Say What?

Connor came into the bathroom a few mornings ago and proclaimed, "Mom, you really need to go to the grocery store. We only have 4 boxes of cereal left!" If that isn't a picture of the typical American kid, I don't know what is.

Update

Well, we had a little talk on Monday evening with Kaelynn about having self-control and respecting and trusting her teacher. I also talked to her teacher on Tuesday and asked her to hold off on making her put her head in the water until she was a little more comfortable with the situation. The teacher was very receptive to that and I am very happy to report that swimming lessons were 100% better on Tuesday. There were no tears, no screaming and she actually laughed and had fun a majority of the time. I think I've convinced her to try to put her mouth in the water and blow bubbles today- we'll see!!!

The fun begins.....

After two weeks of rain-outs, we finally had T-ball today. When I woke up the sky looked pretty dark, but it blew over and the sun came out. The boys are on the Red Sox and they are one of 3 sets of twins on the team. One of the coaches is the mother of one of the sets of twins so she's doing a pretty good job at keeping them all straight. It's not easy though! The boys really did well! They hit the ball well, made a couple of catches and threw the ball to other teammates to get a couple of people out. It was fun to watch and cheer them on. Carson did really well at catching grounders as seen below. The ball Carson hit is not the one on the ground in the bottom of the picture. He had a great hit here :)

Connor is left-handed, so catching is a little more tricky for him, but he did really well!

Connor also did really well hitting the ball. Thanks for all the practice dad!

By the end, Connor was pretty warm and tired. He was put on third base and decided to take a little break.

Connor as 3rd baseman and Carson trying to get home.

We also started swimming lessons yesterday. Connor and Carson had a great time and did very well. Kaelynn on the other hand didn't have a great experience. She has never dunked her head under the water- not even in the bathtub. The instructor pretty much forced her to do it and it did not go over well. She screamed and cried the whole rest of the lesson. She upset one of the other little girls in her class and there were quite a few comments that I overheard from others in the stands talking about her and why she was freaking out so much. It's hard to know what to do in that situation. Do I remove her from the situation or do I make her push through it? I decided to make her push through it. There's something to be said for teaching her self-control in that situation, but she also was pretty scared.

I'm going to talk to her instructor today and explain why she was freaking out and hopefully she can have a better day today.

Buffalo River camping

Iam happy to report the camping trip was a success. The Tylenol PM did help and I was thankful that I remembered to pack it at the last second- especially since there were very active train tracks less than a mile away from the campground. I still heard the birds, but was able to go back to sleep. We did have a fun time! We went with John and Kami and their three kids- Sam, Oliver, and Lauren. We also went with Kenyon and Ginger and their two kids Talia and Aiden. The kids are very close in age and they all did very well together. While we were setting up camp, the kids played some whiffle-ball and had fun exploring the woods and hiking trails a little. Carson, Aiden, and Sam were on a whiffle-ball team. Kaelynn and Talia

Sweet Lauren.....

Andy, John, Kami, and Ginger

After a dinner of beef brisket and all the fixin's (absolutely delicious) the kids and men went to explore the river for some good fishing. They did catch a couple of river fish.

Kaelynn stayed very entertained with all of the caterpillars around the campground. There were lots!!! She has two on her hand...

We ended the evening with a good fire and yummy s'mores!

On Saturday we took the kids to the man-made swimming hole in the campgrounds. It was great and we will be coming back here since it's free and only 20 minutes away.

Making a habitat for the caterpillar

It was a great trip. This was the scene when we pulled into our driveway Monday afternoon.

Optimism

We are soon heading off for a night of camping with two other families. I am very much hoping this camping trip will be much more enjoyable than the last one we took. I will have some great company and there are lots of kids for ours to be entertained by. With those two things alone, I am very optimistic about this overnight........... One thing I am still not optimistic about is the singing birds at 4:30am. Once I am awake, I am awake. I am not one to fall in and out of sleep very easily. I'm hoping Tylenol PM will be the one to conquer the singing birds until at least 6:00am....... Check back, pics to come......

Summer of leisure...I'm thinking not a chance!

Remember the days when the word summer evoked thoughts of boredom and lazy days? Not anymore!!!!! We are in the full swing of summer and the thought of a lazy summer day sounds really, really good right now. With T-ball, swimming lessons, VBS, library activities, playdates with friends and lots of family time to come, things keep hopping at our house. I'm having a blast!!! And at the same time am looking forward to October when life MIGHT be a little slower at least until the holidays :0). My intake of caffeine has increased exponentially from a year ago! I am sooooo very thankful for the opportunities that God is giving me to pour into some lives in all of these happenings. We had our first day of VBS today and it was pure joy to stand on the stage and watch 200+ kids raise their hands in worship of the God who created them. It gets me sooo pumped up to teach them what a life of worship looks like and to get them excited to worship God in a new and fresh way. Thank you God for using me! I am very excited to meet some other T-ball parents and to see what opportunities God might give me in that sphere of influence. So as we press on through the busyness of life, I pray that my focus will not turn inward on my circumstances, but will always be looking to how God might use me to serve someone else or to teach my children more about him, or to tell someone about the greatest gift I have ever been given!

Celebrating 10 years of marriage!

Andy and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on May 20th. It's hard to believe it has been that long. In the beginning of our marriage I had dreams of going to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary, but 3 children later am thinking it might be more realistic to celebrate 40 years there. We decided to go to Duluth, MN and the north shore which I think at this stage of life is even better than Hawaii. It was so peaceful and quiet. It was absolutely beautiful and was so refreshing for our relationship and for our souls. We drove to Duluth last Sunday evening and stayed one night in the Radisson Hotel. We enjoyed a good dinner at the famous Grandmas including their famous onion rings (the half order is plenty for 2 people, by the way). On Monday we enjoyed a drive up the north shore. It was pretty foggy, but the drive was still beautiful. We hiked at Gooseberry Falls and Cascade State Park. We saw beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous views. Our resort was absolutely beautiful. It was right on the shoreline of Lake Superior and had some really pretty views! On Tuesday we went to Grand Marais and enjoyed a little shopping and sight seeing there. We enjoyed a peacful afternoon and a very beautiful sunset that evening. We drove home on Wednesday through the Superior National Forest. Andy had to move a tree that was blocking the road and we got to see a black bear and a wolf.

This was the view from our resort room. A lot of the day was foggy, but it cleared off at night and was so pretty!

A lighthouse in Grand Marais

A waterfall in Cascade State Park.

Gooseberry Falls

This was right outside our resort room as well.

It was a perfect way to celebrate what God has given to us. We are so incredibly blessed and are more in love today than when we said "I do". We know that it is by God's grace that we can say that and give Him the glory!!!