Four generations together

Worth the drive!

En route to Florida

First stop...a West Virgnia rest area.  Beautiful picnic area complete hiking trails.  We chatted wtih another family also on their way to a Disney vacation.

Second day stop--a park in Charlotte, NC.  Perfect weather.

Later that night...Tybee Island, Savannah.  We were so excited to finally be at the beach we skipped digging through the car for swimsuits and just played in our clothes.  We finished that night with Snickers ice cream bars for dinner. Yum.

The third day we drove from Savannah to Winter Haven, FL--the final destination.  Unfortunately, the tire blow-out and consequent four hour delay interrupted our picture taking.  But we made it and once again, ice cream was involved. More pictures to come.

Florida (in words, not pictures)

We're having camera issues and I can't even blame it on the kids.  A few days before Mali's birthday, I dropped our camera on the stairs.  Can I possibly attribute that pregnancy lack-of-balance?  For whatever reason, it's not working.  So I have the best of intentions of downloading our recent vacation pictures from my parent's camera, but all of the normal parenting life just keeps getting in the way.

However, we had a fantastic Florida vacation visiting Grandma Dee and Papa (great-grandparents to our girls).  We made a road trip of it while the rest of the Koch-Shunkwiler gang flew down and met us there.  Other than a tire blow-out and awful holiday traffic, we all managed the drive pretty well.  It was well worth it to spend such precious time with our extended family.  We stayed in my grandparents park, swam every day, ate yummy food, took the girls fishing, and even managed a day at Princess Heaven, aka Disney World.  Plenty of pictures of that to come.  Until that time, here are our favorite quotes from each of our girls during the trip....

1) We hit our final traffic jam about 20 minutes away from our grandparents' place.  So frustrating.  So we ventured into "Celebration" for a quick distraction.  At one intersection, another driver was having a difficult time determining right-of-way.  After motioning her on several times, Jonathan mumbled something under his breath. Of course, the girls caught it right away and asked him to elaborate.  He said "oh, I was just saying hi to my new best friend."  Not catching his sarcasm, Amalia asked him what the new friends' name was.  He responded, "Oh, honey, I don't know".  She immediately told him "best friends know each other's names!"

2) Jonathan allowed the girls to help him steer the golf cart driving back and forth to the pool.  Brinnly went first which scared Amalia.  "Brinn's never had driving lessons!" she maintained.  "Yes, I have!" Brinn retorted, "I drove with Hata and Hoshish for twenty hours on the way here and took driving lessons with them!".  Never discount the talent and qualifications of those imaginary friends.

3) And finally, don't look to our family for any future Tiger Woods. Jonathan and I took the girls mini golfing one night and while Mali and I were getting a drink of water, I heard Carrigan screaming "no, no, no!"  I looked back and Brinn and Jonathan were far away from her.  Supposedly she had gotten frustrated with her luck at the game, threw down her club and laid down kicking and screaming. Maybe she'll be a boxer instead.

Two

Two years ago today a burst of blond hair and blue eyes joined our family and what a delight she has been.  Carrigan was born at a difficult time in some ways.  Mali and Brinnly were barely past the baby stage themselves. Jonathan was very new at his job and the only thing we knew for sure was that it wouldn't be permanent for him.  But somehow, having a little more "wildness" (one of her many nicknames) in our life was just what we needed. 

Carrigan loves life. She's usually the first one up in the mornings and we relish our cuddle time with just her. She chatters away all day long and puts up with our inability to understand her most times.  Her current favorite phrases are "hold you!" and "no, Mali!  no, Buggy" and of course, "SPACE"!  She loves loves loves to eat (where in the world does she get that?) and has a pretty varied taste.  Overall she goes with the flow but if something upsets her too much she's quick to stomp her feet and pull out the fists.  Definitely the strongest temper of the three when her buttons are pushed.  One of her favorite silly games is pretending she's either asleep or blind and she does that almost as often as she tells her version of the "interrupting cow" joke.  Of course, she's quick to laugh the loudest at herself.

We so love our little Elmo-Yo Gabba-Minne Mouse fan.  We love her running and walking, silent and talking as one of her favorite books says.  Her blond ringlets bouncing up and down bring smiles to our faces and she's just the right fit in our silly family.  Care-Bear, Squeezy-Muffin:  you have no idea how much we thank God for you.  Fists and all.

Five on Friday

1)  Mali and Brinn had a week at Redeemer's Vacation Bible School this week.  Great programming, and Mali's teacher was a former co-worker of mine from my school social work days.

2) One more birthday note about Mali:  my mom took her out for a special 1:1 birthday lunch the day before the big day.  She chose Red Lobster and devoured her "Garlic Grilled Shrimp" served on a skewer.

3) After much research, we bought new car seats for the girls at Babies R' Us.  We even ended up with a "twins' discount" because we bought the same seat for Brinn and Carrigan!

4) Jonathan installed the car seats after bedtime one night.  He took some time to look over the manuals, etc.  Our neighbor walked across the street and declared that Jonathan had been out there much too long. So he handed him a cold beer and offered to help with the installation.  Isn't that great? 

5)  Coincidentally, while Jonathan was doing that, I was emailing and making plans to catch up with former neighbors of ours from our Highland Park days who now lives in North Carolina.  Neighbors truly make Pittsburgh a unique town.

The Sleeping Beauty Tea Party

I read in a parent's guide to birthday party book recently that five year old's like as much as say as possible for their birthday parties.  The anticipation and planning is often most of the fun for them.  Needless to say, our five year old had definite ideas about what this party should look like.  We did our best to accommodate.

Presenting...Princess Amalia, age 5.  Sleeping Beauty Dress compliments of Grandpa Gregg & Grandma Sandy.  Coordinating shoes by Grandma Deni.  They aim to please.

Everyone had to wear crowns



Everyone.




The tea party was up first.  We included wardrobe changes for the princesses as needed.



Grandma Deni was also the interior designer of the tea party.

It was kids only in there.  Thankfully, the one boy involved was easy-going about the whole thing.

Grown-ups were allowed to observe.  In crowns.

The royalty

Wonderful presents of books and dresses and mroe.  (Note Brin's outfit change)

Finally..the Sleeping Beauty cake.  Soon after that it turned into a water party.  The Sleeping Beauty Warter Play Tea Party. Fun for all.

Summer Reading Log #1

I still have Mali's Sleeping Beauty/Tea Party pictures to post, but before I forgot, I wanted to blog about our current reading adventures.  Both Mali and Brinn had grown tired of phonics lessons, so we decided to take a break from those for the summer.  We still do regular workbook sessions and read on our normal schedule, but I wanted to challenge their comprehension a little more.  We agreed that I would choose a longer-than-normal chapter book for them every week or two for all of us to work through. They would then be responsible for rating it--one, two, or three stars.  (I had lots more ideas of extensions to do with these books, but honestly, with our summer schedule, it just won't happen). I love everything they are absorbing through the Magic Tree House Collection, but even Jack & Annie need a break sometimes.  Not to mention Junie B. Jones.

Our first choice was Stuart Little.  I hardly remembered it from my childhood, and wanted to expose the girls to older vocabulary.  Brinnly struggled at times with the chapter length, but Mali really enjoyed it after the first chapter.  All of us were a little disappointed with the number of "loose ends" left at the end.  The verdict:  2 stars from Brinnly, 19 from Mali.  Not bad, Stuart.

Five

Five years ago today a brown-haired, blue-eyed beauty made us parents.  She had stretched my belly for 41+ weeks and stretched our patience for 12+ hours in labor but it was all worth it.  For some reason (my size, maybe?) we thought she was a boy. But the minute we pulled back her swaddling blankets and declared "GIRL!" to all of Allegheny General Hospital, we knew we had exactly what we wanted.

She entered the world happy, bold, and strong.  For the most part, those word still describe her.  We often comment on her fearlessness.  Her smiles are accompanied quite often with hands on her hips and a "determined" tone in her voice, but really, she just wants to be in charge of at least a few things in her life.  Namely, her choice of outfits. I can't imagine that will get any easier anytime soon, but at least she's content in most other areas.

This hasn't been the easiest year for Amalia.  Our move was a big change for her.  She missed her school and her Michigan friends and family.  This time, she was old enough to understand exactly what moving away meant.  But she coped well.  She's grown closer sisters in many ways (when she's not bossing them around) and we all learned a lot through reading and cuddling together.  She loves her Pittsburgh friends and being back at the church where she was baptized.   And Kindergarten is only a few months away!

The princess trend hit us hard here this spring and Mali can still be found most days in some form of a princess-fairy-ballerina costume.  After a long run with orange, pink is now the color of choice.  Nothing interferes with her afternoon "screen" time and she's also a big fan of baking, dancing, art, science, and just plain exploring. She'll probably always be a daddy's girl but she and her mama have enough in common in their personalities to keep us close.  

We love you, Amalia June Ward for the precious gift from God that you are to us.  Thanks for training us a parents! 

Grandpa's Girls go Fishing

Trying out the princess-themed fishing pole

Mali caught the first fish!

Brinn's got a pretty good cast herself

A bass!

Proud Girls.  Proud Grandpa

Water Girls

Memorial Day weekend finally brought some warmer weather around here.  Good thing, since we had a party to thorow and houseguests (Aunt Kara & Uncle Josh) to impress.  We showed them the super-cool fountain by PNC Park.  Needless to say, it was a hit.  We ended that weekend with our first visit to our neighborhood pool for a potluck.  We enjoyed it so much that we coughed up the membership fee so we have access to it all summer long.

One of the many perks:  cheap swim lessons for the older girls.  They are becoming so comfortable in the water.  I love it!

We also love the grills and tables there which make picnic dinners easy as pie.

 Carrigan's not quite old enough for lessons yet.  So she puts on her suit, grabs all of the pool toys, and plays in the kiddie pool with her daddy.  When she woke up from her nap the other day, she asked to call him to say "Daddy!  Swimming!  Water!"

Speaking of water, we also spent a lovely weekend at the Ryan family's lake house in West Virginia so far this summer.  Lots of good pictures of that here. Kellie and I went for a morning run, leaving behind the dads and fully dressed, dry kid near the beach.  I came back to this showcase of wet pink pants. Supposedly Carrigan led the crew in tumbling in. I should have known water was going to be a theme for the summer.

First Glimpse

We had an ultrasound on Friday to find out a little more info on Baby Ward #4.  At my first appointment the week before, the midwife thought I was measuring big so she wanted to determine the exact due date.  Not to mention, rule out the possibility of twins!  (Two of our friends in Michigan had twins for babies #4 & 5 so it's always been in the back of our mind).  But the scan showed one healthy baby, due right around December 23 as expected.  It was actually difficult for the tech to take a measurement since the baby was wiggling around so much--perfect for us to see.  We're all thrilled.  Mali wants a girl, Brinnly wants a boy.  Carrigan just wants someone to partner with when the big girls leave her out.  They were also pretty excited to open bins of maternity clothes today--those three can turn anything into a fashion show.

Any suggestions for names starting with D?

One thing is missing from this picture...

It's Baby Ward #4!  We are looking forward to meeting him or her right around Christmas!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Five on Friday

1) How is it already the middle of May?  I just posted our Easter pictures and that was two holidays ago.  Right after Easter, we celebrated Jonathan turing the big 3-3.  By his request, we had a quiet (yeah, right.  How quiet is it ever here?) night in and the girls and I made shrimp cobb salad, egg rolls, and a grasshopper cheesecake for him.  It was fun to spoil him for a change.

2) For Mother's Day last Sunday, my girls made me a crown of fresh flowers which was beyond sweet.  They prepared a scavenger hunt of gifts for me the night before, but didn't manage to let Jonathan in on the surprise, so it took a little longer than expected. But I was also spoiled with several lovely girly-gifts.  My family knows how to please.

3) Spring, or should I say, summer arrived this week.  We've been outside soaking up sun as much as possible. I think Pittsburgh has the best parks of any city around.

4) The time we've been spending indoors for the past three months or so (seriously!) has been made easier by the delightful series of books "The Magic Tree House Collection" by Mary Pope Osborne. My girls are hooked on these chapter books and I love that they are being introduced to so many time periods and cultures.  And a huge shout-out goes to their audiobooks which make naptime a breeze for the older two.

5) It's decision time around here.  We've lived in our current home now for three whole months. Our GR house has been rented to four college students whom we hope have great housekeeping skills and mow the lawn regularly.  (If you live anywhere near GR, please free free to drive past there and give us regular updates).  We've been looking at housing options for the past two and a half months, or so.  But, settling down sounds good to us right now.  We're going to stay put here, in our rented Blackridge colonial, and start fixing up a few things and putting our colors on the walls.  Come visit us and check out our avocado-colored family room, covered side porch,  and quaint neighborhood.  It's starting to feel like home. 

Our Easter in Pictures