Fair, Horses, Fair, Fairies, Zoo, Fair

It's time to play catch up. This week I've experienced some technical difficulties. We got a new camera, which is totally fabulous by the way, but when I went to download the pictures for the first time, I did it all wrong, and then it took a while for the techno-wizard in our family (that would be Nate and unfortunately NOT me) to have a spare second to fix things... so now I am way behind on posting pictures. This just may be the longest post ever. Here goes:

1. Health Fair at Nate's work

Um Dad- what exactly is the snake doing to that mouse? (Click on the picture and look in the cage.)
Tess atop the cheeramid

2. Horseback riding




"Nora, look at the camera."


Oh dear- it looks like someone is allergic to horses.

3. While Nate and the boys went to the state fair, the girls and I went to a Fairy Festival where we made and bought fairy crafts to raise money for Rising Star Outreach.

Looks like Will got a date for this ride

4. Playgroup at the zoo

Film clip of the kids and the SCARY leopard

5. The final fair of the week- the school carnival

I have no pictures of the actual event but here is the result:

This is what my kids would look like as troll dolls

This is what they would look like as trolls on acid.

Boys will be boys...

...and Nora will always want to be in on the action with her brothers.


Here is a clip of the kids playing "Kung Fu Panda." This is a little game that began after we saw the movie on Labor Day.

I love how David lets Will throw him down at one point. Oh Davey- a BIG guy with a BIG heart!

Sidenote: I do NOT recommend the dollar movie theater on a rainy Labor Day. It was a bit crowded. Also, Five Guys Burgers was not a good choice. Totally yummy (yes Matt C.- delicious!) but very little breathing space.

P.S.

I didn't have to go in for jury duty this week after all. Yep- got out of it again. At least for the next 11 months...

2008 was the summer of...

• the kids learning to swim
• being able to have a field trip every day (and not feeling like it was "too hard" with so many little ones)
• NO MORE DIAPERS
• lunch at Einsteins
• Surf Shack
• Tess' 2 front teeth finally growing in
• David rarely seen without an apple or nectarine in his hand
• Will riding his bike in his underwear (or nothing at all)
• Nora surpassing Will in height (but not weight of course)
• bike races in the church parking lot
• the hose on the tramp and twirly slide
• another year of not painting the house...or relandscaping...or fixing the sloping porch...or building the pergola. Okay so we irresponsibly spent our "home improvement" budget on our trip to Thailand. But I don't think you'll hear us complaining.
• SCUBA DIVING
• the Beijing Olympics
• Michael Phelps...man I love that guy.

FUN, FUN, FUN

School in Session

Woo hoo! That's right...it's PAR-TAY time at the Meeker house because this year the "triplets" are off to preschool, and that means seven and a half hours of free time for Erin each week. (I just referred to myself in the third person...kind of weird but we'll go with it.) Now don't get me wrong. I adore my children and love spending time with them. It's just that I LOVE (in all caps) having time to myself when I can do whatever I want without interruption. Probably because it's much harder to come by. I have already started planning my errands and projects for each morning that they are in school...and I must admit...I feel all sorts of giddiness inside. All of those things that have been on my "to do" list for 3 years now might actually get done!

Here are pictures of David, Will and Nora on their first day:

So excited! (We've only been preparing them for 4 months now.)
All picked out their own backpacks (Well, that's not entirely true. Nora got Tess' old backpack...but as long as it has Cinderella on it, it's all good.)

And pictures of Tess on her first day of 2nd grade:
Her table had friends from last year's class which was such good thinking on her teacher's part.


And pictures of Nora at her first dance class:
So cute with her oversized hand-me-down leotard and lopsided pigtails.
Nora with teacher Miss Amberly (Amberly was one of my dance students back in the day. Wow- that makes me sound so old.)
Feeling sassy with red satin gloves from the prop box.

From Gods Arms to My Arms to Yours

I came across this clip on an adoption blog today, and man, this song gets me every time.

In our home, the words "birth mom" are sacred. We have so much love , honor and respect for these women. K & H- you are forever a part of our family. No words can express our gratitude.

I think our case worker put it best when he said, "We can't comprehend what these women are asked to do. The Lord expects them to make an Abrahamic sacrifice. But in their case, the knife is not stayed."

No Pets Allowed

At the Meeker home we have a "no pets allowed" philosophy. Why? Well, mostly because Nate and I are lazy. We have enough chaos as is right now without throwing in other breathing, living things that need to be cared for and looked after.

This has led to sheer desperation for poor Tess. Here she is with her pet snail on Labor Day. She found this snail outside and took him some food and an umbrella to keep dry in the rain.

This snail never got a name, because unfortunately, just after this picture was taken Will accidentally stepped on the poor creature. (Oh you should have heard Tess scream. Actually if you live within a mile radius of us you probably did.)

This brings me to another point- we don't have pets because every time we do the thing is dead within 24 hours.

Last week, our kind neighbors brought us garden-grown tomatoes and squash. Tess chose the largest yellow squash, adopted him as her pet, and appropriately named him "Squashy." (She even took him to school as her show-n-tell on Fri.) Squashy went everywhere with Tess that day (she even strapped him into the seat belt with her in the car)... until David got a hold of him, threw him across the room and broke him in half. Poor, poor Squashy.

Last night I served up Squashy for dinner. Nate took one bite, immediately spit him out and declared him to be "bitter." Now Nate is not a picky eater and never spits out food, so the kids thought this was hilarious.

Note to self: Next time don't prepare vegetables that have been man-handled by children.

Civic Duty

Today is day 1 of my jury duty. Now I know what some of you might be thinking, "But wait, didn't Erin just barely have jury duty?" And the answer would be YES. 11 months ago. But apparently if you never actually appear in court (which I didn't the first time around) your name goes right back into the system and you have just as good a shot as anyone else of being summoned. Again.

Who knew?

So far this week they have requested juror numbers 1-95 to appear on Tues and Wed. I am juror #98. Things aren't looking too good for me. But I'm trying to think positively. Maybe it will be a rather interesting experience. And they do tell you that you may have to wait, so to bring a book or laptop. Reading time = relaxing time. I could definitely be okay with that. And when Nate looked at his work schedule he did say that this is actually a good week for him to have to watch the kids because, amazingly, there aren't any meetings he has to be to. So.....I guess now is as good a time as any. Bring it on. I'm ready to fulfill my civic duty.

Also, just thought I would share that on Friday I wore my shirt backwards for the first half of the day. And ran a bunch of errands. Definitely. Noticeably. Backwards. There's a pocket on the front of that shirt. Or at least what's supposed to be the front of the shirt.

Darn it.

You know- I used to be cool. At least I thought I was cool. Apparently those days are long gone.