Night at the Park

Just a night at the park...I packed a picnic and Jon met us there after he left work. I am amazed at how much more the kids can do by themselves with each passing season! We had a lot of fun--and as always, their favorite thing is the swing! They were going very fast, very high, and I don't have a great camera--but I still got a couple good ones showing the smiles that were beaming on their faces!

Summer 2009

Take a Hike!

One day in July, we met up with some friends to have lunch at one of our favorite local spots. The kids played, and the adults talked, then we ate lunch. After our friends left, the kids and I went for a short hike...I love how much the love to do stuff like this!

Last year they did great at climbing the rocks with a little bit of help, but this year they did it on their own and fearlessly! I was amazed!

Lawson was a brave dare-devil...and so proud of himself!

And Jordan was right there behind him!
Fun times!!

Strange Man

Those of you who know Jon know that he typically keeps his hair in a pretty close cut. I like his hair short. He usually respects that. That arrangement usually works out well for us.

That having been said, this is a story about this summer.

Jon and I do a good bit of stuff with the youth group at church. I think one of the reasons Jon likes hanging out because it helps him feel like he's still that young. So...at the beginning of the summer, some of his 'boys' decided to go all summer without a haircut or a shave. Jon, being the cool adult he is, decided he should do that too.

When he told me about this preposterous plan, I figured it would be short-lived and didn't pay much attention. A few weeks later, I was beginning to get worried though, because we were about to leave for our trip to Honduras. I thought, "For sure he won't go down there without a trim..." You see, Jon's hair doesn't lay down like normal hair. It grows straight out. That means the longer he lets it grow, the bigger his head gets. And his head isn't one of the 'smaller models' to start with! ;)

Well, he didn't cut it for Honduras, so this is what he looked like down there...
And even though a couple of the boys in the 'deal' had backed down and cut their hair (their mommas made them...but wives don't count, I guess!) Jon's hair just kept growing....

When we decided to head to Michigan, I again thought for sure he would cut his hair. Why not? The people up there only see him once every year-at most. Why not trim up? But nope...just kept growing...

Thank goodness for a new job...because that's what finally made him decide the craziness needed to come to a stop! One Sunday night we put the kids to bed, then he got out his clippers. This is the pre-cut picture. In.Sane.

This is at 'hair-cut half-time'...

Ah....how refreshing!! There's my old Juan!

The whole reason I even made a post about this is because of the following story...I never want to forget it!!!

Remember, Jon cut his hair Sunday night after the kids went to bed. It had been over 2 months since his last haircut. Monday morning, Jon got up, got ready, went downstairs to get his stuff together, and ran out to the car to take some stuff out. While he was out at the car for 2 minutes, Jordan woke up and started to stumble over toward my room. Apparently she had gone down one step and was just standing there when Jon came back in for a second. Jordan looked down the stairs, saw Jon, and in a split-second turned on a dime and skidded up the stairs and into my room. She ran up to my side of the bed and told me...

"Mommy!! A man just came in the front door, and I don't know his name!"

Like I said. It was time for a haircut!

Soccer, Take One!

We enrolled Lawson in soccer this season for the first time! He's really excited, and we are too! He's a really quick runner, so I'm hoping this is something he can excel in and enjoy. So far, we've just had practices...and it's been HOT!

Here's a shot of Lawson and 2 boys on his team running towards the ball. It cracks me up...they all scream like crazy while they're running!

Jordan either runs around in the ball field behind the bleachers, sits and waits with me, or plays with the extra equipment....

Hopefully this is the beginning of another fun adventure!!

The Making of the Cakes

I have gotten several comments on Jordan's cake...thought I would post about it! I have decided that from now on I am going to try to make an "All-Out Cake" for my kids' birthdays! Growing up, I remember my mom creatively coming up with all kinds of cakes for us, from trains with Life-Saver wheels, to Cookie Monster with big marshmallow eyes...and even more! I love the thoughtfulness behind that, and the creativity factor is right up my alley!


I bought both of my kids 1st bday cakes, and Jordan's 2nd, but other than that I have made their cakes and/or cupcakes so far! I am certainly no professional--but the onslaught of cake-making shows on cable tv that my DVR now picks up for me, has somehow deluded me...for some reason I think I can hold my own! They're not gonna win any awards...but as long as the kids love 'em, it's good enough for me!

This was Lawson's 3rd bday, Little Einsteins. Made a Rocket cake.

Lawson's 4th bday, Spiderman.

For Jordan's cake, we started baking early on a Friday morning. The kids were so excited about helping!! They love to help me cook/bake whatever the daily project is! (As you can see, they had gotten into J's hair accessories box..they are both adorned with barrettes!!)
I had googled some ideas for cakes initially, but ended up making something up...I bought the decoration kit from Walmart then built the cake to put Ariel on. I used 4 cakes mixes--2 strawberry and 2 chocolate, Jordan's picks.
The many colors of icing. I 'sculpted' a place for her to sit because I saw it on Amazing Wedding Cakes. How hard can it be, really?

Decorating... By now, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon...

And putting on the final touches at the party... Jordan LOVED her cake!

I can't wait--I am so excited about the tradition of making their cakes, and trying to make their birthdays as special as possible!

Under the Sea

For her 3rd birthday party, Jordan chose Ariel. I thought this was fitting to symbolize this year....both of my kids love The Little Mermaid and all the songs on the soundtrack! We had her party up at church...I think the birthday girl had a blast!

Jordan and Ariel.

I drew decorations because I didn't think I could find what I had in mind. If I could've found it, I probably couldn't have afforded it!

Jordan loved opening her gifts! She stood right up on a chair like she was the star of the show and just started opening away!

She especially loved getting an Ariel! I thought it was so funny...after the 'party activities' were over, all the kids went out to the hallway and ran around playing with balloons. Jordan stayed back in the room, alone, with her Ariel. She was making her swim in the water and talk to Flounder!

It's always crazy to me how much planning goes into getting a birthday party ready! It's worth it, though, when the birthday girl walk in, scans the room, and gasps/sighs in wonder! Thanks to our friends who came and helped make it a great day!

My Boys

My sweet girl

Jordan's turn...

One last post from the day of painting...Jordan, again, is covered in green paint and was continuing to slather it all over herself, but I tried to get her to say the OT books. She has picked up a lot of them, just because we have been reciting them out loud to teach Lawson. This day she was being a little silly-her new thing is to say in a whisper, 'I don't know the words', or 'What's the next part?' I wouldn't even ordinarily put this up, although I think for not even age 3 she did pretty well, but I crack up everytime it gets to Jeremiah. Just listen...you'll see why.

A little bit of Lawson

Jon's parent's kept our kids in Oklahoma while we went to Honduras at the beginning of June. A couple months before we came Jon's mom told me that if I worked with Lawson and he learned his books of the Bible he could recite them for Ms. Loretta, who has been teaching the 4-5 year old class for years. If he could recite them all he would earn a certificate, but more importantly to him, she would bake him a cookie cake with his name on it.

I started one morning to say them, planning on having him repeat them to me...but he just started saying them with me! I didn't even know it, but his Wednesday night Bible class teachers had been teaching them all quarter! He was already able to get to about Jeremiah before I even knew he was learning them!

Anyways, we kept working on them and when he was in Oklahoma he did a great job reciting them in class. I wanted to share these pictures of that day, along with a video memory I made so I can have him saying all 66 books at 4 1/2. I want to say a huge thanks to Ms. Margy and Ms. Neila who first started teaching him to recite them! Also, thanks to Ms. Loretta for making this accomplishment so special to Lawson!

First-time Tubers

Last weekend one of our Huddle's kids' families invited the whole group out to their lake house. We all had such a great day...the kids especially had so much fun--just put them in life jackets and they started swimming all around!!

They also got their first opportunity to go tubing (with Jon in the tube with them!) Lawson is my more cautious child. He tends to be more reluctant and scared to try new things, but once he warms up to it and gets comfortable he is very good at whatever it is he's doing. Lawson was timid about hi-speed on the tube, but he loved going slower...

Jordan LOVED it!! Everytime I looked back to see how they were doing Jon pointed his thumb up saying 'Faster...faster!' She was giggling and squealing the whole time! She's definitely our daredevil, doing every new thing full-out from the very beginning!

It doesn't have to be scary!!

When I posted the video of Jordan singing the other day I got several comments about the kids painting and how brave I was. I just wanted to do a post encouraging my mommy friends that painting with your kids doesn't have to be scary!!! It's easy to set up, easy clean-up, good for imaginations, has so many variations, and is SO fun!!

I have pulled out various types of paint out for the kids...and they love them all! I have also done several types of paper--construction, paper plates, etc. My latest favorite is rolled paper. It comes in a box like this:
And looks like this:

I just pull off a piece big enough to cover the table, and then they have a huge area to paint on, without worrying about messes!

Here is the paint I have...
and

but it doesn't really matter what kind of paint you use as long as it says this:

One day I let them do finger paints...I just put a few colors in a paper plate then let them go to town on the big paper...

I took this picture because Jordan had just gotten done asking me if she could have some more paint because she needed more (as she's rubbing it on her arms as if it were lotion)!!

The other day I was painting the cabinets in the dining room, and the kids wanted to color...so I got out a piece of paper and some markers and stickers...

This past Wednesday started out pretty rainy, and the kids got so excited when I asked them if they wanted to paint. I got out some sponges I had bought and matched them up with paint.

I have really enjoyed having this paper this summer...and so have they:

When we are done, I just wash the sponges and brushes, then roll the paper up and toss it. (The certainly wouldn't make it into any museums anyways!) Easy clean-up! It comes easily off the kids, and if it does happen to get on the table

just wash with a wet cloth

and it's good as new!!!

Start painting everyone!!!