Apple picking

This past Saturday we went to pick apples as a family. Everyone was looking forward to it, but I think David was most excited. He's an apple addict and the thoughts of unlimited number of apples to eat each day is thrilling to him. 

It was a nice adventure. Everyone helped out, including Clair who was particularly excited to help out. She was diving under the trees at one point to fetch her view of the perfect apple. She also Barrie's her figures into the images bad apple on the ground once before finally deciding to be a bit more picky around what she touched!

Max loves helping daddy an the tractor ride to and from the orchard. He also loves playing on the old tractor at the playground. 

Ellie was a good sport about it all, although this wasn't that exciting to her I don't think. 

All in all it was a nice morning and I look forward to doig this yearly if we can. We bought 47 pouns of apples. Let's see how log they last!

Max couldn't wait to get home and eat a whole apple himself, just like daddy!

Poor Max

He has been a trooper her his bike and scooter. He's really very good at both.  However, today something happened when he was out with ms Sarah and Clair for a morning ride. He had a bad fall and the handlebars hit him in the face. Poor little guy was a tough boy when he got home to get it washed, iced and medicine. It looks horrible though. Thankful it didn't get his eye. 

Toothless girly

Ellie has been losing a lot of teeth these past few months. She's lost 3 of 6 in the past month I believe. She loves losing her teeth and has collected a whopping $25! The tooth fairy pays well. 

She's a cutie pie. She's very patient waiting for them to come out and very happy when they do. She uses her back teeth a lot now and has some trouble with raw veggies like carrots!

First grade field trip with Ellie

Monday I was able to take the morning off work and be a chaperone for Ellie's field trip to the Great Frederick Fair. It was a nice morning. I love being able to so these things with Ellie and the fact that she wants me there!

Here are a couple photos!

Clair was here

Claire has loved sorting box since before she was one. And she quickly realized the circular ones were easiest. She has taken to sorting the large box of blocks strictly focusing on the cylinders. Without fail, It's humorous because you can walk  and find this at any given time. She is done when she has sufficiently picked all the cylinders out of the pile and put them inside the container.

Maxs first day of Pre-kindergarten school

Well, two days later than planned, Max had his first day of pre-K. He wasn't able to start with the class last week due to an illness that we thought was strep. But Max was a trooper and all smiles as he had it in today. I'm so proud of my boy and the energy he has when he looks forward to trying something new. We were blessed with a familiar surroundings, he is going to preschool at the church.

He asked me if I would take him for his first day and I couldn't say no. I was glad to drop them off. Even though the teacher made a comment, "mom, we aren't expecting you today." She was basically telling me I had to leave. I explained I would leave after just a couple minutes of orienting Max since we missed the day where we got to come together.

After we registered him for the day and put up his family picture on the wall, Max jumped into playing very quickly. I was happy to see him smiling at the same table as I left. I knew he was going to be just fine. Not that I wouldn't curious, where that I didn't try to go back and spy on him, because I did.

I, the guilty bad brother, was not able to pick him up at the end of the day. Instead, Sarah and Claire picked him up. He apparently had a good day, but was disappointed because he didn't get as much play time as he would have liked. It is a pretty fast pace structured day, and I think it will be good getting him ready for school. I am thankful that he only goes three days a week. In fact, I would've been happy with just two days a week. But that doesn't seem to be an option around here these days pre-kindergarten kids. 

I am sad for Claire not having him home all the time. That was one of the benefits of not sending Outley to preschool. Her and Max remain very close, and I hope that is always the case for the kids.

Here are a couple photos I took as we were walking into school. Max looks so cute with his little tiger backpack and his curious energetic smile.

He said he made two friends today, but he doesn't know their names. It is one boy and one girl. As he was going to sleep he told me that his friend that is the boy roars loud like him. I figure, if they were already comparing roars, it must've been a good start to a good friendship.

A trip to Scotland - David and Ellie

Due to Margaret's illness we decided that David and Ellie should make a trip to Scotland to visit her. It was a hard, last-minute decision, especially as the timing came at the start of the school year. But we decided it was the best thing to do. 

They left on Wednesday and are gone for five days. I am looking forward to the return tomorrow. I was very nervous about being apart from LA, and Ellie was very nervous about being apart from me. Our goodbye at the airport was quite teary, much to my attempt not to let it get that way. I failed.

They arrived safely after some minor fighting with the airlines to assure Ellie and David could actually sit beside each other. I have talk to them each day on face time. FaceTime is a wonderful thing. Being able to see Ellie and see how she's doing has been helpful to me, and I believe to her as well.

She has really enjoyed the time with granny, Miller, grandpa, and all the Scottish cousins she has met. She got to see Great Nana twice. I think she appreciated getting to see her. At the first visit she actually did a little ballet for her to twinkle twinkle.

I held down the fort at home with Max and Claire. It wasn't easy at first, as I was recovering from strep throat. But for the last few days we've hit a nice rhythm and I have gotten to enjoy the simplicity of the two of them. It's hard with three very different ages to feel that you share yourself appropriately with your kids. When it's down to two, it is much easier.

Max has been my big boy and little buddy. He has slept most nights in the bed with me at his request of course. He feels quite special getting to do that. 

Our family handled being separated across the Atlantic pretty well. 

Here are a few pictures from Ellie and David's trip. I don't really have the stories to go with them. I guess this is a start of many times in her life I won't know what she's been up to as she grows more independent. 

Attempting to be a Pinterest mom ... Lol

So I let Clair and am dig in a big tub of rice the other day. I heard about this once and decided to give it a try. It's not really my thing to allow messes, but for some reason rice doesn't bother me. It's not sticky; it's not dirty; and easily vacuumed up! 

Clair thought this was awesome! So did Max and eventually even Ellie enjoyed it tonight!