This is an emergency mom!

Hannah did what I have been fearing she might do . . . she called 911.

"Who me?? Well I figured only a fire hose could get all this cereal off of me!"

"Mom, don't get mad . . . I love you so much"

"Come on, it's not like they came racing to our house with lights flashing - they simply called you back to check on us. Now can you please clean me up - this cereal in my hair is really cramping my style"

Note: Although Hannah loves to play with the phone I'm usually good at keeping it out of her reach. Unfortunately, she found it! Thankfully as Hannah "told" you they just called me back to check on us. It scared me though because it was shortly after Brock left for work and I thought it was an accident or something. I will be better at keeping it UP!

More Rearranging

We didn't do much in the living room except take the big desk out and make a sitting area instead. Brock's mom is so good at finding things throughout our house and reusing them in another area. We felt like we had our own HGTV host. We couldn't have done much without her, I don't have the vision to "see" a room and decorate it accordingly.

the new sitting area - it is amazing how much more spacious it is without the big desk :-)

All we did in the dining room was some decorating (and lots of eating of course) :-)

Another House Project

One of the many projects we worked on while Brock's mom was here was the new office/school room. This room used to be the guest room and our office/school area was in the living room. I love having a separate space for all of Madison's school stuff as well as arts and crafts stuff. Also, Isaac is thrilled to have his OWN desk, where he can put his OWN stuff :-)

When this desk was in our living room it was quite the mess magnet! In addition to the mess Madison made in it, it has such a great surface to stick stuff on when you are in a hurry :-) It is now completely organized with totes for arts and crafts and shelves for all school books.

Friends and Food

The kids and I had a fun day with Denise, Andi, Izyk and Berlin while the guys were riding for the weekend
Hannah is a little too busy guarding her chip to give a real smile (she and Berlin like to steal food from each other) :-)






Andi stayed the night and the girls were thrilled to make pancakes for dinner. At first Andi said, "pancakes . . . for dinner????" but was quickly game. Hmm. . . maybe everyone doesn't eat this for dinner every once and awhile.












They crack me up - such concentration pouring the batter out. You should have seen them flip the pancakes :-)















Even Isaac got to help - his form isn't quite perfected yet.

Enjoying Summer

We have had great weather lately. The summer started quite cool but has stayed in the 70s and 80s this month. We have had minimal mosquitos (which is AMAZING!) and it hasn't been too humid. It is so nice to be able to enjoy being outside.

I took the kids and a couple friends to the park for a picnic after story time at the library. Nice busy morning makes for a nice afternoon nap (for them not me unfortunately) :-)

Isaac and his friend Tiana - she is a year older than him but they play very well together. It must be because Isaac is so advance - Ha Ha!

Madison and Alika. They have been friends since we moved here. They are 7 months apart.

Madison has 2 webkinz that she takes with her EVERYWHERE! I see she has them tucked safely on the swing :-) As you can imagine they are horses!

Another great thing about summer - the food!

Life

Some miscellaneous pics of the kids. Trying to catch up so I can be in "real time" again :-)

The kids really want to go on a ride! We love our new RZR - tons of fun.

Hannah going on a ride of her own

Playing on the poles at one of Madison's riding lessons

Time Together

A house needs a grandma in it. ~Louisa May Alcott

We had a great time with Brock's mom, especially the kids - they just love the extra attention. We also loved the help in getting TONS done in the house - redecorating, organizing, cleaning etc. It was awesome!

Copy Cat

During breakfast this morning I heard Isaac say, "Quit nagging me Madison!" After a hidden laugh I asked him if he knew what that word meant, he said "yes, it is being mean" I asked him where he heard that word and he said he heard me say it to Madison before. Another reminder to me that they never stop copying what we say AND do!

Boy this kid needs a hair cut doesn't he!! Yikes!

Gardening with Grandma

The kids had fun planting flowers when grandma was here. I think Isaac just liked getting dirty but Madison gets into it all - giving her opinion, getting the holes just right and pressing the dirt in :-)

By the looks of everyones hands, Madison gets the reward for doing the most work (or just being messiest)

There are so many flower beds here that it is really hard for me to keep up. I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I know nothing about plants and do not have a green thumb at all

I contemplated not doing this bed this year because several plants didn't come back; but I am glad that we did. I really love how it looks. This is in the backyard where Samson is so we had to put a little fence around it because he loves to race around this tree and stare and bark at the squirrels.

The final result - this one is considered the kid's flower garden

We put out left over plants on the other side of the playhouse

Although we didn't work on this flower bed I think they are so pretty so I put this picture in. There are many more flower beds in the front - this was only the back. The previous owners did a great job - now I just have to keep up on it ("just" being an understatement) :-)

18 Fun things to do at Bluewater Bible Camp

We went to our church camp for the 4th year in a row and had a BLAST! We went over the 4th of July and stayed 5 days this year and once again had great weather. We have gone every year with our friends Paul and Rachel and their kids Aaron, Micah and Anna. Last year we met a family from a town about an hour away, Jesse and Denise and their kids Alex, Andi, Izyk and Berlin, so were able to see them again this year. The speakers were AWESOME and I learned so much. It was so crazy because both speakers (without knowing it) spoke on Nehemiah. They both focused on different topics within the book of Nehemiah so it was great to get so much information.
There are so many fun things about Bluewater that I had to do lots of different posts. Hope you enjoy seeing 18 fun things to do at Bluewater (in no special order and by no means ALL the fun stuff to do there!)

# 1 - Go For a Ride

Go For A Ride

Hannah and Berlin getting ready to head on a walk with me, Rachel and Denise. Hannah cried most of the way (I don't know why she usually loves walks) and Berlin cried some of the way. I went on another walk and took Hannah again (giving her another try) and she cried most of the way again! On our last day at camp Denise and I went on a bike ride and it was a killer :-) There were so many hills! My legs were burning like crazy. It felt great to get some good exercise though and it was a beautiful trail - lots of trees and a couple lakes. I suffered the consequences of being out of shape for the next couple of days (the worse being my butt from the bike seat) :-)

Isaac getting a ride from Izyk. They rode like this last year at family camp so both were looking forward to going on a ride together :-)

#2 - Go Fishing

Breakfast was at 8:00 and Chapel at 10:30 so there was time between the two to do whatever. The kids liked to fish or go out on the kayaks or paddle boats.

Izyk, Madison, Andi and Jesse fishing away!
Izyk very proud of his fish - he and Isaac are a couple months apart so have a blast together

Andi helping the fish to SMILE for the camera

Madison and Andi heading out on the paddle boat to see what the can find out deeper. They are a couple months apart in age also and played all week long. We hardly saw them :-)

Madison and Andi showing their catch. The kids caught lots of fish using mostly corn :-)