Camping!

I know I haven't posted in a while. Summer finally came and we have been busy. We went camping for our family vacation this summer. The last time I went camping was when I was six or seven years old. I was a little nervous that we wouldn't like it, but we actually had a blast. So, without further ado, here are the pictures from our trip.

A video of our camp site.(Press play)

Craft time at the campground

Hope I get a big one!

"No Cheese!" interpretation: "I don't want to smile for the camera!"



"Look, Mommy! I'm a buffano!" Interpretation: "I'm a buffalo! "
... I don't know...




Looking at all of the stuffed dead animals at Cabella's. Probably where he got the idea to be a "buffano"

Lobsters at the camp restaraunt.

They had an animal workshop and both of the kids got to stuff their own animal.

Moose

Cat

Filling the moose...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Breakfast

I am trying to help the kids learn good eating habits so today I fed them organic raisin bran. They like it and gobbled it down. I, on the other hand, was not in the mood for organic raisin bran so I opted for... three chocolate chip cookies - eaten on the sly. I really thought I had gotten away with it too until I picked up J and she smelled my breath and asked" Cookies all gone?" So much for teaching by example!

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!/ NOT a good idea.

It has been raining almost every day for about a month! We are still waiting for summer to hit. We have only used our air conditioner once so far this summer. This is almost as bad as snow!
Tonight the kids were playing upstairs and you can tell thay are ready to get outside and run off energy. First I hear C say, "let's slide". Followed by many thumps and bumps. I went to check on them and the mattress was precariously balanced up in the air barely on the bed and the kids were sliding. - Not a good idea. - I told them not to do that. Next thing I know, I hear thumps and bumps coming from C's room thay are even louder than before. I go up to check and they are jumping off of the bed now. "What are you doing?!" " We are playing boat and we are jumping ship." He explains matter of factly.- Not a good idea. - I told him to stop. Next thing I know I hear C say to J, "Hey, let's play wipeout(as in the crazy tv gameshow Wipeout) I run up stairs. -NOT A GOOD IDEA! -I suggest they play something that will not involve someone making a trip to the emergency room tonight, like cars. This rain better end soon! C has way too many
good ideas!

Sweet dreams, Cowboy!

One potato, Two potato, Three potato , Four!

Spring fun!

We have been enjoying the sunshine that comes in between the rainy days. Spring is my favorite season! I wish it would stay spring all year long.

C has a new found love that has come with this season. He drew a picture of his new favorite thing to do. Can you tell what it is?

Here is another one a little closer:

Do you know now? Here is a hint- the blue stuff is water...



It is a picture of all four of us in a boat fishing.
C has discovered that he LOVES to fish. His uncles took him for the first time a few weeks ago and Dan has taken him a couple times since then and he just loves it! He talks about it all of the time and now as you see, he draws about it. I can't wait to get a picture of him holding his first fish.

A week ago we went over to a friend's house for a play date. The kids had a blast. While we were there, the kids frosted cookies.

Well... C frosted cookies to eat .

J just ate cookie frosting.

Then the kids played outside with their friends.

(Cars on the trampoline)

Last Sunday afternoon, C and his cousin M flew kites at Na Na and Pa Pa's house.

C flying his kite

M flying her kite

Fun!

Cheese!

J and NaNa

And, just as all good things must come to an end, M and C lost interest in their kites and Na Na and Pa Pa were left to navigate .

G O spells...

C ran inside from playing with his friend and told me he needed to draw something. He studiously wrote something on his paper and quickly started out the door again. Before he shut the door, I asked him what he drew. He said, "GO"

"Go?" I asked.

"Yeah! Go! G O spells 'go' "



Granted, it is backwards, but he did write the Gfirst. I was pretty impressed since we haven't even started studying spelling and he spelled his first word.

Such an old man...

From my four year old this evening:

"when I was a little kid...."

What are we talking about here? Two minutes ago?

Trip to the ER (not a post for the squeemish)

Well, J had her first trip to the emergency room this morning. During her bath she grabbed one of my razors before I could get it out of her reach and in a split second she "shaved" a chunk out of her finger tip. For a while, I didn't think it was much of a big deal. I have cut myself before and it bleeds for awhile, but eventually stops. But this finger was not stopping. She was literally drip, drip, dripping everywhere.I held a towel on it- which made her scream and didn't help at all. I tried to put a band aid on it really tight. and almost immediately she was bleeding through the bandage all over the floor. I tried some liquid bandage which did not help at all. So, I finally decided I better get her to the ER to get the bleeding to stop. I knew they couldn't stitch it because it was basically a little hole. When I told C to get some clothes on (he was still in his jammies)because we had to go to the Dr for J, He immediately went upstairs and got some clothes. Then, as we were running out the door he grabbed a hand full of match box cars and said" I'll bring my cars so I have something to do while we are waiting" I thought that was so cute and grown up of him ! He really is acting mature lately. My baby is growing up!
Once we got to the ER we got to endure the "thousand year wait" in the waiting room and C was really good. He played and colored and tried to entertain J- though she really was not in the mood for entertainment. J mostly sat on my lap. I had put one of C's clean gardening gloves over her bloody hand so she didn't bleed all over the waiting room; although, now that I think of it, if she had been bleeding everywhere maybe they wouldn't have taken so long to help her ...
They finally called us back, stuck us in a tiny room and then seemingly forgot about us. ( Why do they call you back if they aren't ready for you?!) Anyway, by this time the kids were hungry and antsy and J was very sick of the glove on her hand. When the Dr finally came in he used a skin glue to stop the bleeding. He did mention that if that didn't work they would have to cauterize it, but he really did not want to do that because it really hurts. Thankfully the glue worked! After all of that, I felt like the kids deserved happy meals for lunch - with chocolate milk! That made them very happy! I got a whopper- that made me happy!

On Mother's Day

This beautiful mommy's bouquet picked by a child's hand is dedicated to all of the women who are privileged to be a mother. May we never forget how blessed we are to hear a child's first ,"Ma Ma Ma Ma...". May we take seriously the incredible responsibility God has placed into our hands. May we never tire of being tired from nursing an infant in the night or comforting a sick child through an illness. May we never take for granted being able to hear, "I love you , Mommy!" or "Will you play with me?" May we play and teach and love and discipline and nurture our children while we have the chance.May we embrace our motherhood with joy and realize our life's purpose is in our family. May we never resent our children. May we "find ourselves" in the work and the love that we put into our children and not in the work that we put into our 9 to 5 jobs. May we show them the way to God by our examples and by our words. May we never forget how blessed we are to receive dandelion bouquets!

Happy Mother's Day!

Easter

We had a very busy Easter weekend with allot of fun. Saturday morning I went over to a friend's house and made candy for the kid's Easter baskets. We used candy molds and melting chocolate and had so much fun. Here are a few pictures of some of the candy. The ones I made at first are just plain chocolate. Toward the end I got creative and made some with colored white chocolate. I would love to do this again.

Saturday Evening C and I colored Easter eggs.

Sunday morning Easter baskets

C about to enjoy a chocolate hammer.

Sunday I got the kids all dressed up in their new outfits and we went to church.

In typical 18 month old fashion, J decided to throw a temper tantrum during her Easter pictures.

C was happy to say "cheese"-- J, not so much.

C still sweet as can be-- J not screaming, just an attitude.

There's my sweet baby!

Handsome man.

My kiddos.

Playing in the nursery

After church we went over to my in-laws house for Easter dinner. C surprised us with a musical performance. I guess he has been working with his NaNa on this the past two Saturdays and he was so excited to show us his "song". The little instrument was a little out of tune and his timing is off. But I thought it was pretty good. I am excited that he is interested in playing music.

In all of the excitement I wanted to make sure that C understood why we celebrate Easter. The holiday is not all about bunnies and candy and fancy clothes (although I love all of those things)I found in a book, before I even had kids, an Easter tradition that I started with C this year. It is called resurrection eggs and you are able to explain to your child the entire Easter story using re-fillable Easter eggs. Here is a copy of what I put into each egg and the verses I explained after that egg was opened.

#1 thirty dimes - Matt. 26:14-16

#2 a piece of bread - Luke 22: 14-16, 19-20

#3 thorns and purple cloth - Mark 15: 16-20

#4 a cross - John 19:16-22#5 a nail - Acts 2:22-23

#6 a strip of cloth or gauze _ Matt. 27:57-60

#7 a smooth stone - Matt.27:62-66,28:2-4

#8 spices or a sachet - Mark 16:1-2

#9 - nothing inside - Luke 24:2-9

C really enjoyed hearing the Easter story this way and it helped him understand how important and blessed this holiday is because of what it stands for.

Specific Instructions.

The other day I let C go outside to play. The snow is finally all melted and we are all enjoying the outdoors. Anyway, I gave C instructions to not go into the street, to stay in our yard only, to stay away from the neighbors yard(especially their pool), to not go into the garage or the cars, etc... Apparently, though, I forgot to tell him a few things.

I forgot to mention that he should not shovel mud all over the porch steps.

...........

or the front of the house.

............

or Daddy's truck.

.......or anything else in sight!

Next time I guess I need to be a little bit more specific!