Actions Included

Colossal Coaster World was the theme of VBS at Grandma and Grandpa's church this year.  

All the local cousins got to attend.

Liam, Laney, Kiyah

The kids thought it all so exciting.

Aliyah, Theia, Liam, Laney, Kiyah
back row:  Xandra, Katelyn (friend)

The baby was less impressed.

In the picture below is Ms. Lynn.  The kids LOVE her and she does all the music for VBS.  She's basically a celebrity at our house.

We were treated to a singing program at the end of the week.

Even though Uncle Ryan wasn't a part of it this year, it was still good.

Except for the scripture memory part, evidently we weren't so good at that part.

We were much better with the singing and actions.

The one exception to the avid singing and actions would be my up at or before 6:00AM every single morning of her life, niece, Cora.  She was so tired, she could barely keep herself vertical.  If that stair rail hadn't been there, she may have just had the ride of her life down those steps.  It was literally holding her up the entire program.  Her lips barely moved and she couldn't muster the energy to smile.  Really entertaining to see her so mellow.

While for the early birds like Cora, the evening couldn't end soon enough,

three months later I don't think it has.  It's sill just one big Colossal Coaster World party around here.  I get daily renditions of each song, actions included.Act

Prime Real Estate

There's a little nook in the corner of Grandma's kitchen.  Grandpa used this otherwise wasted space to create a nook for phones, phone books and calendars.  There also used to be a pretty little decoration housed on the floor underneath the shelves, but with the advent of grandchildren seven years ago, it was removed.  This prime little piece of real estate has sat empty for many years, until now.

 Tikvah has found it a nice little out of the way place to sit (or stand, as she's tall enough to stand up under the bottom shelf) with blanky in hand, thumb in mouth, and watch the world go by.

Occasionally, she shares her little corner of the world with her brother.

Confusing

At one month old, Isaiah got his first taste of oats.  Joey decided at VBS one evening, that he would share his Cheerios with Isaiah.

That Cheerio on the end of my finger was retrieved out of Isaiah's mouth.  Joey was a little miffed that I took Isaiah's Cheerio away

even after my long explanation about how Isaiah was too little for Cheerios and that he could choke and die.

The world is a confusing place.  Since when do two-year olds get in trouble for sharing?

Nuts

As we were walking out the door one evening to head to VBS, my friend Sheila called from the road.  Her daughter, Katelyn had gotten gum stuck in her hair en route to VBS.  Have we left?  Could we bring a jar of peanut butter?  We had definitely not left, being the punctual people that we are,  and we definitely had a huge jar of peanut butter.  I asked Joe to grab the peanut butter for me since I didn't have any extra hands to make it out to the car.  When I stooped to pick Isaiah up a few minutes later, I saw this:

Joe mentioned something about checking to see if he had a peanut allergy.

Then he said something like, "Are you nuts? (undoubtedly pun intended)" There was no reason for him to go all the way out to the car

when Isaiah was happy to carry it for him.

I rolled my eyes, looked to Isaiah for some back up

and finding he was no help at all, picked him up, while he kindly carried the peanut butter, and carted him out to the car.  I then proceeded to field questions about Isaiah and peanut butter all the way to VBS.

PS - If ever your daughter with long curly hair gets peanut butter in her hair, do not, I repeat, DO NOT put it in a bun until the peanut butter arrives.  Peanut butter will help no such situation.

Dozing

One month

and dozing

happily.

Excuses

Our kids LOVE to play with the hose.  

They'll take any excuse they can get to turn it on: 

filling the pool, 

when that's done it's washing feet,

when the feet are clean, it's onto the hands,

when the hands are clean, it's filling the pool.  

Oh wait.  

We already used that excuse.  

It's a good thing there are two pools.  

When the little one's full, you can start on the big one.

By the time the big one's full, someone will have dumped the water out of the little one, so they'll need to fill that one again, and then someone else will need a drink, and can we wash the cars, too?

A million excuses.  One hose.  

One excuse for every gallon of water we wasted this summer with the best toy in the yard.

Mommy's Little Cupcake

Rumor has it that Joe wore pink baby clothes at one point because it's all his mother had to put on him.  I've never understood this until recently.

Yes.  These are pictures of Isaiah.

Wearing Pink.  Hot Pink.

I didn't mean for him to wear a pink onesie.  It just sort of happened.  Joe always loves to hear me say that.

We went to Auntie Laura's house for the day and Isaiah pooped right through his diaper and clothes within ten minutes of arriving at her place.  Being the prepared mother that I am, I had no clean clothes for him, or any of my children, in the diaper bag.  So, we did what any sane person would do, we borrowed from cousins.  The only problem is that in the Hermunslie house there are four girls.  No boys (save Uncle Ryan, and his clothes won't fit).  Not only were there no boy clothes in the house, there were kids sleeping in the bedrooms where we may have been able to find something a little more neutral than hot pink.  I proceeded to do what any mother of six children with a newborn would do:  laugh heartily and put this hot pink onesie on the baby and snap lots of pictures.

As you can see, he wasn't impressed.  Neither was his father a few hours later when I brought home his baby boy in a hot pink onesie with the title, "Mommy's little cupcake."

Adventurous

We celebrated the fourth of July at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tim's  house this year.  It was convenient since we were living there. 

All the local cousins came and brought red white and blue cake.

It was good

and festive at the same time.

Aside from wandering aimlessly chewing on empty jars,

there was swimming

and a fun fireworks show

supervised by approximately 8 kids and 6 adults.

There were sparklers

and smoke bombs

and one little tiny Isaiah.

Then there was the parachutes, which Gramps couldn't resist going after with the kids.

We get a little braver every year.  This is the first year we've had fireworks since having kids (although we didn't provide them).  Maybe next year we'll wait until twilight to start the festivities.  We're real adventurous sometimes, aren't we?

Pen Pals

Losing teeth in our house involves a bit of drama.  I don't enjoy the drama, but I do enjoy the tooth fairy fun that follows.  Xandra's notes to the tooth fairy get a little more involved with every tooth lost:

Translation:  Dear Tooth Fairy,  I Just lost my 3rd tooth. I hope you have fun with your job.  P.S.  What is your favorite color?

Now Theia has joined the ranks of leaving notes under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Translation:  I have a loose tooth.

When I took these pictures, she'd yet to lose a tooth.

And, just in case your wondering about the tooth fairy's favorite color, it's red.  At least that's what the note Xandra found under her pillow the next morning explained.  Red.  Just like my favorite color.  What a lovely coincidence.

Containment

Grandpa was in the beginning stages of putting up a sunroom this summer.  Beginnings of sunrooms require post holes.  Post holes, for those like me who aren't savvy with construction terminology, are deep narrow holes for posts and cement which serve as the support for the whole structure.  A good use for post holes while they're waiting for posts and cement is this:

successful containment of wiggly nieces.

Plotting

They're plotting.

It scares me.

A lot.

You'd be scared, too, wouldn't you?