Fun times and the PIRATE PARTY

One scorching hot day, I took the kids to a bounce house (LOVE groupon deals that make it cheap!) Jacob played in the ball pit.
Jacob is the ball man- it was his first word and he hasn't turned back. He actually loves to kick the ball and shows an ability for soccer that is surprising!
Of course when other kids kept coming into the area he had to hold the ball to keep it from others.
Michael sliding down the BIG slide!
Nicole squealing her way down too! Both Nicole and Michael went down this for an hour. I'm always amazed at how long they can play at a bounce house without getting exhausted!
The "Spiderman" was the hardest one of all and Nicole could do it! Several older kids couldn't make it but Nicole figured it out and got all the way to the enormous slide at the top!
Michael wanted to get up SOOOO badly and kept trying again and again. I've never seen such determination and perseverance in the face of impossible odds. Here he made it up to the third level of webbing, which was astonishing- the space in between is taller than he is so he has to lever his feet into the webbing on the sides and use only upper body strength. He was so sad to not make it up higher, but at this rate it won't be long! His shirt is wet from the drinking fountain, not sweat :-)
Trying to show you a pic of Nicole climbing up...not too clear.
The favorite movie recently has been Fievel Goes West. We've had it forever but they just "discovered" it. I found Nicole like this watching the movie during quiet time the other day. The cowboy hat is from our reunion last summer with the Ostlers. So cute. Tonight she told me she wished she were a mouse :-) I told her mice can't go to preschool and she changed her mind.
Michael had his PIRATE birthday party yesterday! He is turning three years old on Wednesday! He had two friends over (at this age just a few kids works great) and we started out coloring pirate maps and pirate ships. I then had a book with CD about pirates that ended with our first clue that we could put on a treasure map I made. The map took us to the soccer goals in our backyard (pirate hats for everyone!), to the front door (a few doughnut holes to munch on there), to the grill on the back porch (pirate stickers we played with for a bit), to the bikes in the garage (Velcro monster toys to take home), to the rock pile in the backyard where we had water balloons as the treasure!
On the way to the front door clue we saw a caterpillar! All of the kids gathered around and were very excited to see it. Once we were done looking at it, we said, "on to the next clue!" and the kids all started off to the door. One of Michael's buddies had completely forgotten about the caterpillar and squashed it as he walked by. So sad!
Playing with the pirate stickers at the grill clue and looking at the treasure map!
Nicole and Michael giving you their best "argghhhh!"
Note the pirate flag in the background! (Don't worry, we took it down after the party. One can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking...)
I found this praying mantis outside while setting up the treasure hunt, so Jim put him in a little aquarium habitat and he's already feasted on a few bugs Jim caught (including a fly; who knew that these guys could catch a fly?). I've kindly asked Jim to release the poor guy, so hopefully he'll be free soon. Jim asked what we should name him and I said "Enos." Cuz he likes to pray. :-) So lame I know.

Here is a video from all of these different days. My favorite is when Jacob is trying to pick up both balls so he can keep them from the other kids that come in. He was trying SO hard to pick up two balls at once- I only started taking video after he'd been at it for a while!

Cupcakes and Massanutten

I recently made a whole bunch of desserts for a back to school night with women from our church and this was my favorite. Perhaps hard to tell, these are apple cupcakes made with red frosting/sprinkles and brown, green and yellow tootsie rolls. Fun and simple.We took a free vacation to a resort in Virginia called Massanutten. The 90 minute spiel we were prepared to endure turned out to be a 3.5 hour disaster of which I will spare you the details (you really don't want to know :-) The drive was beautiful, this is the Shenandoah Valley area. There were many Civil War sites and we hope to visit them some other time since it's so close.Overall, we were happy to know that the fishing, swimming, trails and other amenities were just as awesome right in our own city. The only thing that killed me was forgetting to bring our own breakfast and having to pay out almost 7 bucks for a measly box of cereal that I had at home for 75 cents. We just told ourselves it was the best-tasting little round honey nut cheerios we'll ever eat!There were some very fun parks and trails we enjoyed exploring. The best was a completely enclosed playground! We spent as long as we could at the water park (the real reason we went) and had the time of our lives. I'll never forget the absolute joy on my children's faces as they explored each exciting area again and again.Jim got to ride the "FloRider" which is a virtual wave you boogie board or surf on. He only had one try since the kids had a hard time waiting 25 minutes for daddy to go and I couldn't take all three kids by myself somewhere. But on this one try, he dropped right in to the perfect position and when the lifeguard gave him a cue on how to do a flip, Jim totally did it perfectly on the first try! He is such a star! :-)

Jacob did more of watching at the water park but still had plenty of fun. He loved the lazy river and watching all of the kids swirl around him in their tubes.

Nicole took all of these pictures of us at breakfast. My favorite part of the whole trip? No cooking!!

Michael was hilarious to watch- he must have gone down some of the water slides at least 50 times. Serious! He wanted to go down the big water slides that he was too short for and actually made a sprint at one of them and I barely stopped him (gave me a heart attack). He has no fear and I can't wait until he is tall enough, what a blast it will be to take him!

Photo of herself. Nicole had the most fun shooting all of the water guns at us and turning all of the hoses on and off that squirt water around. The huge bucket on top of the indoor section of the water park emptied once when she was in range and she was knocked over and a bit distressed. After, though, she thought it was cool that the water got her :-) She was too afraid to try the slides, and it would have been a little difficult to leave either Jim or myself with the two boys while the other parent went with her. So we weren't able to do all of the water park, but since it was free we were just able to enjoy everything we could.

I can't believe someone is selling this. Or marketing it. In the South we fry everything.I couldn't resist this pic. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a nice big sign designating "Hurt" in the next few miles so we could prep for it?And a little forewarning on "Business Hurt" would be nice too, right? :-)