Flippin crazy

While some of you might think I am talking about myself with the title of this post, I am not! Caroline loves to flip and tumble. She even loves a good game of wrestle with either Will or her dad, mostly both of them.

So I had all good intentions of posting yesterday and was really productive getting the kitchen mopped, dinner in the crock pot, and the breakfast dishes all done before 8am! Then I had to teach 2 water fitness classes one at 9a and the other at 6p. In between I got my allergy shot, did lunch, read lots of stories that we got from the library, and took a little break to see what was happening with the Tour. The thing that got forgotten was the blog.

Below are pictures that I took with my phone. You can tell she loves to flip and while this was on a low bar at the playground she will flip on any bar and has even learned to climb our light post in the front yard.

Will of course tries to copy his big sister but he doesn't leave his hands on the bar so it makes it a little hard to do the flip. I was trying to help him that's why no pictures of him trying.

The other half of our weekend

After Justin left on Sunday the kids and I putzed around the house and I did get to the source of the nasty smell in our basement.  The rug!  Not ours thank goodness, it was one left at the house when we moved in.  And it will be in the trash Friday morning!

So during naps I got a call from a friend asking if we wanted to go out on their boat and have dinner.  Of course are you kidding me.  Lets see...stay home and wait for it to start raining or go out on a boat with friends and have a picnic dinner?  obvious choice even if Justin wasn't coming!  Sorry Justin!  We had a blast and Caroline wore herself out being so excited.  She could have powered the boat with her excitement.  This isn't the first time on a boat for the kids but it has been awhile.  She had a perma-grin the whole time.

Loved having the wind in her hair, but not me brushing it later!
We picked up Panera on the way to the marina.  The picture of Will is while we are anchored for dinner.  I don't have pictures of him because he sat in my lap while the boat was moving.
After dinner we headed back because of the clouds coming our way.  We had sun but the land didn't as you can see.  I love how the sun is shining on the water spray.
This is what we saw when we got home.  A perfect ending.  Will was actually the first to notice the rainbow.
Justin comes home tomorrow night and Caroline starts a new set of swim lessons in the morning.  In between is picking up the house!

Our weekend minus Justin for half

Yippee!!! I can see the pictures while typing!  This weekend was a blast.  Besides the fact that Justin had to leave at 10 Sunday morning.  Saturday we had a late breakfast at IHOP and headed down to the Henry Ford Greenfield Village.  They were having a Ragtime fair.  It included food, period dancing, shows (ie: Gershwin), and a baseball game played with rules form 1867!  Of course the kids loved riding the carousel.

Stylin in her princess shades!
Playing with dad's hat.  We also got to ride a steam locomotive around the village.
Some of the baseball players.
Sorry it is fuzzy but notice they don't have gloves.  The ball was a bit bigger than baseballs now but smaller than a softball.  The ball had to be pitched "underhand with a straight arm, and must be pitched, not jerked or thrown."  The batter was called a striker until he hit the ball and had to keep his foot on a line of base ( behind the plate) until he hit the ball.  There are other rules that are different but I won't bore you with all of them.  Very interesting to watch and with Will in his 'why' stage also very hard to explain.  Then we came back home all had naps and then had an early dinner and went bathing suit shopping at the mall.  Great day and thanks dad for the member passes, we really enjoy going!! 

Minor flooding

I feel somewhat like my cousin Laura. But on a much smaller scale thank goodness! From the pictures above you can see that Will and Caroline were playing in a stopped up sink. They had gotten apples that had fallen from the tree in our back yard and put them in a sink of water to make apple cider. They were stirring with spoons and all. That was not the issue and I was pleased with their creativity. Well of course I forgot to unplug the sink and so did the kids. Later in the day we were out front playing with some of the neighbor kids and I was the only adult outside so I didn't go inside with Will as he went to fill his water gun up. A few minutes later I go inside to get something and hear water splashing. Oh crap! Will didn't turn the water off after filling up his water gun and the half bath was under a few inches of water. I release the drain and turn off the water. I didn't clean it up since all the kids were still in the front yard and needed supervising. So I cleaned it up after dinner and when I went to the basement to get towels noticed that there was water in front of the washer. Since I had been doing laundry I thought the washer was leaking but realized later that it was form the bathroom above. A whole big box of arts and crafts stuff and empty photo albums got wet and I still haven't gotten the carpet to dry and that was about 4 days ago! So what am I going to do today....clean and dry the basement. It has started to smell like rotten bird and I have a sneaking suspisison that Jake has brought us another present. Yippie! Justin left this morning for another trip so I can't get him to pick it up if there is one there. Some how he is getting out of his husband duties again!

First swim class

Caroline finished her first swim class about 2 weeks ago. She has always loved the water and never been afraid to go under and get a nose full of water. So it was past time for some official swim lessons for this girl. She learned how to float on her back and front unassisted for 10 sec. and how to do the front crawl and backstroke with the help of a noodle. They also worked on things like jumping in the water and blowing bubbles. The progress report at the end of class had about 15 things the worked on. She of course passed and is started the level 3 class next week. She loved her teacher and the class as you can tell.
Will is also on his way to becoming a swimmer and will blow bubbles (from his mouth) and swim underwater kicking for about 5 feet. The only reason he is not taking swim lessons is I don't think he would pay as much attention to the teacher since the class is 30 minutes. Maybe after he turns 3 and is back in the habit of listening again after going to preschool.
I wish I had had my camera or phone with me yesterday morning. Granddaddy and Mimi got to swim with the kids yesterday morning and I couldn't tell who was having more fun!! They played in the lazy river and then on the play structure going down the slides for about and hour. They had so much fun!

First trip to the zoo

This is starting to really frustrate me! I hate not being able to see the pictures I am writing about. Oh well.

These are pictures from when we went to the zoo back in June with Nana and Papa. It was extremely hot that day, 93, so not many animals were walking around. But the polar bears were very active and that was by far the neatest thing to see. As you can tell they had a plexiglass tunnel you could walk through and see the polar bears on one side and seals on the other. The other picture of Caroline where you can just see her head is at the prairie dog exhibit. You could walk down some stairs and up into one of 3 viewing things if you were short enough. Really neat to be eye level with the animals.

Pushing things

Yet again I can't see the pictures. Will's favorite toys these days are what he calls "pushin things". AKA the hose attachments to my vacuum cleaner, a toy sword, and play golf clubs. They got their name because of the noise you make when you play with them. A psshhtin sound crossed with a shooting sound. When he plays with the wonderful water guns that granddaddy brought he asks if he can " push water guns" not shoot water guns. So far he doesn't hit with his pushin things!
Caroline is hanging on our pull-up bar. All I have to do is lift her up and she grabs hold with her hands and then in no time she is upside down. She can also pull herself back upright, I wish I had abs like that! It just reminds me that she needs to be back in a gymnastics class and Will too.

Justin gets back in town late late tonight and the kids and I can't wait. They have missed their dad something terrible.

A time for baking

I would write descriptions above each picture but for some reason all I see is a bunch of letters and numbers instead of the pictures.

These are from the kids and I baking Chocolate Chip Monster Cookies the other afternoon. I have a really hard time letting the kids help with the cooking sometimes. Only for the fact that While I am helping Caroline pour or stir then Will is being total boy adn getting into all the other stuff making a huge mess. But I finally got smart and while they were napping I measured and set out all the ingredients in little bowls. So I was ready. They had so much fun and it was a lot less stressful on me. Will figured out how to stick his fingers in the bowl while it was turning to get a taste and of course Caroline followed suit. The last picture ( I think) is of the kids modeling their new aprons from my cousin Laura. My kids love getting things from Julianna and Lydia because they know we also give all our clothes and shoes to them. I hear lots of talk daily about Julianna and Lydia. So thanks for the ggreat aprons. Caroline has worn hers daily since receiving it and tries to get Will to wear his too.

Justin is gone the next few days on his first trip with the new boss. Besides driving to the UP for a funeral and then getting on a plane to go to a change of command I am not sure where else he is going. He will be back early Friday morning. Caroline has already cried that she isn't going to get any daddy cuddles. I am taking the kids to hourly care on post so I can have some time for me besides when I exercise and will go to the library and pick out a book for me and get my allergy shot. The kids get the added benefit of playing with kids their age and some time apart. Which will make all the time they are spending together even better!

Lots of Laughs!

I can't tell what is where. The video is from when Nana and Papa were visiting. I was trying to catch Will's giggles. He thinks his sister is so hilariously funny sometimes and his laugh is so contagious! You get the idea in the video. The adorable pictues are of the kids after swimming eating freeze pops.

Happy 4th of July too! We aren't doing anything fancy besides what the kids are wearing. Caroline has been looking forward to wearing her red, white, and blue dress for months. Fireworks don't start until around 10 pm and that is past my bedtime so we will wait a few years before taking kids to see fireworks. We will grill a tenderloin for dinner and that's about it. Not very exciting unless you count Justin's fall while on his group ride this morning. Trying to be Lance but not quite there yet! pictures to follow

Backyard pool fun

Also while Nana and PApa were in town visiting we had some down time one afternoon and I had set the pools up during nap time so the water could warm up (have to do that up here!). The kids thought it was great and since it was hot out it was perfect. They had a blast and I got some great pictures of them eating Icees on the deck too. I will try and upload a video of them laughing, it's contagious. Will loves to jump and flop into the pool as you can tell from the pictures. Caroline screamed she was so excited. It is had to believe when you look at Will and can see his ribs, all of them, that he is only 7 pounds lighter than Caroline!

Henry Ford Village

Here are some pictures from when we took Nana and Papa to the Henry Ford Village. It is huge and we didn't see all of it as you might have imagined with two kids and Caroline wasn't feeling well and had a fever. But what we did see was so neat. They have a great collection of great old things and a real working farm using all the old tools. The ladies were in the kitchen cooking a great smelling meal and more ladies were out side doing laundry the old fashioned way. I thought my washing machine doesn't get my clothes very clean but I can only imagine what Will;s clothes would look like if I had to wash them in a bucket! We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed that in the car on the way home! But we did get to see an old saw mill, tinsmith, glass blowing (always my favorite), print shop, pottery shop, guys working on potato plants, baby sheep, a red cow, and ride an old steam train. They even have model T's that you can ride in.
I still have the museum to go through and will go back to the Village to see the rest of it someday soon.

The neatest thing that I have learned from going to the Herny Ford twice now is that he (ford) failed two times in the car business before finally hitting it big!