Johanna is two.
No one is sure where the time went.  Somewhere in the midst of teaching long division, taking a few vacations, and doing a lot of laundry Johanna got to be a two-year-old.   Truthfully, I think the 35 hours I spent in labor were much longer than the last two years. 

She has been a part of this family from the get-go. She has been flexible and portable and has never fussed about our pace. She doesn’t know any other way except the homeschool way and is surrounded day-in and day-out by her siblings.

Somewhere in the last six months I have taken to calling her, “Riffy.”  My mother heard me say it once and said, “Is that because she is terrific?”  YES.  Nan got it.  (Everyone else says, “Why do you call her Riffy?”)

We celebrated her birthday late in the day.  She is such a good eater that no food has stood out as her favorite.  We ate burgers and salad and grapes.  Not that exciting.  We then settled in the family room for a few gifts. 

She got one, two, three, four, FIVE new t-shirts to go with all the hand-me-down skorts she has.

She got her first, very own coloring book!

And then… she beamed as her brothers and Daddy carried in a new-to-her table and chair set.

Birthdays are incomplete around these parts without a candle and dessert.  She was blessed with a Bob and Larry cake.

The kids have said, “Oh no – now she will be Terrible Two, Mom!” coining the phrase they’d overheard somewhere.  I assure them we are now into TERRIFIC TWO. 

Marie, Tabitha, and I got to march in the Memorial Day Parade in Honeoye Falls this year.  It was a beautiful morning and a great experience. 

In a few years Johanna can join us!

Marie worked hard on Friday to make a farmer costume. 
She was inspired by the piece of “straw” she found in the yard to chew on.

She repeated the outfit on Saturday morning, this time with a beard…
And it looked like so much fun, Tabitha made her own ensemble.
I love the suspenders!

Fifteen years ago today John and I said, “I do.”  (He also graduated from R.I.T. the same day.  But that is another story.)

Fast forward 15 years and our lives do not look a thing like we had envisioned them.  God’s plan has been much better than ours was. 

I won’t even see him today! He will be working very, very late tonight. We are going to celebrate with dinner out on Sunday. Any suggestions as to where to go? I don’t really have any strong preferences anymore. Even at the food court I won’t have to do dishes!

Happy Anniversary, John!
(Don’t you hate how today’s cameras are so advanced… we definitely are looking our age!)

 

We headed to the zoo today hoping to see a bit of God’s creation up close and to take in the newly opened Africa section complete with three new lions.  We saw that alright, along with a couple hundred other people.

I’d like to say I’ve never seen it that busy before, but the truth is it was even busier on a visit we made on 7/2/07.  We had friends visiting us from out of town and we decided to spend Nigel’s birthday at the zoo.  My friend’s then 6-year-old son became separated from our party of 14.  The next few minutes were a flurry of panicked searching that shaved a few years off of my life.  I won’t pretend I didn’t have vivid memories of that today.

 

We didn’t lose anyone today, praise the LORD.  \o/   But it wasn’t the best visit we’d ever had.  To be sure, there WERE  highlights, and I trust that will be all that I recall as days go by.   Right now I am sipping a Pepsi and resting my head-counting eyes.  (I am a total head-counter and it wasn’t easy today!)

We did see some of the animals, of course.  But as always, I take more photos of people than of animals!  Stewart took a lot of video of animals so he can use them in the movies he makes on my iPod.  Since his latest passion is Narnia he was quite pleased to get many shots of animals. 

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

Big sisters teaching the “ins” and “outs” of the cougar observation tunnel.

Digging for fossils with new friends.

 

 

Eating a picnic lunch, complete with POPCORN… (minus the mint brownies we left at home – Wah) and watching middle-sized sister look after baby sister WITHOUT BEING ASKED.

Being asked if anyone in your group wants to help the zoo employees as they rehearse for this summer’s educational show.

She says they were heavy.  She doesn’t seem to mind though, does she? ♥

I was pretty impressed with the new lion/Africa area.  It was very nice.  Having been to that region of Kenya/Tanzania ourselves, I love to see reminders of our trip and of the Serengeti.  The other side of it, though, is I see how so many philanthropic groups and individuals in our area made donations to build the section and fund the upkeep.  I can’t help but wonder what the same money would do through the Open Door Mission, or Rochester Family Mission, or Compass Care, or Youth for Christ Rochester.  Yet, most children in our area, including mine, will never travel to Africa to see a wild lion, so maybe bringing them to us is the way to bless young (and older) minds.  It was pretty nice.  And fancy.

Now to join in the name-the-lions-contest.

School is out.
How do we celebrate?  By getting to work.

Thursday and Friday I painted the family room.  (Pics to follow, soon.)

Friday my friend Jenn brought over a trailer filled with mulch.  I worked the big four like dogs to get as much of it down as we could.  The mulching looks better than ever before.  I am sure that is because our children helped.

When I returned home from running errands today, Sunday, I was greeted by my daughter sitting on the tractor starting it up to finish mowing the back yard.  Daddy had cut in all the edges and left a large level spot for her to do.  Can I tell you how IMPRESSED I am with this girl?  Actually, both Marie and Tabitha are exceptionally hard working…

 

This costume has been around quite a long time. 
I remember Stewart in it at this age.
The girls found it in the dress-up clothes Friday
and made a super cute kitty for our house.

           

 

 

 

 

               Golly she is cute. ♥

             And I think she looks
             like her big brothers. 

This is the video of Marie dancing at Genesee
Country Village and Museum.  I {heart} her.  ♥