Our week in updates and pictures

This week we are packing! We have a garage sale this weekend, and much preparation is going into this. Our new house will be almost exactly 1/2 of the square footage we currently have, and no garage...more on that later, but for now, that means LOTS of stuff must go. Thankfully, our friends the Fleners have sacrificially offered to spend much of this week over at my house helping out with the kids so that I can get stuff done. What would we do without good friends in times like this?!

We have a garage sale this weekend, and Samuel has decided, on a tip from a friend, that running a lemonade stand during the sale would be a good idea. I love that entrepreneurial spirit in kids! We'll take pictures and report the results later this weekend. He's got $5 invested in supplies and he's ready to go!

Other updates...starting from the smallest...

Matea is crawling like nobody's business and getting into all kinds of things, as babies do! She's pulling herself up to stand and seems very pleased with her newfound mobility.

Isaac is potty training...we think! Our standard policy with him is that whenever possible, don't push the issue (and definitely don't let on that we have any vested interest in getting him to do x, y or z). Some days he has nothing but accidents, other days he stays completely dry. Go, Isaac!

Isaac and Elijah reading books to each other during quiet time (notice the big boy underwear on Isaac!)

Elijah is tearing up the Bob books. He's all over words and sounds (thank you, phonograms!), and it's fun to see his brain "explode the code"! I'm currently looking for a pre-k program for him for next fall. Something two mornings a week would be perfect...but does such a thing exist anymore in this age of earlier and earlier formalized education? Not sure, but I'm looking.

Samuel has been loving this certain series of books lately - Great Illustrated Classics series by Baronet Books. They have tuned my apathetic reader into a bonified bookworm! He has finished Gulliver's Travels, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, The Wind in the Willows, King Solomon's Mines, The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island and King Arthur in the past 3 weeks. The series takes classic literature and puts it into kid-friendly language, then adds simple illustration every couple of pages. He cannot get enough of these books, and we've found that with the pictures, they make good read-alouds for the younger boys too. An added bonus is that they're $3 a book! He's also wrapping up his basketball season and improving quite a bit each week.

And me? I got to drive up to Dallas for the weekend and visit with both my cousin, Amy, and our friends the Kampfes. Amy and I had coffee together Saturday morning. It was so good to spend time with her. After that, Christin and I got to hang out, eat at a delicious vegetarian restaurant, and explore Dallas while Marcus was busy with his colleagues. Matea and Malachi enjoyed the one-on-one.

Matea and Malachi, hamming it up. (Do they look meant for each other, or what?)

me, Amy and Matea

The head honcho has been quite busy at work, which is a blessing in this uncertain economy! He's even had some attention from the Austin Business Journal lately. So proud! And so excited that we'll soon be close to my very favorite of all his projects!