4th of July at the beach

Summer at the beach

A fun month at the beach so far...here is a very few pics, but there will be a whole summer 2014 book to see from Shutterfly of the summer, look for it for pictures.

That's it...summer is over

Last swim of the summer...

 Last nap outside at the beach of the summer...

Last shower of the summer... 

 Last time to play at the Pirate Ship of the summer...

 Last grilling of the summer (at the beach)...

 Last crab legs...

Cleaning up summer...

...hanging it up for 2013!

Happy 3 1/2 birthday Delaney!

We mentioned last week that Delaney would be 3 1/2 at the beach and she decided she wanted cupcakes, so we went with it and had a mini celebration.

 Daddy sent her flowers since he was at work and not with us.  Mama helped her and Blake make beach cupcakes to celebrate.

 Aubrey and Charlie are our beach friends and they came over to sing, eat cupcakes with us and swim for a little while.  All the kids had a great time.  They all play together so well!  We will miss them this winter, but will look forward to seeing them again in June.

Beach fun

Wanting to swim, but the water was so cold!

Fishing for real with daddy with the fishing rods they have been practicing with in the pool.

Enjoying the lake in the driveway before granddad pumps it away.

Water party, her favorite thing to do in the backyard right now.

She decided to sleep in here. She napped in it and slept all night in it. Blake tried but asked me to make it bigger for him. He decided it wasn't for him, good thing, he's 4 1/2!

 

Stay home fun day

We have had lots of stay home fun days this week...Wednesday was a lot of fun, we made bird feeders, which only took them a day to find and take away to eat, we snuggled together in matching pjs, Coalson came over and we played in shaving cream on the table, then read the book "Ain't goin' paint no more" and the kids painted Pam and my legs afterwards with face paint. They loved it. It came off pretty east too, except the red, it took about a day to fade.

 

A terrific Tuesday

We started our day off at the museum after stopping by the office to pick up a snack from the junction and some of mommy's work. They dressed up and played for a couple hours while Lilli Jane slept on mommy. She wasn't a fan of the lights so she kept her face covered, she wouldn't let you move her arm. They played well with the other kids and stayed close to each other when the big kids were around.

It cracked me up seeing Blake's legs all propped up on the back seat like that.

I insisted that he take a nap today, even though Delaney didn't have to because I know his body needs more sleep than hers. He refused, kept coming out of his room, wasn't following directions, etc so eventually I popped him, just enough to upset him, but not hurt. He fell asleep finally and this is how I found him when I had to wake him up, he had gone and gotten his little Bible he got when he was dedicated to the church and fell asleep on the wrong end of the bed with it...so sweet.

Pam took the kids to Baxters Playhouse for the afternoon, they had a blast. She said Delaney enjoyed sitting with her and watching the boys play more than playing.

Lilli Jane and I stayed home close to her bed to try to get good naps in. I don't leave these days unless I have to. It's much easier being at home with her at this age.

 

A Pinterest Day

We had lots of fun today doing many things I have saved on Pinterest. We started with melting crayon picture after breakfast. They loved thing the colors drip down the canvas and now we have a cool picture to hang in the playroom.

Then we moved on to salt letters, Blake is working on recognizing lower case and Delaney some of the upper case. I want them to get back to learning and ready for school. We learned our phone number today too.

After they got dressed by themselves we moved outdoors to the car wash. I got it all set up and stayed inside while they experimented with the water. I got Lilli Jane out of bed and brought her out to the porch to nurse her and Delaney came up to me and said, "mommy will you help me get this off?"

This is what I saw, an infuser that goes inside my old water cup on her finger. I had it out to play with it in the sandbox, I never realized the hole was the perfect size to put a finger in and not get it out. Those are soap bubbles in it. I took a picture to send it to Kevin to see what I should do. I kept nursing Lilli Jane and got the kids ready to go out the door, called the doctor and stayed calm (all while nursing). It was a proud mom moment. We went to the doctor and met Kevin there, I took Delaney back and Dr. Hansen aggressively pulled it off. It took some skin with it, but we fixed her up with a bandaid and Neosporind.

We moved on to other activities after going to buy tights and a leotard at Lebos. That is an adventure with all three for sure!

They loved the hammocks made with a sheet under the table, we read books for 30-45 min. I love their passion for reading!

Lilli Jane slept pretty good today, but had a hard time after being out and about so she hung out with us for a while too.

After naps rest time, we ate our cookie cups with cream and sprinkles we made earlier.

Then I cut up a box into two activities, a car garage with Upper case and matching lower case letters on the cars...

...and butterfly wings for Delaney to paint.

 

Coalson came over to play a little while, then Delaney had her first dance lesson...she loved the tap shoes and showed me a little at home. I peaked in the window at the studio, she seemed to be listening well and enjoying it. We had supper, cleaned up, Blake and Kevin washed the truck, and we finished the night playing with the water again on the back porch, this time just pouring it from one container to the other and tossing shells into the buckets.

We read some books, said our prayers, and talked about our day. Blake said everything was his favorite things. We all got along well, had patience, listened, and weren't rushed. Blake was so calm and good when we had to rush out the door to the doctor. He helped Delaney with her shoes and walked her out to the car while I was dealing with Lilli Jane nursing and getting her in. He is such a great big brother!

 

Weekend at Nanny and Grandpas house

Mommy drove the kids to Columbia Thursday and all three of them slept almost the whole way! I couldn't believe it!

The girls had beauty time while the boys went to buy crickets. Blake tripped over the crickets that night and they escaped, I think they found all of them though. The boys went fishing at Billy's pond and caught 4 fish for dinner. Grandpa cleaned them while the kids watched and Blake tried it for dinner, but said "no thank you", guess bass fish aren't his thing to eat. But what an exciting experience!

 

They also went to the zoo, had Zestos ice cream and swam in the pool.

 

JJ, Kaitlyn's bunny was staying at their house, so the kids enjoyed playing with him.