Greenville Zoo

A few weeks ago we headed down to Greenville to go to the zoo with Alycia, John Paul, and Lucia. Despite its small size, there are lots of great animals at the zoo. I was so excited to see all of the animals that I only remembered to take pictures at the beginning, the elephant, and the end, the goats and chickens. The first picture is just a cute picture of the kiddos.

At the zoo waiting for Alycia, John Paul, and Lucia.

Feeding the goats.

This is the farm animal area.

The elephant. I wish this was a better picture.

Before entering the zoo, it had been raining, but once we got there, it stopped and turned into a lovely day.

I missed pictures of the lions, the apes, the monkeys, the pythons, the giraffes, the alligators, and all of the the other animals.

Parenting Problem

There are many difficulties in parenting, but I recently discovered one that I hadn't really thought of before. Patrick wants us to really start working with Sebastian on cleaning up one toy that he is done playing with before he moves on to a new one. Yes, this is a wonderful habit to have ingrained in you from the time that you are a child, to keep things clean as you go along vs. leaving messes and doing lots of cleaning up all at once. Not only will ones house be tidier, but in the end, it saves lots of time. The difficulty arises when the parent who is mainly needing to teach the child to do this (meaning the mom who is with him all day) is very bad at doing this herself. Yes, my house is pretty tidy, but that is because I clean it every day, not because I just naturally keep it that way. So, the difficulty in parenting comes with how to teach your child good habits that you yourself do not possess. As a parent you need to lead by example, but then, as an adult, you are attempting to learn good habits that you have lived without your entire life. Being a parent is good for ones self-improvement.

Playing Mass

Lately, Sebastian has started playing Mass. He gets all of his "friends" (stuffed animals), lines them up on the couch, and distributes Mass to those old enough to receive it. He uses the top of my French Coffee Press as the incense distributor, he has a cup for the wine and a bowl for the host, he holds his belt up high for the cross, and a small prayer book acts as the Bible. He doesn't know all of the parts, but I am hoping that this will make him pay even more attention in Mass.

Putting incense in his french press top.

At the altar in front of the congregation, you can see Evelyn sitting in the middle.

Performing the Mass

Evelyn playing with Sebastian

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Halloween

This year was the first year that Sebastian got to go tricker-treating. Patrick came home from work and they carved (Patrick carved, Sebastian watched) this pumpkin and once it was dark, off they went. It took a bit longer than anticipated to carve the pumpkin, but apparently, if you go on Halloween to find the pumpkin, they have all been sold by this time. (I find this to be slightly absurd) and the only pumpkins to be had are pie making pumpkins, which are very difficult to carve.) In the future we will go out with some of the neighbors, but this year, it was just Sebastian and Daddy. Sebastian was a little trooper and came back with a decent haul. Now Mommy has to just be careful and not eat most of it. Granted, all of that candy isn't good for him...

The pumpkin. Sebastian named him "Scary Pete".

Sebastian as Thomas the Train.

Evelyn as a leopard.

Grandparents Come to Visit

Patrick's parents just came to visit. We had a wonderful time and they got to meet Evelyn for the first time. Patrick took a little bit of time off of work, and we were able to spend one lovely day at the nearby lake. The weather was gorgeous. Sebastian even got to enjoy a little pony ride. We were very sad when they had to go but we greatly enjoyed their visit.

Philip, Melinda, and Kiddos

Some of you may have noticed that while I talk about Philip and Melinda, I rarely have photographs of them up on the blog. The reason for this is that the times that we see them tend to be a bit few and far between. As a result, the number of pictures that I have of them is limited. However, to show that I do have a third brother and he has a lovely family, here are a few pictures that they recently sent my way.

Philip and Melinda

Hugh

Edmund

Magdalen

Grandma Lewis' Memorial

Dad's mom recently passed away, so we had a little family memorial service at mom and dad's house. It happened to take place on October 15th, Patrick and my 6th anniversary.

We're just missing Melinda and Magdalen.

Attempting, once again, to get a decent picture of these three baby girl cousins.

And here we have four of the six boy cousins.

Lori with Anna and Tim with Lucia

Mom and Anna

Alycia and Lucia. Lucia has the sweetest smile and if you are wondering what Magdalen (now 5) looked like as a baby, it was just like this.

Evelyn looks a bit cross in this picture.

Amazing Apple Bread

With all of the apples that we recently picked, I have been attempting to find lots and lots of apple recipes. This apple bread recipe that I found on allrecipes.com is OUTSTANDING. It is also particularly yummy when you put homemade apple butter on top of it.


Apple Bread

3 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups apples, coarsely chopped
1 cup walnuts, broken (optional)

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine applesauce, oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and apples; stir into flour mixture. Divide into two 8x4 bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes (until knife inserted comes out clean).

Discovery Place Kids, part II

These are the last of the pictures from the most recent visit to Discovery Place Kids. This trip was, in many ways, more relaxing than the first visit, as the boys played in the respective rooms for longer periods of time.

THE BOAT

I like how with this picture, it actually looks a bit like they are on the water.

While the boys played, I attempted to get Evelyn to smile.

RACE-CAR DRIVER

PLAYING WITH BRICKS

Stephen and Sebastian played with this thing for about 40 minutes.

Sebastian would put the bricks in, and Stephen would turn the crank to make them go up to the top, they would then fall down on the other side, which is what Sebastian is looking up at in the previous photo.

MECHANICS SHOP

Stephen and Sebastian were fixing the cars together.

WATER WORKS

RAILROAD TRACKS

Sebastian couldn't reach a train and Stephen was helping him.

GROCERY STORE

flower counter

pushing a cart

making a birthday cake from the bakery

THE FIRE TRUCK

I think he thought it was a real man.

THE AMBULANCE