new grates

Nope, pretty sure that those new grates are NOT for your personal entertainment. Cards do NOT belong in them. Just thought I would let you know...

Treasure hunting

Most of you already know that my children are nature lovers, and that is putting it mildly. So the best part of the beach for them is collecting treasures. Most of which are living treasures.

I love watching them. They search for hours, help each other search, and jump for joy when a treasure is discovered and caught.

We discovered right away that we had forgot the kids goggles so we made a trip out to Walmart the next morning for goggles. You HAVE to have goggles when looking for treasures in the ocean!



The best time seemed to be during low tide. Which, by the way, I find the whole low tide/high tide thing amazing.

Katelyn found the biggest snail I had ever seen!

Connor became the master at catching fish with his net.

Then he would run over to his bucket and put the fish in to swim around with the other captured fish.

It was great when we were able to meet up with Eddie and Allison, Chris' cousin's children, for some time at their beach.

Their beach had an area with reeds so the kids were able to find some different treasures.

Like this amazing horseshoe crab. I had never seen one before. It must not have been Eddie's first time because he held him like a pro.

When their beach was at low tide the kids could walk out so far and never get very deep.

Connor took some of his very serious treasure hunting time to amuse me with a picture.

Even Ben tried to do some treasure hunting. He didn't catch anything this year but I bet by next year he will be catching all kinds of things. He thoroughly enjoyed the hermit crabs that others caught.

Maggie did catch a few hermit crabs but for the most part she enjoyed seeing what the others found.
They all took time to spend with their treasures, check them out, admire them, and then when it was time to go home they set them free.

It was a wonderful week for our four monkeys, doing what they love best, treasure hunting!

Sisters

Having a sister, or two, is one of the greatest gifts a girl can ever receive.
I remember when Katelyn was a baby I would always hope to have another girl so I could give her the gift of a sister. When I was pregnant with Maggie I hoped that she would be a girl so Katelyn could have a sister. Chris hoped she would be a boy so that Connor could have a brother, since he is a boy and had a brother. Honestly we didn't really care but we each hoped to kind of re-create what we had as kids.
As genetics, luck, or blessings have it we were able to have a set of sisters and a set of brothers. Perfect!
I love seeing my girls form their sisterly relationship with each other.

I love seeing them play together, sit together, read together, and just love each other. And they do.

Well, most of the time anyway :o)

A cold popsicle

There is nothing quite like

Eating a nice cold popsicle

On a hot

Summer day...

Wordless Wednesday Sandy feet

Wordless Wednesday

Our nana and pa

With out these two amazing people our beach vacation would not have been so wonderful! Actually it wouldn't have happened at all.

We are so lucky to have Nana and Pa in our lives!
Thank you so much for all that you do for Chris, me and the kids! We are so very grateful and filled with love for you both!

the end of our day at the beach

While we were on our vacation at the beach for a week we went for an after dinner walk almost every night.
It was a slow, pokey walk. Katelyn and I even took time to stop and smell the roses.

Half way through the walk we would stop at the ice cream shop to have some yummy ice cream. Or candy from the candy store. I can't tell you just how excited I was that the kiddie cone was just 85cents! We got 6, six, ice cream cones for under $6, you can not beat that!

After the ice cream we would take some time to visit the birds that lived across the street.

The big white bird was so entertaining. If the kids danced so did he, and I will tell you, he had some serious rhythm going!

Finally we would continue on through a park and past the beach. It was a wonderful end to our fantastic days!

Don't fret, we've just been at the beach...

I am not lost...

I have not stopped writing my blog...

It's just that we have been away for a week at the beach and just got home last night. It was a wonderful trip and I have so many things to share about it!

I need to do some organizing of all the amazing pictures that I took and figure out where to start...

Not Me Monday...

Edited to add, I guess MckMama is not going to do "Not me Monday for a while" but I can't resist...
MckMama started a carnival blog called "Not Me Monday" in which she admits to some things that she "did not do". Which really she did do but... Do you get it??? I'm not so great at explaining these things....


So today I will be joining in the fun for the very first time!

It was absolutely not me who allowed my one year old son to leave my side for a minute while I was watching a show with his big sister. It also didn't take me a minute before I went to find him because he was making his "I'm getting into trouble laugh" in the other room.

And there is NO WAY that he was INSIDE the toilet when I found him!

And, had I found my one year old son in the toilet I would definitely not have laughed at him which is sure to encourage such behavior in the future. Not Me!

Not to mention even if I had found Ben INSIDE the toilet I would NEVER actually blog about it so that everyone can see! Not Me!

I would never have listened to my 8 year old when she said, "Wait Mom, leave him in there while I go get the camera so we can take pictures of him!" Definitely Not Me!

No, I would never have had this happen to my toddler, in my house, on my watch, I am way to careful for that! Nope, Not Me!

(On a more serious note: I thanked God that he was butt/leg in the toilet not head in, that could have been terrible!)

A gift

Quite a few years ago I was digging through my mom's sewing patterns when I came across this picture.... It was not too long before Christmas so I brought it to a picture place and convinced them to blow it up for me and reprint it. It was professionally taken so on the back of the picture it said it was copyrighted and could not be reproduced. When I pointed out that I was one of the little girls in the picture and I had no idea where it could have been taken the nice gentleman helped me out.

I blew it up, made copies for my siblings, framed them all and wrapped them up for Christmas. It was so hard to wait until Christmas to give them to my family!

Stephanie, Me

Jen, and Charles

Taken in 1981 (I think)

I would say that it was one of the best gifts I have ever given to my parents. It so happens that they had not seen this picture in many years and thought it was gone forever. My mom had the picture taken when my dad was over in Korea for a year with the Army.

I too "misplaced" the picture when we moved from our condo to the house and it was still tucked away in a box of Dreamsicles that I had never unpacked. It was nice to find it today. On a day when I am tired and have sick kids it brought a smile to my face!

I love finding lost treasures!

Proud American Cowgirl

Here is

My

Proud

American

Cowgirl

Wordless Wednesday

Today

is
wordless


Wednesday

Not that I have ever done a "wordless Wednesday" but decided to do one today...

Me and Kate-MaGate

Me and my Kate-MaGate went to the movies yesterday afternoon. Our whole family, well minus Ben but I am sure he will come around when he gets older, is a big fan of the cartoon "Avatar the Last Air Bender". Recently they came out with a movie based on the cartoon and we just had to see it.

Chris took Maggie and Connor last week but Katelyn was busy at her summer camp so she couldn't go. Just as well though because she and I got to make special Mom and Kate time out of it.

We went to Chunky's which is basically a dinner and a movie place. When we first arrived I saw a photo booth and just had to get pictures with my girl!

Then we went in, moved from table to table, seat to seat, to find the perfect one. We got settled in and looked at the menus, ordered lunch, popcorn and soda. The movie started and we ate while we watched. Katelyn finished off her lunch with an Oreo cookie sundae!

The movie was OK. In my opinion they could have made it a lot better but that's fine, we still had a great time!

I loved spending some time with just my Kate-MaGate!

What's Ben listening to?

What do you think this little guy is listening to???

A little Dora the Explorer...

Water park

Our day at the water park....

We played in the "man-made lake".

With goggles the kids could see all kinds of things under the water...

And when lips turned blue and were shivering we wrapped up in our towel.

Although, now that I think about it, Connor was the only one that got cold. Since he's only skin and bones it's not surprising...

Ben loved the day...

The kids played out on this big blow up raft that reminds us so much of the show "Wipe-out". It was fun but stressful watching the kids out there with Chris.

(Then after a little boy got caught UNDER the raft and almost drowned I was even more stressed about it! Just another reminder to ALWAYS watch your children VERY CLOSE when anywhere near water!)

OK, let's go back to FUN things about the day!

Maggie and Ben enjoyed this little slide very much!

At one point Katelyn and Connor spent a few minutes pouting on the chair because they were told they couldn't wear their goggles while on the big slides. Thankfully with Chris and I completely ignoring them they quickly came out of it and began having fun again.

Keeping up with Ben was no easy feat, we took turns with that!

He cracked me up when he kept trying to drink the water out of this little "spout pad". I would like to believe that since the water was constantly running it couldn't be too bad. I think I will go with that...

Wow, that water is COLD, good thing it was a hot day.

Then we spent more time at the lake. For added safety when the kids went out to the big raft we had them wear life jackets.

Connor spent most of the time "fishing" with nets at the lake. He was thrilled when he finally caught one!

Ben took a little nap on my lap.

I thought about trying to put him in the stroller for his nap but decided to enjoy the moment with my babe. I don't often have this opportunity and wanted to savor it.

Once Ben woke up we went to the snack bar and had some yummy treats!

After two "bomb pops" Ben's swim shirt is no longer all white but that's OK since Ben enjoyed it very much.

Finally Chris took the older three monkeys over to the slides for a few more trips down before we left.

He came down first....

Then came Connor....

And finally Maggie...

I missed Katelyn's adventure down the slide but captured her and Connor right after they jumped into the pool.

It was a PERFECT day at the water park!!!