Saturday Fun

Its no secret that one of our kids most favorite things to do is ride the bus!

Its one of the last things they want to tell us at night:  "Tell Daddy I want to ride the bus."

Goo and Pop renewed our museum memberships recently (Thanks, Goo!) so off Mike went with the kids on Saturday morning.  This says a lot about the Daddy he is.  I am blessed (and spoiled).

 He took my phone so I got to see pics of their adventure.

He looks as happy as anyone.  :)

I love Peter's hand on Lily's head here :)

Of course, Blue Dog had to come along... she is oh so sweet and yummy (Lily, that is).
And I gave Peter more of a big boy haircut last weekend.

And they ran into friends there!  Hi Aunt Joy!

 I'm so sure Peter was beside himself to see his BFF, Luke.

Fun times!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 That afternoon, my mom was so generous to come and babysit so Mike and I could go to a wedding.  We have a NEW NEICE so Goo and Pop were out of town with sweet Baby Charlotte.

 It was oh so fun to get dressed up and head out alone with my hot date/handsome husband.  I sorta felt like a newlywed again.  Our sweet friend Kellie got married who babysat Lily last school year and summer. (I was going to link up to a mention of her in an old post but I can't even stand to look at that time period, just a quick glance back was too much.)  But she was a definite sweet spot and a slice of God's provision in a hard season.  She's on staff with Young Life.  I am new to the YoungLife culture as we didn't have that in little L'ville.  ;)  Can I just say it was a serious party!!!, one of the most energetic wedding receptions I've ever been to!!  And the wedding itself was amazing too...  Mike teased me about needing a tissue.  I cry easily.  :)  So fun... especially because they are just happy on life because of Jesus.  :)

yum!

Its hard to fit in blogging lately.  Until then, a mini-post...  

I've been obsessed with this salad lately... spinach, fruit (whatever I have... berries, pears, etc), feta, toasted almonds, and poppy seed dressing.  I think its the toasted almonds that make it so irresistible.... which is surprising to me, since I've never been a nut lover, but they are gooooood!  I just eat the leftover almonds by the handful.

Does anyone understand Instagram?  Is there a way to do it without "networking" it?  I just want the cute pictures to add on here, not a social network.  I want to just save them to my phone, not really upload them.  I'm thinking my best option is my knock-off Picasa version.  (Getting this pic from Instagram to my computer was much too much work.)  Thoughts?

...lately...

Its been an uneventful, low key week around here.  No big happenings... I feel like I've just been doing laundry and dishes and picking up toys, the usual that's never really done.  As Brenda says, "pickin' up and puttin' away."  I'm always surprised at how much time I have to spend trying to keep things somewhat orderly.... but its still never really orderly.  Does anyone else feel that way?  But glad I get to do it.

So here are a few pics from the last week.  

We are still working on our letters.  We are "behind" but we are still at it.... slowly but surely.

 eating our letters

 We spent the weekend at the river.

Paw bought a new toy for all of us!!!

 First ride with my man.  Its SOOO fun... like a motorcycle on water.

(oh, my red hair... :P)

 cutie pies playing in the water

 and waiting to go on the motor boat

 The kids went tubing with Mike.  Here's Peter... we thought he'd be the one to go.

 Lily didn't think she wanted to go but then they got her on the tube with Mike to just "try it out"...

 There was no looking back... she L-O-V-E-D it! and wanted to keep going and going.

 We took the boat up the river, then had a picnic lunch on a little beach.

 Oh, I love them.

Lily is my little yard helper.

My sweet Pete is a little sick today.  :(  So just to document his sweetness in being sick... last night he actually threw up, which I think is the first time EVER.  Yes, I know we have been spoiled in that dept.  BUT he threw up IN THE SINK in our bathroom during the night (we must have slept through it... thought it was just his usual coming into our room during the night).  And then I left it for Mike to clean ;).  I just wanted to hug him.  In all seriousness, he has been such a sweet helpful one in these first weeks of summer.  I don't know if its the being at home more or not rushing around or what but his behavior and general disposition has been markedly improved!!  He is more mature acting.  So for example... I went to the store this week to look for a dress for a wedding we have this weekend (yay!).  We are in the dressing room.  I'd brought in books for him and Lily was coloring with some markers.  They were behaving great!  After reading a little while, he told me he needed to go potty.  I told him that I needed to finish up and would take him shortly.  We talked back and forth about it a few times then he KINDLY and CALMY said, "Mommy, I know you brought these books in here for me, and that was really sweet, but I need to go potty."  What?!  I about dropped my jaw.  I was so impressed with that calm, long sentence that sounded like it came from an adult.  

OK, the end, that's all I got, buh-bye.

Thankful

this says soooooo much

both for earth and for heaven

Wild Hair!

After we finished OT/ST yesterday morning, I wanted to do something, go somewhere.  We were dressed, out of the house, only housework to do at home (no fun!).  A lot of friends recently have been talking about Busch Gardens.  So we stopped by home, I ran in, grabbed water bottles and a change of clothes.  We'd be there just after 10am and we could even make it home before Mike was home from work.  So we went!!  I didn't tell the kids where we were going til we were there (not that they would have understood anyway). 

I didn't end up taking a ton of pics b/c I was trying to be on my Ps & Qs doing the solo parent thing. 

Our first ride...

Peter rode this kiddie coaster alone.  I kept asking him if he thought he was brave enough to go alone.  Yes, yes!  "I'm brave, Mommy!"  I should've known.

 I just snapped this (we don't have a zoom lens yet) hoping I'd be able to see him.  Nothing a little cropping can't fix.  And he is looking back (and surely smiling!).  Oh, my heart!

 And again, a snap on the wild chance I'd really be able to see him (of course, I couldn't in real life) but there he is!  The sunglasses and orange shirt help.

 Getting off... Not phased a bit.  He loved it.  I have to say, I was quite proud of the boy.

 I was able to go on lots of rides with them, which was so sweet and fun.  I loved holding both of their little hands.  They rode together on this one without me.  They are just so cute...  I was just so proud of them (not that the ride is scary).... but taking care of each other and going alone.  I expected it from Peter.  And Lily just feels like she can do whatever her big bro does, and it makes my mama heart happy that she loves her Pete so.  

(I know say the same things over and over on this blog.)  ;)

We shared big ole smoothies for lunch, which was only $10 total.  I was quite pleased.  

We rode rides for about 3 hours.  They even braved the "boat" (but not water boat) rides... the cradle thingy and the flat boat that goes around... the second one was almost too much for me.  At the end of it, Lily said "That was a lil scary, Mommy."  I didn't want to push the limit time-wise so we headed home about 2:30pm.  

We got home and even did a few loads of laundry before Mike got home.  

What a fun day!!

"Dog and Baby"

For several months now, one of the kids' most favorite things to pretend is something they made up and call "Dog and Baby".  Before naps, they will tell each other "Let's play dog and baby when we wake up".  I'm not sure why Lily's role is the "baby" because she's more just a dog owner, not a "baby".  I think that sometimes they say she is a Mommy too in this scenario??  They also talk about "pushing their buttons" and transforming back into Peter and Lily when one of them is tired of playing.  

There's a little delay in getting to the actual dog and baby part.  The leash is stuck under the dog and Peter is distracted by a book and almost ropes Lily in instead (get it?).  

Sometimes you just can't force these things.  ;)

Lily is so cute saying, "Fetch it, Boy!"  Peter is quite into and good at his dog role!

the pool and the creek

My house is a mess and Kathy has my kids (so I should be productive) but I just can't resist the urge to post these pics.  I have a friend that told me that sometimes during her "alone time", she just embraces her ADD-ness.  So maybe I'm doing just that ;).  

Pics from one of our first trips to the pool this season... 

Can I say it enough?  I think they are pretty darn cute... esp in goggles.

A sweet friend passed on this "baben suit" to Lily.  It has little ruffles on the butt and is just too cute for words.

Seriously....

 It thundered.  We were hoping it would pass but then the rain came... bummer!

*******************

 Now for our Sunday adventure documented in grainy cell pics.

 After first service, the kids and I decided to go to the park while we waited for Mike to come home from church (second service).  The park then led us to the creek.  

Thankfully Lily had on a little slip thing on under her "pretty dress".

Peter went to the other side.  Sister followed but was afraid to come back down the hill.

"Peter to the rescue!"

 They went back and forth over and over and over.  

Then Lily lost a shoe on one of her treks... oh, girls and our attire.

We are trying to train him early.

Getting wet is sorta the point, right?  Peter's foot/shoe went in by accident.  There was a glance to make sure it was OK, then there was no turning back.  He loved every minute of it.

 He wanted to be referred to as "Wet Peter".  We went home wet and happy.