I love, LOVE picking fruit with the kiddos. Apple picking in the fall and strawberry picking in the spring are two of my favorite annual excursions with them. I was delighted when I found out that a family from our tutorial owns a pick your own blueberry patch. The younger three and I went Monday morning while my oldest was a day camp with the cub scouts.  I hope to go back with all four of them and really stock up on some berries.

Exactly one month ago today we had a Superman birthday party for my youngest. In addition to a slew of crepe paper, we hung a giant poster of Superman on the hutch in our dining room. Last night I noticed that Superman still hangs in my dining room. He’s hung there for an entire month. We let him hang there until we moved it up to the boys room. This way it wouldn’t wrinkle or rip until we got around to it, and maybe by leaving it hanging in our dining room we’d be more motivated to get around to it sooner than later.

A few weeks ago, the kids spent a long weekend at my parents while Scott and I enjoyed St Louis. While they were there, my parents took the kids to a friends farm. The kids had a blast. Seriously, a day doesn’t go by that they don’t mention the horses or the chickens or the barn cats. They even got to ride on the horses. Right up there with all those memory making experiences, was another new life experience for my 4 year old.

They saying becoming a parent changes you. It does. Truly, nothing can prepare you for it. I remember so well the day our first born child entered the world. I remember all the nerves and excitement. One of the things that surprised me the most about becoming a mom was how much I fell even more in love with Scott on that day. I already loved him to pieces. He was already all I could have wanted and more in a husband.

It seems to be that when you have more than one child… their differences sometimes seem to shine out, and they can kind of fall into different roles. The peacemaker, the organizer…. not that I am advocating type casting your children or anything. I know they can all play different roles at different times. However, when I asked the kids to pose for a picture at the strawberry patch the other day, my youngest displayed his true colors…

Scott and I started dating our senior year of high school, when we were both 17. A few years ago we were out for an anniversary date and realized that we were approaching the point in our life when we would have been together as much of our life as we weren’t together. We decided we wanted to celebrate such a momentous occasion and so we (and by we, I really mean Scott) calculated out when exactly that would be… our dates are different since we don’t share the same birthday.

We recently celebrated my youngest sons birthday. Because he shares his birthday with our anniversary, we often celebrate his birthday over Memorial Day weekend… So, in his book he is 4 now though technically there are still a few more days till that occurs officially. I love this age… 3/4… I love how his personality is developing as well as his sense of humor. I love how his vocabulary is growing and he tries out new words, many big words and he misuses them.

Gah! It seems MORE than a month has gone by since I last updated the ol’ blog. What a time it was too. The whirlwind of the end of the school year. Last week we had our last day at the tutorial followed by their year end assembly. Wahoo!!! All those snow days we kept our nose to the grind stone are paying off now baby! I was so proud as I watched them get up front and recite all of the things they had memorized.

Last week was spring break at the circus. It was an action packed week full of family fun. We played lots and lots of games, rode bikes, and the trampoline was pretty much in use non stop. We had Aunt Karen and the boys here from Sun night till Tuesday.   Wednesday we went to Philly and Thursday night my parents and my nieces and nephew came to town till Easter.

This year in History we are studying American History from the explorers to the war on 1812. I love history. It is my favorite part of home schooling. And I am so grateful that we live within driving distance of so many great historical sites. I really wanted to take the kids to Philadelphia for a day trip over spring break. Scott graciously rearranged his work schedule so that he could join us.