Tantrums & random kindness

Have you tried online grocery shopping? It must have been invented by a mom and I think it's one of the best ideas ever. Harris Teeter offers it here and I use it often. The only problem with it is that you have to place your order 4 hours before you want to pick up and sometimes I just don't get it done in time. Which brings me to our trip to the grocery store this morning. Normally the kids are okay. Although lately the older two seem to fight constantly and their fighting just gets worse when they're sitting beside each other driving the little car that is attached to the front of the grocery cart.

Today, Parker had a tantrum the likes of which I've never experienced before in a grocery store. He didn't appear to be calming down at all so I decided the best thing to do was to check out and leave. Well, that was the best thing for everyone else in the store anyways. For me it wasn't, I was only about 1/4 of the way through the store and now I have go back again. You know how everyone just stares at you when your child is having a tantrum? I can just imagine how they're all judging my parenting skills (or perceived lack thereof) in their heads. I was fighting back tears and feeling extremely embarrassed and frustrated while trying to get Parker in the car when I looked up and saw an older man that had been watching us in the store walking towards me. I braced myself in anticipation of the parenting lesson I was about to receive but instead the man just said "Ma'am, don't worry about it. We've all been there and we know how it is". I really appreciated him taking a few moments out of his day to come and tell me that. It made me feel a little better.

In hindsight, I think the best solution would have been to leave the groceries and cart somewhere (and let someone know I was coming back for them) and taken the kids out to the car until Parker calmed down. That way I wouldn't have had to make another trip to the store.

Homeschooling

Homeschooling is going really well with Kennedy. She's making great progress with learning to read. We're on lesson 16 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Lessons and she's already sounding out sentences! We're working on Saxon Math 1 this year and that's going well too. Now that we have a good routine going with those two, next week we will be starting where we left off last year in the Veritas Press Phonics Museum K/1 program. After that we're going to add some geography with Legends and Leagues. We're part of a homeschool co-op on Thursdays and this year we're going to be doing art, science and theatre with through that.

The hardest part of homeschooling right now is trying to find something to keep Parker occupied. He is constantly trying to get Kennedy to play with him or me to give him attention. I need to work on keeping him busy. He'll colour for a few minutes but then he's done with that and wants our attention. I need to find some toys or something that he can only use during school time.

August 26th was the 10 year anniversary of our first date. 10 years! That's more than a third of my life. I can't believe it's been 10 years already. If you'd asked me 10 years ago how I pictured my life 10 years from then I would have said to be married and have kids. While we may not live where I want to live right now or have as much money as we would like (who really does right?) I am blessed to have the one thing that really matters in my life - my family.

We had Kennedy's 5th and Parker's 3rd birthday party on Sunday. It was a pirate theme and then Kennedy decided she wanted it to be a princess theme too. Here are some pictures. We didn't get too many. As usual, my cakes didn't turn out quite like I hoped, especially the castle. The kids were excited by them though so I guess that's all that matters.

Thanks Auntie Lara!

Thanks to my sister Lara who gave us money for a dinner out last week. I was telling her that our dishwasher is broken and I was so tired of washing dishes and that I just didn't think I could was another one that day. Shortly after I talked to her she emailed me to tell me that she'd transfered some money to my account so that we could go to Outback, one of my favourite restaurants (for cheese fries!). It was such a surprise and so sweet of her.

We almost never take the kids out for a sit down meal, it's just not something that appeals to me. It's so much easier to eat at home with them. Now that Kennedy and Parker are both at the age where they're fine eating out, Emerson is now at the age where she doesn't want to sit still. However, on this particular night they were amazing and so perfectly behaved. We were so very proud of them. The waitress even said that Emerson was the best baby she's ever had in the restaurant. It really was a great dinner. Thanks so much Lar! Here are some pictures of our lovely evening.

Parker on his 2nd birthday.
Parker's 3rd birthday was the day after we got home from Canada. We're having a party for him and Kennedy this weekend so we just had cupcakes on his birthday. Like usual, can not believe time has passed so quickly and my little baby boy is already 3!

Parker's 3rd birthday was the day after we got home from Canada. We're having a party for him and Kennedy this weekend so we just had cupcakes on his birthday. Like usual, can not believe time has passes so quickly and my little baby boy is already 3!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're back from Canada!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Canada. We had a great visit with my mom and Bob and with Jana, Patrick and Hannah. The kids did amazingly well on our 31 hour drive up. I was just shocked by how wonderful all 3 of them were. On the way home Kennedy was sick and throwing up and we drove through torrential rain during 12 of the 15 hours of our second day of driving home but they were still really great. My advice to anyone contemplating a long drive alone with 3 children (especially a baby who is still nursing) is don't do it!! Even though they were really, really good it was still an incredibly long trip.