Gifts

We were blessed this weekend with some gift. Robin and her daughter Rachel generously gave us a bunch of Rachel's old toys. A doll house and an RV were the most popular. They played with the toys all day on Saturday. Ethan really liked the RV and the horses. He checked out everything while Aubrey was sleeping.Pam found Aubrey Princess dresses at a yard sale on Saturday. She got her 5 dresses all for a dollar each. What a deal. Aubrey was so excited today to go to church and get them Pam. She put the Tinkerbell dress on at church and wore it. We have modeled them three times today and I did hand wash them in the bathtub today while she was napping. Here is our little model.
Pink rosebud dress
Snow White - this was one from the Disney Store (great deal!)
The back of Snow White
Cinderella
Tinkerbell
A sweet little Angel
Thank you for the gifts that were given to us this weekend! What a treat!

Proud Owners of a Wii

Ethan won the Wii at church tonight and was he ever excited. The Children's ministry was giving out one in a drawing to promote summer attendance. Every Wednesday for the last 2 months he got to put a ticket in the Wii box. I was in charge of getting the Wii and it has been sitting in our guest room closet the whole time. Tonight we had a service and he was the winner. Pastor Barry called me up to help with the drawing. I had a fish bowl filled with the tickets. After mixing them around several times in my hand, I let one of the kids in the front row pick the ticket. When she said Ethan Overton we were all shocked. I looked at Barry to ask him if that was okay and he said it was fair. I am so glad that I did not pull the ticket. I would have felt that I would have had to draw another one. Ethan was ecstatic! He got many congratulations tonight and many phone calls were made on the way home from church. I set it up and we played a game of bowling before he went to bed. We were bad parents tonight and let him stay up until 10 on a school night, but it just did not seem right to not let him play once before he went to bed. I think Derek will want Guitar Hero for his birthday in Nov.The VERY happy boy.

Ethan actually did very well playing bowling.




Mom won the game. Dad also played, but he was hot after the worship service and was not appropriately dressed for a picture.Bruster was our audience.
So, we had an exciting evening in our house tonight. Pam told Ethan that being a Pastor's kid had an advantage because we are there all the time to be able to put his ticket into the drawing. I think he only missed one week while we were in MI.

Ethan's First Bus Ride

Ethan really wanted to ride the bus so I let him ride it home today. He enjoyed it and did fine and even took a little nap. However, he will not be riding it home again because he was on the bus for 2 hours!! The bus was late and that made for one very nervous mommy. I was so thrilled to see that bus pull up. We did agree that he can ride it to school because he is only on it for 10 minutes. We will see how that works out.
Ethan still likes school and had another good day. He got to visit the nurse today because he had a torn fingernail. Yesterday 3 kids in his class went to the nurse and today 3 more did. I think they are just excited to find a reason to go and see her. I am glad it was nothing too severe.

Cooking With Aubrey

The kids seem to have the ability to always know when I am cooking something and almost instantly two chairs are pushed up to the counter to help me. Sometimes it is cute and I welcome the help and sometimes they honestly just get in the way. This is especially true when I am in a hurry as it takes at least twice as long to complete the cooking task with my extra helpers. Yesterday, Derek asked me to make a cake for him to take to work on Monday as it was Pam (Administrative Assistant) and Barry's (student pastor) birthdays. I let the kids help on this adventure. Ethan helped bake the cake and unfortunately I did not take any pictures...what was I thinking! He cracked his first egg for the cake. He has been interested in this for some time now and I have always steered him away from doing it, envisioning the mess it would make. I have no idea how old I was when I cracked my first egg, but I too remember enjoying it so I gave in. Aubrey was napping so I thought is was a good time. To my surprise he did very well. He insisted on cracking all the eggs. I made him do it in a separate bowl so that we could pick out any egg shells. I only had to pick out a few. Ethan was also intrigued at touching the egg to see what it felt like. Ethan went to church early with Derek to help get ready for the small group party and Aubrey helped me make the icing and decorate the cake. Here are some pictures of my helper.
Both kids love the hook to my mixer and like to play Captain Hook with it.
Aubrey saying "Wow" as the butter and Crisco are mixing. She kept asking to taste it and I told her it would be yucky.
Getting caught trying to touch the mixer. For all those who are nervous, I did move her chair further away to avoid any accidents.
Aubrey helping dump in the powdered sugar.
Aubrey eating the powdered sugar she dumped on the counter.

The best part of baking with Mommy - licking the icing! She shirt was a mess after, but it did occupy her long enough for me to frost the cake.
The final product. For those who partook in the cake today I did make both kids wash there hands multiple times to avoid germs in the cake:)
An inside view... we did some pretty good damage to this thing today. Definitely not a low calorie dessert. The white is whipped cream. A note to Aunt Judy: Aubrey loved the whipped cream as much as she did at the lake. I had to move the bowl out of her reach so she would not keep putting her finger in it!

Drinking Coffee With Daddy

Derek and Ethan made a trip to Target tonight and came back with some coffee. Ethan had a small amount at a Harry and David's and claims he likes it. He drinks it with a lot of cream, but he was really drinking it. I do not like the taste of coffee at all, so I guess I was just surprised that he liked it. Grandpa will be so proud!

I guess he is just acting like an old man tonight, because he was also seriously looking at the paper. It was just so cute I had to grab the camera.

We are surviving the Fay and it seems like the worst is past us. We have quite a bit of water in our yard, but nothing too serious. Our septic pump was full today and the alarm and red flashing light went off. A quick call to the utility company and they were able to put us on the list to send someone out to drain it. It was very common because the ground was so saturated she said. Other than turning the alarm off and the phone call it did not inconvenience us any. We were also fortunate to keep our power on during the storm. Many people around us did lose power so we were very thankful to keep ours. The only thing worse than being stuck in the house for 3 days is to not have power.
This morning we did some cleaning. Who would have thought that a bucket of Murphy's Oil Soap would be so much fun. Both kids got right in on the action and loved it. We washed all the cabinets and anything wood that they could find. I quickly made the rule that only Mommy could put the rag in the bucket and ring it out.. you can image the mess that was being made. We have enjoyed a lot of play time and I changed the layout of the blog. We are ready to get back into a normal routine though. Tomorrow we are going to go into Ormond beach and visit a wonderful member of our church, Andy Jelsik who had unexpected open heart surgery this week.
Aubrey is still wanting to wear a dress everyday. Yesterday she wore her Easter dress around the house all day. She even helped make cookies in it. Some battles are just not worth fighting!
Aubrey is sleeping and Ethan is soon to follow and Derek and I are going to watch a movie for the night.

Home Bound

We are at home waiting out Tropical Storm Fay. We are still not sure how it will effect us, but we have wind and rain. School was canceled today and has been for tomorrow as well. Last night we brought in all the stuff off the porch and took the net off the trampoline and brought it into the garage. I was planning on cleaning today, but with plants in our bedroom, patio furniture in our dining room and plants in the guest bedroom I decided it was not worth it. It would be much more fun to just play with the kids. We got the Geo Tracks out and Aubrey was really enjoying them. She is sort of clumsy around them though, so we have to do a lot of repairs.
Ethan did his homework project last night even though school was canceled. He was instructed to decorate the person with things that he liked. One of the options was food, so that was what he did. I thought he turned out cute. I really did not help much at all.
Since we were staying home today I had dressed Aubrey in lounging pants and a shirt to be comfy. That lasted about 30 minutes before she wanted a dress on. She now has to pick out her own dress to wear. She is such a girl! Another new thing she loves to do it talk on the phone. If you have called recently you have been blessed with talking to her because she will not stop asking to talk until I give in and let her so that I can actually hear the person I am talking too. She also likes to then close my cell phone and hang up on whoever calls. Oh the joys of a toddler!
We played with the trains a lot today. Ethan was putting out the signs while Aubrey was napping. Notice his shirt...he made it for Thanksgiving in two year old preschool. I asked him why he was wearing it and he said it was a stay at home shirt. He has tried to wear it in public before because he just loves it and we would not let him, so he thought he would wear it today since we were not going anywhere; makes sense.
Our huge train project. I told them it is coming down tomorrow because it really is in the way, but we have had fun with it. This is when we miss our bonus room from NC.
We ended our evening with a chocolate lava cake for dessert. I thought it was a good rainy, stay home kind of day dessert. One day of staying in all day was nice, tomorrow I might start to go a little crazy.

Aubrey's First Day

Our sweet Aubrey went to preschool today! She loved it and so did Mommy. I do have to wake up earlier to make sure we are all ready in time, but that is okay. We dropped Ethan off first and then took Aubrey to her school. She walked in and said "Aubrey needs to share." I guess we have been working on that more than I realized. She went to her little corner of baby dolls and play food. I stayed with her a few minutes and then gave her a hug and told her I was leaving. She looked at me and asked, "Mommy come back?" I said of course, after lunch Mommy will come back to get you. She turned back to playing and I headed for the door. She then screamed out, "Mommy wait, need to give you a kiss!" She ran over to me and was about to give me a hug and in the process the tea cup she was holding went flying. I could just see her mind working. She was very perplexed between giving me the kiss or getting the cup. The cup won and she quickly retrieved it and then came and gave me a kiss.


Aubrey all ready to go to school.
Proudly holding her Princess lunch box.
Ethan and his teacher Mrs. Ramage. She is just wonderful and everything we have been praying for in a teacher for Ethan.
Aubrey and one of her teachers, Ms. Kristin.
Aubrey with the dolls and the play food. I think she was yelling "share" again in this picture. Now hopefully, she will follow that rule!
Aubrey covering the doll with the blanket so she could go night, night.
Aubrey found an apron and was playing with food. The blue cup was the cup that went flying across the room.

When I picked Aubrey up today she could not stop talking about what she did. Here are some of the things she did according to her:
Painted - no touch it is drying. (Her teacher informed me that is what they told her after it was done, that she could not touch it because it was drying.)
Played slide - it was wet
Played puzzle

Her teachers told me that she loved music time. They sang her all time favorite, Wheels On The Bus. She kept asking for it again and again. Aubrey pointed to the CD player and told me that the song came from it. She loves to listen to that song in my car and she does ask for it over and over again.

As we were leaving Aubrey told me she was beautiful and that Mommy curled her hair. This is new and we may need to work on modesty some!
Aubrey hugged all her teachers as we left and she was asking when she could go back again.

I am thrilled that Aubrey had a great day! She really is a joy to be around and a little ball of sunshine, always making people smile. She must get that from me:)

What did I do with my 4 hours of free time?? Well, I went to church and had a meeting, ran a few errands and then met Ms. Anne for lunch. Aubrey is now napping before we have to go pick Ethan up from school.

Ethan Goes To Kindergarten!

It was an exciting day at our house today. Ethan headed off to his first day of Kindergarten. He had a good day and is ready to go back tomorrow.

Mom woke up extra early to make waffles for breakfast, as requested by Ethan. I made him eat without his shirt so he did not get it dirty. By the way that is whipped cream on the waffle (Derek has spoiled my children).
We were ready in time to take some pictures. Aubrey had to get her backpack on and be like Ethan. Notice Ethan's matching lunch box that attaches to his backpack.
Another backpack shot.

The big boy all ready to go. Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform!


Aubrey wanted her picture taken with him.
Proud Mom on the big day.
Dad takes a quick picture too.
Ethan's room at school. This is just a temporary room at a church because the school will not be finished for a couple more weeks.

Ethan's behavior pocket. If it stays on the sun all day then he get to add a rainbow. If he has to remove the sun he has a rain drop, then cloud, followed by a storm cloud. If he gets a storm cloud he gets a note home (boy would that be a bad day to come home!) Ethan is going to try to get all suns. They did something today with magic playdough where it started out white and then if they were going to have a good year it changed to pink. He said all of them changed to pink so everyone was going to have a good year. His favorite rule he learned was that hands and feet are for helping.

This is Ethan in the opening "Town Meeting" this morning. They meet in a large room all together every day for their meeting and then go to their classes.
Guess who was first in line to pick Ethan up from school today? I felt kind of silly taking the picture, but I had to put his car rider number on my window so I used to opportunity to take a quick picture.We headed to Bruster's for a treat after school. Notice the shirt is now untucked. We will need to work on that.
Ethan and Dad doing his reading homework. Do you think Ethan is really listening?
He had a great day today, but it was a little quieter around the house today. Stay tuned tomorrow for Aubrey's first day of preschool. That means that I will have 4 hours all to myself. Whatever shall I do???