Summer Fun

I have a new computer now, so I'm gonna do my best to catch up on the ol' bloggie! I'm sure there are lots of our activities I've forgotten, so this will be a "hit and miss" kind of post. :-) Away we go!

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The kiddos attended a Terrific Tuesday skating event sponsored by our church. This was the first TT of the summer and they had a great time. Max tried to take giant steps with his skates and fell quite a few times...he only cried once when he fell in front of a group of moms and bruised his...ummm ego. :-)

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We've done lots of swimming this summer and can't seem to resist new pool toys. We found a cute inflatable shark and the kids had to try it out immediately. They found that this is one shark they shouldn't mess with as it dumps them every time! lol

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The girls have had quite a few friends over for swim parties this summer. They love jumping in near the pool house, and even request that I take photos of their antics (& I'm always happy to oblige). :-)

Emily and a couple of her school friends:

We also hosted a cookout and swim party for our church youth choir:

SO thankful for such a great group of kids!

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And finally, just some swimming fun pics...

Hello Out there (echo, echo, echo)

No, I didn't get lost on the way to the internet. I allowed the kids to play on the computer, and it seems we acquired a lovely virus...that then went about its merry little way killing our computer!!
I am posting from an older (slow) laptop, but am hoping to get a new computer soon. I'm hoping to be back soon with lots of pics and updates on our daily adventures. OK, so I know we're a pretty boring family, but I kinda like it that way. :-)

Children's Choir

In May, our church Children's Choir had their final performance for the school year. It's been a long session as we had kiddos participate this time who were only in preschool (it's just harder for them to learn the parts in a play), but we got through it. Our program was called "Everyday Heroes", and the setting was similar to kids playing a Wii game (about Queen Esther and Haman). Claire was a "Mii" rock-star character, and Allyson played a cousin to the Queen. It was a lot of hard work, but the kids all performed beautifully, and the play was a success. It was a little sad for me though as this was Allyson's final performance with this choir...she will move up to the youth choir this fall.

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Hawaii

My dear, dear husband went to Hawaii last week...with his boss! I stayed home with the kids as usual. I'm thinking the abbreviation "dh" may come to mean something besides "dear" husband if he does this again! :-0
Oh well...he did take a few pics for me so I'll share on the blog.

Pool Guest

As I walked by the window last week, I glanced out at the pool as I normally do. A little something caught my eye, so I had to take a second look. There was a brown ball of fur sitting on the cleaning tube. A little brown mouse. Apparently, it couldn't figure out how to get out of the pool & had been swimming a long time. It must have been exhausted, since it didn't try to run as we approached. After a few tries, Randy netted the little creature and tossed it onto the deck. Randy said he would dispose of it, so the girls and I headed inside...didn't really care to watch what might come next. I just know that I didn't want to find it on the bottom of the pool...or even worse, in the filter basket after having been sucked up by the cleaner! :-0

Mother's Day '10

Since our schedule has been so busy lately, Randy and I didn't have time to go see our moms for Mother's Day. :-(
My family was really good to me though. Allyson and Claire wrote the most beautiful poems for me (& made me cry), and everyone gave me cards. My big gift was a mini camcorder...a cute little Sony Bloggie. I've had some trouble with my flip camera, and the family has heard my grumblings about it. So proud of them for "listening"! :-)

After church on Sunday, the kiddos and I posed for a pic. I truly hate being in photos, but I did it for the kids. LOVE my kids! SO very blessed!!

April Wrap-Up

OK, so I didn't improve on blog posting for April as I hoped. :-) We've just been incredibly busy with a big home improvement project, so my journal (the blog) took a back seat. I'm just going to do a quick wrap-up for the last half of April (since I can't really remember everything we did), and make a new goal for May! :-) May is another CRAZY busy month for us, so my goal is just to post once a week.

OK, so wrappin' it up quickly....

Emily participated in a band clinic, where she played a flute solo...she received the highest ranking and a medal. She also traveled to Tulsa with her church youth group, and attended a wonderful concert featuring Mercy Me. To top off her month, Emily tried out for the cheer and dance teams at school....and she made the cheer team! **Go Emily!!** Sadly, the only pic I have related to any of her activities is of a cookie...one of her friend's mom gave one to each girl as a good luck gift. :-)

Allyson participated in her first school orchestra concert. She had the best time, and the orchestra played beautifully. I love the fact that the orchestra is much smaller than the band, so the gathering seemed more intimate. She has two more concerts in May.

Now...just a few random pics from the last couple of weeks...

And finally, I think spring has finally arrived here. The giant bumble bees were buzzing around our little redbud tree so I grabbed my camera. This little guy was kind enough to pose for me...so sweet of him! ;-)

Easter

Egg hunt at church on Saturday. Allyson and Claire were in one age group, Max was in another, so Emily and I split the picture-taking duties. Everyone came away with a basket full o' candy (er, I mean eggs). Max was perfectly happy with his eggs...then a well-meaning lady at church showed him that the eggs opened to reveal chocolate candy inside - oh boy! Had to quickly redirect him to keep him from devouring it all on the spot! ;-)

Decided to set the camera up and take a quick shot of the family after lunch. Not a great shot, but we're all in there for once....

Dentist

Max had his first dental visit yesterday. Before we left home, I explained where we were going and what they would do to his teeth. The only problem was that I told Max about this early in the morning, so I had to listen to "We going to dentist?" at least a hundred times before his early afternoon appointment. :-O The appointment also coincided with nap time, so I was more than a little worried....Max is NOT fun to be around when he hasn't napped! lol (Had to take this appt. time as they only see new patients in the early afternoon.)

Max was first weighed, and then he climbed onto the exam table. He looked around and tried to quickly jump down (mommy is worried at this point, but kept encouraging him). The hygienist used a stuffed frog (with a beautiful smile) to show Max what they were going to do. Max was sold as soon as she showed him the water squirter! He then agreed to lay down, don the sunglasses, and opened his mouth (& asked for more water! lol). Max's teeth were successfully cleaned, and the dentist said his teeth look good. A new toothbrush, a little bouncy ball, two stickers and we were outta there! :-)

Spring Break 2010

Just realized I never posted about our exciting spring break. Actually, not so exciting...just a break (much, much needed break). We're doing some construction and landscaping around the pool, so that was our break. Emily was none too happy about our plans, because apparently *everyone* in her school (except HER) was going on a trip or cruise of some kind. ;-)


The kids returned from school on Friday, SO excited to play outside. The weather was lovely, there was no homework for a week, and the scooters were charged and ready to go. This was the action here on Friday afternoon/evening:

And THIS is what we woke up to on Sunday morning! A lovely covering of snow! I think we ended up with around 8" of snow by the time it stopped. It was beautiful, but we are all ready for spring.

Cuteness

Trying to catch up on emptying some of my camera cards today, and thought I'd post a couple of pics to add some cuteness to the blog. :-)

Caught Mr. Max playing with his cars....

And, is there anything cuter than a little boy in plaid deck shoes? Major cuteness happening here!

M.A.X.

Just took this photo of Mr. Max a few minutes ago. We are so blessed to have this little guy in our family! He is a true joy. He is one smart cookie too...and can already spell his name! I realize that it's only 3 letters, but he can also pick them out of the letters on the fridge. :-) His two favorite words right now are "Why NOT?". LOL He is fully potty-trained now as well (& he did it all on his own btw, because I gave up after only a week!). :-)

Yes, I definitely need to change the picture in my blog header!

Peter Pan Ballet

While I'm catching up on my poor little blog, I thought I might as well get REALLY current...as current as last night! A rarity for me - yes.

Last night we attended a wonderful performance of the Peter Pan Ballet. Our school is blessed with a wonderful group of staff who encourage participation in the fine arts. Not only is this encouraged, but they have made it a part of the school day. While it's only 30 minutes a week, one teacher (a former ballerina), teaches a ballet class to any students who want to participate. In the spring, the class then performs for their parents. This year's group was made up of 130 dancers, ranging from first through fourth grade. A few of the teaching staff also had parts in the play, including the principal who played Captain Hook.

Our Claire had the part of a fairy in the play. We were so proud of her and all of the other children. They practiced hard, and performed for the school yesterday afternoon, and then for the parents in the evening. The school choir also performed prior to the ballet (& Claire sang in that as well).

What's this? Claire was SO tired by the time we got home, this is as far as she made it to dump all of her things.

Max is 3 !!

Our baby boy turned 3 years old earlier this month! He isn't a baby anymore though. He even describes himself as a "big boy". Mr. Max doesn't really watch tv, so he isn't really in the know about current favorite characters that most kids want for a birthday party. His favorite toys right now are cars, so we just went with a simple race car theme party. Truthfully, the only things Max could talk about was CAKE and PRESENTS! lol

Since this was Max's first birthday home with us, we wanted to keep it simple and low key. At first we thought it would just be our family, but then decided to invite a cousin and one friend. I spray painted some copy paper boxes and decorated them like little cars (complete with a custom license plate), and the kids made a few laps around the house with those. Max really enjoyed his cake...and even knew what to do when we lit the candles! Can't believe Max is 3 already! He has changed so much since coming home last year. I really need to design a new blog header, because that sad little boy pictured just isn't the same boy I live with. Here are some pics of Max's big day:

The racers are ready...

Max in his "car" going forward

and in reverse...

Thoroughly enjoying cake and ice cream!

Epiphanie Camera Bags

It's the middle of March...and I haven't posted since Feb. 19th? Seriously?! Not sure why I've neglected the 'ol blog - guess we've just been busy with our normal, everyday, boring life. Oops!

OK, now for the reason I *made time* to blog again! I just saw on the Epiphanie Camera Bag blog that they are doing one awesome giveaway. Of course I want to enter, and in order to get more points, I need to blog about it. Sooooo, if you're interested in winning a choice of some airline tickets or a cool Canon camera, check out their site here. I would love, love, LOVE to win that camera but if I can't be the one to win, then I welcome all my friends and handful of blog readers to enter.