Valentines 2019

It's been just a bit since we've let you know what has been going on in our lives...needless to say, we are in the thick of it raising our kiddos!! As Ferris Buller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!!" We are trying to not miss any of it and it's crazy how much time has passed and we are closer to having kiddos leave the nest than having them here at home!

The tradition of the 12 Days of Valentine's has continued - the family would NOT let me forget to do this one!

 Day 1: Heart cake. Elizabeth helped me this year! I am really enjoying the kids as they are getting older and having them help and learn in the kitchen!

Day 2: Double chocolate and cookies and cream fudge hearts. 

 Day 3: Chocolate PB M&M cookies. Celebrate for sure!

 Day 4: Lava Cake kisses. These were a new find this year. Rather yummy!

 Day 5: Kit Kats

 Day 6: Six packs of six Sixlets!

 Day 7: Hugs

 Day 8: Mini heart sugar cookies.

 Day 9: Reese's PB hearts

 Day 10: 5 Hershey's hearts and 5 Hershey's Strawberry filled hearts. Unfortunately, the strawberry one's were NOT good! There was something just not right about the strawberry flavor. Note to self: DO NOT buy these again!

 Day 11: M&M Cupid's message - These babies are 3x the size of normal M&M's but they taste just fine 😄

Day 12: This day is always fun to just get a collection of fun items. My favorite item was the Lovable Gummy Lobsters!! 

Caroline made us a wonderful dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce, Caesar salad, grapes and cheesy garlic biscuits. For dessert, she surprised us with Chocolate covered strawberries!! She is a lovely gal and I'm so glad she's a part of our family.

Jonathan and Elizabeth will be heading off this weekend for a retreat with our church youth group. They have 55 kids going! While we are excited for time with our "bookend brown-eyed kids", we will miss our "middle blue-eyed kids". It's a balancing act every day to work, exercise, take care of house stuff, ministry and family activities. 

Matthew lost yet another tooth today making it the 3rd one in the last 2 weeks that he's lost. He has some big gaping holes in his mouth!

I would love to paint the picture that we are the perfect family and it's all rosy at the Cribbs' house. Parenting is not for the faint of heart! We have been having some challenges lately, but are sticking to our faith and doing our best to lead our kiddos. There are days when I think back to the preschool days and think, 'boy, were those easy!!' We went from the physically exhausing days to the mentally exhausing days. Hopefully, a few years down the road we'll be able to look back and say, 'Look! We made it!!' We don't just want to survive these days, but flourish, grow and enjoy them!

Be sure to check back... hopefully, it won't be 5 years until my next update 😬😲

September 2012

September was another fast month. We continued to have fun at home school. Thankfully, we were taking advantage of some warmer days with gym class outside moving to art creating mud masterpieces.

 

 

Caroline had a couple of big moments in September. She was the only person in her class to score 100% on their first unit math test.

Her teacher is great about sending home lots of pictures of the kids doing something great. It’s also an incentive to them as who doesn’t love to have their picture taken?!? So, we are pleased to see her smiling face often as she is having a great year. Another big school activity for Caroline this year is Spotlight Singers. It is a choir of about 40 4^th and 5^th graders. She had to audition and learn some choreography. She also tried to pull a fast one on us and pretended that she didn’t make it into the choir when we first asked her…she’s taking after her Daddy’s humor!! Speaking of her Daddy, he was privileged to baptize Caroline at church. We were so pleased with her making this public declaration of her faith in Jesus Christ and her desire to be obedient to Him.

For most of the month, I worked on surprising David for his milestone birthday. He didn’t make it easy for me! Because he didn’t know it was a surprise, he didn’t realize how difficult it was. We had been invited for a similar outing for his co-worker for his 40^th, so I wanted to do something similar for David.

We planned an outing to the gun range at Camp Atterbury. It ended up being a beautiful day! We spent some time shooting at targets, both pistols and rifles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, headed for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

We did an apple study for homeschool. We went to a local orchard where we were able to pick our own apples.

We then came home and made applesauce.

While the apples were cooking, we worked on an apple craft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a fun fall activity!

Another fun outing with Caroline was to a Secret Keeper Girl conference.

We went with several of our friends and their daughters.

It’s amazing how quickly our sweet Caroline is growing up, but it’s also fun as we are transitioning into the tween years. The creator of this conference has several books I’ve read titled, “Keeping the Little in your Little Girl” and ‘8 Great Dates’. In many aspects, I missed out on a lot with my mom because she was sick much of my childhood. Our society pushes for girls to grow up so quickly and we want to guide our girls through this time. We are encouraging modesty and open communication along with lots of prayer for the teen years ahead.

August 2012

August slowed down for us in some aspects. It was a month of change and getting settled into routine. School started and we have 3 in school this year! How has that happened?!?

Caroline is in 4^th grade.

Jonathan is in 2^nd grade.

Elizabeth is in Kindergarten.

This year we have two at our local public school and we are homeschooling Elizabeth. We love our elementary school and are very involved there, but our school district has gone to full day kindergarten program. I have always said I would homeschool Kindergarten before sending them all day. Because I am at home, I don’t feel that full day Kindergarten is necessary – especially when Kindergarten is not a required grade in the state of Indiana.

 

We found a curriculum we used last year for PreK and are using it again for Kindergarten. Our first day of school tradition is going out for ice cream to hear all about their first day. We tried a new frozen yogurt place this year. It was yummy!!

 

 August in Indiana also means State Fair time. We were able to go a couple of times due to getting free (or nearly free) tickets. The first trip was just the little two and our neighbor and their little girl. It was a cooler, overcast day, so the crowds were pretty thin. It was the Year of the Cow. There were cows everywhere!!

We also visited several of our favorite spots: Little Hands on the Farm,

Pioneer Village and seeing the animals. We found a new spot this year – BeanGo. If you played the game and filled out the card, you received a free milkshake from the Dairy Bar. Yes, please!!

The second trip was for all of us and it was Contemporary Christian Day, so we got to see one of our favorite bands: Big Daddy Weave.

A fun-filled day that wore our little two OUT. They both fell asleep during the concert. 

 

 

 

July 2012

July was another busy, fun-filled month for us. We crammed in a whole lotta activities in a short amount of time.  The month started off with a bang – Fourth of July! We normally have a family celebration, but it didn’t work out this year. We celebrated the weekend before at a parade with some of our dear friends. This is only 3 families!!

Due to daylight savings, our fireworks don’t normally occur until 10pm. Yes, it is summer time, but it’s just not worth staying out super late for us.

We headed to the Children’s Museum for another outing with some of our friends. No matter how many times we visit, we always find lots of fun places to play and learn.

Elizabeth and Mandy were the Mama dinosaurs protecting their eggs.

The boys chillin’ in the dino nests.

A favorite exhibit of our revolves around one of our favorite items…. LEGOS!!!

The cutest race car driver around!

Best friends and their LEGO creation.

INCREDIBLE PIZZA

A favorite activity of ours is to play games. We have a place nearby called Incredible Pizza. It’s all you can eat, themed dining rooms, arcade games and other activities. This trip, we cashed in on our kiddos great report cards for some extra ‘fun money’. We also had several passes to allow us to play a round of Laser Tag.

We had a BLAST!! The little boys weren’t too sure at first, but they followed their daddy’s lead and we had a ton of fun.

 

 

I got a picture of the final scoreboard. Take a guess as to who was who…

David and the boys were on the red team, while Caroline and I were on the red (Elizabeth decided to sit this one out).

We played a few more games and Caroline hit the “Jackpot” twice on the Jackpot game! She won over 800 tickets.

Being the kind sister that she is, she pooled all the points together to share with her siblings. They came away with several treasures from the prize room.

BASEBALL

We added a new sport to our experience this summer. Jonathan played coach pitch baseball for the Detroit Tigers!

Considering it was his first season, he really improved! Most evenings, he and David would be practicing in the back yard with throwing and catching. He persevered and we definitely saw progress.

Swing, batter!!

DRESS LIKE A COW AT CHICK-FIL-A

One of my favorite days of the year is when we get to dress up like cows to score some free food. Over the years, I’ve accumulated our costumes and stash them away for this annual event. This year, David and I scored a breakfast date to Chick-fil-a. Don’t I have a handsome date?!

 

Of course, the kiddos didn’t want to be left out….

GOVERNOR’S MANSION

We had the opportunity while some family was in town to visit our Governor’s mansion. We had a lovely time and the Butler was a fantastic host.

 Holding some of the silver from aboard the USS Indianapolis.

Caroline was able to play on the Governor’s grand piano!

Our family patriarch was sworn in as an Honorary Governor. Can’t you just see the cuteness oozing out of the butler?!

Speaking of cuteness…. This little bench was just the perfect size for our four sweeties to squeeze in!

PERRY PARK

Another of our summer traditions is to go to the local pool for a day. As the kiddos have grown and taken more swimming lessons, this is not as stressful of outing as it used to be! Needless to say, our kiddos are not afraid of water!

A sure sign of a successful pool outing = no sunburn and four tired kiddos!!

2012 SUMMER OLYMPICS

To finish out our summer, we planned an Olympics party with some of our friends. The day started with Olympic poptarts!

The Olympic party consisted of Opening ceremonies, a torch relay, a Parade of Nations, events for the athletes, a cook-out, and watching the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremonies.

Lining up for the Torch relay from oldest kid to youngest kid from the four families represented. These kiddos have known each other their entire lives and we hope they remain dear friends forever!

Parade of Nations: The Nation of Cribbs

The Dad’s even got into the events!

The cheese puff toss was a big hit with all the kids! This was a much more enjoyable activity with shower caps than our last experience… (see March 2012)

 

We saw a competitive spirit come out in our little red head.

Medal ceremonies were a highlight for the kiddos.

Olympic cookies.

Olympic toes.