Violet Octavia is 3!!

Violet had a lovely birthday. She dressed up in her Halloween pirate costume and played with balloons and ate Disney Princesses birthday cake. What more could a three-year-old ask for? How about a Baby Alive boy baby that shoots pee all the way across the room after you feed him his bottle? Good practice for the major change coming at her this year.

Twilight Obsessed

Eve and her friends got to go to a Twilight convention and meet some of the stars of Twilight. Her friend, Katherine (on the far right) invited five of her best friends to go to celebrate her birthday. This is Eve's favorite actor from the movie, Kellan Lutz, who played Emmett. That's Eve's friend Hayley on the far left. That's Eve to Kellan's left, looking like it's the happiest day of her life. Well, according to Eve, it was. In fact, all the girls said the same thing.

To be very honest, I'm just glad Katherine's mom took them so I didn't have to go. ;)

Give me a Z-O-E! (Two dots over the E!)

Zoe got her cheerleading uniform today. Isn't she adorable? It's finally starting to hit me that my baby is going to be in high school next year. Where did the time go?

Sophia and the Bee

Last night all ten of us headed down to the elementary school for the spelling bee to determine which of the fifteen top spellers in the 4th and 5th grade is the best speller in the school.

The bee was conducted a bit differently than I've ever seen before. Each speller stood at the mike and spelled his or her word, then sat back down. After the round, the judges told the kids which ones misspelled their words and had to leave the stage. Sophia survived round 1, correctly spelling "wary," but six students were booted off following round 1.

Sophia misspelled "benign" in round 2. She had absolutely no idea, and there was no way she could've sounded it out. Altogether, five more students left the stage after round 2.

Rounds 3 and 4 ended with none of the four children left correctly spelling their words. Finally in round 5, two students misspelled their words, and the other two correctly spelled theirs. In rounds 6 and 7, neither of the finalists correctly spelled the words, but in round 8, we finally got a winner!

Sophia, I'm sure, was a little disappointed, but she didn't show it, and, of course, we're completely proud of her for making it to the top fifteen out of two hundred students. That's nothing to scoff at.

Spring Break

I had planned to spend our spring break having tons of family fun. I had several beach days planned, a movie day, a trip to the science center, a hike on a nature trail. As usual, things didn't go exactly as I had planned.

The week before spring break, some of the girls caught a 24-hour stomach bug that made them throw up. A lot. Gemma and Violet had it at the same time, but the other girls got it separately. That means that the bug carried over into spring break. On Wednesday, the four oldest girls had dentist appointments to pull teeth (in preparation for very, very expensive orthodontic work). Altogether, the four of them had fourteen teeth pulled. Luckily, all of them were baby teeth. On Friday of spring break, all the girls had finally recovered from the virus and the tooth pulling and were ready for my plans, so on Saturday, we headed out to the beach.

We had a great time. We stopped at Toys R Us to buy our beach toys for the summer, and found some really good deals. Gemma was especially excited about beach toys because she and Violet are kind of afraid of the water. They'll outgrow that; all their sisters were the same way.

The best thing was that I was able to lay down on my belly by digging a hole in the sand and putting my towel over it. My big baby bump fit neatly into the hole. Very comfy. It would have been better if I'd remembered to bring a book!

We planned to go back the next day, but I kind of ruined things by not wearing any SPF. I lathered the kids in it, so they were fine, but I got the worst sunburn of my life. For three days, the joints in my elbows hurt, and I had to take motrin before bed to deal with the pain. This was two weeks ago, and I'm still peeling, to give you an idea.

We're heading back to the beach tomorrow, and you'd better believe I'll be all sunlotioned up, along with the girls!


Zoe: It's hard to believe this almost-14 year old is the same chunky baby whose wrists I had to pull up in order to wash her hands, and who hid cheerios under her chins for snacking on later!! She tries to sunbathe on the beach, but we slather so much SPF 45 on her...

Eve: She is 12 1/2 now; where did the time go?? Her favorite thing to do at the beach is throw the football with Daddy.

Sophia: At 10 1/2, she's all arms and legs, and a ton of fun! She loves playing in the water.

Juliet: 9 years old, she loves gymnastics. It's too bad we can't afford classes. :( But at least we can feed her! :)

Tabitha: She'll be 8 in June. She doesn't like going out in the water as much as she enjoys sitting right there at the shoreline and letting the water sink her bottom down into the sand.

Clara: She is 6 1/2 and loves everything about the beach. It's hard to get her to slow down enough to take a picture. The picture doesn't show it, but her skin gets very dark. Most of the girls are blessed like that, but with Clara's blonde hair and blue eyes, the effect is stunning.

Gemma: She just turned four and doesn't really like the water unless Mommy and Daddy are both holding her hands and "jumping" her over the waves. She loves playing in the sand, and she and Violet have been having some fun playing, or trying to play, paddle ball.

Violet: She'll be three on May 11, and hates the water; she won't go anywhere near it. She also likes to play in the sand, but after a few hours, she's ready to go home.

It IS a boy!!

I can't believe it! The doctor and Rob were sure at the last ultrasound, but this time there was absolutely no mistaking it. And, like a true boy, after Kiwi showed us what he's got, he started playing with it. I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

The girls recovered from the shock pretty quickly, faster than I did. Well, except Violet. She's in denial. This baby is a GIRL and we're naming it Delilah. I tried to explain that God gave us a BOY, a BROTHER, and she responded that God would turn it into a GIRL, a SISTER. That reminded me so much of what happened with Clara, back when she was Gabriel and Char had the "sex party" at church for me... LOL!

So, as you can imagine, I'm going through some mental adjustments. If anyone wants to offer me any advice here:

What am I going to name this baby? My students have ruined a ton of names for me, and there are so few good boys names to start with.
Should I have him circumcised?
Can I dress him in the girls' hand-me-downs? (Just kidding!!)

When I get the scanner set up, I'll put in the latest ultrasound picture, just in case anybody wants proof that Rob actually can create a son. ;)

Babies, Cheerleaders, and Scholarships

Some exciting things have been going on in our family since the last time I posted. We're expecting baby #9 at the end of September. I'm about fifteen weeks right now. We call the baby Kiwi because at the very beginning of the pregnancy, I craved kiwi, which is odd because I don't really like kiwi. This has been a nerve-wracking pregnancy because I've had two miscarriages in the last fifteen months: one at ten weeks and one very early, at six weeks, and I had some spotting a few weeks ago, which was very scary for me. But we've had several ultrasounds, and the baby is doing well. I think I'm feeling movement now, which is very reassuring. I get my next ultrasound on April 15, when we'll find out if Kiwi is a boy or a girl. When I went to see the maternal fetal specialist, the doctor took a peek at Kiwi via ultrasound and he and Rob both swore they saw boy parts. I'll wait until April 15, because I really doubt we'd have a boy. Besides, right now the only name I have is Millie, which is plain silly for a boy.

Next exciting thing: Zoe tried out for cheerleading and made it, so she'll be on the freshman/jv squad next year. It's hard to believe she's starting high school, although she does look like it. Where did my chubby bubby baby go? She used to be so fat I had to push up the skin on her wrists to wash her hands, and put baby powder in the folds of fat on her thighs to keep her from getting a rash. She hid cheerios under her chins to eat later. Now she's almost as tall as I AND she won't hold my hand in public anymore. What happened??

And last, but not least, Eve got a full scholarship for college. It's based on grades and financial need; it's for seventh graders, and she was one of sixteen kids in the county to receive it. It pays for two years at a community college and then two years at a four-year college. I'm also counting on her getting a Bright Futures scholarship (if the funding for it still exists), which pays 100% tuition and is for kids who have at least a 3.5 weighted GPA and a 28 on the ACT or a 1270 on the SAT and 75 community service hours. Right now, she has a 4.0 GPA (granted, it's seventh grade, but she's taking honors classes), and a 19 on the ACT. (To get a Florida Medallion scholarship, a high school senior needs a 3.0 GPA and a 20 on the ACT. That scholarship pays 100% tuition at a community college, or 75% at a four year.) She WILL still hold my hand in public, even though she's almost as tall as I am, too.

The only thing that upsets me is that I've never been *tied down* to a place before. We don't own a home; we can up and move whenever we want to. But now, we've spent an obscene amount for Zoe's cheerleading uniform, and if we leave Florida, Eve loses her scholarship. We're tied down, just as I'm starting to feel restless here, and thinking about moving--maybe further south (still in Florida, but Zoe's cheerleading uniform is useless at any other school), or to Texas or back to Colorado (good bye scholarship). Adding to the stress, I may or may not have a job at the high school next year. It all depends on budget, and since I've only been there two years, if somebody who has a continuing contract gets bumped from another school in the district, they could conceivably get MY job. With the baby due in September, it's just about impossible for me to find another teaching position for next year. It's all so stressful right now!