September In Pictures

Can you believe what a horrible blogger I have been? I had 26 posts in August and this is only my sixth post for September! Sorry! It has been a pretty crazy month. We started off the month at the Rethinking Education Conference (which was GREAT!) in Dallas. Shortly after returning from Dallas we decided to move to Nashville. We have been putting a lot of energy into trying to figure out how to make that work. I will try to be a better blogger in October. For now let's get to September:

Rethinking Education:

We attended our first Unschooling Conference. I can so see this being a yearly event! We had a great time! I only took a handful of pictures, here is what I got:

They had one room dedicated to dress up. There were TONS of costumes in there! Lyric and Cadence both decided to try out these dinosaur costumes. They even wore them around the hotel and up to our room:-)

We spent lots of time in the dress up room. Cadence found a cool belt.

Lyric dressed as Belle. LOVE the wig! I think we all had a turn with that thing.

and that is why she has short hair, my friend:-)

This really was her idea. I have no idea why she looks so sad!

Story was NOT in the mood for pictures, so any shot you see of here was totally taken without permission. Shh, don't tell her.

Cadence found this awesome fireman's jacket. They couldn't find a fireman's hat, so they improvised. Hey, it's red.

Another cool hat!

Not real sure what she was being here?

Cadence found some house shoes that she fell in love with! She even wore them to supper!

The girls found a hill behind the hotel to run down. We had a picnic pizza supper out there one night.

We did some swimming . This day Cadence REFUSED to take her floaty off! We had to carry her up to the room (not easy to do in that floaty) and then she had a bath with it on.

While at the conference Baby Cadence celebrated her second birthday. Grammy brought cupcakes and her new tricycle.

Of course, she had to try it out in the hallway.

She decided pushing was easier than riding.

Cupcakes, YUM!

We had an amazing time at the conference! I wish I had taken more pictures, maybe next year.

Some of the other fun things we did this month:

the girls played dress up,

Story Bell learned to sew with the machine,

the girls found a couple of new places to play,

(they discovered their drawers would make nice little beds, but apparently the drawers aren't made to hold that much weight... Daddy will be making a trip to Home Depot and they won't be doing this again)

we found a little frog,

(we kept for a couple of hours, gave him a rubber ducky for a friend, tried to feed him a grasshopper and then set him free)

Baby Cadence thought she could go pantless.

the girls and I were going out somewhere, probably Target. They went out to wait for me. When I came out I saw Cadence had no pants on and when I asked her were her pants were she just looked at me like I was crazy.

That's pretty much September in a nutshell. I will do better in October, promise!

Bad Bad Blogger!

I know it has been FOREVER since I have updated! I just sat down to try to catch up and my camera batteries were dead. I can't update if I can't go back and look at the pictures to see what we have been up to ;0) Tomorrow, maybe...

Kids Sewing Giveaway

Did you know September is National Sewing Month? I didn't either. In honor, Skip to My Lou has a cool giveaway going on! She is giving away a kids sewing machine and a kids sewing kit. I have been toying with the idea of teaching Lyric to sew, so how fun would it be to win one of these!

Worry Less, Love More

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We attended the Rethinking Education Conference in Dallas. It was amazing to be around so many like minded people! I will update a post about that soon. Some of my favorite sessions were hosted by parenting coach Scott Noelle. He sends out an inspirational email daily called The Daily Groove. The topic for today is one that I have been trying to work on, so I thought I would share:

:: Worry Less, Love More ::

Perhaps you've been led to believe that worrying about children goes hand in hand with loving them. But in truth, parental love is far more powerful*without* worry than with it. Worries focus all your attention on what you *don't*want and put you in a state of *fear*. This sends a message to your child that you *expect* bad things to happen. And since children naturally tend to meet their parents' unspoken expectations, worries are self-fulfilling prophesies. Today, if you catch yourself worrying, don't worry about it. :-)Instead, use your awareness of worry to shift your focus in the direction of what you *do* want, and reach for thoughts that soothe your worries:

"It's not the end of the world."

"It won't last forever."

"I've successfully handled worse situations."

"We always find our way."

...etc. Before long you'll start feeling hopeful, and you'll feel your heart opening, too. An open heart is all you need for love to flow unconditionally...unhindered by worries.

http://dailygroove.net/worry-less-love-more Feel free to forward this message to your friends!(Please include this paragraph and everything above.) Copyright (c) 2009 by Scott Noelle

We attended a session at the conference with Quinn Eaker, who is the son of Barb Lundgren- who put on the conference. He told a story of when he was five years old he climbed up this huge tree in their backyard. His mom came out and saw him in the top of this tree. It scared her to death, but she knew putting her fears on him would do nothing for him, so she just went back in the house. I have been trying to stop saying, "Be careful." to the girls. It is shocking to me how many times I feel the need to say it. I have never seen myself as a big 'worrier', but I am worse than I thought I was. Lately I have done a lot of turning away because something the girls are doing scares me, but I have decided to make an effort not to put my fears on them:-) Try noticing how many times you say things like, "Be careful." today, you might be surprised!

Happy Birthday Baby Cadence

Baby Cadence turns two today. Does that mean I have to stop calling her "Baby" Cadence? She will always be my baby, so I guess it is still okay:-)

24 things about the 24 month old:

1. You LOVE your sisters! When they aren't around you say, "Where's my 'grls'?"

2. You don't like your hands to be dirty! You are always asking for a 'na-kin.'

3. You LOVE to eat sausage for breakfast! If we don't have any you usually just skip breakfast.

4. You are the lover of the bunch. When we hold you, you like to wrap your arm around our neck to hold on--so sweet!

5. You know all of the characters your sisters know- 'Cinrella', 'Aeal', you even spotted 'Ponge Bob' in the store the other day (I don't know how you know that one!)

6. You love to pretend to be a dog. You crawl around and bark. You even hike your leg and pretend to pee(Not real sure where you picked that up, since we don't have a dog).

7. You hate to be covered up when you are sleeping! Not only do you kick the covers off, but you get really angry!

8. You are really thoughtful. If you see someone needs help you are always willing to help.

9. You love to do laundry, help with the dishes and you don't mind picking up.

10. You have quite a little temper! If the girls make you mad or take a toy away from you, you will throw a toy at them.

11. You have an amazing imagination for a two year old. You can pretend with the best of them.

12. You love to cook in your kitchen. You like to put on your apron (usually with nothing else on) and you walk up with a notepad and pencil, "What you want?" If we ask what you have your standard answer is, "Hambuger, fench fies."

13. You LOVE to take a bath! You would literally take 10 a day if we would let you. I think your record is 5.

14. You want a bicycle for your birthday. If we ask you what kind you want you say, "One with wheels."

15. You are very determined! Typical interaction: You- "I do it! I do it" Me-" Cadence, do you need help?" You- "No, I got it."

16. You love to sing.

17. You make the most intense faces.

18. You have the attention span of a four year old, you will sit and watch a movie like Old Yeller, Cinderella, or Nemo- like you understand it.

19. "What that Daddy?" is one of your favorite things to say.

20. You are a great John Deere driver for a two year old.

21. "Lady and Gentlemen" is another one of your favorite things to say.

22. You LOVE band aids and want one for every injury.

23. You are VERY independent!

24. You HATE cats (Gee, wonder why?).

25. You HATE roaches (Gee, wonder why?)- you say, "Kill 'em" with the meanest, angriest look on your face.

Bathroom Talk

I was sitting in the dining room and I could hear Story and Cadence chatting while Story was going potty.

Story: Cadence poop is dirty. It is the food coming out.

Cadence: I eat it?

Story: (laughing) No Cadence you can't eat it. The food goes into your stomach, then your intestines and out as poop. Does that make sense?

I couldn't hear Cadence's answer, but I sure hope Story got her point across! I don't want my next post being about Cadence trying to eat her poop:)