Boating wit der Fambly!

So Monday came along and the origanal plan was for Winders and her kidlets to take the loooooooong trek home.... but ALAS! They decided to stay one more day!!!! Yay!

So Dad decided to pull out the boat and take us all boating!

Here is another "picture overload" of the day :)

Qwerty holding EB on the boat as we race along and Dad being captain.






























Qwerty holding the boat to the floating dock so we could tie it up and play and have lunch!

After lunch (no pictures sorry... 2 hands, 3 kids, nuff said? m'kay) ... Winders and Missy swiming. When missy first got in she had a really hard time with her life jacket and keeping her face out of the water, it wanted to tip her forward, so Winders ran and jumped in a saved her! Yay for great aunts!

More fun on the dock!






























Goober and Miss Thang jumping into the water at the same time.:)


Miss Thang using the "floatie" lol I can't believe she actually got her legs through the holes.



























And Goober using the "floatie". He actually seamed to enjoy the thing even though it was ment for smaller kids :)

EB in Miss Thangs goggles... I didn't even adjust them. Didn't realize the kid had such a large noggin! And of course Missy getting ready for us to take off and go tubin'.


































Qwerty on the tube (he was AWESOME!)

And Miss Thang with Goober, then Winders and Missy went together "really slowly" :) Missy loved it.


















EB was so tired, he missed his nap, and therefore totally konked out on Miss Thangs lap as we were all tubin'.

It was so fun to have them come visit! I always love having them around, and while it hadn't been that long since last time we saw them, I was still sad to see them go. I love them tons and hope to see them sometime soon again, it's always a blast when they are around!

Der Fambly

So on Sunday my sister Winders and her kidlets stopped by my parents house for a visit. :)

So of course we went up for a visit as well!

Miss Thang and Goober went for a ride in the paddle boat...



Then Goober hopped out and Missy jumped in with Gpa J!































It was a beautiful day....

Then it decided to rain a bit.....

So we all decided inside was a better place to be for a bit.












You know.... playing Rockband and such :)

And when it got sunny again Goober and Miss Thang went out and caught some frogs by the pond! Here is Miss Thang with hers....


And a picture of one of Goobers little froggies....



















All in all it was a very good day! :)


And I even think some of the frogs survived it! Amazing!

Having a "Riot"

So Friday night we decided to take the kids to "Riot Zone"... it is after all, as close as we get to an amusement park around here (which is very, very, sad!). Goober had asked me a couple of days before if we could go golfing... and while neither Jer or I play "real" golf and Goober had never even set foot on a real course, I decided Miniature golf was the way to go to see if he even enjoyed it. In the event that he didn't enjoy it, Riot Zone had other "stuff" the kids could do instead. We invited Gma and Gpa J to come with us.

Needless to say it was a hit.

I've been wanting to take my kids there since last summer, but somehow whenever it would occur to me we wouldn't have sufficient funds, if you know what I mean. Well, this time I made sure it happened.

They had a great area that was chalk full of inflatable toys. Everything from a jump house to inflatable boxing etc... It was wonderful cause EB could get involved too! He absolutely loved this big inflatable slide and went down it over and over and OVER.

After a while the adults all decided that it was time to leave the inflatable area. The kids were getting overheated (mine overheat really easily, something they definitely get from their mother... put them out in the sun and have them run around for five minutes and they are bright red. and not from sunburn. Though that happens occasionally too). As we were waiting to get something to drink EB decided he was just as interested in the drain as he has been in the inflatable toys. Silly kid jumped/stomped on it for about five minutes without any sign of distraction.

Missy somehow ended up with an "owey" on her finger. She was distraught. Thank goodness Gma J had some Band aids (though she didn't "technically" need one) and Gpa J had some good snuggles.

Then of course the Shaved Ice distracted her from the owey for the rest of the evening... even though it (the shaved ice) didn't last that long.

EB got mad at me every time I touched his cup. He wanted to do it himself dang it! So I let him... I did have wipes in my purse after all. :)

Jer (as always) was great with the kids and enjoyed a rare shaved ice as well. It seams that they become less common as you become an adult? or is that just that you remember them less? I dunno.

Missy had a hard time hitting rather than dragging her ball around the course. We tried a few times to help her out and then just let her do it however she wanted. Besides, we were there mostly for the kids anyways :) It was important that they had fun.

Goober was pretty good to stay off the "green" most of the time when others were taking their turns. Though most of the kids were oblivious to others the whole time we were on the golf course. They were almost comical with how often they would have been run over by an adult had the adult not been paying attention. Good thing the adults were though. :)

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EB was really good while the rest of us played golf, and though Gma J couldn't play along with us (darned shoulder!) I was glad she came along anyways!

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After golf we let the kids play on the inflatables again for a little while and then took off for home. .
Not only did we have fun, but we got to sleep in today as well. Double Bonus!

Pictures

EB

Missy

Goober

Advice Needed

How do you put the kie-bosh on the kids ignoring you? On bickering? On the wee ones messing around with the computer????

The above are all things I'm struggling with right now with (in order) Kidlet #1, Kidlet #2, and Kidlet #3. Ugh.

The 4th... er 3rd of July... :)

Yesterday my family cheated. I'll admit, we headed up to my parents house to celebrate the 3rd of July with them. Their little town does fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th so they don't compete with our, bigger city's, firework display. It's really nice cause we can see the towns display from my parents back porch.

This year when we arrived at their house it was raining (it was just a storm cell, no biggy), my mom hurt her arm earlier in the day so I helped out in the kitchen while my dad entertained the kidlets. The picture above is of him divvying out chips one by one so the kids wouldn't track them ALLLLLLL over the house. :)


After dinner we started with the personal fireworks (dad went to Alpine to get some good ones, GOOD JOB DAD!). Goober is describing the fireworks to dad as he sits on his lap.

Here is dad with all my kids! The kids are distracted by the fireworks Jer is lighting off :)

Goober and Missy with the Roman Candles.

Me helping EB with a sparkler.

This is one of my favorite holidays. I love that the whole nation gets together to celebrate our freedoms, not just our national holiday. I think this is one of the many reasons that Americans are so patriotic (or as some other countries would say "arrogant", I think they misinterpret national pride with thinking we are better than others. We aren't better, just more fortunate in many ways and we recognize that.)

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I am so grateful to have been born in this wonderful land, and while a disagree with many things our government does, I am still glad that I was not born elsewhere. As I look around myself and become more aware of the things going on in the world I continually am thankful for all of my freedoms.

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In many countries (even today) women are not thought of as equal, they have no freedom of speech or freedom of expression. They are oftentimes blamed for the hardships that others put upon them. They are often considered to be property, and if they get harmed or killed it is not considered something horrendous. I am so grateful that my daughter is able to be raised in a place that will give merit to her ideas, that will take her ambition and let it take her to wherever it will without discrediting it simply because she is a girl. This year, I'm not only grateful for my country in general but for the freedoms and rights it gives not only my sons, but my daughter as well.

God bless America.

Hair Do's

This is the 4th of July "Do" that I did on missy today. I figured I had been really lax on doing her hair fun lately, mainly due to swim lessons being soon after I have to get her up. Anyhow, I stole the idea from the blog Girly Do's By Jenn. It's my favortie hair blog at the moment :)

Happy celebrating people!