Happy 4th Birthday, Caroline!

Dear Sweet Caroline,

Happy Fourth Birthday, baby girl! We've just finished a wonderful weekend celebrating four precious years of life with you and we could not be more thankful to have you as our daughter. You bring so much joy and life and love and laughter into our family. 

~ You are a wonderful big sister to Eleanor. You have assumed that role with great joy, especially now that Eleanor is big enough to play with you more. The two of you play pretend really sweetly together and it makes her so happy when you get down on her level. You also interpret for her to mommy and daddy if she ever says a word we don't understand!

~ You are a loving and adoring little sister to Anna Kate. You love to do big girl things with her - like your S.O.A.C (Secret Outdoor Adventure Club), or painting with watercolors, or playing imaginative games.

~ You have a kind and generous heart. Just today, for example, you offered to give your stuffed animal to Eleanor in the car because she didn't have one, and you offered to share your birthday money (just a few dollars) with Anna Kate because she didn't have any with her at the pumpkin patch. No one asked you to do those things, but you just saw the need and wanted to do something about it. 

~ You pray the sweetest prayers each night before bed. We pray using the ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication) and you always want to "call it out." That means, you always want to ask us, "Who wants to do adoration? Who wants to do confession? etc. You usually want to do adoration and your praises to God are some of the most worshipful and heartfelt I've ever heard.

~ You are a wonderful little snuggler. You tend to wake up a bit slowly (both in the morning and after naps) and need a few minutes of just good snuggle time with Mommy or Daddy on the couch.

~ You are learning so much in our homeschool K3 year! Even though it's not "official" school yet, you've been doing quite a bit! You're doing great with learning to read. You are working through all the consonant-vowel-consonant words in Alpha Phonics and have them just about mastered. Just the other day you counted to 100 for us all on your own (with only a couple of prompts). You can write your own name beautifully and love practicing your letters. You really enjoy our Five in a Row time (read aloud classic picture books with various activities). You are just starting to become more interested in violin and are working on mastering your posture, as well as starting your open string rhythms.

~ You've also been participating in some of our homeschool co-op classes and think they're lots of fun. You do a letter of the week each week in "ABC class" on Thursday while your sister is in Swimming Creatures. Afterwards, you get to participate in US Geography songs and know almost all of your states and capitals! You have also been joining in on Lego club (where you build something based on a prompt and then have to tell about it to the group), as well as PE club. You often ask me throughout the week when you can go to PE club because you need some exercise (as if daily life as rambunctious as you are isn't exercise enough!). 

~ You have really started to enjoy jigsaw puzzles over the past few months. 24 piece puzzles are now too easy for you, but you love working on the 48 piece ones. You even received two for your birthday! You also love your new magnet blocks from Mimi and Papa and love to create different designs with them.
~ You like to take pictures. Lots of pictures. On Mommy's iPad. Here's one from a series of 100+ pictures of just about the same angle.

~ You have developed some pretty impressive soccer skills this season, especially for someone too young to officially be on the team! You love getting out there to practice with Anna Kate and dribbling the ball, keeping it close, and shooting in the goal. You love it when Mommy or Daddy find an empty field to practice on with you while Anna Kate has practice!

~ For being so athletic, you still are quite the girly-girl. You insist on wearing "something from the closet" every day, and NOT something from the drawers. In other words, it has to be a dress. And not just any dress, it has to be a "twirly dress or a cupcake dress." I really need a picture of that last one to explain it, but basically if you crouch down low, the dress needs to pouf out like a cupcake over your knees and feet.

~ You love to play princess and dress-up. Every day. All day. So naturally, you chose to have a princess party for your 4th birthday. More on that in a later post, but suffice it to say that you had a fabulous time all dressed up and eating special treats and making tiaras and wands with your friends. Grandma and Grandpa's gift to you was a princess castle tent that was perfect for your party...and I think will have a permanent home in your room!

~ Your gift from Mommy and Daddy this year was a new two-wheel big girl bike with training wheels and you absolutely love it. It's pink and purple and sparkly and just your style! You had definitely outgrown your tricycle and you're so excited about learning to ride a big girl bike. 

~ Your last few months have been a little hard on you in some ways, as we started noticing that you were having some airway restriction and sleep apnea at night. At your doctor's recommendation we had your tonsils and adenoids removed three weeks ago and you are doing SO much better! The recovery was NOT easy, but we made it through with lots of popsicles and gatorade. My two favorite quotes of yours throughout the ordeal were, "Mommy, I don't love surgery!" (3 days post op), and "I feel almost back to normal!" (12 days post op).

~ Now that all that is behind us, you are back to your spunky, silly little self. You love to be crazy and silly with your sisters and you really do have the best laugh ever.

Caroline, 

We love you and are so grateful to call you our princess. You are an absolute blessing in our lives with your precious spirit. We love your sweet laughter, kind heart, and your snuggles. May God continue to grow you as our new four-year-old! We love you more than you will ever know.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

and Anna Kate and Eleanor too!

Now, how about a trip down memory lane? 

Caroline's BIRTH day!

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

 3rd Birthday

4th Birthday!

Heritage Christian Academy (aka Tolbert Homeschool)

School is officially in session for the three students of Heritage Christian Academy! Anna Kate is officially in kindergarten, and we have enjoyed our first couple weeks of homeschooling. Here are some first day pictures!

First day lessons

(see if you can spot the little troublemaker in the background)

Nature walks are a big part of our science studies.

Watercolors while listening to Bach.

First day snack time

Here are some pictures of our school area in our dining room.

Most of my homeschooling philosophy is inspired by Charlotte Mason, a 19th century British educator." I am, I can, I ought, I will" is our school motto, which comes from Charlotte Mason's own writings.

In addition to these ideas, Charlotte Mason advocated for hands-on and real-life learning, assessment through narration (both oral and written), reading high quality literature, lots of outdoor play and nature study, and a focus on memorizing Scripture, hymns, and poetry. These ideals are the basis for our curriculum this year and so far, we're having a great time!

Summer highlights 2015

So...since life with my our three girls has been non-stop this summer, I've obviously not done a whole lot of blogging. But I just have to take some time to run through some (ok, a lot) of highlights of our busy (but fun!) summer.

It started off with a quick trip to Florida for me and Eleanor to celebrate my little brother's graduation from the University of Florida. We are so proud of Andrew and all his accomplishments!

Then Grandma and Grandpa came to Camden for a visit!

At the end of May, Anna Kate "graduated" from Bethesda Christian Preschool where we've spent each Monday morning for the past two years. Even though she's only been there one day a week, she's really enjoyed the teachers and the friends she's made. She's excited to come back and help me teach Spanish to the three and four-year-olds this year!

One morning when Luke was off work, we decided we'd look up a splash pad to take the girls to. We found one in Columbia and (after arriving an hour before it opened and then driving to find another one, getting lost, and ending up back at the same place) we had a great time!

The first week of June, Anna Kate and Caroline took swimming lessons and both did a fantastic job. Caroline was nervous the first day, but was doing great by the end of the week. Anna Kate has progressed really well this summer, and as long as Luke and I are both in the pool, we've been letting her swim without a floatie!

Eleanor's gone swimming a lot this summer too!

Here's a fun picture of the girls with some of their best little friends at our library's summer reading kickoff and community heroes celebration. Is there anything better than sundresses, sandals, and lollipops?!?

Also in June, we went to the wedding of a young couple in our church. We actually snapped a couple of good pictures of the girls and of me and Luke.

We took a quick trip to the mountains with two of my close college girlfriends, Caitlin and Lesley. Here's a picture of us with all our babies!

Not long after VBS we went on our church family mission trip to Morganton, GA. We helped the same church that we partnered with last year. We were able to minister in some nursing homes (music, manicures, visits), help clean up the church building, do some evangelism, food and clothing ministry, construction and yard work, and general encouragement for the people at the church. Honestly, other than a little bit of strep throat that spread through the group, we had a great time and the girls really did well all sleeping on the floor in one room of the church's old school facility. They actually gave our family part of the old school library, so Anna Kate was in heaven.

Caroline having fun with Courtney on the 8 hour bus ride

Eleanor did not so much enjoy the 8 hour bus ride

Little girls making themselves at home

Delivering food

Cooling off on a hot afternoon

Nursing home ministry

Everyone went tubing on a lazy river the last day. It was hard to catch pictures of them, but this is Luke and Caroline in one tube and AK tethered to them in another.

 One funny moment...it was extremely hard to keep all of our things organized living out of suitcases for the week. The girls got their matching dresses mixed up one day and wore the wrong size for a few hours!

We had a great time ministering with our church family!

And who doesn't love a good Independence Day picture. Just for the fun of it!

Anna Kate has had Chick-fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day on the calendar for months. Dress like a cow, get a free meal. I mean, I'm not above making a fool of myself to not have to cook dinner!

It also happened to be Caroline's first time ever having a regular old dairy ice cream cone. Yay for outgrown allergies!

While Luke took his youth to Mission Fuge Camp in July, I decided I would be brave and take the girls by myself to see Sarah and Dustin and the boys in Washington, DC. An added bonus was that we would also get to spend some time with Andrew (who was in Philadelphia for the summer) and Anneka (who is now living in DC)! The girls could not have done better on the 7.5 hour trip each way. We listened to music, books on tape, and they read stories and slept. We seriously packed so much fun into our 6 days there. We did pools, splash parks, play grounds, all the monuments, two museums, and lots of playtime!

Eleanor with another famous Eleanor

Fireside chats

We loved the Wright Brothers exhibit at the Air and Space Museum!

Just a few weekends ago, we took a trip down to the zoo to spend some time with Uncle Jonathan. The girls had a great time hanging out with him and getting to see some of the new exhibits at the zoo. We especially like the river otters!

Well, that was long, but I have a lot I want to remember about a wonderful summer with our one-, three-, and five-year-old little girls. Life is sweet.