The Barbour Shop: September 2011

September 1- school, klick's came over for some playtime for a few hours, kinsey went home with them to play with caroline, a little more school, lots of free time for games/piano practice/talk time/typing, etc., THREE oldest did Kidfit at the Y (kinsey's first time:) while I ran 3 with kelly around the track, cici's with daddy right after and a trip to the pet store for a new beta, math with kinsey while daddy did H&S with big kids, go fish with youngest two, lots of llama llama, read Verdi to braden, and had lots of snuggle time!

September 2- watched alex, did a little school, went to durant playground and greenway for a walk/kiddos climbed down the rocks and played in the creek for a good while:), made rice krispie treats with the kiddos, ate them together:), snuggled with all my babies, enjoyed watching the oldest three play together and get along!, listened to piano, puzzles/links/do a dots, very full fun at home for most of the day:).

September 3- road trip with the fam to the beach for the day, toured the USS NC and learned about WW11, moved on to the aquarium and saw the kids faces light up as they held sea stars/touched crabs/baby turtles/looked at sharks/sea horses/amazing jelly fish, and tons of other sea creatures, went out on the beach and rocks for a while, had a seafood dinner at big daddy's while ephram caught a mini cat nap, took white pics out on the beach, road tripped back home, surprised everyone with frosty's from wendy's at 9pm (their first frosty's ever), and played lots of car games.

September 4- day of rest, lots of playing, lots of reading, GREAT night at awana for all the kiddos, loving the puggle curriculum, kinsey got her new book and vest and lit up, braden went home with williams for a sleepover, kiddos jumped on the trampoline until dark, cailey requested to give the mosquito bit baby a bath and had so much fun with him, the three at home had their own slumber party in the girls room:).

September 5- Brian was home...yay!, quick school day, coolish overcast day so swimming was called off, tried to go to Jumpin' Beans only to find it closed, made the best of the day and picnicked at our fav Wake Forest Park, games at home, dance for cailey, scouts for braden (other 2 went) and he was able to get in a fire truck and jump in a bounce house.

September 6- super fast run for Braden, school, thunderstorms off and on all day, naps, games, watched grace and emily, girls had a BLAST playing together, read tons to e&k and did preK stuff with e, started reading a David Livingstone novel with the older two, nerf gun attacks on daddy, library and errands with the girls, and more storms.

September 7- Braden ran 3.2 with Brian, school, new recipe for dinner, watched G&E and listened to LOTS of laughter as they played, kiddos had their first night of choir, ran errands with Brian/Ephram, and went to bed early.

** LOVE how ephram calls Cailey "Cailey Anne" and not sure where he picked it up

September 8- walked 3 EARLY with Leslie, Braden ran 2 (recovery) with brian, school, lots of reading, started ocean books, lots of free time, took kiddos to kidYoga at the Y while I ran/walked three on the track, and went on a walk with kinsey and ephram.

September 9- watched alex, did a little school, met kelly/molly/liz at Lake Lynn for the morning/noon, sent Braden over with Caden for a playdate (where he had a blast all day), took the girls to AHG where they had fun, read with the girls and ephram, took the girls to soccer and got braden, ate dinner/hung out with the klick's, let the babies play on the playground while the others were practicing and braden was watching, and went to bed early.

September 10-ran 3 with beth/kelly before 8am soccer games, cheered on Cailey and Kinsey in their games, prepped a yummy dinner and made two new dishes...kinsey picked out dessert:), listened/watched the girls play and have a fabulous time with Gracie and Emily Ruth, heard lots of piano as Cailey was trying to teach Gracie all afternoon, lots of hide and seek, watched the "frummy dance" aka monkey dance a few times...LOVE, had the esh's over for dinner/games/wii/playtime with the kiddos/ and caught up for 6 hours until it was late:) so fun!

September 11- braden ran 3.5 miles with brian!, went walking with leslie, remembered., church, girls played with elizabeth/emily/gracie all afternoon, braden had kellen over for the afternoon then for a sleepover, listened to a beautiful song cailey made up on the piano, awana where kinsey and braden earned their patches!!, visit with the eshleman's, more sleepover fun, and had a very excited puggle about his shirt.

September 12- kellen and braden played some more, piano lessons for Cailey, k went home, school, watched carter/had emilee over during gymnastics for K&B, had laura C over with jay so the three boys could play while we chatted, sent cailey home with emilee so she could go to writing class, great classes for all, cooked a quick dinner so i could take cailey and emilee to hip hop while brian had the others at scouts, had some great one on one girl time with cailey on the trampoline, hung out as a fam, and found out Uncle Ted died.

September 13- braden ran 2.5 with brian, i ran 3 with cailey, piano lessons for braden, school, watched grace and emily, prepped for co op, outside play, lots of "Go Dog Go", and early bedtimes.

September 14- walked with leslie, school, read lots to ephram and did a color/skittle game with him, played games with kinsey, watched emily...lots of hide and seek, choir, hung out with beth and addison, listened to the three oldest sing their new song from choir, and got lots of snuggles.

September 15-ran 2.5 with braden (he could have done more but the humidity was keeping me from breathing well), school, girl time curling their hair and chatting away, kiddos played together all afternoon, cailey did 'preschool' with ephram, talked with cailey, LOVED helping with the Corbett adoption fundraiser at CFA all evening, and was beyond proud of my oldest girls for helping sell raffle tickets!!

September 16- walked with leslie in the COOL weather:), watched alex, went to the first co op which went great, heard all about the kiddos classes and loved watching them make new/see old friends, played with the kiddos, enjoyed the day, kiddos played outside with friends all afternoon and enjoyed hot cocoa:), soccer in the drizzle, and early to bed for everyone.

September 17- ran 3 in cool/mist and could have run more if it weren't for time!, soccer games for the girls in the pouring rain, bug fest with papa's downtown, sent braden with them for a super fun sleepover, pizza night, piano fun, girls played with ephram and dressed up for us...and did a snow white and the 7 dwarfs show/parade:).

September 18- walked with leslie, got braden back at church, rest/play time, awana, 2nd choir right after awana, happy kiddos.

September 19- cailey's piano, school, baked a yummy dessert for the morgan's, gymnastics for K&B, watched Carter, writing class for C, dance for C, scouts for B, and had some great one on one time with Cailey girl while they were all gone.

September 20- ran only 1 b/c my ankles were killing me:(, school, played lots with the youngest two, did play dough, sorted, sang lots of "deep and water (wide)", watched G&E, kiddos played war/go fish, jumped on trampoline, played outside, tried a new shrimp recipe for dinner (YUM), read lots of library books, didn't go to triples...the whole week, and found out that a close friend is pregnant...YAY!!

September 21- walked with leslie (super humid), school, day 4 of cailey's super bad headache:(, sick cailey, lots of snuggling, watched G&E play a great game of war with the girls when cailey felt better, made chicken pot pie (YUM) and cailey ate two servings since she was feeling better:), kinsey went to choir, cailey and ephram took a super long bubble bath, braden and i chatted about struggles, read tons/looked through baby and wedding albums and blog books with cailey, had a super bad storm and smelled pistachio pound cake coming from downstairs thanks to brian:).

September 22- school, had treichlers over for a playdate, little more school, lots of reading..realizing that having three kids read 30 min a day plus read a loud takes up a lot of time...but oh so good, met klick's at y for kidyoga and a 3+ mile run for me, and prepped for co op.

September 23- woke up to walk with les but it was too wet, watched alex, great co op where braden made an edible cell/kinsey painted mountains/cailey had book club/and ephram made watermelon shakers, quick lunch at CFA with the klick's, dropped girls off at AHG, rainy rainy all day, saved a HUGE turtle from mean teenagaers, soccer canceled, brian worked till 2am, and had fun with the kiddos.

September 24- woke up to find our turtle gone, lots of playtime with ephram (singing/chasing/tickling/poems) while the girls were at their rainy soccer games, braden did a popcorn booth then sold in the neighborhood with cailey, "runaway" (as cailey named him) the turtle appeared from under the trampoline and made for hours of entertainment, cailey and gracie played while kinsey and elizabeth did, caroline came for a FUN sleepover, surprised dave for his 30th birthday (YAY), and had giggly girls:).

September 25- caroline, kinsey, and cailey woke up early and played for hours before church, great walk with leslie, great church service, girls played with neighbors, braden wrote verses for sneaking four times this week, awana (where all three got awards), and choir.

September 26- piano for cailey, school, loved listening to Braden practice his new songs...he's awesome like cailey!, gymnastics for K&B, emilee came to play, cailey went to lunch and writing class with E, played with kiddos, lots of piano and awana together, hip hop, took Cailey and Emilee out for blizzards and the jumpy at the mall, watched a giant spider build a web on the basketball goal again..with all the kiddos, and got the best greeting from Ephram and Kinsey when we got home!

September 27- walk with les, school..good day!, caught ephram eating candy bars...twice...for a total of THREE!!, gracie and emily came over, watched kiddos play with our giant pet turtle (runaway) in the backyard, lots of war, went to leslie's to borrow jeans:), kiddos played outside all evening, started the great closet 'throw up' fall cleanup/packing for MD, and read lots of stories to ephram.

September 28- terrible thunderstorm the night before which kept me up (with Cailey) and made me miss my walk with leslie:(, school, stopped ephram from getting yet another candy bar, packed more, great science lesson (about sea turtles), and left for our trip to MD.

September 29- braden ran 3 with brian, walked around the lake with nonny and the kids, ran errands w/ the fam and nonny, went out to lunch, played lots of games (war, etc.) laughed as the girls LOVED playing 52 pick up over and over, welcomed the klick's to nonny and poppy's, ate a yummy dinner together, kiddos played, played outside after dinner (races, hide and seek with daddies, freeze tag:), and played a game and talked with mom and brandon for hours.

September 30- ran 3 with kelly, went into DC with the klicks and walked 4 1/2 miles with the kiddos to see all the sights!!, loved watching cailey's face light up when she saw the Gettysburg address in the Lincoln Memorial, was a PROUD mama to see all the kids walk that far joyfully, picnicked, had a super fun day, came home to another yummy dinner with amazing chocolate cake prepared by nonny, got everyone in the van (all 11 of us!) and drove to the lake for some fun family/friend time, and stayed up chatting with kelly and mom.

We went and helped out with the Corbett adoption fundraiser a couple weeks ago and had so much fun serving/playing/chatting! The kids all got milk shakes with their meals which was exciting for them and then went to play with their friends...for hours! Cailey was a HUGE help in selling raffle tickets and sold at least 3/4 of them...seriously. She'd go table to table telling about their adoption from Ethiopia and even sold some to people who weren't there for the fundraiser! I was having girl scout cookie flashbacks because I always loved to sell too:). Cailey left so happy and excited about helping...and one of the highlights for her was being able to pick the names for the raffle items.

these pics crack ME UP!!

It was such a blessing to be a part of bringing home their daughter and we can't wait to meet her!! I wish I had taken a picture of them that night but since I was "manning" the raffle/auction table I didn't get my camera out very much:). SO neat to see how many people came and how many families were there with children who were adopted from different countries. Seriously it was like a glimpse of Heaven. AMAZING!! We are blessed to know them and were blessed to help!