Mother May I?!?

My kids are playing outside right now with all the neighbor kids. I looked out my front door to find my kids (well, mostly Chloe) playing Mother May I. I so remember playing this when I was a kid, and I am so glad that the kids are still playing it now.


**Don't get used to all the new posting each day. I'm home for Vacation Bible School this week, and then it's back to the lake! :) I figure I've only got a few more weeks before school starts, so I better just make use of it and go! Rumor has it that I can get internet access from the picnic table at the beach. I've yet to try it, but I will when I get back! :)**

I love the sound!

I love the sound of my three kids laughing and screaming in the backyard, as they try to catch a frog. They've been at it for a good twenty minutes now, and are having a blast! I just love it when they can all do the same thing, and have fun doing it! Another thing that I love is that Chloe can get right into catching frogs. She definitely loves her makeup and fancy clothes, but catching a frog is right up her alley too! Love it!

Oh!! They just caught it - I'll be back!!!






O.K., they caught the frog, and it's a lot bigger than I expected! Now, they want to keep it as a pet, but the only problem is that I only have a very small aquarium that we used for our beta fish. Poor little guy wants out!!!

SISTERS!!!

As you know, I've got two sisters. My oldest sister, Leanne and I are twelve years apart, and Melanie and I are 23 months apart. When I started kindergarten, Leanne was a Senior in High School ~ at the same school! Because Melanie and I are so close in age, their was always some sort of competition. Whether it be the fact that I got to shave my legs at an earlier age than Melanie, or boys, or clothes....the list could go on and on. All of that competition seemed to fade though as we got older, as did the years between Leanne and I.

It really hit me when I was in Florida with BOTH of my sisters how blessed I really am to have both of these awesome women in my life! We had so much fun together. Life gets a hold of me, and I don't always take the time to call my sister Leanne, but it never fails that when we are together or talking, we can pick up right where we left off, and I love that about us ~ there's no distance in miles or an age gap, just two sisters! Love it!! And it pretty much goes without saying that Melanie and I really should have been twins! :) We're on the phone together everyday, and usually see each other once a week - if not more. Melanie knows everything about me - well almost everything! :)

I love you guys, and I really don't know what I would do without you!

Neglect

That's the only title I could come up with, because I feel like I have completely neglected this blog.

The kids and I were at the lake for the past 18 days. I hadn't intended on staying that long - originally only 5 days, and then I would go back with Ryan when he had his vacation time, but I just decided to stay. The only real reason that I was coming home was to do laundry, so I just made a trip to the laundromat to solve that problem!

I still have to do a post about my baby girl turning 6 years old! I can't believe how quickly time flies by. I'll get to that one of these days.

Steph invited me to a NWI Bloggy Meet-up on Saturday night. I had intended on going after my nephews birthday party, but it turned out my sister had to post-pone the party to Sunday because of the rain. We ended up staying at the lake pretty late so that the kids would fall asleep in the car. As I was driving by the restaurant on my way home on I-65, with a sleeping husband next to me and three sleeping kids in the back of the van, it was hard to resist the temptation just to stop in for a drink, but I thought better of it. My bed was seriously calling my name - LOUD! :)

We are having loads of fun at the lake this year, and I'm finding that it's a lot more fun to be there than at home. The kids love the boat (Owen even went tubing for the first time this weekend!), and love playing down at the beach. And hey - how can I complain about sitting in the sun and getting a nice golden brown tan! :)

I may be neglecting this blog, but I'm certainly not neglecting my kids - they are having one heck of a summer...and so am I!!!

***I'm headed back to the lake tomorrow morning, so I may be MIA for awhile! :)***

We keep going and going and going....

Well, it seems like we just can't stop lately! Part of it is due to us going on a vacation, and really, who rests on a vacation!?!?

Anyway, last Thursday, we went to Brookfield Zoo! The last time we were there, Owen was 6 months old. He's now 2 1/2. He LOVED it! And I loved watching him love it! :)

First thing we did was head to the Dolphin Show! Owen loved it! Actually, all my kids loved it! Before the show began, Owen kept finding the dolphins in the pool and would point them out time and time again. It was really sweet.



Here's an attempt at getting a picture of all the grand kids on Ryan's side...

The princess couldn't walk anymore, so Owen had to pull her. Not really, but Owen was convinced that he could do it...it only last about 30 seconds before he was done! :)

Chloe and Ellie

This was Owen's face when he saw the Rhinoceros. He couldn't believe how close it was, and how BIG it was!!
None of the kids (or Auntie Jen) knew I was taking this picture of them.;) It's definitely easier than trying to get them all to look at the camera AND smile!

SILLY KIDS!!!

Where's Chloe?!!? ;)

The boys loved the fishies! That was the one thing that Owen wanted to see.

At the end of the day we let the kids play at the little park that they have there. They had loads of fun, and it burned off every last bit of energy that they had! :)

Now we're off to the lake for 5 days (Ryan will come on Friday night) ~ home for three, and then back for TEN DAYS (That time Ryan will be with me! :)) Have a great rest of the week!!!

Charades or Frogs?

Ryan has started a little thing where we play Charades with the kids. The kids love it and when daddy asks if they want to play it, they get really excited and fight over who gets to go first! :)

Chloe can pretty much act out anything from 'Mom changing a diaper' (that really happened) to 'A man riding a motorcycle.' She's actually quite good.

Now Brett, on the other hand, will jump around and "ribbit" EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!! We have to guess a horse, or cow, or some other crazy animal a few times before we yell out "A FROG!" And every.single.time Brett will jump up, clap his hands together puts a huge grin on his face and says "Yep! You pigured it out!" (he replaces the f with a p) It's quite comical actually to see how excited we get every time we "pigure" it out!;)

And Owen, well, let's just call him Brett's shadow, because all he acts out is frogs too! :D Monkey see monkey do!

I suppose it doesn't really matter. It makes the kids happy to play the game, and if they want to act out frogs every time, so be it. It's all about the memories! :)

How could I have let this happen?

A couple of weeks ago, Chloe lost her first tooth! :) She was thrilled when the tooth fairy left her four quarters under her pillow. The smile on her face, and the jumping up and down around the room were priceless.

While we were in Florida, her other loose tooth got REALLY loose. She wanted it out so bad, but was afraid to pull it. Wednesday night, we were eating dinner, and while she was eating her corn on the cob, it fell out! She was ecstatic! That night, we forgot to put it under her pillow ~ she says she didn't forget, but that she didn't want to get out of her bed to get it!;D Anyway, she went to the lake with my in-laws on Thursday night, so she didn't put it under her pillow then either. I had the tooth wrapped in a paper towel on the kitchen counter, waiting for her to come home so the tooth fairy could visit. Well, Sunday I realized the paper towel was missing. I asked Ryan if he threw it away, and he said that he did. Ryan is notorious for throwing things away!! I actually was really upset with him, and because Chloe wasn't home, I made up a master plan to get the first tooth that she lost (yes, I saved it!) and play it off like that was the second tooth that she lost ~ are you still following me?!?:)

As I was wiping down my counters last night, I found the tooth!!!! Crazy, I know, but I was thrilled! We put it in a little Ziploc baggie and placed it under her pillow.

This morning, Chloe walked into my room sobbing ~ tears rolling down her face. She could barely speak. When she was able to speak, she said, "she didn't give me any money for my tooth!" It then clicked that I forgot to put the money under her pillow. How could I have forgotten to do such an important thing ~ well, important to a 5-year old. I had to act quick, so I went into her room to see if the tooth was still there - knowing full well that it was, but I had to put on a little act. Fortunately, to my advantage, the tooth didn't stay under her pillow - it fell behind her bed. So I said, "maybe the tooth fairy didn't know that you lost a tooth, because it wasn't under your pillow." She was still crying. I called Grandma Betty, and asked her if the tooth fairy ever forgot to come to our house when we were little, and Grandma didn't really know what I was talking about. I said, "Oh, so sometimes it took her a couple of days to collect the tooth and leave the money?!" That seemed to calm Chloe down. Phew!

So now, I just have to make sure I get those quarters under the pillow tonight!!:D


**Side note - What does the tooth fairy pay at your house? Do you have a tooth fairy? Ryan and I probably only got a quarter for each of our teeth growing up, so we thought 4 quarters was pretty reasonable. Believe it or not, I've heard of people giving $20/tooth!! And on the plane coming home from FL, the girl next to Chloe said she got $30/tooth!!! WHAT?!?!?! Multiply that by 20 teeth, and you're talking $600!!!! CRAZY!!!