Horseback Riding

I enrolled Grace in a horseback riding camp. It is a three-day daycamp. It is from 9am-2pm. Today was scheduled to be her final day of camp.

Even though the camp is on a three-day schedule, Grace has been asked to return both tomorrow and Friday for free, in exchange for 'working' at the farm. Jeanna, the woman who owns the farm and runs the camp, tells me that Grace has done very well this week. Jeanna reports that Grace is good at following directions and has picked up on technique rather easily. Jeanna extended the offer to have Grace return tomorrow and Friday as a way for Grace to get more experience with the horses.

At camp, Grace has learned everything from the care and safety of horses to how to trot and canter. She has had a great time. As I expected, Grace has already begun asking about taking lessons. I keep responding with, "we'll see. We need to talk to Daddy about it."

Nora's 3rd Birthday Party

We had a party yesterday to celebrate Eleanor's 3rd Birthday.

This was actually her first big party. For her first birthday, we didn't have a party at all, though we DID share cake with friends and family at our annual barbecue picnic. Last year, for her second birthday, we celebrated simply by having cake and ice cream and presents after dinner on her actual birthday.

I baked a princess cake for Nora's party. It was tedious and a little time consuming to make, but well worth it. Eleanor LOVED it.
I had baked cupcakes for both Nora's and Grace's actual birthdays. We like to celebrate the kids' birthdays on the actual day with cupcakes and ice cream. I arranged some of the excess cupcakes on a platter for Nora's birthday party. That way, the party guests had the choice of chocolate cake with buttercream frosting (the princess cake), carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, or funfetti cupcakes with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. For the party, I added some princess cake decorations to a few of the cupcakes and a princess castle candle.

Nora was *so* excited about getting to blow out her candle....

After cake and ice cream, we moved into the livingroom for presents. Nora did very well opening her presents. She remembered to look for cards on almost all of the presents before tearing the paper. The funniest thing was when we asked her to show everyone what the present was that she'd just open. She'd hold it up, but would have the front of the package still facing her! Too cute!

Project 3--

I know it's been a while since I've posted my Project 365 pictures. To be perfectly honest, I've pretty much given up on it. Again. I still try to remember to grab my camera, but I simply cannot manage to get one picture every day. Some days seem so mundane that I'm sure the pictures would be repetitive. Other days I'm just too busy to even think about it.

Here are pictures since my last Project 3-- post.....I'm leaving out the pictures from Father's Day weekend in PA. I already posted those here .

Monday, June 20 -- on our way home from Pennsylvania Tuesday, June 21 -- hanging out on our patio, enjoying the bonfire with the neighbors...
Wednesday, June 22 -- Mommy surprised the kidlets with powdered donuts for breakfast!
Friday, June 24 -- a humingbird was flying around Gordon's shop
Thursday, June 30 -- enjoying the calm serenity at Mom's house in Vermont (this is her neighbor's horse barn) Friday, July 1 -- we stopped by my cousin's house to visit with his wife....his boys were busy working on modifying bicycles.....I had to take a picture of Spencer's workbench (his grandfather built it for him) -- I just KNOW Will would love for Gordon to build him one.
Saturday, July 2 -- hanging out at the campground....Will and Nora were trying to 'fix' the lawnmower...

Please notice that I'm skipping any pictures I took between my trips to Vermont.....I already shared with all of those pictures when I posted about Project: Summer Surprise .

Saturday, July 9 -- Will drew this sign for me....it says, 'Will (HEART) Mommy'
Thursday, July 14 -- Gordon and I drove to Vermont to pick up the kids....I couldn't resist a self-portrait of the two of us....
Sunday, July 17 -- Gordon and his friend cut down two of the three pines that were right next to the north end of the house...
Thursday, July 21 -- Nora's 3rd Birthday!
Saturday, July 23 -- Grace's 11th Birthday!
Sunday, July 24 -- Nora's Birthday Party (I have more pics to share from the party....look back later for a separate post)
Monday, July 25 -- Nora was being the "Chef"....everyone KNOWS a Chef has to wear a Chef's hat, right?! ;)

The biggest one is now eleven!

July 23, 2000, fell on a Sunday. I remember that weekend very well. That Saturday, the 22nd, was the night of the big mid-season race at the Speedbowl. We were geared up for a long night at the 'Bowl, including the special 200-lap Modified race.

It was also the estimated due date for our first baby to be born.

I had convinced myself that I would not deliver the baby early. I was prepared for our baby to be so comfortable inside my womb that she would stay put for at least an extra week. I just KNEW that pre-term labor would not be anything to worry about.

I was right. Sort of.

For weeks I had assured the guys on the race team that I wouldn't have the baby on her due date. I promised them that there wouldn't be any worries about babies on the night of our big race.

I was wrong.

I very definitely went into labor at the race track. I remember the moment when I realized that the horrible back ache I'd been experiencing may very well be back LABOR. When I told Gordon that I might be in labor, and he asked me if I was sure, I was bewildered -- "I don't know! I've never done this before!!"

Fast forward eighteen hours. We were no longer just a couple at the race track. We were now a family, celebrating the birth of our beautiful baby girl, in the hospital.

Happy Eleventh Birthday to my Princess Grace. xoxo

Chaos in the kitchen

Baking doesn't always turn out right when there's chaos in the kitchen.

Forgetting to add sugar to your zucchini muffin batter, for example, can happen when there is too much going on around the baker.

Sugar-free zucchini muffins don't taste very good.

Just ask my kids.

The littlest one is now three!

Three years have passed in what seems like the blink of an eye.

Three years ago today I had one final OB appointment. There were no signs that our littlest babe was in a hurry to join us just yet. My OB scheduled us for an induction early the next morning.

Gordon and I stopped at Lowe's on our way home because I wanted to look at benches -- I wanted to buy one for Dad for his upcoming birthday. While there, the pesky contractions that I'd been experiencing for days started to become harder to breathe through.

On the drive home, I remember discussing with Gordon our plans for dinner. Instead of cooking what I'd planned, I decreed that we should stop at McDonald's after dropping my niece, Haley, off at home and before dropping the kids off at Mom and Dad's house.

While chatting with Mom in her diningroom, my contractions were getting more frequent and intense. I was trying to ignore them. Finally Mom asked me if I was timing the contractions -- she noticed that they were getting more frequent and intense.

Fast forward just a couple of hours.

Gordon and I were thrilled to welcome Eleanor Ruth to the family. We didn't know if she would be a boy or girl -- we chose to wait until she was born to find out.

And now, here we are, three years later. Celebrating three years of joy and happiness. Celebrating the beauty that Nora has developed into. Celebrating the day that our family became complete.

Happy Third Birthday to my 'Honeygirl', Eleanor Ruth.

Sleepyheads

We're now back to our regularly scheduled summer break. This means we're back to our days of limited screen time and daily chores. Everyone is adjusting really well.

Since the girls moved into their new rooms, they've all been sleeping in. As in both Dianna and Eleanor are still sleeping as I type and Grace just woke about 10 minutes ago. It's 8:10am.

Sorry Mom!

As far as I can guess, the younger two girls are probably snoozing later because their new room does not get any direct sunlight in the early morning. Their room stays rather dark until the early afternoon.

Grace's room is bright in the morning hours, so I'm not sure why she's sleeping in. Maybe she's slipping into the pre-teen sleep patterns?

Project: SUMMER SURPRISE -- Update

Our summer project was a success!

The girls are thrilled with their new rooms. They're currently busy sorting through bins of 'stuff' that I wasn't sure what they wanted to do with. Personally, I'd toss most of it in the trash, but a lot of the items are 'special' to the girls. I told them that they need to sort through it all, and I STRONGLY SUGGESTED they purge a good portion of it themselves. I don't want to raise my children to be hoarders!

Project: SUMMER SURPRISE

aka: Bedroom Subdivision

Right before I headed to Vermont in the end of June, I posted about the project Gordon and I were planning. The kids were staying with Mom in Vermont for two weeks. Gordon and I wanted to surprise the girls with new bedrooms.

So we split the former Master Bedroom in two.

Below are pictures I took throughout the process...

Here you can see the mostly emptied former Master Bedroom.

Getting ready to frame up the new wall that will separate the two new rooms... I decided it was time to finally paint the wooden bookshelf we bought about ten years ago....it's been sitting in the girls' old room, filled with books, in it's natural (unstained/unpainted) wooden state. The wall and one of the two new doors are framed in... Putting up the sheetrock... I attempted to match the dark wood stain for the new door. It's not an exact match, but close enough for me! The walls were finally ready for paint earlier this week. Finally we put in some decorattive touches this morning. You'll notice that Grace's room (the blue one) isn't as 'finished' as Dianna and Nora's room. That is entirely intentional. Since her birthday is coming up (the 23rd of July), I plan on taking her shopping with me to look for new accessories. I kept most of the accessories from the girls' old room and reused them for Dianna and Nora's room.

Grace's new room: Dianna and Eleanor's new room:

The crickets are chirping...

I arrived back at home around 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon. The trip back home was rather uneventful, if not boring. I was so excited to see Gordon again -- I practically jumped into his waiting arms for a big ol' hug!

The house has been rather quiet. Almost eerily so. Maybe I should tease Gordon unmercilessly. If I antagonize and torment him like the kids do with eachother at times, then MAYBE we'll start bickering.

I hope y'all know that I'm just teasing. The house IS quiet. The kind of quiet that we haven't really experienced since we were newlyweds. We're enjoying the quiet. We know it'll be a mere memory in just a couple of weeks.

Check In from Vermont

We made it to Vermont safe and sound. Dianna rode in Nana's car with Jerod for the first half of the trip. When we stopped at the Welcome Center/Rest Stop just over the VT state line, Dianna and Grace switched cars.

We arrived at Mom's house in time for dinner. Luckily Bert and Anthony (and Zac & Tiff, from when they were here the previous weekend) left some leftovers in the fridge. Mom and I heated up a smorgasboard of food for dinner.

Yesterday Mom had an errand to run in the next town over. We decided to take the children on a scenic drive after Mom went to the bank. We stopped at a creamee stand (for those wondering, creamees are the smoothest, best soft serve ice cream you've ever had). Shhhhhhhhhh.........don't tell the Little People...........they were both fast asleep. They missed out on the creamees.

I'm looking forward to heading home tomorrow. I'm anxious to see Gordon again. At the same time, I KNOW I'm going to miss my babies. I'm going to worry that they're driving Mom, Bert, and Anthony insane.