Playing Catch-Up (JUNE)

I have missed SOOOO many posts over the last few months, simply because our lives have gone from BUSY to CRAZY since May. So I thought I'd take a few days this week and play a little catch-up. I'll start with June:

Seth had his 1st grade awards day at the beginning of June. Here he is with his award, "Best Sense of Humor." Who knew?!



Here are my three favorite kiddos with my very favorite guy. This was on Father's Day. They are very blessed because this Daddy's the BEST! And I think this picture's super cute because they all have Sunday-morning-sleepy-eyes. (Oh, and this was also the time that Luke was going through his baby doll phase. Much to his Daddy's relief, we have now graduated to the lego phase.)



I think this one's pretty cute too because of Seth's expression. He just looks so proud of his card! He worked really hard on it.



Seth turned 7 this month! We were going to be at camp on his actual birthday, so we gave him his present early...a new bike. He rode it all aroud the campground all week.



I couldn't bake him a cake for his birthday since we were at camp, so I took a ton of Little Debbie cakes & built one! We surprised him with it & all the students sang to him. He doesn't like being the center of attention, but I could tell he felt pretty special.



Here's the whole family after we sang to Seth. (Luke was enjoying his Cheetos, if you couldn't tell.)



On his actual birthday, we went to Burger King for lunch. They all wore birthday crowns in his honor. :)



The week after camp, Shane took Seth & three of his best friends to Chuck-E-Cheese. Seth thought he was big stuff because I kept Kallie & Luke home with me. It was an all boy party!





After about a week's worth of birthday activities, we could tell that Kallie was feeling a little left out, so Shane suggested that I take her out for a "special day." We try to do this from time to time with each of them, but it had been a while since I'd taken Kallie out. We ended up going to Libby Lu in the mall, where she dressed up as a fairy princess, had her hair, nails & makeup done, and got a backpack full of cute trinkets from the store. She LOVED it!








Stay tuned...MAY is next!

This is what happens when...

...you leave 6 & 7 year old boys unattended.



So Seth & his buddy Ethan are obsessed with really enjoy the game Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii. Today, Ethan was over playing, and they decided to take a Sharpie (!!!!!) and make themselves look like their favorite characters. Seth is Wolf & Ethan is Fox. At first they were going to make masks, but then decided this was a better idea. Unfortunately, Seth's character required much more coloring than Ethan's. Surprisingly, it came off with just a little scrubbing, although I think the fingernails will be black on the edges for a while. Oh, and Seth made that same face in every single picture. It must be a "Wolf" face. BOYS.

Hello there, Mr. Blue Eyes...

After I posted the picture above of Luke, I started playing around with old pictures. Here's a fun little comparison...
(You can click on it to make it bigger.)



People tell me all the time how much they all look alike, but I think they're all so different! From Seth's pointy little nose, to Kallie's cute cleft in her chin, to Luke's big, round eyes...

They are such individuals! I am feeling especially blessed & thankful today. They are such a gift.

Sniffy

***UPDATE***: I am happy to announce that Sniffy Lucy is back with her family! Her owner saw our signs in the neighborhood & called us this afternoon. And the kids didn't even cry when she left. (Oh, and Kallie eventually decided that she'd rather play with the dog & just deal with the hives. She spent the day finding ways to play with Sniffy without actually touching her.)

So late last night (about 11:30) as I was in my car, I came across this little dog on our street. I backed up and watched for a minute to see if anyone was with her. Nope. So I went home to get Shane. We walked back down, and after realizing that she didn't have a collar or tag, we brought her home with us & let her sleep in the laundry room.

She is super small & very expensive-looking. I'm sure her owners are looking for her today. We posted signs in our neighborhood & will just wait for someone to call us.

The kids woke up and were immediately love-struck with "Sniffy", as Kallie named her (since she sniffs everything). We took her for a walk through the neighborhood (she sat on Seth's lap in the double stroller) and asked everyone who was out if they recognized her. No luck. We brought her back to our house & let the kids play for a while.

Well, all of a sudden Sniffy started living up to her name in more ways than one, when we realized Kallie was having an allergic reaction. She broke out in hives and was all itchy and...sniffy. Back to the laundry room poor Sniffy had to go. Kallie went from, "I love Sniffy soooooo much!" to "I don't want that dog here with us ANYMORE" in about 30 minutes.

Sniffy has to go. Hopefully she will be reunited with her owners very soon so that we don't have to take her to a shelter.

A day on the lake...

We really wanted to take the boat out on the 4th, but we knew that would be crazy because of the crowds, so we went today! It turned out to be a very smart move...we had the whole lake to ourselves! We picked up this kid-friendly tube from Walmart to tow behind the boat. They all three LOVED it! Here's Seth & Kallie on its maiden voyage...


Luke couldn't be held off for long...here's Luke & Mommy!


Seth had a blast. He would have tubed all day long. And he loved being in the water. Lake water....eeeeewwwww.


Kallie is a girly-girl and not really the outdoors type. She enjoyed the tubing, but after a few hours she was ready to go home.


This is how Shane muscled Luke in and out of the boat. Luke is a wild man. He was wanting to jump off the sides of the boat while it was stopped and walk around while it was going. He made me nervous.


We tried letting all three kids ride together, but it only lasted about two minutes. Kallie couldn't keep Luke sitting down in the tube.


Cooling off...


And this was the finale...
I don't think I have been on a pair of water skiis in at least 10 years, maybe more. I have to say, it was F*U*N! But I think this mommy is going to be sore tomorrow.

Redneck Fireworks

Fireworks are illegal in our city, so Shane ran up to the store hoping to at least find some sparklers for the kids. Nope. So this was what he came home with.

Step #1: Put dry ice in water bottle


Step #2: Fill with water


Step #3: Cover your ears!!


Step #4: Put the lid back on & throw it over the fence


Step #5: Squeal with delight!!!


He had a little too much fun with it. I keep telling him that knowing how to make dry ice bombs doesn't make you a scientist. Yes folks, he's preaching on Sunday.