December 23, 2009

Christmas, South Florida style. It's a beautiful, blustery, sunshiny, warm day!!

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Chace with a weird look, Bella noticing that or Timothy on his shoulder.

Timothy's tush and Bella taking a bath, reject.

Look at Julian's toes and now look at her eyes. She's so pretty.

Bella has finished her bath and looks like she's stalking something now.

What is Chace doing? And where is Bella going?

Christmas card options...

This one looks good but no Bella.

We got Bella in this one but lost some of Jess. And what's that on Julian's head?

Want your nails done?

Julian rec'd this great nail kit and she would love to do your nails.

I've had many different designs on mine.

I'll share pics.

I'm still stuck...

Where is everybody? Can someone help me get out of this thing??

Jessica, where are you?

" Don't move Bella I want to take your picture."

"Say cheese!"


If she doesn't have a book in her hands, then you'll probably catch her taking pictures. This series has her taking a quick break from reading to snap some self portraits. Bella wanted some attention and got her picture taken too.

Indian Rocks Beach

This seems to be our refuge. We came here after Wilma blew everything away. We returned so the children could burn a little energy. It was lovely, so lovely.

Veteran's park

OK so neither is flattering of Jess but she knew I had the camera and she knew I was taking pictures, so she'll have to live with it and learn from it. The shelter we were at didn't have a lot to offer the children. The water was inviting but it also contains sharks. This swing, Chace's football and some Coca Cola kept the children entertained. Maybe that helps explain Jessica's performance.

Sitting on the dock at the bay.

We went to a memorial at the Veteran's park in Tampa. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery was even prettier. Here the children are watching a man fish. He caught 2 different baby sharks while we were there.

It's a ghost.

Colin dumped our mesh laundry bag and ended up with it on him. He thought he was quite funny running around like that and so did we!

My children always loved their Cozy Coupe and we have a multitude of pictures to prove that. Here Chace has crawled into Colin's version and Colin thinks it is such fun to roll Chace around the living room. Looks like Julian is going to tip brother over. Hmmmm, that might be the only way Chace is getting out of that thing.

Dr. Sherry Davis

Jessica likes to read, and if you can't find her, she's probably lost in a book somewhere. Jessica's school likes to acknowledge the children that read. What a pair. Here she is with local author Dr. Davis where Jess had the chance to ask questions and enjoyed a wonderful lunch.

Pumpkin Party

Do they look any older, do they look any wiser? They sure look cute to me. It was a sunny cool day in South Florida and we had a great time picking pumpkins. Chace wanted to be in this picture, can you tell?

Happy Birthday!

We had a surprise party for Julian and it went down with a hitch, or two. Daddy took her out of the house Saturday so Jess and Chace and I could transform the house and get her friends hidden. While they were out the ran into one of Julian's friends ~ one that was invited to the party. What are the chances of that happening?? But the bottom line is that we surprised Julian and she had a great time.

We had been planning her party since early October, so the details were easy, I knew who she wanted to invited and what she wanted to eat, etc. The secretive part was the doozy and I'm terrible at keeping the face straight.
When Julian came in the house she ambled towards the kitchen trying to figure out why there was party stuff on the table. Then the girls all popped out from behind the counter and yelled, "SURPRISE!" Julian was so sweet, she hugged each of the girls as they all giggled and swarmed her.

SPARKY!!!

Meet Sparky.
Now meet Jess dressed as Sparky.
Jessica smiled when I took this picture.

Gravity!

A story from Chace to share with you. At recess the football got stuck in a tree and the teacher and children were trying to get it down. Other balls were thrown at the stuck ball but didn't extract the football from the tree. Chace then picks up a stick and one of the girls, someone smart and forward thinking, says to him, "A stick, what's that going to do?" Chace responds, "I'll show you what it can do," and he hurls the stick and it beams his teacher in the head. And now, since you're laughing too hard to read anymore, that is the end of the story.

The living room exploded!!

The picture I promised, the picture I'm just so proud of... When the children get home from school they make it to the living room and then they collapse along with everything they brought home from school. Let's start of the right hand side of the picture and take a journey. You'll notice boxes and cardboard stacked up for the pending haunted house. On the rug you'll notice some of the pumpkins my children selected, the contents of both backpacks, Julian's tennies and the green beside the big orange pumpkin is probably Chace's shirt. Over to the left you'll notice the rocking chair and ottoman. This looks like a good place to display a pumpkin. On the chair is either Chace's jeans or one of his dummies dressed and ready to scare. Not sure what the red and blue items are by the trash can but I do know that the trashcan is sitting in that spot so that the person that's supposed to empty it will see that it is completely full and not need to be asked to take the bag to the garbage can. And then you've come to the three paper boxes by the desk. That is my current solution to papers brought home from school. Coincidentally, that's probably the only solution you'll see for those papers through out the whole school year.

Happy Halloween

My house is haunted thanks to Chace and his gang!! But more on that later. Secondly, we're having technical difficulties downloading pics so you'll just have to wait on that piece of the BLOG.

Wanted to share a funny story with you. We had dress-up night at AWANA this week and brought out the character costumes. Jess dressed as 'Sparky' and another young man dressed as 'Cubbie.' They were in William's office as they transformed from mere teenagers to a cuddly teddy bear and a cute firefly. There was a lot of giggling and goofing as they put on the big, bulky costumes. I was concerned about us disturbing another office that contained a pastor who was counseling a couple. So the costumes are on and I want to take pictures. First Jess. "OK Sparky stand right here, no face this way, listen for my voice..." You see these costumes are meant for bodies a little bit bigger than my petite 13 year old. SNAP, picture taken and then I hear Jessica's muffled voice say, "Why did I just smile?" Next is Cubbies picture and then we head out to scare, I mean greet the children. Only Cubbie bear takes a wrong turn and walks right into that aforementioned office with counseling going on. UGH With our apologies and a few goofy smiles, we back up and head to the correct door. And I was worried our noise would bother them.
The next morning at work, I asked the interrupted pastor if he was at least counseling parents of AWANA kids. He answered, with a smile, "Nope, .... they were in for premarriage counseling." UGH

By now I've heard which student had to move their name due to behavior. This includes my children in the story sometimes, too. we make it to the front door and then we explode all over the living room. I'll take a picture of that next week and show you what that looks like. EEK!!

Just keep swimming

Eventually, in one of the stories I hear, "I'm hungry" and then "me too!" So we trudge the short journey homeward. At this point we've heard about lunch and recess and who cried.

Is there a child on that bookbag?

Sometimes the stories start instantly, sometimes I have to wait until we get on the inside sidewalk. But once those stories start there's no end in sight; they piggy back each other with stories.

My heart beats so fast to see these two smiling faces come home.

The world stops, or at least the traffic does so that these two wonderful children can cross the road safely. So that I can kiss their heads and hear about their day. "So and so did this, so and so didn't do that..." It's stuff that isn't going to change the world but stuff that I enjoy soaking up ever single weekday. And they stroll across the street knowing that they own it right now in (hopefully) anticipation of that hug that's waiting for them on the sidewalk. Once they've made it off the road the driver and I once again exchange waves; he shuts off the lights and progresses to the next stop and I herd my sheep to the house.

Here comes Chace.

Julian checks to make sure her older brother has gotten off the bus OK. Sure enough, there he is, off and running. As it turns out, on this day, Chace was entertaining the fellow students on the bus. Bet you're shocked to hear that one, I sure was ; ) He was doing his finest Michael Jackson impersonation.

Julian is off the bus.

Notice the clothing for October 6 in South Florida. Julian is usually the first one off and smiles the biggest as she rounds the corner. Day one they both went to the side of the road towards the sidewalk you can see in the picture. It seemed the right thing to do. I guess they were going to wait until the bus was gone to cross. The bus driver tooted the horn and motioned for them to cross the road. They still look both ways when they cross the street.

They're almost here.

The bus stops right in front of our street and typically my two are the only two that get off the bus. Once the bus is stopped the driver looks over at me and we wave at each other. He smiles real big, hopefully not because my two are getting off the bus he's driving.

The bus stop.

I greet the children at the bus stop most every day. It's my turn to be excited about a school bus. I love to see that bus coming because I know it has two children on it that are going to get off and share their morning's events with me. Each day those events are different. But each day those events are exciting!!

SSS' COOL BUS

That's how my children would announce any and all yellow buses whenever they spotted them as small children. Once they grew out of that stage, they moved on to wanting to ride a school bus. Not sure if you know this or not, but it isn't necessary for home schooled children to ride a school bus. "OH, I wish I could ride a school bus," was their hearts' yearning and I think they would have been thrilled to get on and just ride with no destination in mind. Earlier this year the opportunity came whence my children got to ride a school bus. You'll remember it was during Spring Break and they went on a couple of field trips.
Now that my children are in school we have Chace and Julian riding the magical school bus home from school. They are the first stop, the first to get off the bus. I've taken some pics to show you the routine.

"Of course we're going to eat at Denny's"

Known to talk in her sleep, every now and then I get to hear the secrets of Julian's heart. This morning I heard her whisper, "Of course we're going to eat at Denny's." And I am once again reminded of how important traditions are within the family. You see on Wednesday nights is AWANA and after AWANA we usually go to Denny's. At Denny's we turn back into the Long family; where we discuss the night, the family, the happenings and the world. We have the same waitress, Michelle, and she knows what the children eat and what we're going to drink. Sometimes she has it ready at the table for us before we can sit down. She serves Julian her shake and pours an extra glass because she knows Julian's daddy (and the rest of the family) will try Julian's and drink all of her treat. The children get to try the crane machine and typically one of them comes away with a stuffed animal. When we were strictly homeschooling, it didn't matter how late this tradition went. The children could sleep in and there you have another tradition. Now that the children are in school we are sure to get away from church ASAP and we don't dawdle long at the restaurant. This week we didn't have AWANA. This week we didn't go to Denny's. This week I got to prepare supper for my whole family on Wednesday night. No one mentioned Denny's yesterday, so it wasn't like the topic was fresh in our minds. Yet Julian is dreaming about Denny's. And so our tradition goes on. Once again next week, we'll go to Denny's and Michelle will be there to welcome us.

And now I look at the picture of my beautiful children and am reminded of another family tradition. The pumpkin patch, I LOVE pumpkin patches. This one is an annual tradition and it's almost time to hit the pumpkin patch to take pictures of the children. And traditionally, I'll find that they've changed since the last time I took a picture of them in a pumpkin patch.

Sonja came to visit.

She brought a mystery man with her. He was great with the children and they loved him!!

Julian does nails too!

WCA Eagles!!

Buca di Beppo

We ate in the kitchen!!!! Excellent Italian dining.

It gets better.

Because everything is better when GLITTER is added.

And when lip pencils are drawn into my wrinkle lines.

TADA The finished product with any hope of a career in cosmetology

for Julian gone completely out the window. At least until she gets more make-up.

What is that sinking feeling?

OK so this is a little weird, don't ya think?

But wait there's more.

The forehead?? REALLY? OH, you're putting hearts on my forehead, that's fine go ahead.

The eyes have it.

OK, yes the eyelids are finished.
Maybe the artisit only has one make-up tool.
This could get interesting.

The artist

Pausing to pose for another picture.

And hey, it looks like my eyes are finished?

So the make-over begins...

First she did my lips. And what a good job!!

And next came the eyes.

Look at that firm pressure she uses to hold my head while

using the lip pencil to fill in my eyebrows.

Wait a minute, did you say LIP pencil?? Hmmm

"Mommy, can I give you a make-over?" said Julian

1.
And I agreed, I mean what better way to spend time with your 8 year old daughter and besides maybe there's a hidden talent there waiting to burst out. I'll let the cell phone self portraits tell some of the story.

Look at the artist ~ she looks trustworthy, adorable, confident AND she came with her own make-up! I'm in. And I'm the mother so no warning bells are ringing, yet.

Wedding etiquette

I had the privilege to take my two daughters to a wedding yesterday. The thought was to let them see a Christian wedding in all it's glory and learn and take notes. Jessica had been to another one recently and had many good questions. We had the unfortunate opportunity to sit behind an adult male who must have thought the event was about him. At first I thought he was showing off for the very pretty young lady he was sitting beside. But it went on too long, as if he had lost control of himself. Then I wondered if he was on drugs or maybe mentally slow, because he pretty much talked/laughed and goofed through out the entire wedding. I believe he knew the people sitting in front of him as they were trying to settle him down but that just gave him more to feed off of. I was appalled by his behaviour and said a prayer hoping he would realize what a fool he was making of himself. He did quiet for a while and then, when he couldn't contain himself anymore, he started up again. I pray that the bride and groom did not hear his obnoxiousness. Unfortunately most of our conversation on the way home revolved around this immature person and his actions. Once beyond that, we did get to discuss the beautiful ceremony, the lovely songs and the touching prayers that all circled around and glorified God. Kent and Michelle thank you for being a shining example to my daughters.

Lunch in NC with friends from FL.

Jessica, Chace and Thomas

Nick, Emily and Madison

CHEERS!! MaryAnn and David.

We ate lunch at Friendly's with the friendly Farias and the friendly Hannons. I think the favorite, for everyone, was dessert!!! But the straws were a lot of fun, too.