...a Little Piece of Our Day

Ahhh...it's Friday.  Well to us every day is like the weekend.  We started out the day with a long bike ride and play time at two local parks.  We have the best bike trails in Slater and now that the kids both know how to ride their bikes well, they love riding on them.  I bet they actually rode their bikes for 45 minutes today.  By the time we got home, they were exhausted and ready to rest. 

Tonight was the last night of Bible School and they came home with all of their craft projects.  This week they made recipe cards each night for their recipe box, decorated a cute tray, and made 5 little fortune cookies that contained phrases about how to live your life everyday for God.  They also made an apron they can use to cook up yummy things at home.  Along with this we bought the CD of songs from this week...I'm sure there will be many car rides ahead listening to these great songs that have such an important message.

Here are a few random pictures I took of the kids this afternoon...

Andy and Ava working on a HUGE Lion King puzzle.  We've been working on many Disney puzzles and have used puzzle glue to keep the pieces together.  Our goal is to hang them in the kid's toy room as a wall decoration.

Isaiah was helping me make a chicken casserole for dinner tonight.

Both the kids love to help me cook...what a happy boy!

Isaiah enjoying a piece of the shredded chicken I had cooked earlier.  He kept picking out the chicken, cheese, and was even trying to sneak a taste of the cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup that we mixed in.  This kid loves food!

Stirrin' away!

The puzzle is almost finished...Isaiah wanted to help Ava with the last few pieces.

Finished...although Andy did most of the puzzle...the kids liked helping him finish.

The sweet corn from our garden is not quite ready yet, so we got this from our local town grocery store.  I love that place...just a cute little store with friendly people and the best owner "Larry."  The kids wanted to help me husk the corn and as they say "take the hair off."

Jackson loves to shred things...why not the husks.  He has been known to eat a whole ear of cooked corn...cob and all.  I know, you should never give a dog people food.  That idea never worked for us!  He has the cutest face and I can't resist his little begging look.  Jackson gets pretty much whatever he wants.  He even knows that when we get back from the grocery store that I usually have a bone for him.  Before the kids were born I used to set all the bags on the floor and he'd nose his way through all of them until he found his present.  What a character! 

My Three Happy's:

1) Seeing all of my relatives at the annual Egg Burn this weekend...if you're not a member of our family you probably have no clue what this means.  It's a family reunion on my Dad's side where we grill breakfast at the park...same park since my Dad's been a kid...same food...same everything! 

2) Shopping at the outlet mall on the way over!  When I was putting Ava to bed she said "I'm so excited for the Egg Burn."  I asked her what she was excited about...and she said "Shopping!"...with a huge smile on her face!  That's my girl!

3) The kids are sound asleep...should be packing for tomorrow...but no thanks.  Watching Burn Notice from last night sounds like a better plan to me.  There's always tomorrow for that...we're only going for one night...as Andy says, "How long does it really take?"

4) My extra 4th Happy...tomorrow is July 30th...the day that Andy and I got married 6 years ago.  I don't know how I deserved someone as wonderful as Andy...but for some reason God brought me too him.  I couldn't imagine life without him!

No Cavities...and a Whole Lotta' Cooking Up God's Recipe

Isaiah had his first "official' dentist appointment today and did great thanks to his big sister Ava.  She went first and he liked watching her go through all the little things they do.  Ava LOVES the dentist and has never had an issues there.  When Isaiah's turn was up he wanted me to lay with him in the chair.  He did great and let them scrape his teeth, polish them, floss them, and take pictures of them.

Ava was all smiles!

Mommy with her brave little boy!

Isaiah taking a picture of Ava and Daddy sitting in the chair.

They especially loved the little goodie bag they got...it had toothpaste, a toothbrush, floss, and they got to choose a toy.  After the appointment we went to Ames to have lunch with Aunt Jody at Subway.  I have a cute picture of Isaiah typing at Jody's desk.  I'll have to post that later.  He thought he was pretty cool "working."

 This week our church is hosting Bible School with this really cute theme "Cooking Up God's Recipe."  The kids go with me for a few hours and they rotate through different activities.  All age levels start together first for songs and a message.  Then the preschool age kids rotate to story time, then games/snack, song/dance practice, and finally crafts.  The night ends with everyone getting back together again for songs and prayer. 



The sanctuary is set up to look like a kitchen and restaurant.

The cute little table set up with pretend spaghetti and meatballs.

Pastor Emily dressed as a chef and she's talking to the raccoon puppet.

Story time!

Isaiah putting a large cow on the storyboard.

Relay race time...the kids took a pair of tongs, picked up empty water bottles, and had to put them into a pot of the opposing team.

Isaiah running back to us.

Isaiah taking another water bottle and heading off to put it into another pot.

Ava really running fast

Coye and Ava enjoying popsicles and juice at snack time. 

My cutie!

My love!

Isaiah doing "stirring" actions to one of the songs we sang tonight.

More singing and dancing

Craft time!  Each child has a recipe box where they collect recipes throughout the week.  Each "recipe card" tells God's message for the day.  Today's message was about giving your time to help someone else.

Ava was looking forward to craft time all night!  Bible School lasts for the rest of the week...we'll be headed back tomorrow for more games, songs, crafts, and stories to learn more about God and Jesus.  Our church always has such a neat program and it's always creatively done. 

More pics later!

The Happy's are on the next post I did today.

Frog Hoppin', Bumper Car Ridin', and Chuggin' Along

This title comes from none other than our Monday trip to Adventureland. My parents and my sister's family joined us for an ENTIRE day there.  For a Monday it was unusually busy, but still fun and manageable.  We started off with a few rides and then headed over to the water park section for almost 4 hours.  It was pretty hot but it felt great because we stayed in the pool and lazy river most of the time.  After the water park, we headed back for more rides and dinner. 

As I look back at these pictures I feel like I just took these yesterday.  Most of them look exactly like the ones I took earlier in July.  I realized that Miss Isabelle isn't in any of these pictures.  You'll have to check out my sister's blog if you'd like to see the ones with all three kids.  Enjoy!

We decided to take the wagon this time...it worked out great and was much easier to get in and out of than the double stroller.  The kids are waiting to get into the park.

No pictures of the water park...we were pretty much swimming the whole time and I didn't want to risk getting the camera all wet.  Here they are on the Frog Hopper again.  Ava and Isaiah LOVE this ride.

Sound the sirens...here we come!

Mommy and Ava on the Bumper Cars...we're getting ready to crash into Andy and Isaiah

Isaiah and Daddy drivin' around

We love the semi trucks!

Andy and Ava on the Log Ride...they just went down the big hill.  I swear Ava could go on this 100 times and never get tired of it!

Grandpa on the Bumper Cars

Isaiah could go on this ride 100 times...they were trying to bump into Grandpa

Grandpa, Isaiah, and Ava on the Frog Hopper...getting ready for the bar to drop

Here we go!

Grandma wanted to ride too

Cruisin' on a motorcycle

Someone looks pretty tough!

Ava and Grandma on the train

Isaiah wanted to ride with Grandpa...

...that left Andy and I together.  Our first ride today with just the two of us...how sweet!  The train was the last ride we went on.  The kids went on tons of other rides, but I just included a few pictures.

What a fun day!

My Three Happy's:

1) Seeing how happy the kids get when they're at Adventureland...there's so much for them to do.

2) Taking the kids to Bible School tonight and when I got home...Andy had put laundry away, picked up the house, vacuumed the floor...you name it!  What an amazing husband!

3) All the fun songs we sang at Bible school tonight...the kids loved the actions that go along with them.