Sweet Addie

I've realized that the newest member of our family may not get the blogging attention that is rightfully hers. Poor Addie is often a spectator to the circus that goes on around here. I've only recently discovered this when I couldn't find a recent picture of her! So, the other day she was looking rather cute, and I decided to snap a few.

Occasionally she wears one of Sophie's 'pretty's' in her hair. She leaves them in much better than her older sister!

We've just finished our first round of teething with Addie, and it went pretty well. We had some night waking and a little bit of fussiness, but all in all it wasn't so bad. She has two new bottom front teeth to show for it! I'm sure she is working on some more already!

We've also discovered that she is becoming quite mobile. It won't be too long before the baby gates will always be up by the stairs. We used to lay her down on a nice big blanket in the living room. Now she gets tangled up in it, that is if she even stays on it! We recently left the room for a moment to come back and find her underneath the desk. She also likes to try to reach the curtains to chew on them. Baby proofing is in our near future! She isn't crawling yet, but she is a master roller, and does some schooching on her belly. As for sitting, that is coming soon too. We are very close!

We've just started to work on some rice and oatmeal cereals. Our doctor preferred for her to wait until six months. This past week, I think she may have actually eaten some of the cereal instead of spreading it all over her face! I'm sure some yummy fruits and veggies will be coming her way soon.

She seems to be putting on weight still and is fitting into her clothes a little better. All good signs that she is growing. Can't wait until her next checkup to see if she has made it on the growth chart!

Soccer Saturdays!

Our Saturdays have been jam packed the last few weekends-Ben started Soccer! In addition, Nick is preparing to run a marathon in late October, so he has run in local races the last two Saturdays. This means we are one busy family! We leave the house very early, Nick runs his race, then we rush to Ben's Soccer game. We are a one car family right now, so we have no option but to do this all together. The kids love watching Nick start and finish his races, and there is always something there for them to do-maybe I will do a blog post on that later!

Back to Soccer-Ben loves it! He practices on Wednesday night, and then has a game every Saturday morning. He was super excited when the coach pulled out jerseys and matching socks for all the players. We had no idea he would be issued a uniform. The kids decided to name their team the 'Blue Marlins'-of course at Benny's suggestion! The other mothers were laughing at the name, joking that the kids had no idea what a marlin was, so surely the coach suggested the name. I new immediately that it had to be the brain child of Ben. He had just been to a Washington Nationals game, and they played the Florida Marlins. When we were in the car I asked Ben if it was his idea, and yes, of course it was! Such a funny boy!

Two Saturdays ago, the Blue Marlins had their first game. They play 3 on 3 with two simultaneous games going on. The team has ten players so this means that only 4 children sit out at a time. 3 on 3 is more manageable for the players since they all chase the ball at once! This Saturdays game showed a remarkable improvement over last Saturdays. The basics of soccer are finally starting to click.





Here are the Blue Marlins chasing the ball towards the goal. It's doubtful that it went in, they have lots of room to grow!

Benny loves his Blue Marlins jersey and proudly poses for a picture before the game!

And finally, here are the Blue Marlins lining up to shake hands after the game. It's so fun to watch these boys. They are having a blast chasing the soccer ball around and learning the basics of soccer. Benny spent most of the first game cheering on his teammates. The only problem was that Benny was on the field too! It was incredibly sweet, but he wasn't paying attention to the game. The other team seemed a little bit more together than ours. They don't keep score at this age, but Benny is sure they lost the game. Now he's motivated to improve his skills!

The girls and I enjoy watching Benny play. Sophie plays with an extra soccer ball on the sidelines, and has even found another little sister to play with. And Nick? He has found himself as the assistant coach! Since they play two games at once, the coach needed a parent to be in charge of the other field. Nick gladly volunteered and is having lots of fun helping these little guys, even if his own knowledge of the sport is minimal! We look forward to lots more soccer fun!

First Day of School

Tuesday marked a big day for the Cook Family. It was Ben's first day of kindergarten! He has been anxiously awaiting the first day of school for sometime now. I guess anxious wouldn't be the right word since he wasn't nervous one bit. He was so excited! Nick woke him a little before 8 and Ben asked right away if it was finally time for school. He showered and then had a good breakfast before we walked him the half mile down the road. It's so great having Nick home this fall. It really takes the chaos out of our morning routine.

Here Ben is enjoying a big bowl of Cheerios before school

All ready to go with a new backpack, new lunchbox and new shoes!

In his classroom with his new friend Delaney

And finally sitting at his table wearing his name tag!

We are really happy with the school so far. We absolutely love the school hours. They work so well for our family. We don't have to leave until 8:50, and I pick him up at 4 (except on Monday's when he is done at 1)! This allows our girls to sleep in and get good naps in the afternoon. We are really thankful for that!

So far, Ben is having a great time at school and seems to be adjusting well. He is excited to go every morning, so I guess that is a good sign! Last night also marked his first soccer practice, and he was bubbling with excitement all night. We are so thankful that he is so happy and starting to meet some new friends!

Spectacular Six!

Last Friday, Benny reached a major milestone. He turned 6! I can hardly believe it myself. I don't know where time has gone. Six great years, and one wonderful little boy!

He started his birthday morning with some present opening. It was torturous for him to wait for Sophie to wake up. She chose his birthday of all days to sleep in! But, she really needed the sleep, so we did not dare wake her. The instant we heard her upstairs, Benny was ready to tear into his gifts!




He received some great presents and has really enjoyed playing with them all. He had presents for Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and parents waiting for him. This year he is really into GI Joe's and LEGOs. He has spent every waking hour playing with them.

As a special birthday surprise, Nick took Benny to a Washington Nationals baseball game on Saturday night. It was a strictly boys affair, no girls allowed. They had a great time sitting out in Left Field cheering on the Nationals. It is rumored that Benny had an extremely large bowl of chocolate ice cream all to himself. He purchased a National's baseball hat with some birthday money and has hardly taken it off since. Notice the boys still wore their Tiger's gear!

When given the choice what Benny wanted to do for his Birthday dinner, his request was simple. He wanted to order pizza at the pool! We were thankful to have Ben's new friend Delaney and her family join us. Unfortunately, our few friends that we have here were out of town. But, we still had a spectacular time. The water was a little chilly, but that didn't seem to bother anyone. After about an hour of swimming, we took a break and enjoyed pizza and chocolate cupcakes. By the time we were finished celebrating, it was too cold to get back into the pool. Instead, we moved the party to the playground for a bit.

We are so thankful to have little Benny as our son (chocolate cupcake face and all)!

Fun at the beach!

A few weekends ago, we hit the road and hit the beach! None of our children have ever seen the ocean (well maybe Ben did in Europe, but he wouldn't remember), and the girls have never been to a beach!


On the way, we made a stop at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. They offer free tickets to military families, and we had to drive right by to get to Virginia Beach, so we made a free day of it! We arrived a little before lunchtime and stayed to close down the park at 9. We had a fun, fun day in the hot, hot sun. The temp was in the high 90s, but we managed to find some relief from the heat throughout the park. One of our favorite places to do that was the German Fest Hall. It was surprisingly accurate (we do know our German fests!) and one of the coolest places in the park. Sophie loved the polka music and danced and danced. Sophie, Addie and I did a good bit of hanging out there while the boys rode some rides.

We were surprised at how much the kids loved the rides. Ben could ride on most everything in the park, and Sophie did her fair share of rides too. Ben wanted to ride a big roller coaster at the end of the evening, but thankfully we talked him out of it since we didn't want to stand in the long line. He did ride the log ride with Nick though and came and gave me a big, wet hug when he was done! Our excursion to the park was exhausting but tons of fun. Nick and I couldn't wait to get to the hotel and get everyone into the shower and then into bed.

The next morning we headed another hour down the road to Virginia Beach. The kids were thrilled to see the ocean, and even more excited when they discovered our hotel was right on the beach! Our trip was hastily planned, and we really weren't prepared to have Addie at the beach. We did however manage to sneak in some play time at the beach after breakfast each day before it was too crowded and hot. The weather was still in the high 90s and the water was frequently off limits for swimming due to the strong rip tide. Both the kids loved digging in the sand and made sand castles decorated with the beach treasures they had found. We have also discovered when you have small children, sand gets absolutely everywhere. We are still finding it in the stroller and in Addie's car seat!

After dinner the first night, we headed out for ice cream and a walk on the beach. It wasn't nearly as hot, and we finally didn't have to worry about too much sun exposure for the kids. A nice lady offered to take a family photo for us. It is one of only a handful that exist, AND no one is screaming!

Ben had fun trying to write his name in the sand before the water would wash it away!

Sophie tried to make her own version of a sand castle!

It wasn't all fun at the beach, we went to the Virginia Aquarium too! We figured it was a good way to escape the heat of the day. It's a good thing we went too, because it poured the whole time we were there. It was very relaxing to be in the cool indoors looking at the fish. We took our time at each of the exhibits. There was a nature center attached to the aquarium and Ben had a great time exploring. He even had the opportunity to pet a rat snake, and a baby alligator. Such a brave boy!

It was still pouring as we left the aquarium, so we decided that a beach side dinner was out of the question and headed to the Outback instead. An amazing thing happened as we were driving back to the hotel after dinner. Sophie fell asleep! Those who know Sophie, know that she does not sleep well if we are not home. She rarely even sleeps in the car. She crashed mid sentence while chewing some of her brother's left overs. (You know it had been about 15 minutes since she had last eaten, and since she is a human garbage disposal, she couldn't let Ben's food go untouched!) She even stayed asleep while Nick carried her in the rain into the hotel. What was even more amazing was that she slept until 6:30 the next morning. It was still quite early, so the boys ventured out for ice cream once the rain stopped while I stayed back with the girls. Thankfully, they brought some yummy frozen custard back for me!

Sophie and I hit the beach early the next morning for a walk. Her long sleep had rejuvenated her, and we couldn't keep her quite in the hotel room while the other two children were sleeping. It was a blast walking along the shore with her, and she was so excited to pick up sea shells to take back to Benny.

Our trip wasn't so relaxing, but when is any trip with three children relaxing? We had a great time exploring on the beach and look forward to many more beach trips to come. Next time we will be more prepared!