State Fair

Jeff was off early one afternoon so we took the kids out to the state fair. It was fun to go through and see all the farm animals. We were able to watch them being shown and go around and see all the ribbon winning animals. Jacob and Caleb loved the goats.
Emily also found a darling baby goat that wasn't much bigger than a cat. I liked the small cute animals much better than the pigs that's for sure!
After walking around seeing all the animals, we went over to the carnival part of the fair. They're always way over-priced, and sometimes I think it must be a requirement or something for fair workers to have a cigarette in their hands at all time, but we got a few tickets and let the kids pick a few of their favorite rides. I don't know who has more fun, the kids or the parents watching them!

I got lucky and got to take both Caleb and Matthew on the Ferris wheel. I love that ride! Emily's favorite was definitely the bounce house. It's hard to take a picture through a big screen window, but she was in heaven in that place!

Because we were there during the afternoon, the fair wasn't all that busy yet. It was nice because we didn't really have to wait in any lines. Jeff & Matthew took Jacob & Caleb on in the bumper cars. It's a little trickier to bump people when there's only two cars out there, but they had fun and were actually able to drive around.

We finished up our tickets just as the place started to get really busy, and headed home for Caleb's back to school night. It was fun to spend the afternoon together.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We decided to take the kids to a baseball game one summer night. The boys love watching baseball, especially the major league teams- and especially the Phillies. Obviously we don't have that option much anymore, but we thought a local team would be fun too. The day was perfect! Not too hot or too cold, and the stands weren't too crowded either.
Jeff had to work later than expected, so I took the kids up by myself for the first half of the game. It was going great at first, but pretty soon Matthew and Emily decided that sitting there watching a baseball game wasn't as much fun as running all around the place. Jeff still wasn't there, and I'm lucky that Jacob and Caleb can be good sitting by themselves while I keep an eye on these two!
They had a blast running all over the place. They were a little crazy!
I was thrilled when Jeff made it during the 5th inning. Not because I couldn't do it alone, but because I knew Jacob and Caleb would be so excited to sit and watch with him.
Emily was pretty excited to see daddy and wanted to go sit on his lap for almost the rest of the game.


With Emily sitting with Jeff, it let me focus my attention on Matthew. He didn't have too much interest in the game at this point, but he did think it was hilarious to take videos and pictures of himself. Then he would watch them and just laugh and laugh. This kid is pretty dang funny.
By the time we hit the 8th inning, it was pretty late and Matthew and Emily were definitely ready to head home for bed. So I took the two younger kids home a little early while Jeff, Jacob, and Caleb stayed to watch the rest of the game. Our team won and it was a great night!

Afternoon at the Zoo

One Friday afternoon, my friend Shelly and I decided to take our kids to the zoo. It ended up being the perfect day for it- not as hot, and not too crowded. That was great because we had 10 kids between the two of us, so they were able to run all over the place and just have fun. Alot of the animals were even out and about, which made it even more fun.

Jacob and Kaylin have become great friends. They're only 5 months apart and have similar personalities.

There was a peacock putting on a pretty good show for us.He was trying to attract a girlfriend, but it was fun to watch him with his feathers all spread out anyway.

This little girl is a girly-girl. She already has some funny little poses and definite personality.

It was fun to spend the afternoon with friends. The kids had fun running around, and as was to be expected, most of them were asleep before we even got home.

Pool Fun

Apparently playing in an empty pool is almost as fun as playing in one filled with water. The kids were out on the deck and pretty soon started a game of dancing in the empty pool. Emily thought it was so funny, and they were all out there just laughing.
Don't you just love the 'glass slipper' look of the jelly shoes? These have been some of Emily's favorites. She is always bringing them to me to put on her.

Comic Relief

With all that's been going on in the political world and all the financial issues our country is having, I thought this comic was pretty good.

Caleb

Any guesses as to what might have happened to Caleb?

If you guessed that Jeff pulled out a tooth, you'd be right! Jeff has an issue with teeth that are barely hanging on- whether or not the child is ready for them to come out. It led to a pretty dramatic aftermath. The funny thing is that this is the 2nd tooth Caleb has lost. A few weeks ago after coming home from church, we realized that Caleb was missing a tooth! He didn't even know it had fallen out.
Jacob was pretty helpful with the ordeal, and once he explained to Caleb that pulling the tooth was equal to free money from the tooth fairy, Caleb decided it wasn't as bad as he originally thought. Caleb definitely adds a lot of life to our family!

Improvising

It's been a hot summer around here. Not just hot, but hot and humid which makes a big difference! It's brought back a lot of memories of muggy Philadelphia summers. It hasn't been uncommon to have days near 100, with humidity taking the heat index temperature ("feels like") to 110-115. On those days, it cools down at night to a balmy 85 degrees. It sure has made running a beast! Some days I've waited to go run until 10pm after dark, and it's still over 90.

Anyway, when it's like this the kids don't even want to run around outside because it's way too hot- so the activity of choice becomes water in all forms- hoses, water fights, water guns, sprinklers, whatever. I wanted to get a little plastic wading pool, but by this time they were out of stock everywhere! While we waited for them to get back in stock at the stores, we improvised with big bowls of water out on the deck. Matthew and Emily loved to sit out on the deck eating popsicles and playing with toys in the big bowls of water.

One afternoon I guess just playing in the water wasn't cutting it for Emily. One minute she was sitting there playing nicely, the next minute this is what I saw.

Either she decided it wasn't enough to just play in it with her hands, or she thought it looked like a small version of a swimming pool, or it was just too dang hot. Either way, she decided it was more fun to be IN the bowl. I guess I should have expected it and just put her in her swimming suit first, but I thought it was funny and pretty cute. She sure was pleased with herself too.

(That is, until she decided the feeling of a 10 lb diaper wasn't all that nice... :)

Sunday Best

I've learned a few things having a daughter.

Girls take longer to get ready on Sunday mornings,

but it's also a lot more fun to get your little daughter all dressed up and ready for church!

I know I've put lots of pictures up of pretty much the same thing, but I couldn't resist. Emily was finally big enough for this little dress I found on clearance a while back and I was smitten. I don't know that there is anything cuter than a little girl all dolled up and ready for church. This tan, blue-eyed, blonde princess is my little ray of sunshine!

Latest Project- Calendar Frame

Our new home doesn't have a lot of wall space in the kitchen area, and I was having a hard time figuring out where to put my calendar. I had it in the washroom for a while, but it was driving me crazy not being able to see it all the time. The problem was I didn't like the look of hanging the plain old calendar right on the wall by the formal dining room. I thought a frame would be a good solution to help dress it up a little. I found some online, but they wanted almost $40 for them so I decided to see if I could make my own.

At Home Depot, I picked up a cheap baseboard for .44 cents a foot. Fortunately, Jeff has a power saw for all the work he's been doing in the basement, so I took some measurements and started cutting. After cutting all the pieces, I glued them with wood glue, then stapled them in the back to make sure they'd hold.

Then came the sanding & painting. The longest part of the project was waiting for the paint to dry. Finally I sprayed a finishing coat on them and attached some sturdy cardboard with finished edges (also painted) to the back and stapled it to the frame. I attached a picture hanger to the back and this was the finished product.

And of course, added the calendar.

I was happy with how the project turned out. It was cheap, quick, and easy. (And I survived my first project attempt with power tools. :) Mostly I like how it makes the calendar look a little nicer hanging on the wall.

Visit from the Stevens

During the last week of July, we had some fun visitors! Amanda had been out visiting her parents on their mission and asked if they could stop by our place on their long drive home, no questions there! After the family reunion, our kids kept asking when they would get to see their cousins again and were so excited when they found out that a few of the Stevens cousins would be coming to spend the night.

Scott, Amanda, Isaac, Eliza, Tommy and Gideon made to our house about 9:30pm. And that's when all the fun started. The kids were so happy to see each other and immediately started up a game of cops and robbers outside. They had a blast running around with all their gear. That gave us time to catch up with Scott and Amanda. We gave them the tour of our place and enjoyed visiting together.

Matthew and Gideon are hilarious together. These two little boys are exactly 2 weeks apart in age. They're such good buddies, and love spending time together. Matthew usually tells me one of two things, 1- that Gideon is his best friend or 2- that Gideon is his brother. Their little personalities just click and they're usually best of friends. It makes me laugh hearing their conversations- these two are so funny.
I don't know many people who have a greater appreciation for a good back rub than Scott or Jeff. I love watching these two together too.
The sleeping arrangement worked out pretty well. We had beds available, but none of the kids wanted to sleep away from each other so we ended up just lining them all up in a row in the basement. Everyone slept pretty well that night.
It was pretty late by the time we got everyone in bed, but they were having so much fun together we hated to break it up. They were still up fairly early the next morning and the fun started all over again for the couple hours the Stevens were able to stay before taking off. It was sad to see them leave, but we were so glad they were even able to make the stop. We sure love our family and are grateful for any time we can spend together.

Red Neck Afternoon

Well, if I'm ever needing a good laugh, all I have to do is come back to the pictures of the afternoon we decided to take the kids to a fun local splash park. I probably shouldn't even do a post on it- but we have to remember the funny parts of life too right?

I should give a little background on the series of events leading up to the afternoon. Jeff and I had heard about this little splash park/wading pool that was nearby and thought it would be fun to take the kids, so we made plans to go on a Saturday. I've been training for a marathon and knew that I also had to do a 15-mile run that morning. So we decided that I would leave early to do my run, Jeff would get the kids ready while I ran and then we would meet up at a park where I would finish and just drive to the splash park together.

Sounds simple enough, but it can be tricky to get 4 kids up and ready and out the door with everything packed. Especially when dad is playing the solo role for the morning. I finished the run, we met up at the park and drove to the splash park. We were even early- 15 minutes before it opened. The fun came when it was time to get everyone in their swimsuits.

If you look closely at the picture above and below, you might notice that Matthew is sporting a nice looking pair of cut-off jean shorts. A pair of cut-off jean shorts that had only days before been his ragged jeans. Somehow Matthew's swimsuit had been left at home. He was pretty sad about having to get in the pool with his shorts. I was just trying to get him to get in fast before anyone saw those ragged cut-offs and didn't let him go in. I was already feeling a little white trash at this point with my 3-year old swimming in his blue jean cutoff shorts. But it only gets better...
Jeff came out of the bathroom with a concerned look on his face and let me know that Emily's swimsuit was also missing! Somehow in the hustle and bustle of the morning, he had left her swimsuit at home. Luckily, he had remembered the swim diaper though. At this point we didn't really know what to do. We were far enough from home that we didn't want to go back, and the boys were already swimming, and Emily was dying to get in the water. I didn't have the heart to keep her out, so we pulled a true redneck moment.

Jeff had brought my swimsuit- and I really didn't want to put Emily in the pool in just a swim diaper, so we left her little shorts on and put my tankini top on her. Take a look.
It's not everyday you see a 16-month old baby sporting a Victoria Secret swim top. I did have enough sense to take out the removable padding, because come on- everyone would have known they were fake! (sorry...couldn't resist) I was really hoping that Emily would just stay in the water and play and blend in with the other kids. Of course though, she kept wanting to get out to go from one pool to another-she and her cutoff jean swimsuit clad brother. I was dying, and I'm sure everyone was wondering who in the heck brought their kids to the pool looking like that. But it gets better...

At this point we were starting to notice Emily's shorts getting bigger and bigger. As it turns out, Jeff had not grabbed a swim diaper, he hadn't even grabbed a regular diaper. In his hurry, he had grabbed a lone, random Pull-Up. Do you know what pull-ups are for? They're designed with the same purpose as a diaper, except that they hold a LOT more pee. Oh yes, not only was our daughter wearing her mother's massive tankini top, and her own khaki shorts, she was also wearing a 15 pound Pull-Up instead of a swim diaper that was growing bigger by the second! After twenty minutes, it was so heavy she could barely walk from one pool to the other. That's when I finally drew the line. We could NOT stay any longer. I knew at any minute I was going to get a visit from one of the teenage lifeguards that we had made a few too many dress code violations.

So Jeff was a sweet daddy (and I think he felt a little guilty about forgetting all the swimsuits) so he ran home with Emily to get her swimsuit, Matthew's swimsuit, a swim diaper, and some food. By the time he got back the boys were ready to leave the pool. So we hung out at the park for a while and enjoyed some lunch. Once again Emily was probably not properly dressed for the occasion, but she loved playing in the dirt. She really wasn't eating it, but somehow managed to get it all over her face.

It wasn't exactly the afternoon I had imaged at the splash park, and yes I know I'm probably giving way too much information and should probably skip it and try to preserve a 'good mother' image, but I just thought it was so funny. I was so embarrassed at the time I wanted to die, but as I look back at the pictures I can't do anything but laugh. It was definitely a memorable afternoon.