Fair and Fire station

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the fair on Valentine's Day evening. We had such a blast! My Aunt Joyce came with us and we met Josh's parents and sister and brother in law there. The place was practically deserted! At least compared to how busy the fair usually is. It was such a beautiful evening. Fletcher wanted to ride everything Colton and Gracie did so we kept having to beg them to ride the "baby rides". Next year he'll be able to keep up perfectly!




Happy Fletch w/ Aunt Katie and Uncle Austin



Thursday we went on a field trip to the brand new fire station in Stuart. It's a fire/police station in one so we got to tour the whole place! Colton's favorite parts were going into the garage where the police motorcycles are kept and also peeking in to the police armory where they kept all the guns and ammo. I must admit this was pretty neat! We even got to (very quietly) go to the dispatch room where the dispatchers were busy answering the 911 calls. After touring the police station side, we went to the fire station where we learned all about fire safety and got to sit in their brand new fire truck. While Fletch was sitting in the back seat of the truck, he had a major melt down when I wouldn't let him climb up front to "drive". This was a little embarrassing to say the least as I had to drag my screaming child out of the fire truck. Life with a toddler!

Fletcher's officially 17 months!

Stickers are fun!!!

Fletch has a new blankie!

I just made this for him and he loves it! It's so soft, silky and snuggly. He just recently gave up the binky on his own which I honestly was dreading weaning him from since he was so attached to it. In some ways though it was nice because he used it as his comfort object. Now, I find him wanting to nurse more often and I thought we were nearing the end of it. So I thought maybe a handmade blanky from mama may help to become an additional source of comfort for him. We'll see : )

Cousins are those childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends.

Colton loves his little cousin Kaya!


5 little monkey's in the bathtub!
We were so lucky to spend the day with Ava and Kaya while Brian and Kelly worked the Stuart Arts Fest. We had such a fun day together!


This dress was my latest sewing project. I love... the fabric of this one!

Free Rice

There is a website that I love to go on when I have free time (Ha!). You may already know of it but it's http://www.freerice.com/ You play a word definition game and for each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to feed the needy. It's totally addicting! Have fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!! The kids woke us up bright and early to begin a day celebrating our love for one another. We had a nice breakfast with Daddy before he headed off for work then we got ready for one of our Valentine's Day parties. Today we attended a party at a local park with some of our friends from Olivet Christian Academy. Olivet is a private school for homeschoolers that we enrolled Colton in this year. They keep track of attendance and grades which us parents submit to them, and they do the testing and evaluations to give us "teachers" a piece of mind knowing that our precious kids are learning exactly as they should be and are right on track. They also offer a whole array of classes, activities and events for the kids. We go to "Olivet Day" once a month and the kids participate in classes with other students in Olivet. They also offer all the extra activities that you may think homeschoolers miss out on, like Field Day, Spelling Bee, talent shows, dances for the older students, yearbook, end of the year graduation (complete with cap and gowns for the graduates) and of course parties. We feel really blessed to be a part of Olivet and are looking forward to the end of the year graduation. At the graduation Gracie will be having a ballet recital with the girls in her Olivet ballet class and Colton will be saying his part of a poem that his acting class have been memorizing. He doesn't totally love acting class (at least not the part of having to speak in front of the class) but I have seen a huge improvement in his ability to comfortably speak in front of large crowds. He's had to give a book review, recite a poem and a bible verse that he'd memorized, among many other things in front of a large group of children and parents and I am so proud of him! I do sometimes get nervous for him just knowing how nervous he is and knowing he's so worried that he'll forget what to say. It's such a rewarding thing though as a mom for me to be there for him to not only witness this but to be able to give him a big hug and tell him how proud I am of him when he finishes. I just love that feeling that it gives me. It makes me feel so close and connected to my son which is priceless to me. Back to Valentine's Day... the kids had a blast playing with about 40 or so of their Olivet friends, decorating bags to hold their cards, passing out their cards and of course decorating and eating cupcakes! Fletch devoured his cupcake in record time. I think it took me longer to clean him up than it did for him to eat it! Oh well, it's Valentine's Day and it's all about fun! Tomorrow morning we are off to another park to have a party with our friends from Sonshine Christian Academy, a support group for homeschool families in the Stuart area. We do a lot of field trips and park days with them and have developed some great friendships. Fun, fun, fun! Tonight we are off to the fair! Wow, it really is non stop! And they say homeschoolers are unsocialized! Ha! Who are they kidding!





Colton and Gracie in line passing out their cards






Gracie and some of the Olivet "sweeties"


What do I do now Mom?

Picaso in training

He takes his painting very seriously...

until....

he gets a great idea...

Fletch cracking up after he threw his "masterpiece" and paint brush on the floor leaving traces of paint all over the wall and floor. Thank goodness for washable paint!

"Mommy, could you ever get angry at this sweet face?"