Art camp starts tomorrow

We made it through a very fun weekend...exhausting but fun!

We had to get to bed early Friday night because we all had early mornings on Saturday.

The boys had a Father/Son Amazing race to take part in. They loved it...they had 15 different countries to go to ...each represented by a station inside a local large park. They had to do detours and road blocks which included jumping on trampolines, wearing lederhosens (no clue how to spell that), eat sardines, braid hair and complete various exercises. They were nice and sweaty after but Goober managed to get first place in his age category and Adam won a doorprize. Little Man kept up with them and did his best to run the whole time!!! I kept asking them "if you think 2 hours is exhausting do you think you could do 2 whole weeks of an Amazing Race?"......trying to feel them out for this upcoming trip you know...to which they said "yes if we stay in hotels"....hehe, tent, wigwam, teepee, hotel same thing right?

I met my girls (Tammy and Carrie) for an 8 mile run as we train for our next 1/2 marathon. We met halfway between our homes and Carries new home an hour away and ran a beautiful new trail with wide trails and BIG HILLS!!!! We talked the whole time and completely caught up on life!!!

After that I was off to teach a pottery class before lunch and a Painting birthday party that afternoon. I had been outside in the heat for over 10 hours at that point and was completely dehydrated so coming home and watching TV after a big dinner SOUNDED FANTASTIC.

Today we started off our day with my parents, every Sunday at 7:15 on the dot we began eating breakfast while facetiming with them. My friends jokingly refer to it as the Gilmore Girl breakfast but its nothing like that. Its just the best time for both families to sit down for an hour and chat. Then we headed off to church-which was weird to not be going dressed in our purple VBS shirts and singing "Galatic Starveyors".

After Sunday School and Big Church (I don't care if we call them Connect Groups and Corporate Worship...they will always be Sunday school and big church to me!), we headed over to have lunch provided by the church and shoot some footage for a special sermon on Fathers Day that our pastor is leading on "Adoption, Father to the Fatherless". They have already interviewed Adam for another part of the video so I am sure I'll need kleenex when we get to see it next week.

That little photo shoot for adoption after church sparked a conversation later on about how before adoption they were all considered half siblings...same mom, all different dads. BUT, BECAUSE OF THE GIFT OF ADOPTOIN, they are all FULL SIBLINGS. They have the same mom, ME, and the same dad, Adam...they are fully restored. We are a full family, no steps or half relationships to explain. Because God adopts us into his family we are fully restored to Him, there is nothing that can separate us from HIM!!!

Then the girls headed over to a friends baby shower. Ribbit loves coming with me to showers and loves to entertain herself by making movies on my phone, playing with the other kids and eating all the good shower food.

The boys stayed home and got Goober packed for Dry Gulch Student Camp and our trip as he won't be home between the two trips. They also got some stuff ready for our Grand Canyon trip and got some lunches together for the week as we will be going in all different directions to Art Camp, football and basketball practice, CCA Camp and work this week.

Tonight after dinner we had such a great family time. We did our bible reading for the day and then got into a great long discussion about the sermon this morning. We have loved our pastors sermons on the Psalms and how David points out all the ways you can see and hear God. We can't wait to read through some of the Psalms while we are looking at the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Gooseneck Bend, Mexican Hat, Horeseshoe Bend, etc. 

VBS Day 2 with Lillie and Kate

Snack time may have been Little Man's favorite rotation!

Galaxy Nails for VBS!!!

Galaxy face paint for Day 5!

On the way to the pool that afternoon the kids said " you look like Aunt Robin".....which is HUGE COMPLIMENT!!!

My friend sent me this sweet pictures from VBS. This is her daughter, Grace as we made comets out of their handprints.

8 sweaty miles with my girls!

The team with the most handsome guys for sure!

Daddy wore this child out, shorts on backwards, new water shoes still on from the store and all up in the couch cushions!

Gonna say Yeah yeah yeah Yes, to Va Va Va VBS!

We really do love VBS...its done so well by our church and the kids love the theme every year. We also get another great CD full of VBS songs that last us a whole year---songs are even better when you know all the movements to them!!
This year, Goober is a youth and is helping in Kinder-3rd grade crafts and LOVES IT.
Ribbit is on her own in 1st grade-I normally direct her grade.
Me and Little Man are in pre-school (our last year) and I am working in preschool crafts....which is on the other end of the spectrum from high school art. I think I tell myself to dumb it down about every 5 minutes. So far I have been sneezed (like wet and stringy) on, tooted on and burped on.....I can totally take that from my own kids but other kids make me gag.

We have been swimming a ton too..the kids really love water guns, swimming laps and finding rings. We met our sweet friend Olyve and her mom Veronica again Monday and the kids swam in the rain about 75% of the time and could have cared less. Little Man thought it was hysterical to shoot me with his water gun, i agreed until I was completely dry and took a direct shot to the face!

Goober has been finding out that getting older has it perks as he has gone to late night pizza parties at our neighbors home, played pick up basketball at school with friends, been allowed to ride his bike up the school for football and basketball practice and allowed to make some decisions on how to spend his money lately. So far, so good.

All of the kids have hit big reading minute goals at the library. They got their first set of prizes today which encouraged them to read even more. Goober has 1500, Ribbit has 1000 and Little Man has 500! I plan on checking out some audio books for our big road trip to make sure they stay engaged in their reading goals!

In our morning bible reading we have been able to have lots of "Fun" (very sarcastic font needed) conversations about circumcision, why Abram slept with Hagar and why women normally don't have babies at 90 years old. Goober doens't make too much eye contact with me during those conversations. I always love that we end with singing and dancing to our favorite songs. The kids take turns picking and I am always surprised at their choices and what they remember from church worship or from the car radio.

Adam is almost done with the master closet remodel. Remember, he took out 1/3 of the playroom to make our walk in master. After Ribbit, Little Man and I painted it he added flooring, shelving, drawers, a hamper area, an ironing area and can lights. The last thing is the trim and door!

Two neat things-1) I SWEAR I SAW PRESIDENT BUSH AT THE GYM THIS MORNING! He gave me the presidential nod and wave and I was dumbstruck, like couldn't close my mouth. No one believes me but he does live in the DFW area!!!!

2-Ever since seeing the movie, War Room, I have longede for a place where I could wage war myself and pray daily. I have 3 other girlfriends who hold me accountable to praying, reading the bible, some form of worship and exercising daily. We ask each other daily and I LOVE that they don't make excuses to get it done. Sometimes we finish all of it at 9 at night but its a part of grounding ourselves in Christ. A lot of times that exercise time is a prayer run around our church and school as we take turns praying out loud-my favorite runs by far!! Anyways, I FOUND A PERFECT PRAYER SPOT.   .......THE SAUNA. Seriously, I normally go in there for anywhere from 10-20 minutes after working out and NO one talks to each other in there. Its awkward to talk to people in swim suits, shorts, speedos who are dripping sweat and/or listening to their own headphones. Therefore its silent and I can honestly close my eyes and zone out to pray. It has been wonderful!!!!!! Find a prayer room!

Check out the moves of the cute little girl in the green swim suit and pigtails. This was the end of the year splash party at church and some of the kids wanted to play soccer at the sport court.....this is a huge deal coming from the girl who used to get Cougar Alerts at PE for saying "I dont' run" to her PE teacher daily. She has really developed a love for soccer!

I took this without anyone knowing. I was baking breakfast for the next day and then cleaned up the kitchen and for a solid 25 minutes there was complete silence as they all 3 read...without being told to!!

This picture makes me happy. My sweet friend Carrie, (on the left) moved 1 hour away right as summer started. I ran the Disney Marathon with her and am signed up to do the Fairy Tale weekend with her and Tammy(also pictured) at Disney in Feb. Anyways, we hadn't run together in 2 weeks so the 3 of us met 1/2 way to get in 5 miles on Sunday morning. 

I always know that Ribbit is done when she asks for my phone to take a picture!

The first day of VBS...I don't mind that he is stuck to me....won't last too long!

We took this to send to Daddy...with the VBS sign in the background! See those storm clouds rolling in?

Those clouds didn't stop us from swimming though...this is Olyve and her mom Veronica...don't Ribbit and Olyve look like sisters? They love each other and Ribbit has developed a love for chicken salad sandwiches after always having a bite of Olyves!!!

The last days of nothingness

We are really good at summer...maybe too good at it. We stay up a little later, the kiddos and their daddy are great at sleeping in :), and we enjoy wearing ourselves out every day!

Our favorite outings have been with friends at the pool-racing to find the rings that momma throws in for them...and they love it when I shout Warm or Cold depending on how close they are. They love to race down the slides and then of course they love flipping and hand stands.

We have also loved going to the park right after breakfast, before its unbearably hot and playing Ninja Warrior. I make up an obstacle course through the park equipment and time them. Goobers of course is much harder-they love cheering each other on and trying to beat each other and their own times. Of course we have to start getting creative as others show up and we have to make sure we aren't knocking them down. My favorite memories of Ninja Warrior so far have been
Goober-falling and getting two bloody knees as he ran across a balance beam-did he care?Nope, said "i am ok" and kept racing so that it didn't mess with his time.
Little Man-sprinting to tag my hand and in the process losing his shorts---he loves to wear his bubba's shorts as he outgrows them but they are still a bit big ;).
Ribbit- OH MY WORD I DIED LAUGHING DURING BOTH OF THESE. If you know my Ribbit you know that she can find a needle in a haystack, no exaggeration! She constantly collects little pieces of treasure (aka CRAP)everywhere we go. Well in the middle of her turn at the obstacle course she dropped from the monkey bars, sat down in the mulch, dug for a moment and excitedly held up a piece of some game.....we reminded her she was being timed and she said "oh yeah" and stuck the treasure in her pocket. Another obstacle was counting the "red pavers" and telling me the correct #. She stopped at #25 and looked at me and said " I actually think we should call these "pink pavers, they aren't really red". Geeesh.

We went to REI yesterday and basically bought the whole store as we countdown towards our 15 day expedition around the Southwest....the clues are all done, reservations are all made, t-shirts are 99% done and now I am waiting back from 2 places I contacted for some special details for Goober's birthday. Everyone I have told asks if they can buy this trip from me.....hmm, 60 clues over 15 days, 6 different kinds of lodging, all kinds of puzzles, clues and challenges that make the kids learn as they have fun and making countless reservations....I MEAN its priceless right :). However, spreadsheets are my happy place so honestly I think this would be the best job ever! Plus its really tailored to my family......in 1 way its tailored towards the ages of my kiddos and their interests....2-its also tailored to challenge us...even me, I do not like horseback riding (after being thrown off by a bucking horse as a kid) and I am severely claustrophobic....yet I booked 1.5 hours of horseback riding through Monument Valley and a 2 hour guided hike through Lower Antelope Canyon in which you descend 5 flights of ladders and walk through a deep crevice while the sunlight peeks through holes....UGH. BUT, I will not miss out on life due to my fears...I want to get over them and show my kids that most of our fears are mental and that we can absolutely face them and conquer them. We can trust God in every situation and we can push our self!!!!

VBS starts next week and the week after that is ART CAMP...the kids are stoked..I am getting there :), I really like this whole free to do whatever thing we got going ;). Days of nothingness are quite nice.

A birthday party for a friend..meant swimming in the rain and eating ice cream cones in the pool!

Sweet first grade friends. 

All the girls on the float!

I have some of the best, cutest, lovely friends! That Ribbit's first grade teacher beside me, yes, she is famous around this house!

More hairstyles!

Memorial Day with our grilled Johnsonville sausage and a beautiful sunny day!

I sent this to all my girlfriends and asked them which one they would choose....they all said D...I was A all the way!!!!!!