Luna moth

Check out what we found in our backyard today!

The kiddos were outside playing and I was gathering up sticks to put into a pile.  Yeah, I was gathering sticks.  There are a bunch of oak trees in our backyard and they like to drop large, pointy sticks in the backyard for my kids to hold while running (ack!) or to poke each other.  Anyway, as I was throwing them into a pile I almost threw them right onto a baby Luna Moth!

Luna moths are so BIG and beautiful.  The last time I think I saw one was at my grandparents' farm in Indiana and I was probably somewhere around Claire's or Maddie's age.    

This guy must have just come out of his cocoon.  His wings weren't dry yet and he was looking for somewhere to hang.  The girls helped me get him to crawl onto a stick and we walked him over to a tree.  He hung out there all day long, drying his wings and getting ready to fly.  Here's hoping he has a nice life! 

Just Ducky

It seems like whenever we move we end up with this weird situation in which we:
1) Wish we had less stuff and want to sign ourselves up for the show Hoarders; and simultaneously
2) Need to go out and buy MORE stuff in order to make the new house just right.

I know, it's weird, right? 

Usually the new "stuff" that we require is mostly in the organization category: shelves, bins, hangers/hooks, and maybe a bookshelf or piece of artwork (I use the term "artwork" loosely - we buy from Target and Ikea).

This time we had to buy all of that stuff AND a new shower curtain.  You see, once upon a time we had two fairly tasteful shower curtains.  One for the master bathroom and one for the kiddo bathroom.  We got rid of the one from the master bathroom when we moved to Altus because I got sick of looking at it (it was Phil's from before we got married) and both bathrooms had enclosed showers.  So we were down to one (incidentally, mine from before we were married...) and it went into storage.  When we were unpacking in New Jersey the shower curtain - along with all of our long term storage stuff - was scheduled to be delivered later because that's how the moving company rolls.  We had friends coming to visit and they were going to need to shower so I went out to Walmart to pick up a new liner to make do until the pretty curtain got delivered in a few weeks.  Only I didn't come home with a liner because this cute/tacky ducky shower curtain was on clearance!  Who can pass up a cute/tacky vinyl shower curtain for $5?  Not this gal.  So no need for my old shower curtain -- again!

Awesome vinyl duckies!

The cute/tacky duckies were fine in New Jersey, but here in Virginia they were going to be in our main bathroom.  The one people will use on a regular basis in our home.  Suddenly they seemed more "tacky" than "cute".  So I unpacked every box that my old shower curtain could possibly be in and of course we couldn't find it.  I figured we got rid of it in New Jersey.  Phil had never been a huge fan of it anyway, so we probably sent it to Goodwill.

I set off shopping for another shower curtain, with my old white chenille one in mind.  I finally found one online that was still duckies, but slightly less tacky - they're chenille duckies!  Woohoo!  Side note: Chenille duckies are totally classy.  Really, they are.  I found a free shipping code and with a quick *click* of my mouse it was on the way.

Then Phil unpacked a few boxes from the garage and guess what he found?  My old white shower curtain.  In with my canning supplies, of course.  Nice one, moving guys!  Way to keep us guessing!  Phil, being a guy, announced that it was OK because we could just return the new one when it got here.  Being the good wife that I am, I hung up the old white one and tried to like it.  Thing is, it looked... boring.  And colorless.

 So boring...

Then the new duckies arrived.  Check them out!  So much better, right?

 Admittedly not a whole lot different.  But I like it, dog-gone-it!

And I used the old vinyl duckies as a liner on the other side, so the kiddos can still see them when they're in there. 

Of course, we'll have to keep my old white one, too, because it would look nice in the master bathroom if we ever end up in a house that requires a shower curtain in the master bathroom again.

See?  This is why we have so much stuff.

Our DC-area home

Here it is: the place we shall call "home" for the next few years:

Our neighbors are really nice.  One of them even brought over a plate full of cookies!  Almost all of them have come up to us and introduced themselves - very friendly.  We've completed most of the unpacking.  OK, OK, the garage is still a mess and the guest room is not yet guest-friendly.  But we do have curtains and pictures up, so it feels like home.  And I can close the doors to the garage and guest room and pretend that everything is great.  Now if only the weather would cool down the kiddos could go out and play on the super-awesome playset in the backyard.  FYI: Virginia is hot in the summer.  Who knew?

Vacay

After Phil's graduation he took some leave.  And by "some" I mean "a lot".  It was so nice to be able to laze about for awhile!  But before we did any lazing about, we took a big ol' trip to Illinois to see our families!

Please note: Until Phil can get home and make all the photos clickable for you, please click here if you'd like to see a slideshow from our visit! 

So what did we do?  First off, some of us gals went to the big city.  No, we didn't see the Sears Tower or the Field Museum.  We hit Michigan Ave and went to the American Girl store, of course!

I think we helped the economy a bit there.

We toured a Jelly Belly distribution center (you get a free bag of jelly beans afterwards - woohoo!).  Max and Megan tried a bunch of the yucky flavors, like "earwax" and "centipede".  Ewwww.  The rest of us stuck with the yummy flavors.

We toured the city fire station, thanks to our high school friend, Fireman Jason.

We splashed a bit in Lake Michigan (because it's too cold to actually SWIM in that water!).

And we splashed a bit in the Bruno's pool, because they're so nice and let us mooch.

But mostly we just hung out with our families, which was wonderful and made me homesick.  Even though the Air Force treats us pretty well, I do sometimes get sad that we don't have the option of living closer to home and all of those folks we love so much.  But instead of dwelling on things we have no control over (such as where we live) I will focus my energies on peer-pressuring our loved ones to come visit us.

Hey loved ones: COME VISIT!  :)

Birthday conversation with Colin

We're mostly settled, but I still haven't found the time to sit down and do a real blog post.  I just had to put this little video on here, though, because it's so darned cute.  Colin usually clams up when the video camera comes out, but he was in a particularly chatty mood on his birthday and I managed to catch it:

Look at that cute little farmer!

Tiny little farmer?

Nah, that's just Colin, driving the "tractor" (as he called it) at my grandma's farm.  There are lots more pics from our big Midwestern adventure to come, but we're moving.  And that makes me tired.  And perhaps a bit cranky.  And my kids get cranky, too (the nerve!).  All of these things dig into my blogging time.   But I'll get crackin' soon, I promise! 

Day 2.5

As I type this very blog post, our dear sweet Maddie-kins has gone two and a half days without sucking her thumb. This is a very big deal, as she's been sucking her thumb since the beginning of time (for her) and was even BORN with calluses on her thumbs from sucking them in utero! All it took were some Barbie Band-Aids and a marble jar, a promise of ice cream if she got five marbles, and a hint of an American Girl accessory if she was successful for an extended period of time.

This was taken IN the hospital!

She got her fifth marble today and she is most definitely looking forward to her ice cream. To say I was surprised is not an understatement. She has promised to stop before, but always reneged when the going got tough and she needed a "hit". I think the marble jar has motivated her. Woohoo! 

There's our big girl!

As a former thumb-sucker myself, I can say that this is a HUGE accomplishment.  I can distinctly remember ducking under my desk at school in 1st or 2nd grade to get a quick hit from the thumb. No such behavior from Maddie, though.  She seems to have gone the cold turkey route.  We're so proud of her!

This is all particularly good news for her Lily doll. You see, when Maddie sucks her thumb she needs something to do with her other hand. It ends up twirling hair. For a long time she twirled her own hair and had to get periodic hair cuts because the one side would be much longer than the other. We managed to focus her twirling attention onto her dolly instead, which was great for Maddie-hair but not-so-great for Lily-hair. Lily would end up looking quite disheveled.

Medusa?  Nah, just a very well-loved Lily.

Now that she seems pretty motivated to give up the thumb, though, Lily is getting a make-over. I combed out her hair (no easy task) and re-rolled it so it would be pretty again.

 Let's hope for Lily's sake that Maddie is serious about this no-thumb business!  Way to go, Maddie!  We are so proud of our big girl. 

 Lovely new coiffure!

School's out for the summer!

School's out for everyone in the fam' now! Phil and his class graduated last night with a nice ceremony followed by a dinner reception. We knew he had gotten pretty good grades throughout the course, but we were surprised when he was given an award for graduating in the top 10 percent and the "Fogleman Award" for his class.

The kiddos and I were very, VERY proud of him and his hard work over this past year. Nicely done, Phil!

Not a kindergartener

As of today, she's officially NOT a kindergartener anymore. But I refuse to refer to her as a 1st grader because she is still my Claire-baby. And Claire-babies can not possibly be 1st graders who go to school all day long.

Don't worry - I have all summer to get used to the idea.

In the meantime, check out that big girl with her bus stop pals on their last day of school.

Graduation (for Maddie)

Our little Maddie-kins recently had her pre-k graduation. Except she's not really graduating because she'll do pre-k again next year due to her late birthday. But her school makes a bit of a hooplah over it so she got to party, too. They've been practicing their ceremony for awhile now, complete with four songs.
Each child in the class received some sort of award. You know, things like "Most Curious", "Best with Numbers", etc. We were really SUPER proud of Maddie when she was recognized as the "Best Friend" in her class! Her teacher said she was a good friend to everyone. Maddie would find the kid with no one to play with and be sure to include him or her. She was always friendly to everyone and easy to get along with.

We were so happy to hear that our little girl was the same sweet person at school that we (mostly) see around here. Congrats, Maddie
Our next graduates will be Claire (from kindergarten) and then Phil!

Picnic in the Park

As the school year wraps up, there seems to be much less actual learning going on in class and much more fun. This is understandable, as the weather has seemed more summer-like and the kiddos (and probably the teachers, too!) have been antsy for the end of the school year to arrive.

Maddie's school helped with the antsy-ness with a picnic in the park. The teachers and a good number of parents walked with her class through town to a nice little park.

They ate their picnic lunches.

Then they had a little parachute time. Who doesn't love the parachute?

Then a story.

And THEN it was playtime! Wahoo!

All About Me Day

Each year, Claire's school puts on an "All About Me" day for the kindergarteners. They work all year long on making projects to display. On the big day, parents and family can come into the school to see what all they've been working on. Each kindergartener stands in front of their display and answers questions/shows off their stuff. They were so proud of themselves and of all the things that make them, "them"!

Part of the display was a photo of them on "When I Grow Up" day. Here's a closer picture of Claire on that day -- she wants to be an artist.

After showing off their work they all got up on the stage to sing a few sweet songs. How cute are these kiddos (especially the one second from the left in the back row)?