Catching Up #3 - More Summer Fun

When I said we had been busy this summer I meant it.

Safety Town

Since John David is starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks, we enrolled him in Safety Town this summer.  Safety Town, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a week long safety awareness program designed for children entering kindergarten.  They use music, crafts, movies, books, community speakers, and  even have a child sized town to teach basic safety lessons.  They learn the right way to cross a street, buckle their seatbelts, wear a bicycle helmet, and the colors of traffic lights.  They also learn about strangers, water and fire safety, school buses, guns, and how to dial 911 if there is an emergency.  

On the last day there is a short program for the parents so the children can so off what they have learned.  They also get to bring home a bag of goodies which included a CD of all the Safety Town songs and a bicycle helmet.  John David had a great time and the twins were so jealous they didn't get to go.  I have promised them they will get their chance next summer before they start kindergarten.day 

Hot Springs

Every summer the Arkansas Bar Association has their annual convention in Hot Springs.  It is 3 days of meetings, lectures, and seminars and attorneys from all over the state attend.  It is really one big party where everyone lets their hair down.    Since husband was going to be in Hot Springs for the bar convention (all those seminars count as continuing legal education) and since the firm would be paying for his hotel room anyway, the children and I tagged along for the last night.  We then spent our Saturday at Mid America Science Museum.  Mid America, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian, is a interactive, hands on science museum for children and this summer they have had a Dinosaur exhibit in addition to all their permanent exhibits.  The Dinosaur exhibit is full of 3/4 scaled robotic dinosaurs including the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops.  The kids loved it, after they got over the surprise of the moving T-Rex right by the door.

Here are the boys learning about pulleys by trying to lift their own body weight.

Husband is pointing out something very interesting to Ava.

Digging for dinosaur bones.

Posing with a steam engine.

Fun at the Park

What would summer be without some fun at the park?

Catch Up #2

Another thing keeping us busy throughout May and into June was little league baseball.  Both Harrison and John David played this year so we were down at the ball park at least three days a week, more frequently four.

This was Harrison's first year to play so he was on the Astro league.  They play on a small, astro-turf field.  Each game is only two innings.  Each inning, every player bats and gets to advance one base.  The last batter gets to run all four bases.  There are no outs and no score.  Perfect for a four year old.  It's also awesome that since they are only two innings, the games are short and sweet.  No long drawn out games in the sweltering summer heat.

Harrison was assigned to the Red Sox team.  He played with a great group of little boys and had a wonderful coach, Coach Lee.  Harrison adored Coach Lee.  He talked about him constantly.
Here are a few pics from his last game and the team party.

Warming Up!

Swing batter batter!

Standing on second.  I love the way his batting helmet is so big he can barely see out from under it.

Playing second base

Team huddle

All smiles

The trophy presentation from Coach Lee

Someone was really excited about his very own trophy

This was John David's third year for baseball and he moved up to the Rookie-6 division.  That means this year was the first year where there were actual outs and the boys had to hit off the pitching machine.  It was a big change, and at first he was pretty hard on himself because he wasn't hitting much off the machine, but as the season went on he improved.  We had to reassure him that hitting off the pitching machine was MUCH harder than hitting off the tee and that even professional baseball players, like his idol Big Papi (David Ortiz) struck out sometimes.  He has played with basically the same group of boys and the same coaches for three years and has had a blast.  Next summer he will move up to the next age division and the teams get shuffled (I think).  He even has to go through a draft.  

Here are a couple of shots form John David's last game and team party.

Playing short stop.  You can see the dreaded blue pitching machine in this photo.

Standing on third base.

A trophy.......whooo hooo

A ball game, dinner out with the team, cake, and a trophy makes for one happy ball player.

Another great season is in the books.

GO RED SOX!

GO PHILLIES!

Catching Up #1

May Going's On

So many things kept us busy in May.  Here are just a few of the highlights.

School Programs

Unfortunately husband was out of town on a work related trip (High School Mock Trial Competition) the week of the kids programs at school.  I videotaped the whole thing for him but that meant I didn't take many actual photos.  Here are a few I did manage to take in all the happy chaos.

Daddy may have missed it but someone was sure excited Granny Susie and Grandpa H. could be there.

Part of the family photo....You would think at least the adults could be looking at the camera.  At least Ava and I are.

John David's awesome self portrait.

After program fun with friends.

The following day it was the twin's turn.

Ahhhh.....twin love.

Playing the drums.

I tried to get a picture of all four of them.  You can see how well that turned out.

The twins' amazing self-portraits.

My favorite part (which I'm not sure you can see in this photo), Harrison's portrait was complete with tiny wire rimmed glasses.  ADORABLE!

Last Day of School

May also brought the last day of school and yes, I was that mother crying over another year being finished.  I love our little preschool.  It has been and continues to be a wonderful, loving place that teachers and nurtures my children in so many amazing ways.  I am so truly blessed to have St. Mark's in my life.  And my children ADORE going to school.  They love going to music, and chapel, and doing art projects, and practicing their letters, the playground, their friends, and their teachers.  This was John David's last year at St. Mark's.  He "graduated."  Now he's a 'big kid" and has to go to "big school."  I am sad every year when it is time to move on to the next class, but that made this year even more tough.  Thankfully the twins have another year at St. Mark's and then after that it will be little Ava's turn.  

Last day of school photo op on the front steps.  Gosh mom....it's sunny!

Here is the first day of school photo just for comparison's sake.

They have grown up so much in the last year.  

Last day in carpool.

Last morning drop-off.

Big hug from their fabulous teacher Ms. Tish.  We all loved her and will miss being in her class next year.  

John David and Ms. Beth.  Another fabulous teacher who taught John David so much this year.  John David will really miss her and being in her class but he is excited about Kindergarten and being in Ms. Estes class in the fall.

And so another great year at St. Mark's is in the books.  We can't wait to see what this summer and next year bring.

I'm Back!

I'm back.  These past two months have been the craziest and busiest ones I can remember, and it doesn't look like things are going to slow down anytime soon.  I don't know where the time has gone.  I can't believe it is already mid-July and my precious first born baby will be starting Kindergarten in a month.  Yikes! In all the  crazy busy-ness I let blogging slide.  But over the past weeks I have found myself composing blog posts in my head over and over again and haven't found, or made the time, to sit down and write them.  We have been up to so much around here and I want to share all of that with you...and I will.  I will get things caught up around here.

But before I do that....I have very BIG, EXCITING news to share with all of my friends.

My brother is engaged.  Yeah!  I am gaining a sister.  Another big Yeah!  Of course, I already think of Jessica (my brother's fiancee) as family but this is making it official.  We are all so excited and happy for both of them.  John Robert couldn't have nieces and nephews that love him anymore than my four (even though Ava is still a bit leery since she doesn't get to see him that often).  And Jessica, she was loved instantly.  She became Ella's "best friend" within moments of Ella meeting her for the first time.

I am "stealing" a picture of the two of them from Jessica's facebook page (I took the picture for them so it isn't really stealing, is it?).

Congratulations John Robert and Jessica!

We couldn't be more excited for you two.

We love you both with all our hearts.

Time To Party!

This year's big birthday bash for all my April babies is in the books, and despite unseasonably cold and rainy weather for May, it was a HUGE success.

We had planned an outdoor party at a neighborhood park that has both a playground and a grassy area for playing ball and the bounce house but alas, it was not to be.  We woke up Saturday morning to very cool temperatures and blue skies.  I had hope the rain would stay away but by noon it was raining and by 1:30pm we made the decision to move the party to our house.  Needless to say I was not thrilled with having to move the party to our house, not because I don't love entertaining or mind having a house full of children because I do and I don't.  It is just that our house was in party prep mode rather than have people over mode and it was a frantic rush to get everything cleaned up and ready for guests.

A big thank you to my parents and in-laws who helped get things ready.  I will admit I wasn't a very nice person to be around during that frantic hour and a half so my apologies go along with my thanks.

This year our "theme" was supposed to be Outdoor Fun at the Park.  A pretty generic theme I know which means almost anything  goes for invitations, decorations, etc.  I found some cute, polka dot invitations and used those as the inspiration for colors, decorations etc.

As I did for Ava, I made a big "Happy Birthday"  banner.  It was supposed to hang in the tent at the park so it was bigger than the one I made for Ava.  Since we didn't end up at the park it was swagged over the window in the front room.  It was a little long but still fun.  Sorry it isn't the best picture.

I also tried to have "polka dot" food so we had cheese balls, whoppers, mini chewy sweet tarts, fruit skewers and fruit dip (not polka dot but still yummy).  Instead of a big cake I made polka dot cupcakes. I got the idea from pinterest for a polka dot cake and adjusted it to make cupcakes instead.  Here is the original pin I found.

The cupcakes weren't hard, just a little time consuming.  First I made a batch of vanilla cake batter, divided it into six mini bread pans and dyed each one a separate color.  We had blue, green, yellow, pink, orange, and purple.  I baked the dyed mini cakes just like normal.  After they were cooled, I made mini cake balls using white butter cream icing and the colored mini cakes.

Here is a quick shot of the mini cake balls in process.  Two colors down, four more to go.

After making hundreds of mini colored cake balls I made another double batch of vanilla cupcake batter.  I put a couple of the mini cake balls into each cupcake tin and then added the vanilla cake batter.  The result I hoped would be polka dot cupcakes.  Here is the end result.

Yeah....it worked.

I topped each cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing and then added multi colored sixlet candies as polka dot decorations.

Besides the weather, everything went smoothly.  We had a great turn-out.  Thankfully children don't seem to mind cold weather like adults so once the rain stopped husband put up the bounce house in the front yard and let the kids go wild.  They had a blast and the added benefit, all that jumping wore everyone out.

Now for a little cupcake and ice cream.

Time to blow out the candles.

Yummy!

After all their friends left, the kids had some fun with Uncle John Robert in the bounce house.

A great time was had by all.  Thanks to everyone who helped me pull things together at the last minute when the weather forced us to change our plans.  Thanks to my brother and to Jessica for making the long trip from Ohio in time for the birthday party.  It meant the world to my three that you were here.

You would think things might slow down now that the party and all that it entails is over but that just isn't the case.  Things around here never slow down.  And as tired as I am, I don't think I would want them too.

Happy Birthday my April babies. 

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, stepmothers, mothers in law, Godmothers, and future mothers out there, I wish you a very happy Mother's Day.

To my Mommy...Happy Mother's Day.  I wouldn't be who I am without you.

I am blessed to have a wonderful Mother and Grandmothers who have inspired me and guided me in my life as Mommy.

I didn't know or understand how much my mother loved me until I became a mother myself.

And every time I became a mother

my heart grew

and grew!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you Mothers out there.  

Call your Mom.  She loves you!