Bikes, Cookies, and more...

Today we went to pick up Girl Scout cookies for our troop and delivered them to our cookie mom.. We were able to pick up our 300 boxes of cookies (of which we've only sold about 50 boxes) while we were there. We're going to be very busy over the next few weeks selling cookies:)

After we picked up our cookies, we went to Grandma's and Geri's house to deliver cookies and pick up the girls big birthday presents. Then we went back home to give the girls their big birthday presents: And then we met a friend to try out their new birthday presents:Then I brought them all home to play the Wii because today was Flea Market Day (whatever that means...). Anyway, we all had a wonderful day and we're looking forward to more of the same tomorrow!!!

We're back!!!

We had a wonderful time at Great Wolf Lodge!!! The kids are finally old enough and can swim well enough that I didn't have to chase after all of them at once. They were pretty independent and loved every moment of our vacation there. They were even on their best behavior!!!

I'll post pictures later. I have to cook a yummy dinner for my poor starving hubby. He has been home alone for the past few days and hasn't eaten as well as we have...

Off the computer until Thursday night...

I'll be away from my computer until Thursday afternoon. I'm going on vacation with the kids and won't take my computer with me. Have a great week!!!

What a wonderful day with friends...

We spent the day with our friends Mandi and Steve and their three beautiful children. First we went ice skating for two hours and then we went to Mandi's mom's house and had dinner with their family. It was great to catch up and just kind of talk about what has been going on in our lives in the last five years. Of course, I forgot my camera and can't share pictures of our day. Mandi has promised to send me the pictures that she took. What a great day!!! Tomorrow we're leaving for Great Wolf Lodge. I'll try to get lots of pictures, but I'm not sure about taking my huge camera in a hot and muggy place like that. Wish me luck...

And another one (or two) bites the dust...

Strep throat has been running rampant in our house in the last two weeks. First John came down with it, then Nicole. The latest victims are Nate (diagnosed on Wednesday), and Amanda and I (diagnosed yesterday). Now that it's finally run its course, I'm hoping that our family can move on and be healthy!!! Everyone is on antibiotics and feeling much better.

Today I'm packing for our trip to Great Wolf Lodge on Monday. John is driving down with us on Monday and spending the day with us there all day Monday. Geri and Mom will join us later on Monday, we'll have dinner with John and then he'll drive back home (he has to work on Tuesday), then we'll stay until Thursday afternoon. Geri and Mom will drive back with us and we'll go pick up Sassy then go home. The picture is of the kids at our last trip there. The kids are so looking forward to this trip and so am I!!! I just hope that everyone stays well enough to go...

Amanda was the "Bee in the Spotlight" today...

We visited Amanda's class today and watched as she shared many of her favorite pictures and toys with the rest of her class. She really enjoyed playing the teacher and answering a lot of questions from her classmates and teacher. She got to introduce her Dad to her classmates too for the first time. She was so excited!!!

The whole time Amanda was sharing with us in her classroom, Nate was wallowing in misery in the van. He called us several times to make sure we knew that he wanted to go home. He has strep throat and is the third member of our family to get it in the past month. He's feeling better tonight after a dose of antibiotics, but it's going to be a long weekend...

And Nicole was, well, being Nicole. She was happy as could be reading her book after she came home from school. She has finished the whole Sister's Grimm series (4th-5th grade level books) and is now working on Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (level 5.5). She's almost done with it now and is moving onto something else. I just can't even keep up with her right now! Did you notice her missing teeth? She's finally starting to lose teeth and she's almost 8 years old!!! Better late than never I guess.

Our Science Day...

We had the Cub Scouts come over today to earn their Scientist badge. John set up experiments to demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle, Pascal's Law, and Newton's first law of motion. Don't ask me what those are about because I'm definitely NOT the scientist of the family. John and Nate really enjoyed it though, and I suspect they ARE scientists at heart. The other Cub Scouts enjoyed it too. The best part is that they earned another badge to add to their uniforms.

The moms and I enjoyed chatting while John and another dad led the boys through the experiments. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I might have forgotten to take the camera out to get some shots of the boys performing the experiments. Just picture six boys and two dads using air, water, and heat to perform science experiments. It was great fun!

What a small world...

Yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the grocery store by myself to pick up dinner and I had to share my experience while I was there. As I made my way through the store from one end to the other, a woman with two children was right in front of me pretty much the whole way through the store. She had two little girls that were about 3 years old, one was in the shopping cart and the other was following behind the cart. The one that was walking kept throwing things from the shelf into the floor, screaming loudly when Mom wouldn't buy what she wanted, and just generally acting out badly. Many shoppers quietly commented how the mom should be able to control her children or just stay home. The mom kept saying how sorry she was and her cheeks kept getting redder and redder. I just smiled at her and told her how beautiful her children were and kept slowly plodding along behind her. When we finally reached the last aisle and it was just me and the mom, she turned around to me and told me her story.

Apparently, the child that was in the shopping cart was her 3 year old niece who just happened to be two months younger than her own little girl. For reasons beyond her control, the little girl had recently come to live with this woman's family and it had really had a drastic affect on their lives. She said that her little girl had NEVER acted out like that before, and she just wasn't sure how to change her behavior. The little girl kept asking her mom over and over again "And I get to go first, right Mom? Me first, right Mom? Can I please go first Mom?". She seemed desperate to be the one and only child again.

The woman told me that she felt horrible that total strangers were thinking such bad thoughts about her and just wanted to explain her situation. I told her that I understood, and the reason I understood is because my niece is going through a similar situation with foster parenting. It's amazing what you can find out if you just take the time to smile and sympathize with someone who seems to be having a tough day. I just wanted to thank my niece Stephenie for making me open my eyes to other people and to keep an open mind instead of instantly judging. I hope other people will take the same approach in their interaction with others. It can make a huge difference in the other person's life to have at least one positive interaction on such a miserable day.

Starlight Beach Walk...Brrrr!!!

Tonight we took all three kids on a starlight beach walk to take advantage of the extremely low tide. Mind you, it was pouring down raining and about 39 degrees all day so it did not look promising for us. I am glad we stuck it out though because the rain cleared away, the moon and the stars came out, and we had a wonderful time!

We found sea stars, huge crabs, sea sponges, bats (yes, I did say bats!), sea worms, kelp, and many more treasures to look at and touch but leave in their natural habitat. BTW: We did NOT attempt to touch the bats! They were hiding very nicely underneath the ferry terminal piers and we left them there!

After we were done exploring the dark and mysterious (that's a spelling word for Nate today!) beach and pier, we went back to the Beach Nature Station and enjoyed hot chocolate with the rest of the Cub Scouts and their siblings and parents. Nicole was cold, very cold by the time we were done, but everyone else was suprisingly warm and content. What a perfect outing!!!

My twin readers...

Both of my girls really like to read. Amanda favors horse or animal books of any kind, and Nicole favors HUGE chapter books (think 4th grade level and above). They have very different reading styles.

Nicole will read anywhere, anytime, and any place she finds. She doesn't need anyone to read to her and frankly you'd probably read too slowly if you DID try to read to her. In the picture, she was out riding bikes with her sister and brother and never even noticed that they got bored and came inside. She sat on that recycle tub for over an hour reading book five in the Sisters Grimm series.

Amanda would prefer to read with someone else but only on her schedule (right before bed like Ms. Hodo told her to do) and only for the 15 minutes Ms. Hodo told her to read. Then she's up and running. She doesn't finish many books and that's okay with her.

I can't seem to find my cable to be able to post the picture of Amanda, but she went to the library and read to a dog today and enjoyed every moment of it.

Nate is a story for a different day...