State of the Family #38

Time flies in the summer.  Is June really almost over?  Where did it go? (So, I started this post on June 24th and am just now finishing it.  We have been a tad busy as you will see)

First ever corn on the cob!

  Miss Thumb Sucker has been fighting a nasty cold and cough.  So much so that I even took her to the pediatrician and they put her on a nebulizer to breathe in before naps and bedtime.  It seems to be helping quite a bit.  Mean mommy thought she was doing better, so I didn't give her a treatment before bed last night and we both paid for it (of course her more than me) with her coughing from 2-2:45 am. 

The ornery cousins before their first dance camp class

Miss Firecracker has been a dancing queen lately.  We started her in a dance class here in town and she got to go to a dance camp last week with her Cousin D.  She had a blast.  We went with her for 2 days and then she got to stay at Cousin D's house (where she and Cousin D managed to get into some trouble with clothes, doors and dry erase makers - I'll let you fill in the gaps!) and then at Grandpa G's.  I totally missed my Firecracker by the end of that 3 days and so did her brother and sister, believe it or not.

We had a family overnighter in the tent for the first time as well.  Now, we started off small; in the backyard.  It turned out to be a bit of a chilly night, so the hard core campers we are, ran an extension cord out to the tent and plugged in a space heater.  :)  It was perfect!  Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker loved it and stayed up past 10 pm.  Miss Thumb Sucker was a bit confused and refused to lay down to try to sleep.  So, daddy ended up taking her inside to her bed and sat with her in there until she fell asleep, then brought her back out to the tent.  She started out in her sleeping bag, but by 2 am, she was half way across the tent at the foot of her brother's sleeping bag.  While she was there, Noisy Man evidently got cold and stole a blanket she left behind.    It was a fun time and we will definitely do it again sometime!

We also made a trip to the strawberry farm not too far from our town.  Sadly, it was a pretty disappointing trip this year.  Last year when we went, the berries were huge and you could pick one row and have your basket full.  This year, you could pick all through the patch and barely fill your box with tiny little berries.  The kids were bored within 20 minutes and Miss Thumb Sucker cried for the last 20, while we scrounged up a few more.  Still, we had a pretty good time overall and the kids loved eating the berries we did find.

Another fun family venture was a trip to a Saltdogs game for Father's Day and Grandma and Grandpa Vs 40th anniversary.  It was quite the experience as Aunt J has 'connections' with a high up friend in the organization.  We were hooked up with a sky box suite, food and a special visit from the mascot.  I have no idea what all went on in the actual baseball game since I only got to sit down and watch it for 20 minutes max.  But that is OK, we still had a lot of fun.  There is a playground for the kids, bounce houses, there was a clown making very awesome balloon creatures, and the kids got to run the bases with daddy when the game was over. (I don't have many of those pics yet as my camera battery died and I had to use my SIL's camera)

The barrel ride at Dairy Days

We have just been doing one fun activity after the next this summer it seems as we also got to go to Prairieland Dairy's Dairy Days.  It was a tad muddy since it had poured the night before, but the kids still had a blast.  There were corn boxes (like sand boxes full of corn), face painting, a hay bale maze and tower to climb, trailer rides with a view of the dairy, barrel rides on the back of a lawn mower, 'milking' a cow (not a real one), tours of the milking parlor, a dirt garden to play in, a petting zoo and to top it all off FREE ice cream and lunch! 

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker have been in a new kind of swimming lessons the last few weeks as well.  They are Float 4 Life classes at our YMCA.  These are tough lessons.  Basically, they teach them what to do if they were ever to fall in the water or get too deep when no one was there to catch them.  It is so hard to watch your children take these classes and I have debated several times why I am doing this, but I know it could someday save their life.  The teacher does such a great job.  She pushes them just hard enough, but never pushes the limits.  Miss Firecracker is not a fan of the classes and cries a majority of the time, but has learned a lot in just 3 lessons!  Noisy Man always leaves during her lesson because he doesn't like to see her cry.  Sometimes I wish I could leave too.  You just want to jump in and grab them.  It is so hard to watch your child struggle in the water (or really with anything) and have to sit there and do nothing.

A fun and messy activity we did one hot morning, painting on a roll of newsprint paper you can
get from our local newspaper for $1.25!!

Mommy and daddy haven't been up to much except all the fun family activities, daddy some fishing and mommy some running.  I ran the 5K in my hometown over Father's Day weekend and was signed up to do the 10K where we live the next day, but I got a terrible sinus and head cold that morning I felt very sick.  Even had a terrible stomach ache, so I opted out of the 10K and just did the 2 mile.  Get this, I won my age division!  Hilarious.  The kids are always asking me, when I get home from races, if I won.  Finally, I was able to tell them yes!  :)  I guess my other news is that I started another blog.  It isn't anything totally impressive or one that I will link up to my facebook page, but if you want to check out what I am learning during my daily quiet times, check it out at www.realpiecesofmyheart.blogspot.com  I have to thank a fellow blogger for this post and giving me the courage to post what I am learning and my feelings/struggles online where anyone can see it.  Maybe the courage to link it will come later.

I am guessing by now, you are tired of my ramblings, so I'll try to post more often than once this month this time!