I volunteered to help at Field Day on Monday for Brianna's preschool. I really had no clue what I was getting into, but I had a ball! I love the kids in her class and for some reason they enjoy ganging up on me (!) so we really had a great time.
The first 45 minutes or so were spent inside, playing with any and every toy. That is when the kids took the opportunity to gang up on me. I was tickled mercilessly and then I had a gang of dinosaurs attack me! It was terrifying.
The lady in this first picture is Ms Nancy. She is a volunteer with the preschool and Brianna absolutely adores her!
Brianna tries on her friend Rileigh's sunglasses:
Brianna's teacher Ms Buttons is not coming back next year, so she took the opportunity for a group picture:
Ms Nancy read a great story about a cricket. Even Hunter sat still for this story!
Time for Field Day stations! First one was classic - bubbles!
Second station - it was supposed to be a relay but for our kids (toddlers and 2's) it was just jump rope and hula hoops!!
Hunter quickly got bored with the hula hoops. He wandered off to sit with the 3-year olds. He's so mature for his age.
Next station - parachute!!
I was tickled when two kids (Jacob and Giorgia Mae) gave me flowers to put in my hair! What sweethearts!
Hunter gets on the slide with Brianna's friend Walker.
Next station: beanbag toss!
And then we're off to the water balloons!
Check out Brianna holding on to Giorgia Mae - too cute!
Brianna and her friend Jacob!
And the reward for Field Day? Popsicles all around!
Of course now the kids are starving from all that activity! They sit quietly waiting for snack!
On the way home, Brianna yells, "Field Daaaaaaaaaaaay!"
We had such a great time. I love these kids and the teachers and I appreciate them so much! Even Hunter fit right in!!
We have really been enjoying this beautiful weather! That means lots of playing outside, family walks, and gardening!
Oh yeah, and shooting crossbow.
Although sometimes it's just too darn hot to play outside! That's when bracelet kits come in handy!
It is such a hassle to model this bracelet, Mom.
This is a "bridge" that Brianna was building for Stephen. It was supposed to stay up until he came home from work. Unfortunately she built it while he was in Charleston for several days... can you guess how long it stayed in place? Yeah, about 2 minutes.
Several weeks ago Ms Nancy at Brianna's preschool gave us some plants. They have really shot up! I wish I had a picture of our garden too. We planted squash, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, lima beans, green beans, corn, carrots, okra and green peppers so far. The green peppers haven't come up yet but I didn't expect them to because they haven't come up the last two years either. I think next year I will just buy a pepper plant!!
We've had a pretty eventful time these last few days!! We took a trip to Georgia to see our family down there and we had such a great time! I started packing Thursday because I had plans for that evening so I wanted to be able to enjoy my night out without worrying about packing.
I don't know why I was worried about it anyway, Brianna was done in all of 30 seconds:
Her suitcase contains: a pair of shoes and socks for Brianna, and a pair of shoes and socks for Hunter.
I texted Leila and told her we might be doing some clothes shopping when we arrived!! But by that night, Brianna had seriously finished packing. She did all this and then came to me and said, "Mom, can I put my suitcase in the car now?" I told her I had to check her suitcase first.
It contained: 9 pairs of underwear, 2 bathing suits, 8 pairs of socks, 5 pairs of shoes and 1 outfit. The outfit she picked out were the dirty clothes she wore the day before. Too funny!!
Also on Thursday we had some business we had to finish up. Stephen, within less than 48 hours, sold the Jeep and bought a Toyota Celica. And made money on the deal! I'm very proud of him!
Thursday night a bunch of us went out for our friend Heather's birthday. We went to Olive Garden and rocked the restaurant! After dinner we weren't quite ready to go home yet so we hit up the new yogurt place next to Olive Garden - Di'lishi! If you haven't been there yet I highly recommend it. Frozen yogurt (TONS of flavors) and over 75 toppings?? Yes please!! I loaded down my cookies 'n' cream yogurt with everything from raspberry truffles to jelly beans to caramel sauce to crushed Heath bars... I got a bunch of toppings and I only paid 2 bucks for it! Lovely!
The next morning we headed out on the road for Georgia! The kids shocked us once again with how well they traveled. My "bag of tricks" wasn't even used. It had snack bags of Whales (knock-off of Goldfish) and Tastee-Os (knock-off of Cheerios), magazines (Highlights), Bri's favorite books, some musical toys, etc. etc. I am so thankful our kids are so easily entertained by themselves!
We pulled into the neighborhood and rolled all the windows down. I snapped this picture - do you see the little foot behind me hanging out the window? That would be Brianna. (You will probably need to enlarge the picture)
I was so mesmerized by this new yogurt craze (Di'lishi) that I asked Leila if they had any places like that around. Turns out they do - Menchies! So everyone took me, probably to get me to shut up about the yogurt!! It was delicious and Brianna loved choosing her toppings!
She even met the Menchies mascot! It was really funny because after she hugged the person in the costume she looked at us and said, "That's not an ice cream cone... that's a MAN!"
We were having a cookout Saturday night so Stephen bought some fresh corn to grill. Brianna is a big help when it comes to shucking, so she did it over the fire pit so we could do a bonfire later.
Later in the afternoon, everyone was napping so Brianna and I took the opportunity to make a big tower. Jenn had given Brianna some of her Barbies to play with so I decided to make the tower a little more interesting... I added a prisoner!
This picture is from the ride home. Hunter sure has a funny look on his face but he was laughing hysterically. He would put these two stuffed animals on his head, sit extremely still and just say, "Hat? Hat?" over and over again. Then he would "bop" them off and crack up laughing. It was too funny!
We had cookie cake to celebrate Mother's Day and of course the kids loved it. Hunter was taking a bite, and then he'd shake his head and say, "Mmmmm!" Oh yeah, and that is NOT his Mountain Dew beside him!
I received a pretty good devotional book from Bethany House to review. It is called "Unashamed to Bear His Name" and is by R.T. Kendall. I knew nothing about the author before reading this book but I am always interested in new study books. The subtitle for this book is "Embracing the stigma of being a Christian" and that is definitely the main idea throughout this book. Kendall goes through many stigmas you may face when you are outspoken about your faith. These range from talking about repentance to telling people their works aren't good enough to get them into heaven to speaking in tongues.
There are many things in this book that I disagree with Kendall on (for example, I'm not quite sure I fully agree with him on the section about speaking in tongues), but the best thing about this book is that Kendall doesn't try to convince all readers to agree with him on every point. He is realistic enough to understand that there are just some things we won't agree with him on, but he makes sure to point out things which he believes but would not die for, but there are some positions he would die for. It's nice to read an author who is very firm in the things he stands for, but also understands that some people may not agree with his views.
The book was well-written and certainly required some hard thinking to read it. I like books like that because it makes you see things from a different viewpoint and really consider things in your faith. I think most people would enjoy reading this book even if they don't agree with every single point Kendall makes. I would recommend this book to people who are strong in their faith, and who can discern which things they really do agree with spiritually.
I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
Back when we had Brianna's big birthday party, my grandparents weren't able to make the party because my grandmother was really sick. So Brianna had another birthday party at my parents' house the next week! Granny brought her a huge bag of goodies for her birthday!
This book has become a staple in our house. It has a ton of songs which have lyrics set to familiar tunes. When you press the buttons in the correct order, it plays the songs for you. This is princess-themed, so totally a big deal.
Brianna loves this headpiece. And she looks beautiful in it!
Brianna loved this kitchen basket full of things for her new kitchen! Everything from a muffin tin to a loaf pan to utensils to a kitchen timer. All the essentials! She plays with all of this stuff constantly at home.
And as you can see, she didn't waste any time making all of us muffins!!
The next morning, she remembered bright and early about a pair of new sandals that Granny had gotten for her. These things are worn all the time now. I mean, you can't go wrong with glitter and butterflies, right!?
A new favorite thing to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house is ride around in their old station wagon! Mom and Dad will get in with the kids and drive the old car around their yard. The kids think it is such an adventure! They love it!!
This is a very short video of them driving around the yard a bit. Brianna keeps yelling out the window, "This is so cool!!" Haha, I love this idea!
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