Getting to know The Natural State

The license plate tag for Arkansas is "The Natural State," so we figured we shouldn't delay too long before experiencing some of the state's nature for ourselves. I've heard from many of my co-workers that most all of the activities around here center on either the outdoors or team sports, so while our family might not be completely up for team sports right now (Maddie's a possibility, but since she had surgery on her nose in May, things like soccer, t-ball, etc. are on the no-no list this year), a family hike seemed like a pretty good way to get introduced to nature! After hearing that the weather was going to change substantially via a cold front coming through that would finally bring us down below 97 degrees - to a lovely 86 with little humidity - I jumped online and started researching hiking trails suitable for the crew.

We opted for a "moderate" hike as as opposed to one classified as "easy." Our kids have hiked before and part of the fun for all of us is climbing the hills and not having completely flat, paved trails. Since we're in the midst of the Ozarks, finding elevation isn't too tough. I chose the Tanyard Creek nature trail north of us in Bella Vista, since it was only a 15 minute drive and promised a little bit of everything: a waterfall, a creek, a dam, and decent opportunities for learning through volunteer-created placards detailing various wildlife and plants, as well as local history.

In spite of the best laid plans...it took us forever to get out of the house. You'd think I would be used to this by now, but it still seriously amazes me how long it can take to corral everyone and everything required for a day trip with three kids. Between packing up lunches, gathering swimsuits (just in case), sunblocking everyone, and trying to find appropriate shoes for hiking amidst the very limited selection of clothes and shoes we have here in the temporary house, it just took forever. So I was a little bit exasperated by the time we finally got on the road just before noon, but the kids grew increasingly excited as the drive got hillier and hillier, and of course their enthusiasm is always contagious!

Our hike was great. We did a loop that was just over 2 miles long, and we took just over 3 hours to do it. We obviously weren't hiking the entire time - there was quite a bit to see and do along the way. There was a beautiful meadow with wildflowers and lots of creeks and pools with frogs, fish, crawfish, etc. to check out, and the kids were really interested in stopping to read every sign. Maddie, in particular, is a nature nut - so this was right up her alley. We hiked up to the dam, and while Maddie was rather disappointed that it wasn't one made by beavers (the concept of a concrete dam was just not something she was willing to accept, LOL!), later evidence of beaver activity along the creek cleared that right up. We spent a whole lot of time walking along the shale rock ledges and through the shallow creek and waterfalls created by them, which was definitely the highlight of the day. The kids found some very large spiders (eek!!) and crawfish, and we literally had to tear them away from exploring in the pools.

The downside of the trip was the fact that we started just after lunch...sort of the witching hour when it comes to young children in our house. Lyla had napped in the morning, so we thought she'd probably be ok. But Sienna was yawning on the way there, and despite my attempts to convince her to take a short power nap, she didn't fall asleep. Lyla is such a walking kind of kid that we decided to leave the Kelty carrier in the back of the van when we parked. But, given that it was nap time, it didn't take long before she was asking for a ride every now and then. I realized how out of shape I've gotten pretty quickly, trying to climb hills while carrying my 25+ pound two-year-old! And about 30 minutes into the trip, Sienna started to develop a blister. So she ended up spending a decent amount of time on Brad's shoulders, which also made his hike quite a bit of work! By the time we reached the very cool suspension bridge over the creek at the end, we were all exhausted and ready for a nap and an ice cold drink of Gatorade!

Overall, I think the trip was a big success. The big kids must have thanked us for taking them hiking at least three different times during the trip, which I usually take to be a very good sign that they are super happy to be somewhere. I think we were all happy to be doing some good solid outdoor time after the heat of the past couple of weeks; it's still such an adjustment for our kids to be inside most of the day at this time of the year, as opposed to spending 5+ hours outside a day running around and enjoying the weather!

I had absolutely zero desire to cook by the time we go home, since my day had started at 8 when I took Madelyn and Sienna to the farmers market to stock up for the week and I hadn't stopped until we got home from the hike until after 4. So we got cleaned up, did a bit more research (thank God for the internet!) and found a pizza restaurant where nothing on the menu has any nuts or is made with any ingredients made in plants that process nuts , and we loaded up once more. Ironically, the restaurant was called CiCi's Pizza, which may be spelled differently but I assume is pronounced the same way as our most common nickname for Sienna. So we all had a good laugh when Sienna took a look around the very crowded restaurant in the middle of dinner and said, "WOW, guys! Everyone wants to come to my pizza restaurant!"

They grow so fast...

Tonight I put a shirt on Sienna that used to be one of Maddie's. Increasingly, Madelyn's clothes are going directly from her drawers to Sienna's, since Si is quite a bit taller than Maddie was at this age. So it reminded me that this shirt was, in fact, the one that Madelyn wore on her first day of preschool last year! So tonight I was just messing around on the computer and decided to call up Maddie's first day of preschool pics from last year. Wow has she changed a lot in the past year! Where has my baby gone?? Reminisce with me...

Then and Now:

Sweet Summer Evenings

On Thursday, the weather was just so beautiful and perfect that when 5 PM rolled around and we finished work for the day, we just couldn't imagine *not* taking advantage of it. Brad and I talked it over and decided to quickly grill dinner, feed the kids, and head down to the waterfront for an ice cream. Actually in our world, having an ice cream out means stopping at McDonald's for a soft serve - since it's pretty much the only allergy-friendly ice cream option we have for Sienna in terms of restaurants. But even soft serve vanilla from Mickey D's tastes great when you're sitting by the harbor on a beautiful night (and when you're a toddler/preschooler and ice cream of any sort is a treat!).

Brad looked at me a little strangely when I suggested the idea, because I think he thought it was odd that I mentioned going down to see the boats in the harbor as an activity. But that's one of those things we did plenty of times with my parents as kids, so I have fond memories of it and seems like a real summer thing to do. The tourists must feel the same way, as the harbor and waterfront was really busy - in a good way! The kids were so well behaved and so many people stopped to smile or say how cute they were...which always has a way of making me feel so proud of them. Maddie and Sienna had fun climbing up a little tree, and checking out the boats (even spotting the pirate ship that they went on last summer, which was obviously a huge hit!). Little Miss Lyla was walking all over the place - and was very mad that she didn't get her OWN ice cream and had to share with me.

It's taken us a while to adjust to a new life since moving from Chicago, but this was one of those nights where it was fun to see this town from an adult perspective, and from the standpoint of now enjoying it with my own kids instead of just calling on my own memories of it growing up. We hit one of the gift shops before leaving (potty stop!) and picked up a couple of town t-shirts for the 4th of July for $5. Hard to believe they'll be wearing them soon! An all around fun way to kick off summer, though.

I'd love to say that the evening finished really sweetly and all, but hey - 3 kids, an extra dose of sugar, pushing a late bedtime, an unexpected delay in departure due to the (LONG) potty stop Maddie needed to make, and you figure we were headed for some meltdowns. Sienna and Lyla both had had their fill of fun summer activities, and after some major tantrums, both passed out in the car on the way home.

A taste of summer!

We really got a taste of summer today, with hot humid weather and lots of sun. Yay! Of course, our neighborhood is really close to the ocean and seems to always run at least 10 degrees cooler than the center of town (today we were about 14 degrees cooler than it was at the next exit north - crazy!), but it was very nice and it just made you want to get out there and dig out the kiddie pool. I won't post pics of everyone since I don't have their permission, but our yard seemed to be the place to be today among the neighborhood kids. As my mom said earlier today, it doesn't take much to keep little kids entertained...and that was certainly true today, with 7 kids in a kiddie pool! They ranged in age from 6.5 down to Lyla at 14 months, but they all had a ball playing. We've gotten more use out of our Little Tikes kiddie slide and swing combo as a slide into the pool than we ever did when the kids were smaller.

Maddie is really into digging, making mud pies, and collecting bugs lately. So she and our neighbor, Ryan, spent a decent amount of time digging in the backyard along the tree line, and making things to eat. Maddie's favorite menu item of late is "Raspberry Sorbet" which totally cracks me up -- she's never even had it, so I have no idea where she got that idea for her concoctions.

Other that the fun in the backyard, Maddie had soccer and Sienna had gymnastics today. Sienna's gymnastics class is gearing up for a little show in a couple of weeks, which I honestly could care less about. This is all new to her, so getting her to "perform" is the furthest thing from my mind.... and with the dance recital just ending, I think we've had enough shows for a while! But Sienna is enjoying it and she actually follows directions really well, for the most part, so it's been a lot of fun to do with her so far.

Back to School

It's been such a busy week with all of the fall/back to school activities! Madelyn had her first week of preschool at her new school, and even though she's been before I still had a hard time thinking about my little baby going off to do her own thing. It's still such a strange thing to get used to - even if only for 3 hours.

She did great on the first day, though she was a bit shy. By the end of the second day, her teacher told me she was "emerging as the group leader" and very chatty with all the other kids, often saying "Let's do this, guys!" or "Come on over here and play, guys!" (At our house, we often remind Maddie not to be a "bossy Gillis," which is a term her Grampy uses a lot. She's got no shortage of self confidence and has no problem herding other kids to go along with her idea of fun. The challenge for us will probably be to make sure that her "leadership" is constructive at preschool, and doesn't turn into something else...)

In other Maddie news this week...she started dance lessons! Very exciting for her, as she absolutely loves to dance and just perform in general. She's doing a one hour combo class of ballet, tap and tumble. I quickly realized though that I may be one of the only moms there that isn't really "into" it as a serious effort, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with her doing dance if that's what she's into. But at age 3.5, we're pretty much just letting her try different things and see what she likes. Last year it was gymnastics, this year it's dance, and I think next year will be soccer once she's finally old enough to take soccer lessons like Dora! But all of the other parents there had clearly been coming for a while, and had multiple kids in dance.


And speaking of doing things on her own...the dance instructors won't let parents anywhere near the dance studio, because parents are distracting. I asked (sort of jokingly...maybe with a hint of sarcasm??) if I would ever get a chance to see her and what she was learning, and the instructor told me yes... at the recital in June. I know Maddie is pretty self sufficient and doesn't "need" me for things like this right now, but it just put me so on edge to have her down on another floor, with a teacher she'd never met before, doing something she'd never done formally before...with no parent there by her side, even for the first class. She was a trooper and didn't mind a bit -- it was me who was kind of a mess. I guess we'll just keep trying it as long as Maddie is happy doing it, though. I'm sure I'll get used to it too!

Sisters

It's pretty obvious that my kids each know they have sisters, but I've noticed that they are really starting to act like three sisters these days, too. Maddie and Sienna love to take turns holding Lyla, and like to put on "concerts" for her in her room before they all go to bed, singing and dancing up a storm. For her part, Lyla rewards each of them with huge smiles and shrieks every time they come anywhere near her, like being next to them is just the highlight of her day. Yes, there are arguments...but so far, they are far outnumbered by the happy times they seem to have just being together. I just love watching them have fun together and love eachother -- I think they're so lucky to have eachother! Some recent pics of bedtime:

Baby no more...

Sienna is officially turning into a little girl. She's losing some of her "baby" look, among other things. Just thought I'd post the latest pics of her, though I don't have much to say about them other than what I just posted below...man, do they grow up fast.

Houston, we have a problem!

My 3.5 year old is getting married. Yes, that's right. Married. At least that's what she has been insiting on lately. She and Jonathan, our neighbor, are getting married -- his idea. His aunt is going to make her a chocolate chip wedding cake, he says. He has told her this numerous times lately, and she has seemed pretty excited by the idea of scoring her own wedding cake. But then one night last week she told me, "Umm...I don't really like chocolate chip wedding cake, Mom." Hmmm...

This is the picture that is hanging in our kitchen right now:


It's a picture that Maddie drew of her and Jonathan. (She's the one with hair on the right, in case you couldn't tell.) I love how each of them have a million fingers. It's just too cute.

But after she hung that up on our sliding door, she told me that Jonathan says he'll come over for a sleepover one day. And I watched him plant a big kiss on her cheek a couple of times this week. (I'm starting to get nervous -- how are we gonna make it through the teenage years if we're starting at age 3, LOL??) Jonathan leaves her notes in our mailbox regularly, cute little drawings he has done with "messages" for her. She's also left a couple for him...who cares about violating postal laws when you've got a preschool romance to maintain? Guess I'll be looking for that wedding invitation to appear in the mailbox soon. Man do they grow up fast.

Butterflies!

For the past couple of years, my mom has raised monarch butterflies to release into her garden. She's made this a really fun project to share with Madelyn, and Maddie has become quite the little expert on everything from caterpillars to metamorphasis to crysallis...and finally, to butterflies. It's really cute to see her using my mom's magnifying glass to watch the caterpillars eating through milkweed leaves, or to see her concerned about cleaning out their home and getting new leaves for them to chomp on.

My mom bought a little mesh laundry hamper than she's using to keep them contained in the house once they emerge from their chrysalis, until Maddie gets a chance to come over and set them free in the yard.

Last weekend (gosh, it's been a while since I blogged!) we went to my parents' house and a few more butterflies had emerged. Maddie and my nephew, Hunter, had fun letting them go in the yard. Hunter was a little scared of them, but Maddie (being the pro caretaker at this point, LOL) put her finger right out for the butterfly to climb on. Sienna was a little more perplexed by the whole event, and seemed alarmed that we were letting them go.

I'm getting a vision...

Of my daughter in her teenage years. Scary, my friends, scary! Just kidding, of course. But take a look at how I found Madelyn this afternoon:



What a character. She's such a fan of the camera these days, and after posing from some pics, proceeded to ask me to videotape her singing a song, etc. She put on her best "fancy" poses (a la "Fancy Nancy") and had quite a bit to say. I'm going to have to try to get that one up on this site, but I'm not quite that good at blogging yet, LOL.

While Sienna wasn't dressed for the occasion (and it would have been hard to top Madelyn, though she would have tried!), she decided to join her sister for a pose or two. I just love how the two of them play together now, and love to be together. They do their share of fighting, but seeing them together always reminds me why I wanted a sister.

The latest...

Pics of Lyla, at Christine's request! You're right Christine, I haven't posted any new pics of Little Miss L lately, so here she is! Looking pensive:

Rolling happily on her playmat: (Do these shots all look familiar? We're on child #3 with these toys and this one in particular seems to have made it into SO many photos, LOL!)