The Puddles

It is not surprising that I haven’t had time to post anything.  We were/are extremely busy.  This was one such week.  VBS was really fun.  I taught the preschool class.  Aunt Deb came and helped out.  She of course brought Gracie and Gordon.  I was ready to have someone else teach the class this year after having done it for the last few years, but I was really glad that I did it.  Having Gordon in there was fun and I remember why I liked that class so much.  We are pretty much our own little entity.  It is kind of fun like that.  The kids were great and adorable.  We didn’t see the other kids too much, but we had a lot of fun with each other.

And by the way, it was really cool how Gordon got excited to see Uncle Chris play his guitar every night.  He would point to Chris and say “Gea!” (Jesus) while playing the air guitar.  What he meant was . . . “Let’s go sing about Jesus with Uncle Chris!”  Eventhough it kind of looked like he was calling Chris “Jesus.”  Very cute!

The kids helped me at the garden one day last month.  This was their bountiful gathering.  Eventhough it got hot really quick, they were able to help me out.  They had fun too!

That’s what these two are thinking.  Ben and Madie had to sit for two hours each day for Ainsley while she danced.  Ben especially hated it!  Poor guys.  Unfortunately, they didn’t get too much sympathy from me.  Ainsley has been driving and sitting outside their activities for YEARS.  They can sit for a week while enjoys dance camp.

So there is our princess ballerina.  She is a cutey especially all dressed up in her pink ballerina outfit.  I signed her up for this dance camp for a week at the Rec center.  She went for two hours every day where she danced, made princess crafts, and learned some ballet.  She really like it.  The teacher was very sweet and this was a great week for Miss A. This teacher is going to teach dance this fall at the rec center.  We will have to check it out to see whether or not we can work it into  our schedule.  We’ll have to see!  If I can figure out how to post the little dance she learned at the end of the week, I’ll post it.  It was cute!

Our first swim lesson was hugely successful. The kids did so good.  Ainsley actually was swimming for the first time. Ben is a fish . . . oh wait . . .an eel. That’s what Ben calls himself. All three are stellar swimmers. Madie wants to be on the swim team next year.  It would be good for her.  We will wait until next year.  She needs to work on her endurance, but she is really doing great.  You can see how happy they are!

So our lovely neighbors came over with an interesting puzzle.  This  involved their Xbox and opening it up and well . . . playing with its innards. It was hugely distracting to the huge list of to dos that Chris had that day, but he thoroughly enjoyed the effort.  They did manage to fix the XBox and the neighbors think that not only does he preach about God, but that he just might be God.  Teenagers and their XBox . . . it doesn’t take much to impress.

It was a great start to a cool pool.  But after three overflows, we put a halt on refilling it again until we could figure out why.  Turns out our yard has a huge slope.  So big, in fact, that it has proven impossible to put a pool this size in our yard. We looked into leveling out the pool with sand or cutting the yard with a sod cutter. But we would destroy the yard in the process.  So no pool for Ben. or Madie. or Ainlsey. or Mommy.  This stinks.  This was suppose to help me out this summer. To no avail!  We have found other ways to distract the children the summer.  Now we just have to figure out what to do with the large behemoth of a pool . . .

This was a really great day at the zoo. We rode the train and the merry-go-round. And see that picture of the ape with the stick.  That ape was using the stick to poke at the glass where Ainsley and her friend were watching.  It was hilarious.  All I could think of was . . . Who’s watching who?  This scenario could have been reversed.  Too cute.  It was hot but enjoyable  Ainsley rode home with me instead of the bus and she slept the entire way home.  Too cute!

I love having the egg hunt at our house.  Chris is more relaxed.  I can guaruntee there will be enough eggs for everyone (or too much in this case).  I was able to get the kids to bed at a decent hour since we didn’t have to drive home (and we had school the next day).  And most importantly, Chris is more relaxed. The one problem with having this at my house . . . I never end up with pictures of the event.  See the one photo of all of the adults?  My husband takes no pictures. So I am desperately trying to get pictures while trying to kept the children from running into the street, making sure that everyone gets enough eggs, everyone gets one special egg, the big kids aren’t running over the little kids, etc., etc.  Needless to say I got three pictures of the egg hunt worth posting (these were the only three with my kids in it that were also in focus.  My own fault.).  One was out of frustration (the adult photo. I wish Chris would take photos.)  Because I hardly get photos of my three at family events unless I beg my sister to take them. And she had a newborn and was a little tired and busy. Ugh!

“Mommy, will you put my clothes away for me?”

“No, Ainsley. You need to do it.”

“Daddy would do it if I asked him!”

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

“I’m stomping because I’m mad, just in case you didn’t know!”