Founders Day Festival

The kids and I spent a fun Saturday afternoon at the Founder's Day Festival at Warm Hearth Village. They had lots of free activities for the kids like face painting, a hay ride, bouncy houses, farm animal petting zoo, popcorn and crafts.

Ready for our hayride.

Petting the animals.

They had a few miniature horses, goats, bunnies and chickens.

Playing in the bouncy house.

Enjoying a pizza break!

Apples

The kids and I went apple picking. We went to two different places this year and picked tons of apples, ok maybe not tons but 3 or 4 bushels worth of apples. It was a perfect fall day, not too hot and we ate lots of yummy apples while we picked.

The girls picking a few apples

Raquel eating a few apples.

The ground was a bit wet so Marcus' was content on

hanging out in the stroller watching us pick.

After apple picking we stopped off for lunch and a trip to Toys R' us for a little fun. We all had a great day and now we will have lots of good apples to eat and many more hours of fun making apple sauce.

Patiently waiting for their food at Cheddars.

Checking out the toys are Toys R' us. All the kids loved the ride on toys.

I had to pry them away so they would go look at other things.

Birthday Boy

Marcus turned 1 years old. We didn't do much for his birthday since we had already celebrated a few weeks earlier but we did celebrate his day with donuts for breakfast and dinner and cupcakes at a friends house. Marcus is such a happy boy and loves to be where the action is or very content playing by himself. He loves food and eats everything! He isn't much of a talker yet but sure makes lots of happy giggle sounds. He has started to cruse and I'm sure will be walking soon. We love our little boy to pieces!

Marcus' 1 year pictures.

Marcus' Stats at 12 months:

28 1/2 inches

21 lbs 4 oz

10 reasons why we love you even more...

1. You always have a happy smiley face.

2. You love your sisters and want to play with them all the time.

3. You love wheels and cars.

If you can sneak out the front door you head right for the big car tires to play with.

4. You are a daddies boy, you love your mom but can't wait to see your dad.

5. You giggle when you see your bed, you really like your naps.

6. You already know how to clean up your toys and will help your sisters pick up.

7. You love your binky so much you have to stick the whole thing in your mouth, not just suck on it.

8. You like to snuggle! I can bring you in my bed in the morning and you will just lay there snuggling me.

9. You hold on tight when I carry you. I don't know if it because you are afraid that I'm going to drop you or that you love me so much you don't want to let me go. Either way its very cute to see.

10. Because your my cute little Boy!

Deployment

Mike left for his second deployment to Afghanistan on Sept. 26th. We took Raquel out of school that day so she could come with us to take dad to the airport. Mike spent about a week at Fort Benning, Georgia preparing to head over seas. He then left for Afghanistan today the 2nd of September. With 90 days boots on ground that makes it December 1st he could be back in the United States and home in plenty of time for Christmas.

Cake Classes

Over the summer I was able to take a few cake decorating classes. It was lots of fun but I won't miss having to make a cake most every week. There is only so much cake one person can eat.

These are some pictures from some of the cakes I made while in the class.

Sisters

Raquel is loving riding the bus to school everyday and Natalya is out there everyday with her waiting to send her off. Natalya loves her sister and is so excited for Raquel to ride the bus. I had to take these pictures of the girls waiting for the bus with Natalya's arm around Raquel. Its so neat to see how much they enjoy being with each other.

Marcus' Pre-Birthday

We decided to celebrate Marcus' birthday while Mike was still around, so we had a little party for Marcus 2 weeks early. We invited a couple of family friends over and enjoyed a BBQ and cake with ice cream. I think Marcus had a great time eating lots of watermelon and cake.

Marcus loves anything with wheels, so I made him a cake with a car.

Marcus with his favorite- Watermelon

Marcus and Me

Nick, Raquel & Luke enjoying the party

(I asked them to smile and this is what they gave me)

Marcus enjoying his cake!

Playing with his new birthday toys

1st Day of School

Raquel started kindergarten today. She was so excited that she finally got to ride the bus. A few days earlier we went school shopping and she was able to pick out a new backpack and a few new clothes. She has a new kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Brooke, she doesn't know anyone in her class (which is amazing because she know about 10 other kids that started kindergarten at the same school) but she quickly makes friends and I know she will do great.

Sitting waiting for the bus to come with Natalya & Marcus

Showing off her new backpack

Waiting for the bus

Its so nice the bus picks Raquel up at our driveway

On her way to her 1st day of school

Testing

Raquel has really enjoyed taking Taekwondo classes and learned her white belt form and 1 steps. She tested for her yellow belt. It

was so fun to watch her she did everything perfectly. The teachers

wouldn't tell us if she passed or not that night so we had to wait a

week to find out at the award ceremony.

Raquel listening during testing.

Raquel passed and is now a yellow belt. Here is her getting her yellow belt from one of her teachers at the awards ceremony. The ceremony and potluck was at a park so the kids got to eat and then play for the evening.

Mr. Abbott & Raquel

Showing off her new belt!

Blueberries

After finishing off 2 gallons of fresh blueberries Raquel and I picked in June the family was filling a bit of blueberry withdrawal so we headed to another patch to pick a few. The whole family came this time and enjoyed picking and eating blueberries.

Heading to the patch

Raquel with her blueberry bucket

Natalya was a great little picker

Marcus was a great blueberry eater.

He would get mad if he didn't have enough blueberries to eat.

Virginia Beach

We had a fun family vacation at Virginia Beach. The kids enjoyed playing on the beach and then hoping right into the beach side swimming pool. We spent hours in the water and sun. Raquel got a new boogie board and enjoyed learning to ride the waves. When Mike had to attend his medical conference the kids and I enjoyed shopping and the Virginia Aquarium. Together as a family we toured the battleship Wisconsin and enjoyed the VAFP dinner where they had face painting, fun music and good food. The only downside to the vacation was the bad traffic leaving the coast on the way home, which added a couple of hours to our drive.

Hanging out on our hotel balcony

We loved playing in the pool

The girls enjoyed jumping off the diving board

We loved the beach and playing in the sand

Raquel and her boogie board

Marcus enjoyed the sand (brown sugar as Natalya called it)

until he tried eating it.

Battleship Wisconsin

Virginia Aquarium

VAFP dinner

Charlotte

Mike was flying out of Charlotte to go to military training in Texas. Since we had to take him to the airport we decided to make it a little mini vacation and stay in a hotel and swim the night before he had to leave. We all had lots of fun playing in the warm pool for hours. The next day Mike flew off to Texas for the week and the kids and I came home.

A week later we drove back down to Charlotte to pick up Mike and have a little fun at the Discovery Place, a big children's science museum. We played for the afternoon to wear the kids out so they would sleep on the drive home.

Discovery Place