How Does OUR Garden Grow?

Look at our garden and how big it has gotten.

The watermelon and tomato plants are thriving. Those watermelon vines are running everywhere and running out of places to go...I had to pull one tendril out of the grass this morning and redirect it up the fence.

And if you look V E R Y carefully, you can see the teeny tiny little tomatoes just starting to pop. These wee fellas are about the size of the tip of my pinky....just to give you the scale here.

Very exciting stuff....my boys have green thumbs!

(On another totally random, non-related, yet still exciting side note....I have discovered a new "tasty treat" that I plan to blog about and share with you all later this week. Get ready to have your taste buds tickled!)

J is for Jamberry

Last week, I asked Eli what book he would like to be our book of the week, and he chose Jamberry by Bruce Degen.

The story has a fun rhyming pattern with a lot of nonsense words...ending in berry. Eli quickly became "Eliberry" for the rest of the week. I, of course, was "Mommyberry." He is starting to understand rhyming...only just beginning though.

We counted and sorted blueberries

and strawberries,

Tasted different berries (blueberry, strawberry, and raspberries) and Jamberry toast,

practiced cutting and gluing while making "Jamberry Pie,"

wrote the letter j,

and colored and glued our own characters from the book.

Eli really liked all of the coloring, cutting, and gluing best. I'm not sure what book we'll be choosing next...and with school starting up, I'm not sure if I should do this in addition to what he's doing at school. I don't want to overload him. Advice? Tips? Anyone? He does like the activities (and so do I...) We'll see. I still really want to make a felt board and do storytelling that way too. I think he will L O V E it!

Getting It Together

Funny how you just all of a sudden kick it into gear, isn't it? This morning, Eli woke up almost an hour earlier than he has been the last several weeks. The first words out of my mouth were, "Are you kidding me?" After a L O N G and "fit"-filled morning, I finally paused long enough to realize that Eli is running a fever. It was as if I needed an excuse to do nothing today. I always feel a sense of urgency to get him out of the house, do fun things, find ways to fill our day. But when he's under the weather, it means we stay put. Can I tell you? I have accomplished so many little tasks around the house because I all of a sudden, had time. While I propped Eli on the couch with juice, a blanket, and Curious George, I kicked it into high gear....folding and putting away laundry, cleaning out Eli's closet and drawers, packing away clothes that don't fit, and tidied. Whoa! That is more than I've done in a while. The lazy days of summer have hit me hard! Of course, I spent time with the boy too. We did some puzzles, colored, and read lots of books. Since he's been down for a nap, I've mowed the yard and am now eying our overflowing pile of papers "to-be-filed".

If you peek behind my little bass-man, you can see just a little of the embarrassment I like to call the office. Maybe storage room is a better name. It just happens to be the room in which we keep all our files, books and computer too. One of these days, I hope to make it an office again....and maybe even add "craft room" to its name. One day....

But for now...back to work! Step 1 in reclaiming the office is sorting through the files. Gotta keep going before my drive and energy are gone! Happy Thursday!

Thank You, MJ!

As I had hoped, the very talented Michael Johnston, captured some fantastic photos of our family at the beach the other week. If you wanna...check out his blog and give him some comment love.

http://www.mbjphoto.com/blog/

Gone Bananas for Gorillas

A good friend of mine recently started a blog, and I have just been blown away by all of her creativity and enthusiasm for educating her children through fun and engaging activities at home this summer. I quickly complimented her by leaving a comment on her blog posts about what a true SUPER MOM she is....as a mother of 3, and her youngest is only a couple months old! I begged her to share her materials with me, and she did! Thanks, Christina! We started with a book that has always been one of Eli's favorites, Good Night, Gorilla.

All week long, we have read the book and have done several activities about gorillas and other zoo animals this week. At the library, we checked out several picture books and even a non-fiction book about gorillas. Eli has enjoyed all of the gorilla stories and has learned some interesting facts about them, such as their diet. In the car, we have been listening to the Magic Tree House book, Good Morning, Gorillas. He listens so intently and talks about the story after we've gotten out of the car. We cut out cards with each of the animals in the story on them and did some sorting activities. I even had him use the animal cards to "act out" the story. We focused on the word "zoo," and Eli now recognizes it, reads it, and spells it. We even practiced drawing the letter "z." Eli especially enjoyed the coloring pages

and making "banana treats."

These treats were supposed to be an easy project...I thought. Not that easy to make or eat, but tasty just the same.

It was fun to do all of these activities with Eli, and he liked doing them too. I am planning to make our next book pick and decide on the activities in the next day or two.

We also (as I alluded to earlier...) went to the library again this past week. The favorites picks from the last batch include:

This book was one we picked after reading my friend's blog again. The story quickly gained Eli's attention, and we read it more than any other book we checked out last time. The story has a fun sequence of events and each time the little girl goes a new place with her mother on her errands, she adds something to her pocketbook. Eli adored the step-by-step story and insisted that we recheck it out this time around.

This delightful "call and response" style story has 1-2 words on each page. The entire dialogue between these two boys who meet and become friends is very simple and is fun to act out. Eli loved dialoguing in this style with me while reading the story and even later in the car. A toddler favorite!

Well, that is it from our neck of the reading woods. I can't wait to find our favorites from this batch of library books and try out a new book of the week.

Hard to believe that I head back to work in just 2 short weeks, and Eli will start in 3 weeks. My baby big boy is going to be part of the preschool at the school I work at. Like always, he'll come to school with me, I'll work a half day, and then we'll head home together a little after noon. The only difference this time, is that he'll be a student. Crazy and exciting!

Potty Central

A potty training update for those interested....those not interested...oh well, I'm sharing anyways.

Eli has been at it for almost 3 weeks now, and is virtually accident free. If I'm being completely honest, I would tell you about the few several many accidents he had at the beach, but doesn't everyone pee in the ocean or on the beach? OK, so maybe you don't poop your pants and then pee them 5 minutes after Mommy just cleaned up the poop....but we're just going to chalk that up to too much going on too soon. If the boy is close to home or at home, he is pretty close to perfect. Since getting back from the beach on Sunday, he's only had one accident (and it was at his friend's house...sorry LA!). He quickly settled back into his routine and got right back on track using the potty.

We are very proud of you, Eli. And we just love your big boy underwear!

This is officially my last post this month which means it is time for July's picture link. Enjoy...there are a lot!
(and i actually just added a few more from my sissy, Theresa's camera. they were too good to not share!)

Back to Wrap-Up

Alrighty...I'm back. Don't know how far I'll get since I have spent 2 hours of Eli's nap time tutoring students. He'll likely be up any minute.

Picking up where I left off: Thursday, my sister, Lindsey and her man, Matt B., were able to join us from Atlanta. Even Daddy surprised us by arriving early afternoon...he was able to sneak away from work. (My hubby has been working incredibly hard and long hours this last month on a very important case. I'm so proud of him, but at the same time, I can't wait to have him back when this case is finished.) It was another beautiful day at the beach.

Eli got all geared up and decided that he needed his old pair of sunglasses (that I'd brought for Asher...) back to act as goggles in the water. Funny kid! It was also a perfect day for sleeping on the beach.

I love his froggy legs & the surfer dude look.

That evening, we had the wonderfully talented, Michael Johnston come down and take some pictures of our family as we aren't often all in the same place at the same time these days. It was a perfect July evening to have photos taken. I cannot WAIT to see how the pictures came out. We have never had professional pictures taken of Eli, (...why would we? I have a camera glued to my face, right? I take OK pics, but I'm definitely NOT a professional!...) so I'm super excited to see the ones of him and our family. And I honestly have to admit that it was a bittersweet event as they were our first family pictures that Kelly isn't in. I know she was there with us in spirit, but still...

Ok...on to more of our week and happier thoughts...

What an adorable grin!

Friday, the boys got some time to swim before Daddy had to head back to Tallahassee the next morning for more work.

We are happy that Daddy was willing to drive back and forth all weekend long. He made the 1 1/2+ hour drive several times throughout the week/weekend so he could spend as much time with us as he could despite his case heating up.

Friday was also the day that the Uncle Ricky's parents drove up from Oldsmar, and his sister and hubby came over from Pensacola.

With family living on opposite sides of the country, you are all willing to drive to a central location to spend time with loved ones. It was a lot of fun having everyone at the beach for the weekend. Everyone wants some of that awesome Asher love.

It was a perfect weekend with only one spell of bad weather in the entire week hitting Saturday morning...but the rain cleared up in time for another delightful afternoon on the beach. Typical scenes from the weekend would include:

tanning, reading, cornhole-ing...

...the men-folk in the water identifying (rather than solving) all the world's problems...

...and those finding a haven in the shade.

All the while, Eli is making trips back and forth from his hole to the ocean with his watering can.

The Lotspeiches brought along their sea kayaks. The water was definitely calm enough Saturday afternoon and evening to take them out. Those interested got a chance to paddle around and even fish (with no luck. boo!) Eli, of course, was enthralled by the kayaks. He waited and waited for his turn. As soon as one group got back in, Eli grabbed his inner tube and climbed on in. He was a natural...figured out exactly what to do with the paddle after watching the first two while they were out.

Can't you see the way he handled the paddle with authority and confidence? Later, Mr. Lotspeich, or "Mr. Rick" (or even just plain Rick) as Eli called him, took Eli out for an official ride. Thank you very much, Mr. Rick. Eli fell in love with the kayaks!

For our final evening, we decided to try a shrimp boil, and it was quite the spread. Deeee-licous!

Sunday was our final day in paradise. We planned to stay all day and soak all the sun and fun that we could before going our separate ways and heading back to reality.* On our drive back to town, we managed to twist my dad's arm into stopping for dinner at Angelo's...a favorite for sure. We all gorged on freshly caught seafood and some of the best hush puppies I've ever had! Mmmm!

Monday was supposed to be departure day for our Denver family, but after several LONG delays at a teeny tiny Tallahassee airport with nothing to do and fear of getting stuck in Dallas with a 2 month old baby, Theresa, Ricky, and Asher decided to stay the night and try again in the morning. Susanna decided to try, and got a solo seat on a jam-packed flight from Dallas to Denver with a stand-by list 15+ people long. Despite the horrible situation, at least we got another night with them. In the morning, we walked to the neighborhood coffee shop,

got some more Asher love,

and then made our way back to the airport...one more time. This time, it was only an hour delay, and they made it safely home.

It was truly spectacular to have this time at the beach as a family despite all of our busy schedules and living across the country from one another. We are blessed to all love each other, and we honestly adore spending time together. (No, we are not perfect, and yes we have plenty of drama too...after all, we are a family of all girls.)

We also couldn't help but terribly miss our sweet sister, Kelly, all week long. We took a moment Saturday evening to spread some of her ashes at one of her favorite places in all the world. It is always so hard to admit that she is really gone and that she is never coming back, and spreading her ashes is such a tangible reminder of the truth. We know that she is forever with us, but just not in the way we wish she was.

It will be a while before we are all together again. Looking forward to it already!

*sorry for no group Snyder family picture...we only took one...& it was incomplete...& sadly, i'm too vain to post it, i looked horrible! here's hoping MJ got some good shots to commemorate the entire group being present.