surprise visit

Gabriel and the coveted box of chocolate covered cherries

Monday afternoon we had a surprise visit from Grandpa and Grandma Schneider. The kids love it when they get these kind of surprises. You never know what kind of treasures will come, usually a good amount of stickers, maybe a calendar (or datebook) or two, maybe a t-shirt or two and usually cappuccino mix (or "cuppuccina" as Grandma calls it). The highlight treasure this time was a box of chocolate covered cherries.

You see, Grandma is famous (as Benjamin would say) for chocolate covered cherries. She loves to give them and receive them and my children love, love, love them because of her.

My sister once asked if my children really did like them, I assured her they did. I'm sure they like that they are chocolate and sickly sweet. But what I think they really like, is that they remind them of Grandma and all the love they experience when she's around.

I teased Grandma that she was just emptying out her stash so she could replenish it again! Because I know that it will be replenished because Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without chocolate covered cherries.

More funny traditions at the Schneider house!

traditions

Autumn is here! This morning after realizing that it was cooler outside than inside the house, our a/c got turned off and the windows flew open. The cool wind blowing inside was just what this mama needed. It brought back memories of past autumns. Benjamin said, "This feels like our old house. I miss our old house." It's the only house that Benjamin remembers, all his memories are tied to that one house.

Then, someone said it, I don't recall who said it first, but we all agreed, "It's time to make hot chocolate!" Oh, yes. It most definately is time to make hot chocolate. So this evening while the older boys and daddy were gone at small group we snuck to the grocery store and got the goods.

Our first cup of hot chocolate of the season.

It's funny the things that have become traditions for us.

What are some of your traditions?

edited to add hot chocolate recipe:
1 box powdered milk (8-10qt.size)
1 box Nestle Quick (15oz)
1 coffee creamer - dry (16oz)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Mix all ingredients in very large bowl, store in airtight container. To make hot chocolate, fill cup about 1/2 of mix and add hot water. Enjoy!!!

Linked to Tasty Tuesdays

rainy day

Our day started with playing in the rain...

...and ended with a tent city in our livingroom.

The tent stayed up for several hours. In fact, Phoebe and Benjamin chose to eat dinner standing up since 2 of the kitchen chairs were used for the tent. They pretended they were pilgrim children who had to stand because dad hadn't had time to build all the chairs for the family!

If you've had rain lately, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. It amazing how much such a simple thing like rain can mean. It's good to see the grass turning green again, even our grass is looking pretty good now.

This morning I just stood in the doorway and watched it come down. As I stood there I was reminded that a season doesn't last indefinately. There is always another season around the corner. This is also true spiritually. So if you find yourself in a hard season of life, be encouraged, it won't last indefinately!

Have a great week!

weekending...

There's something wonderful about Fridays at our house. We have a kind of laid back school day and start getting ready for the weekend.

The weekend, full of so many possibilities, esp. weekends where we don't have to do anything. Weekends where we can each spend quantity of time doing what we love to do... separately, yet together. This weekend will be filled with lots of reading, sewing, playing outside in the cool 89 degree weather, maybe some woodworking and I'm sure a little video game action.

And, of course, being entertained by Esther. Look what she did this afternoon!

Hope you guys have a glorious weekend, too!

the bike trail

Our city has recently built a bike trail near our house. It's really fun and even has a small hill! We broke it in the other evening with not only bikes but also rip-sticks and a stroller.


On the way home we saw a cute baby squirrel that really wasn't scared of us. It reminded us of the chipmunks in St. Elmo, Colorado.

Did you see that orange blurb at the end of the video? That was a very serious biker who almost ran mama over because we were taking up the entire width of the trail!



::note to self - remind children to stay on the right side and go single file::

Enjoy!

look who's 4...

...months, that is...

the "official" 4 month photo

the "goofy" 4 month photo

Smiles, one and all, even the last day of our first week of school. We had such a great but hectic week! The older boys are doing speech and debate this year so Monday night we had a meeting, then Tues. afternoon they had Drama. We participate in a homeschool co-op and that started Thursday morning. Next week, Phoebe and Benjamin will start Art on Thursday afternoons. We've never been this busy with ouside activities but I knew this season would come. As the children have gotten older there are things that they want to try and there are things that we want them to do to help prepare them for adulthood, like speech and debate. But to be honest, some days I miss the season where my biggest decision was how many picture books to read before nap time.

It's all so bittersweet!