Aubrey's Swim Lessons

Aubrey is taking swimming lessons at a local pool. When I signed her up I knew that we could not make the final lesson because we would be out of town. I never should have signed her up for evening lessons in Fl in the summer. We have had a big problem with delays and cancellations due to thunder and lightning. It has ended up where we have been at the pool almost every evening for the last two weeks due to make up lessons. Anyway, she is enjoying it and doing quite well.
Class is just starting. She changed teachers because the class was too big so they split it up. The first day her other teacher told her that you do not make friends at swim class and had to move her away from another girl. She is our little social butterfly. This teacher seems a little more laid back and fun so I am glad for the switch.

You can see how much she loves it by the grin on her face! When I was about her age and taking swim lessons my mom told me that the teacher would always have to tell me to close my mouth and stop smiling so I would not drink the water. Guess she takes after me.


Pushing off the wall and swimming to the teacher.

She has a good little kick
Poor thing needs her hair in a ponytail for swim lessons. Her hair kept getting in her face.
Swimming underwater with out the teacher holding her
She made it to the wall!
Swimming with the noodle is so much fun!

Jello??

This morning Aubrey asked me "Mommy, why did you put Jello in my hair?" I laughed and told her it is gel not jello. Kids say the funniest things. I put some in attempting to keep all her little fly aways down for her cute little braids. Less than five minutes later, hair was sticking up all over the place and one had to be redone. Of course it did not help that she was wrestling on the couch with Ethan. Regardless, by the end of our morning out her hair was looking pretty rough.



We picked up a watermelon today and the kids wanted to have a watermelon stand outside. We get about 5 cars a day down our road, so I told them it really would not be worth it. Maybe this evening when people are out walking, but not during the heat of the day. They settled for setting one up inside where I was their patron. We put the other bowl in the fridge to pull out when Daddy comes home to be their second customer of the day.

VBS Songs

The kids participated in another church's VBS this past week since our church is not having one this year. Today they sang some of the songs they learned.



Aubrey did not seem to know the words to this one very well. There was a helper doing motions to the side that she kept looking to for what to do next.


Every girl needs a cute black dress. I scored this one at Target on the clearance rack for $9.98! I asked Derek to take a picture so I could show off my good bargain. This is a regular picture.
This one Derek said was my artsy picture. Kind of like the artsy one...he must be rubbing off on me. One of our lamps in our bedroom has been having issues for quite some time. Derek mentioned that whenever we get new ones he would like to get mismatched ones, but he knows I would have a tough time with that. I am not ready to go there yet. When we first got married he wanted to mix plaids and stripes for our bedding and I could just not handle that. I am a matching kind of girl, obvious by my hair accessory obsession with Aubrey from Gymboree! We will see if I cave when the time comes for new lamps...I think I have a couple of years to get used to the idea.

Here are the songs that they sang this morning.

Lowe's Workshop

We went to the free kids workshop at Lowe's today. They were already out of the featured item (a monster truck) but they had older kits that we could make. They each got a cute little apron.

Aubrey was surprisingly good at hammering.
Ethan working hard.
It was the boys vs the girls and us girls got done much quicker than the boys. They said their project was harder, but I think we were just faster. Mommy read the directions, where Daddy just started.
Their final products. Ethan made a school house and Aubrey made a puppet theater.
Of course, it was no surprise that when we came home the kids wanted to play Lowe's. Ethan said "Aubrey, I will be your boss." When Aubrey inquired why, Ethan said, "because I have worked here longer." Ethan is enjoying this stage in life where he can tell Aubrey what to do and she does it without much of a fight. All in all, they really do play well together. I purchased some outdoor pillows at their store today for $3- what a bargain!

Summer Reward Chart

Ethan stayed after school one day that last week of school to help Mr. Menard clean out his room. Mr. Menard was going to throw the behavior chart out, but told Ethan he could have them if he wanted. Of course Ethan did. This has lead to using the same behavior system they have at school at home for the summer. They each have a clip and start out the day on Good. They get to move it up for good behavior and down for bad behavior. Moving your clip up earns you tickets. The kids can cash in their tickets for prizes. 10 tickets= a prize from the dollar store and 20 tickets= 1 hour of uninterrupted playtime with Mom. Ethan has already made one trip to the dollar store and currently he is saving up for 20 tickets.
Aubrey just earned her 10 tickets this week for her trip to the dollar store. Here she is counting her tickets before bed (that is when I hand them out) to see if she has enough. It is a simple system and seems to be working well so far. It is helping Aubrey to realize that sometimes her actions (whining is a big one right now) result in consequences.

Crazy Kids

My crazy kids found these boxes in the garage and made them into dog beds. They went around that night pretending to be dogs. They really wanted to sleep in them, but Derek and I told them they would not be comfortable for sleeping all night. They sure had fun though!

Here they are pretending to be asleep.


We walked away from them and found Bruster checking them out!


The kids are attending VBS at another church in town this week and I have been enjoying running some errands without them in tow during the mornings. I heard about the Asian market in town and went to check it out. I got all of this for $13, they have the best prices around on produce.


Books A Million is challenging kids to read all the Magic Tree House books this summer. If you complete the challenge you get a Magic Tree House tote bag. Ethan is up for the challenge and boy do we have our work cut out for us! Mr. Menard, his former teacher (so sad to write that we loved him so much), is letting us borrow some of the ones that Ethan has not read for the summer. While the kids were at VBS, I went to the library and checked out the taller stack of research guides that go along with some of the books. He was able to count ones that he has previously read, but we still have a long way to go. Anything to encourage him to read is good with me. Last night while Derek was at rehearsal and Aubrey was already asleep Ethan and I hung out on the couch reading out books. He is now what I would classify as a reader. A few of the words are still hard for him, but he can pass the test after he reads the book to earn his passport stamp for the contest. He sure is growing up on me, but I love it.

Father's Day

Ethan started out Father's Day with a special drink for Derek. The main ingredient was blue gatorade with a little cinnamon, sugar and flour mixed into it. Marshmallows were added to make it pretty. Complete with a straw and all! He was very proud of his creation and Derek drinking some of it proves what a good Daddy he is!

I made one of his favorite things for breakfast - sausage balls.
One day while I was subbing, Aubrey spent the day with Ms. Anne and spent a lot of time making this picture for Derek. She was VERY proud of it.

We got Derek the Falling Water lego set. He is a big kid at heart and this was something he wanted for his office. I told him he could have time today to put it together. It has over 800 pieces....might take a few days.
Derek took some time this afternoon to work on his new toy.
The finished product!

We went to St. Augustine tonight for dinner and some ice cream. I loved this picture of them walking together. Aubrey has been a little confused today and keeps calling today "Happy Father's Day," instead of just Father's Day. It sure is cute hearing her say it though. An example was "we are having ice cream tonight because it is Happy Father's Day."
Enjoying their ice cream.

Side Note: Notice Ethan's sandals. They are new today. He ended up wearing them to the beach on Thursday and this morning when he got in the car for church with them on they were so stinky! They were getting small anyway, so it was time for new ones. We went right after church in search of new ones. He is growing up because he now has an opinion about what he wants. He really wanted these certain ones. The old ones smelled so badly that we threw them out in the trash outside of Kohl's and he wore his new ones home. Good bye old stinky sandals!

Puppy Chasing

So this is an incident that would only happen to me. I am out running this morning and about 61/2 miles into my 7 mile run, I get chased by two puppies. Apparently, the were in the bed of a truck in the driveway because a third puppy was still there. A few things to consider: 1) I am not really much of a dog person to begin with 2) I have been running for some time and really would like to just finish 3) I am VERY sweaty. I am not sure what type of dogs there were but they were cute and they were big for puppies. They were very friendly, but I could not get away from them. I attempted to keep running to get away, but they were jumping all over me and at my feet and made it impossible. Not to mention that they apparently enjoyed my sweaty legs because they would not stop licking them. I can only imagine the site that I was in the middle of the street. An older gentleman pulled up in his car across the street while this was going on and simply raised his hands in the air as if it say " I feel sorry for you, but don't know how to help." So after what seemed like 5 minutes of these two puppies jumping and licking all over me, I finally rang the doorbell of their house since I could not seem to get them off of me. By now I have a small hole in my new shorts (annoying) and scratches all over my legs from them. I am starting to go a little crazy having these puppies jump all over me. This is where the story gets good. I ring the bell about 5 times (it is 8 am) before a lady answers. I explain that her puppies will not leave me alone and all she says is "Did they jump out of the truck?" Well, it would appear so. She has only peaked her head out the door and then shuts it. Stupid me thought she was putting shoes on or clothes and was going to come out the open garage door. Of course she would not do that - it would be the polite thing to do. She does not come out!!! I am furious now, as the puppies are still jumping and licking all over me. I obnoxiously ring the door bell (where you keep holding it down) for about a minute. She opens the door all the way this time and get this - she cusses me out! I get a long string of explicatives for ringing her front door. I tell her I would just like to continue my run and that I should be able to do that without HER puppies chasing me. She still never steps out of the house or attempts to grab the puppies by the collar. She just cusses me out and tells me to go on. I explain that the puppies will chase me as they are STILL all over me. I take off across her grass and one does follow and I am fuzzy here with details, but I think she calls it back. Anyway, I am safely on the street and she is still cussing at ME. What, these are your puppies! I tell her I might just call the pound, followed by more choice words from her. I finish my run and I am furious by this point. I can not believe how rude she was to me. What do I do? I drive back by, not walking back by that house ever again, and write down her address and call the police. I file a report to a very nice officer and made sure to let him know that I never would have complained if it had not been for the way she treated me. A simple, I am so sorry and pulling her puppies off of me would have done the trick for me. He assured me that I was completely correct in filing a report and there is a law in Palm Coast that holds a major fine for dogs not on leashes. The officer was going to make a visit and talk to her and tell her that animal control would take her dogs if it happened again. That made me feel better. I hope that she thinks twice next time before she treats someone as terribly as she did me, but I doubt that she will. It amazes me at how rude people can be and it saddens me that people live with that much hatred and anger inside. She obviously does not have Jesus in her heart. So, that is my crazy story from the morning and I am altering my route from now on to be far away from that house.

On a different note, I have so enjoyed having the week with the kids with no work. They have gotten along really well and we have been enjoying our summer vacation. Here are some pictures from our past week.



After running errands and story time at Books A Million the kids had snow cones for a treat after lunch. I love how Aubrey's eyes are cutting over to look at Ethan. This is so Aubrey right now, she is a big follower of her big brother.

Derek showing the kids how to make bubbles out of a cup with dish soap. He said he used to do it all the time when he was a kid and loved it. When he asked Ethan if he liked it his response was "It was interesting."



Crazy boy had this set up yesterday afternoon. He ran the hose over the basketball goal and was just sitting under it letting the water fall on him. It has been very hot!


We had a birthday party to go to that was a Batman theme. Ethan is so thoughtful that when it was time to make the card he looked all around for his drawing book. He remembered it has a superhero section and wanted to make one for the card. I was very impressed with his superhero. It is one of those books that tells you step by step how to draw.

Aubrey wanted to have her picture taken with her cards as well.