Our Family Four

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mini-Obstacle Course

Posted on 6:52 AM by Unknown

Obstacle 1Obstacle 5Obstacle 8Obstacle 10Obstacle 11Obstacle 3Obstacle 2Obstacle 12

Read More
Posted in | No comments

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Destin, Florida: Highlights and Memorable

Posted on 8:15 AM by Unknown
Destin 2IMG 1677
We were in Destin at the start of our vacation for about 10 days.  This is the longest we've ever been there, but was a wonderful place to recover from the trip and jet-lag, and it was nice to start our whirlwind month of visiting with a week or so to relax on our own terms.  
I'm not really feeling up to a recap of our trip, so I'll just share a few highlights and memorable moments. 
Destin 3Destin 4Destin 1IMG 1674IMG 1675IMG 1676
Highlights:
-Seeing Andy and Patsy, who the kids and I hadn't seen in almost a year.
-The beach!  Enough said.  
-Last year, Hannah was just crawling around, but this year she was big enough to run, play in the sand, and smash Chris and Jayce's sandcastles.  
-Jayce' swimming drastically improving from the start to the end of our vacation thanks to Chris' instruction.
-Chris and Jayce night swimming several evenings in the pool.
-Jayce immediately befriended any kid that was around him at the pool, playgrounds, restaurants, etc.  I guess when you are used to being in school around your friends 33+ hours a week and you are suddenly just with your parents, desperate times call for desperate measures.  But I was so proud of him. 
-Mellow Mushroom (which Hannah called "marshmallow"), Jim & Nick's Barbecue, and breakfast on the beach.
IMG 1692IMG 1681IMG 1682IMG 1679Destin 6Destin 7Destin 5IMG 1695
IMG 1670IMG 1669IMG 1668IMG 1693IMG 1666IMG 1664
Memorable: 
-Hannah tossing her pool floaty over her shoulders and declaring "Here she comes Hannah!" as she strode towards the pool.  Every time.  Apparently she needs to be announced.
-One night we were driving to dinner and Chris made a comment about go-carts.  Hannah immediately piped up from the backseat, yelling, "Go Cards!" with her fist in the air. :)  
-We stayed on the 18th floor, so Jayce and Hannah counted up or counted down for us and the other elevator occupants on every trip.
-Often when we were walking somewhere Jayce would grab Hannah's hand, she would let him, and they would stroll out to the car or over wherever we were going together.  
-The kids playing in various fountains around the town after lunch or dinner.  At night, whenever the fountains would go from a short burst to a large towering stream of water, Hannah would run away saying, "Oh no!  Fire!  Fire!"
-One night while we were in the condo someone set off a few fireworks from the beach, which towered over the beachfront condos and lit up the sky.  We ran out to the balcony where we had a perfect view. We only saw a few, but it was Hannah's first experience with fireworks, and Jayce's first where he wasn't cowering at the noise.  It was just enough.
Whenever we were getting ready to go somewhere, Hannah would go climb into her stroller that was by the door to wait for us, since the stroller is her ride whenever we go anywhere in London.  She also climbed in a few times and asked me "Mom, stroll Hannah." and I would push her around the condo a little bit.
-That said, after about 10 minutes in the car, Hannah, who now isn't used to riding in cars, would start whining and asking to be held.  (Not that this was fun, just funny to think that my 2 year old is not used to car riding.)  However, she played games with whoever was driving by making silly faces at them in the rearview mirror.  She also called her seatbelt her click, and would instruct us all when we got in, "Mom, do click!  Dad, do click!  Mom, a Hannah click off!"
-Jayce re-discovering tv shows that he hadn't seen in a year.  The Disney Channel lineup and most of PBS' shows aren't on here, and there were a few where even Chris and I were stopped in our tracks, listening to the intro music and trying to remember the name of the show.  A strange thing.
-On the way home there was a black spec on the window beside Hannah.  She thought it was a bee, and talked to it for most of the ride home.  "Bee!  Shoo bee!  A bee doing?  Mom, a bee doing?  Mom, a bee fly!  Bee…" 
IMG 1642IMG 1646IMG 1645IMG 1665IMG 1667IMG 1663IMG 1647
Read More
Posted in | No comments

Monday, August 26, 2013

The Sharing Assembly & Best Part About School

Posted on 9:25 AM by Unknown
Jayceshareassembly 1
Jayce's class had their sharing assembly a few months ago, which is pretty much what it sounds like.  The class has a  short 20 minute or so presentation to the parents one morning on some things that they had recently been working on. The class sang a few songs, talked about their senses, and went through the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  (There is a video at the end of the post of their performance.)
Jayceshareassembly 2Jayceshareassembly 3Jayceshareassembly 4
It was pretty cute, though certainly not as elaborate as their Christmas play.  They each had speaking/acting parts, sang a few songs, and then we got to go back to their classroom to see what else they'd been working on.
Jayceshareassembly 5
I was recording the show, and Chris was doing his best to keep Hannah restrained, who was so excited about the singing, dancing, group of kids in a big room, and well, all of it.
Jayceshareassembly 6Jayceshareassembly 7
When they finished and Jayce ran over to say hi Hannah was delighted.  
Jayceshareassembly 8
She took his hat and decided to start a little performance of her own.
Jayceshareassembly 9Jayceshareassembly 10
This picture (above) is my kiddos to a T right now: Jayce chilling, Hannah performing.  This is what they were like our whole vacation.  
Jayceshareassembly 12
Jayceshareassembly 20
This is one of my very favorite things about Jayce's school, they do a "learning book" of sorts.  Each child has a book that the teachers fill up throughout the year with various examples of them achieving their learning objectives in the classroom, pictures of them participating in different activities with captions, and examples of their work glued in with dates and explanations.  
Jayceshareassembly 14Jayceshareassembly 15
I loooooooove this.  I love being able to see what he is up to in his classroom since he rarely tells me about his day, and I love the pictures of him in action, obviously.  There are a few different times during the year when parents are invited into the classroom for the students to show us their books, and Jayce loves flipping through it and telling me about his work.  
Jayceshareassembly 16
We have his book now, we received it at the end of the school year.  But at the time of this assembly I felt like this book was a precious treasure and I was eager to get a few pictures to show the grandparents.  It turns out that I didn't need to do this since we brought Jayce's book with us to the states and he was able to sit down and flip through it with a few of them.  It turns out that even kids who don't want to talk about their day still want to talk about their work and photos when it is all pulled together, and I have read through it with and without Jayce a few times since it came home.  It's like his teacher made us a detailed scrapbook of the year.  I can only imagine how much time this took them and I love it.
Jayceshareassembly 13
Jayceshareassembly 19
Read More
Posted in Jayce, London | No comments
Newer Posts Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • The Things You Do When You are You, Jayce
    A few weeks ago I was looking at a blog entry that I did when Jayce was around Hannah's age where I was detailing some new trick that he...
  • 3 Year Old Jayce-isms
    I made these pants for Jayce a few months ago and just got the chance to get some pictures of him in them.  I thought they would make a fun ...
  • A Story of Stickers Gone Wrong
    One day, a mom made a terrible mistake.  She thought she had purchased Toy Story 3 stickers, but as her child excitedly ran into the room wi...
  • Celebrating 2
    We've had a bit of a dilemma about Jayce's birthday each year, because we don't have any family nearby to have just a little fam...
  • Crayons and Heat
    This is what happened when the heat index was 120 degrees. A mom was too hot to go outside for any length of time, so everyone stayed insid...
  • St John's Park
    There is a wonderful park very near our flat and just next to Jayce's school called St John's park.   We all headed over a few weeks...
  • The Park
    It was really beautiful today, so Mom, Jayce and I headed to the park for a little bit.  We had a good time with the usual stuff, such as sl...
  • Hannah and Grandma
    Mom came to visit last week while Chris was in California.  She hadn't been to see us since June, AKA she hadn't seen Hannah since s...
  • A Good Mom
    Sometimes, a good mom is the one who seizes the opportunity to use her energy most efficiently.  Someone who occasionally bypasses the “teac...
  • Hannah's Birthday at Kew Gardens, Part 1
    Are you getting sick of reading about dresses yet?  Because I am just a little sick of writing about them.  I have a few more sewing things ...

Categories

  • 2013 Monthly Goals (11)
  • attempts at being crafty and domestic (80)
  • Baby #2 (31)
  • Birthday (29)
  • Chelsea (30)
  • Chris (48)
  • Christmas (33)
  • decor (4)
  • Ellery (1)
  • Erin (54)
  • Etsy (9)
  • family (46)
  • Germany (6)
  • Grandparents (49)
  • Halloween (11)
  • Hannah (116)
  • Holidays (30)
  • House (17)
  • I Heart Faces (3)
  • I sew (9)
  • Jayce (219)
  • Justin (10)
  • LCC (3)
  • Lemon Tree Creations (12)
  • Lincoln (6)
  • London (52)
  • marriage (1)
  • me (100)
  • milestones (10)
  • naptime (4)
  • Parenting (49)
  • photography stuff (38)
  • photos (48)
  • Publication (6)
  • random (23)
  • Scotland (4)
  • sick (7)
  • Sunday Six (3)
  • The Farm (1)
  • travel (12)
  • tricks (4)
  • tutorial (3)
  • us (153)
  • vacation (19)
  • videos (21)
  • Visitors (2)
  • walking (1)

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (79)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ▼  August (6)
      • Mini-Obstacle Course
      • Destin, Florida: Highlights and Memorable
      • The Sharing Assembly & Best Part About School
      • Airports and International Flights: Take 3
      • Destin, On the Balcony
      • Reversible Summer and Cloud Roly Poly Dress
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (13)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  April (12)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (8)
  • ►  2012 (114)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (12)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2011 (142)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (22)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (13)
    • ►  April (12)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (15)
  • ►  2010 (131)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (9)
    • ►  August (13)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (12)
    • ►  May (14)
    • ►  April (14)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2009 (34)
    • ►  December (15)
    • ►  November (19)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile