end of july

So today is the last day of July and I have not updated this since the 14th so here goes.

Our first major event...the caterpillar emerged from its chrysalis and became a beautiful butterfly. It was cool to see the END. We missed it breaking out, but caught number 2's coming out a few days later. We released this one the same day. It was cool.
Some pictures from our several trips to Hershey Park.

Notice Lizzie is in the "adult" middle seat. She always gets off and says "That was wicked awesome, it makes my bottom feel funny."

The Truck Convoy, we tried Hannah on it.

The kids with my favorite candy...yum!!

The boys being silly!!

Hannah watching the kids.

Dad, Jackson, and Lizzie waiting for the ride to start.

Hannah is always keeping us on our toes. She gets into everything and is very busy. On this particular day, I started praying at about 8 am for some patience. I had dealt with poop all over the carpet, diaper rash from all the poop, kids arguing, baths, and then the blue marker in the ear and all over the hands and this was all before 12. I had to run to church and when we got home we had a nice summer rain shower, so I sent the kids outside with umbrellas and no shoes to play in the rain out back (for their own safety). Of course they were soaked when they came in which is fine, until you play with the toilet paper. Hannah came in and 5 minutes later, I found her in the bathroom, with a Q-tip sticking out of each ear and toilet paper all pulled out, in the toilet and all over her. Nice!!!

Hannah also began learning how to feed herself yogurt. She loves this!!

Quote of the day: Hannah has decided that any animal with 4 legs is "Laney" so she calls them all this after Aunt Irvy's dog.

amazing creation

We took "cat" to the humane league the other weekend and when I called later in the week, they said it was a boy and that he was healthy and they put him up for adoption--yay!! I was glad to know he was ok and hopefully someone will take him home soon.

Later that week, our friend Carla, brought us over two "catties."We are officially now hosting 2 caterpillars one of which is transforming as I write into a Monarch Butterfly. Now, I was a little skeptical about the whole thing. The kids kept seeing that commercial where you can buy the supplies to do this, but I knew Carla could help us create our own version.

Apparently, the butterflies lay their eggs on Milkweed and the caterpillars hatch and eat the plant leaves. After several weeks of eating and lots of poop, they form a J-shape and 2 days later the chrysalis. Now this was AMAZING to watch!! We caught the very end of it. It all takes place in 10 minutes so it is hard to catch. The caterpillar actually sheds its skin to reveal the chrysalis underneath and it turns green and it actually looks like gold seam holds it together at the top. It was incredible! We are now waiting for the other one to change. It takes 2 weeks for it to become a butterfly so we will see. Aside from the chore of getting new leaves every other day, it is very easy to do. We have now been obsessed with looking for milkweed wherever we go. We can't wait to find more to grow and watch change. What a cool thing for the kids to see.

This picture does not do this justice...

The little caterpillar is getting bigger, it was fun to see the real version of The Hungry Little Caterpillar"

Quotes of the day:
First: Jackson came upstairs from playing crying that Lizzie had hit him. Joe called Lizzie up and she calmly explained that, "Jackson was being mean and I accidentally hit him." (um...right)

Second: As Joe was disciplining Lizzie and having a conversation with her before sending her to her room for hitting, Jackson had come in and laid on our bed with his hands behind his head. As Joe came in to our room, Jackson said, "Good job yelling at Lizzie, Dad." (remember he is still in the lounge position) Joe promptly sent Jackson to his room for instigating and for the comment.

emotional roller coaster

As you know, I had been covering my friend, Tanya's job for 8 weeks while she tried a long term sub position at the end of last school year. She felt, after the time spent subbing, that God was leading her to stay at LCBC and continue on with her job. We became fast friends when I joined the team 2 years ago and I tried my best not to show my favor with her staying as she went through her subbing. I was, to say the least, very relieved that she was staying.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, I was visiting her as Joe was helping with some plumbing stuff and she finally got the nerve up to tell me that she had gotten a job for this school year and was finished at LCBC on August 15th. I did my best to listen to how God had opened another door after she thought he had closed all doors in that direction. She wondered why this had fallen into her lap when she was so set on staying at church. I stayed strong and finally broke down at the end. She is such a good friend and co-worker and I feel like I am losing a lot. Selfish really, but she told me she is even struggling with it as she finishes up her job. I am really kind of mad at God for this one. Not sure what he has planned, I know it must be good, but it's really hard to accept.

So, I have cried my tears and been stressed trying to decide if I can even take her position, which was offered, but it is going to be full-time soon and I just can't with the kids, as much as I want to. Just be praying that I can be a good "helper" to whoever steps in and that I won't have a chip on my shoulder about it all. Pray for Tanya too as she is struggling, and has been torn, these last several months about this decision.

july 4th

We spent the 4th with Joe's family at a friend's house who was nice enough to let us use their pool and outside kitchen for the day. We had a lot of fun hanging out and thanks to the family photographer, Aimee, we have some pics to share.

Joe's belly flop that left him in pain, duh!! (I love you honey, thanks for the entertainment!)

Buddha Baby!!

Joe's Grandmom surprised us all with a cannon ball.

Jackson and Mee-Mom

Jackson and Poppie play "Action Figures."

cat

We have a new outside pet named Stormy, Kitty, Cloudy depending on who is calling her. She showed up at the barn next to us and looked very scared and thin. We decided to give her a little of our left over steak and ended up giving her a lot of leftovers. The poor thing was starving. We then realized this was bad news. She was ours. She laid on our deck for hours meowing and resting. She came back in the morning and I fed her leftover eggs. She hung around all day and I hated to touch her, but I did to try and remove a tick I noticed on her ear. The kids have been warned not to even let her touch them.

She is so sad. She was some one's pet because she is declawed, but I thinks she is sick because she meows all the time and has patches of hair missing and is soooo thin. I called the humane league and they said I could bring her in. I will on Saturday, but first we actually got her some cat food and have been feeding her regularly. She is so skittish and we have a neighbor outdoor cat that is a big bully and has been scaring her away. I even tried to shoo him off today and he actually batted me with his paw and cut my leg, meany!!

Here she is :( She has beautiful yellow/green eyes!!
Quote of the day: Totally unrelated to the post...Jackson said in his mean voice as Lizzie was annoying him, "Lizzie you're a ricer!!" Lizzie asks, "What's a ricer?" Jackson replies, "You eat rice." Hummm.

vacation in Haddon Heights

Come to Haddon Heights, NJ for the ultimate vacation. Enjoy an all inclusive visit, you can bask in the beautiful pool, make s'mores by the fire, take in some nearby entertainment and enjoy visitors from all over the area.

We were in NJ for a week without Daddy (we missed him VERY much, but he was home working his tail off, and golfing one day). We all enjoyed the time with Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop, Aunt Irvy and of course Laney!!

Tuesday some of my friends from the area came over with their kids for some water fun and lunch. Between the 4 of us girls there were 10 kids. What a change from our childless small group days, huh?!?! We all had fun and it is so neat to see how the kids click as if no time has passed.
We went to see the movie Wall-e one day. What a great movie, I recommend it to you even for a date night. It was really good!! We had Grammy and Aunt Margie over for lunch one day. Aunt Margie brought over a yummy orange cake we enjoyed for dinner.
Gran, Aunt Dori, and Mo came over another night for a BBQ and Aunt Dori brought a bag-o-crafts for us to do with the kids, one of which was designing their own t-shirts with fabric markers. Lots of fun!!Our last day we enjoyed a visit with Chris, Liz and Benny, Ben, Ben and in the evening we made s'mores. Yummm!!What a great week!!

alligator park

We visited the "Alligator Park" on a beautiful day and the kids had fun in the "shade part" they call it. It is all the old fashion rides we had growing up. Like the large metal thing that spins around and if you don't hang on you fall off. My cousin Tim cracked his head open on one of these when we visited him in Ft. Collins Colorado one year. My stomach still turns when my kids play on this thing.
We had some fun learning about tether ball and all I could think of was Napoleon Dynamite.
The wooden part has no shade and by afternoon even the wood is hot and the metal slides could probably give you a nice burn. We decided to stay in the shade and enjoy the stream.

I did ask Lizzie if she need to go potty after this one, she assured me "NO!"

BTW this is the outfit Lizzie likes to wear with her nice wedge Hello Kitty sandles to which Joe said she belongs at the Deptford Mall. (Old Skool Deptford for my friends who frequent there)

Quote of the Summer: We have had fun enjoying Hershey Park, the Hershey Zoo, the park that now everyday I am beginning to hear "Mom, are we going to do something fun today? Can we go to the zoo or the water rides? What, we are going to Giant that is boring!" Any ideas how to make a trip to Giant more fun?!

hershey park, again

We went to Hershey Park again a few weeks ago and had fun just playing at the Boardwalk, which is all water rides. We had fun in the wave pool, until some kid pooped (lovely), and they evacuated that area. The kids love the Sandcastle and could stay there all day. There is so much chlorine that you can almost feel your nose hairs burning when you are in there. It is fun to watch even Hannah go down the little slide and play in the shallow water. Here are a few pictures of the three of them in the stroller.
We came home to this sight which Joe, who is afraid of heights, bravely fixed. It was very funny!! Good job, honey!!