Slip Slidin' and Girls Night Out!

Woo hoo! New slip and slide at our house! We needed something to cool off with now that we have reached our "hot as you know what" season. So now all you northerners can get your revenge on me for our pleasant winter. I would give anything for a nice balmy 70 degrees right now.
On Sunday we had a girls night out and went to see SEX and THE CITY of course. Don't worry, I won't give any details away. Only that it was so good to see those New York gals again, oh how I miss my SEX and THE CITY, well I do have all six seasons on DVD but still it's not the same. We all loved it and had a fabulous dinner afterwards to discuss every detail of the movie.

Demasculinating Daddy

Steve was home from work today so I decided he could take over lunch duty. Steve said to the kids, "Woo hoo, Daddy is in charge!" Amelia said, "Well you can be in charge but mommy is still the boss." I almost peed in my pants from laughing in the other room.

Then during lunch, Stephen was teasing them that he is the boss and they said, "No, no mommy is the boss." So Stephen said, "Amelia, at work, I'm the boss, I hold people's lives in my hands."

Amelia looked at him with pity in her eyes and said, "That's fine at work dad but here mommy is boss."

Poor Stephen.

American Idol Kids

Our kids new favorite song is "Without You" by Maroon 5. I caught a little bit of them singing along. Try to ignore the fact that Luke is only in his undies. He wants us to become a clothing optional household, he is not winning that argument.

Ft. Walton, Florida

We went to Ft. Walton/Destin this weekend with our friends. Cynthia's parents live there and graciously let us stay at their house. The kids had so much fun together, we were surprised how well they played for four days. Everyone slept great too, they were pretty wiped out by the end of the day so the parents got to enjoy long naps in the afternoons as well as the kids. This is Amelia, Mckenzie, Luke and Hayden out on the dock of Granny Z's and Big Daddy's house. Luke couldn't get used to calling Mckenzie and Hayden's grandpa Big Daddy so he kept calling him Big Grandpa.
Just lounging . . .
Tubing time, the kids loved tubing and bouncing in the waves. The kids learned the signals for faster (thumb up), slower (thumb down),etc. Amelia showing us thumb up! Of course our little dare devil Luke would just hold thumb up the whole time when it was his turn!
We went to Destin and ate at a restaurant called The Back Porch right on the water. We accidentally forgot swimsuits for the kids and of course they wanted to swim in the big waves so we bought t-shirts and let them have at it. Amelia loved the waves and body surfing with Stephen, Luke hung back on the beach more. He didn't like the feeling of undertow.
The girls in their new swimming Back Porch t-shirts. We also got some fishing in and the kids caught some small fish. They loved grabbing "glowies" in the water, which are a species of jellyfish but are really tiny and don't have stingers. The kids would squish them through their fingers like jello. Actually, now that sounds kind of cruel.
Anyhow, it was a great vacation and we all had a really fun, relaxing time.

Pennies For Peace

My book club read Three Cups of Tea awhile back, it is about a man who started building schools in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan. To support his cause, their is a program for kids called Pennies for Peace. What a great program to teach kids about helping others globally and realizing even pennies can help change the world. I decided to implement the program to the kids in my moms group and had a bunch of kids over to my house last week to teach them about the program. Here are Amelia and Luke with their Pennies for Peace bottles. We will be collecting pennies all summer and then have a big penny party when school starts. I wondered if the kids understood the program and Amelia answered that question later in the day. We were at Rite Aid and she found a penny on the ground and was super excited! She said, "Look mom, a penny, a penny!" The elderly lady behind her said, "Ooh, a penny for good luck." Amelia said, "No, this penny is to help build schools in Afghanistan."

Crawfish Boil!

This past weekend Grandpa Steve and Donna came to visit and we all had a really fun time. The kids had fun showing them all their favorite things to do in Mississippi.
We threw a big bonfire in honor of Grandpa Steve and Donna visiting and ended up having close to 50 people there. The crawfish boil looked awesome, I however stuck with the PB and J's we had for the kids. I did try one crawfish but it seemed like a lot of work for a very tiny piece of "meat." It was a great night and the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and water and they all loved peeking at the crawfish crawling around in the cooler. We enjoyed lots of good friends and good food and of course topped it off with smores!
I think I am actually holding smores while we took this.
Father and son, sitting at the bonfire, smoking a cigar. Ahh, male bonding.

Marian made a slideshow of the bonfire. If you want to see more of the bonfire, click on the link below.

Crawfish Boil and Bonfire
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=5dd004ebdd480f7d6b7f6c&skin_id=1010&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email

Kindergarten Here I Come!

Hooray Amelia! I can't believe it; but Amelia's preschool days are over and she is off to Kindergarten. She is thrilled because she has been told Kindergarten has two recesses. Now I admit, when I heard about graduations for preschoolers; I was nauseated. That all changed when it was my child graduating! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face watching her on the stage with all her friends receiving their diploma. That is until their final song when they sang, "Kindergarten here I come" and I started boo hooing right there in the church. Steve actually had to comfort me, it was embarrassing.
Proud brother Luke who cheered for Amelia and sang all the songs right along with the big kids. Amelia teaches him everything she learns so he'll be all set for preschool next year.
The fabulous Miss Sherry. We will miss her so much, she embodies everything you would want in a preschool teacher, what a great, great lady. And she has an amazing style, the picture is missing her peep toe red wedge heels! They were so cute!
We were so happy for our little graduate. She's such a good girl.

Happy Mother's Day!

We started celebrating Mother's Day on Tuesday with Muffins with Mom at Amelia's preschool. The kids did a really cute job of decorating the classroom and making all the moms presents. Amelia made me a placemat with her handprint and flowers on it and she wrote "I love mom" on it. The kids also potted flowers and decorated the pots for us.
This is Amelia's pot of flowers. Unfortunately, me and plants don't get along. I tried to at least keep it alive until real Mother's Day but it is already looking a little sad. Behind us are all the kids handprints designed into flowers, it was very cute. We were served lemonade, muffins, fruit and cheese. Amelia whispered to me, "Mom, if you don't like something, you don't have to eat it but just leave it on your plate." It seems her teacher went over some etiquette with them before the moms showed up!
This is on Saturday at the Beau Rivage Casino. We celebrated a little early because Steve had to work on Sunday. We all went out for dinner and then went to a show called "Y." It was kind of a Chinese and Russian circus with a cirque solie feel to it. Lots of wild costumes, people flipping and spinning in the air and jumping through hoops kept the kids very entertained. They sat mesmerized in their seats for the whole hour. That alone was worth buying the tickets! The kids still haven't stopped talking about their favorite parts of the show.

This is today, real Mother's Day finally! We went with our friends Marian, Patrick and Ronan since both daddies were working (although Jim is a little farther away, he is on deployment in Iraq). So Marian and I thought, we'll take the kids to a nice brunch after church, it will be great. Unfortunately, we stood in line for an hour and a half! We couldn't believe it, the poor kids were starving. So our "brunch" turned into very late lunch. Thankfully though the kids were really good in line, they whined less than Marian and I. While waiting in line we were talking about Marian's pregnancy, she is due in September. We said to Luke, "see Miss Marian's baby is in her tummy, that is Ronan's little brother,etc). Then we went on talking, after awhile I looked down and Luke was lying on the floor on his back looking up Marian's dress! He was trying to see Marian's baby he said! Sometimes I forget how literal kids are.

My favorite Mom's day present was a vase of flowers left on the table for me this morning before I had woken up. Stephen had traced the kids handprints and made them into flowers with pipe cleaners for the stems. They were so cute!

Horn Island

On Sunday we went to Horn Island with our friends the Neffs. Half way out to the island we came upon these five dolphins who decided to play with us. For about 20 minutes they swam under the boat and popped up on the other side. The kids had so much fun running from one end of the boat to the other to look for them. I could not believe it, it was really cool.

Mckenzie, Amelia, Luke and Hayden swimming.
The kids were so exhausted after all the swimming, they all fell asleep on the floor of the boat on the ride home. This is how Amelia and Hayden fell asleep, all snuggled up nose to nose and arms around each other. It was so cute!

Some days are just poopy.

Oh my little Luke. He's lucky he wasn't on the curb with a note that said, "Free to a good home." This is his time out chair. He and the chair are very well acquainted. That look he is giving me says, "You can try to break me mom, but I'll win." And I'm afraid he's right. Today he spent most of his day in this chair. A few of his worst offenses are as follows. Threw a Rescue Hero at Amelia's face. She now has a black eye. Threw a book at Amelia, she has a bloody lip. Seriously, it was a really bad day. Then the grand finale. I am downstairs making lunch and Luke yells from the top of the stairs, "Mom, I have to go potty." As I make my way up the stairs, I see my beautiful second born naked, squatting at the top of the stairs. Yes, he made a number two right there! I didn't even have words. I think I just was like, "Ahhh, OHH, NOOO!" He looked up and said, "I pooped." No kidding. Into the bath he goes. So it's finally bedtime. I had just given the kids their second bath of the day, I don't even remember why. I am brushing their teeth, finally I think this horrendous day is over. I went to throw the clothes in the hamper and when I got back to the bathroom Luke looked really wet and slimy. I asked him what he did. He said, "I dumped this on my head." He had dumped a whole bottle of Amelia's leave in conditioner over his head! Back in the bath we go. Yes, if you are counting that made three baths today. When Stephen called from work and asked how our day was. I just told him to read the blog.
Amelia's favorite new gig is this. If Luke is getting in trouble, or I should say WHEN Luke is getting in trouble, she loves to point out she is being very, very good. She will tell me this over and over and get this sugary smile on her face. This is her doing her very, very good while Luke is in timeout in the other room.

Spanish Fiesta and Child Pride Day

Amelia recently had a Spanish Fiesta at school. It was very impressive. The kids sang about 7 songs in Spanish and even danced to the macarena! Muy bueno! Amelia has now surpassed what little Spanish I remember from high school; so I am desperately trying to watch Dora and Diego to freshen up my Spanish skills.

This weekend was Child Pride Day at the base. Amelia and Luke brought their friend Morgan and they had a blast. The kids got to climb around in firetrucks, ambulances, airplanes and helicopters. They also got to jump and slide on countless inflatable bouncers, play lots of games and meet different characters and of course eat plenty of food. It was a very fun day.

Amelia, Morgan and Luke showing off their cool new face painting, well Amelia wanted hers on her bicep. She looked tough.

The kids had this to say about their day,

AMELIA : I asked Amelia if she was tired, she said, "No, I'm not tired Mom, I'm EXHAUSTED!"

LUKE: "Whew, what a long day outside it's been today."

Sometimes they talk like such little adults, it cracks me up.

We love the earth!

We went to an Earth Day celebration at Gulf Islands National Seashore. Here are the kids showing their love of the earth by hugging a tree. They learned about recycling, animals in our region and why trash can harm the animals. It was really fun with lots of hands on activities for the kids.

Amelia and Luke painted stingrays and fish prints and made some "pinch pots." They had their picture taken for the paper but mommy got nervous and when they asked me for a quote I said something really brilliant like, "We love the earth!" Sorry guys, I might have ruined your chance to be in the paper :)
That night Steve and I attended Mom Prom! We had such a blast! There was lots of great food and great dancing, probably more than at my real prom. Although this prom we had jello shots and I know I didn't have those at my first prom, (I swear mom, I didn't). Steve cutting a rug with our good friend Kristen Kahle!
The day after mom prom Steve and I thought we better work off a little of last nights fun. We walked over the bridge that connects Ocean Springs and Biloxi. It's 1.8 miles across and just beautiful. The bridge just went up in November because it was destroyed down to rubble due to Katrina.

Mama Mia!

The kids made their own pizzas the other night. A little messy but they actually turned out really yummy. Of course those of you who are familiar with our tastes know the pizzas were plain cheese. We're all pretty boring in that way I guess.
Luke just wanted to eat all his cheese but eventually some made it on the pizza.
Amelia is playing 4 year old t-ball. She's so cute. Usually when she comes in from the field she will hand me her glove and it is full of flowers that she picked while she was out there.

She's quite the slugger though! Luke is the best little brother, he yells, "Go Mimi go, Go Mimi go!"

"The Tiger"

Amelia received her very own lefty, pink golf clubs from Grandpa Jon and Grandma Nancy for Christmas. She has been putting them to good use learning to swing. She and a friend will be starting lessons with a pro in the next couple of weeks. Stephen insists her golf swing will be paying for her college someday. We can only hope I guess and hey at least she looks cute trying. Yes, she even has a bow in for golf.

This was just after she hit it, look at the concentration, kept her head down and everything! She was really getting some good loft on the ball, it was really cute to watch.

Stephen was watching a golf tournament on T.V. and showed Amelia who Tiger Woods was. A couple of hours later our babysitter came over and golf was STILL on and Amelia pointed to Tiger Woods and told our babysitter, "That's the tiger." Close enough.

Crawfish, Oysters and Wings Oh My!

We had a wild night last night! A new restaurant opened, called The Dock, and we took the boat out there with some friends and had a blast. The place was huge and hopping considering it was only the second week it was opened. They have an indoor area but also a humongous deck right on the water. We realized as we looked around at all the 20 somethings there in their bikinis (although it was only in the 60's yesterday); we were the old ones there! How did that happen? There was actually a good mix of people and great music. Stephen was brave (the beer, rum and shots probably helped) and tried crawfish and oysters, that's him sucking the head out of a crawfish.
Cynthia and Tommy and Chris and Stephen. Blake and Jenni were suspiciously missing.
Trying his first raw oyster, yuck!
Making the mistake of chewing it.
Still trying to get it down. Gross!

Mole Crickets and Pearly Whites

Every heard of a mole cricket? Ugg, we hadn't until now. Our lawn was invaded by the nasty little things and they literally suck the green right out of your grass. You can actually see the tunnel paths around our yard, gross. The kids were helping Daddy get rid of all the dead grass before we planted more seed and mole cricket killer (hmm, probably a better name for that).

If you can look past the dirty faces, you will see pearly whites. The kids went to the dentist today and got gleaming reports! Dr. Buddy (seriously, that is their dentist's name) said they did great and their teeth are looking healthy. They were very well behaved and got bouncy balls, balloons and McDonald's gift certificates. Always a fave around our house.

It stinks when your four year old is smarter than you

On Sunday we (well, me and the kids because Stephen was working) went out on our friends' boat. It was a fun, impromptu trip. The kids had fun playing in the sand and found lots of treasures that day, sand toys, crab shells and two left behind kites! This picture is Amelia and Morgan burying their feet.
I watched Will on Tuesday because my friend Katie had her movers at her house :( Will and Luke played so cute together. They alternated between tackling each other and hugging each other. By the time the morning was done, they had every toy thoroughly played with in the playroom.

Funny Words:

This week Luke said to me, "Yay Mommy! You kept your undies dry, now you get a jellybean!"

Amelia was drawing bananas for a worksheet and one came out a little lopsided and she said, "Look Mom, it looks like a chrysalis." Yeah, and I said, "UHHH, what?" She said, "You know, a chrysalis that a caterpillar turns into before it becomes a butterfly." I looked it up, she's right.