Deedee Bear (Formerly Sweetie Pie)

I love that my preschooler still feels attached to a stuffed animal. It is not an unhealthy attachment, and he doesn't have to cart it around everywhere. I'm not worried about it getting lost or about having a backup in case something happens to it. He just likes his soft teddy bear and still has fun with it. I love this because it reminds that even though Ryan can be so silly and he seems like he is growing so fast sometimes, he is still my baby. Ryan has always been a snuggly baby and little boy and has always enjoyed his stuffed animals.

One of his favorite stuffed animals has been his "Soft Teddy Bear" (so he was called in the beginning). This sweet teddy bear lovey was a gift from Sigrid, Ryan's cousin from Germany [first cousin once removed, to be exact]. A few months ago Ryan wanted to bring him to Oma's house. (By now he was called "Sweetie Pie, a name I still hold dear.) Ryan told me that Sweetie Pie wanted to stay at Oma's, and there I sadly let him stay. Sweetie Pie had his own special place at Oma's, on the corner of the big screen television, to welcome Ryan whenever he came to visit. When Elke and Sigrid came to visit a few weeks ago Sweetie Pie was renamed "Deedee Bear". Ryan wanted a special photo taken of Deedee Bear. Here is Deedee Bear, with Ryan and Elke [his second cousin].

Earlier this week Oma was watching Todd and Ryan and it was after their usual bedtime when I came to pick them up. Ryan was sad about leaving and was having a hard time. We passed by the television and Ryan spotted Deedee Bear. He reached out and picked him up. I asked Ryan, "Do you want to bring Sweetie Pie home?" Ryan (through his tears) answered, "Yes. . . No. Deedee Bear!" Obviously, the name Sweetie Pie is done with.

Today Ryan informed me that Deedee Bear's birthday will be the same as Maddie's. They will be twins! I asked Ryan if they had the same parents. Ryan answered "No. His mom is the T-Rex and his dad is the long-neck."

A Year of Playgroups - Fall 2007

CAUTION: The following two posts may cause the reader to experience photo overload.

Here is Part II (which occurs chronologically earlier than Part I) of my series of posts recording some of the activities the boys and I have done with our church playgroup. As I mentioned in my first post (which you should see below this one), we have done a variety of activities such as playing at someone's house, swimming at Angie's, taking a walk at Turkey Creek, going to a local museum, kite flying, Easter Egg hunting, decorating pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, and much more. It has been a great year, and looking at back at all we have done I once again realize--I live in a great place! (Thanks again to Angie for keeping the playgroups going from week to week.) [Pictured here at our house in September: Sam and Ryan]
Going on a nature walk at Rocky Bayou State Park in September. [Pictured here: Curtis, Ryan, Angie, Claire, Sam, Todd]

The kids enjoyed getting a close-up look at a butterfly (which was, unfortunately, found dead--but better found dead than having been killed by one of our group). [Pictured here: Curtis, Ryan, Claire, Sam]

I think the kids were looking for the perfect piece of deer moss in this photo. [Pictured here: Makayla, Claire, Sam, Curtis]

One of our favorite annual activities is going to the pumpkin patch sponsored by the Methodist Church in Niceville for the whole month of October. On the weekends they host a petting zoo and a bounce house. You can also reserve story times for groups. Our playgroup went for a storytime and had a lot of fun. Todd and Ryan especially enjoyed being able to pick our which mini pumpkin they got to take home.

[Pictured here: Curtis]

Instead of decorating gingerbread houses, which we felt would be too messy, too overwhelming, and too time-consuming, our group decorated graham cracker Christmas trees. It was a hit, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to do a candy-related decorating activity with young children. [Pictured here: Todd, Sam, Claire, Ryan, Curtis]

Fun for adults, too.

One of the best parts--playing with the candy. [Pictured here as Rudolph: Curtis]

More reindeer [Pictured here: Sam, Todd]

Simply playing at someone else's house is guaranteed fun. They always have cooler toys. The boys caught sight of this riding dump truck as we were leaving Sam's house in December. It took a while to get them into the car to go home. [Picture here: Todd, Ryan]

In December we took a trip to a local nursing home to sing Christmas carols. Because the kids had not been able to learn many carols (we only came with three prepared songs), we had extra time and filled it in with an enthusiastic rendition of "Once There Was a Snowman" and "Popcorn Popping". Our melting snowmen were so popular with the residents that I think we actually sang it the song twice. Here, the children sing "Jingle Bells."

What a great way to get ready for Christmas. [Our singing Santas pictured here: Sam, Todd, Curtis, Jaden, Ryan, Claire]

A Year of Playgroups - Spring 2008

We have had a great time this 2007-2008 school year with our church playgroups. There are about 3 to 6 of us moms, plus kids, that meet almost every Wednesday morning for these playgroups, which my friend Angie has done a great job organizing. Sometimes we just go to someone's house to play, but oftentimes we visit a local park or do another fun activity together. I have done a terrible job scrapbooking and sharing different photos of things the boys and I have done to enjoy our "local attractions," so thought it would be nice to take a look at some of the things our playgroup has done this year. The boys have made some good friends, especially Sam and Curtis who are between Todd's and Ryan's age. I will be posting these photos in two entries: one for 2007 and this one for 2008. [I may also do another post with a year's look at things they have done with some of their other playmates: Maddie and Wyatt.]

Though not a part of our official playgroups, we often run into some of the same friends at the weekly preschool storytime at the library. I love our library and think they do a great job with their storytimes. I have been taking Todd there regularly there since he was about 6 months old, and Ryan has been coming since birth (he usually acts a little more enthused than what it looks like in this photo taken in February). [Pictured here: Todd, Curtis, Claire, Jaden, Ryan]We visited The Heritage Museum in February. Though the museum in rather small, they have a nice children's room that the kids can enjoy for a good hour. Todd had a great time being teacher, though some of his students (like his brother Ryan) don't look all that interested in learning.

Even the boys enjoyed rearranging the furniture in this cute hands-on dollhouse. [Picture here: Sam, Todd, Ryan]

Going bike riding at Rocky Bayou State Park was a big hit in March. Todd and Curtis led the pack; Ryan and Claire lagged behind, but still had fun. [Pictured here: Todd, Curtis, Claire, Ryan]

Another trip to Rocky Bayou for a picnic and fun on the playground in April. [Picture here: Ryan, Sam, Todd]

Of course, I missed the great photo with all four boys on the tree branch. [Picture here: Curtis, Sam]

Ryan thought it was great fun being in the baby swing.

A popular annual spring activity is strawberry picking in Baker. We went to Akers of Strawberries in April.

It is impossible to leave Akers of Strawberries without getting one of their strawberry ice creams. This time I splurged and got the strawberry shortcake. A great price for a big serving of cool ice cream after your hard work in the fields.

Todd's birthday was on a Wednesday, which was very convenient: a ready-made party. Our playgroup was already scheduled for a picnic at Lincoln Park. All I had to do was supply some homemade chocolate cupcakes. Todd had a great time playing on the old jungle gym with his friends. [Pictured here: Todd, Curtis, Sam]

Though it wasn't a playgroup, all of our favorite playgroup families were involved in the church campout in April. I remembered to bring the boys' bikes, and that was one of Todd's favorite things about the campout--being able to ride back and forth to all of his friends' camp sites. Here, Todd shows Ryan a roly-poly that he caught while Curtis finds a new use for pliers.

The next morning all the kids had a great time playing on the beach, swimming, [Pictured here: Ryan, Sam, Todd, Curtis] . . .

and getting a good, close look at some hermit crabs.

In May the weather cooperated perfectly for our kite-flying activity at the "Caterpillar Park" (a name Todd and Ryan coined because of the climbing structure there).

Unfortunately, the kids quickly lost interest in the kites and had more fun playing with the water fountain (while the moms tried to unwind the kite strings--an impossible job!). [Pictured here: Sam, Makayla, Ryan, Todd]

Here, Todd sits at the top of the caterpillar.

One of Ryan's favorite things about the park: the digger.

Again, the weather cooperated perfectly for what was probably our last playgroup of the year. Though it was a little rough, the water was absolutely gorgeous at the beach this week. Todd was able to have a great morning at the beach with his friends, and still made it to school (only 10 minutes late!). [Pictured here: Sam, Curtis, Todd, Ryan]

Ryan had a blast using his friend's long-handled shovel. He kept digging the sand right where the waves crashed, and never got discouraged that there was nothing to show for his efforts.

I have a feeling that our playgroup days will slow down quite a bit over the summer. Though our family will certainly stay busy this summer, we'll miss playing each week with our friends.

Ugly Beauty

I have been trying to go through and read some of my old books that I read as a girl. Because I don't have girls of my own to pass them on to, because books are relatively easy to come by at the library, and because we are trying not to keep too many books in the house I am reading some of these worn paperwork books with the intent that I will pass them on (i.e. "return" them, as Ryan would say) when I am finished. I have already finished reading the Little House on the Prarie books as well as The Secret Garden. Recently, I also finished reading A Girl of the Limberlost. What a coincidence it was when I found this moth one evening in our back porch days after finishing the book! It was huge, and the top of the wings had such striking markings. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera the moth wouldn't open them up for me again, and I didn't want to push the issue too much for fear of injuring the moth. I wish I could tell you what it is called. This picture does not do it justice.

School's Out For Summer

Yesterday was Todd's last day of preschool. The year went by so fast. I can hardly believe that he will be starting kindergarten this fall.

The kids have grown so much since last August. [I certainly like that their hair has grown since last August. I will have to work hard to convince Brett not to cut it that short again this summer!]We were very pleased with Todd's preschool and with his teacher Ms. Wood. I appreciate that she always took time when I picked up Todd from school to answer questions that Ryan had about their classroom. Here, Ms. Wood is letting Ryan spray water on the marigold that she let us take home.

This is a homemade magnet that we gave Ms. Wood as a thank you gift. (We also gave her a practical gift card.) The magnet didn't turn out as perfectly as I had imagined, but I still thought it was cute. We wrote a nice message on the back and Todd signed it "From Todd Love."

Summer is definitely here! We bought Big Kahuna's passes again this year. We went twice last weekend for just a few hours before close on Saturday and Monday. The boys had a great time. They loved going down the slides. We went with Beth and Tia, and Todd led the pack of us through the park. We had to keep telling him to slow down and wait for the all of us to get down the slides before heading off to the next one.

Sure, He Looks Cute Now!

In addition to growing flowers, I am trying to grow some vegetables and herbs this year. As with flowers, I have planted some vegetables and herbs in the past, but neglect them before they are able to produce much. I think I did get one cherry tomato last year before the plant died. I would have had three bell peppers but the bugs or critters got to them before I did.

This year I planted zucchini squash, yellow summer squash, grape tomatoes, jalapenos, "sweet" peppers (that are looking like long, skinny bell peppers), watermelons, cucumbers, and a few herbs such as lemon thyme, spearmint, apple mint, lemon balm, chives, basil, and Thai basil. I am very excited about how well things are doing presently. My yellow squash looks fantastic, and I hope to have some ready to pick very soon. My grape tomatoes are looking good, and I have about 10 that look like they might be ready to turn red in the next week or so. And my basil plant has grown so well that I have already been able to cut off a little more than a cup's worth of leaves that I used in a chicken basil stir-fry. This is the best I have ever done with a vegetable garden, and I hope to have a bountiful harvest. My friend Anne and I have had fun comparing how well each other's plants are doing and are both excited for harvest time.

A month ago, this sight would have melted my heart. How cute! A sweet little bunny in my very own front yard. Although he still looks sweet I can't help but think, "You better stay away from my vegetables, Mister!" He looks a little too comfortable in my dirt and is treading a little too closely to my tomatoes.