Let It Rain

So thankful to see the rain yesterday.  It wasn't much as far as accumulation goes, but it was good to know that prayers are being answered.

Water and Fire

Yesterday, we hit the pool.  What else can you do when it's been over 100 degrees for five days in a row?  I'm so thankful for the blessing of a neighborhood pool.   While we were there, some young twenty-somethings, hit up the diving board during "Adult Swim".  The kids had a blast sitting on the edge of the pool cheering the guys on in different kinds of dives.  Sometimes chanting "Cannon ball, cannon ball!", or "Do a flip, do a flip!"  I got a kick out of watching The Girl decide whether or not she should partake in the silliness.  I could tell she was having fun watching, but she was still undecided about participating in the chanting.  Every once in a while, she would let out a "Cannon ball!", and then quickly giggle as if she couldn't believe she had let loose like that.

I giggled too.

The Little Man is always silly.  He doesn't need to contemplate it for even one second.

After the "Big Boys" got off the diving board, The Little Man thought it might be fun to try to dive as well.  This is how he did it...feet first.   At least he got the hand position correct.

While we enjoyed ourselves at the pool, the rest of our state was burning up.  No, literally, we were on fire.  There are nine fires burning in Colorado, and this particular afternoon was especially devestating for people living in Colorado Springs.  The Waldo Canyon fire took off during a time of high winds and devoured everything in it's path.

Over 60 miles away, our town was engulfed in smoke, and the plume was very visible. 

Sad, devastating, horror, all these words don't quite cover it.

Please be praying for our state, the fire-fighters, the people who have lost homes and been displaced by evacuations, and for rain.  We need rain.

Craft Day

Since I had pinned a bunch of craft ideas on Pintrest for the kids and I do this summer, I felt as though my job was done.  I mean isn't searching for, finding, and then pinning your ideas pretty much the same as doing them?

No?

My kids don't think so either.

So, yesterday, I declared it "Craft Day".  I found an "easy" craft for them, and another craft for myself.  We had some mixed results.  Pretty much anything the kids touched failed, and my stuff turned out OK.  I'm still deciding if I will be making any more adjustments.  I think the letters could use some distressing...

I'm planning on having these girls hang in my family room.  I hope they make it up there one day!

**Note, I didn't take pictures of the kids failed crafts.   I'm embarrassed, they were sad, it was all a big flop.  For the record we were attempting to do bleach t-shirts.  Also, for the record, the directions for this craft aren't just mere suggestions.  If I were to do this again, I wouldn't proceed without the freezer paper, whatever that is.  I do know what it isn't; wax paper.

Brave Backseat Beatboxing

On the way to the chiropractor, I had some back seat entertainment.  These are my "Back Seat Beatboxers".  Love these kids!

Later, we hit up the movies.  We caught Brave, and we loved it!*

The main character totally reminded me of Katniss Everdeen.  I guess that could be because I just finished reading The Hunger Games series.  I also liked the way they worked the mother/daugter relationship.  As well as being touching, it was also funny.  I love it when that happens.  Score, Disney/Pixar!


*The Little Man will claim he didn't like the movie at all.  He totally liked it, but after giving it some thought he started to claim he didn't.  After some investigation, we found that he didn't like it because the main character was a girl, and he doesn't like movies that are all about girls.  Whatevs.

A One Word Summary: Hot

We've beat the record setting high temps of over 100 degrees by going to the pool with our Auntie:

Continued to chill out with friends at Pirates Cove:

And rode some water slides:

 Our favorite pirate:

When it cooled down some, we spent the day without a car.  She's all fixed now!

And as if I needed more heat (and actually, when the temps hovered in the low 70's, I did feel rather chilly!), I hit up some hot yoga. 

Trust me, I'm back to being all warmed up again, and just in time for the heat wave to pick back up again this weekend.

I Love me some summer time!

They Sent Us Home

I've found that if I have a totally blank day on my calendar, it's the busiest day of the week.  After running around all crazy like, these beauties sent us home for shelter, as well as some rest.

After all, we didn't want to have another "Super T Incident".

It Was a Jungle Sort of Day

Today we were invited to join our cousins to celebrate another birthday.  The Little Man and his cousin are only 363 days apart.  They still love to share their birthday parties, but each one likes to do their own thing on their special day.  This year, the kids were invited to join in on the fun on B's special day. 

Here they all are, enjoying Jungle Quest:

Birthday Celebrations

I have a couple of days of pics to catch up on.

First, the big day for The Little Man.  It's his most favorite day of the year.  The day he counts down to starting from the day after.  His birthday.  We let him pick our days activities (within reason because he has been known to ask to go to Disneyland as well as build a roller coaster in the backyard).  This year he kept it pretty tame.  We went out to breakfast at his favorite breakfast place, hit up the pool, made lollipops, and went to the theaters to see The Avengers (oh, what I won't do for love).  Here are some pics of us making lollipops.  We got the idea from Pintrest...of course!


Here the kids are waiting for the lollipops to get out of the oven:

The Birthday Boy on his day.  He's sporting a fat lip thanks to a kid in the pool and is sucking on a Jolly Rancher (AKA eating our ingredients).

Who knows, really...it was supposed to be a pic of the kids with their pops...

 

Yesterday was party day.  I have a ton of pics of the actual event in which we had Games 2 U come out.  The 20 + boys played video games, ran around and shot balls at each other in the U:Bot, and ran around the yard in the giant Hamster Ball.  Good times.  Good times.  I'll save those pics for later, after I have time to sort through them all, but for now, our boy with his cupcakes:

Ahhh, my baby is SEVEN!  I can't believe how fast time flies when you are having fun.

And watching my kids grow is the most fun I've had in my life!

You Say It's Your Birthday!

Dearest Little Man,

You love birthdays.  Not just your birthday, but every one's birthday.  You love to celebrate so much that the day after your birthday, you are already looking forward to next year's bash.  You mark the year not by seasons, but by your quarter, half, and three quarters birthdays.  And today is your day.  Happy Birthday!

Words cannot describe how much I have loved watching you grow this past year.  You have matured so much and learned so many new things.  You were a leader in your kindergarten class, you made lots of new friends, and you love math and reading.  When you aren't at school you love being in charge of the TV and insist upon "Good Luck Charlie", "Tom and Jerry", or "Scooby Doo".   You were also an awesome basketball player, a scooter riding fool, and recently a bike crazed dude.  If it's too cold outside, you can be found defeating all sorts of different  bad guys and worlds on your DSi, or building ships or different Lego sets.

You are also sweet and cuddly.  One thing I will miss, with you being in school all day next year, are our mornings together as you sit on my lap and snuggle up.  You are tender to others feelings and know right away if someone is hurt, upset, or angry.   You are a natural born peace-maker and will easily give up doing things your way in order to keep the peace and maintain a fun time with all involved.   Your sister is still your best friend, and you laugh when she laughs and cry when she cries.

You are one amazing kid!  I love watching you grow and feel so blessed that God has entrusted you to your father and I.  I pray that in this next year you would continue to recognize how cherished and loved you are by God.  I pray that you will become all that He has planned for you to be, and never fall prey to the enemies lies.  More than anything, I pray that you will know, love, and serve the Lord with all of your heart, mind, strength, and soul. 

You are such a special gift to our family!

Love,
Mom

P.S. Here's your birthday montage and your seven year old pictures:

Montage

Cupcake Anyone?

Thank you, Pintrest.  You have made searching for the perfect cupcake for The Little Man's Birthday so delicious.

The winner: A Neapolitan Cupcake (brownie bottom, strawberry cake top, and vanilla icing.

Swim Lessons For ME!

Nothing better than the first pedicure of Summer Break:

My girl loves to have her toes done.  We save pedicures (mostly polish changes) as a special treat only done when we are on breaks from school.  I always love to see the colors she chooses.  Never pink for The Girl!

I also got to start swim lessons in anticipation of my first triathlon coming in August.  Even though I am a strong swimmer, I was itching to have someone analyze my stroke so that I can make sure I am as efficient as I can be in the water.  So, my sister and I signed up for three semi-private lessons together at a place where they video tape you while you swim in a current, and then go through and work on all the areas that you need work on.  It was an eye opening experience for sure!  I enjoyed every second of it, and can't wait to put to practice all that I've learned.

It Ended a Bit Different Than it Stared

We had a mixed bag of weather yesterday.  All morning and afternoon we enjoyed warm weather with temperatures reaching close to 90.  Plus, there was NO WIND.  That fact all by itself warranted a celebration at the pool.  So we hit it up:

As evening approached, things got a bit interesting.  It all started with a brief, but kind of intense little hail storm while the sun was shining brightly, and there was still no wind.  Very weird.  We turned on the TV and saw that, yes, in fact, there was some severe weather in the area, but according to radar, and also as we looked out the windows, it had already passed over us.  The hail we just saw, mixed with sunshine, was the outer edge of a storm east of us.  Since storms move from west to east here, we thought we were in the clear and headed out for a Super T outing.

Shortly after arriving, it started getting darker and the rain came in.

And it never left.

That may sound normal for many of you reading this, but here, big rain storms come and move through pretty quickly.  We rarely get heavy unrelenting rain for longer than 15 minutes.  As the storm continued on to the 30 minute mark and more, my cart was getting fuller and fuller.  We decided the best thing was to check out, and watch the storm finish up from the windows, safely away from all merchandise.

At check out, the storm took a turn. All of a sudden it sounded like we were hit by a freight train.  The employees tried to calmly gather everyone and get us to their "storm safe area" in the store.

This was not a calm process.

Imagine people running through aisles dropping their merchandise as they go.  A few of the employees are crying.  A teenage girl is completely broken down while talking to her dad on her cell phone saying, "What, Dad?! I can't hear you!  I think it's coming down on us!"

Meanwhile, my kids are looking at me with anxious eyes.  Eyes that spoke volumes.  However, both remained cool and calm while they asked only a few times, "Momma? Are we Safe?"

At the end of it all, we were fine.  We did hear, later,  that there were a few funnels above us, but none touched down.  We did get marble to almost golf ball size hail, and one of the light posts in the parking lot was struck by lightening.

Total damage: $130 in the cart while waiting out the storm, a few dents to the car, a damaged doggy gate at the house while a very scared cousin dog tried to take cover, and a few tears by the kids.

We are praising God this morning for his protection in this storm.

It's Time to get Serious

We've got stuff to do...

It Begins

Summer Break is here.  Thank you, Lord.  May was a whirlwind, but now I'm ready to buckle down and commit to this project of "Instagramming" my blog.

Sort of.

I mean when I have the chance.

We kicked off the first weekend of break with a MASSIVE garage sale in which we were selling donations in order to raise money for Garage Sale 4 Orphans.   God planted this project in our minds, then our hearts, and then in the hearts of our small group.  It was a large endeavor, but in the end, God showed off in a big way.  We were totally blown away by His goodness, abundance, and grace as we were able to raise $7,500 for orphans in Haiti.  My heart could burst with joy as I think about four or five orphans and a widow being cared for in a home of their own, and being shown God's love for them.  To know that God allowed us to be apart of that and to witness the ways in which He works and loves is humbling and amazing.  Here are some pics of the event:

Day One: We took up the entire back portion of the cul-de-sac (thank you to the neighbors who gave up their driveways for our stuff!):

Yes, some one donated their car, and someone else donated a phone booth:

Day Two: It felt like we had just as much stuff.  We were major price slashers this day.

This is our small group (minus three people):

 Love these people and their hearts!


That brings us to today.  The first full Monday of Summer Break.  While I do have activities planned for these monkeys (and, whether they like it or not, it will involve some school work), this first week will be all about relaxing.

Day One was jam packed with TV, movies, and video games.