My Chatter Box...

Emma is my little chatter box. Always having something to say. Well, yesterday morning she woke me up screaming about something. You never know around here, that is pretty normal. So I went up to see what she needed and she had a boo-boo and wanted a band aid. Down the stairs we go and I start putting the band aids on the boo-boos and she says," Mommy are these BAND AID BRAND"....................It would have been the perfect commercial.

Yesterday was quite the day. I needed to run get come things they need for school. They start next week. I took all three kids in tow. It was quite the adventure. We got new lunch boxes and dance stuff for Emma. The dance stuff wasn't the easiest part! We went to one store, got everything but the tap shoes. They had some coming in, but I am trying to avoid a fit on the first day of class so... I knew that Emma needed some shoes now not later. Win had had enough of the girl store, only to act a bit ugly on the way out. So I took them to the Cookie Store next and we got cookies and juice boxes only to get into the car and the lady did not put Win in his "blue" sprinkle cookies. We only had yellow and pink and green!!!! THE VERY IDEA. Win went on to tell Emma that it was all her fault because she got to order first.

Ok, so now that we were semi happy on to the second dance place. I called first and they had what we thought was going to be her size. Get there Emma is trying on the shoes and Lily and Win are doing great playing with toys. Ready to almost check out and Win has to go to the restroom and begins shouting it..........we were the only ones in the store and I asked the lady if we could use her restroom. OK this is where if I weren't so desperate for tap shoes I would have been UGLY! She begins to tell me no, that I can go down to Dixie Cafe. I will never do business with them again. I was so mad that here I was with three little kids, buying a $45 pair of tap shoes and we can't use the restroom. So we were able to divert an accident and rush over the the book store to go potty. I just had to get up on my soap box about that little run in yesterday.

And where did that come from?

We have a Scrabble game that is up in the playroom. Win is the one that usually takes interest in the game and just puts letters on the board saying that he is making long words. He informed me tonight that when Nandy and JPop were here that he spelled "bedtime". I just had to laugh! So Emma had to fight her way in tonight hunting for the letters in her name. It was a big fit. Win finally gave in and let her have some of the letters. After spelling EMMA, she was looking for more letters to spell her "signature". I laughed and asked what was her signature. She said you know my last name with a "C". I guess that I better get to work and start teaching her how to spell her "signature".

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The weather has been so rainy lately that we really haven't been able to enjoy the pool. So this evening we decided to all go for a swim no matter HOW COLD.........with no sun in sight and a few sprinkles falling we all enjoyed splashing around despite the dreary weather. I just had to share the photos of Lily. She is now at the stage where she fights putting on anything that would help her to stay afloat. NO swim ring, NO life jacket, NO floaties...........so all eyes on deck because she is trying her best to stay afloat and swim like the big kids! Jump off the diving board... NO problem, and most of the time she can swim without help to the ladder. She enjoys jumping off the side by the steps and then swimming to the steps.

THE ZOO AGAIN!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Today was a busy day. Wejoined our friend Ella and her mom at Chick-fil-a for breakfast and playing. Then I took everyone to the Dollar Tree to get a treat. We went home and waited for Daddy to get off work, since Thursdays are his short days. When he got home we all loaded and went to IHOP for a late lunch and then it was off to the Zoo again! We met our friends Hannah, Maddie and Mrs. Allison for a fun afternoon at the Zoo. We always try to do different things on each trip. The animals were out and a slight breeze was blowing so it was not too hot.Daddy got in on the fun with the girls over by the Petting Zoo.
Everyone always enjoys feeding the fish. They were all over the place this afternoon. I took lots of pictures of the animals to make a picture book for the kids. This is one of my favorite pictures.
On this trip, everyone seemed to enjoy feeding the animals. I think it was the fist time that we have fed the animals at the Petting Zoo. We are usually too busy riding the train. On this trip, the kids rode the carousel. We had a fun afternoon at the Zoo! We were glad that Hannah and Maddie could join us.

RAINY DAY FUN!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It hasn't been the best of weather lately. This morning we decided not to let the weather get the best of us. We played in the rain! By the time we had eaten breakfast and put on swimsuits it was just a fine mist and that was fine with me!! The kids really enjoyed it and I will have to do this activity again. Win even got out the bubble sword and tried to pour the bubbles in the puddles.
Emma posing for a picture with her new found "fluffy". We haven't seen fluffy in a while, and I found her on one of the tip top pantry shelves yesterday. She is like new all over again.
Win and Lily tried to go off road then Win abandoned Lily when they were stuck. Lily did not seem to mind. She always enjoys riding in the Jeep.
Win played with just about every toy in the rain. He was loving it.
Emma enjoyed the scooter and running the best.
Lily just liked being able to get wet and messy.

Win found that he could make a big splash in the remaining water beside the driveway.
Emma also rode the tricycle and Lily even discovered that she could pedal it toady!
AH>>>the wind in her hair. It was a perfect morning to play in the rain. Not too hot, not too cool...JUST RIGHT!

SHOE SHOPPING

Wednesday, August, 13, 2008

With back to school comes shoe shopping. My kiddos are not the best when it comes to liking shoes. Lily is the only one that wear just about anything. Emma will pick one shoe and wear it all the time. For example, she has worn her pink glitter sandals with any and everything this summer no matter what the occasion. Win is a hard fit because his feet are so wide, but he will switch between two different pair of shoes......so to make a long story short we needed shoes. I got a kick out of my friend Gretchan's blog, where she showed pictures of outfits she has bought for her boys and thought how funny to show you ALL of our shoes. Keep in mind this was one shoe shopping trip where we purchased 6 pair of shoes! Just look at the stack. I think it is funny! Let me just back up and tell you the background of our day of shoe shopping. On Wednesday, the workers were coming to the house and I have lost all patience with them, so Nick took off to deal with the workers and I had to deal with the children being gone from the house all day. Let's run down the day. And what a day it was!!!I would have loved to have taken some pictures, but it was a bit too hectic to keep up with the camera and the kids by myself.

Breakfast at Chick-fil-a

Shoe shopping with Allison and her girls

Lunch at Burger King (outside to play)

Playing a Chuck-e-Cheese

Snow cones in the CAR (what a mess!)

Went through the car wash

Home Again, Sweet Home.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

THE BACKYARDIGANS

On Wednesday, we meet up with Nandy and J-Pop and went to see the Backyardigans. It was a nice treat. Win sat and watched contently, while Lily squirmed about and danced and Emma participated and hollered. It was funny. At one point they were getting the children to yell HALT. I wasn't thinking anything about it and then Lily yells out HALT. We had a good laugh!!!

THANKS NANDY AND J-POP

OUR VACATION

We all loaded up in the van for a few days away at Branson. It was a good trip.Once we arrived, what a better way to celebrate a hot day than with ice cream.
Finger licking good!


Getting around with three little ones in a timely manner can be quite the challenge, but with some creativity we made it. WHAT A STROLLER FULL!

The Clowns...

There were clowns along the shops at the Branson Landing. They made wonderful balloon creations. Win got a Bow and Arrow, Emma got a Princess, and Lily got a crown. They were GREAT until we got back to the room and popped them!

The Water Shows @ The Landing...

We stayed at the Hilton right on the Landing. It was really nice to be so close to the hotel and just a few steps away from something to do. The kids really enjoyed the water show, but were not so sure when the show came on with the fire. Lily loved to dance with the music at the fountain.
The water was so tempting.
Here is the fire. We sat pretty close and it was really hot. I did not realize that we would be able to feel the fire so.
Emma loved to run back and forth while feeling the mist from the water show.

The Butterfly Palace...

One of our first adventures in Branson was the Butterfly Palace. I told the kids about it when speaking about vacation and Emma was non-stop talking about "Butterfly Vacation". We watched a 3D movie about insects and then we got to go look at the butterflies. They were everywhere. I just knew the kids would love it, but Emma was actually scared when they fluttered by her. They landed on me several times and the kids thought that it was funny! One landed on Lily, but she swatted at it and you were not suppose to touch them!!!
This picture looks extremely dark, but the butterfly was beautiful. It was a bright green and black. We were trying out a new camera lens.

The butterflies like bright colors and what did I wear but bright pink!

Making Our Toys...

While staying at Branson Landing, the kids just had to do some shopping. So Win made a car at Ride Makerz. You pick a body, then the paint, wheels etc... It is really a neat thing for little boys.
The girls decided that they did not want to make a truck or car, but would head over to Build-A-Bear Workshop instead. I was glad that it was there because no trucks for girls and we avoided a fit or two...even though Win insisted that they could make pink "hot wheels".
Emma and Lily enjoyed making their animals. This was the first time that we have actually bought the clothes and stuff to go along with the animals. Emma was head strong and said that "Sarah" had to have a bathing suit to be fancy. Now that we had made our "toys" it was all I could to do make them keep them in the room instead of dragging them everywhere!

The TRAIN...

Since Win loves trains, I decided to get us tickets for Branson's Scenic Railway. It was located just across the street from our hotel and very easy to manage with the three little ones. We had never ridden an actual train, so it was an experience. The trip went South that particular day. The train traveled about an hour in one direction and then you went back the same way you came. It was a bit too long for our crew, but we managed. ALL ABOARD!
We liked sitting in the dome cars the best. There are two on this particular train. There was an onboard concession stand and dining car as well as one little room with a Thomas Train Table. Win enjoyed it, but I don't know if I would do that again.

Predator World...

Predator World was a really neat place. For lack of better words to describe it .......it was kind of like a country zoo, but with very very dangerous animals...several nice ones too. We'll start off with pictures of the nice one...the deer. You could feed the deer and I think the Kangaroo. They had hyenas, lama, bobcats and a lion as well. Then we move to the dangerous ones. SNAKES< SNAKES and more snakes. Never have I seen so many in one place and SO BIG!!!!!
Here is a picture of Nick's favorite one. I think that it is a spitting Black Cobra.

When we decided to take a few days and go to Branson, I looked up things that might keep the kids interest. I tried to find things that we could do other than be outside in the heat riding rides. I came across this place called Predator World. We started off one morning to go to Predator World and got snarled up in traffic......they were all headed to Silver Dollar City and I had not looked how to go a back way!!!! It took us so long to get there that we stopped and ate lunch before we arrived. There were small porthole windows where you could see the Sting Rays swimming. It was the perfect height for the kids.

Here are the sharks!! I have never seen such a collection and of big ones too! You could feed them and the String Rays, but we opted out of that. There was also a giant sea turtle in the tank with the SHARKS. The kids loved seeing the turtle and I think that Lily could have watched the Sharks all day. She plopped herself down in front of the window and just stared.

The Hatchery...

Despite the HEAT, we went to the Sheperd of the Hills Hatchery. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish and turtles inside, but they really enjoyed feeding the trout outside in the hot, hot sun! I did not plan this excursion very well and we went in the hottest part of the day. I think that the kids enjoyed feeding the trout. It is usually one of their favorite things to do at the zoo.

NOAH The Musical...

The last night we were in Branson, we went to see NOAH the Musical. It was great! I would have loved to have taken photos, but you were not allowed. I was very surprised at the things that the kids retold about the story of Noah. The set was extremely elaborate and contained live animals at different points in the show. Great Experience!