Made in China...

Sofie is an avid reader. Give her a chance and she'll read anything to you. So it was no surprise (though very funny) when she came out of quiet time the other day and pronounced, "Hey Mom! All my toys are made in China!" To which I respond, "why do you think that?" To which she says, "because they all say 'China' on them!"

Fall Camping

This weekend we combined two things that I enjoy immensely. Fall and Camping! This was my Dad's Birthday weekend, so we drove to some of his favorite fishing grounds, and some of my favorite scenery drives, and stayed at a campground we hadn't been to before. Let me tell you, we will be back! We camped about 15 feet away from the Yellow River and had gorgeous views because of it. Plus, since it was a private campground, we didn't have to camp in the EXACT designated spot on the campsite. So we were able to "circle the wagons" and have all the doors facing each other. A real camping treat!


I love camping in the North Eastern corner of Iowa. It's the Mississippi Bluff country and it's full of massive hills, craggy rocks and caves, gorgeous trees and scenic views. This picture I took standing at my camper. I loved how the vine leaves had already turned red. Making the trunk look red.

Here I was standing about 5 feet from my camper, looking down stream.
This was the kids one morning. Again, just feet from our camper. They wouldn't all pose for a good picture together. There were mole hills in our campsite, late on Saturday Norman was FINALLY aloud to try to find that mole. Boy he worked hard, but no reward. John thought for sure Norman would find some, "Tummy Yummy's" down there. (Watch an episode, or forty, of Clifford to learn all about Tummy Yummy's)
Grandpa brought his re-furbished, antique motorcycle along. The instant that my girls saw Gpa start toward the motorcycle, they knew they were getting rides. Sofie was 1st so Lilia had to wait... a hard lesson for a little two year old. :) (I didn't add this originally, but please know my Dad is VERY safety conscious. The motorcycle ride was a mere ride around the campground going less than 10 miles and hour. I could probably out-run them. O.k. not in my current condition, but you get the idea. :) )

Mike and Hank, a happy friendship. My Dad told me a couple of times that he prided himself on the fact that his kids could never pressure him into buying anything. Well I guess that's all gone by the wayside with the grandkids, (as it should be :) ) We walked around Cabella's on Saturday and Sofie saw a magnifying glass that she REALLY wanted. Grandpa thought that glowsticks would be a lot more fun. So he bought both. And the kids REALLY liked both. Especially looking at the glow sticks with the magnifying glass. :)

Josh, Lena, and Mia

Mike and I have been discussing what we should name this baby! Naming a 4th is hard. All the names you loved as a child and said, "that's what I'm going to name MY children," are all gone and your left to sort through the masses of name lists that are available.

Anyway, as Mike and I have been throwing names around John and Sofie have decided that they need new names too, not just the new baby. So John now wants to be called Josh, Sofie wants to be Lena, and since Lilia can't pick one herself they named her Mia.

Lilia's running after John right now calling, "Josh! Josh!"...

The Sweetest Thing...

In all the racing around of life with 3 young children and very pregnant with the 4th. I sometimes miss the quiet things that my children are doing. Some times that's really bad because they are being naughty, but today it was bad because I almost missed what Lilia was playing. Dollhouse. Sofie and John had set up the dollhouse but then had gotten bored of it and moved on. So Lilia stepped in and kept up with the play. I was so impressed that my just-turned two year old was roll playing SO well. I tried to capture the cuteness.

And, yes, she is just in her underwear. I've gone to not replacing the pants when she has an accident. She just creates too much laundry when I keep having to put on new outfits!!


Here the dolls are getting there daily laundry done. Hmmm, what does she see me do a lot of! It was so cute how she was bring so careful with the little things so that she didn't knock them over.
And, of course, dollies need to go to the bathroom to. Another very common theme in our home...
Lastly, the Daddy and daughter enjoying some couch time. She plays what she knows. :) I tell you, it was so sweet to watch!!!

28 Week Baby Bump Check

Today was my monthly appointment to make sure the newest Wolfe is doing well. And from all outside indications, the baby is doing wonderfully! My body is adjusting well to this 4th pregnancy. The babies heart rate was around the 140's and measures at exactly 28 weeks. So everything looks to be doing well. I took all 3 kids to the appointment today. They were able to hear the heartbeat and see from the digital screen how fast the heart was beating. John was the most enthralled and kept craning his neck to watch the heartbeat numbers go up and down.

What a surprise this little one is going to have when it's born and realizes it the 4th in a long line of Wolfe children. :) Of course there might be some clues already. Such as the constant poking and pushing that happens to my belly from it's older siblings. Or all the loud children's voices that are pretty constant.

Now that I've technically hit that 3rd trimester time period I will start going to the Dr. every 2 wks. and the Dr. and I were discussing today that I have exactly 10 weeks before the C-section. Thank the Lord C-sections come early!!! The 2nd trimester seemed to have gone so fast. Let's hope the 3rd goes even faster. :) December 9th here we come!

Not Me! Monday

I love my friend, MCKMama's "Not Me! Monday" and I thought I would join in because, truly, it was one of those days. So with that in mind this is how it works...

I did not send my husband downstairs to change loads of laundry this morning. Even though he was running out the door late for work, and it was just so I would have some clothes to wear today. Nope not me.

I absolutely did not decide NOT to take the stroller into the Dr. office this morning because it was "just to much work" to get it out of the car. Even though then Lilia would've had a place to sit and I would not have been constantly telling her, "No, I can't carry you! You're just going to have to walk."

I WAS NOT that desperate Mother that bribed her children with chocolate milk shakes (and later whole Happy Meals) so that they would let the Dr. and Nurses do all the tests and "look sees" that they needed to do for the well baby check-ups.

And there's NO WAY that I was the one to, literally, wrestle my 6 year old off the arm of the chair at the Dr.'s office so that she could have her flu shot. Or that I then turned around and dragged and peeled my 4 yr. old off the leg of a chair that was up against a wall to subject him to the same torture.

And I positively WAS NOT late picking up my children from their afternoon play date so that I could look for small gourds to decorate my home at Target.

(If you want to read more posts like this click on the "Not Me! Monday" button at the top of this post and read MCKMama's original post. :) )

How do you know your a homeschooler?

How do you know your a homeschooler?

When your 1st grader is reading her book assignment to the 2 yr old - who's on the potty. (To occupy the 2 yr old so she'll STAY on the potty and use it...) While you take the rare moment to teach, with out interruption, the Pre-k student his memory verse for the week. (And, of course, as you walk by the laundry room you're able to switch the loads of laundry...)

Notice the kid size comfy chair for Sofie...

AWANA Wednesday

Finally! Something to post!

Life has been very "routine" here lately. Not boring, but routine. We are completing our school everyday, making sure food is cooked and rooms are "somewhat" picked up after playing.

Of course there is the occasional poopy underwear from the child that shall remain nameless, or the random stubbed toe or the unlikely (yeah, right) fight that breaks out. Just enough to keep everything interesting.

But last night was a note-worthy event! It was the 1st night of AWANA's! John is in Cubbies again and Sofie is in SPARKS. They had a really nice time last night and can't wait to go back again next week!

Working Weekend

This weekend, while Mike embarked on his annual, much deserved, dude vacation with his friends, my Mom came and staid with me so I wouldn't get scared and lonely. :)

It was truly a working weekend and very fun. We interspersed lots of closet cleaning, laundry room cleaning, and clothes sorting, with shopping and picnics in the park. So here is the end result of her visit, lot of clean closets! I WISH I would've taken some before pictures so you could've seen the chaos that was spilling out of the doors. But now I have some well oiled machines (read - closets) that can actually be used as they were intended.

Here's the hallway coat closet, it was, literally, knee deep in un-opened pop cans (completely expired, like 4 years expired!), boots, mittens and hats the kids had grown out of. Now we are ready for winter, let the snow fly! (Oh, please actually, don't let the snow fly!)

Here's the guest room closet. Mom took at least 1/2 of the contents home with her to be put in the Goodwill. (She took it home because I don't do Goodwill. It's not that I don't believe in it, or have the desire to do it. But sometimes you just gotta face facts about your stage of life and realize that you are never going to get that errand done.)
Now the top shelf has some cutely displayed mementos from Mike's and my yester-years. (Doesn't Mike's baby picture look like Lilia!!)

This is the part of the weekend my Mom started to get cranky with me... I didn't find out the sex of the baby. The baby clothes in this house are just insane. And instead of being able just to purge the clothes, only keeping ones for this baby. We had to sort and re-load because we don't know if it's a boy or girl. I truly was starting to question my logic this weekend! This isn't even all the clothes!
Here's more!
And yet more!

The Lone Man Child

It's so fun having a boy.

Ya know, being a girl, I get girls. I get the emotional ups and downs (even at 2 and 6). I get the fascination with little tiny fashion dolls and big baby dolls with clothes and bottles.

But with John it's all different. He BUILDS things. He builds Lego cars that are like campers with doors and windows. He builds big, sturdy square buildings with wooden blocks. Then runs to me and is so excited to show me his square or triangle that he's built. The other day I came across him making that Greek temple in Athens. Complete with the columns down the front.

During our school time in the morning I have a rudimentary preschool activities that I would "like" for him to accomplish each day. Such as practice writing his letters and numbers, and practicing his letter sounds. But I just can't bear to take him away from some massive Lincoln Log creation he has imagined or the intricate Diego tree houses that he has created. I figure it's kinda school anyway, right? Spacial reasoning, problem solving of how much load a wall can take and how to build a sturdy structure. He does always seem to show up when we get into the math part of our day... :)
My John, I love having a boy. He keeps the girliness in check around here. :)

Finally it's Fall!

I love Fall! I love everything about it, the crisp weather, the colorful leaves, and harvest time (especially apples and pumpkins). I love decorating for Fall and baking all the autumn produce. I'm a Fall nut! Cooking, which once was a summer drudgery, becomes a hobby to embrace every chance I get. So in homage to Fall, (which yes, I know, is unfortunately not here yet, but it's so close, and so cool outside!) I've been making my very special Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. So, as blog writers so often do, I thought I'd share.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 2/3 C Flour
1 C Sugar
1 T. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
dash of salt
2 eggs
1 C plain pumpkin
1/2 C butter, melted
1 C chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Mix all the wet ingredients together...

Fold together the wet and dry ingredients, add the chocolate chips!

Bake at 350 for 20 min., and you have some fabulous muffins!
Now, just to let you know, I obliterate the recipe. I add whole wheat flour instead of white, I DON'T add nearly that much sugar. A lot of times I use Turbinado sugar if I have it. I substitute applesauce for most of the butter and I add some milk to make the dough a little lighter. Just some tweaking, right? :)

But the end result are some nutritious muffins that sneak in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, to some very happy kids.
Enjoy!

Here's lookin' at you, kid...

If there was any doubt before, Lilia is proving to be my "ham," my "performer." But of course, only around people that she knows. :)

Saturday's Snacks

I don't know how it goes around your house's, but here, once Saturday rolls around we get a little low on snacks. So we have to dig into the pantry and make some from "scratch." Lilia is my "dumper" of ingredients, Sofie is my "mixer", and John, well he's my "eater". This week it was pound cake! Yum!

Freezing Freezy Pops!

It doesn't matter to my brood that it is in the low 60's today. Everyone still wanted freezy pops on the stoop this afternoon for their snack...

School days!

I've had some questions about how school is coming so far and what are school room is looking like this year. So I took some pictures during school this morning.

Notice everyone in long sleeves! Literally, the clock struck 12 midnight on August 31st and the warm weather was gone. We haven't even reached 70's this week. I think yesterday's high was 68. The kids were excited to break out there new winter clothes though. If only the realized how long they are going to be in them.


Here is Sofie copying part of our poem for the week. This week we are focusing on "Daybreak" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We also have a Bible verse for the week, which is written on the chalkboard in the background. Notice Sofie's hair, She really wants to do her own hair and there's so many pretty barrettes, it's hard to choose just one...
We were given this dry erase book that has the upper and lower case letters to trace. It also has the strokes numbered so the child knows which line to write first. John LOVES this book.
Lilia is my Playdoh queen. If only she were strong enough to PUSH the Playdoh through the extruder's... She's also my marker queen. As you can see by her skin, she had just gotten done with those.
This is our school room, it had been Mike's office, so we have his diploma's etc. still hung up on the wall. Which I actually think is quite fitting. The rocker is an all important part. That way pregnant Momma can be comfortable while we do our read-alouds.
This is the piece-de-resistance of our school days. The table. We are not to love in-animate object, but I come pretty close with this beauty. It was a gracious and generous gift from Mike's parents. And I love it. It has taken my discombobulated school day and turned it into a well-oiled machine. (Ok I might be taking it a little too far :) ) No more Lilia wanting to be in the middle of everything, because now she can be! And I can give everyone equal attention without scooching (sp?) around the room and stabbing myself with a pencil in my toe... I am enamored with all 6ft+ length of table glory.
The Library. No this isn't ALL homeschooling books. (We're only in 1st grade!) Only the far right bookcase has the school supplies, books, and general manipulative's. We still have more books throughout the house though, and will be purchasing another bookcase shortly...

Lounging Labor Day

For Labor day this year we went camping with Mike's cousin. They own a cabin north of here on a surprisingly large lake. We had lots of fun hanging out, going to the beach, etc. The kids had a blast with their cousins.

Sofie meticulously built these stick walls in the sand. The sticks were arranged longest to shortest. Who says John has the corner on the "detailed" market...


The kids roasted A LOT of marshmallows. The 1st night they ate a whole bag between the 4 kids!Sofie had her 1st experience with a mini-motor bike. The sight hearkened me back to my own mini-motor bike days. Aaah - to ride around aimlessly without a care in the world. Actually, Sofie did have "a care," she didn't quite get the hang of it while we were there.
Lilia LOVED playing catch with her cousin. But she wanted to do it her way. He was to gently place the ball into the mitt. No throwing... And what a patient guy, he did.
The dad's got a stellar idea to nail together a bunch of palettes one morning and build the kids a play house. They played in there for HOURS!
You never quite know what sharp little pokey things are hiding in the sand,

School year kick-off!

This morning we went to our Homeschool Co-op's fall kickoff picnic.

It's raining here today. But that didn't deter us! We found 3 umbrella's and trudged off to a soggy picnic. Sofie had been looking forward to this picnic so I just didn't have the heart to cancel it on her. And we weren't the only ones! There actually ended up being quite the turn-out.

The time started off with some wonderful prayer, the pledge of allegiance, and then a time for the kids to get up and share their favorite parts of the summer. They started with the older kids. Some of them had quite the elaborate displays! One little girl even had a book that she had written over the summer, had submitted it into a local contest, and had won some nice prizes!

They slowly made it down the grades to finally 1st grade. Sofie was up there in a flash. My girl, she didn't even look back at me to see if it was O.K. or talk about what she was going to say. She just jumped up there. Once she got up there and saw how many faces there were she got shy, her face even turned red, but she said her name clearly and said her favorite part about the summer was swimming.

It was another moment for me. She didn't need me to give her courage or help in any way. She just needed me to cheer her on and watch while she did something hard. Of course once Sofie did it, John was on her heels.

I made him wait until they at least called for Kindergarten-ers. I thought that was close enough. :) And I did make him re-hearse what he was going to say. So when he walked up there, with Sofie for moral support, he said, "Hi! (which made everyone laugh) My name is John and I love CAMPING!"