Day at Edisto

Before and After

Still sorting through my now 12,000 pictures, and I found these from last summer.  It is our little playhouse in the backyard.  Two little girls lived here before us, and they built this cute pink row house, but I felt it needed a little sprucing up.  Since C and F both play in it, it also needed a little gender neutral color.  With a little cleaning, a little painting, new sand, and flowers, I think it looks pretty good.

Before

And after...by the way, the little girl in the picture is not Frances, just a cute little neighbor.

Let's Bowl

Back in June, I met a friend and our kiddos for a free day of bowling.  There is this neat summertime program, Kids Bowl Free, all summer where you only have to pay for shoes.  The kids had a great time.  other than the fact that they lasted a total of five frames, and Frances was determined to hold her own ball.  Here are some cute pics.

Charlie-O

I did a post a few weeks ago about Sweet Little Frances and had hoped to promptly follow-up with a post about Charles, but, well, life got busy so here we are.

Where do I even start with our little growing 3 1/2 year old?  There is not just one word that describes him, but oh so many.  He is strong-willed, determined, tender-hearted, funny, thoughtful, inquisitive, silly, cute, cute, cute.  God had me running out the gate full-speed when we had our #1.  I never thought I would enjoy having a boy this much.  Just yesterday, he caught his first lizard in the neighbor's pool.  I thought he would be scared when he saw it leaping around on his float, but he just picked it right up and held on to his baby lizard for the longest time.  Poor little lizard ended up with a shorter tail in the end, but he made it out alive.

Another thing I would love to share about Charles is how much he is learning about the Lord.  I am always amazed at what little sponges children are.  He recites the Lord's Prayer every night, and we are working on memorizing a bible verse each week.  He just picks it right up and can recall it weeks later.  I don't want his relationship with the Lord to be all head-stuff, but more importantly heart-stuff.  Just the other day, we were talking about birthday parties and whose birthday was next, and we got to Jesus' birthday.  He wanted to know how we were going to fit a cake into his heart to give to Jesus since that is where he lives.  Wow, I just sat there for a minute and was taken back by how much he already loves Jesus.

Charles is into all things boy right now.  Cars, trucks, trains, bulldozers, airplanes, dogs, you name it.  He especially loves being outside - pool, beach, backyard, dirt, bugs, sticks.  And he loves his bicycle - I don't think a day goes by when he's not riding his shiny red bike with training wheels.  And he has gotten so fast!  As far is indoors goes, he loves any art & craft project.  He also loves the all the Cars characters.  I'm sure his collection is over 20 right now, and they go pretty much everywhere he goes, especially to bed.  He races them, he chats with them, he even shares them with Frances every once in a while.

He is really into books and always has been.  He can sit for hours and hours and look through the pictures and loves to sit in your lap to soak in a good book.  We try to hit the library on a weekly basis and go to story time to listen to Miss Mimi.   She is awesome, and both children love to hear her read and listen to her felt board stories.  His collection of books range from Curious George to Dr. Seuss to Richard Scarry's many books.

And how could I leave out Miss Frances?  Charles loves his little sister.  I'm not saying they get along all the time or never fight over toys, but for the most part, they are two peas in a pod.  They sing together, take baths together, play ball together, and laugh together.  I'm sure it helps that she is his shadow, and she will do anything he tells her to do.

With Mr. C, I have definitely read many discipline books and put together our own little discipline action plan.  He has gotten easier the older he has gotten, but let's just say the 2's and 3's have kept me on my toes.

He is in the inquisitive stage.  Why is she crying?  Why is she happy?  Why do we want to be happy?  Why does God want us to be happy?  Why, Mommy, why?  This is just a sample of of his many questions he has in the swagger wagon.

He loves to cook with me.  Anything I am cooking, he has to be right there to add the ingredients and stir.  Even if it's just putting a can of soup in the pot, he has to be my big helper.  His favorites are Mississippi Spice Muffins, chicken noodle soup, and of course, chocolate chip cookies.

Lastly, Charles loves his daddy.  He loves the tickle fest that ensues as soon as Daddy walks in the door.   He loves doughnut Saturdays.  He loves sitting in his lap to read stories.  He loves watching him mow the yard and playing ball with him.  They recently went to the Charleston Riverdogs baseball game and had the best time just the two of them.

I cannot wait to see what kind of man Charles becomes.  I hope he always has such a sweet and tender heart as he does now, but with a manly edge about him.  I love this little boy so much, and we are so proud of him.  Thank you Lord for giving him to us, he has already blessed our lives immensely.

Swim Lessons

In June, Charles had his first formal swim lessons since a water babies class we took when he was less than a year old.  Frances did a lot of watching while Charles did a lot of splashing. 

And this last picture is from his water babies swim class in 2007.  Hasn't he grown?

Cuteness

I am on a mission to organize and clean up my 14,000 photos (all taken since we turned digital at the end of 2003).  I just transferred from our old computer to our new wonderful Mac.  I thought these two were especially cute to share today.  They are in no way related, but the first is one from a recent visit with my dad.  They were looking at his computer photos after breakfast.  The second is one I took after Mr C was asleep.  It's how we find him almost every night - bed full of cars and books. 

Happy Fourth!

We just got back from a wonderful vacation with Jacob's entire family at Hilton Head.  All 23 of us to be exact.  I cannot believe his immediate family is already this big, but it is oh so much fun to have all those cousins running around!  We did a lot of playing, eating, beaching, pooling, biking, and even relaxing.  Here are a few patriotic pics to tie over until I make many posts next week.