Starting summer off the right way.....

I'm heading out of town....

Without kids!!!

For a little grown-up, relaxing time. Today I'm going on a bus trip with some ladies from church to see "Church Basement Ladies" play. I'm excited to get away for a little while, but honestly, I'm a little bummed. Today is the first day of no routine, the first day the sun has shined all week, and the first day of "summer" for us. The kiddos will have a blast playing with Grandma & Paca all day and I'm sure I'll have a lovely time with all the "church ladies!"

Let the summer begin!

Have a great weekend everyone!

School's Out for Summer!

It's hard to believe that kindergarten is over. The school year flew by. We have a busy summer to look forward to and then off to first grade. Wow!

This was the first day of school (August 21, 2008)

This was yesterday! (May 27, 2009)

She has come so far and we are very proud of her!

Fun-filled day at Farm Park!

We attended a birthday party this past Saturday for a sweet little friend from church. She was turning 4 and Farm Park is a wonderful place to have a party for this age. They had a little puppet show, read a book, did a few magic tricks, and provided the cake and ice cream. After Lydia had opened her gifts, each child was given an ice cream cone with food for the animals in it. We walked around to all the animals and fed them the food. It was a perfect day too. It was a little warm, but that didn't stop the kids. Thanks Lydia for inviting us to your party. We hope you had a wonderful birthday!

I love when they love each other!

Getting ready to have cake and ice cream...and boy, was it good!

My sunflowers....(all three of them!)

Yes, Maggie is feeding the pony! My girl is totally coming around to trying new things, I love seeing this happen for her. She is so proud of herself.

Max kept saying how funny the whiskers felt!

Maggie is milking the "pretend" cow!

Check out that face. I love to hear and see him laughing. He totally makes me smile!

Fun-filled festivities at Farm Park! Gotta love it!

Happy Memorial Day!

Put your flag out and show your support!

Who? What? When? Where? Why? & How?

A little order to my randomness!

Who?
My wonderful Grandma. She has always been a very special person to me. My memories of growing up and spending a lot of time with her is priceless. Those small things that seem so simple are the memories I hold closest to my heart. She always had fat dill pickles on the table with dinner and they were always in the same glass-topped dish with little flowers on the side. Oh, and she never ran out of them. Those pickles were always there. She also always made silver-dollar pancakes for breakfast if we had stayed over the night before. And let me just tell you, the women can make some milk gravy. Even though she has tried to teach me many times, it never turns out as good as hers.

Now I know these are all food related memories, but my memories go far deeper than food.

Her love for the Lord inspires me. She has never been shy or afraid to share that love with others. Her years of service in her church is amazing, and her beautiful singing voice...well, how could you not be inspired by that. God has given her so many gifts and she has used those gifts to serve Him. Just the way it should be.

I am so thankful to have been blessed with such a wonderful Grandmother. And I plan to take full advantage of the precious time I have left with her, however long that may be. I plan on creating new memories with her, ones that hopefully my children will remember when they grow up.

I love you Gram!


What?
What do you do for "mom" time or "you" time in the summer? Last summer I hired one of our favorite babysitters to come over one morning a week, just so I could run errands by myself. It was the best money I spent all summer. Just having a few hours to myself made it easier to tackle the craziness of summer. Think we're going to the same thing again this summer!


When?
When do your kids get out of school for the summer? Today? Next Week? Into June? We are out next Friday here in our neck of the woods! (Gotta love Al Roker!)


Where?
Where have all my comments gone? I know my material hasn't been the best lately, but have I lost all my readers? If you are a faithful reader and have never left a comment, please do so. Maybe you want to, but don't know how? If that's the case, here is a very quick lesson. It's super easy. You can do it.

1. Click on "Friendly Feedback" under my name at the bottom of the post. A box will pop up showing you how many comments have been left (the past few days has been zero, zippo, zilch)

2. Scroll down the the "Leave your comment" box.

3. Type your comment. Please remember how much I love hearing from you. I think I like reading comments even more than when Tim, my UPS guy, shows up at my door.

4. Now this is the part that I think freaks people out. If you have a google account/blogger account, you can use that. If not, mark the "Anonymous" box. Now this next part is the hardest thing that you will have to remember. Remember to sign your name with your comment if you are listed as "Anonymous!" If you have a google/blogger account, than I am able to track you. I can see who left the comment. If you are listed as "Anonymous" I can't track you. Therefore, if you forget to leave your name, I don't know who you are, and that means I can't love you to pieces for leaving me a comment. Go on, try it, go out on a limb and expand your computer knowledge. It's super easy, I promise.


Why?
If you are in my bible study, I've already warned you about this blog post. So sorry that you have to hear this again.
Why, oh why, is it that my new summer haircut which looked super cute when I walked out of the salon last week is giving me fits. I have been struggling all week to get it to look the way she had it. Even after I had my stylist show me exactly how she styled it and I made sure that I was using the same exact product she used, it still doesn't look the same. I know they have a special talent (those darn stylist) but why can't I just have cute hair? Why????


How?
How do you make a cool summer time drink? Either the kid friendly kind or my favorite, the mom friendly kind? Have any good recipes?


Okay, that was a lot of questions, so I hope there is a least one or two things you want to comment about. You can do it! Try it, it's fun!

Happy Friday my Friends!

Star Wars and Parenting!

A while back when we were moving Andy's parents into the house next door to us, we found a very special part of Andy's childhood. A Star Wars pillow case that I think he would have slept with for a few days if I wasn't sharing a bed with him.

We brought the pillow case home and stuck it in a drawer. A few days ago we found it again in that same drawer, and pulled it out. With both our kids really into Star Wars, it has been challenging to come up with a system that works for sharing this one-very-loved-pillow case. It has caused a few problems when it comes to who gets to use it. Each night we have been trying to switch between kids, but there have been a few "special occasions." Obviously, Maggie was able to have it on her birthday, and Max got it the other night (which it was two nights in a row), because he was so brave at his doctor appointment. So the kids have started their own "rules" as to who gets the pillow case.

The kids are now competing over who does the most chores or who is the best listener. It's nice to see them figuring it out on their own. Mature Maggie was even the one to suggest that Max have it the other night because his ear hurt. She's so thoughtful!

Now I know that the novelty will wear off in the next day or so, and it won't be as exciting, so I'm just enjoying all the helping hands, good listening ears and polite kids while I can.

I never guessed that I would be thanking the makers of Star Wars for helping me as a parent. Kinda weird!

Few Words Wednesday!

Our newest parenting tool...(Andy's old Star Wars pillow case)...details tomorrow!

Perfect day for a Picnic!

Last Thursday was Max's last day of preschool for the year. He gets to go back to preschool in the fall since he has a late birthday. Last Thursday was also Pirate Day, here's that post just in case you missed it. Last Friday was supposed to be the all-school picnic, but instead of a nice enjoyable picnic, it was raining like crazy...ALL DAY! It was like someone turned on the faucet and forgot to turn it off....crazy rain! Anyway, the picnic was postponed till Monday (yesterday) and the day couldn't have been more perfect.

You know about Where's Waldo right?! Now were playing Missing Max! Can you find him??
(hint, he really is in the picture!)

Max had a great time and all his little girlfriends couldn't keep their hands off him...he's just going to be one-of-those-guys. You know the ones, super cute and nice too. He already has several"girl" friends. Although these "girl" friends have not have not altered his love for Abbey one bit. He still thinks he's going to marry her, and all these other girls are just his friends.

I think one little miss thinks she's going to marry Max. Sweet little Ashlen really likes Max. I thanked Amber, (Ashlen's mom) for dressing her sweet girl in hot pink at the picnic, it was much easier to find Max when Ashlen (all decked out in hot pink) was always with him. He got his picture taken with another little girl from school too. As her mom was taking their picture, the mom's friend got a shot of the backside...yep, you guessed it, Max had his hand on her little behind. I know he didn't mean to have his hand there, or did he?!?

It was a great time to hang out with new and old friends, make some play dates for the summer and just enjoy the company of others...we did declare ourselves the leaders of the wet-bottom club...I guess all that rain is still pretty close to the surface. I decided to spare you from viewing a picture of that scene.

We had to get a picture of Max with Mrs. L****! We love ya and will miss you over the summer, and we can't wait till next fall. (make sure to keep reading the blog....you are one of my most faithful readers!)

Butter f-i-n-g-e-r!

The other night we were taking the kids to DQ. Max and his cousin, Quinton were talking about what they were going to order when we got there.

Max said he was going to get his new favorite, the cherry dipped cone and Quinton said he was going to get a swirl cone with sprinkles. Max then asked me if I was going to get my usual, a Butterfinger blizzard. I told him I wasn't going to order anything, since I was still full from my dinner.

Quinton asked Max what was in a Butterfinger blizzard. Max replied, "Butter and fffffiiiinnnnggg...??? Mom, what's in a Butterfinger?" He couldn't even get the word f-i-n-g-e-r all the way out...and the tone of his voice, ewwwwww!! All I could do was laugh! So cute!



As I was searching google to find a picture of the Butterfinger blizzard, I found this amazing tid-bit of information. This would be the number of calories in a DQ small Butterfinger blizzard. Yikes!
I may have to review my thinking process, maybe this tasty dessert is really made of fingers...then I won't be putting the 480 calories into my body. Maybe this was a great observation that my child just made. He's looking out for my well-being.

Arrrrrgh Matey!

Today is Pirate Day at Max's preschool. It is also his last day, so why not go out with a bang. He was so excited, in fact, Daddy went into work late today, just so he could take Max on his last day. What a nice Daddy.


I wish I could sit here and tell you that I whipped this cute outfit together last night, but honestly it's been sitting in the closet for close to two years. Right after Maggie's pirate day, back when she was in the Tues/Thurs preschool class, I found this outfit online for $2.99 with free shipping. I couldn't pass up a deal like that. So we dug it out, (actually it was right where I knew it was) and even though it's a tad bit short, it worked out perfectly.

We made a little video this morning...wait till the end when he asks if it's time to go...he was so excited!

Birthday Bash!

The birthday party was a huge success. Maggie had a ball. She was totally in her element. She was herself. She was her goofy self, almost to the other extreme. She loved having her Daddy there, it was a good day.

I really didn't know how things would work out, but the timing turned out perfect. The girls were all so well behaved and I even had a great little helper, thanks Isabel. They ate lunch, we made bracelets (or necklaces for their webkinz), we opened presents (I'll get to that in a minute), they ate their "dirt" desserts, and then Andy played some games with them. The time actually flew by.

All the girls! Thanks for being so good!

Maggie and her new American Girl Doll, Julie!

Run, Run, Run!

Playing duck, duck, goose in this picture!

Maggie received wonderful gifts from everyone, a entire kitchen table full to be exact. Sometimes I wish we could go back to the basics where kids were just excited to get together, play some games, and maybe eat a little cake. I wish it wasn't about the presents. But she's a kid, this was her very first "birthday" party, so I guess I'll give her that. She got a lot of great craft stuff and some wonderful gifts that she'll be able to use all summer. So many thanks to all of you!

Oh, and all the girls really seemed to love their new flip-flops, and most of them fit! Yippee!

This is the picture of my kitchen table when we got home. My, oh my!

Grandma and Paca were able to come to the party and help out. Papa and Jane stopped by later in the afternoon, (Papa, thanks for keeping Max today too....no boys allowed at the party) Aunt Jodi stopped by to see the birthday girl and we had dinner with Grandpa Dave and Bonnie. It was a great day.

After getting "thank you" notes done and dinner, I headed straight for a hot bath, watched American Idol, and was off to bed. This mama felt like I had just been through child birth...well, not that bad.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful birthday comments for Maggie, we both loved reading them!

Maggie Ray!

Six years ago today at 8:38 pm, our sweet Miss Magpie came into the world. She has changed my life forever and I am so honored to be her mother.

She is so smart, so sweet, super silly,and we love you to pieces. Have a great day, Maggie! We love you!

Pre-Party Pictures

I have had a lot of fun trying to decide what to do for Maggie's first "friends" party. She really wanted to have the party in the church gym. All the kids at church love to run in that wonderful gym. We only invited the girls from her class and two of our most favorite neighborhood friends, so we will have a total of 11 girls, including Maggie. That is a perfect number for her first party.

Today Maggie made up the desserts for her party. I love The Pioneer Woman, and I really love her step by step instructions for all her yummy recipes. We thought her Springy Flower Pot desserts would be a fun idea for the party.

I think they turned out cute!


We got all the girls' goodie bags ready too. I ended up making all the flip-flops for them. Maggie was having a hard time making the knots....and it takes a lot of knots! I ended up making 11 pairs and we will do another craft project tomorrow during the party.


More party pictures tomorrow!

Mom's Miscellaneous Message on this Marvelous Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Even though, Mother's Day isn't about getting gifts, I received some fabulous homemade gifts from my favorite little people. Maggie made a cute little book at school with "real" stuff glued inside, along with a wonderful handmade card. And Max made a beautiful pin out of a puzzle piece, feather and a button. I still have the puzzle piece pin that Maggie made me in preschool. I love how excited they get to give their gifts. It's so precious.

They also made some great gifts in their Sunday School classes. These teachers are so creative and come up with really special gifts for the kids to make...Max made a super cute pillow with his hand prints on it, he just came in to tell me that I forgot to sleep with it. I'll sleep with it tonight!


I also got a beautiful gerbera daisy from my prayer partner...don't know if she's reads the blog...but if you do, I LOVE it!

Speaking of gifts, I'm typing on my new laptop as we speak. It did arrive before Sunday! In fact, it arrived on Friday, however I was not able to even touch a key prior to yesterday. Andy got it all charged, loaded all the goods, did some other geeky-computer-guy-knows-all-stuff to it and now, I'm up and running. It takes a little to get used to...but that's the fun of it. Thanks again honey...I love it...but still love you more!


Yesterday at our annual Mother's Day cookout, we also celebrated Maggie's birthday. She will turn six tomorrow...boy has the time flown by. She wanted a Star Wars party. My girl is so into Star Wars, crazy I know, but whatever she wants...it's her birthday. We had a little cake with Darth Vador and Luke Skywalker on it. We also got her a Darth Vador pinata. She loved it.


She got a ton of great gifts...a great big "Thank You!" to all my family for all the great gifts. She already wore her new bike helmet, she loves the new pink crocs, and she can't wait to watch her new Star Wars, Clone Wars movie. Oh, and her two new webkinz...the camel (remember she rode the camel in Arizona?!?!) and the lion (she is a Lincoln Lion....school mascot) she can't wait to get on the computer. Oh, and she will be able to get on the computer...while I sit and type from the laptop! Yippee!


We have enjoyed spending time with our nephew/cousin Quinton this weekend. The kids have played, and played and played some more. I love when the kids just hang outside all day and when they come in, they are so wore out that they just crash. That is what summer and nice weather is all about. Even though my garage looks like I'm having a garage sale every day, with ALL the toys we have in there...it's a good thing.

As I updated in my last post, I have found my camera. I would lay awake at night trying to figure out what in the world I had done with it. I was so afraid that I had really lost it. Thankfully, I was cleaning out some things in Maggie's room. Hanging on her doorknob, is her bag that she always takes to church. I was cleaning out church bulletins, Sunday School papers, candy wrappers, etc and there at the bottom of her bag was my camera. I had put the camera in her bag on Confirmation Sunday. With all the extra stuff I had to carry that morning, I threw it in her bag and off we went. What a great feeling I had when I found it...we all did the "happy dance!"

The big birthday party will be held tomorrow. Maggie is so excited. We are having her party in the church gym. Since school is out at 11:00 (remember we only have 1/2 day Kindergarten here...) we are having the parents take the kids right over to the church, we will eat lunch, play some games, do a craft, eat dessert and play some more. It will all be done and cleaned up by 2:00, so that this mom and get home to rest. I hope they have fun. It's a lot of work to get this all ready.

Sorry for this massive mess of things going on in my mind. Hope your Monday is marvelous!

Thankful Thursday!

I am so thankful for Grandparents who are ALWAYS there to help out in any way. My parents babysat last night night, came to help me clean today, have been running birthday party errands for me, and....are keeping the kiddos tomorrow night so we can have our card club over. Truly, I don't know what I would do without them! What a blessing!

And I don't want to forget Papa, right next door. Yesterday I was able to run to P-town by myself to get a few errands done in half the time it would have taken me with the kids...I am so thankful for ALL of you!

I am so thankful for my hubby. And I'm not just saying that because of my last post either. He gave up his evening last night to go with me to my first MS dinner meeting. It may have helped a little that it was a free steak dinner...but hey, whatever it takes. He pushes me to think outside my own ideas. He reassures me that everything will be okay, but most of all he "gets me!" and when he doesn't...he still loves me anyway! I'm so thankful for him!

I am so thankful for my healthy, happy kids. I'm thankful they are happy outside playing, using their imaginations, and discovering the beautiful world God has created around them. I'm also very thankful for Spray n' Wash and bleach to get the sidewalk chalk stains out of Max's bright white POLO shirt. What was I thinking sending him outside in that!

I am thankful for friends I can call up just to vent. If I kept all that frustration to myself and let it build up...can you imagine the monster I would be, it wouldn't be a pretty thing. I am thankful to this same friend who I can call when my brain isn't working properly. She can help me divide a recipe, listen to me vent, and still love me all in one day! Love ya!

I am thankful for a God who still loves me even when I don't get my bible study done. I read my study, but just didn't get all the homework done. It feels like I've been struggling a bit with this section of Daniel. All the history...I love it...but I get so confused. But at least I still went to bible study...I could have come up with a million excuses not to go...but I didn't. I'm hangin in there cause I love the Lord, I love Beth Moore, and I love my bible study girls!

I'm thankful that the internet was down this morning so that I could get more accomplished than if it was up and running...and I would be really, really thankful if I could find my camera! Has anyone seen it???

****Update....I found the camera....thank goodness....I'm so looking forward to a good nights rest now! ****

What are you thankful for???

I can't make this stuff up!

This is how the conversation went at the dinner table last night:

Andy: "So I just about ordered your Mother's Day gift today!"

Me: "Oh, yeah...so you got my "hint" on the blog the other day, right!"

Andy: "No, what was the hint? I haven't been on to read the blog for a few days."

Me: "Nothin...I know it's out of the question and I was just kidding anyway....plus we have way to many medical bills right now, sigh...."

Andy: "What was it?"

Me: "Just a new laptop...that's all!"

We both looked at each other....and he had a big grin on his face....

Andy: "I've had the guys (these are the guys who work for him...I'm sure they are supposed to be doing actual work) watching for a super deal...and today they found one!
But I wanted to check with you to make sure that you still wanted a laptop verses a new dining room table." (I've been saving up for that too!)

Me: "Do I have to use the money I've been saving for the table to put toward the laptop?" (I'm always thinkin...and if I had to use that money...my plan would be all out of whack!)

Andy: "No, that's for your table...it just may take longer to get your table....are you okay with that?"

Me: "I'm totally okay with that! It will be nice having the kids around to eat dinner with us for a little while longer." (cause you totally know that they won't be allowed to sit at the new table....just kidding)

Andy: "I'll order it...but your not getting it til Sunday!!!"

Me: "It won't be here by Sunday!"

Or will it????

In the "A"

I think we are in trouble. Max tends to have some several of my OCD tendencies. For the past several months, he has started a new little routine at bedtime, one that he has made up all on his own.


He has these cute letters above his bed that spell out his name, and almost every night, he has to make sure that he is in the middle of his bed. He will cock his head all the way back and say, "Mom, am I in the 'A'?" He wants to make sure he is smack dab in the middle of his bed. He wants to make sure he won't fall out! He just likes to double check!

There's nothing wrong with that, right?!?!?

A little R & R

It seems like I've been in a blogging funk the past few weeks. The kids and I seem to be getting into a new daily routine, and that could be part of the reason for my bloggy break. Remember when your kids were babies or toddlers (or maybe you are in that stage now...) and how you always had to have your errands done, lunch cleaned-up or be home in time for "nap time"....well, we are back to that stage. The sad part is that my kid's naps are long gone...but we still need to be home and finished with lunch by mommy's new nap time!

With my extreme fatigue (hello...if you are a mom...extreme fatigue is already part of your job description) I've been trying to rest everyday so we started up "quiet time" for the kids again.

We start this wonderful time of the day with Maggie reading books to us (she is doing a great job reading), followed by me reading a few books to the kids, then they both trot off to their own rooms for 1/2 hour or so of alone time. After about a 1/2 hour, I will hear them whisper yelling to each other, and then they are allowed 1/2 hour of together time, as long as they don't get too loud. It has been working pretty well so far. This allows me to lay across the bed and rest for a little while. I always seem to have my little note book with me...writing down lists, things-to-do, etc...but at least I'm resting.

This new "rest time" has however, interfered with my blogging time...yet another reason for a new laptop. (Hint to hubby...this would make a wonderful Mother's Day gift for your lovely wife who happily bore 2 beautiful and healthy children for you!) With a new laptop, I could rest and blog at the same time. I could save a few hundred trees (since I could be typing all my lists into the computer!) All in all, it would be a wonderful thing.

All kidding aside, the rest thing is going well, I do feel a little more energized when I am able to lay down for a little while. I'm trying really hard to not over-do-it. Letting the little things go isn't the easiest thing for me, but I can only do so much...I have to learn to say "no", I have to learn to limit myself, and I have to remember that I need to listen to my body...so that this body can be around for a long time to come.

Someone special turns ONE today!

It's hard to believe it's already been one year!

Happy 1st Birthday Sloany! We love you!