Face Painting

So, we went to the library last Wednesday evening for one of their bi-monthly summer puppet shows. Jeff was at Young Mens, and I couldn't stand the thought of standing in the humid heat, sweating to death while watching the kids play outside (something I do every day). During the day I don't have to be outside with the kids because Parker is asleep, but in the evening it's hard keeping him inside while the older kids are playing outside. The puppet show was a success because the kids loved it and were actually entertained for an hour. After the show we continued to have fun doing crafts and getting faces painted. (We have such a nice library). Anyway, we had to take these pictures to make the face paintings last. It's kind of a bummer getting your face painted at 8 o'clock at night when you are a kid. All you get to do with your face painting is take it home and go to bed, and of course hope it's there in the morning. The kids were proud the the way they looked.

More food pictures.

Fun with food!

Eating time seems to always be interesting at our house. Usually it involves a lot of yelling and crying about food kids don't think they like. Once they actually taste the food, however, they often have a change of heart and admit that they like it. One morning we gave the kids some chop sticks that Jeff and I picked up on our date to Hyvee food court where we had Chinese. I say our "date" because we've only been on one in the last month (same date that involved CVS) We've got to get out more. Anyway, the kids were very anxious to put their chop sticks to work so they ate their pancakes with them. It was very funny to watch. It wasn't much different for Parker because he rarely uses his fork anyway. They were pretty proud of themselves each time they successfully got food from their plates to their mouths. Another food item is that Carter is now eating baby food. He seems to really love it. His siblings love it too, and fight over who gets to feed him. Emily informed me that feeding Carter should be one of the jobs we have on our job chart, just like feeding the cat.

Play Ball!

T has been playing baseball this summer and has gotten pretty good. He's hit a few homeruns too. We only have one game left which is kind of sad, but it will be nice to have some evenings free again.

Father's Day

Well, I think that Jeff had a fun Father's Day. He deserves it. He's a wonderful dad! It's kind of sad being far from family on any holiday, but we tried to make it fun for him. The kids gave him breakfast in bed. They also made some cool cards in primary which they proudly presented to him after church. I gave him this special rain suit that is truly water-proof, yet is breathable. He also got a photo book which he actually requested. It's kind of funny that on Father's day or Mother's day the kids give you soooo much extra attention it can almost become too much. It's not the "relaxing do whatever I want" type of holiday yet. Maybe when they are older. As my brother put it when I called him that day, "I'm spending Father's day being a father". He was holding a sick kid at the time. It's nice to be remembered though, and Jeff really is a great dad.

The coupon craze.

Well, I've joined the coupon craze my friend Wendy, and my sister-in-law Wendy introduced me to. There are a lot of great deals out there, and it can be very addictive searching them out. It's almost like you are on a secret mission to find the best deal that no one else knows about. This of course had been taking up my time so my blogging has been lacking. Anyway, I can only spend so much time on the computer so I had to split the time with the new hobby as well. I am enjoying the couponing, but I am finding that I'm not the only one on the secret mission. A few times I've gotten to the store and all of the deals are already gone :( In fact, my first experience with doing the CVS deals was a pretty funny one. Jeff and I were on a date, and since the movie we were going to see was sold out we went to CVS. (there's not a lot to do in Topeka) Well, I'd been so excited to get these great deals, that Jeff busted up laughing as each of the deals we went to get were already gone. Not such a secret I guess. There were a few boxes of the cereal on sale left on the shelf, so we grabbed what we could and went to check out. Well, the cashier was a young kid who didn't really know what he was doing, so when I saw that not all of the things I got were working for the deals and I wanted to return them things got a little stressful. He had to return a few items, and then the register froze up, all while the line grew behind me. Jeff was a bit embarrased, but I was on a mission to get my deals and we were not in a hurry to get anywhere since we didn't want to go home until the babysitter got the kids to bed. It all got resolved and Jeff and I had a great laugh about it afterwards. I ended up spending $18, getting 8 boxes of Smart Start cereal (good usually expensive cereal) and getting $10 back in EVB's which are like cash you can use in the store later. It was a good deal and a fun memory. After CVS we went to play frisbee and the local elementary school and then to Baskin Robbins where we used birthday gift certificates from work that Jeff has collected over the years. It was fun.

Check out my Slide Show!

Farm Visit

I am so excited! I finally learned to take the pictures off my camera! Yes, I know you all already know how, but I have grown very dependent on Jeff's computer skills and am therefore stunted in my computer growth. Anyway, I am going to attempt to put some pictures of a farm we went to into a slide show. If it doesn't work I'm sorry. This was a fun trip. I took the kids to Kansas City to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. We've been here in years past because it's a fun, free place to go. (I just had to pay some $50 in gas to get there.) The kids had fun mining for gem stones, riding a pony, and fishing. I wasn't as pleased with the fishing. Each kids got to choose one thing to do and of course Taylor chose the catch and release pond. He didn't realize we were using real worms. Unfortunately Jeff wasn't there to bail us out, so Taylor and I had an interesting time learning to put worms on hooks. We caught some fish so we must have done something right. All-in-all, the kids had fun and that's what counts.

The piano recital

This weekend was a busy one. We had a piano recital, a dance rehearsal, and birthday party to attend, a party at our friend's house and a dance recital. It was all fun, but it flew by. Anyway, the piano recital was Saturday morning and both Taylor and Ashley did great. Once we get more memory for our computer, I'll actually put the video of them playing their songs on the blog. They were the first two kids to play, and they got up there without any problem. I was proud of them. It's fun to watch them learn and grow.

Ashley - the beautiful ballerina!

Well, she did it. Ashley had her dance recital this weekend and she looked beautiful. I was a little worried when she started to cry when I dropped her at the dressing room, but she came out on stage and did a wonderful job. It was good to see that she actually learned something this past year, and that all of the driving to dance class was not in vain. As a mom, I was just happy to see that she was proud of herself. As we were walking out to the car after the recital Ashley said, "I have a lot of talents. I am learning to dance, I can play the piano, (pause) and I have a good smile." It was cute.