Hotel Hilarity

Our far out vacation this year was down to St. Joe and Kansas City. Mommy's cousin got married in St. Joe, so we started out there. We went a day early so that we could just relax and play in the fun, little water park that they had at our hotel. Little, being the operative word. Some of the older kids in mommy's extended family were a bit disappointed, but it was absolutely perfect for our younger ones. It wasn't deeper than 3 feet anywhere so Noisy Man could have free roam of the place as long as he was within eye sight. He loved that.

Checking out the cool slides

We had a few hiccups with hotel rooms, however. The first one they assigned us to was right next to the maid's closet and one of the main stairways, so we asked for a different one. Well, come 8 pm that evening we find out our air conditioning in the new room is not able to keep up with the heat indices of 108 degrees. We called maintenance, but couldn't understand what he was saying and just ended up with a couple of fans to keep us cool enough to make it through the night. The next day we were upgraded rooms to a poolside suite with bunk beds for the kids. The hotel management was very good to work with and did a great job making everything right.

The wedding was lovely and the kids had a blast dancing and raiding the candy table. It was great to spend lots of time with all of mommy's family. I think family weddings are the best!

Miss Firecracker loved floating around in her cousin's fish!

The kids thought it was fun to hide in the dresser!

Mommy and most of the kids

The next day we went on down to Kansas City. We were planning on all going to World's of Fun, but with the heat being quite unbearable, we decided to go with an indoor option instead. We found a place called Paradise Park. It was, again, perfect for our kids. A fun children's museum section, bumper cars, arcade, and another place called the Foam Factory where you could shoot foam balls out of guns and cannons and all sorts of other things. It was all inside and air conditioned! There were go karts, mini golf and a playground outdoors as well, but we opted to stay inside.

Noisy Man loading a foam ball blaster

This was so cool.  The kids put the balls through this hole and a tube sucked them up,
sent them through a sanitizer and then shot them back into the ball pit!

Miss Thumb Sucker loved that all of the sinks were at her level. She would have
washed her hands all day if we would have let her!

Later that night, after a big family supper of pizza, the girls stayed at G'ma and G'pa's hotel and swam while most of the boys went to see Cars 2 in 3D. It was a fun family time. We ventured back to our hotel in KC to another horrific night. Evidently there was a Rob Zombie or some other death and hate and screaming type concert that night and all the crazies from it came back to our hotel on our floor and screamed and cussed at each other until 2:30 am. Misery. That is all I have to say. Of course, we didn't know exactly what was going on until some of them were wearing the T-shirts and talking about the concert in the breakfast area the next morning.

Daddy having fun with a foam ball gun

Miss Firecracker with her big win at the arcade

The last day we went to The Legends mall and did some school clothes shopping and ate at the T-Rex Cafe. It was a great experience and I was glad that Miss Thumb Sucker was not afraid of the life-like dinosaurs and meteor showers that were all over. Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker thought it was the coolest thing ever.

They had an awesome cooking area in the Edutainment Center

Roaring with T-Rex!

After 3 nights of not going to bed until 10:30 at night and running crazy all day long we were very ready to go home. The kids did awesome the entire trip with only one huge meltdown from Miss Firecracker on the 2nd day. Another great family vacation down in the books.

State of the Family #39

 Once again, I lack in my blogging skills.  Lots of fun going on in this family over the last month. I had to go through my pictures to remember everything that we did.

Pouting about the noisy fireworks

Mr. Pyro and Miss Firecracker having fun iwth smoke balls

Of course it started off with lots and lots of activities for the 4th of July and we had fun gatherings with friends and had a good time at the activities in DeWitt.  There were inflatables, a parade, outhouse races, and awesome fireworks.  We had some of our college friends down one evening and had a great time catching up.  Miss Thumb Sucker was not impressed by fireworks and was quite comical to watch when they were going off around her.  Noisy Man is a pyro like his father and will become quite dangerous in his preteen and teenage years. I am afraid. 

We had a fabulous trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo with Mommy's best friend and her adorable Daughter I.  The play day had been in the works for over 2 months and had to be rescheduled over 5 times before we finally made it.  It was worth the wait though, as all time with her is!  We even got to see them twice that week, since we got to celebrate I's 2nd birthday with her later that weekend.  What a treat!

T-ball season finished up the 2nd week of the month and I have to say I am a little bummed.  The games were a lot of fun and the kids always had so much fun with them.

Family vacation came smack in the middle of the month, but I'll post all our fun adventures from that on another post or this one will be 10 pages long!

Since vacation we have had fun swimming, watching daddy shoot skeet or trap or whatever they call it, out at the gun club and lots of fun park play dates.  We have also been having a great time enjoying all of our garden produce.  We have a pelethora of zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes!

Last week was our county fair.  Cousins C, L and R always come down for that week and it was like a whole other family vacation, but at home.  We went swimming with them, rode all the rides at the fair, went roller skating (which was a disaster) and went tubing.  Again, lots of late nights but well-behaved kids minus the roller skating fiasco.  I guess it is just pretty hard for tired 3 and 5-year-olds to roller skate.  They were too tired to try very hard so they just got frustrated and mad.  Miss Firecracker surprisingly did better than Noisy Man, especially attitude-wise.  There was a miscommunication in who was coming skating and we found out too late that there wouldn't be anyone to hang out on the side-lines with Miss Thumb Sucker.  We also found out we couldn't just skate around holding her, which was our back-up plan.  So she was miserable stuck sitting on the outside of all the fun with nothing to do, always wanting the parent that was out on the roller rink floor. 

All of the kids had a blast riding all the rides at the fair.  Daddy was a little more daring than mommy's comfort level with the rides he let them do, but mommy ended up being the worry wart, as they always got off every ride with huge smiles on their faces, asking to do it again.  It was so gosh darn hot that we really didn't get to fully enjoy the fair like we do most years.  We skimmed through the animals and such, but never even made it inside all the 4-H and vendor exhibits to check everything out.  Mommy was pretty bummed by this as these are usually her favorite parts of the fair.  Mommy and the kids snuck out one morning while the daddy's were golfing and looked at the rest of the animals and watched a bit of the horse show, but the exhibit places weren't open yet.

This is the caterpillar that Noisy Man caught on one of our green bean plants in the garden.  Just 2 days after its captivity it made a chrysalis in his bug cage and came out, of course, a beautiful butterfly.  Daddy said it was a black monarch.  This is the pic we got just before we let it go.  It was quite the summer science lesson as we got lots of books from the library on caterpillars and butterflies.

Now we are to the end of July already and it is only 3 weeks before Noisy Man starts his first day of Kindergarten.  I am not sure I am ready for that, minus the fact that I can go grocery shopping with only one child instead of three. 

Noisy Man had been begging to do a lemonade stand for quite some time. 
Finally, we had time to get it done.  He made $7, just enough to mail a
 shoebox for Operation Christmas Child!

The Handy Hubby Strikes Again!

OK, so I am a bit behind on getting this posted, but I still need to brag on my handy hubby once again. We had a bunch of friends over for the 4th and I had just mentioned to a friend the night before that I really wished there was a way to get off our deck down to the yard below, without having to go through the house.  We have a walk out basement and a deck off the 1st floor.  Our backyard is huge and a wonderful place for the kids to play.  So typically, the kids like to play in the yard while the adults sit up on the deck.  However, with having to go through the house to get to the kids, it isn't the most ideal of set-ups.....so, I was telling this friend that it would be great to have that done for the party (which was 2 days away).

Get this, the next morning, my amazing hubby says to me, "What would you think of me building some stairs off the deck down to the retaining wall?"  Seriously, was he eavesdropping on my conversation?  I didn't say anything to him about it.  So, the non-demanding wife that I am said, "That would be awesome, honey!  But it would be even more awesome if it was done for the party tomorrow night, so it would be easier to get to the kids." 

Guess what?  He did it!  He got right to work and built a staircase off our deck to the retaining wall off to the side below.  How many hubbies could manage that feat in a day and a half?  (Must throw in a "Thank You" here as well to a friend of my hubby's who came the next day and helped a bit.)  I tell you I've got a keeper for sure!

Many of you might ask why the current deck wood looks so funny.  That is the lifetime coating "Restore" we put on it last summer.  See post about that.

The semi finished stairs, still need opposite rail
and to be covered with restore coating, but functional!

Here is the reward I gave my handy hubby for being so amazing.  OK, I fib.  I didn't just go out and get this for him.  We have been saving for it for a year so that we could pay cash.  But once again, I have to brag on him.  The poor guy has been driving around an awful looking teal-striped pickup for the past 12 years and always put other things his family needed before him getting a new truck.  Sadly, that ugly truck is still sitting out in front of my house, but hopefully it will be gone soon.

See ugly, monsterous, teal and silver truck in background

Flappers and Forgiveness

OK, before you go thinking this is some deep post and a glance into my soul, just thought I would clarify that this is another Blogging for Books entry.  You'll find my 'deep' posts over at my blog realpiecesofmyheart.blogspot.com (that is, when I have time to post).

Anyway, my most recent read was Lilies in Moonlight by Allison Pittman.  A great little love story and a real look into the true forgiveness of Jesus.  It is based on a flapper named Lily (hence the title of the book) who just happens to literally fall into the rich lives of a bitter, disfigured war vet and his forgetful, not-all-there mother.
Lily has been a misfit all her life, forever haunted by the strictness of her mother who chased her out of her home with "hell fire and brimstone" chastising of her 'loose' ways.  She was never taught the real forgiveness and love of Jesus, only the punishment of sin. 
But, when Lily finds herself in the mansion of the Burnside's, she finds out what true acceptance is through the forgiving eyes of Betty Ruth (the mother who has some memory and mental issues - probably some form of Alzheimer's, but it is never addressed as so in the book).  Lily and Betty Ruth have an instant bond and create a wonderful relationship that warms your heart.  The transformation that this creates in Lily is quite evident and leads to Lily finally figuring out true forgiveness.
However, Cullen, Betty Ruth's son, an injured war veteran and former professional baseball player, isn't so forgiving as he is trying to protect his fragile mother and keep himself in solitude so as to not have to face the shame of his past and disfigurement.  Lily's carefree heart and genuine love for his mother threaten to break through the shell Cullen has created over the years.
I'll let you read the book for yourself to find out what happens in the end, but it involves a road trip to a baseball game for a miraculous healing with a crazy woman, a flapper, a solemn man, a sour maid and their driver.
It was a great read that I received for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah for posting this review.

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!

The Cookie Experiment

We love to bake around here.  I make it a group activity with all the kids, even when my daycare girls are here.  We put all the ingredients on the table and take turns measuring out the ingredients and dumping them in the mixing bowl.  Most of the time it works out great.  Especially when I let them eat a few chocolate chips when we are done.  :)

Today I decided to try a little bit of an experiment.  I have been trying to use more whole grains in our diet.  I have been using whole grain pasta for quite a while and always make whole grain bread.  I just recently found a recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, where the chocolate chips eliminate the need for syrup.  I checked our bottle of syrup: 33 grams of sugar for 1/4 of a cup!  Granted, we don't use near a 1/4 of a cup.  I always have my kids dip their pancakes in their syrup which results in less syrup, and less sugar consumed.  So I scoffed, can chocolate chips really have that much less sugar?  Holy buckets, yes!  They only have 8 grams for 2 tablespoons, again, of which there aren't that many in 1 pancake.

I tried out the whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes recipe.  I can't say it was a total success, but they ate them.  I think next time I will use half whole wheat flour and half white. 

When I found this recipe, I also saw one for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies (or something close to that), so when I decided to make cookies today I had the brilliant idea to experiment on a little bit healthier cookie (does such a thing really exist?).  So, after the pancake experiment I decided to try half and half on the flours and used half of my light margarine instead of all butter flavored Crisco as my favorite cookie recipe calls for. 

The result:  A slightly darker cookie, but virtually no taste difference at all!  The kids noticed the different flours when we measured them in, but didn't say a thing while enjoying the cookies!  The true test will be when daddy tries them. . . . I'll fill you in on that once it happens. 

Don't mind her crazy hair - it didn't get combed after nap

same here with the hair. . . .

Also on the 'healthy cookie' note - if anyone figures out how to cut down on the 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in my recipe without ruining the cookie let me know!!  Like I said, does a healthy and yummy cookie really exist?

Sorry for the bad pictures, my good camera was in my car and I was too lazy to go out and get it.

EVEN DADDY APPROVES!!!!

State of the Family #37

Busy, busy, busy.  Where have the 'lazy days' of summer gone?  We have had so much going on lately I am ready for a break!

It seems to be a time of testing for Miss Thumb Sucker.  She has continued to do well (most nights) in her toddler bed.  But a few nights ago was one of the not-so-great nights and the little stinker figured out how to open her door!  That is no good when trying to keep a little one in bed.  So, in a pinch daddy tied her door knob to her brother and sister's across the hall.  Yes, shock and awe, we tied our baby girl into her room, it was the only option unless we wanted to stand at her door holding it shut for half an hour.  As soon as she was asleep and not pounding at her door we untied it.  Thankfully, I mentioned this at our MOPS play date the next day and a brilliant mother suggested we get the little toddler door knob covers - I totally forgot about these and was trying to figure out how to keep her in her room.  These little suckers work like a charm.

Our other challenge with her also stems from her bed and not wanting to stay in it past 5:30 am.  This is one tired mommy because I have been giving in and just getting her and bringing her back to bed with me. Once there she tosses and kicks for about 15 minutes until she finally falls back asleep.  At this point there is no point of return for mommy and I am up for good.  Ugh!  So, I finally put my foot down yesterday and made her cry it out until she fell back asleep on her own (probably on the floor, but hey that is better than my bed).  This morning she only cried and pounded on her door for about 5 minutes until she gave in.  Of course, she woke up her brother in the process so I was stuck getting up anyway, but maybe tomorrow she'll decide just to stay in bed.  Hey, a mom can dream can't she?

Miss Firecracker continues her bossy and sassy pants ways as I continue to pray and try to figure out how to teach her better 'friend' skills.  Otherwise, she had her very first T-ball game the other night.  The poor thing was clueless for the most part.  I totally forgot about practicing with her until yesterday, at which point it was 100 degrees and wind blowing 50 miles an hour (OK so I exaggerate, but it wasn't pleasant).  So we skipped practicing and just went cold turkey.  She still had a blast and was starting to figure out the base running stuff by the end of the game.  It is supposed to cool off tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get some practice in before her next game!

Our trip to the circus was probably most enjoyed by this curly-haired princess.  We got there early enough to go to the animal preview (which we stumbled upon by happenstance!).  It was very neat to get to see the animals up that close - even closer than the zoo.  Then, they have lots of acts out on the floor before the show starts as well, so we got to go down and watch them juggle and dance and even watch Asia the elephant paint a picture!  They got to participate in the dancing too.  Which Miss Firecracker was all over, but Noisy Man just wanted to watch.  During the actual circus, Miss Firecracker was just in awe.  She sat there wide-eyed and open-mouthed 90% of the show.  It was so fun to listen to what she had to say about everything and ask her million questions.  I actually didn't enjoy it as much during the part where she went and sat by Aunt M.  It was fun to see it through her eyes.

Noisy Man totally loved the circus as well, but he was farther away from me so I didn't get to hear his reaction as much.  His memory never ceases to amaze me as he recounts the numerous things they did during the show.  He loved the silly clowns and the zebras running in circles.  He thought the tightrope walkers were pretty amazing as well as the guy on fire they shot out of the cross bow looking cannon.  I thought he'd be more intrigued by the elephants, but he was way more into the tigers (although he was a little bummed there weren't any lions).  It was definitely a highlight of the summer for us!

T-ball was also on the schedule for Noisy Man, but he is a seasoned pro since he played last year.  Thankfully, this year he and Miss Firecracker play on the same team, so we only have one night of games.  Unfortunately, this will be the last year for that convenience.  It will only get crazier from here on out.  T-ball isn't the only thing he considers himself a pro.  He seems to think he is the world's best swimmer as well.  Two trips to the pool this week will send me to an early grave.  He is just fearless!  Jumps in, flips over, dives down, wanders into the deep, and on and on. Ah!  I have got to get this kid in some REAL swimming lessons that will teach him how to swim.  The ones he has taken so far have been decent, but haven't been focused enough for a kid who really needs to learn what he is doing before he hurts himself or gives his mother a heart attack!

Another fun night for us was probably daddy's highlight for the past weeks.  A gal who works in his office has a killer pond in her back yard (Daddy is totally envious of their whole place and would buy it in a heartbeat if they put it up for sale).  They have been inviting us to come down and fish for a while and we finally took them up on their offer.  The fishing was fantastic!  Daddy didn't even stop to eat the picnic supper we packed.  We were catching them left and right, crappie, blue gill, sun fish and even a few large mouth.  Noisy Man had a blast as well and was casting a real fishing pole like a pro by the end of the night.  He even caught a crappie that daddy thought would qualify as a master angler, but daddy accidentally dropped it back in the pond as he was preparing to measure it!  Oops! 

Daddy also started skeet league this week.  It is the one thing he does each summer that is a regular 'get-out-with-his-friends' type of thing.  Even though I am left alone at T-ball games every Tuesday night and at home alone until after bed time, I really don't mind.  I often think daddy needs to get out a bit more, so this activity helps.  The kids like to go out and watch him shoot when they can. too.

Mommy is the most boring one this time.  I had a 10K race this last weekend that I rocked (for me) in 1 hour and 49 seconds.  Then I had to do a Pampered Chef  bridal shower that afternoon as well.  I love doing bridal showers, but I didn't have time to eat lunch in between the run and the shower and I rehydrate well enough either, so I ended up feeling pretty sick for most of the show.  I made it through and I think everyone had a great time.  The bride got a TON of awesome stuff!  Other than that, I have been tending some flowers I planted this year, my garden and planning a bedroom makeover for Miss Thumb Sucker.  That and online shopping. . . I haven't shopped for myself in a long time and I found some killer sales so I am on a shopping hiatus for a little while, but anxiously awaiting the arrival of all my goodies.  Seriously, I got some great deals.  Like an awesome pair of black, ruffly heels that were originally $39 for just $10 and some cute tops for just $7.50!

more pics soon