Singing in the Rain

Imagine this...

We are enjoying a quiet, peaceful meal.  At the table.  With no screaming or whining.  Amazing.
Then the rain instantly starts dumping. 

And I mean dumping.
Buckets full.

We hear hail.  Now, coming from KS, I know the sound of hail, and it is a rare treat out here.  I've only seen hail twice since having moved here five years ago.

We rush to the window to see.  Not much hail...only a few pieces here and there.
But there is a rainbow!
And it ends in our neighbor's yard!
Sadly, no pot of gold.

We finish eating, and I suggest to let the kids go out and run in the rain. 
As long as there is no lightening or the sound it makes, I'm good.

The street looked like a river.  You could hear the rushing of it from the front porch (which is as far as I went).
Two and a half inches in less than an hour.
Awesome.

Olivia loves the rain!
Especially when it feels like we live in a tropical rainforest, and she's wearing yoga pants.

This was as far as Ezren got.

He had a fever earlier in the day (nothing major -- a little over 100), but felt good enough to just hang out on the porch with mom, dad, and Zelda.

I wanted to go out with them...but the camera just wouldn't let me.

Two soaking wet kids and one who imagined he was.

Love it!

Mario Kart Legos

Isaac loves to build with Legos -- that goes without saying.
He also loves Mario Kart and has figured a way to combine the two.

See if you can see Mario driving in his cart.

The blue dot at the top left is Mario's eye.  The black "L" shape is his mustache.  The cart is at the bottom with "+" shaped wheels.  Mario is holding the steering wheel.

He also made a 3-D Mario but disassembled it before I could get the camera.
I'll be quicker next time.

Going Batty

Tuesday morning I'm hanging out, sewing, doing misc. around the house stuff. I walk upstairs to the office and see this giant thing on the window.

OK. So it's not "giant," but it's bigger than the things that are normally on the window.

The first thing I think is that a giant cockroach has climbed up the side of my house.

Wait, no, is it a frog?  See the tiny little toes?

Holy cow!  No, it's a bat!  A bat is hanging on my window!  How cool is that?!

Cheeto really wanted to get the bat!

The really neat thing is, we have a bat box hanging on a tree that is only ~20 ft. from this window.  I'm hopeful that the little guy/girl found the bat box and is hanging in it right now!

Bats rock!

Preschool

Ezren's first day of preschool was the 17th. This will be our sixth year at this school and our last. I can't believe next year he'll be in Kindergarten!

But he loves school and especially loves "his girl" Allison. When he walked in the room that first day, she ran up and hugged him and said, "Ezren! I'm so glad you're here!" Then she took his face in her hands and said, "I missed you so much!" He said he missed her too and they hugged again. I must admit, I got a bit misty-eyed at that.

This was also the first day in a long while that I have had alone with no kids. Here the three are ready to embark on another day of school.

Yes, I took many of these shots (10 to be exact).

Yes, this is the best one.

Now for the sweet one...

I love school!

Completion of the Fourth Orbit

On August 5, 2009 at 2:53 pm (EDT), my sweet Ezzy completed his fourth orbit around our Sun. He knew his birth time A -because I remind him of it, and B - because I told him he couldn't play the Wii that day until he officially turned four...at 2:53. Let me tell you, he was on top of that clock all day. Asking anyone who could tell time if it was 2:53 yet.

After Wii playing was done and dinner made (he chose corndogs, macaroni and cheese, french fries -- perfect four-year-old food!), we had cake. This cake was delicious! Forget that I didn't put on a crumb coat - it all eats the same. Chocolate with buttercream frosting. Mmmmmm!

And for those of you who don't know/can't tell, it's in the shape of a Wii remote (aka: Wiimote).

Ez is a Wii addict, and so this year, most of his gifts were Wii related.

New controller...




New Nunchuck...

Some Mario related clothes...

I hope this fifth orbit is just as wonderful and special as the fourth!

Summer Randomness

This explains Isaac's world.

How gorgeous is this dog?! Remind me of that when she won't come inside at 11:pm!

Usually, Zelda doesn't have much patience for the boy who won't sit still. But on this day, she let him love on her for a long time.

While the flooring guys were upstairs installing, the kids and I were trapped downstairs. I gave them visors to paint to occupy them for a few minutes.

Olivia's a goofball!

Apparently, she's not the only one!

My kids are UNO addicts. After the visor project, they went outside, but because of all the rain there were millions of mosquitoes trying to eat them, so they came in, grabbed UNO, and played. I thought they looked like a bunch of old ladies playing cards!

When the flooring guys had to floor the kids' bedrooms, they were all shoved into a different room to sleep. They love having sleepovers and thought this was great fun!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Sure, it was over a month ago, but it certainly deserves reliving!

On Olivia's birthday we went with Grandpa Darrell and Grandpa Mel out to Dr. Young's Berry Farm in Angier to pick us some blueberries.

There were so many gnats!

And it was hot.

And humid.

But it was worth it. Those blueberries were yummy in homemade ice cream, muffins, and pancakes!

After we were done picking, we went home and cooled off. Then it was time for dinner (lasagna -- O's choice!), cake and ice cream, and presents!

Blowing out the candles...

The cake...

Surprised to get the Narnia books we were missing...

What is she doing? I don't know...

One of her gifts was a metal detector. We threw some coins out in the yard for her to find.

We must have thrown them well because we only found two out of 10!



It was a great July 11!

First Days of School for Olivia and Isaac

Olivia's first day of 3rd grade was July 7. She was a little nervous but already knew her teacher, so it wasn't too bad. She chose her outfit and was ready really early! Her backpack was so heavy -- packed with all those school supplies!

Isaac's first day was July 8. He had to go to Kindergarten Evaluations before they decided that he could go on to 1st grade the next week. He was very excited to be going to Olivia's school. What a great year it's going to be!

A Day at the Beach

The day Olivia was done with second grade, we made our annual pilgrimage to spend a day at the aquarium and beach.

Packed the car.
Buckled the kids.
Did you get the map?
No, I thought you had the map.
Do we have everything?
I don't know.
(Stop. Get out. Check. Yep, we have it all.)

About 30 min. from the aquarium, we stop in Havelock (I think). We need to use the bathroom.

That's when we realize, Ezren doesn't have any shoes.

Apparently we forgot something. At least we have Ezren, right?

Luckily, there is a Wal-Mart right across the street from where we stopped. So, we head over there and spend some money on water shoes for Ez.

Eventually, we make it to the aquarium.

The rays were awesome! Every other time we've gone to the aquarium, we were lucky to even get a finger on one of those slippery guys. But on this particular day, the rays were acting like cats. They would swim up close to the edge where your fingers were and would slow down and rub against your hand all the way down its back. So cool.

We also were able to pet horseshoe crabs.

They are creepy little creatures with ten legs and ten eyes (or so we were told). When you flip them over, they look like a spider.

Creepy.

At last we made it to the beach. Don't the kids look excited?

The kids rushed out and loved every minute! The waves were a bit strong, so the kids couldn't go out too far, but they loved sitting and waiting for a wave to come and knock them over.

You'd never know two years ago the kid screamed bloody murder at the sight of the ocean and wouldn't even get his toes wet.

Now look at him.

I'm not sure where the kids got the idea to bury themselves, but they did.

Afterward they looked like little sugar coated donuts.

Couldn't resist...

All-in-all it was a great day to visit the beach.

The Happiest Cake on Earth

I was recently reading another blog, and she posted about a cake she had made for her children's last day of school. Well, my kids don't really have a "last day" since they go year round (or at least Olivia does and the others will eventually), but since we'd all been feeling a little edgy lately, I thought this cake might just perk us up.



And boy did it! You can't help but smile when you see this cake! And it tastes so good!

Ezren helped make it (such a good helper!) and somehow we managed to keep it a surprise from the other two. After dinner we brought out the cake and began cutting into it. They saw the red and shouted, "Strawberry cake!" Nope not strawberry . . . when that first piece was placed onto a plate, there were shrieks of joy all around! Even Chad smiled.

See, I told you it's hard not to smile with this cake!