Me and Lauren

The guys went to cub scout camp Sunday and get back today, so it's been me and Lauren for a couple of days on our own. I kind of wish we had another day to be together; it's been good. Sunday, we went to church, ate lunch with a friend and her young son whose husband and older son are at camp with my guys, went to a consignment clothing sale and found some things for both kids, watched Hotel For Dogs and just played and played. Yesterday, we drove to another town where our electric bill has to be paid, spent 2 1/2 hours at the pool with friends, watched High School Musical 3, and had ice cream from McDonald's for dessert. One of the sweetest things that has happened is Miss Lauren has missed her brother, so both nights he's been gone she has slept in his bed. I love my daughter!

If Only...

We visited a pet store today and the kids got really excited about the hamsters/gerbils/mice. On the 25 minute ride home, it's all they talked about. They were discussing what size animal they wanted, what kind of cage they would buy, and what they would name the pets. Evan decided on Shorty McShort Shorts, which we all thought was funny. They were even talking about buying the pet with their own money. But, the funniest thing was from Lauren when she said, "Please can we get one? I'll do whatever you say!"

Lauren Lost a Tooth

Lauren pulled out her loose tooth today. It's actually her second one that she has lost. The first one was 9 months ago in September. That permanent tooth grew in a little caddy-cornered, so I suppose it never got underneath this one enough to loosen it up and make it fall out sooner. She was very excited and wonders how much money the tooth fairy will bring.

Small Town Post Office

Yea for the Goddard, KS post office! Our mail carrier picked up a package at our house I had to send out and a couple of hours later the post office called me. I was mailing out a large flat rate box, but printed out a shipping label for a medium box. The box contained clothes someone bought from me on ebay, and if the post office hadn't called me to let me know about this, my customer would have had to pay $3 more postage for my mistake! That would definitely not have been a good transaction. I went up to the post office and fixed the problem, and was so happy they discovered this and took the time to call me. I'm thanking God for helping me through this kindhearted person(s) who helped me out.

Fun Summer Night

We went and watched two of Evan's best friends, Jordan and Brett play baseball against each other last night. After the game we all went and had ice cream together. It was just a fabulous summer night! Thanks to Dara for sharing her pictures with me!

Lauren and Makeup

These pictures were taken in February one night when Lauren wanted to try putting on her makeup by herself. She loved it!

Soccer

Tonight was Evan's Upward Soccer awards ceremony and it was great! To be around so many kids in a pumped up atmosphere that was sports centered, but more importantly Christ centered was awesome! There was music from the sponsoring church's youth band, a salvation message, a video montage of the season, and then the teams on stage to be recognized. We ordered a copy of the video because between Roger and Evan, they were in it 3 times.

Loooong Day

Oh, today is soooo looong--it feels like it should be Friday already and it's only 4:00 Wednesday afternoon! The rainy weather outside doesn't help, we won't see Roger tonight because he starts his teaching job right after work and that goes until 9:00, and the rest of us still have to go to VBS tonight where I will be leading crafts! But, there were some things that were funny today:

1. Lauren has been talking about boys a lot lately and today she asked when she will be getting married. I told her that was still a long time from now, and in her young 5 year old thinking she responded, "Oh yeah, I have to get my ears pierced first," and she knows she can do that when she is at least 9 years old. The way kids mark milestones in their lives...isn't it neat to look at time through a young child's eyes. I'm sure it was funnier to me than it sounds in this post.

2. Evan is so into looking at Star Wars things on Ebay, and he came out from the computer room announcing that he figured out how to watch certain items, but knew that he was not allowed to bid on anything. So, I have a few Star Wars items on my ebay page that are being watched. The kid is too smart (and borderline tricky/risky/about to get himself into trouble) sometimes.

3. The kids looked through some of my old photo albums from around my high school/early 20s age and just had a blast laughing at the way people looked, and in awe when I would tell them who some people were because they don't necessarily look the same today. You just had to be here to witness how fun that was. Above is a picture of Roger and I and yes, our funny feathered hair from 1989!

As the Bible says, "Be thankful for everything." So, today I am thankful for looooong rainy days!

Summer School

If I could only get paid for every time I say "I love homeschooling" I'd be a rich woman! The flexibility it offers; personally watching my kids learn, helping them to learn, and being able to have control of what they learn; being more in depth of a certain subject they're interested in, and I could just go on and on and on about how wonderful it is. I am so glad that we homeschool in the summer. Since we have nowhere to be most days now, the kids look forward to getting up in the morning and doing school. Even though it's only about an hour's worth of work, it helps the day go faster and they aren't so bored.

Evan finished math and spelling during the "school year", so we are working hard on social studies (American History), and continuing Art, and Bible; and Roger will hopefully get science (Botany) finished this summer. Lauren is not working on any certain thing right now. She is enjoying Art and listening to the books read about all of the explorers who came to America. Dare I say it again? Sure, why not....I Love Homeshcooling!!!

At the Park

It's Friday and felt like a great day to get the kids outdoors. We called our friends Crystal, Alexis, and Caden to see if they could meet us at our favorite playground because they live so close to it, and they could. It was fun eating a picnic lunch with them, watching the kids play, and us moms being able to chat.

Found some shade under a slide to cool down for a few minutes.

Cooling off under the misting umbrella.

Lunch time!

Thank You Friends

A big thanks to my wonderful friend Annetta who has been helping me with my blog problems that I have posted. Even when I'm supposed to be trial and erroring on my own, she has sometimes given me little hints to guide me in the right direction!

I should also thank my hero-mom Heather who laughs at trial and error and just flat out has told me where to go and what to do! What a rebel!

I love you both!

Blog Backgrounds

I saw that my dear friend Janet from the blog Mean Mommies Rock changed her background, and I thought it would be fun to do the same. So I think at the beginning of every month I will change my background. The kids and I thought the strawberries for June were a good choice.

Evan turned 8!

Evan's birthday is May 23, and it always falls on Memorial Day weekend, so we decided to have his party on May 31 in the hopes that more people would be able to come. We rented a moonwalk, invited a whole bunch of (mostly) 8 year old boys who came with all of their families and prayed that the weather would be nice so we could have all of the festivities outside. Our prayer was answered, and although it was 90 some degrees outside where the moonwalk was, underneath our shade trees it wasn't unbearable, and the breeze blowing off of the lake helped. Evan loves citrusy flavors so he wanted a lemon cake, and the theme to be Wall-E. In the picture of the cake, you can see that Evan aimed the gun of the girl robot Eve towards the candle wick as if she is shooting it to light it. We kept it simple by grilling hot dogs, heated up baked beans, and served chips, along with huge jugs of water and lemonade. It was so fun! (I hope the bouncing of the pictures doesn't bother you, but I thought it was perfect for a moonwalk party!)
P.S. Does anyone know how to slow down the pictures so we can look at them longer?