Johnny Appleseed Day, and coolest surprise ever

Girlies were excited for Johnny Appleseed Day! They love the Disney Johnny Appleseed cartoon, and love hearing his story.

And, the best surprise ever....??

After a misty sun shower, my girls saw their first ever rainbow!!! They were jumping up and down screaming with joy; they've always wanted to see a real rainbow! So, of course I had to take a picture to document it.

Abrielle's language explosion

My baby has had a language explosion, and it hasn't been as of recent, it's just that I keep forgetting to jot it all down:

She calls Maddie "Ma ee" (she doesn't pronounce the middle consonant sounds in a lot of words, and she skips the d's in Maddie's name)

She calls Faith "Dotch" (*I have NO idea where or why she calls Faith that, but it's adorable and I love it! And, Faith really is a hard name to pronounce when you're little)

She refers to her pacifier as "ningy ningy" or "ninga-ninga"

She calls her cousins Donovan "Goggle," Ella "E ya" and Chase "Cha Cha"

She refers to herself as "Me"

She always wants to know where we are if we leave the room suddenly or if she notices we're gone "Where Daddy? Where Dotch? Where Ma ee?"

She's putting sentences together: "I did it!" "I tried it!" "I unno" (as in, I don't know)

She sings the Chocolate World ride by saying "Hershey Chocolayyyyy"

She's constantly talking about 'Didney' (Disney), Mickey (which she pronounces very clearly), and 'Duckie' (Donald)

She LOVES puppies (and dogs), and is always saying "where puppy?" when we go on a walk

She's always telling us "I poo poo" or "I pee pee"

Labor Day in Philly

The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee are upon us since yesterday, and it is supposed to continue until Thursday this week. We had planned on an excursion to the zoo for Labor Day, but had to re-think the outdoors because of all this rain. We decided on the Academy of Natural Sciences museum in downtown Philly, and it was wildly popular with our girls (and, ourselves!).

Just visiting downtown Philadelphia was a treat in itself for my girlfriends. They were amazed at the big city buildings, and the drive through the city streets. We've been talking since mid-summer about Philadelphia as one of the oldest cities in the US (and how cool it is for them that it's in our own state), and so they were already intrigued to go visit.

The museum was perfect. It wasn't enormous like the Franklin Institute and it wasn't over-crowded like I've heard the Please Touch Museum can get. We were really able to take our time through the exhibits. Girlies had been excited to see the dinosaurs and do the fossil dig, and eagerly donned their protective goggles for that part. Abrie looked adorable!:

The dioramas were awesome. Faith even told us it was like visiting the zoo since the animals looked so real. She especially loved it since she loves learning about different animal habitats. I loved the the African serengeti diorama, and had to take a picture of the 3 of them sitting there in front of it. It was cool because they were able to name almost every one of the antelopes just by the books we've read about African wildlife (even Abrie amazed me by pointing to the smallest one and saying "dik dik").

Maddie loved sifting through sand for shark's teeth in the Outside In exhibit.

And, everyone loved the miniature golf exhibit. It was called "Fore! Your Planet" and they got to do an 18-hole miniature golf course with environmental tie-in's at each hole. It was really cool. And, we weren't rushed to finish any certain hole since there wasn't anybody after us which made it even more fun:

We walked around historic Philly after the museum, and the girls really liked it. We showed them the Liberty Bell and Old City Hall.

Apple Farmer Annie x3

I have 3 little apple farmers named 'Annie.' (Oh, how they adore that book by Monica Wellington.. and, ALL books by her for that matter).

We went to Weaver's on Saturday with the intent of picking peaches for a homemade peach pie. Well, when we got there they informed us that the peach trees had been picked clean for the day. So, I asked if they had honeycrisp PYO (Madison's favorite apple), and they did! Needless to say, these girls were just in heaven with their honeycrisp finds. We picked just enough for us, and got some apple cider and more apples down at their store for baking purposes.

We were apple baking fiends this weekend. Girlies helped make apple pie (much to Dan's delight, he LOVES apple pie... and we do not like it!), apple muffins, and applesauce cake. I'd say it was an apple success.

School begins at home

Last week was no fun.

1st day of school was last Monday, August 29th.

I just hadn't been in much of a mood to write. Maddie seems to be enjoying 1st grade (it helps that her teacher seems to be a big Disney fan which hit the spot with Maddie!), and we're taking it day by day.. literally. We're leaving it up to Maddie (and, eventually Faith and Abrie) and right now she's still happy with her school.

It's a tough pill to swallow to send my girls anywhere other than our home for school. I felt so stressed last year having her away from us. I hear so often about all the moms that are so excited for summer to end and to have their children start school again, but I just hate having my girls away from me. I really don't think I'll ever get used to it, and I'm already dreading Faith having to start kindergarten next year if we continue with the public school route.

I hate "complaining" about things that I know are a drop in the bucket compared to what other people have to endure, but it's moreso a mourning than any real complaining. How I wish these girls of ours could just stay little forever.

(Abrielle loves pretending to be Maddie!)

(This pair of buddies when big sissy is gone).

("When you're the best of friends")