Whirlwind of life

 Last week was a complete whirlwind and this week has just plain disappeared.  Not sure where it went.  Last week on Tuesday the kids and I went up the children's museum. The kids had a blast. We were actually there because my sister's son had his school field trip and she didn't have a way to get there so we volunteered to go up and play too so she could be there for her son. So aside from my four children, the one child of another couple, and two children of a mom and grandma pair, there were about a hundred kindergartners running through the place. I was actually VERY impressed at how controlled the chaos was. The museum had a great protocol in place for field trips and it was amazing to see how well it worked first hand.

This is the toddler area, the field trip kids weren't allowed here.  Kayd thought the pieces for making a house were awesome there in the duplo blocks.

Sierra plays with the water.  She loved this.

When the field trip kids went to lunch, those of us NOT on the field trip flocked to the water table.  And the kids had a blast.

Colton played dress up for a bit.

Sierra practiced her mad grocery shopping skills.

 

Then on Wednesday evening our very good friend Diana from Life Light Images and her husband (also our very good friend lol) took our family pictures. Here's a sample. We haven't gotten them all but if these are any indication they're going to be amazing.

This was an attempt to recapture the below picture from almost 2yrs ago when she was a newborn.

I cannot believe how much she has changed in two years.  It's amazing.  Still she's so precious and sweet and captivating.

 

Then on Thursday my kids were ferried out to friend and sister and my mom and I took off and spent the day shopping. We went to Ikea. It was my first time ever to go there and even now a week later I'm just still in awe of this store. We loved it so much. We spent three solid hours there and only left because we were hungry. Seriously. Amazing. I could spend a fortune there. If I ever won the lottery I'd be spending a huge chunk of it there. Just saying. I haven't won the lottery and therefore only spent a small amount there on small things. See, Kayd built that track using some of the new pieces I found there at Ikea.

Friday was a blessedly calmish stay at home day. Saturday morning though there was a war. The Civil War to be exact. We went to the Civil War Days hosted by our town. It was totally free and very cool. We really enjoyed it a lot and will definitely go back again next year. I LOVE the dresses from back then. Not sure I'd love wearing them but looking at them is fun. I don't have any pics of it but they had a staged battle at 2pm on both Saturday and Sunday. KOJ took the boys on Saturday and then again on Sunday. Sunday was cooler (well not really it was over 90 on Sunday, but still) because a friend of the boys' from church was playing one of the drummer boys in the battle. He got shot and taken to the field hospital and they got to go visit him there. I stayed home with a napping princess. We don't do battles in 90 degree heat. But it did sound like a lot of fun.

As if that weren't enough fun for our weekend on Sunday evening we loaded up the kids and took them to the fountains.  Last year we also loaded them up and took them to the fountains on Memorial day weekend and since it was so hot we thought it might be fun to make it a tradition (weather permitting).  The boys jumped right in but Sierra was a little hesitant.

She did get wet finally though.  She had so much fun and was so much fun to watch.

My boys, warming up for a minute.

 

Then on Monday my mom kept our kids at her house while KOJ and I had a morning date. We went out to breakfast and spent some time perusing goodwill. It's what we do on our dates, eat and shop. We're ok with that. Then that evening Mom came over to our place and we had a cookout type dinner only we ate it in. We had cheeseburgers, and corn on the cob, and pasta salad, and watermelon. And for dessert I made a cheesecake. I chose cheesecake for the express purpose of making it look like this in honor of Memorial day.

This week has been a lot less active around here thankfully. I became sick with sinus and congestion stuff throughout the weekend and I'm still trying to get rid of it as of right now. I'm at the tail end but I'll be happy once it's gone again.

And in closing I want to say a HUGE Thank YOU! To any service members who might stumble upon my blog. A few days late but I do appreciate all that the service members of our country do for our freedoms. I also appreciate all the spouses of service members. They have a job I could never ever do and I admire them greatly for it. So thank you. And know that my children and I are praying for you.