Kiddie Park

We've been waiting for months for the Kiddie Park to open and so we went on opening night and had a great time! The weather was perfect and suprisingly it actually wasn't that busy.

Looking forward to many more summer nights at
the Kiddie Park---where the last train ride is free!!!

May 6th, 2011

Swimming

We put the kids in swim lessons and they had a great time!!! Austin had one of his friend, Russell, in his class which was fun and Mikayla was always super excited to get her swimming suit on whenver I told her we were going swimming!!

Craig went with Mikayla to Aqua-Tots. Mikayla's favorite thing was jumping off the side of the pool into the water. She also enjoyed playing in the water to the songs of "Wheels on the Bus" and "If Your Happy And You Know It."

Being as independent as she is, Mikayla didn't always want to participate in the way that the teacher was instructing but wanted to do her own thing. This sometimes drove Craig a little crazy.

Austin was in Starfish and it was fun watching him following directions from his teachers and learning new swimming skills. Some of the things he worked on was putting his own face in the water and blowing bubbles, backfloating, kicking with straight legs, and jumping in the water.

Austin loves to jump in the water but was a little timid because the teachers would stand far away from him. Sometimes it took a little coaxing from his teachers for him to get brave enough to jump!

Just getting ready for a summer that I'm sure will be full of swimming fun!!!

Monday's Mistake

I was having a great day on Monday. I got out of bed on time, got some housework done, took the kids to Mother's Day out, went running outside, walked the dogs, cleaned the house and started the laundry, and was even able to sit down and read a book for 45 minutes.  It was a GREAT day......until I opened up the dryer to get the clothes out and as soon as I took out the first article of clothing I exclaimed OH NO!!!

There were pens marks everwhere!! And not just one or two small pen marks but multiple pen marks/spots, some of them pretty large. I started pulling out the clothes one by one PRAYING that maybe it was just on a couple items (although I really knew that wouldn't be the case). After about the 7th piece of damaged clothing I just didn't want to see anymore and shut the dryer door. I was SO mad!!!

After taking some time to cool off I finished taking out the clothes to survey the damage. Too bad it wasn't just those small loads of laundry....nope it was a LARGE load of clothes and there were only 5 items of clothing that didn't have a pen mark on them.

And all of this because after working all night long (which means I had been up for 24 hours straight since I have a son that no longers naps)......I forgot to take out the pen from my scrub pocket!!!

And ironically, my scrub top was one of the items that came out of the dryer WITHOUT any pen marks!!

Am I the only one who has done this?? any suggestions?? (hairspray doesn't work)

And no I did not do this on purpose so I could get some new clothes....there were very few items that were actually mine.

Saturday Fun

The weather was beautiful last Saturday so we spent some time outside as a family enjoying it. We traveled up to Independence Kansas and played around at the Riverside Park.

Austin had fun on the inflatables. Mikayla was still scared of them.

We also got to ride the carosel (for only 5 cents each).

Mikayla LOVED the carosel and had the biggest smile on her face.

As soon as it was over she said "do it again!!"  So that we did.

We also went on the train ride (for only 25 cents each).

Then we headed over to the soccer fields to watch Craig and Kelsey play. During the 2nd game I pulled out the kids Easter kites.

Mikayla enjoyed it the most.

Happy Easter!!!

We had a nice Easter weekend and the kids got an abundance of candy---more than we had at Halloween!!! We enjoyed a nice cookout at Papa Dave's house followed by an Easter Egg Hunt.

On Sunday morning the kids were excited to find they had Easter Basket's on the couch for them. Knowing that the kids would already have lots of candy, the Easter Bunny filled their baskets with kites, bubbles, sunglasses, a chocolate bunny, and a couple candy filled eggs.

Austin got a new jet plane and Kayla got Orange Blossom and Blueberry Muffin (they are Strawberry Shortcakes friends just in case you didn't know).

We enjoyed a nice family dinner at Grandma Vicki's house and then searched for our Easter baskets.

Happy Easter!!!

And for the real reason we celebrate Easter:

I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ who came to earth and was our perfect example. I am grateful for His teachings and for His atoning sacrifice. I am grateful for the knowledge that he not only died for us but was ressurected and still lives!!! Because of Jesus Christ I am able to repent and try to do better. Because of Jesus Christ I am able to feel peace and hope and comfort in a world that many times can be cruel and troubling. Because of Jesus Christ I can return to my Heavenly Father and live with my family forever!!

Kayla's First Movie

We had a great time taking Mikayla to her first movie: Tangled!!!

We went to the dollar theater here in town which was nice not only because it was cheap but there was only one other family there so I wasn't too concerned about my kids being too noisy.

Mikayla had a hard time sitting in the theater seats by herself because they kept closing up since she didn't weigh enough to keep them down. So putting her together with Austin worked great plus they were able to enjoy eating popcorn to their hearts content.

We absolutely LOVED the movie (especially me and Craig). The kids enjoyed it also. They kept referring to the screen as "the big TV". Austin watched the whole thing and Mikayla watched about half of it and then started finding other things to entertain herself (like sticking her shoes in the cup holders).  It was a fun family night!!

April 13th 2011

Camp Out

With the weather getting nicer I thought it would be nice to get the family together and go camping. While I was getting all the camping stuff gathered up (which really is a lot of work) the kids were having fun setting up their own campground.

Little did I know that the weather had plans of its own!!

The plan was to go up to Osage Hills to camp but that morning I found out it was under a Burn Ban and so had to make other arrangements. Instead we headed up north to Copan Lake to camp.

 Here are the boys gathering sticks to our campfire.

 We enjoyed a yummy dinner together: hotdogs, chips, and fruit.

 We also enjoyed some ooey-gooey campfire smores!!

From the moment we arrived there were dark clouds nearby but the rain had held off and I thought we were going to be home free (the weather forecast only showed a 30% chance).

However, the park ranger notifed us that severe thunderstorms were headed our way with possible hail and tornados. So we quickly and sadly packed everything up and headed back home. At least we got some good practice at setting up our tents.

And in order to alleviate some of the dissapointment, Connor and Klayton came to sleepover and we attempted to make it as much of campout as we could!!!

April 8th, 2011