Mornings

I've been trying to make our morning time at home a little more intentional so the girls and I have started doing a bible reading plan called Through the Bible with My Child. It is a rather expansive reading plan (taking 4 years to cover most of the bible) but the texts are broken down into chunks that are just right for the attention span of my girls. I have been reading the text from my ESV bible while the girls have a blank sheet of paper that they draw some semblance of what I am reading. The reading plan then has a few questions to go with the text that we discuss.

Maddie is drawing the creation story (we are using heavy sheet protectors and drawing on them with dry erase crayons to save paper; just wipe off each day)



Anna "follows along" while I read by looking at the pictures in the Jesus storybook bible.



I know this will be a work in progress and there will be some books of the bible that we will skip for now but I love that each morning I can sit at the kitchen table and there is a plan and it is all contained in this cute flower binder :).



Also in the binder lives a prayer sheet for the day where we write down prayer requests as well as some school skills I want to work on with the girls. I hope that as school and other activities gear up for the fall that we would be consistent and start our day hearing God's Word.

Preschool Open House

This is my Anna in the car before going into her preschool open house; she kept saying "mommy, I'm so excited!!". Knowing her excitement makes me so happy that she will be attending preschool and I look forward to taking her for her first day next week.

Easy Lunchboxes

Lunchtime is not my strong suit. Many days the girls and I get home from wherever we have spent the morning and we are all starving (and pretty whiny). My temper is then short as I try to figure out what we are going to eat. This summer I was introduced to Easy Lunchboxes and they have been fabulous. These have the same concept as other "bento box" style lunches in that it is a container with compartments (these have 3). Most days, I fill these up with fruits, veggies, sandwiches, etc and then either put them in the refrigerator for a quick grab lunch when we come home or I'll pack them to take a park or friend's house. I've even been known to give them to the girls in the car when leaving a playdate (it keeps us out of the Chickfila drive thru!). These containers are also BPA free.


I look forward to using these for Anna's lunch this year at preschool.

Diver Ed

During our stay in Maine we spent a day in Bar Harbor and went out on a boat with Diver Ed for some "dive-in theater". It was great! Diver Ed was funny and entertaining as well as informative. He took us out on a boat and dove down to collect lobsters, starfish and anything else he could find. He then took a high quality camera down so that we could see what it looked like on the ocean floor. During out cruise around we also saw seals and a bald eagle.

Hanging out on the boat with our blue painter's tape nametags.



Diver Ed put all of the sea creatures he found into touch tanks for the kids to hold. Maddie loved it all, except for the lobsters. She even held the squishy sea cucumber.





Anna was a little more timid and preferred to let daddy hold the tiny lobster.

Out on the Water

Most of our vacation was spent in some sort of water.... whether that be out on the lake or in the rain. Here the girls are with their fabulous cousin on our first day there having fun in the rain.



We did some kayaking







Made an attempt at paddle boating...



About 10 minutes after this picture was taken it began raining, the waves in the lake started getting bigger and coming into the paddleboat and our back end started going under. We then couldn't get the paddleboat to head towards shore but instead we kept going in circles. Erik quickly came out in the kayak to rescue Maddie and then Uncle Chris returned with a rope and pulled us back to shore. Definitely the most entertaining trip I've taken in a paddle boat!

We also spent some time in the boat riding over to a public beach and taking sunset cruises.



Captain Anna





The girls also went tubing for the first time. Aunt Kristal was so gracious to take them for a great ride.






On the last day I decided to take my turn at tubing which I haven't done in probably 12 years... my shoulders are still sore!

What a fabulous way to spend a vacation!!

Blueberries

Blueberries in Maine are very different from here, rather than growing on tall bushes, they grow in low clusters in fields. My brother-in-law's family had a friend with blueberries to pick so one day we drove up the road to a piece of land that was covered in blueberry bushes.



One of Anna and Maddie's favorite books these days is Blueberries for Sal which was given to our family by my brother-in-laws family whose house we were staying at in Maine. In the book, little Sal walks around eating as many blueberries as he puts in his pail. Here's Maddie doing her little Sal impression. From time to time she would even say "Kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk" just like little Sal, it was cute.







Anna surveying the scene to see which patch she was going to pick next.



Getting advice from daddy.

Welcome to Maine

Our family spent this past week in Otis, Maine in a cute A-frame on Beech Hill Pond about 950 miles from home. We flew from Raleigh to Boston on JetBlue airline. The girls did fabulous on the flight and spent most of the hour and forty-five minutes in the air watching cartoons since JetBlue has personal TV's for every seat. We had bought the girls kid-sized headphone prior to the trip. JetBlue also gave us drinks and snacks. Add that to the lollipops (one for up and one for down) and the girls were well entertained.





Once we arrived in Boson we rented a car and drove another 4.5 hours. Thankfully the girls fell asleep a few hours into the trip since it was getting late. At last, welcome to Maine.







More to come....