IKEA!

Living in a small town has it's perks, but total access to all the coolest stores is not one of them. It was a pretty big deal around here when an IKEA opened TWO hours away. Several of my friends were there opening day, many others went within the first weeks of it's opening. Me? I don't get out much. I got there today, probably close to a year after it opened. I had wanted to go for awhile, but had never had enough time to get there, especially with three little boys.

 Today was my day! I had a student of mine come along as an extra set of hands for dealing with the boys and we headed to IKEA.

One of the first things I saw (but didn't buy) was this pink checked duvet cover that goes along perfectly with the theme for Daniela's baby shower. If  I don't find anything I like better or cheaper, I'll probably end up getting this one.

Then I saw the cutest tabletop ironing board that would work perfectly for my crafting. The best part? $4.99!

I was very interested in checking out the rugs. I've seen many projects featuring these little guys and am excited to try them out myself. I'll post when I get around to making these things go with our house. 

I am in desperate need of some picture frames. This poor house still has virgin walls after nearly three years. It's time to hang some pictures! I can't wait to get these up with some of our family pictures and some cute vinyl. 

Afterwards, we headed over to Concord Mills and hung out for awhile. We ate fro yo at Yogurt Mountain and I bought some clothes for the boys. Overall I think we had a productive day.

Water Fun

Sunday evening after we had gone to church, out to eat with friends and then to Austin's birthday party, I decided to pull out a pack of water balloons I had picked up the day before while shopping. I went out to the yard and spray painted targets on the grass for the boys to throw the balloons at and then we went out and started filling them up. While the boys thought it was fun to toss the balloons at those targets, I was getting a little bored. What fun is a water balloon if you can't chunk it at somebody? So I got a balloon and busted it over Ethan's head, then I did one for Elijah too. This caused them to try to hit me and then we teamed up on trying to get Ronnie. This eventually turned into Ronnie taking the water hose (he was filling up the kiddie pool) and spraying us while we filled up squirters from the pool. There are no pictures of this because we were all dripping wet, head to toe. We had a blast - even little Ezra got stripped naked and screamed along with us while we got sprayed. Ronnie was smart and put his phone and pager up so they wouldn't get wet so he was fair game like the rest of us. At one point, Ethan, Elijah and I started splashing Ronnie with as much of the pool water as we could, but he kept spraying us with that water hose. Finally I talked Ethan into covering for me while I ran and tried to turn off the hose, but it didn't go so well and Ronnie got me good. It was a fun-filled afternoon that won't soon be forgotten, we thoroughly enjoyed spending time together and had a blast.

Cow Sale

Our first Friday field trip got canceled because Ronnie had to work. Then this past Friday we knew we couldn't go too far because we had VBS every night last week. We still wanted to go somewhere different, but we didn't have much time since Ronnie did yard work that morning so around 4.00 we loaded the boys up and headed to Siler City to the cow sale for a yummy cheeseburger. Most people, upon hearing that you're going to a cow sale to eat, think that you're crazy. But this place is notorious in our area for having the best burgers around. The best part is the huge chunk of cheese that they melt on top of it. And the fact that you can actually hear cows mooing while you eat only adds to the ambiance of the stockyard restaurant.

We ate our burgers and with a few minutes to spare we took the boys out to look at all the cows in the holding area. They all seemed to enjoy it and it was a fun way to get out of the house for a little bit and do something different.

Let's Get Cooking!

A while back I registered to be a test cook for Tricia at Once A Month Mom. Honestly I had forgotten about doing it, but yesterday I checked my email and got a message asking if I would still like to test cook. I replied that I would, so I will be cooking the August menu for 9-12 month olds next month! I'm excited!

If you're looking for some recipes for yourself, your family, your children and you'd like to stock your freezer, check the site out - I'm sure you'll find something that satisfies your taste!

Graduation

Martha's Day Care had their annual graduation of five-year-olds last night. This included Ethan.

So we loaded up and headed to day care in the evening. Gram Jackie, Grandma Carolyn, Grandpa Vernon, Uncle Brandon and Aunt Daniela accompanied our little crew.

It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen. They marched down the stairs behind Ms. Martha and lined up in front of their little chairs. 

They said the pledge, sang God Bless America, and then Ethan sang a solo! I was so proud as he belted out Jesus Loves Me! Then they started sing other songs including a song for their daddies since Father's Day is Sunday.

Nathan

Oscar

Van

Quite the gang!

Ethan got his diploma,

Shook Ms. Martha's hand,

and got a great big hug!

Then they sang a song about being friends forever,

and recited a prayer before we ate refreshments.

The boys with Ms. Martha and the cake she got them.

My little graduate.

He'll be in kindergarten in August.

We love you, Ethan! And we are so proud of the boy you've become!

You are an amazing little man!

Boy or Girl?

My brother and his wife go tomorrow to find out if their little bean is going to be a girl or a boy. We're all pretty excited and of course we have our own opinions. I got the idea tonight at the grocery store to do a little picture session to document what we all predicted the little one will be. I was looking for Ethan a balloon (he graduated! I'll post about it tomorrow.) and found the baby gender balloons. We went home and I snapped a shot of everyone that was at our celebration with what they think it's going to be.

Welcome to Summer

Yesterday was the first full day of my summer break. Summer has always been a time of relaxing and getting things done around the house. I usually read some, clean, sleep late, take a nap, watch some show on tv. You know, no where to be at any certain time, no worries in the world, relaxing kind of days.

The alarm went off at 6.00. That's a.m. No big deal, I could lay in bed for a few minutes. Then I heard the chatter of a 10 month old telling me he was ready for breakfast. No problem, I could eat my breakfast while he did and do the things I needed to do on the computer. Then I heard an extra set of feet walking to the kitchen. A two-year-old wanted his breakfast too. That'd be cool, but he has to sit with his mama while he eats. It hit me then, this is my first summer with three kids....I'm not relaxing this year.

The rambunctious five-year-old slept a little longer, but when he got up I knew my life for the next two months won't be easy. Or relaxing. I think I called Ronnie and asked if I could get a summer job. He laughed.

So, what does one do when her kids are driving her insane before lunch on the first day of summer break? 

She gets out a bag of flour and lets her kids do whatever they want while the baby naps.

They seriously LOVED doing this! 

They "wrote" in the flour then they got cars and trucks and played.

This kept them entertained for TWO hours!

Then Ezra woke up and it was lunch time!

After lunch we played and washed more clothes. We read books and ate snack. Then I put Ezra in the pack n' play so I could get some things done and when I went to check on him he was eating a magazine he had gotten his hands on!

You can barely see it, but there's a red corner sticking out of his little mouth. He tried his best to hide it, but I got it back. Just because you're a "kidd" doesn't mean you have to act like a goat!

I gave the boys baths, they took naps, I fixed supper, we got ready for church, searched for the dog, killed a snake in the driveway, found the dog, went to church, played with friends after church, went to Brandon and Daniela's and helped feed up, drove home, called Daddy and went to bed. 

That's how the first day of summer went. And I don't expect it to slow down any time soon. But that's okay with me!

Library Time

When we (the brother, sister and I) were small, our mom made sure we went to the library on a regular basis. It was a good thing I like books, or I'm sure I would have been miserable. Once I was in middle school, the Girl Scout troop I was in took over the summer reading program at the local library and planned out summers full of fun for the kiddos. We dressed up, sang songs, prepared crafts, and read books in the musty dark basement of the ancient library with around twenty kids every Tuesday through the summer. I loved those days and couldn't wait to start taking my kids when I had them.

I finally took Ethan and Elijah last summer. They enjoyed it, but were still a bit young to grasp everything that was going on. This summer I have high hopes since Ethan is getting ready to go to kindergarten (tear, sniff). So today I tore out of school as soon as I possibly could, made the day care stops and high tailed it to Seagrove for the first program of the summer.

We got to the library just after the group began so we made our way over to a vacant area where I urged the boys to go on and participate. They weren't moving. Ethan is super shy in crowds and I really have to try to get him to take some initiative and go out and do things with people he doesn't know. Today there was a group performing songs and hyping up the kids so I really thought Ethan would get involved, but it took til the second to last song to get him out there.

I do understand what it's like to be shy and lack confidence...I'm pretty sure my picture is beside those definitions in the dictionary, and it really hurts to see him follow in my footsteps, but I'm hoping that with some loving pushes he'll get more involved and be eager to participate in more activities.

Until next time,
MK

Let the good times roll...

It's summer! The plan for the summer is to take "Friday Field Trips" instead of a major vacation so we have several small trips planned throughout the next couple of months. Tomorrow is my last work day, but the family and I got our fun started this past Sunday with a little mini trip. Since we hadn't been together as a family all week, we decided to do something together that afternoon. We headed over to a place that Ronnie and I hadn't visited since grade school - Town Creek Indian Mound.

We headed home after church, changed clothes and took off. We stopped at Mickey D's to grab a quick bite we could eat on the road since we were driving for an hour anyway. We really felt like we were going out in the middle of nowhere, and when Ronnie was about to give up finding the place, we found it. 

We watched a video on the excavation of the site and learned facts about the people who had once lived on this land. Then we headed out to see the burial area, the ceremonial site and a hut. I'm not sure how much the boys understood or retained, but I believe they had a good time just hanging out with Mama and Daddy.

(Ronnie actually took the camera and got a picture of me!)

After we had toured and seen the sites, we decided to walk the nature trail down by the Little River that loops back around to the entrance. It was an easy, level walk and the boys enjoyed running ahead, waiting and then getting behind. They were curious about the plants, the river and spiders.

Near the end of trail, Ronnie fussed at us to get quiet and when we all paid attention we saw twin fawns running across the trail. I wish I had gotten a picture, but they were super fast and I'm glad I just watched them while they were there. 

We had a great afternoon together as a family and enjoyed spending time doing something a little different than our normal routine. Stay tuned for more of our summer adventures!