Blueberries!

We went blueberry picking today and we had such a fun time. We picked 2 gallons of blueberries but I think we ate a couple gallon too while we were picking! They were so yummy, big, juicy and so sweet.
Whoops, I forgot to turn these, sorry. Here are the kids hard at work picking the blueberries.

Luke only had like 10 blueberries in his bucket the whole time because he ate them by the handful. It was so cute, every time we looked at him he was shoving more in his mouth. We got much better quality child labor out of Amelia, she ended up picking a lot.
Our bounty of berries! I'll be making blueberry cheesecake bars tonight and blueberry pancakes tomorrow, yummy!

Mom's Getaway!

Part of my mother's day present was an overnight at a beautiful resort in Fairhope, Alabama. Fairhope is an adorable little community in Alabama right on Mobile Bay, it has lots of cute shops and great restaurants. A group of girlfriends and I stayed at the Grand Marriot Resort and Spa. It is spectacular. This was our room and I don't know if it was the bed, the linens, the room or what but we stayed in bed until checkout! It was lovely.
This was the view from our balcony, it was very peaceful watching the boats sail in and out. We even ordered our breakfast room service so we could eat on our patio. We ate cinnabon french toast, it was as good as it sounds. Except the portions were insane. We each had three giant cinnabons on our plate and bacon and fruit.
We all enjoyed massages at the spa. This was in the changing area and lounge. We spent a lot of time here chatting and giggling because the quiet room was VERY quiet. Some people take those quiet rooms so seriously. We did enjoy the whirlpool and sauna in the quiet room though, oh and they had some great cookies too :)
Maribel, Cynthia, Marian, Sue and me at dinner at the Colony Grill in downtown Fairhope. We all had delicious meals and were thoroughly stuffed when we went back to the hotel. It was such a fun, relaxing time. It was great to have some mommy time without the kids before Steve leaves for deployment. The kids and dad had some great bonding time also while I was gone. They went swimming, out to eat and to see Kung Fu Panda. Luke called me that night and said, "Mommy, I want to take karate." Oh boy.

Happy Father's Day Stephen!

Happy Father's Day! We love you so much! Thank you for being the best daddy (and husband) anyone could wish for.
We went to brunch on Sunday after church to celebrate Father's Day. The kids showing off their paper airplanes.

Amelia's Birthday Party

Amelia had her fifth birthday party last week at Pump it Up, an inflatable party place. We had the party in June because she really wanted Daddy to be at the party. The picture above is Amelia jumping through the obstacle course. The kids got to jump for an hour and a half and then had pizza, cake and ice cream. It was the easiest birthday party I have ever thrown, I just showed up with the cake!
Amelia had 25 of her closest friends at her party. What five year old needs an A and B guest list?
In the party room the birthday girl gets to sit in the birthday throne for eating and opening presents. Amelia chose to sit with her friends instead.

Blowing out five candles! So hard to believe our little girl is going to be five years old.

We love our Grandmas!

Grandma Nancy made this adorable dress for Amelia. Grandma has a patriotic theme in mind lately with the deployment looming, the dress has little white stars on it. We love it mom, thank you!
Luke LOVES his red blanket Grandma Joan made. It is definitely his favorite possession. His favorite color is clearly red and he wants to wear red everyday. This is classic Luke position, snuggling his blankie and sucking that thumb. Thanks Grandma Joan! The pirate scarf is a new addition. We went to a pirate party on Saturday and he has only removed it to sleep and take a bath. The first thing he does when he gets out of bed is go find his "pirate hat" and ask me to tie it on. He wears it everywhere we go.

Melting Mommy

The kids both melted my heart in the last couple of days . . .

Last night Steve was working the night shift so he wasn't home at all. Luke ended up with a bad cold. He was up coughing and sick most of the night. Around 3am, he ended up in my bed. When he wasn't coughing and choking, he was snoring like a sailor because he was so stuffed up. Even though I have a king size bed, Luke was squashed up next to me, I would move him and he would squirm back over within minutes until his body was snug up to me. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep last night but it was worth it. When Luke woke up he leaned over and kissed my cheek and hugged me and said, "You are the best mommy."

A couple days ago Amelia and I had this conversation:

A: Mommy, Daddy's Grandma Kay is in heaven right?
Me: Yup, she is and she watches over us.
A: You have a Grandma K. in heaven too right mom?
Me: Yup, my Grandma K. is Grandma Nancy's mom and she is in heaven too.
Amelia paused for a little while and then
A:I bet they play together in heaven and have lots of fun together.

What a wonderful, sweet thought she has of her Great-Grandma's playing together. It sure made me smile, and tear up.

Shalom

Our church had Vacation Bible school this week and both the kids got to attend and I decided to teach this year! I guess, decided would be one word, coerced, begged would be two other words :) The theme was Marketplace 2008 and we were taken back to the time when Jesus lived and learned all about the Jewish traditions. The children started out with their tribe in the morning learning the lesson and doing morning rituals. I taught Mini Market which were the itty bitty kids, 2,3, and 4 year olds (37 of them) so the lesson was a little shaky sometimes. We joked we should have called our tribe, "Sit on your bottom, please."
After lesson, the kids went to Market and did lots of neat crafts (trades) that were done in Jesus time. Well, the little ones colored but both kids made bowls and necklaces with clay and everyday they made bread. They also hammered tin, made crosses and leather bracelets.
Amelia in her tribal costume. She was in the tribe of Benjamin. The kids had money pouches and got to spend their money in the marketplace. Before the kids went to chapel (synagogue), they all had to wear head coverings. This was the cutest thing ever.
Morgan and Luke all ready for synagogue! They look like they are betrothed. I loved Luke's yamaka, he must have too because he actually kept it on.

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.