Two bargin items & more importantly....Father's Day

We had a FANTASTIC weekend!

First, on Saturday we celebrated Maggie's first birthday. Again, something so hard to believe...another year gone by. I spent the morning getting some things for her birthday...mostly waiting for Walmart to finish her PETITE cake....they called me at 6:30 a.m. b/c the woman who took my order failed to put any details on the order sheet other than the price. This cake is all of about 4 inches high....over 6 hours later I got the cake. They told me at 11:20 a.m. that it wasn't quite finished yet. At 10 to noon they told me they were just starting it...I got it 12:35. I was no longer quite sure why they called me at 6:30 a.m. acting like they had to know that second what the cake entailed. Anyhooo.....while going around getting a few things for the day's celebration I spotted a 'sale' at a local church. I pulled in and the woman told me a buck fifty for this:

I was so excited. I also found a brand new, not even opened, dvd of Sleeping Beauty.

We spent the afternoon grilling & eating (inside....way too hot out lately for anything outdoors unless there is a pool involved) & swimming. We headed to the "duck pool" that is finally open after a few repairs. The kids had a blast.

Sunday, we headed to Pigeon Forge for some shopping & a Tennessee Smokies game. We took the scenic route down to TN.

It was gorgeous...we stopped off at a scenic point.

We did a little shopping and then headed to the ball game. We knew that there was a small chance that rain was coming. It was a beautiful drive down. Sun, no rain. As soon as we made the left hand turn into the parking lot to shop....downpour. Soaking wet just getting the kids out of the van. It poured and then it cleared up. Blue sky, pretty clouds. We thought it had passed.

Nope.

We got to the ball park around 3:30 or so.

Since it was Father's Day they were allowing kids and their dads down on the fields to play catch. Wonderful! So we get our tickets (love that Molly is still free in the eyes of the Tennessee Smokies), get in the ball park and find our way down to the field. As soon as we step foot in the outfield it starts sprinkling.

Max seems to mind a bit more than I thought he would. He usually loves playing in the rain. Not on Sunday.

Molly seemed to just enjoy playing catch with her dad and didn't mind the rain.

We were a little bummed though that after about 2 or 3 throws back and forth between Molly & her daddy the clouds decided to dump everything they had on top of this ball field.

We headed over to the cafe in park and had an early dinner. The skies cleared and it was a great night for a ball game. It started an hour late but the kids didn't mind. They kept busy with little games that they had set up for all of the little ones there.

It ended up being a great Father's Day Night!

How blessed we are to have Aaron in our family. God is SO good!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MAGGIE GRACE!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

We LOVE you!!!!

Quiet boxes...

I was sent this idea from my sister. She got this idea from here. They are bins that they use for quiet time. Max has not taken a nap for quite some time. When Molly was a baby and still taking a nap herself, Max would go in his room for quiet time. Then we moved & away went Molly's nap & Max's quiet time. Maggie came and with them all sharing one room and it being right next to ours her nap time took priority over everything. So the kids ended up staying downstairs and playing. Good-bye to quiet time.
Now I really want quiet time back. I think I am going to put the older two in our room for some quiet time with their new daily boxes.

Each one has crayons, paper, books, puzzles, and then a special activity to do.
Such as:
stamps/stamp pads
foam sticker pieces with foam bookmarks, visors, doorknob hangers, etc.
doll that you dress (shown above...has different clothing for her....all magnetic...love it!)
dominos
lacing pieces (ours are farm animals)
beads & pipe cleaners (making bracelets & necklaces....swords, for Max)
Noahs Ark game
small coloring pads
colored clothespins (for sorting, pattern making, counting)

Got most of this stuff at the Dollar Store of course.
Oh...and I put our puzzles in zip loc bags. I cut the picture of the puzzle and then dump it all in a baggie. It helps with fitting the puzzle in the bin, but I started doing it several years agao after Max would destroy the box in which the puzzle came.

Have fun!
If you think of anything else fun & exciting to put in the boxes please let me know.

Fantastic info & some updated kiddo info....

...or at least I think so.
Have come across some FABULOUS sites, info, ideas, etc. over the past several days. Now that I am finally getting around to posting some of it, well, blogger is about to shut down. We'll see how much I get done before that happens. Ok...here goes....in no particular order of fabulousness:

• www.shiningdawnbooks.com They have nature themed books. I bought two of them at a homeschool fair yesterday. I purchased Hard as a Rock & Animal Signs. Go to their site to learn all about it.
• www.ourlifestyleoflearning.com An on-line forum for homeschooling moms.

(Yes, I'm sure you're noticing a theme & yes, Aaron and I have discussed homeschooling the kids. And, yes, I believe that we are going to do it. Very excited, scared, mostly psyched!!! )

• http://thecurriculumchoice.com/ Haven't had enough time to really explore the site, but I am looking forward to the few minutes I may have tonight/this a.m. to check it out.
• www.keeperofthehome.org This one I got from my sister. Again, haven't had too much time to get to far into it, but my dear sis did send this post to me. The kids and I ventured out to the Dollar Store tonight and got the bins and a few things to put inside of them. Looking forward to them working!

I know that there is more, but I can't find my list at the moment. I'm sure I'll think of it as soon as I shut the computer down.

Maggie is growing so big! Where did the past 51 weeks go? Only 6 more days until she is a big one year old! We recently started rolling the ball back and forth where she was getting the concept. She will smile so big and try so hard to roll that ball back only to have her little baby arms bring it right back to her. Tonight we were doing a little rolling and the kids and I would clap for her. Oh her smile was so big. Around the 4th time or so the kids and I didn't clap fast enough. She looked at us, smiled big & then clapped for herself. Then when she rolled it back I said, "Momma caught the ball. What do you do?" Maggie immediately started clapping. Oh, my heart. I love how little ones clap too. The take their arms all the way back, bring their arms forward & then barely connect their hands. LOVE IT!

I can't wait to celebrate her 1st birthday this weekend!

And it begins....

My baby girl is 12....almost 11....short days away from her 1st birthday.
Today her first biting victim was her sister.
Let me tell you that Molly was NOT happy.
Maggie LOVES Dora, Blues Clues, her Praise Baby videos & Veggie Tales.
Whenever one of these comes on the television her little body moves so fast to that t.v. that no one can catch her.
Now when she does this the other 2 kids feel threatened that she is going to change the channel, turn off the tv or dvd player, etc. etc. Well, Molly let her know that she did not like her racing up to the tv like that. This has been common in our house for some time so I didn't think much of it. Plus, Aaron was right there so I turned back into the kitchen to continue working on dinner.
Next thing I hear is crying. The crying is coming from Molly while Maggie's little body is right up to the tv looking happy as could be. She wasn't concerned with her sister at all.
I hear Molly bawling.
She says, cries rather, through her tears, "She bit me".
She is holding her arms and I didn't think I heard her correctly so I asked Aaron what she said.
Sure enough Molly's upper arm had 2 little almost 1 year old teeth marks on it.
I couldn't help but smile a little bit.
They have been picking on Maggie since the day she was born.
I guess she's had enough.
It begins...

Growing....

1st day of tball 5-24-08

1st day of tball.....5-16-09


1st day of school...8-20-08

Last day of school...5-21-09

May came and May went...

What a great month!!! We had company, headed north, visited with family, headed home, t-ball began, went to Florida and visited with my grandma.

Max's t-ball season kicked off on May 16th. He is really having a great time this year. The season seems to be shortened at bit, but that's ok with me. The t-ball games get a little long...I think for the kids and the parents :)

Max also finished up his first year of preschool. I know that according to the schools he is old enough to begin kindergarten in the fall, but I am so glad that we made the decision not to start him until he is 6. I can't imagine sending him off to kindergarten in a few short months. I can't believe that Molly will be going to preschool with him next year!

Florida was fantastic.

We hadn't seen my grandma since Molly's first birthday. It was so strange to visit with her and not have my grandpa there. In my whole life I never saw the 2 of them apart. They always did everything together.

Despite the sadness I felt when I gave myself a moment to think about it, the kids loved hanging out with their great-grandma. We went to the water park and the beach. I am convinced that if we lived near the beach the kids would live there all summer long.

Now June is here and we are struggling with looking at the empty calendar. Nothing to take our mind off of what might be, what we want to be. So we spend a lot of our time talking about what we'll do when we get back. Not so much time spent on what we'll do if we don't get back.