Grandma came to visit.
The boys showed her their “Super Hero Game”
We ate yummy food. (Mommy’s tummy grew a lot)
We went to Cheekwood to see the Wild West exhibit.
And the trains.
The boys were obsessed with seeing Buffalo Bill’s guns the whole time we were there.
We really enjoyed the beautiful weather!
We have been blessed abundantly! Thank you Jesus for everything You are to us and all you have given us.
After having 3 babies early at 37 or 38 weeks, it felt like pure torture to be pregnant with my 4th for 40 weeks and 2 DAYS!!! I felt like I was approaching the finish line in a marathon, and then someone moved it further out at the very last second. Its all about your expectations! This time I will be prepared. No packing of a hospital bag at 35 weeks. No cute little newborn baby items laying around mocking me that indeed, I am still pregnant. In fact, at 36 weeks I am trying to forget that I am even pregnant at all. 36 weeks is only the beginning (of the end). Which can start to feel very long. No predictions of an early delivery here folks, and if anyone makes a statement toward that end out loud, I just quickly point out that we have a FULL FOUR WEEKS to go. At least! Lets all just sit back and talk about something other than the baby that will not be born for a very long, long time.
While we are on the subject, here are some things to never say out loud to a pregnant lady:
“Wow! You look like you’re about ready to drop that load!” (strange man in an elevator)
“You must be having twins!” (gas station attendant)
Generally, commenting on the impressive size, contour, or dimensions of a strange person’s body is not going to be well received and creates awkwardness. But for some reason, pregnancy seems to cause people to throw their social inhibitions to the wind. Really, unless you are another very huge pregnant lady, it would be okay to NOT SAY ANYTHING AT ALL.
I was going through some pictures tonight and was reminded of this sweet memory. The biggest surprise to us when we brought Abby home from the hospital was how enamored little Sam was with his sister. I did not expect a 20 month old boy to immediately be so in love with a baby. The excitement didn’t wear off either- there was never any jealousy from Sam! Frequently we would notice Sam was missing and would find him in our room, sitting next to Abby, softly repeating her name over and over. He was always very gentle and kind and loved to be close to her.
Fast forward almost 2 years! Sam is still an awesome big brother to Abby. They do have their moments, but you will often find Sam reading books to Abby, helping her climb up on a chair, or take the lids of the markers she wants to color with. They have special made up games they play together, and Sam can often translate “Abby-speak” when us parents can’t understand what she is saying! I am so thankful these 2 have each other.
Our third child is the most outgoing and gregarious person in the family. He loves to entertain and perform… and sing worship songs! We associate certain songs with events and time periods in our family history because when Sam is hooked on a song, he is going to sing it loudly everywhere he goes. For awhile it was “Everlasting God” and then it was “Barbara Ann” (beach boys).
Here is his latest-
Being a Northwest girl, there is some camping in my background, especially in my college days. Wow, those days seem quite remote now. Recently boys have been asking to go camping, so we thought we would start small and set up a tent in the back yard. This was a REALLY good plan! Of course, we also had to have the essential elements of FOOD and FIRE to make this a truly spectacular event for them.
Abby went on to her own bed and me and my 8 months pregnant belly left the fellas out in the tent with their dad. With the smell of campfire smoke in my hair and gooey marshmallow smeared on my pants, I went back and quietly listened at the door to Jason telling the boys tales of his childhood. I felt overwhelmed with thankfulness that my children have this kind of dad. The boys were completely enthralled, begging for more stories.
A book I have been reading recently was encouraging moms to have regular tea parties with their kids for the purpose of building relationships with them and discipling them through spending special time together. I think we have found our “tea party” equivalent in the campfire and tent arrangement- it fits with the boy’s God-given design perfectly.
For fire prevention week we paid a visit to our local fire station with a homeschool group. Ben and Sam loved seeing all the equipment and the real firefighters dressed in their gear.
Afterwards, we did a craft that involved taping a (real) match to a piece of paper and gluing an “X” over it, to remind us not to play with matches. It only took a few hours for Ben to start asking if we could light the match, and if it would really start a fire. That craft had to go away in a hurry!
The boys love to play firefighter at home together- here they are dressed up in the imaginary gear they have come up with on their own. I love the creativity of the swim goggles and the “air tank” which is their sleeping bags.
The annual trip to our favorite pumpkin patch was our best ever! It was beautiful weather and the kids had a great time for a full 2 hours before the little people got tired. We followed up with a trip to Jason’s Deli, our favorite family lunch destination. The whole day was a special treat.
Big Ben turned 5 this week. Our second son is such a delightful guy. He generally has a very easy going attitude and brings an enjoyment of hard work and distinct sense of humor to the mix. In his free playtime, you can usually find him outside digging a big hole, collecting “treasures” like rocks, sticks, snails and other critters, sweeping dirt to create “smoke” or trying to start a fire by some impossible form of spontaneous combustion (I have not showed him the magnifying glass method or he really will start a fire!) Ben continues to have an affinity for building things out of yard treasures, blocks, legos, and anything else he can find. He is doing great with homeschooling this year and is making good progress towards learning to read. His favorite subject is math- we are using Right Start Math and he enjoys the visual and manipulative nature of this curriculum (and mommy loves teaching it too!) At his 5 year check up, he weighed in at 42 lbs (74th percentile) and 44.5 inches (80th percentile). He took the 5 year shots like such a brave little man I think I got more teary than he did.
Since we have too many children to have big expensive parties for each one every year, we have decided to celebrate certain milestone birthdays extra big- at 5, 10 and 16. When you turn 5, you can have your party at a special location of your choice. Ben picked Bounce-U, or as the boys affectionately call it, “The Jump-Jump-Slide.”
Some favorite gift this year for Ben were: a cap gun with leather holster (picked by big brother Jake), a lego set, and a military action figure set (pictured above with the cake).
Jake fell off the tire swing at a playground on Saturday. It wasn’t the scariest or most dramatic accident we have experienced with these boys, but this happened to be the first one to require x-rays and a cast! I knew it would inevitably happen at some point. Bringing him to the ED brought back awful memories for Jason taking Sam there when he has been so sick, so it really made us THANKFUL that this was not a scary or serious visit.
Jake was very brave and enjoyed recounting the many tv shows he watched during his lengthy wait at the ED. Wonderful.
He is so proud of his cast and x-ray, which shows his fractured radius and ulna. It will be a challenge for him to continue working on his handwriting for the next 4 weeks, and sadly he will miss half of the swim lessons we signed up for that start this week. So sorry this happened to you buddy! You have been a great sport about it so far.
The Pereiras are not big travelers, at least not at this stage of many small children, some of whom need naps and special foods to maintain optimum functioning. In spite of our lack of travel enthusiasm, we decided it was time to make the big trip out to Seattle to visit my family, and especially the kids’ one living great grandmother, who is now 95 years old and in declining health. We had not been as a whole family since 2007.
Here are the highlights:
Visit to the aquarium followed by lunch on the waterfront at Ivar’s and feeding the seagulls.
Birthday brunch for Ben at the Space Needle! A very special and memorable outing!
2 sweet visits with my precious Grandma! We love you so much!
The boys’ favorite part of the trip… going to the beach! The water was really cold but that didn’t stop Jake and Ben from getting in. We were so blessed to enjoy beautiful weather for the whole trip.
One of my favorite parts- having all of my family in the place where I grew up. There is such a comforting familiarity about being in your childhood home and it was fun to share it with my kids. My parents were so kind and generous to have us all in such a small space. Hopefully we didn’t stress them out too much. I miss many things about living in the northwest- it is always good to go back!
All loaded up and ready to go!
Jake and his teacher Mrs. Teller.
It was a great first day! Jake was excited to go and didn’t really seem nervous at all. Mostly it was Mommy who was a wreck. This was my first car line pick up… what a mess! Its going to be a big adjustment but we are excited for his year!
The end of summer is almost here. This year we find ourselves on the brink of a new era for our family, because someone is going to school! My heart is definitely still in homeschooling and it is still our first choice for our children’s education. However, we hold this view as a “year at a time, child at a time” decision. A combination of reasons have led us to enroll Jake at Christ Presbyterian Academy for Kindergarten this fall. So off he will go tomorrow. I know it is going to be a great year for him and I feel confident that the school is a very special place for him to spend so much of his day. It has been a hard process to make this decision and while I know it is the right thing for Jake this year, part of me is still profoundly sad.
Jake is our creative, free spirited child. We will miss having him around but we look forward to seeing what God has in store for all of us in this new chapter of Jake’s life and our family.
I love these rare, cooler summer mornings with my barefooted babies in the grass.
Zinnias have been my favorite summer flowers- so easy to grow, and the more you pick, the more they bloom. They attract butterflies too. Perfect for a kid-friendly garden!
Ben has not put this book down all week… he is becoming very interested in learning to read! I’m excited to have special time with Ben this year while big brother is at school.
Yearly traditions are so fun now that the boys are old enough to remember and anticipate special events. This year we had a great time at the fair. We stayed longer than we ever had, even through nap time! We missed seeing the BMX bikers and the Ferris wheel was not there. Ben had been looking forward to riding it all year, since he wasn’t tall enough last year. The big boys were definitely more into the rides, and trying bigger things. Jake really wanted to do the big upside down stomach flipping rides, and he probably would have if they would let 6 year olds on them.
Nascar simulator
The little 1’s farm exhibit is always one of my favorites! Here are some year by year pictures…
2011 2010
2009
2011- maybe the last year they will think this ride is cool!
2010
2009
I can’t forget to mention sweet little Abby! She was the best sport ever, hanging out in the stroller, eating a pound of snacks from home, and taking a little nap without a fuss when she had enough of the fair.
