september? seriously??

first day of mother's day out

playing in the creek behind our house

rock climbing with my cousin amos!

art...their favorite subject!

I can't believe it's already september!! My last post I talked about how we were reorganizing to make a schoolroom...well...we ended up moving (quite a way to reorganize, eh?)!! It's a really long story having to do with AC, anyways...we're moved into our new place, which has less rooms but more space and an awesome backyard (plus a creek and a paved bike path!!). Needless to say, beginning school has been a whirlwind here. We started homeschooling a week after we moved in...it's taken some time to figure out how to schedule our days, but every week has been better than the first so far! :) All five of the kids go to a homeschool co-op once a week which will be really good to have a day off during the week. Other than that we're definitely keeping busy. Hopefully I'll get back into posting more than once every other month. :)...thanks for checking in!!

Visiting with friends

Kylie got to spend 1/2 a day with Allison (her best h'burg friend) and Allison's chickens. :)

taking turns riding the horse (Sophie, i think)

Family hayride fun!

Kylie and Zoe

Sweet girlfriends :)

Driving the tractor...i think her name is 'Jane'.

longtime h'burg friends. sarah and i were friends, pre-children. i think i met keary when i started watching her oldest (who was 1 at the time). we now have 14 kids between the 3 of us!

Fowler's, Mirabella's, Glick's and Ritchie's in front of cricket cottage.

We were only in h'burg for less than 48 hours....which wasn't enough time to see everyone (sadly). In all, our summer trip to VA this year was fun. I think i might need to figure out a way to make it not quite as chaotic. Hard to know how to do that, though.

So. I think I'm caught up to the end of July!! I know that I missed a bunch this past spring...and I'm hoping that this school year I'll be able to keep up a little better. I might actually put Kylie to work posting and updating..... she might enjoy that. :) I think that I mentioned before that I'm going to be homeschooling this coming year. I put my order in this week and am getting more excited about it as it gets closer. We are in the midst of reorganizing the house to make the den into a schoolroom. Other than that... and right now being without AC (it's very hot)...not much else is going on! It's been a great summer with VBS, swimteam, GA and our trip to VA. I can't believe it's almost over already!!

Thanks for checking in!!

Cricket Cottage and the Baggett's!

Some Mirabella kids and all the Baggett kids!

Mike and Seth gave us a private concert :). Actually they were practicing for later that evening and were sweet to let us listen!

Saturday morning on the farm. :)
Seriously, the 3 older kids had a blast raking hay to feed the cows, picking potatoes and squash from the garden....we always love staying at cricket cottage when we're in h'burg

The Baggett fam. They happened to be visiting family nearby so they came out and spent a couple hours with us. We ate gyros from Gus's, I mean, Dave's....let the kids play and enjoyed the beautiful day. The Baggett's are church-planting in the Philedelphia area....check out their website if you're interested: redemptionpca.com

Visiting Grandpa and Boxerwood!

We only spent the day with tom's dad...after lunch we visited the horse center, and spent some time at the boxerwood gardens, ending it all with a trip to sweet treats in lexington. The kids really had a good time at boxerwood and probably would've been happy to spend the whole day there! It was also neat to see the place that grandpa is always talking about! :) Anyone who is close by I would highly recommend taking your kids there! The play garden is a ton of fun!!

Visiting NoVA....

We spent a day in D.C. when we were visiting VA. Our friend, Kerry, met up with us and we enjoyed visiting the washington monument, the american history museum and the natural history museum. I never did appreciate the fact that I grew up next to so much rich history.

Awesome dollhouse!

Mirabella, Burns and Phillips children being silly!

So far, every summer, at least some of the 8 of us college friends are able to get together for a time of visiting....usually going out to eat and sharing our joys and trials from the previous year...and things to pray for for the year to come. I have really appreciated time spent with these girls who have known me for so many years now! Tom also spends a weekend a year with 3 or 4 of his college friends...they actually get away and stay up late playing cards (or settlers) and such. What a blessing to be able to have such good fellowship!

My brother and his fam were with us at our parents house for 4 days! The kids built a fort in the living room, played and traded pokemon cards, took walks to the school playground and overall had a great time together!

Grandma and her grandkids.

A-ma and A-kong and their grandkids!

the semi-matching Wu/Mirabella family pic! gotta love the self-timer with 4 shots in 8 seconds!! :)

AJ turned 6!!!

Very hard to believe that my once 2lb 13oz preemie is now 6 years old!! We celebrated twice in Virginia...once on her birthday with cake and chuck-e-cheeses (and wegman's for lunch) and once the next weekend at grandma's house with a couple friends and some of Tom's cousins. I've always felt bad that we don't have a kid party at home for AJ b/c it seems that we are always visiting family on her birthday....but she has really come to love having a party at grandma's house!

General Assembly Week!

It was such a blessing to have some non-kid time with the Quillen's, Hathaway's and Connor's!

Tom's mom came out to stay with the five kids while Tom and I were in Nashville for the week. She was such a blessing to us...we had a great time visiting with friends in such a way that would not have been possible with our kids there. THANKS Rose Marie!!