Summer Time

Summer time is here!  Our trip to San Diego kicked off our summer this year and here we are only in the first week of summer break and I am already searching the web for free/cheap summer entertainment.  Thought I would pass along some of the things we will be doing here and maybe you can join us or find the same things in your area.
The first thing is the pool... ours opens this weekend and I will be signing up the boys for swim lessons.  We will be hanging out at Deer Creek Pool.
Through our recreation district there are summer concerts that are offered.  I am going to try and make it to a few of these at Clement Park.
Then for those hot summer days there are a few options as well...
The boys and I will, I am sure make it to a few of the summer movies.
I also just signed up the boys for summer bowling.
Then on top of all that stuff my MOPS group is hosting weekly park playdates at various local parks on Thursdays... with that being said, we have to get going to our first summer park playdate!
Hope that you have a great day!

Published again...

So I told Michael that I would just send in my posts to be published only after the previous was published... So after my last one was published I sat down the next morning and wrote another... Here it is....fluff-times-two

For Sale

You know those days as moms where you would gladly give away your children for a moment of peace and quiet?!?!  Well, I had one of those days this week.  I spent my entire day yelling at the top of my lungs, "Stop your screaming and crying!"  Yes, I know... I was contributing to the yelling but between the three kids they were all screaming and crying and it was all I could do to not lock them in the basement and throw away the key, or stick them on the front lawn with a for sale sign!  As I spent my day screaming at them I was reminded of how many times as the oldest of three daughters, my sisters and I would push our mom to the very edge of her own sanity... two pictures stick out in my mind like no other (sorry mom I have to divulge!).
One time my sisters and I were screaming at each other, my dad had got home from work and threw his stuff on the floor as my mom was trying to clean the house from the week's chaos.  Mom lost it, she started screaming and then went and locked herself in her walk in closet, of which at the time her closet was our cat's favorite place to spray... so when mom finally cooled down she opened the door and there she sat on the floor with cat urine smell and said, "Look what you have done to me!"  The other time was like any other morning commute to school, my sisters and I were bickering about who knows what and our tone got louder as mom tried to drown it out the praise music.  Mom had had enough and screamed, "Just shut up and praise the Lord."  Those two visions ran so clearly through my mind this week!
Although I lost my cool by the end of the night, all three boys had snuggled next to me to give me a hug and tell me that they loved me... I guess it makes up for it all in the end!

Talking Ki

Ki has been doing really well with his talking lately!  It is fun to hear him and to see this sense of independence that he has.  Some of my favorite things that he is saying are "Riah" for Zach... He can't get Zechariah so he has just shortened it, there is a part of me that is thinking that Zach's name should be changed to Riah instead!  Another Ki word is "Tu" now this would make no sense to anyone but myself.  He comes up to me lays his head on my shoulder and says, "Tu" for "I love you".  It took me a while to figure out what he was saying but Zeke came and said it to me and then Ki came over and did the same thing... I guess having a monkey see, monkey do is helpful in Ki translation!  While Zeke is at school on Tuesdays Ki has speech therapy and then on Thursdays I was involved in MOPS and Bible study but those of those finished last week so yesterday was one of the rare days where Ki, Zach and I had nothing to do.  Zach naps in the morning and so Ki and I had time to play together - we had so much fun!  Ki is so different than Zeke in his personality and it is neat to get those peeks when we have that one on one time. 

The Clock Is Ticking

Michael and I got to the point of being at the end of ourselves with Zeke and his eating habits.  That kid could sit at the table an hour or more eating his dinner.  In recent weeks he has taken a meal that takes the rest of the family twenty minutes to eat and made it into an hour plus.  A common sight in our house is Zeke sitting at the table finishing his dinner while I am cleaning up the dishes, sweeping the floors and then turning off the kitchen lights to head upstairs to shower Ki.  Last night was the last of that... Michael and I decided that we will set a timer out and he will have a set amount of time to eat and whatever he does not eat will be thrown out and he is out of luck for the rest of the night, no snacks no juice just water.  I sure hope that it works!