A tale of two haircuts

When John was a baby, he had these beautiful curls around his face.  

Unfortunately, those curls made strangers assume he was a girl.  Against my will, my husband and sister forced convinced me that two years was too long to go without a haircut.

And the torture ensued...

John didn't think he needed a haircut either.

The curls are gone forever but I still love his hair best when it is all thick and shaggy.  At most John gets a haircut 3-4 times a year.

But on our third day in New Hampshire, I found a tick hiding under John's hairline.

He got a haircut the next day!

He wasn't thrilled about it, but he was definitely more cooperative. 

And really, he's lucky his head didn't get shaved! 

 

Those ticks freak me out!

The new normal

After a week in New Hampshire, we are still settling in but as Emma Jane said this morning, "It is starting to feel like we are at home."

Jami feels at home!

Everything is unpacked and we are getting a routine down.  

We were greeted by the sun our first morning here at 4:30 am.  That was a big surprise to everyone and step one of developing our new routine was learning that the sun does not necessarily signal morning!!  The only one that has had no trouble with this is Libby.  She sleeps until 8:30 or 9 every morning and is still none the wiser of the early sunrise.

The nightly tick check is another new addition to our routine here in New England.  Every night I check the kids all over for ticks.  And every night there are a few to pick off.  Mostly they are really tiny and I don't mind picking them off.  
(Unfortunately the tiny ones are most likely to be carrying Lyme disease but if you catch them with 24 hours that is not an issue.)

Yesterday, Brad took the kids for a hike on a trail that was home to some much larger ticks.  

Hiking Totten trails

When I lifted up Libby's shirt to inspect her back, I was so surprised at the size of the tick on her that I screamed. 

 Which made her cry. 

 But luckily daddy came to our rescue and got it off.

And then he may have chastised me a bit for being a wuss and scaring our daughter.

Hey, I will take the tiny, disease carrying ones over those big, blood-sucking honkers any day!

The girls are still taking gymnastics over the summer and we are trying to fit in a little school work here and there.

Everyone is spending so much time outside.  The weather has just been perfect!  Most mornings, John is dressed and outside playing before breakfast.

I feel slightly guilty bragging about the great weather here when I know all my friends in Florida are being drenched by Andrea right now.

But only slightly.

There is so much to explore.  One never knows what might be found hiding in a corner of the yard.

Like this asparagus Emma Jane found while watering the garden.  
Now if we could just find 20 more!

Home Sweet Home, New England style

Last Friday our family started off on an adventure.  

Loaded down with a ridiculous number of suitcases, we boarded a plane and flew to New Hampshire, which we do several times a year.

But this time, instead of staying for just a week, we are staying for a summer!

Last fall, Brad and I began seriously discussing buying a vacation home.  This is a conversation that has been thrown around for years but never really hashed out.  A beach condo seemed like a waste since we are so close to beach already and a mountain home in north Georgia or South Carolina seemed to far for a few weekends here and there.

And then we started thinking about where we spend most of our vacations anyways and the logical choice seemed to be New Hampshire.  But in order to make it worthwhile, we would need to spend a good chunk of time here.  Brad had a meeting with his business partner and they worked out a summer work schedule that was good for both of them.  And great for the wives and kids involved because it means more time with daddy!

And then in December, Brad flew up to New Hampshire and with the help of my sister, he bought us a house!  

We will now be spending most of every summer in New England's tiniest town living in this charming, 1789 farmhouse with 27 acres behind it to explore.  

And the best part, it is only 17 minutes, door to door, to see my sister!  We haven't gotten to spend this much time together since, well it's been a long time.  And since we shared one bathroom sink in those days, we didn't appreciate the togetherness that much!

We are already having so much fun!  And I am sure I will quickly get used to being so chilly first thing in the morning in June!

For the next two months, I am officially a Yankee!

Homeschool Convention

For the past four years, I have spent Memorial weekend in Orlando at the FPEA Homeschool Convention.
Homeschool convention is really one of the highlights of the year for me for several reasons.

The biggest one being that I am just a great big nerd and buying school supplies makes me happy.

In addition to the fun of choosing new curriculum, 
convention is just fun!

For lots of people, convention is a family affair.  For me, it is a fun getaway with my girlfriends.

We all leave our children (except for the tiniest ones) with their daddies and head to the Gaylord Hotel for some girl time.

We always stay up way to late and laugh until it hurts...or until someone's bladder fails.  

Hey, it happens when you have given birth as much as this group has!

We relax by the pool.

And there is usually a sweet new baby to snuggle.  
I tried to steal this one.

And then there is the convention itself.  To find it, all one has to do is follow the rolley carts.

This year's convention speakers were amazing.  I practically stalked Heidi St. John and Andrew Pudewa.  

Some other homeschool "celebrities" in attendance were Jolanthe Erb of Homeschool Creations and Steve Demme, author of Math U See.

When I showed the girls my picture with Steve Demme, Emma Jane response was "Who is that guy?"  Libby on the other hand, exclaimed "Hey that is the math guy!!"

I'm glad at least one of them is paying attention to her math lessons!

The overall message that I walked away with after listening to all of these amazing homeschool veterans, is that relationship is the priority, not academics.
That is a hard pill to swallow at times.  Because of course, academics are important.  And necessary.

But at the end of the road, if I have graduated a herd of little geniuses bound for the Ivy League, but destroyed my relationships with my children in the process then what have I actually accomplished?  

These years of homeschooling are few and precious. And it isn't worth squandering them fighting over phonics!

After two and a half amazing days, I went home refreshed, encouraged and with a car full!

I'm already excited about next year's convention!

Boys being boys

In a world where children are suspended for playing cops and robbers and gender roles are reviled,

 I am so thankful for a husband that recognizes the importance 

of spending a little "guy time" with our son 

in hand to hand combat.

  

Perhaps if we spent more time allowing boys to be boys while they are young

and teaching them the knightly art of chivalry 

then perhaps there might be fewer instances of "boys being boys" when they are older.

That is all for my soapbox today.

10 months

Jami is 10 months old.

I'm starting to have conflicting feelings.  On one hand, I can't believe she is almost a year old!  On the other hand, I can't believe she isn't 1 yet!  

I'm not the only one having trouble with this either.

I spent the last weekend homeschool convention (more on that later), and before I left Libby was going on and on about all the fun she was going to have with Daddy.  Particularly, going swimming at Nicholas' pool.  

I pointed out that they might not do that since it would be hard for Daddy to keep up with John and Jami in the pool by himself.

Libby's response was, "Well, he did it last year."

Um, no.  

Jami went with me last year.  

She was the watermelon hiding under my shirt!

But, I get it.  I can barely remember her not being here either!

Little miss cutie pants finally has enough hair for a bow!!  Which is good, because she hated the headband thingys.

In addition to all the hair, she has four teeth.  She loves biting anything crunchy with those teeth.  

 She is constantly on the move!  She cruises easily and has stood independently for several seconds more than once. 

 Not long enough for me to get a picture of her standing alone, of course, but long enough to make everyone in the family ooh and ah in high pitched squeals until she gets scared and starts crying.

 Her curiosity has gotten her into some tight places!

And if she is ever "missing", I always know exactly where to find her...

in brother's room!

She is instinctively drawn to all of the teeny tiny Legos that could be the death of her if she ever managed to get more than 60 seconds of playtime in there!  But she keeps trying.

She is a determined little thing!

My baby is growing so fast.

And so slowly.

Our family is definitely better because of her!

"See you next month!"

The Photo-bomber