Cherry Point Triathlon!

We drove to Cherry Point, arriving Friday night.  We were up and at the pool by 8am to see Dan start.

Here we are, waiting.  The children wanted so badly to play in the pool, but I would not let them.  Well, its not like the lifeguard was going to let them either!

I realized that this is why I have so few pictures of Joshua- they look like this, or he's making awful faces.  So, I take fewer pictures of him! (This is actually out of order.  Here we are waiting for Dan to finish the 10 mile bike portion.)

Here is Delaney, waiting for the fun to begin.  She actually did not want to it in the stroller until someone else looked like they might sit in it.  Then she screamed like a banshee and shoved them out so she could climb in.

Callie took this picture!  Since I'm in it, I thought I'd share!  We're watching the swimmers and waiting for Dan.  He was in the 3rd wave, but he was a much better swimmer than a LOT of the people in front of him!

Joshua took this  rather blurry shot of Dan, waiting his turn to hop in the pool.  They started the swimmers off at 15 second intervals and had a 1 minute break between each wave  (That helped clear the clogs caused by the really bad swimmers who didn't write down an accurate swim time.)

After the 400 yd swim, was the 10 mile bike.  Here is Dan, finishing that p.  He did pretty good on it.  
While we waited during his biking, and the during the 5K run, the kids entertained themselves.  This ditch was an endless source of fun.  They had a great time leaping over it.  I was surprised none of them got really muddy or hurt!

We moseyed down for a better look and they took up a spot here.  So cute!  Joshua had to take his shoes off because he had red ants on him.  I was not surprised by that, since I had told him 10 times not to poke the red-ant mound, and he obviously did not listen.  Fortunately he (and the girls!) escaped with no bites.

Here is Dan, on his triumphal finish, just starting his sprint to the end.  Joshua went out a quarter mile to run in with Dan, but Dan sprinted the end and left Joshua in the dust, so that's why Joshua is not in the shot.

In the afternoon, Dan and Delaney took naps, while I took the older 3 to the pool.  They had a Fabulous time! Check out Callie!  She's so pleased with herself that she can put her face in.

Marian is a hoot.  She had a grand time swimming.  The kids were in the water nearly 2 hours.  

And here is Joshua!  

This was my girls this morning before church.  Aren't they cute?!   We went to our old ward and had a marvelous time and I realized how much I love and miss my friends there.  They fed us a tasty lunch (LOVE that 5th Sunday Spread Lunch!!) and we got back home before 7:30 this evening.  And I want to mention how much I love our new van.  350 miles on the tank and I've still got 1/4 tank left!  We didn't have to stop for gas at all on the way home.  We actually only took a 10 minute potty break.  And the kids were very good in the car- especially since we didn't stop to feed them either and they had to make do with the crackers and apples we brought with us.

Callie's Party

I use the phrase "Callie's Party" quite loosely here.  She has a birthday coming up in a week, but with all our friends moving and other things happening, I didn't know when I was going to get a party done for her.  She had a list of specifics that she wanted: a ballerina cake and a unicorn pinata were definite must-haves.  

So, as I was pondering how to make this all happen, Raina mentioned that the Joy School end-of-year party was happening and so we combined it with a party for Callie.  I was able to kind-of make a ballerina cake for her and Raina managed to find a unicorn pinata.  And thus, Callie had a party.

Here she is with her cake.  I made the mistake of asking her to help choose what she wanted.  We looked at tons of pix online and she wanted a 4 layer cake.  Silly me, I've never made more than 2 layers and I made a few tactical errors... such as I just made 2 cakes into 4 layers.  Waaay too tall, and listing.  Plus, the sides didn't go straight up, giving it a zig-zag look.  And did I mention it was listing.  I used a ton of frosting to cover the issues, but the trip in the car to Raina's house caused a structural integrity breach, and it started to separate. Callie did not care.  She declared it beautiful, and I will say that it was mighty tasty!

This is how thrilled Delaney was with the pinata part.  She sat here, just like this until the pinata broke and then she understood the purpose.  Well, she would grab a candy and eat it before moving on to the next.  Filling the bag did not occur to her.  Fortunately the other kids were very sweet and they put candy in her bag for her!

Callie was thrilled to whack the pinata.   All the kids got about 3 turns at it- the darn thing would not break!  Finally Raina took charge and after she whacked it a few times the legs finally fell off and the candy flew!

Callie had a good time with the bubble blower.  That was a big hit.  She had a good party and I had fun with my grown up friends too!

Memorial Day

We are big Memorial Day slackers.  I guess it is odd for me, as a military Brat and now a military spouse, to not do something big for Memorial Day, but I don't.  I'm not sure we'd have done anything this year, if some friends from church hadn't invited us over for a BBQ.  I love to go out and do social stuff like that and when food is involved.... well, I'm totally there!  So we went.  The weather was threatening, but it did not actually rain, so it was fine.  Plus it kept it cooler, which was nice.

I do not think this kid ate anything healthy. I saw her with a plate containing 3 brownies and 2 chocolate covered Oreos.

Delaney was thrilled with the unlimited watermelon.  Dan grilled us some mean burgers and I know I had a happy tummy!

Callie had a marvelous time searching for worms on the porch.  She is currently obsessed with worms.  She likes to find them so she can put them in the garden to help it grow. She's none too particular either on whether they are alive or not. 

Patrea had a fabulous kid-friendly house.  This is what the children spent their non-eating time doing.  And I realized I have no pictures of Joshua.  He spent the afternoon playing with Legos and I'm not sure if he came out to eat or not!  A good time was had by us all.  

Weekend Fun

The ward held an unofficial Father-Son Camp Out on Friday night.  Joshua said it was Awesome!  He had a fabulous time playing with the fire.  They had hot dogs for dinner, and roasted lots of marshmallows.  Joshua loved it all.

Here's Joshua, stirring up ash with his long stick.  He said the fire was the best part.  Dan said he was a little surprised Joshua didn't burn himself at all.  

Here's my silly boy in his tiny tent.

I got out the little pool for the girls and they spent all day Saturday going in and put of it.  Callie and Marian decided it was more fun to do it with clothes on and I ended up with too many pairs of sopping wet pants, shirts, and underwear on the bathroom floor.  They had a good time though and they were outside, so what's a little extra laundry?!  In this picture Callie noticed I was taking pictures of Delaney, so out she came, naked under that towel!  Silly pickle!

It took Delaney about a week before she actually played in the pool, but yesterday she was having a ball!   It was very cute.  And I much prefer all the splashing to happen in the pool, rather than the tub.

Rats.  I thought you could see her teeth better.  Marian lost her second tooth this week.  She is now missing both bottom teeth.   Much cuter when you see her than this shot shows.

Ultrasound

Today was our ultrasound.  I'm 21 weeks down, nearly 22.  Dan and I got to see our little future bundle of joy.  And very cute it was! 

And now I shall tell you that we are expecting another girl!  Yep, we'll have 4 girls, one boy!  Poor Joshua is going to be so disappointed.  Marian also was hoping for a brother, but Callie is thrilled.  I am also happy that I will not have to buy a lot of baby things.  After 3 girls, I have most things, although some may be pretty worn out by now!

So there is the scoop and you are now in the know.  Feel free to throw out some names.  Dan and I have no clue what we'll name this one and we're out of girl names we both like.  So we need some suggestions.  Well, we need them, as long as you don't feel insulted if we don't follow through and actually name our baby the name you like! 

Our Weekend

I took Callie and Delaney out to lunch on Friday.  We went to Chevy's, mostly because I love their Floutas, and partly because Callie said she was interested in "Chips and Dips".  I also had a free kids meal coupon, which included a drink and an ice cream cone.  The girls were unenthusiastic about the meal, but you can see here how they felt about the ice cream!  I love these kids!

On Saturday, we took them to the pool.

It took a while and much effort to get Delaney into the water.  Dan finally parked her in this floaty, and she spent over an hour in it, just chillin.  She did not want to get out once she decided it was fun!

Joshua had a marvelous time.  He had a large collection of floatation devices and enjoyed trying them all out.

Marian also had a great time trying different things.  The pool had a ton of stuff and you could just borrow it.  This was Marian's favorite item.  It seemed to give her confidence, although I'm not sure how much float it offered.  I just like this picture because you can see how much fun she was having.

Daddy with his little girls.  Callie saw Delaney in a float and felt the need to try one herself.  She also enjoyed it quite a bit.  Later she got braver and was doing a great job putting her face in.... something that astonished me, given her temerity  when we first arrived.

There were a bunch of rowdy boys when we first got there, but they thinned out and left and it was nicer after that.  The pool was small and had no shallow end.  The shallowest was 3 1/2 feet.  Barely enough for Marian to stand.  They had some "tot-docks" in, so that Callie could touch, but those didn't give much room to play in, and when there were lots of kids, they got pretty crowded.

All 4 kids were feeling comfortable in the water by the end.   Check out Marian and her back float!  Yeah, she's totally cheating with her floaty!

Life in Pictures

This was the super-scary bug in the kids room today. I put the Uno card there so you could see that it really was super-huge! My cousin Catherine's son informed me it is a hornet and it can sting. Yikes! A turbo-charged stinging thing! I did overwhelm, overpower, and overcome the terrifying hornet though and it is currently a crumpled mess in the garbage.

This is Joshua in his favorite place. He likes to spend time on Lego sites and some other things I don't like so much.... like Sponge Bob. Thank you Robert for making the computer functional and accessible! You are the best!

This is Marian, in the tree in front. There was a baby bird in one of the bird houses. I'm not sure who saw it, but it was enticed or frightened out of its safe haven and ended up on a branch nearby. The kids spent all afternoon torturing the poor thing. They were fascinated by it. It was more of an adolescent bird, actually. Not so much a baby.

Here is Callie with the cute little bird. He perched on the tree branch and didn't move till the kids swept him into a box. I made them put the poor guy back. He was right here when we all went in for the night, and this morning he was gone. I really hope his parents rescued him and he didn't become dinner.

Its Fabulous Callie!

This is Delaney, on her second outfit of the day. Yes, she put this on all by herself once she noticed it. I had to make her change before we left for the day. I had another picture of her, but Dan didn't like that it showed her nakey-ness. See, yesterday morning Delaney waddled into my room, pants around her ankles, crying about poopy "beenders". Yes, she did have poop on her fingers and her bottom. I had to hunt down the missing diaper (conveniently left in the bathroom.) This kid is killing me!

More fun with Delaney

My cousin Robert was in the area and stopped by for a visit yesterday.  We love Robert.  He's so neat and fun and smart.  He graciously reconfigured the wireless Internet for me.  Then he showed me a ton of cool things I can do with the computer (most of which I've already forgotten). While he did all that, he also played with Callie, who thought he was there for her own personal entertainment.  

It was nice to visit with Robert, but the computer, unfortunately, was located in the basement.  Delaney, all too frequently, was not.  There were several times when I assumed she was in the play area of the basement, and I was wrong.  I also thought she'd only been unattended for 5 minutes and couldn't have gotten into that much trouble.  Wrong again.

The little stinkpot climbed up on the kitchen counters.  She removed all the vitamin lids, looking for her kiddie "bites".  She got into my baking cupboard and opened my unsweetened baking chocolate and unwrapped each square of chocolate.  I did catch her before she got the crisco bars open.  Whew!  She discovered the can I had put the bacon fat into (and had forgotten to put in the fridge, although I had hidden it from her behind the toaster.)  She noticed the paintbrushes drying on the counter and proceeded to "paint" with the bacon fat on the counter and window.  Ick!

I dashed upstairs to the distinct aroma of my essential oils.  She had emptied 2 of them into the sink.  Well, I thought she'd dumped them into the sink.  Nope, she'd "watered" the basil plant Marian gave me for Mother's Day.  Apparently heavy doses of clove oil will kill those things!   And the smell doesn't blend well with Lemon.

Not to be outdone, the next time she was out of sight, she found an erasable marker and colored all over the refrigerator, and everything on it.  She also decorated the tablecloth with her artistic talents. I think she changed clothes 3 times, but she did leave her diaper on!  She also managed to clock her eye on the wooden frame of the futon, and then added another red bonk after she bashed heads with Callie.   I was exhausted by lunchtime!  

I love this face.  She wanted a picture taken when she noticed the camera in the diaper bag.  She is such a ham!

This was Marian's favorite blanket until a month or so ago.  That's when I borrowed it for Delaney one night after she'd peed through her diaper on her usual one.  Now Delaney has claimed this blanket as hers, and Marian has graciously allowed it.

Here, Delaney is teasing Callie with Callie's second favorite blanket.  Callie has 2 blankets and Delaney is trying to steal this one.  It's giving her great delight, but Callie was not so thrilled.

Silly pickle has put on her sisters PJs and pulled out her ponytails, and its nowhere near bedtime!

Early this morning, at 5:30, something thumped.  No one cried, so I ignored it.  I heard someone in the bathroom and assumed it was Callie.  Then there were more noises, so I got up to make sure all was well.  Callie was sound asleep.  Joshua was sound asleep.  Marian was sound asleep.  As I headed toward the bathroom, Delaney traipsed out, wearing a big grin, and something other than what I'd put her to bed in.  What?!   I do not know how long she'd been up, but it was long enough to go through Callie's drawer and put on her clothes, then to play in the bathroom.  I rocked her and sang her 2 songs and tucked her back in and locked her door behind me.  She slept till almost 8:30.  I did not.

Delaney is also still in the potty-training mindset.  Kind-of.  She wants to do it, but isn't really ready.  Today I was exercising on my lovely elliptical machine.  I had a movie on for Callie upstairs, and when Delaney came downstairs, I kept my eye on her, in case she decided to remove her diaper.  Nope, she was fully dressed.  I watched her, and no clothes came off.  She started to fuss and eventually it was distressed enough that I got off my elliptical machine 8 minutes early to see what was the matter.  

She was very concerned and kept pointing and saying "poopy". Upon inspection, it did look like a tiny poop nugget on the carpet. I asked if she'd pulled it out of her diaper and she seemed to indicate yes.  I plopped her down to change her diaper and discovered she WASN'T WEARING ONE!  She had removed it upstairs and then put on Callie's underpants and shorts!  Eeek!  Thank goodness the single nugget was all she'd produced!

Why I love kids!

Conversations you do not want to be having while in the shower with one leg half shaved:

Callie:  Mom, Delaney did something!

Me: What did she do?

Callie:  She's in the downstairs bathroom.  

Me:Did she pee on the floor?

Callie:  No, she pooped in her diaper and took it off.  She has a poopy bottom.

We may need an Ark!

First, let me post a picture of my fabulous new van!  I feel like that guy in the commercials, who would look for any excuse to drive his new car.  I love this van!

Here it is, sitting in the rain.  I had to take Dan's car to the commissary today since I don't have a sticker yet to get on base.  Sigh.

Now the real news is that this is the 10th consecutive day that it has rained.  It may not have rained all day all those 10 days, but there was precipitation every one of those days.  I'm getting a bit tired of it.  The children don't seem bothered by it at all!

Today they all went out and played in the rain with the neighbor kids.  It sprinkled, it poured, it sprinkled again, and it dumped for a while.  They stayed out and had a blast!  Marian and Callie had an especially wonderful time.  Long after all the other kids went home, my 4 were still going strong.

They had a lot of fun drawing with saturated sidewalk chalk on the drive and road.  Callie was so cute racing towards me when I called her in for dinner.

Delaney had enough and was undressing at the front door.  Once her pants were off, she changed her mind and ran around some more in her shirt and diaper.  Hey, I believe in exercise!

My 2 girls, jumping up and down in the rain.  They are so saturated! (I seriously could wring out their clothes when they came in.)

I don't think I mentioned that Marian lost her first tooth on Tuesday.  You can see it here, along with her joy at playing out in the rain.  What fun to be a kid.

Joshua and Marian worked at making a dam to keep the water from rushing down the gutter and into the drain.  I think they had a pretty good pond going there behind the van.   Joshua is racing in for dinner.  Marian is not.

I had all 4 kids strip down just inside the door, (where there is tile rather than carpet), and all of them got to come to the table and ate dinner wrapped in nothing but towels.  Even Delaney, that stinker, removed her diaper so she could be just like her siblings!  As soon as they were done eating, they all got baths.