Julianna and "the middle class"

Today is Julianna's first day of school in "the middle class". After 52 weeks in "small class" she was eager for a promotion and had been talking about this switch for a few weeks!

It's actually a pretty smooth transition. The school doesn't break for the summer and is structured such that she keeps the same classmates and team of teachers. But they did move to a new classroom.

I am super glad that her new classroom is on the first floor. Getting Lydia and Isaac down our stairs, into the stroller, and off to the preschool to get Julianna is a major production. Add to that the complicating factor that Julianna's previous classroom was on the second floor, and I had two children under the age of two in a double stroller in a building with no elevators and.... well, you get the picture: School pick-up days were complex!

Hopefully the new first floor classroom will make it a tad bit easier!


This morning I enjoyed reflecting a bit on how different the whole "local preschool experience" is for us with an entire year under our belts. Last September Julianna was a pretty reticent participant in preschool - she liked it ok, but wasn't very outgoing or eager to meet friends. I think she mainly just listened and absorbed her surroundings.

This fall is different! She calls friends by name, she actively participates, and her teachers seek me out to tell me how very well she is doing! I am so excited for her and proud of the progress she has made.


We celebrated her first "middle class" day with a lunchtime trip to a local dumpling restaurant. What it lacks in atmosphere it makes up for in yummy dumplings!



Starting next week Julianna will be in school three mornings a week - Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. It's going to take me a few weeks to get used to having her away one extra morning. Lydia misses her playmate when Julianna isn't around but I am also eager to see Lydia and Isaac's friendship grow.

It won't be too long before Lydia heads off to her first day of school - she already talks about the day she can join Julianna. Oh, I don't think I'm ready for that yet. They grow up so very fast!

the trick to easy travel

We're back home after a *mostly* uneventful trip.

The *mostly* part comes from yesterday when we spent the afternoon and evening entertaining children in airports and sitting on runways (thanks to bad weather and delayed departures). The great news is that it wasn't ME entertaining the kiddos!

We were traveling with three good friends, all 20-something single ladies, who delighted our children and served our family for hours! I invited all three of them to join us for our next trip to the US - it was amazingly easy to travel with their help :) By the time we got our luggage in the door and our kiddos in bed it was almost 11pm. Thankfully everyone slept late this morning!

We did have a good time while we were gone. The girls and Isaac went to childcare every morning which was a nice break for me and great fun for them. I got to catch up with lots of friends and meet a few new folks too.

Of course, hotel living and travel with young children is not without its complications. But all in all, we pulled through pretty well. We even managed a quick family trip to Dairy Queen on our way to the airport yesterday. It was the girls' first taste of a DQ Oreo Blizzard. They're hooked!

guess who is packed and ready???

So yesterday morning the girls packed their backpacks - they love to travel and were so excited!

Lunch was on the table and they were still busy zipping and unzipping, arranging and re-arranging their stuff (the loot includes their new jump ropes, new Big Backyard magazines, a coloring book and some snacks). I said, "girls, just put the backpacks by the door for right now, it's time to eat lunch".

Well, they took me at my word. I couldn't have left the house without tripping over them!

We head to the airport this afternoon and will be home Saturday evening. It's only an hour flight, so the backpack loot should be sufficient entertainment! Isaac will stay busy chewing on anything he can get into his mouth and spitting up on my shirt :) Should be fun!

the evening's entertainment

I am sometimes amazed by what entertains children.

For example.....


Watching their little brother splash in the tub is definitely on the "top ten fun things to do after dinner" list! Seriously. Nothing gets these two girls out of their seats and scampering for the bathroom faster than the promise of "watching Isaac splash in the bath".

Isaac seems to enjoy the attention and puts on a good show - he is definitely our biggest bath-splasher yet! He loves to thrash his legs and splash water everywhere.

Always on the go

These two girls are always on the go - they spent a good chunk of the morning fixing up this "donkey cart". In this picture Lydia is in the driver's seat and Julianna is riding on back.

They rigged it up using various toys, stuff from the dress up basket and some clothespins. Before they were done the entire 'train' was about eight feet long. I love to watch them play so creatively together.

Matt has been away for a few days and we are all excited about welcoming him home later this evening. Then, on Tuesday we all head out for a 5 day trip. I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends and introducing them to Isaac!

5 months already

Sunday marked 5 months for little Isaac. He is changing so quickly these days, it is hard to keep up :) Here are a few updates -

His #1 hobby is stuffing things in his mouth. Anything he can get his hands on is fair game.

His #2 hobby is laughing at Julianna. It's not really fair for him to play favorites, but he does seem to prefer her. He lights up and starts "talking" when she walks in the room.

He still loves to snuggle with me, loves to be tossed around by Matt, and is a bit reserved around Lydia :) He sits well for a few minutes on the couch before gradually slumping over onto his side.

He's also a big bath-splasher. I'm sure he would have a grand time if we put some siblings in there with him, but I just don't think our little tub could possibly hold all three.

I think he will be long and lean like his daddy - although he hasn't filled out his 3-6 month clothes, his feet are starting to push at the ends of his sleepers.

I can't believe his 6 month birthday is just a month away. Wow, the summer went by so very fast!

a horse cart birthday

We live on the edge of a very large city with tall buildings, a growing pollution problem, and crazy complicated traffic patterns. If you leave our little suburb heading north you are soon in the thick of "city life" - double decker buses, taxi cabs, and lots of bikes.

But if you leave our town heading south, it's a different story. Farmers and little plots of land. No tall buildings. And traffic is definitely not complicated! Some folks drive horse carts to make a little money and provide transportation. After all, there are no taxis and no buses. The horse carts tend to run along the same routes, and charge about 30 cents per person per ride.

We thought it would be fun to "rent" a horse cart and driver for Lydia's birthday party. So, Matt went out and befriended a horse cart driver. And then asked if he would be willing to "host" a two-year old birthday party :) I'm pretty sure it was the first time foreigners had ever ridden his cart. And it was definitely the only time he's ever hosted a birthday party. He's normally not "entertainment". He is transportation. No one else rides his cart for the sheer fun of riding his cart, you know??

On the morning of Lydia's birthday he came to the back gate of our little town and met the party crowd. 7 adults and 5 kiddos.

He was a great birthday party host! We all had a lot of fun. The ride was smoother than I expected, and even with our big crowd, his horse kept up a pretty good pace.

Since we are right on the edge of the city, the roadways are a distinct blend of "city meets country". Here we are on the cart, passing under a major highway! It was kind of crazy to be riding a horse cart next huge trucks and traveling through this big intersection :)


After about thirty minutes we arrived at our destination - a huge apartment complex with a beautiful park in the center.

It was SUCH FUN! The girls are still talking about it!

celebrating 2 years of Lydia!

Today is Lydia's 2nd birthday! Oh how we love and delight in our sweet little girl :)

The family woke up ready to celebrate! We gave Lydia a backpack (just like her big sister's) and she was thrilled.


"Packing for a trip" is probably their favorite pretend-game. They play almost every day - even getting out chairs to make pretend airplane seats. We gave Lydia the backpack first thing in the morning, and both girls "packed" before breakfast! They hung their full backpacks from their chairs while they ate :)


Later in the morning we met up with some friends and rode in a horse cart to the park for a picnic. I'll post photos of the horse cart and our route later - I wasn't sure how it would all turn out, but I'm thankful to report it was so fun!

The weather was perfect and we had a great picnic lunch location.


One year ago, on her first birthday, Lydia ate her first cupcake. Since then, she's had lots of cupcake-eating practice! She's a professional :) She savored every bite and kept saying, "I'm eating my birthday cupcake!"

We got home a few hours ago and everyone crashed. Lydia literally face-planted into her pillow and fell asleep. Even Matt is asleep on the couch! Isaac just woke up and is hanging out in my lap so I will put up a post about our horse cart adventures later.

What a great day of celebrating God's goodness to our family through His gift of Lydia!

kids in the kitchen

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. And my kids spend a lot of time with me.

Which means that we frequently ALL end up in the kitchen! It gets a little hairy sometimes, but we have lots of fun too :)

Today the girls and I made sandwich bread and cupcakes in preparation for Lydia's birthday celebrations! Saturday is her 2nd birthday and we're celebrating with a picnic lunch.


We've got a special "ride" planned - some unique transportation to the park where we'll have our picnic. It will be an interesting experience, that's for sure! And I'm hopeful it will be a lot of fun too!

our newest bike rider

Julianna just joined millions of others in this bike-riding-nation with her first set of wheels (4 of them, not two - I think it will be a while til she's ready to remove the training wheels!)



It has been fun to watch her roam around the paths in our little community


and practice sharing with her friends and her sister :)



We are enjoying lots of great outdoors time - the weather varies a lot, some days in the bright sunshine is super hot, and then other days are breezy and cool.



Julianna parks her bike in the community bike parking garage, right next to her daddy's bike. Pretty cute :)

what exactly IS that???

Monday we headed home after a picnic lunch and the girls got distracted by this....


I am almost positive our first floor neighbor put it there.


Any guesses as to what is in those baskets?

PS - I am not entirely sure of the answer myself :)

all about hair

Julianna and my cousin's daughter Caroline love to look at pictures on our blogs. Julianna even knows she can leave a "comment" and tells me what she wants to say to Caroline. Well, she's been really interested in Caroline's hair and Caroline's mom (my cousin Julie) wrote a super fun post all about Caroline's hair.

Julianna was hooked! We looked closely at each picture and she had so much fun!

So, she decided to "write back to Caroline". Together we chose some "hair history" photos and here is what Julianna has to say. [My comments in brackets.]



To Caroline,

I love you. Here are some pictures of my hair.

This is when I was born [well, 9 months old]


My hair is short and I am eating ice cream. [19 months]


I think our dresses are pretty. I hope my hair will be long when I am 5.

Your ponytails are very pretty. I hope we could be where you live and I will come visit you in America. I think she [Caroline] will be happy to read that.



These are from me, and I hope you say these pictures of me are cute [For real, I am not editing, this is word for word her dictation!]

[So, there you have it. All about hair, from the perspective of my oldest daughter :)]

the great toy rotation

I'm not sure where I first heard or read about the idea of rotating toys, but I am officially a BIG fan. The basic concept is to store some (or most) of your toys - so only a portion of your toy collection is available for play at any given time. Then, every so often, rotate what is "out" and what is "in storage".

I tend to rotate once every few weeks - during naps or after bedtime I gather up tons of the "out" toys and open up the big wooden trunk that holds everything else. I put the "out" toys "in" and choose some of the "in" toys to come "out". At any given time only about 2o or 30 percent of our toys are "out". [Toys, not books. All our books are out all the time.]

Can I just say that my kids LOVE THIS!!!!! Seriously, I rotated a few days ago and Lydia said, "thanks for all the new toys Mom!"

Of course they remember the toys from previous times of play - and occasionally they even ask for a specific toy that is currently "in storage". But I just say something like, "oh, we aren't playing with that toy right now, I put it away".

Some of our newest "out" toys include the baby bed and the sock monkeys.....


And the dollhouse! They were most excited to see this one!


It's so fun to do this! The girls get soooo excited to see toys come "out". And you know what? Two months ago when the doll house went "in" to storage, they hardly noticed - it had lost it's appeal. But now that it is "out", the dollhouse is once again the center of attention.

Of course, I have ulterior motives in all this too :) Toy rotation is an amazing way to reduce clutter! I just put away the toy kitchen and all the plastic "accessories" - and I am looking forward to a few months of not tripping over plastic watermelons or little pots and pans! In the meantime, I'll be busy looking for the pieces of the doll house - I've already been summoned for a "we can't find the big girl bed" emergency!

bigger every day

Isaac's personality grows every day! It is so fun to see him start to really play a role in our family dynamics (not that he wasn't doing that before.... but it's just neat to see him start to really interact with each of us in unique ways).

I just love this photo. I think the caption should be something like, "when life hands you big sisters, eat their pink plastic shoes!"


He makes hilarious faces and is becoming more vocal. Let's face it, he's going to have to be a talker if he expects to get heard around here!


Take special note of all his hair.
See it?
Look closely.
There it is!


Seriously, Isaac is the "hairiest" baby we've ever had :) It might not look like much to you, but there is definitely some hair up there on his sweet head. Matt and I have both commented on how "much" hair Isaac has!

He brings lots of joy and delight (and dirty diapers and wet burp cloths) to our full and exciting lives. I am eager to see what his first year of life will bring!