Happy 4th birthday

A couple of weeks ago my precious baby boys turned 4. Wow. That doesn't seem possible,
Together or separate they are the most charming, delightful, loving, funny, affectionate, sweet, kind and adorable little boys! They make their momma proud every single day.

So, here is the run down of the party. We went a little different route this year. Years past have included a Monkey party, a Barnyard bash and an Airplane party. This year my little guys were begging for a  SUPERHERO party! While I knew it would be cute and lots of fun, I also knew it would be super hot and little boys in full superhero attire in my backyard would be miserable.


A compromise was in order.
I found a delightful amusement park that is fairly close to our home. While my boys, or any of my children for that matter, have never been to an amusement park, it only took 1 visit to their website and they were hooked! But just to sweeten the deal, I offered us to stay an extra day so they could stay in a hotel (a definite crowd pleas-er) so they could swim at the pool and jump on the beds. :)


It was settled. We would go to Lake Winnie the weekend before their birthday and the actual day of their birthday we would have a family party.


We were all so excited!!!

Then our lovely van had some issues and died the morning we were supposed to leave. Don't you just love it when God does something like save you from being stranded on the other side of a mountain, on the side of an interstate with 5 small children in late July heat?! I know I do.


Needless to say, our plans were cancelled   postponed, until our transportation situation could be worked out. Now that "situation" requires a blog post all on it's own. I'll be sharing that soon.
Needless to say, God once again provided and all is good. really good!


back to the party

So, the kiddos were all pretty understanding and we moved on, knowing that we would be going, just not as we had originally planned. So instead we went ahead and prepared for our family party. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. My mother's thumb is acting up and it's a bear to type.

here we have a little fun with the pinata....I have no idea where Bud's pants are....

 Then we moved on to opening the presents. Yes, Monkey see got his "frum set and frum sticks"

Super hero power!!! They are so, so happy in these pictures!!

 Finally, they recived new bicycle helmets and pads for their bikes. They are actually girl princess bikes that our neighbors gave us for the kids to ride around on and since the boys didnt have a bike they claimed them for their own. However, little did they know that Papa and Nana got them new bikes to go along with their helmets! they didnt even see the bikes when they went out to the garage. I think Daisy had to point them out!

And away they go!

Finally, we moved back in for cake and ice cream.

 Monkey Do blowing out his candles

 Monkey See's turn!

 And we ended with a little music!

 Happy birthday to my precious boys!

6 weeks

Wow! has it really been 6 weeks since I last posted?

That's crazy! But, when you have nothing to do all day but sit around and eat bon-bons while your toenails dry, time just gets away from  you. ;)

Well, when we last visited, blogger was under an old format and my kiddos were just getting their summer on. I can definitely say, it is on, and in full swing. 

Our full swing looks a little like this:

swimming lessons, night time swims, eating our weight in popsicles, cleaning out the fresh produce from Publix (more than once), going to VBS (twice), celebrating hubby's birthday, Puddin and Daisy's dance recital, Christmas in July, making some new kindergarten friends (preparing), counting how many days until my birthday a bazillion times x2, having our first sleepover, meeting Farmer Jason (live and in person!!), going to our first surprise party, throwing a going away party, buying another stroller, going to the ER, planning another birthday, shopping at the farmer's market (always a favorite), learning patience (again and again and again), and spending as much time as possible with some very, very special people to us before a really big move. But more on that later.

So, since I deprived you for so long of the sight of my precious babes, here are some pics from our traditional FeedTheDucksBeforeSundayEveningService activity.

It seems like every where you look in our town there is some sort of development going on. new roads, buildings, backhoes, and orange cones are everywhere you look. Well, when the new hospital was built last year they added a park area across the street that included a really great duck pond. last year we visited and I think the ducks were new to the whole, people with bread crumbs thing. This year the ducks have multiplied, and man, they know what's up now! So we started saving all of our crust crumbs throughout the week and on Sunday, after we are up from our nap and before we head back to church, we grab the crumbs and head to the duck pond. It has been a huge favorite!

 There were so many ducks- it was crazy! The pond was full of goldfish and in some of the pictures you could see the gold flecks just under the surface.

 My precious Monkeys!!!

They are so close to being 4 (and thrilled about it, too!)

Daisy aka Sassy

Puddin... my almost kindergartener!

 and baby BUD!!  He has a crazy, crazy love of this red hat!

He wears it every day, all day, even to church!

 Bud thought the ducks might like a corn dog too. (gag!)

They did eat the breading but nothing else!

And finally, when we were fresh out of bread and about to head back to the van I turned around to see "BIG RED". Apparently, she had not had her fill of snacks yet and came to see what the hold up was.

At first, the kids were intimidated, but very quickly that canged, and they decided they needed to pet her. I don't think she bargained for that. They were quickly in hot pursuit! Poor Big Red, her little legs could only carry that nig body so fast! She was waddling with all of her might!

Finally, after we had the kids called off nd Big Red safely back in the water, we turned to see Big Red's Possee!

Also, VERY unafraid of us!

Big Mistake!

So there you go, just a typical Sunday afternoon around these parts!

And, btw, no ducks were harmed in this misadventure!

Quote of the day...

This afternoon, during naptime, I had just finished the dishes, put another load of laundry in, swept and mopped the floors and decided to sit for a minute and take a break.

Did I mention it was naptime?
Have I mentioned before that this has recently become hit or miss for us?
It has.
Today it was kind of split down the middle.
Puddin was playing her Leapster in her bed (she had permission... details on the Leapster to come shortly.) And the Wonder Twins were dancing in their beds because they had taken a 20 minute nap on the ride home from picking up the trio from preschool. (the downside of preschool- babies who still need a nap!)

Anyway, the boys, were not sleeping either. Instead they were playing quietly in their room. I knew pretty quickly that was not going to be the good kind of naptime so I made sure we were all on the page... it was a quite time in their rooms.

When suddenly, one little unnamed Monkey was squealing a high pitched squeal at the top of his lungs, and came running down the stairs. For the life of me I couldn't understand why he was crying, but I knew it was bad. He jumped in my lap, holding his face, while I was still trying to figure out the problem.
Quickly I assessed... no blood- good,
he can walk/talk/scream/cry- good,
then finally, I understood the words mixed with sobs..."derwe's a diamond in my nose!!"
translation: "I STUCK SOMETHING SHINY UP MY NOSE AND I CAN'T GET IT OUT!"

Normally, this is where I would insert a picture. But due to the seriousness of having a diamond up the nose, I decided to jump into action immediately, rather than grab the camera.

So while I sent the other Monkey on the let's take forever and a day errand to get mommy a tissue, I held the diamond free nostril closed with my forefinger and placed my other hand in front of his nose to catch.
I promptly asked him to... BLOW.
Yes, I did.
He blew- nothing (but snot).
He blew again- still more snot, and yet, no tissue!!!
Then he started to suck back in and I was so afraid that precious diamond was going to get stuck up there further that I ordered him to blow HARD.
He did.. good boy!
And in the process shot out more snot, as well as the shiny diamond! It was actually a yellow acrylic bead with the letter B on it... the teacher in me immediately thought, oh how appropriate, b for booger. My boy is S-M-A-R-T!
Yes, I did.
Guess what... then the other Monkey showed up with a tissue.
Yes, he did.

Anyway, good news is all of my children have diamond free noses tonight and no ER was necessary! Ya-hoo!
I also took the time to use this as a teachable moment, ie, scare the fire out of them. And in all my mommy glory I explained that if he or his brother ever, I mean EVER put anything in their noses again I would not be able to get it out. Next time we would have to go to the doctor and he would take a long shiny tool and put it up their nose to get it out.
-Insert 2 deer in headlights looks-
Their question?
"Will it huwt?"
My response?
"YES-very, very bad!"

And so it goes!
Hopefully, all of the noses under your roof are diamond-free tonight!
I'm off to bed and will probably wonder what they will come up with tomorrow!
Night- night!

Rewind... Chattanooga Part1

Since we skipped a vacation this yea, we decided we would take the children to Chattanooga over Christmas break and spend some time. It's only about an hour and a half away from us so it is very easy to make it a quick weekend trip. While there, our main goal was to ride The Polar Express!! The kids were so excited about it. I will share pictures of that adventure another night, but for now I'll share some pictures of our adventure to the Aquarium.

The last time we visited the Chattanooga aquarium I was 16 weeks pregnant with Bud and Daisy.I also had morning sickness. The kind that lasted all day. Yuck.
This time I also had sickness. No worries- not the same as last time. This time it was the stomach virus variety. DOUBLE yuck! At least I got a blessing out of the first one! But, we payed for the trip so we ventured out anyway! I tried not to touch anything or anyone, except my own people. (by the next day I was feeling much better too).

I'll let the pictures tell the story. Needless to say- we saw A LOT of fish. Towards the end, right before our camera dies, Puddin said, "I'm tired of all these fish!" (you probably will to if you stick with this post!)
Thankfully, we rounded the corner to see the favorite exhibit of the day... follow to the end to see what it was. They were THRILLED!!! After all, what could be more exciting than a bunch of fish, sharks and jelly fish???

The Wonder Twins!

blurry shot- the best we could do.

Congratulations if you have stuck with it to see

THE FAVORITE THING OF THE WHOLE DAY AT THE AQUARIUM!!!!

Here it is....

TA-DA!

Exciting, I know!

Stay tuned for more excitement to come tomorrow!