Happy Birthday to my 5 year old Prince!!!

Here is my Prince showing us how old he is and making faces for me!

Princess showing me that she is still 6 years old.

My little Knight making faces for the camera.

The Knight and the Prince making funny faces.

My little trio on the Prince's 5th birthday!

Sunday, lazy Sunday!

After our busy, busy week, we have had a nice and relaxing Sunday. DadOf3's birthday was last weekend and I bought him Super Mario Kart. The kids LOVE it, especially the Prince. We have had a great time playing it this week and today was no exception.


My little Prince will turn 5 years old tomorrow! How time flies! I remember being so worried about Princess and wondering how she would react to a new sibling. I was one week overdue with the Prince, and I was SO ready to have him. He just didn't want to come out though, so we had to induce. One very special thing about him being so early was that my mother was able to be with us in the delivery room. He was a big baby weighing in at 9 pounds and 13 ounces. When I had him, the doctor looked up and said, "Well, you just lost 10 pounds!" And she was right! After his birth, they went over to weigh and measure him, and he peed all over the nurse, my mom, and his daddy! It was like he had been holding it for 9 months. Ha!


He was the sweetest baby and smiled right away - at just a little over a month old. Grandma and Papa were here to witness it. Princess loved her little brother right away and wanted to help him in any way she could. She especially liked to pick out diapers and pull out wipes for me. When he started to smile, he saved the biggest and best smiles for his big sister.


My little Prince was not in a hurry to crawl. he waited until he was 10 months old, but once he started there was no stopping him. Before he crawled, he could still get around though. He rolled! And rolled and rolled and rolled. He was so strong that he could pull himself up and cruise along the couch before he could crawl. He waited to walk until he was 14 months old, but he picked a great place for his first steps: my parents' house! It was so awesome that they were able to witness something so special.


Happy Almost Birthday, my little Prince. I love you more than words can say.

Gone Boating!

Here are the Prince, Princess, and AB's mom on the blow-up Island!
It was a beautiful day to be boating! It was about 100 degrees so the water felt so good!

AB's dad swimming after a runaway noodle.

AB's mom, the Prince and the Knight on the Island.

We have been invited to go boating today! The kids are so excited!! I will post pictures when we get home!

We had a great time boating!

Time for Hair Cuts for the boys before we head to IOWA!!

The Prince and the Knight got haircuts today! We went to a children's place and they did a great job! There were lots of fun things to sit on.

Nice girl

My daugher showed me something special yesterday: the kindness in her heart.

Admittedly, I have to really encourage her to be nice to her brothers. She is the big sister and she revels in making them understand that. Sometimes she has to be reminded to treat her brothers with kindness.

Yesterday we were heading home after meeting DadOf3 for lunch. As we were waiting at the stoplight, the kids and I saw a homeless man with a sign that said: Homeless and just trying to survive. I try to keep McDonald's gift certificates in my car for just such an occasion, but this time I was out so I got a dollar out of my purse and handed it to the man. Princess had lots of qustions for me.

What doesn't he have a home?

Why are we giving him money?

How else can we help him?

Couldn't he come and live with us?

That last question took my breath away. Of course in this day and age, the answer has to be no. Visions of Elizabeth Smart being abducted by a homeless man her father brought home flashed in my mind.

I explained that we didn't know him and it would not be safe to bring him home, but we could help him in other ways. We started brainstorming how we can help:

• Have McDonald gift certificates in the van
• Have bottled water in the van to hand out
• Have some dollars in the van to hand out
• Make sack lunches and hand them out
• Bring them lemonade (we just had a lemonade stand so this is still on her mind)

Is there anything we are missing? We would love more ideas to add to our list. Princess will be checking this with me, so PLEASE only nice answers that you would read to your own favorite six/almost seven year old.

Wordless Wednesday - Lemonade Stand!

Out and About!

This summer schedule is taking its toll on me! I can tell that it is wearing me out because I am grabbing a book every day instead of blogging. I will attempt to correct this behavior! Ha! Currently I am re-reading the Harry Potter series. Wonderful books - and a great escape all in one!

Yesterday was our good deed day. There are two moms I know in my MOPS group who just had babies. Yesterday the kids and I went to the grocery store, had a GREAT run, made 3 chicken pot pies, and delivered them to two families. The whole process took from 9:30 until 3:30. These women did not exactly live close together. Good deed done!

Today Princesses best friend, AB, is back in town. His family took an Alaskan cruise! That sounds SO awesome - we have been in the upper 90s/low 100's for the last month or so. The cooler weather sounds Heavenly!

Our vacation begins in just over a week! We are once again driving to Iowa. I will be sad to see the devestation the flooding has caused. Our families have been pretty lucky on the whole. Everyone still has their house.

Today we are heading to the gym. We are meeting AB and his mom there. The kids will play in the playroom for an hour and then we will all go swimming. Should be fun if the Prince behaves!!!

A good day!

I took the kids to the pool again this morning - this time after I worked out for an hour. Things went a lot more smoothly. Thank goodness. The last couple of times we have gone to the pool have been nightmares. This was much, much better so we may go again tomorrow. The kids really love to swim. I love that the gym has lifejackets. Even so, I am always looking around for my three kids.

Now all three kids are up for naps. Yippee!! I am beat. DadOf3 worked until 7:00 last night. I felt bad for him because he had to work late and I felt bad for me because I could have really used a break around 5:00! Yesterday was not a bad day either. I took the kids to a free movie at the theater. It was called Doogal and it was a nice, G-rated movie. I got the kids some candy there, and let me tell you! I am going to smuggle candy in next time. It has been a while since we have gone to the movies and I think they upped the food prices again. Yikes! If they are lucky I will spring for the lemonade for the kids - but only because a big old thermos will not fit in my purse. Ha!

Wordless Wednesday - Brothers!!

Update

It has been a while since I posted. We survived VBS week! It was such a fun and exciting week that this week pales in comparison. It is too bad that our VBS happens so early, but they do it for a reason. Volunteers spend MONTHS making and painting the VBS set. Instead of throwing all of that work away, the set is passed on to several more churches through the summer. I think that is so neat. :)

We had a great Father's Day weekend. Saturday we caught up on cleaning around the house. This may not sound like fun but DadOf3 put all of the kids to work and they were literally crawling all over each other to be awarded the next job. Who knew dusting could be so much fun! To reward our child laborers, we headed to the gym for some swimming.

Sunday we were bad and skipped church. But since we had been there every day the previous week, I guess we were not too bad. We had a nice, relaxing Father's Day. Princess and I made a "from scratch" chocolate cake for DadOf3. It was good! I will post the recipe in another post.

Yesterday we went to the gym to swim. The boys once again wigged out in the shower area. I really do not understand it but I was beside myself trying to control them. The Prince just seems to lose his little mind. He and the Knight were screaming in the (very small) shower room and just acting up. They both lost points when we got home. On a more positive note, Princess earned the last of her 100 points and made a trip to my treasure chest.

VBS Day 2, 3, and 4

All is going well in VBS land, albeit a bit overwhelming. The kids and I came home yesterday and we all took naps! What a wonderful experience. Here are some pictures from the week.

Wordless Wednesday - Hear no evil, Speak no evil, and See no evil.

VBS Day 1!

The kids and I had VBS this morning from 9-1. All I can say is WOW! What a day! We belong to a really big church down here. And that means our Vacation Bible School is HUGE! In VBS alone, there are 200 adult volunteers, 180 youth volunteers, and (are you ready for this) 825 kids!! It is an overwhemling and wonderful experience.

I am teaching Princess's class this year and we have 23 first graders. They all behaved so well! I had 4 year olds last year and the difference is like night and day. I was so afraid we were going to lose someone last year. Kids that age tend to "herd" with any group that matches their hight, and our VBS classes are always coming and/or going somewhere!

I will take pictures tomorrow. Today was just too much excitement as everyone was trying to get where they were supposed to be.

Wish me luck for tomorrow. This is such a great ministry. I hope to be up to the challenge for these precious little children!

Tagged!

I have been tagged for a fun meme by Mama Zen!

I am supposed to post pictures of my 5 favorite possessions. I was tempted to post pictures of the kids and the cats, but they are not really my possessions. :) Plus that would be wasy too easy. Here it goes!

1. Our computer. My lifeline. My sanity.

2. Our pictures. I love taking pictures. I like to visualize DadOf3 and me, old and gray, looking at the pictures I have taken through the years, and thinking, "How in the hell did we do that?" Of course the house will be too quiet and we will be longing for some noise and probably driving each other nutso.

3. The playscape in the backyard. The kids have SO much fun on it and (most importantly) it wears them out!!)

4. Our oak furniture. This was the first piece of furniture we purchased together. We waited a long time but it was well worth it. Now if I can just keep my kids off of it!

5. Motherhood. Well I had to figure out how to get a picture of the kids in here somehow, didn't I?

Thanks Mama Zen! This was fun. I tag Shana, Deb-MomOf3Girls, and KC!

Wordless Wednesday - Shaving!

Weekend update!

We had a good and busy weekend once again.

Saturday we had a pool party to go to for Princess's class. The kids had a blast!

Sunday we went to church and then met up with some really good friends for the day! We toured our fine city and went out to eat that night.

Yesterday and today have been filled with end of the year school stuff at Princess's school. Tomorrow (the last day of school) cannot come soon enough!