Nice!

I hit a couple of thrift/resale stores today because The Girl is shooting up and outgrew 90% of last years summer clothes. She's so tall and skinny and it can really make it difficult to find her clothes that fit right. She has a very long torso and long legs. But I managed to score a pair of Land's End sneakers (she fit a size 12!), a really pretty "birthday" dress (Maggie & Zoe), 1 skirt, 4 shirts and a pair of pajamas for $31! Not shabby ...

And there's nothing better then watching your little girl spread out all her new clothes and admire them! She's so excited!

Poor Amelia ...

This morning my husband walked out to go to work and found my cat laying in the lawn. She was gone. :'( We always make sure our cats are inside for the night, but last night I couldn't locate her. Right before we went to bed I thought I heard a cat cry on our front porch, but when I looked I couldn't see anyone. We had Amelia for over 6 years!

I was working at a bank when someone brought in a basket of kittens to see if anyone would be interested. I picked up the sleek little gray one and she just nuzzled into my neck and I knew I had to get her! That person was smart - three kittens were adopted by me and my co-workers! When I brought her home she immediately started exploring the house without fear so we named her "Amelia" after Amelia Earhart. She was quickly adopted by our older cat and they've always been close. I hope Athena will be okay without her. When we started having children she was great with the kids and never minded them loving on her. When they got too rough she just walked away. She would spend almost every evening on my lap or curled up next to me on the couch. She was "my" cat and would always greet me in the morning. I'll miss my sweet Amelia!

We left our hearts in Charleston ...

Last weekend we had a wonderful opportunity to go to Charleston, SC for a couple of days. My brother-in-law lives there and he was so excited to see the kids. He promised three days of worn out kids! And he was right!

We planned on leaving at 6am and we were on the road at 6:09am! Even with giving the kids frequent run around breaks we got to Charleston at 12:30. We immediately met up with brother-in-law and headed to his house which just happened to be 2 blocks from a beautiful beach access. My children have never seen the beach and it was wonderful! The Girl just dove on in and didn't even let me get my pants off before we were in the water! She had a wonderful time jumping waves with her uncle and Daddy. Little Man is my more cautious child and he was a little nervous when we saw the waves. He kept saying, "Hurt! Hurt!". So I just sat with him at the edge of the waves and we played in the sand and waved "Hi Water!" and "Bye Water!" as the waves came up to us. Eventually the waves came closer and closer and he had no problem when we were sitting in the water. By Sunday (our last day there) he was jumping (little) waves and yelling "Fun! Fun!". That's my tough guy! He may be a little nervous and cautious about new things, but once he watches for a little while and as long as we are patient he will jump on in! :)

Saturday we walked around downtown and saw a neat little farmer's market in the park. The kids got to ride a pony - which they LOVED! Could The Girl have had a bigger grin on her face? Then we walked next to the water down to see Battery Park. At that point we were all hot so we decided to go to the beach by the fort on Sullivan's Island, but a storm was starting to blow in so we took a few pictures at the fort and headed for dinner. It rained while we were eating and was a beautiful, cool evening by the time we got out.

Sunday we got to go back to the beach. It was low tide and we found some wonderful creatures. The kids loved seeing the hermit crabs, starfish, conch, and few dead jellyfish. The Girl decided to start a shell collection and we found her some really neat ones! After a few hours we headed to the pool to rinse the salt off and play a little more before having to head back to the mountains. It was hard leaving. The Girl said , "I want to live in Charleston, Mommy. Our town is yucky!" ;) We ended up tearing ourselves away at 3 in the afternoon, so we didn't get home until 9 at night. And it was SO cold! We left a gorgeous, sunny, 80 degree day in Charleston and came back to a cloudy, rainy, chilly 50 degree evening! Brrr!! Take me back!!

Beach pictures:

Making letters

I meant to post this last week - but the week got away from me! We've been continuing with The Girl's Kindergarten work early. Eh, when it comes to homeschool why does it really matter when you start your school? We will probably mostly year round schooling anyway. For handwriting and letters we are doing Handwriting Without Tears. HWT is a multi-sensory program and they use wooden pieces to make capital letters as well as great, fun workbooks. To save money I used my handy-dandy husband and asked him to make them. I think he did a great job!

She made an "O" Even Little Man joined the fun!

Showing off her letter "R"

Random thoughts

#1 I really wish my daughter would wait until my eyes were open before she wants to know the game plan for the day. Hasn't she figured out that saying "What are we doing today?" as a way to wake me up gets me in a bad mood?

#2 Our cats are driving me crazy. We have four (I know! Too many!) and they eat like crazy and I can't get the litter box smell to go away. :(

#3 I miss having friends. Life is so crazy and I feel like I never get to just sit and chitchat with another grownup.

#4 We're planning on selling my car and becoming a one car family for a little while. Scary!

#5 I am SO excited that we are going to visit Daddy's brother in Charleston, SC next weekend. It will be the first time the kids will get to see the ocean!

#6 I am drowning in curriculum catalogues and homeschooling books!

You know I really could go on forever .... but that it life right now!