Highlights of Summer so far

watermelon

losing a tooth

trips to McWane Center

flower girl and karate bot fire boy

sweet baby sweetness

VBS

sand and sun

aunts and uncles

Lessons from the Park

Yesterday we went to the park.  We didn't last long, because it is already HOT HOT HOT!!!  Princess went one way, Speed Racer went another, as has been the case most of their lives.  But when Speed Racer got lonely and bored, he cried, "Princess, Princess, where are you?"  And they would find each other and begin playing some sort of pretending game together.  And just like that he was not alone.  He had asked her to draw near, and she had.  So it is with God.  We feel we've walked away from Him, or we can't feel Him or sense His presence, and we get lonely.  But the bible says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to You. (James 4:8)"

Doodlebug is 13 months now, but she still does not walk.  I can tell that she is capable of walking, but she is afraid to walk.  It seems so fitting that God would have us crawl before we walk.  He knew how fearful a people we would be.  He has begun redeeming our fear all along the way, teaching us not to be afraid.  Just as when we encourage Doodlebug to walk, we give her courage to negate the fear of falling, so that one day she will overcome it.  At the park, she was able to climb up the slide (basically she walked up it) but she constantly had something to hold onto.  At one point the other two experienced walkers followed behind her taking time to follow, but also helping when needed, and protecting her at the top.  A beautiful picture of the commands of the more mature believers to aid the younger believers.

Catching Lightning Bugs

Halloween

Our neighborhood stinks for trick or treating so we headed over to my friend Lindy's house. See a pic of our kids here.  The kids got two giant bag-fulls of candy.  I don't know what we will do with it all. 

Summer Days

Daniel has been under the weather this week, so last night I took the kids on a mommy date for pizza.  I thought they were going to get free slices, but when I got there, I found out you had to buy two adult meals for any free slice.  We decided to go there anyhow.  While we were there, the kids and I waited patiently for our food.  When his drink and food came, Speed Racer said thank you both times with no prompting by me.  Later a nice lady stopped to tell me that I had the most polite children.  Any time you receive a compliment on your child's behavior, it is grand.  Because it is not only a compliment to them but to all of your hard work.  And yes, I know how secretly they really behave at home, but one can revel in the small accomplishments when they come.  When we were halfway finished with our meal, Speed Racer yelled, "I've gotta go potty!"  So all of us got up and went to the potty.  When we returned to our table only two minutes later, our food was gone and the hostess was finishing with cleaning the table.  I looked horrified, I am sure, because my kids were still hungry.  She realized what she had done, and then we had to wait patiently all over again to eat the rest of our dinner.  All in all, it was a very long dinner and I was glad that the kids waited so patiently to eat.

Today I wanted to take them out to the park or something, but when I walked outside I decided we would stay here.  Too hot to be at the park for long, so I decided it would take more time to load them into the car than we would actually stay and play, so we stayed at home.  I wish we had a big pool to hang out at all the time, but we do not. Anyhow, we decided to play ROAR and Hide n Seek, and we had the best time.  It was full of lots of giggles, laughter, and fun, as well as boos and scares.  I love playing with my kids, but now that Princess and Speed Racer play so well together, I don't get to play as much.  Plus, I can easily get distracted by my house duties when they start playing.  My love language is quality time, however, so when I get to play, I feel loved by them and feel that I am showing my love to them more than I could any other way.  So today was fabuloso - one of the wonderful things about summer.

A Trip to Alfredo's

I stink at meal planning and am even worse at it when I'm pregnant. I'm frankly not good at much of anything but being pregnant when I'm pregnant and in the final stages. Hubby has been improvising on meals a lot of nights. Last night we went to Alfredo's Pizza Cafe in Pelham. It's inexpensive and if you know what to order, you can get some pretty good food too. But that's really beside the point.

Hubby gets Baked Ziti. I get a spinach and meatball calzone. Princess gets a slice of cheese pizza, and Speed Racer gets a slice of pepperoni pizza. Unless we have a coupon, these are the things we would always get. Very often the kids are forced to try things out of their comfort zone due to our frugality. Last night we had no coupon, so no forcing of new things was endured.

Hubby very often likes to use his straw paper as a projected missile towards my cleavage. He very rarely rings said target, so it is always a fun game for him. Last night, he launched the missile, and Princess saw the paper being hurled toward her mommy. She said very adamantly:

"DON'T THROW THINGS AT MOMMY! SHE'S YOUR GOOD WIFE, AND YOU LOVE HER!!"

Then she proceeded to ball up her own straw paper and hurl it at hubby and said,

"NOW. IT IS FINISHED!"

We got a good laugh at her defensiveness of mommy.

I didn't realize I was about to encounter another bloggable moment, BUT I did.

The food arrives, and hubby grabs a napkin and begins to blot Speed Racer's pizza. Unfortunately or fortunately, I'm not sure, this is one of hubby's quirks. He always blots the pizza before eating it, especially if said pizza is of the pepperoni variety. So he was thinking that it was an act of kindness to be blotting of his son's pepperoni pizza. Then Speed Racer grabs his own napkin and begins to blot his pizza on his own. Daddy lies and tells him it was only to help cool down the pizza. All of the food is piping HOT, so then Princess decides to grab her own napkin and begins blotting her pizza to help cool it down.

I am literally just staring in amazement at what is going on. Hubby is slightly embarrassed, and I have to explain that no blotting does not really cool down the pizza. Hubby then explains that he just wanted to get the grease off of the pepperoni - that Princess really has no need for blotting. It was a very strange moment. I'm not sure if I would like my kids to follow in the blotting tradition, but they were very blindly doing what daddy does, which had some sentimentality attached to it.

{My brother in law and I are known for ribbing Hubby for his practice of blotting, even though I do understand that sometimes it is necessary with pepperonis.}

Easter festival pics

Snow Day

Unbelievably, it actually snowed here, and although Princess and Speed Racer have seen snow, they really have not gotten to play in it before now. Princess got out of school early. We picked up some pizza since her Valentine's party was canceled. Then we waited on the snow to pile up so we could play in it.

The snow never really piled up so much at our house, so when Daniel got home, it was Speed Racer's naptime, but due to his great suggestion, we went to the park to play in the snow instead. I'm so glad we did. The children's faces and joy were priceless. Speed Racer was overjoyed and loved making snow balls and throwing them on his sister. Princess loved making a snowman. Speed Racer loved destroying it, and Princess loved eating the snow. I personally didn't really care for the snow (none of us have great snow attire), but the kids and my sweet hubby made it worth it, and it was great family fun.

Santa Cow

Recently, we found out that Chick-Fil-A gives out free kid’s meals on family night at the Chick-Fil-A of Inverness.  We knew that every Tuesday was family night, but honestly we have only very rarely participated in it.  I can think of two very memorable times.  One was two years ago, and it was when we took Princess and Speed Racer, who was then Pea, to see Santa Cow.  Last year, we missed the date.  Since we only pretend that Santa is real, we don’t make a big deal over him, and thus, like to visit Santa Cow.  Princess seems to believe Santa and Santa Cow and all the rest are real anyway.  So last week, we decided to go out to Chick-Fil-A and stumbled upon the fact that 1) kid’s meals were free, and 2) Santa Cow was going to be there today.  We could not wait to see him.  The kids got little CFA cows and a picture made with Santa Cow, as well as those Silly Bracelets, which are all the rage right now.  The kids could hardly contain themselves by the time Santa Cow made it in the restaurant.

Hiking at Moss Rock Preserve

We decided to use some of our extra time together over the holiday weekend to go hiking at Moss Rock Preserve.  We had a lot of fun walking through the woods – even the kids loved it – especially Speed Racer.  We made it all the way to Turtle Rock and then we came back to the car.  For some reason, known only to Daniel, we decided to leave our snacks in the car.  By the time we got back to the car, we were hungry!  The kids ate their bananas and crackers and cookies as fast as they could.  So did this little momma!  Here are some pics from our trip:

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Thanksgiving pics

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Carving the Pumpkin 2009

Fall Festival 2009

Today, we went to the Fall Festival at our church. Princess dressed up as Cinderella, and Speed Racer dressed up as Batman. We had a great time. The kids played games, won candy, bounced in the bouncy house, rode on a hay ride (Princess and me), ate hot dogs, hamburgers, and popcorn, and slid down the giant bouncy slide. It was quite a fun time.

Princess saw her friend, CE, and helped cheer her for a little while. Elijah ran around with his friend, JP. Of course, Princess and Speed Racer had to dance to the folk music before we left, and I enjoyed some cotton candy.

We had a great turnout - there was a lot of people, and each year it is more organized and better than the year before. So exciting!

Snuggling Up

"I so love you, brother"

Princess said to Speed Racer as they watched morning cartoons together.


P. S. This is my 300th post!! Yay me!
I am thinking of giving something away in honor of this. Stay tuned.