Fun at Phipps

We are having such a fun week!  This cool weather has helped me branch out from our usual summertime activities and try some new things (that usually I'd save for the Fall or a rainy day).  Wednesdays is our usual day to hang out with Adrianne and her crew at Osceola Parklet near our home, but this Wednesday I had the fun of having the van (Doug almost always has it on Wednesdays), so with that fun change and the cool weather, Adrianne and I thought a fun outing was definitely a good idea.  We thought about our summer bucket lists and I thankfully remembered that I'd been wanting to take the boys to see the train exhibition at Phipps Conservatory.  Adrianne loved the idea and so it was a plan!  Not only that, but we have a friend that works there and was able to get us a few free passes to lighten the load of paying for our big families to attend.  Perfect!  We had a great visit.  There's something for every age and interest at Phipps.  It's breathtakingly gorgeous.  And with the trains running through all the major exhibits right now it is very engaging for the kids (plus they have a scavenger hunt for the kids to engage in along the way and the boys loved it!).  We all had a great time.  Here's "a few" pictures...

Lots of pictures of Penn oogling at everything.  Mostly the trains running along the tracks.

The bigger boys liked them too of course.

The fish also brought on "oohs and ahhs."

Koen was fascinated by some big, colorful ones.  I just love seeing kids be in awe of nature.

Had to take the opportunity to shoot some pics of the gorgeous flowers, just a tiny sampling of a handful of the amazing plants on display there.

Owen reading a butterfly fact in the butterfly garden to the attentive older kid crowd.

There was a huge train display in one room.  It was set up as if dinosaurs had escaped from a museum and took over a village.  Really interactive and impressive as there were so many details!

Even and erupting volcano!

A mine and quarry.

We loved the outdoor garden which had really changed since I was there a few years ago.  They had so much more for the kids to do.  Koen LOVED this part.  You could use natural elements to build a fort.  He could've done this all day.  Adrianne and I got involved to help secure the tepee, but the big boys did the rest.

Penn was happy to have a digging buddy in Claire in the pebble digging area.

Just another overwhelmingly beautiful flower I couldn't walk by without taking a picture.

More fish in the India Garden.

A walk through the desert.  Watch out for prickers, Penn!

Isn't that just gorgeous?  The boys were more interested in the trains running through it, but I just love how lush and colorful it all is.

This was probably the most intense railroad find.  A tram running to a mountain in the middle of a pond.  And when you pushed the button to activate the train and tram, you heard yodeling too!

After 2 hours at Phipps, the kids had completed their scavenger hunt, claimed their sticker prize at the gift shop and it was time to head out.  Adrianne and I took them over to picnic at Anderson Park at Schenley right behind Phipps.  It was a lovely, special day.  Thanks for sharing this fun adventure with our kids, Adrianne.  We had a great morning with you all (as usual)!

Fall Run Park: We Ran, We Fell

On Tuesday, we had our usual meetup with Deborah and her brood, but they had swimming lessons in the AM, so we could only meet at lunchtime for a picnic near their place.  Deborah suggested Fall Run Park in Glenshaw, PA.  What a gem!  The boys and I got there early and they enjoyed playing on the little playground.  

At 12:15pm, we were joined by Deborah and her kids.  After they enjoyed running around on the playground and we all ate our lunch we headed for the trail for a creek walk.  Koen was so excited about this part of our playdate.  He had packed his galoshes and everything.

The boys all loved playing in the creek.  It was only 65 that day, so I had dressed the boys more heavily than I would usually in late July.  Turns out I should've just had them wear sandals and swimsuits (Koen could still wear galoshes of course).

Here they are running around before they all in turn fell in.  

Check out these cute buddies!

Koen was the fastest, Tav fell first and Penn went in last.  Koen got his bottom half wet somewhere in between just for fun.

Since we started our time together late, we couldn't walk too far up the creek.  We are definitely going to return in a few weeks at our next playdate together to do the mile walk up the creek to the waterfall.  I can't wait (and neither can the boys)!  Here's a pic as we headed back to the car (via a bridge Koen made of course that all the kids had to try).

On our walk back to the car, we found a huge swing.  The kids all piled on, well, except for Penn who tends to lag behind and stop to look at every little thing (a rock, a stick, the sky, what have you).  Don't worry, he's coming...

There they all are.  Our 6 kids!  Of course getting 6 kids that are overtired and super silly to all look and smile at the camera at once isn't easy, so here's an amalgamation of my best attempts.

We ended up getting home wet, cold, tired and 30 minutes past the usual naptime start, but it was totally worth it to squeeze in our time with these dear friends and have such a fun adventure.  Can't wait until our next time together and more of the creek fun (in more appropriate attire of course)!

Speech Status Update on T & P

Well, it's been awhile since I've taken a few moments to update you on Tavin and Penn's speech progress.  So here's a few quick notes on where we are to date.

Tavin
To recap, about this time last year I did a major "cry from my heart" blog post about Tavin's situation and the throws I was in trying to navigate medical assistance on his behalf.  The Lord has provided above and beyond my expectations in the past year.  After struggling with our first therapy match from April - August of 2013, we were paired with an amazingly gifted therapist in October of 2013 that Tavin has been with ever since.  Miss Christal and Tavin have a special relationship now.  She gets him, she loves his sense of humor, she understands that he can be silly, but doesn't let him run her down, she understands almost all that he says and she knows what keeps him motivated, interested and challenged.  It has made the walks through the germy halls of the hospital twice a week so worth it and so much less stressful and frustrating.  Miss Christal has been engaged to be married since we met her and finally this weekend is her big day!  Tavin and I wanted to find her a gift from her registry (so we totally stalked her online a bit to figure out where she was registered).  Tavin was so excited to give her this special, big present ever since we pushed "purchase" online.  On Monday, we brought it in and they unwrapped it together.  Tav used his scissors that we keep at Miss Christal's office for all their crafts.  It took them forever to wrap this overly-protected glassware item from Crate & Barrel, but they had fun with it.  I had to take these pics through the observation room glass, so you can see the reflection of Penn and I and Tav and Christal sort of look like they are in another dimension. =)

They had the cutest conversation about the gift after she opened it.  I'll try to recap it.  I was crying I was laughing so hard to myself and just loving how poised Tav was.
Christal: Tavin, do you know what this is?
Tavin: Yes, it's a trifle dish.
Christal: Oh wow.  Do you know what a trifle is?
Tavin: No.
Christal: It's a really yummy dessert made with cake.  Do you like cake?
Tavin: Oh, yes.
Christal: Do you like cake with strawberries.
Tavin: Oh, no.  That'd be yucky.
Christal: What kind of cake do you like?
Tavin: Chocolate.  Maybe with chocolate chips?
Christal:  Ok, well, good to know.  Maybe when I get back I can make us a treat in my new dish and we can have it together.
Tavin: Well, I'll have to ask my Mommy because we usually have treats after dinner.
Christal:  We can definitely ask your mom first, that's fine.  And if you should wait until after dinner, I could package some up for you.
Tavin: Well, then you would have to send enough home for Koen too.  Koen likes cake too.  But not Penn Rye.
Christal: I'm sure I could make enough for Koen too.
Seriously, no joke.  This is my Tavin that a year ago was only probably 65% intelligible due to articulation issues.  I'm telling you that anyone sitting listening to him, whether they were familiar with his sweet speech style or not, would have understood 98% of what he said.  Remarkable.  Amazing.  So rewarding.  He's always been verbose, talkative and intelligent (clearly), but do you know how awesome it is to know that now everyone that your son talks to can understand all the wonderful things he has to share with the world?  It's been my prayer and it is daily being answered as Tavin's speech improves.  Tavin still has some hurdles and definitely will be in speech therapy privately and at preschool for the school year to come, but I'm also feeling confident that he will be so ready for Kindergarten and will be highly understood by his peers and his teachers there.  Currently, Tavin is still focusing on "th" and "s", but moreso in conversation then in isolated words.  Tavin has those down, especially when prompted.  Conversational consistency is what we are working on currently and he is a great sport about therapy and working on it at home too.  Tavin Dale, I hope you read this one day and know how proud of you we are, how we rejoice over the provision of Miss Christal in your life and the sharp brain the Lord gave you to pick up these concepts so quickly.  

Penn Rye
Penn started speech therapy with Early Intervention in April of this year after being evaluated in March and just barely qualifying for services due to his receptive communication being so high (but his expressive was low enough to pull him into the qualifying zone).  At that time, Penn basically just made noise through his nose or in the back of his throat, he didn't babble and his best words were "moh-moh" (more, more) and "ah-duh" (all done) and "da-din" (Daddy, Tavin, Koen, all the same!).  Speech therapy at this age is very different from what Tavin does at his age.  It is all play-based and definitely at the pace of the child.  Penn's pace at first was basically nill.  He had no real interest in participating with the speech therapist and didn't show much progress, but slowly as we continued the sessions and I became more intentional at home and I think mostly, as he just finally hit the spot where he cared to work on communicating with words, his speech has developed.  He now does babble.  He now does participate in repeat-after-me prompts.  He probably has about 35 words now that are a mixture of his consistent approximations and something that most toddler-familiar people would understand.  The most exciting thing was that this week he used the word, "Mum-mee," for me for the first time in his life.  A month ago he had no word for me.  2 weeks ago he started pointing at me and using a consistent something that sounded like, "bdah, bdah."  And then last week he said "Mum-mee" when we were playing with the speech therapist naming family members in a toy set we have.  Since then I'd been prompting him at home with some luck of getting him to call me that, but this week he did it all on his own.  I have a name to this little one that has my heart!  Do you know how good that feels?  Do you know how rewarding that feels?  Do you know the hope that has filled me with that perhaps he is just taking his time talking and maybe we don't have this articulation-issue road lying ahead of us?  I'll take it.  I'm Mommy to my Penn Rye.  Finally.  Thank you, Lord!  I snapped a few photos of Penn with his sweet, caring, patient speech therapist, Miss Allison, on Monday (I'm hoping it didn't freak her out too much!).  Penn's really getting comfortable with her and he gets so proud when he pleases her with participating and spouting off his words.

Well, that about sums it up for the here and now (unless you want me to gush on, because this mom is pretty proud of her little guys working hard on their words and so thankful for all the Lord is doing in their lives).

Back At It

After being gone on vacation, we sure did jump back right into our fun, friend-filled life here in the Burgh this week.  I've been neglectful of the blog as I've caught up on housework, laundry, the regular day-to-day of not living at the beach with no commitments, so here's a quick pictorial view of what we've been up to our return last Tuesday.

Thursday - Big Playdate with dozens of friends at The Water Steps
I've been hosting playdates this summer for a conglomeration of moms that I know through church, our neighborhood, preschool and school.  Thursday was our third yet and it was well-attended and lots of fun.  My boys were probably most excited about their buddies Delia and Huck being there.  Koen and Tav love playing with these old neighborhood friends, but D & H are also super attentive to the novelty of Penn.  It's so sweet!  And Penn just ate up the attention!

Friday - Day in Suburbia
We had made plans more than a month ago to join our friends at the Car Cruise in Wexford for a night of family fun.  We've done the car cruise in years past and always get stuck trying to get there because of rush hour traffic out of the city, so this year we decided to outsmart the system and go up midday and spend some quality time with our friend Meaghan and her kids.  Turns out it was a fantastic idea!  We met up with Meaghan at the outdoor pool at her gym.  

After lunch at the pool, Doug took Penn back for a nap at Meaghan's place.  Meaghan and I stayed until 3pm with the big boys at the pool and when her son, Austin, got out of his little sports camp at the gym.  Then we brought them back for some rest time.  They were some happy little buddies to be together resting and snacking.

After the rest time, the boys were stir crazy again (man, the energy these children have), so it was time to pack it up and walk over to the car cruise.  It was a gorgeous night, by the way.  Not too hot and beautifully sunny.  

At the car cruise Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy met up with our crew and Meaghan, Mark and their boys, Austin and Charlie.  Yep, that's right, a total of 7 boys.  Despite my best efforts we didn't quite get a pic of all 7 at once, but here are some pics of the boys in different groupings.

Checking out some dude's really bizarre van from the 70's.

We spotted a safari yellow Corvette and although it was the wrong year, still had to take a pic for Grampa.

I had Tav and Penn pose for Grampa in front of this gorgeous old Mercedes convertible.  What a beaut! 

Check out this 1926 car in mint condition!

After dinner and awhile of gazing at cars, the boys enjoyed some time at the playground there.  There happened to be a soccer ball in the tennis courts next to the playground too, so that was fun for all as well.

Mark totally photo-bombed this one of my see-saw pair.

Two-year-olds playing soccer together is pretty funny.  Charlie is using his hands to throw the ball instead of kick it.  Penn is off in the corner concerned about a piece of grass on his hand rather than watching the ball.

Then it's a mad dash for the ball because neither of them are confident the other will actually give the ball up after they get it.

Tavin and Alex (or should I say, "Puppy," since Alex got his face-painted) LOVED see-sawing together.  They were singing songs and going up and down, back and forth for a long time.

Daddies hard at work or play.  Tough to tell.

A final shot of several of the boys getting into the soccer scrimmage.  It was so fun to see our little guys enjoying each other's company.  We have to do this again!

Saturday - Brooklyn's "Frozen" Birthday Party
We had a fun family morning at Frick Park and around the house, but I didn't catch any pictures of that.  I did bring my camera to a birthday party we attended in the evening for a neighbor friend, Brooklyn, who was turning 4 in all sorts of Frozen splendor.  It was such a cute party, Brooklyn's mom did an amazing job incorporating the theme and the kids all loved it since everyone knows the movie.  The family were such great hosts allowing so many little ones loose in their backyard.  I don't know if I'd be so brave.  My boys especially enjoyed the bounce house.

Sunday - Post-Church Playground with Uncle Nate, Alex & Andy
Megan had to work in the nursery at the 11am service, so after we all attended the 9am, Nate and I took our 5 boys to Andersen Playground at Schenley to get out all that post-church energy.  Nate gave the boys some real fun in developing this hilarious, rough-housing game "Dragon."  Nate, of course, was the dragon.  Koen and Tavin and Nate's boys loved it.

Penn wasn't really into the dragon game, so he headed to find his own stuff to do.  I spun him on the merry-go-round for awhile.  The cuteness.

Then Penn made a sweet little friend that wanted to play on the merry-go-round with him.  It was so cute!

He followed her all around the playground and she was really attentive to make sure he was hanging out with her.  He even followed her down the biggest tunnel slide (happily as you can see).

Well, that's about it for our week in pictures!  We'll see what we squeeze in this week before we take off on vacation again the following week (home to NH!).