Life can also be . . .

Romantic

It had been a while since we'd been to a wedding and we LOVED attending this one. The kids very much enjoyed their first wedding. It was outdoors, lovely, and yes, I cried. It was emotional and really, really beautiful. And the reception was so much fun. We danced for hours and stayed until the DJ was done. It was fantastic! I can't tell you how healing it was to let loose a little bit and have some fun like this. It carried me for weeks!

The happy couple

The bride's brothers played beautifully for the wedding

The bride's littlest sisters were flower girls

My mom took this picture, hence the finger.

My mom and the teen boys!

Thing 2 got his moves on with hands in his pockets--so cute!

The bridal party does the Thriller Dance

Thing 1 and Thing 2 can really cut a rug!

Vavó and Thing 1 have some fun on the dance floor

Thing 2 dances with a bridesmaid (yet another of the bride's many sisters)

Creative

Vavó got the kids some fun new DVDs. Why? Just because. She's just a cool grandma that way and we're grateful. So, she got Thing 1 the new "Three Musketeers" Barbie movie (I used to scoff, too, but the Barbie movies are really, REALLY well done and not what you'd expect at all--very Victorian/classic in their style and approach with humor, great music, and strong female protagonists--we love them!) and Thing 2 got the new Bionicle movie. After watching The Three Musketeers, the kids immediately made swords out of cardboard, donned capes, and began their own swashbuckling adventures!

Our very own Musketeers!

And another of Thing 2's recent creative ideas--he made us all "airplane kits" and instructed us on how to make and decorate our planes and also made up a game so we could compete in flying them. So clever. Oh yeah, and our family is playing A LOT of "10 Days" games (see them in the picture?). We've got Africa, Asia, and Europe and our kids are getting the geography down just through the fun of the game (and watching Amazing Race). :)

Airplane Kits

Historical

We got to meet and listen to Abe Lincoln and boy, was he funny! It was great to hear his stories and his life lessons. We're so lucky that he came to our county to visit with us!

Abe Lincoln

Festive

Terrie and I went out to celebrate her birthday and she tried sushi for the first time--it was so fun!

Good Friends

Educational

We got to visit a bee keeper and tour the chocolate factory and also visit a school, all in one day. Here is our group at the bee keeper's . . . cautiously checking out the hives and then trying all kinds of goodies with homegrown honey!

Visiting the hives

Funny

My sister-in-law Lindsay has reminded me of someone since the day I met her. I haven't been able to put my finger on it. Yesterday, while watching Scrubs, I totally figured it out big time. Any guesses from those who know her mannerisms and expressions? Lindsay, what do you think?


Healthy

A woman in our homeschool group approached the YMCA about tapping into a local demographic that would benefit both them and us--homeschoolers. Their gym isn't used much during the day and we'd love a place to meet and play. Win win. So we meet there every Friday afternoon (after our morning field trips/classes/play time and lunch).

First we hang out in the meeting room for ping pong, fooz ball, billiards, and more. Then the kids get an hour of free swim time followed by an hour of gym time--so far we've done soccer, kickball, and basketball. Gymnastics and Street Hockey and more are coming up (um, okay, I wrote this a while ago--we've done all those things now except for gymnastics -- that's this week).

It's fun to play at the Y-M-C-A!
(It's in your head now, isn't it. You're welcome.)

Therapeutic

My best girl friend growing up is coming to visit with another girlfriend of ours--the 3 of us used to have so much fun together as teenagers. They are coming for a 4-day girls' weekend in November and we are so excited! We are going to laugh until it hurts and we cry, because that's how we roll. Recently, we've reconnected even more and have found that we have some pretty major things in common. Ah, the mid 30s. :)

Celebratory

We're in our 3rd year of business! It's crazy to think of that. Wasn't it just yesterday that we quit the traditional career track for medicine and took a gigantic leap of faith, not knowing exactly what we'd do? And then we barely, barely made ends meet while we pursued all the classes and business steps and county requirements necessary to do what we're doing now? Wasn't that just yesterday? Well, apparently that was over 3 years ago.

So, we decided to celebrate with our clients. We sent out postcards to all of our clients, inviting them to a catered, roasted pig backyard barbecue. Everyone who came loved it. And those who couldn't come were sorry to not be able to attend but thought it was a great idea. We did it, because we like being "that kind of place." It also served to remind everyone of who we are without soliciting their business--just saying thank you. Awesome.

We received tons of compliments on our beautiful backyard,
which was really nice to hear after all the hard work of this past summer!

Decorative

It's getting to be that time of year. We made 2 kinds of sugar cookies -- regular and chocolate and both are SO good. We also even made our own homemade glaze, too. Sometimes I amaze myself at the things I do. That may sound arrogant, but that's not at all how I mean it. I'm simply saying I'm proud of myself. I love my Mom dearly and she knows it, but never ever ever do I recall making cookies together (she hates to bake). So in some ways, this is out of my comfort zone. Therefore, when I do it, I feel pretty dang impressed with myself!

The glaze turned out amazing!

Service-oriented

Our homeschool group volunteers with our local library and it's so thrilling to see what a group of people can do when working together. Click to enlarge:





Fun

We go on a lot of fun outings. Not sure I feel like uploading more pictures at the moment, but I'll tell you about two recent outings.

1. We attended the annual Hershey Symphony Children's Concert where they let the kids pet horses (it was a horse theme this year) and try out the instruments beforehand. Then they put on a fun, interactive concert totally geared toward kids. It was great. Several families from our homeschool group attended the concert so we all did a little swapping and somehow we came home with 6 kids for movie, popcorn, pizza, and playing outside. Then all 18 of us met at Baskin Robbins for dessert.

Never mind, I'll upload pictures.

Party at our house!

2. We also attended the local ice rink's annual open house for homeschoolers and that's always a lot of fun.



They both enjoy it, but each seems to be gravitating toward a different interest (which is neat)--Tae Kwon Do/Karate for Thing 2 and Skating for Thing 1.


Beautiful

These are our new walkways, courtesy of 1. my spotting the awesome, extremely easy and inexpensive idea in a newspaper article while doing an activity with the kids and 2. Mark's hard work in actually doing it!

This is now how you step up to our walkway to our door. It needed it BADLY.
This area used to pool into a giant wet and muddy puddle before we put this in.
What a difference!
We're eventually going to plant moss in the cracks.

And this is the entrance from the street gate. Love it!

Sweet

I found this note the other day. Both of our kids like to write themselves lists and notes. I can't imagine where they get that. This is a note Thing 2 wrote to remind himself to do something. He is so cute. You can't help but smile when you find stuff like this:

"Call Jake to ask what the store is called."

Cuddly

One of my favorite aspects of the flexibility our schedule allows is that I can often see scenes like this in the middle of the day:



And that concludes this 2-part series of "Life Can Be." Hope you enjoyed it.