chest, and then at one point must have moved up a little, because he came down hard and bashed me on my nose. It hurt so much, and immediately blood came gushing out.  I sat up and started screaming for Luke to come help me while catching blood in my hand. I don't know that I've ever had a nose bleed in my life and couldn't remember if I was supposed to lean back, or if that would cause me to choke on my own blood.

Luke came running down the stairs and told me to lay down while he grabbed paper towels. By that point the blood was dripping down my shirt, onto my legs, down my arm. And then the pain really started to sink in, and I told Luke I thought I was going to pass out. I have this thing where unexpected pain causes the vasovagal response, but it hasn't happened in a while and usually laying down helps me avoid it. But, according to Luke, I passed out, came to and stood up, passed out again, came to and stood up again, and passed out. I never passed out for more than a few seconds, and when I came to the last time, I just laid there until I felt okay about sitting up.

Thankfully there was no broken nose, and I was wearing a dark colored shirt so there shouldn't be any visible blood stains, right? And now I have a big fear of Jonah's incredibly hard head coming anywhere near my face!

VBS and Hip Surgery

Life has been busy- and August and September are only going to be busier! Last week we went to Vacation Bible School at my mother-in-law's church, which filled up our mornings (in lots of good ways!) On Monday I had T and S, who decided they didn't want to do VBS since they wouldn't know anyone. So after we dropped off Noelle, we headed to the Carroll County fair to check out all the animals. Jonah loved the chickens and kept pointing to them as we walked through the barn with all the chicken cages. The Carroll County fair is pretty small, so we wandered around for an hour and still had some time to kill before we needed to pick up Noelle.

T and S (and their mom) had graciously gifted me with a Dunkin' Donuts giftcard, so we headed there to get ourselves a treat. I gave them the choice of a drink or a snack- and both of them chose an iced coffee fully loaded with sugar. And then they both added more sugar. Oops! After we picked up Noelle, we headed home for lunch, and then to a new to us pool to play in the water and splash pad. The pool happens to be near where their moms works, and as we were starting our drive home, she pulled out right in front of us. We called her and she pulled over so the kids could jump in with her- I know she loves getting as much time with them as she can!

VBS was fun, and was a good practice run for starting pre-school in the fall. I tried to make sure both kids were up by 7:30 so that we could get dressed and fed before it was time to leave. We did pretty well for the most part, but I definitely noticed that we were leaving later and later as the week went on. Except for Friday, Noelle cried every morning when I left her, and it hurt my mama heart. But I knew that within minutes she was fine and happily playing, singing, and crafting. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were helping with the crafts, which the 3 year olds did first, and I think that helped ease her in. Hopefully it won't take her long to get used to being dropped off at pre-school! Other than Monday, I attended a Bible study for moms on the book of Proverbs. It was so wonderful having consistent time in the Word!

We kept things low-key in the afternoons, and on Thursday went to hang out with my mom before her hip surgery on Friday. The surgery had already been rescheduled from the week before and she was ready to have it done with, so hopefully her grand-babies were a good distraction! On Saturday, we drove down to Baltimore to visit her in the hospital. There had been more damage to the replaced hip than the surgeon had thought, which made surgery take a little longer and more pain for my mom in recovery. But she was home on Sunday, and is getting around slowly with her walker. Lots of prayers for a quick recovery, and for full, pain-free mobility!

Pool Time and Birthday Celebrating

Last week with T and S we adventured to the Cryptologic Museum to "learn" more about codes and machines that have been used by our government. Needless to say, keeping track of four children, especially Jonah, meant I didn't do reading of any sort. I was a little worried about how T and S would do- the word museum might automatically make it boring. But as we walked in, they were offered to do the challenge of decoding 10 clues throughout the museum. They were given a cipher, which changed at each clue, and they decoded words and phrases. It mostly meant that I would read off which letters lined up together, but it was fun! They each got a little prize at the end (which was the main motivator for completing it!)

Later on that afternoon we headed to a local pool, where I inadvertently got Noelle in for free. They couldn't see her over the counter and they thought I was including Jonah (who was free) when I said I had four people, and then of course it took me awhile to realize I didn't pay for four people. Oh well! I was nervous about having four kids to look after, especially since Jonah and Noelle do not know how to swim and have only been around water a little bit. (Maybe Jonah's first time in the pool??) But the kiddie pool worked out really well for my two while T and S played in the big pool, and checked in with me every so often.

Jonah working on his de-coding

Later on in the week, I met my friend and her little guy at her gym for some playtime in the pool. They had a really nice kiddie pool, and Noelle and Jonah spent pretty much the whole time playing in the shallowest part with all my friend's pool toys. All this time in the pool makes me want to get a membership somewhere next summer! Luke wants to teach them how to swim, but we just need consistent access to a pool.

clearly excited about her birthday cake

We also decided to have a last minute birthday celebration for Noelle on Sunday evening with our families. Nothing like calling and texting our families on Sunday afternoon to come join us for pizza and cake that evening. But we had all the grandparents and two aunts, and once Noelle recovered from her nap on the couch, she loved being the center of attention.

We've been enjoying a lot of our summer evenings by taking walks around the neighborhood and then eating popsicles. We've gotta soak up our time outside while we can!