Mysterious Mustaches

On Thursday night, Valerie's last soccer game (at night under the lights)ended in a 1-1 tie. It was such an exciting game with Valerie playing goalie for part of it and having some amazing saves. You should see her- a 36 lb firecracker, charging girls more than twice her size, absolutely fearlessly. She loves it too. This game was great, as were others this season- all of the girls on her team played their hearts out.

When we got home, there were four mysterious envelopes in our mailbox full of mustaches!!!! I can't tell you the fun that we had! But maybe you can see it from some of these pictures. I have some more pictures of Olivia, where she put the mustache on her chin, forehead etc, before getting it in the right spot. Very very fun. I suspect I know who the lovely sender of these mustaches is, but will need to confirm :)

















Over the weekend, Valerie's girl scout troop had a Thanksgiving dinner. We all went and it was really neat- over 100 people there and each family brought something different. There were enough desserts for each person to have about 10 each, and I think each person there pretty much did eat 10 each- the desserts were almost totally gone by the end!

I took Julia to a ninja turtle karate birthday party of a classmates and she had a blast. She had been looking forward to the party for WEEKS.

On Saturday we took a trip to Fort Jackson and first played on the playground. Olivia went down this huge slide and it was like a tidal wave when she hit the water at the bottom. Hence, the pink army pjs we had to get her before going to do our grocery shopping. At the commissary it was so crowded that we literally had to wait in line as we walked down each isle. The kiddos were very good through all of this though. Steve went to the auto center on the base while we were shopping, where he can put the van on a lift to change the oil easily.



We are all ready for Thanksgiving- the turkey is thawing in the fridge. The kiddos helped me plan the meal on our drive home on Friday. They all agreed on brownies for dessert (although we'll make pumpkin pie too). And they all insisted on mashed potatoes. Ethan wants fish (tuna) b/c he said that the Indian's taught the Pilgrims to fish and that was what they had at the first thanksgiving. Valerie strongly suggested baked beans. I might be able to work in the baked beans, but the fish might need to be bumped to Friday's menu.

Handmade in SC

Last night I finished Livy's bag. Now I've made one for each of the children. Livy especially loves hers and it is so much fun to make something that they like (that doesn't get eaten for a change!), and they don't seem to mind that I am not too good at this. Ethan and Julia got super hero bags (pictured above) over the weekend, with pockets inside!

Not that I have the market on hand made goods cornered. Look at what Steve made for our family room!

Weekend Visitors

We had a really nice weekend with Emi and Granddad who got to see Valerie and Julia at their soccer games. We also went to the park and had some True BBQ among other highlights. I think their favorite part of the visit might have been the early morning wake up calls!




We were also treated to a visit from Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bill! It was so nice to see them, even if briefly! Next time we'll see if they are brave enough to spend the night with our crazy crew.

Julia's second goal

Julia has made a lot of progress this season with soccer. At times, it was tough to even get her out on the field. Which makes what we captured on this video even more amazing. And it was the second goal of the game (third for her of the season). Valerie is also enjoying soccer a lot and seems to not want the season to end. I will have to get a video of her this weekend. She is an excellent goalie and likes that position best.

Back to Julia- I rediscovered something this morning. Chocolate is an excellent enticement! We have had a lot of trouble in the morning just getting her to do the basics (put clothes on, brush teeth, and get in the car). This morning, I could tell we might be headed for trouble yet again, so I offered a small piece of chocolate to everyone who did everything they were supposed to do without any problems (used this for Ethan and Valerie when they were each four. Four is an extremely tough age for the Zumbrun kiddos for some reason). The results were beautiful and we were all happy.

Indian dance

The kiddos were all putting on performances together(not for me, but I happened to catch them). Piano has been going very well for E and V- they are truly enjoying it. We seemed to have found just the right balance lately. Did some music flash cards with Ethan yesterday and he knew all of the notes (reading has been a problem all along b/c his ear is so good). He just needs to get a little faster with it. Valerie has been good with both reading the notes and using her ears so far.

Halloween 2013

Boo at the Zoo

Haircuts for the girls

The other day Valerie, out of the blue, said "I want bangs". This is the first time Valerie has made any strong statement about how she wanted her hair. The girls hair had been becoming more and more unmanageable anyway, so it was time. This was also Olivia's very first official haircut. The hairdresser put up with a lot of happy commotion and was so sweet- making sure she got all of their names right away (including Ethan, who did not get a haircut).

News alert on Ethan, this will come as a relief to all of the grandparents: he suddenly became modest this week and no longer wants to be in his birthday suit in front of others. I may have mentioned this in previous posts, but he has a serious passion for reading right now. He likes graphic novels best. He's also really enjoying baseball. The coach rotates him to many different positions, which makes it fun. In this week's game, he got two outs playing first base. Steve will have to tell you the rest b/c I was chasing Livy around almost the entire time (so energetic!!!).

In other news, we asked Olivia last night which name she prefers to be called, "Olivia", "Livy" or "ZZ": it was clearly Livy. She says it so sweetly too. She also has learned to say "Yogurt" instead of "Neenut". And when she wants to put on her Lion costume, she says "I want to put my roar on".

Valerie has been doing really well with her school work. She is getting tons of A+s and her work looks very neat. Some friends at school gave her some bracelets made out of these little rubber bands and she has been really into making them. Her reading is also coming along nicely- she was reading Stellaluna last night on her own (just for fun!). Valerie also likes Daisy's so much she's sometimes just wearing her girl scout vest when we are out and about. Last weekend Valerie had a soccer game and played sweeper (defense) and goalie. She did a great job at both positions- basically fearless even though most of the children on the field are a lot bigger than her.

Ethan and Valerie are doing really well with their piano lessons. This teacher really seems to give them just the right amount each week and they are enjoying playing the short pieces he has assigned. I definitely will post some videos of this soon.

Julia, lately, is going through a stage. Seems like she is redefining 4 as the new 2 (at home only- she is a model student at school). She wants a lunchable very badly though, and I am hoping to use that to bribe her into getting dressed by herself etc, and reducing the whining. She just needs a little more TLC- so we are trying to give her that too. The other night I realized, I just needed to rock her, like I do Olivia. She just melted.

Visit with Mimi and Pop Pop and other news

Had a great visit with Mimi and Pop Pop. They went to grandparents day at the school. We also went to the zoo, fair, marionette theater and Oktoberfest.


We went to the SC state fair and had a great time- had some good fried food, but did not try the fried butter. I hear they also have fried cool aid and corn dogs with chocolate chips (did notice that they had 1 foot long corn dogs as well).




Sorry these two pics are so small. Cannot figure out how to change the size. If you click on them, you can usually view a larger size.




At the Oktoberfest. I will post a video of the girls dancing as well. It was a very fun event.


Valerie went to a friends birthday party on Sunday at Monkey Joes. Before hand, we used the new sewing machine that Steve got me to make that little bag to hold the gifts (our first ever completed project!). Valerie helps by pressing the backwards button and also provided inspiration on the design.


This weekend we spent much of the time just hanging out at home. Most of the time the kids get along great and play well together. Valerie also had a fun girl scout event to celebrate the birthday of the founder.

In other EVJO news- Ethan received his Baseball belt-loop and some achievement beads at his pack meeting this past week. Ethan and Valerie are enjoying their new piano teacher- a professor from USC. He's really doing a good job teaching them, since he is not going to let the music get harder than what they are actually ready to read(a problem for Ethan in the past since he can play really well by ear).

Julia and Valerie are enjoying soccer- I have a video of Julia's that I will try to post in the next day or so. It is really tough to keep those 3 and 4 year olds on the field and the number of players at any given time is incredibly fluid! It can be 2 versus 5 one moment and 4 versus 1 the next. But both of the girls seem pretty good at the sport, in my opinion.

Olivia is being her sweet self. Her verbal ability increases every day- it is really cute the was she says "Valerie" and "Julia"- she sticks her tongue out of her mouth as far as she can for the "L" sounds. She loves to take off all of her clothes and her diaper. This weekend it was impossible for us to keep her in her clothes.

Some pics from Livy's 2nd Birthday Day

Livy turned 2 with not too much fanfare, but she had a nice and fun filled day in MD- with grandparents and at Cousin Greg's wedding.

Livys new name

Last week, Olivia was saying everyone's name in our family, and when she got to herself she said "ZZ". I had forgotten that the teacher in her class had decided to call her "ZZ" and another Olivia "BB". Since then, we've realized that she definitely thinks of herself as "ZZ", "ZZ Zumbrun". Tuesday, when we were leaving daycare, her other Olivia friend said "Bye bye ZZ", and Livy said "Bye bye BB".

ZZ

Julias apple tree song

Julias pumpkin song outside

Julias pumpkin song

Julia is learning a lot of new things at school!

Grandmom, GG

Apologies for differences in font sizes. Could not edit these.


This morning, Grandmom passed away peacefully. No words can express the imprint she has left on our hearts and on this world. She has been the best grandmother to us and an amazing great-grandmother to her great-grandchildren. Just these past few weeks, she made sure to keep up with the children's goings-on, and as always, remembering to send cards for their birthdays. This past Saturday, she even managed to sing happy birthday to Olivia. There are so many wonderful memories and she shared so much life with us that it is hard to imagine what it will be like without her. Yesterday Ethan said, "If heaven is full, then GG will be the very first person in the next heaven". He is so right- she lived in a way that was a truly outstanding example to us all.

TGIF

It's been a little of a crazy week. Ethan wasn't feeling well a couple of days ago then the moment he got better, I got really under the weather (with something different). Starting to feel human again. Valerie and Julia had soccer yesterday and both of them did so well. They really are taking to that sport! Julia scored two goals in a scrimmage, with Ethan cheering loudly on the side lines. It was so cute, the louder Ethan cheered, the harder she played and had this fantastic look of determination on her face. I didn't get to see Valerie play, but Steve said she did a great job as goalie- seems like the dad as coach, daughter as goalie thing might be history repeating itself. Ethan had cubscouts last night too and he had a blast- they played dodge ball. Olivia is oblivious that tomorrow, her second birthday, is such a special day! We will celebrate as we head to MD to a very special family wedding this weekend!

Julia, budding artist

Some art work by Julia. It is amazing how something suddenly snaps and a child goes from drawing very abstract shapes to recognizable scenes! We are very proud of her.

Weekend 9/14-9/15 2013

We had a really nice weekend overall. Saturday we took the kiddos to the library and they each picked out three books. Ethan is a voracious reader these days and picked out several chapter books (he's read one and in the middle of another already). Valerie picked out some Junie B. Jones books for us to read to her. Julia picked out several chapter books- which she pretends to read. And Olivia picked out several board books. After that we went to the zoo and had a blast (see several pictures above from this trip). Julia requested the picture of her on the rock, usually we don't get requests and they try to avoid pictures- so I was pleased to oblige. The Riverbanks zoo really is beautiful and there are a lot of particularly kid friendly aspects to it.

Sunday was great because E,V and J each had some time with friends. Ethan got to play with a friend from school who happens to live in our same neighborhood. Valerie went across the street to play with a friend her age/grade. And Julia had a roller skating birthday party to go to (see pics above). Olivia wasn't at all shy about trying out the skates. Unfortunately, Olivia had a fever for some of the weekend, but it clearly was viral- we worried anyway though, b/c she has programmed us to.

Some things I have noticed about South Carolina/South Carolinians- They pronounce on, "own". They only have license plates on the back of the car. This leaves the front of the car available for a plate of one's choosing. One that I saw today said, "Possum, the other white meat". Also, Sunday around 9 a.m. is a wonderful time to do the grocery shopping. Eventually we'll have to find a church and shop with everyone else in the afternoon, but we haven't yet.

Livy's Song

I know I shouldn't be shooting movies while driving, but I couldn't resist this morning. Two days ago, Olivia kept asking where daddy was on the way to school. Then yesterday she repeated over and over that daddy was at work. This morning she put it to music.

Valerie Loves Daisies

Valerie went to Daisies last night. She was reluctant to go, but had a great time and afterwards said she was really happy she'd been there. The Kona Ice truck was there and talked to the girls about running a business. I think she's working towards a badge at each of these meetings. It is a very well organized troop! We're supposed to go camping in just a couple of weeks.

Homework

The school year has just begun, but so far the kids are pretty gung-ho about doing their homework. Last night, I pointed out to Ethan that he needs to read 40 books this year. He said "Hold on one minute Mommy, I'll be right back!". He returned with a pile of books, pretty much every substantial book that he had ever read on his own. He seemed a little deflated when we explained that he needs to read 40 books starting now. But he does read every night and enjoys it, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Valerie was excited to do her homework on the computer. Really the first time (for both of them) that teachers have used the computer as a tool for homework in earnest. Her teacher has also given her some creative extra things to do- like go outside after the sun sets and just see what it's like out there. The night she did this, it was overcast, so no stars were out. She said "all I saw out there was lightning", sounding somewhat disappointed.

Julia wants to do homework too! She is supposed to work on writing her name. She has INCREDIBLY neat penmanship. Last night, she sat down to work on this and wrote "Julia" once very neatly. Then I asked her to write her middle and last name using my example. She sat down and wrote some random letters and was clearly done.

Olivia doesn't have homework, but we all read at night. Ethan and Valerie will read to Julia and Olivia as well as to us. Julia will pretend to read to Olivia. When it's bedtime and I try to put Olivia into her fire engine bed, she commands "Rock!". So we rock in the glider. And when I put her in bed she says "Sit down!". You don't dare not do what she says! Putting Julia and Olivia to bed is a challenge every night. Neither wants to go to bed. Julia tries her best to keep saying something the moment Olivia has drifted off. We usually have b/w 2-3 night visits (1st Julia, then Olivia and sometimes Ethan; Valerie has always been a real sound sleeper).

This morning, Olivia was trying to tell me several things on the way to her daycare after dropping off E, V, & J. "I want Oh Oh". (?) "I want Cho Chet". (Chocolate???). She kept repeating these things over and over and was getting so upset at me for not giving her whatever it was she was asking for. Hopefully we'll have better communication tonight- and hopefully I'll have what she wants!

Ethan's USC field trip

Last week, Ethan's class took a field trip to see USC play a volleyball game. Here is a slide show that the teacher put together. I think we may have a Gamecock on our hands!

http://www.stpeters-catholic-school.org/2013/09/usc-volleyball-trip/

Low Key Weekend

This morning went smoothly. Ethan is a huge help in the mornings. He practically jumps out of bed to get ready for school, and when he is done, he helps me get all of the backpacks in the car and even helps to strap his sisters in. After I dropped E,V and J off at school, I have about 20 minutes to have conversations with Olivia on the way to her school. Some things she said this morning were "Daddy's at work" (over and over) and "I want to get out now" (over and over). Last night I was holding her while cooking and we walked over to the stove and she said "That's hot" and right after that I was cutting some veggies and she said "That's sharp". I know these are simple things, but it is always amazes me when the children say something new, and she says something new every day.

We had a nice but low-key weekend. We took the kids to Viva La Vista in Columbia, which was fun. I took the girls grocery shopping while Steve and Ethan were at baseball. Valerie and Julia were huge helpers- more help than you could ever want! Valerie and Julia are really excited about soccer and spent some time this weekend practicing outside in the back yard. Valerie is also really good at baseball, perhaps a new realization this weekend, when Valerie, Ethan and Steve were out playing catch. E,V,J, and O saw a lizard eat an inchworm that was dangling down about 8 inches in front of it. Valerie, Julia and I collected interesting things from the yard to expose on sun-paper. A lot of cicada bug carcasses stuck on our pine trees.

My ankle is doing well; able to be on my feet all weekend (I broke it in three places in June for those who didn't know). Did some baking this weekend, played games with the kids and tackled a couple more unpacked/unorganized areas in the house. Seems like there are always just a couple of areas left, but when we address those spots, there are still a couple left. Steve hung up some pictures and it's making our house feel even homier. Steve and I watched "House of Cards" on Netflix which we really enjoyed a lot.

Busy weeks ahead

Now that school has begun, extracurricular activities are starting all at once. Ethan is in the Dixie Baseball League and cubscouts. Valerie is a new member of Daisy's (girl scouts). Valerie and Julia are playing soccer (Steve is Valerie's coach!). Ethan and Valerie will be starting piano back up again within a week or so. There are going to be some times when we have three (or more!) activities happening at once (Thursday- two simultaneous soccer practices, and sometimes- a baseball game 15 minutes after soccer ends, and cubscouts). Trying to figure out how to squeeze in some homework and a family dinner! At least Olivia is just a (very mobile) spectator at this point. Last night, she spectated at Julia's soccer game right in the middle of all of the action whenever she could. Here are a couple of pics of Julia and Livy from about a month ago- since Aunt Lindsay noticed that we have a lot of catching up to do for these two.