Squeaky Clean!

Mommy likes these kinds of evening activities! I've the best crew around! :o)

Love the milk mustache in this picture! :o)

Yes, Peter loved using the hose, and yes, both Daddy and Hannah got wet. :o) No big surprise there! :o)

Great job!! Thanks, munchkins (and Daddy munchkin, too!) :o)

Scissors, Paper, . . .

Peter likes scissors . . . a lot. :o) We've established some ground rules so Mommy can "relax" a little bit. Basically, he has to be sitting at the table in order to use them. However, he now has his very own pair (I picked them up at a Back-to-School sale for 79 cents!) :o) Thought these pictures were too cute to keep to myself. :o)

He's wearing the tousled "I just woke up from nap and Mommy hasn't brushed my hair yet" look. :o)

And Hannah loves paper. Lots of it. Wait, let me repeat that . . . Hannah loves paper. LOTS of it. :o) A chart system we'd been using in Children's Church needed to be switched, so we had lots of extra charts, which Hannah claimed. This particular afternoon she was playing "Sidewalk." You had to walk across the floor without touching the floor--only paper. :o) I guess games don't change a whole lot in 20+ years--I think I remember playing my own versions of that game! :o)

They're happy, Mommy's happy.

And for the record, Hannah cleaned up all of her papers by herself. :o) Not that she always does that, but she did this time. :o)

Meet our Hawk

We are privileged to share our trees and creek with a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks. :o) Here's some pictures we caught of the male (?) last evening sitting on the old clothes line pole.

The information at AllAboutBirds.org indicates that it "is perhaps the most vocal American hawk." (Click on "Typical Voice" to hear what they sound like.) Well, I don't have anything to compare it to, but they are definitely vocal! We hear them very regularly and it's probably our most solid identifying factor! Pretty special if you ask me! :o)

The Conundrum

So, what do you do when Mommy and Daddy are very tired from a long week, and the kids, well . . . aren't?

You find something fun that requires very little energy . . . like making smores and paper airplanes! :o)

Yep, this was the ideal position of the day . . . :o)

And everybody knows that men like fire. :o)
And tickling is good, too!

"No, I won't smile for pictures, I won't, I won't . . . "

And paper airplanes are always fun! (Especially when they're designed by an engineer who can actually make them aerodynamic enough to fly!) (HINT: Googling "paper airplane designs" is pretty helpful, too!)

Preparing for take off . . .

The launch . . .

And retrieval . . .

Awww, thanks for the smile, Pumpkin!

And Mommy's job . . . (I happen to absolutely love Smores!)

Oooohh . . . marshmallows! On a STICK! :o)

Careful over the coals . . .

"Airplanes are actually better than Smores, Mommy, IMHO . . . "

NOPE! They don't hold a candle to properly prepared Smore! Mmmmm!

I specifically took this picture because fifteen years down the road when he's taller than me, I want to look back and remember that once upon a time, he was little.

Getting brave!

Yep, that's enough to make Mommy's heart jump in her throat! But oh how fun! :o)

Altogether a fun, low-stress evening. :o)

Splish Splash!

I usually go grocery shopping on Thursday afternoons after the kids get up from naps, but with VBS last week, that got postponed till Saturday, and since I had extra stops to make, the kids enjoyed "Daddy time" while Mommy enjoyed "shopping by myself without answering a gazillion questions every minute and explaining every second stop on the aisle that 'no, that's not on Mommy's list'"time. Actually, I exagerate. Overall, the kids are pretty good shoppers, but they do have their "moments." And regardless, of how you slice it or dice it, it's much faster to shop without a 2 and 4 year old. :o) So, that being said . . .

This is what happened while Mommy was away . . .

The pool was freshly filled and very cold.

As was the sprinkler.

Peter finally got a little more cautious in his water endeavors. :o)

I don't think anybody missed the shopping trip. :o) Thanks, Daddy!

VBS, P.S.

1. Peter's last night of VBS went much better than his previous evenings! He actually made it through the whole evening in his own class and had fun! Yeah for enthusiastic teachers! :o)

2. Hannah earned first place points for the Beginners group . . . Good job, Pumpkin! :o)

She is so excited about her new Bible!! :o) She's actually been asking us to read from her "big" Bible instead of her children's story Bible for devotions each night. :o)

Exciting stuff! :o)

On marriage and family . . .

"When I'm big like a mommy, I'm going to marry Peter. He won't be my brother anymore because he'll be a daddy. 'Bbbb - Bbbb - Bbbb - Brother, Dddd - Dddd - Dddd - Daddy.' See, they're different. So it's okay."

Hannah, age 4 yrs 2 months

Vacation Bible School!

So what really kept us busy this week? . . .

Vacation Bible School!

This was Hannah's first year in "big" VBS and she has absolutely loved it! We've been helping with VBS every year since before she was born, so it's really special to be able to see her so thoroughly enjoying it. (With two little ones we obviously can't help with as much of the planning and prep work as we used to, but they're still using some of the basic stuff we helped create before Hannah was born!)

Peter, on the other hand, would much rather have a normal week where he can spend time with Daddy in the evenings after work. This business of going to church every single night and going to the 2's & 3's class is for the birds (or penguins? It's a polar theme . . . ) Anyway, we're working with that since Chris and I are team leaders . . . Tonight's the last night, and I don't think Peter will be too sorry.

Here's Peter with a balloon hat . . .

And hanging out with Daddy during the closing time . . .

We have had fun in the car, though, practicing our Bible verses and listening to Camp Kookawacka Woods. Peter was bouncing to the "camp food" song--here's the first picture I took on the "normal" setting . . .

And here's the second one on the "action" setting. He was having fun! :o)

And here's Hannah! Like I said, she has had a blast! :o) She and I are both "blue polar bears" and Thursday evening was "Dress Like Your Team Mascot" day . . . (Yeah, 95+ deg heat is NOT conducive to dressing for an arctic theme!)

Here's the opening . . . (Hannah's the blond head sitting in the front row next to the teacher on the left end.)

And the puppets with Popsicle the Penguin. :o)

And here's Hannah coming back in after the activities for the closing. :o) Do you think she's having fun??? :o)

And one final pic of our little polar bear with the paws she made during craft time . . . :o)

Brrrr!

EE in Training

Well, this picture was too cute to pass up! :o) Here's Daddy's little electrical engineer in training . . .

If Peter's awake, he wants to be with Daddy. Doesn't matter where or what, he wants to be with Daddy. So last weekend after his nap, he joined Daddy for the final clean-up of Daddy's afternoon efforts at the creek.

I'm so glad they make little rakes! It makes the kids feel like such big helpers! :o)

And here's the results . . . Impressive! :o) Thanks, honey! :o)

And for another project, I was trying to get a picture of the front of the house . . . it's not possible to do so without trees, but here's a quick peek anyway. :o)