Tuesday, June 29, 2010

we got the beat

making lots of beautiful beats at cmoe today. 
i have a feeling miss grace will be into body art someday.  a rainbow on her head, butterfly 1 cheek & a heart made by bubby on the other. 

of course, their favorite area was the quack factory (where you get nice & wet).  beano was begging to go there first stop.  but, we checked out the other exhibits first.  what a mean mom i am. 

my favorite part was the room with a stage playing music.  the kiddos sure did get down with their bad selves.  or at least spun around till they were very "bizzy" (dizzy in benglish).



my almost 3 barefoot beauty.  i'm proud of you big girl!  soo happy you've decided it's potty time!!
makes me want to jump up & down for joy too!

Monday, June 28, 2010

baby shark, do do do do

if my post title makes no since, it was a song from my childhood church camp.   at namaw & poppy's since it was so nice & warm out, out came the water toys.  a slip & slide with a shark at the end whose mouth opens & closes!  ben & daddio were pretty stinking excited about it!

it took gracie a while to get down the slide
almost there
shark attack, do do do do!

i didn't get many pictures of the fun from that day, as i bailed on everyone & went inside to the nice cool house & took a much needed nap.  but i do know they all had a great time, as always at namaw & poppy's!

this little light of mine





catching lighting bugs, oh what fun!  & there were tons at namaw & poppy's this weeekend!  i honestly have never seen a sky so full in my life.

after bath & before we hit the sack, we all went out to catch those fireflies.

big ben with one in his hand.

gracie moves faster than the camera when she's a catchin.


in love more than ever after all these years.


mr. ben got a bit worn out i think.  hard work chasing those critters around!

grace holding the lighting bug container (it had air holes, don't worry!)


don't mess with the king & queen of lightning bug catching!!

baobab blast at vbs

vacation bible school at the church i grew up at was last week.  & what a blast the kiddos had.  they are still recovering from all the fun i think. 
the theme for this year was baobab blast.  gracie looved dancing to the theme song.
in the kiddos' group was miss macey, gracie, briley (who is one of my childhood friend's little gals), darby & ben.  miss beth was their teacher & i think they all had a fun time learning about the love of jesus.

here are the kiddos doing a fun project with marla.  she was awesome, gracie said.

i think recess was gracie's favorite time, because that's when she got to ride the horsies. 



the kiddos at the end of an evening.  a bit tired out, as ben would say.

we had to miss the last night, but the days we went sure were fun.  thank you my favorite church ladies for putting it on again! :)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

happy daddio's day!

happy father's, poppy's, papaw's day to all the wonderful men in our lives.  we love you all!!  daddio, you are the best father our children could ever ask for.  thank you for taking such good care of us all & loving us.  we love you.

gracie getting daddio.

best buds just a swinging after catching some lightning bugs.

the kiddos loving their hugs from poppy.

boys night out.
setting up the racetrack with grandpa phil.
papaw kern in the hospital.


for daddio, we washed his truck for father's day.   someone accidentally added a scratch to the truck, but i'm sure it was full of love.  we were all soaked by the end of the truck wash.  i was sneak attacking them all, but then they got me back.  daddio held onto me & ben just sprayed.   man, was that some cold water!!
 check out that shiny truck & ben's new do! (that's about the only spot on the truck that didn't have dirt showing after we were done.) 


haircut time!

momma & beano went to get haircuts this morning.   sorry daddio, but your $10 place doesn't quite work for me (the gal cut my hair dry & then would curl each section after she cut it...).  well, here's ben during his haircut.  he was sooo embarrassed by the clips.  at least they weren't pink!  he's a looking good.  watch out gals!

cleaning, cleaning on the river

we did the river sweep this morning.  how we managed to get up in time with no power this morning  i don't know , but we did. 
with their buddy dave. (we missed you, kate!)


the kids loved competing over who could find the most trash.



ben was really good at finding "smokers" (cigarette butts).


thank goodness we didn't find anything too nasty & we had gloves on. 


gracie  pointing to some trash. 

big ben hauling in the load.


it was a fun morning & we helped to make the riverfront a little cleaner.

ho ho ho holiday world!

my sweet little cousins (not so little anymore, 18 & 21- yikes!), the "gurls" as ben calls them,  offered to take the kiddos to holiday world on friday & let me have some r&r.  but, of course i wanted to tag along & enjoy in the fun.  this was a sad week for holiday world, as the president of holiday world passed away.   our prayers go out to his family & friends.  he did a great deal for the community & making the park what it is today -great family fun. 

edit here to add- on the way to the park we were talking about what fun it would be & how eggsited we were.  her comment was "it's gonna be a poopy on the potty kinda day!!!" (can you tell how excited we get about that or what when she goes!?


first stop was of course at the santa statue for a picture. 



the kiddos were in charge for the day, so we hit splashin safari first.  my kids are smart, best place to be on a hot hot day.

wow, the water park has grown since the last time i was there.  it is just huge & awesome, as the kids said. 

our first water ride was the lazy river.  i about drowned poor ben trying to get him into an inner tube.  sorry, buddie!  thank goodness he's a tough guy. 

gracie loved trying to drink the nasty pool water from every sprayer she could find.  yeck!



there were lots of fun little kid areas to play in.   so cool!

unfortunately, ben & grace were only big enough for the little yellow slide.  but they didn't seem to mind.





ben loved running through the rainbow sprinklers the best he said. 


check out that pose he's got there.  i'm sure it's a kung fu move or sumthing.
they had a blast splishing & a splashing!


we had pizza for lunch, which was quite yummy.  & of course the drinks are free, can't beat that!  my big boy enjoying lunch time.



a photo op in the water park.  it was too hot for the kiddos to stand, so the girls had to hold them.   my only complaint from the day - that concrete gets hot!


after lunch, we went to holidog's funtown & the kiddos rode their first rollercoaster.  they were pretty fired up at first.


up, up they went. 

after it was over, ben said "i never wanna do that again!"  check out the fear in poor gracie's eyes. 




our next ride was the train, i think every parent & grandparent's favorite ride.  the only original ride left in the park when it was good ole santa claus land. 

we rode in the little bitty kid section of the train.  the kiddos were a bit tired by this point. 

looking out the train..
all the nursery rhymes told in a matter of minutes...

gracie's favorite was the pig, of course.  she had to point that one out to us.  



another photo op.   cracks me up that they didn't put down their drinks.



& for the perfect end to the day, some ice cream & knock knock jokes that didn't make any sense.  they get their joke telling from me i'm afraid.  but, they were a cracking us up. ahh, i love my kids.



on the way out, we saw santa!  he was telling a story to about 3 kids so we joined in.



you think ben was a bit tired by this point?  no stroller for my kiddos, made them tough it out all day long.


thumbs up from the gurls.


a big goodbye hug to the big guy.


making a wish to end the day. (no, he's not peeing)


all the crew was asleep by the time we got home.  when we got home, ben went & checked on his & gracie's room to see if they were clean, because santa had told them to keep their rooms clean.  ben said gracie had some work to do!

oh what a wonderful day we had.  thanks gals & holiday world for the fun time!