Being Innovative

Last Sunday the kids had so much fun on the water slide, that I decided to make our own at home today. I placed the pool under the slide and then blew it up. It was Ethan's idea to place it so they could climb up the rock wall so that we would not get as much grass in the pool. We borrowed a hose from Ms. Linda behind us to attach to ours, since it was not long enough. We spent about an hour and and half sliding this afternoon after church. We will definitely do this again!

Aubrey was a little timid at first, so Ethan offered to catch her. It only took one time down for her to love it and do it on her own.

Aubrey's Class Picnic

Thursday was Aubrey's last day of school for the summer. We were having an indoor picnic due to rain. She was one very excited girl to see Mommy and Daddy come.
She wanted her picture taken with her friends.


Aubrey enjoying her hot dog.
After they ate they were able to play some. Aubrey was enjoying running around with the jump ropes.

She also kept swiping some food from the table. At least they were healthy carrots!
We finished up with cupcakes for one of the kids birthday.

Aubrey had a great experience with preschool and learned all about time out. I will miss having some time to myself, but I am also looking forward to the summer where we do not have as much of a schedule to keep to.

Cookie Mania

Ethan's swim lesson was canceled again tonight due to rain, so I decided to let cookies take over my kitchen instead. I made 3 batches of cookies tonight. I let the kids help with one, but then told them I was doing to others so it would go faster. You are looking at 242 cookies, and let me tell you that is a lot of cookies! Why so many cookies? Aubrey has her last day of school on Thursday so we are giving her teachers some, but the bulk of them are for VBS. Thursday I have a worker meeting and these cookies are a popular request from my children's workers. I aim to please and keep them happy because I could not pull of VBS without them . The rest of them are for VBS week. Each day I give the workers a little something to let them know they are appreciated. Two cookies in a little bag are one of the days treats. I decided to make them ahead of time and feeze them to help alleviate some of the craziness of VBS week for me. So, one more thing checked off of my never ending to too list!

Only At Our House

We have had some life insurance paperwork for Derek to fill out around the house for at least two weeks. It even traveled with us in the car to NC, thinking we would fill it out then. Anyway, it was an ongoing joke of sorts at our house each day - Did you fill out the life insurance stuff? Well, Derek finally did it on Sunday and yesterday he told me it was all complete and ready to be sent out. Seeing yesterday was a holiday and it could not go in the mail, it was placed on the washing machine. With that said, you probably know where this story is headed...yep it got washed. I went to change over the stuff in the washer to the dryer and noticed a lot white stuff. At first I just thought it was a receipt or kleenex (that happens often). On closer inspection, I discovered the little adhesive tabs that were placed on where Derek needed to sign. I then knew what had been washed. We just got a good laugh out of it and I called our insurance agent today (a friend of ours) and confessed to what happened. Just another day in the life of our house. I do know that when the new paperwork comes, it is getting filled out right away and safely put into the mailbox!

Memorial Day Weekend

After church yesterday we went to some friends house and they had this huge inflatable water slide to play on. Aubrey went down twice by herself and then she wanted me to go with her.
It was really fast and a lot of fun. Aubrey said it hurt her mouth when we went down together so then she would come down after me and I would catch her.
Ethan went down at least 50 times and this morning he woke up a little sore.


Of course Derek had to get in on the action too!

They also had a "hot pool" as the kids call it that Aubrey just loved. She would have stayed in it all day long. Don't worry the temp was turned for the kids.

Today we did several crafts this morning. Aubrey loves to cut and glue things.

We also did a project for preschool about what she likes to do in the summer that I forgot to do last week. Me made a beach scene and put real sand on it from the beach. I bet her teachers will love the sand!
Ethan made several pictures today too. This one was the beginnings of a jungle.
Since we had hamburgers and hot dogs yesterday, we decided to be diffenent today and let everyone make their own pizza. Derek and Ethan are seeing Night At The Museum 2 this afternoon (we are not quite ready to take Aubrey to the movies yet) and then we are going to have smores for dessert tonight.

Swim Lessons

Due to the monsoon rain we had last week Ethan's swim lesson was rescheduled for this morning. We went to the 9:00 service and then to the pool. Ethan has been doing well in the water, but we have a pool at the house we rented in Hilton Head for vacation, so I wanted him to get even more comfortable with the water. He is working on proper technique now. His teacher says he needs to work on picking his head up and breathing.

There is a really big kiddie pool also that Aubrey is allowed to play in while Ethan is swimming.

Aubrey Decorating

Aubrey spent about 30 minutes today "decorating." She was so proud of herself and took great pride in her work. Sadly, I had to undecorate while she was napping so that the sticker would not be permanently on the bookshelf. Hopefully, she will not be too sad when she notices. She went to our neighbors and is spending the night tonight. Derek and I went on a date to see a christian comedian and knew we would be back late and then we also have an early staff meeting tomorrow morning, so she has not noticed yet.

Cleaning Out

Today is the third day of straight rain here in Palm Coast. Derek and Aubrey caused me to have this morning to be cleaning out morning. Last night just before bed, Aubrey made this mess in her room. I believe Ethan started it, but I could not really get any straight answers. Regardless, every single toy from her baskets were dumped out onto her floor. It was too big of a task to tackle right before bed, so I left it until this morning. Instead of just throwing things back in, I actually sorted and matched up the correct toys and threw out a bunch that she no longer played with. It took 2 hours to complete and I wonder how long it will be before it is destroyed again. Do I really think a 3 year old will keep all her My Little Ponies in one basket, all her play food in one, etc? Wishful thinking though....
The finished product!
Look at all those nicely organized baskets. I think she is already messing them up as I type!
The spot in our cabinet where we keep our medicine has been needing some attention for some time. It was in the state where you open it and things just fall out, but we just throw them back up and shut the door and pretend it does not need help. Well, Derek was obviously looking for something while I took Ethan to school, because everything was pulled out onto the kitchen counter. So, another opportunity to clean out. Everything that was expired went into the trash. I still had some teething lotion for Aubrey that expired in 07! I also think I had about 10 of those little droppers for the kids that you get with medicine. Those all went into the trash as well. This project did not take nearly as long and I wonder why I did not do it sooner.
The finished product...so much nicer! Now, the cabinets under our bathroom sink need attention, but I think I have been productive enough for one rainy day. Time to exercise and get some VBS stuff done.

Catching Up

Somehow I have gotten very far behind in blogging....so here goes. This is what we have been up to the last two weeks. On Mother's Day we headed up to Concord after church and took the kids to the dentist on Monday. Here is Aubrey at her first dentist appointment. She did really well.

Why in the world did we drive 7 hours to go the dentist you might ask? Well, Ethan has had to have a lot of work done on his teeth recently. We do not have dental insurance with this church and we had already spent over $900 and the pediatric dentist wanted another $1000 to do the rest. That was just not an option for us. Derek's family has a dentist in their church who has been good to us in the past. We called an explained our situation and he was willing to see the kids. Dr. Gouch was a blessing to us by taking off $700 since Derek is in the ministry. I can not express the blessing this was to our family and we are very grateful to him. That was the reason for the long drive to go to the dentist. Derek and I were discussing on the way back to his parents from the dentist how that was an example of what we hope for our kids one day. We do not care what occupation they choose, we just pray that they will be able to use in to honor God in some way.
Aubrey is now competely potty trained (except a diaper at night) so we had her big girl party on Monday night. Of course Nana got a few presents for both of them. This was the only thing I could really get Aubrey excited about with pottying. She filled up her sticker chart, so it was time for a party!

Of course, some big girl underwear was involved!


Aubrey requested a Dora came, so that is exactly what Nana got her. We headed back home of Tuesday in time for Derek to make it to practice and Ethan to a t-ball game.
I am happy to report that T-ball is over! That was a LONG season. Ethan says he would like to try soccer next year.


Friday Derek made a Strawberry Key Lime pie and Ethan decided he just liked the strawberries and Derek gave him the whole thing. It was really yummy!
Derek caught Ethan "reading" with Bruster. It was really cute!

The kids have really started to play together better. It is usually loud and crazy, but they are having fun. Ethan especially likes to play school with Aubrey. I think that he likes to boss her around but I guess that comes with the territory of being the oldest. Here they are playing "Coach" from school. It was so cute, Ethan was encouraging her with throwing the ball and telling her to make sure she did not run into the "street" (aka the couch)
Notice that Ethan had to have a walkie talkie and all. Pardon Aubrey missing her pants, I believe she had taken a trip to the bathroom and never put them back on!