steps and parking lots

Well after I made that last post of Friday I went upstairs to get dressed so I could take the kids outside to burn some energy off and try and keep my house a little cleaner. On the way back down the stairs, I was carrying Will and Caroline was following behind me, I slipped and fell down about 5 steps. For those of you who haven't been to my house the steps are steep and are hard wood (no carpet). Right after I fell I look up to see if Caroline is OK and she burst into tears yelling I'm sorry, and Will is crying because even though I managed to hold on to him I did bump his head on the iron spindles. Then I notice that there is fresh blood on his blanket so I frantically check him to see where he is bleeding but don't find anything so I check my self out and I have split my right elbow open. I had to sit at the bottom of the steps for a little bit because I landed all on my left but cheek and left arm right below my elbow and they were hurting! I finally made it to the couch and Will and Caroline stopped crying. Caroline was kind enough to go get me a band aid and even put it on just perfect for me since I couldn't really see the cut. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had on just my socks and was going to get my shoes on on the next floor down. Oh well!!
The thing that I noticed the most was the next morning and day I was so sore, my neck had a kink in it and the bruises started to show and hurt. Justin likes to tease me that since I am now 30 that I am feeling all the pain like the old woman that I am!! Can't fall and recover as easily anymore.

Well on a more positive note the Dave Matthews Concert was awesome and Justin and I had a great time being out together. There were so many people there it was crazy. The only down side was the parking. We got there after the opening bands so we had to park in the back of the parking lot, 2 rows for the end. We sat in line to get out for an hour before we even started the stop and go part. All told it took and hour and a half to get out of the parking lot!! Not a parking lot for the Crissman boys to attempt!! We went around a car where the guy had fallen asleep waiting! It didn't help that they had a bunch of high school boys directing traffic.
Well it is off to take a nap like the rest of the household is doing.

Sick again, ugh!

Well, I have not been doing well with blogging this week. Caroline and Justin were sick earlier this week and now I am feeling like i got hit with a truck. Just trying to maintain a somewhat clean house since my mom and Pete are coming this weekend. But the kids are messing it up faster than I can get it clean! I am hoping to feel better by tomorrow night because Justin and I are going to see Dave Matthews for my birthday. I have never seen them in concert so I am excited to be going.

The easy way

Here is a picture of the kids in the bike trailer. We took our bikes with us and rode several mornings all over the island. We gave the kids some water and a ziplock baggie of dry cereal to munch on and we were good to go for an hour or so.
And I got a break from hauling the kids and Justin found out how heavy they can be! At least there weren't any big hills at the beach and that made it really nice.
If you ever need or want a bike trailer this is the nicest one I have seen and I love it. Thanks Granddaddy and Mimi for getting it for us.

The wheel house

Ok, I know it has been quite some time since my last post. Here are the kids sitting in the suitcase the day before we left "helping" me pack.

Will ready to be at the beach after being in the car for about 10 minutes. He is saying "cheese" in this picture.

Finally after 7 hours and only 1 stop for lunch we made it to the good ole wheel house. I know you are thinking only 1 stop with 2 kids, what are you crazy but they travel really well and Caroline has a bladder of steel and can hold it for ever. We were about 45 minutes away and she tells me she has to go and I tell her we are on 133 in the middle of nowhere and can't stop. No prob she wants to wait and go in the ocean anyway!
The week was great and went by way to fast and we wanted to stay another week of course. The kids weren't afraid of the ocean at all and had a blast running into the surf and trying to jump the waves. It was not the best week for taking the kids out in the water because of all the wind making it fairly rough, but they loved it anyway. Justin and I got good shoulder workouts from lifting them over all the waves. We did have one morning of calm waters and put water wings on Caroline and she loved swimming around.
The drive hoome wasn't as easy as we sat for an hour on the highway due to a wreck that closed it down. It took 9 hours on the way back and we were all ready to be home at that point. I have finished 9 loads of laundry since yesterday and that is why I didn't post.
I am hoping to get more pictures out on Shutterfly tonight and maybe this afternoon depending on how long naps run. I am hoping for 3 hours from both of them which was every day at the beach. Got to love that!!! Can't wait to go back.

Vacation

Well we are off the the beach for a week of fun in the sun!!! Don't know if I will blog while there or not. I didn't get the pictures load of the kids sitting in our suitcase while we were packing so I will have lots of pictures to share when I blog again.

The truth about boys

(I was watching all the kids yesterday and since our AC broke we were enjoying the cool of the pool!)

Yesterday while changing Will's diaper Ashley was watching. She has a younger sister and last Sunday while we were over swimming at her house and I changed Will she asked what did he have. Well while I was changing Will, Ashley announced that boys have a penis. So I said yes they do and what do girls have? She thought for a brief moment then replied, "They have a body." I thought it was a great example of more truth than she could know at 3. How funny are kids!!
I have enjoyed telling that to the other moms in the neighborhood and they all agreed that Ashley was so right!!

Cooking magic

Yesterday after the kids and I got pushed ofef the playground by the thunder and lightning I decided I was going to make some jello for dessert.  Caroline wanted to sit on the counter and watch.  Of course when Caroline does something then Will also wants to do it too.  But if I have the 2 of them on the counter then I have no space to work, so I was holding Will while Caroline sat on the counter.  I was making green jello and so I dumped the package into a bowl and Caroline notices that it isn't green.  So I told her to watch, I can do magic.  And as I poured the water over the powder it of course turns green instantly and she was so amazed.  It is fun to see things through kids eyes and be reminded of the simply pleasures.  I also made poppyseed chicken and the kids helped measure sugar to make strawberry jam.  There was so much sugar on the counter and floor but they had fun scooping and pouring.

Talking about simple pleasure is one thing I didn't have this afternoon.  Caroline and Will were playing in their pool in the backyard when Caroline announced that she had pooped in her swim suit.  Not what I wanted to hear or deal with.  I have had a harder time dealing with this than CAroline I am sure.  As it turns out I poop water was dripped from outside in our backyard all the way in through the playroom, up the stairs, down the hall into the bathroom.  This helps in me wanting a half bath put in downstairs.  

Now I have to make sure she understands that while at the beach next week pooping in bathing suits in not acceptable!

Middle school gym, no A/C :(

Well, it turns out that my comment about having the hottest ticket in town turned out to be true.  Not that I want to complain, but it was about 99 outside and we were at least that inside the middle school gym with no AC.  Add a 21 month old boy who wants to climb the bleachers and 3 outfit changes for Caroline and 2 trips to take her to the potty.  Oh the recital also started 25 minutes late and wasn't over when we left 3 hours later.

Sorry no pictures, just the ones from the rehearsal.  But the little girls in Caroline's class were so cute and about half just stood around on stage while the others actually tried to do some of the dances.  By the last dance one girl fell asleep before it was their turn to go and several were crying because they didn't want to put the costume on.  Poor things I think everyone there had a little heat exhaustion by the end.  I know the kids haven't slept that long at night in weeks.

The rest of our weekend was perfect.  Sunday after naps Justin took the kids over to Ellie's house to play in the kiddie pool with Ashley and Juliet while I painted our garage door.  We ended up eating dinner outside at their house (pizza) and staying until about 9pm.  The kids had a blast and it was the best way to battle the heat.

Practice time ?

Caroline has a dance recital tomorrow so this afternoon we had rehearsal.  The pictures aren't the best but you can get the idea of how the practice went.  A little dancing, a lot of looking out into the gym to see what was going on.  Caroline even hollered out to me "take my picture!"

She was actually was doing the dance in this one.

This is my favorite costume.  Notice the girl next to Caroline picking her nose!!

Notice that none of the girls are doing the same thing at the same time in any of the pictures.  Caroline is one of the youngest in her class.  This is the first dance class for all of the girls.  Caroline will definately miss going to dance class every week.

The recital is during nap time so we will see how tired Caroline is after the show.  Thought I could get a sitter for Will but no luck so we will see how it goes.

The House of Puke

Well I am hoping at this point the 4 of us all all well.  This week started out with Caroline throwing up early Monday morning.  Then Justin didn't feel well on Tuesday and then last night it was my turn for the throwing up.  Susan also got sick on Tuesday.  I have a wonderful neighbor that I called this morning to see if she would watch the kids while I napped and got a shower.  She did and that nap was what helped me get through the day with 2 kids that are feeling well and me being weak and tired.  I am hopeful that tomorrow brings another day with all of us feeling well.

Puddle fun

Saturday afternoon after all the rain and thunder stopped it was time to get out and play in some puddles. While it was raining Caroline reminded me that I used to let her play in puddles when she was littler. Which is true when we were in Louisiana and she was Will's age. Amazing memory that girl has.

They had a blast splashing and running through the puddle. Then Justin and I left the wet dirty kids with Susan and Graham to get ready to go to a dinner party we had for Justin's work!

Caroline on her bike before jumping in puddles. Will is in the top right corner of the picture on his big wheel. Saturday was a fantastic day all around.

Strawberry Pickin'

This is the crowd that was out picking strawberries before the storm hit on Saturday. Amazing amounts of people, but the workers at the orchard are very well organized and assign you a 20ft row to pick from and there is straw down between the rows so it is all very picker friendly.

Caroline had to have her own box to put her picked berries in. Susan, Caroline, and I picked about 13 1/2 lbs in less than 45 minutes and only our assigned 20ft section.

Will did what most little boys would do with berries on the ground...step on them and try to flip the flats over.

Susan with her buddy. He loves her dearly and can say her name correctly now. It was Suzie and now it sounds like Susan.

Driving from the fields back to the store to pay for our pickings and Caroline was playing with the side mirror.

We will have more pictures of picking as Butler's Orchard has blueberries, blackberries, rasberries, snow peas, apples, pumpkins, and Christmas trees.