style and play

It could be said that Caroline has a unique sense of style.  She has worn some crazy outfits in her day.  The blessing is she has to wear a uniform to school.  The other side of that is she has to wear a uniform to school and so there for hasn't had the social pressure not to dress the way she does! Perfect example from last weekend.

Pink sun hat, frog rain coat, pink and gray striped shirt, brown and white jams, purple paisley leggings, pink striped knee socks with flowers on them, and then her tennis shoes which she tied herself!! She got some strange looks at the mall but she didn't even notice.  I sure do love that about her!!

Friday night after dinner we had time to go to the local elementary school and play on the playground before bath and bed time.  It was a beautiful evening and the half mile walk to the playground was nice.

Will getting ready to jump.  He has no fear and as soon as Justin's hands go up he is jumping.  Earlier on the playground Will jumped from a little higher that in the picture BUT nobody was there to catch him!! He didn't cry but he still has a limp today!  As he would say, "I got a lot of tough in me!"  Scares me to death!

Happy as can be!

She was trying to avoid Justin taking her picture.

These were all taken with my phone so the shutter speed isn't as fast as my camera.  The shots turned out pretty good though.

Rainy day fun

singing boat
its time to go home its time to goooooo home its time to run home and go to home, its supposed to look at the word and it the alien that like to go with him and he lets him lets him lets him and he likes him likes him, he can go over there every day.

That is the running commentary from Caroline this afternoon.  She told me she had written a poem and it was really just scribbles on a piece of paper.  So when she started singing it I tried to type as fast as I could!

It is an absolutely beautiful day, 67, sunny, and hardly  cloud in the sky!  I know it won't stay like this, I am aware that I live in Michigan!!!  But we have been spending several hours each afternoon enjoying the sunshine while it lasts!  When I was sick on Tuesday (I finally got it) I sat in a chair reading my book while the kids had a blast playing for 2 hours.

But last weekend it wasn't so nice.  It was cold and rainy.  We invited our friends to go swimming at the community center with us and we had so much fun!

Caroline, Todd, and Madeline.

Caroline jumping to Justin.  I love Justin face in this shot.

After that we came home ate lunch and we all took naps!  It was still raining but we decided to take a walk to the park anyway.

Not the happiest of campers!

They were more than happy to splash in big puddles though!!

After our walk Justin put the kids in a nice hot bubble bath and then we had dinner.  What a great way to spend a rainy day!

Sports

We play, do, and watch several sports.  Will still says he wants to be a baseball player after going to Wrigley field and watching the Cubs.  The kids (and Justin) are always disappointed when football season is over.  Caroline is getting excited about playing soccer in the spring and is really hopeful that her team colors will have pink in them!  And we had fun skiing this year too.  We go swimming every week too!
Will got an updated version of  tee-ball for Christmas and loves practicing.  Caroline not as much.  Will can hit the ball across the living room and it the back wall about 6-7 feet up!  I am sure we will have holes in the wall soon!!  I can't wait to see how far he can hit it outside.  I took some video of him hitting the other day but I should have gotten behind him so I wasn't in the danger zone.  Caroline found out the hard way that she shouldn't get in the way.  She was crawling across the floor and Will hit the ball and it popped Caroline right in the backside, hard!!  She didn't like it much and it left a nice red mark on her hinney. Check out the baseball videos.
I will have to get video of WIll playing basketball now that it is starting to warm up.  He has been outside practicing some and makes it in enough that he will "play" basketball for about 20 minutes.  He shoots the ball the correct way most of the time and I didn't teach him how to hold the ball either.

This picture was taken back this summer.  And yes he could hit the ball with that little bat.

Long nights, busy mornings

I had every intention of taking the time to post some video of Will playing baseball the past 2 mornings.  But 2 nights ago Will was up all night puking.  He threw up so many times I lost count.  Then last night it was Caroline's turn.  She only threw up 3 times.  So I have had to do laundry, clean carpets, and clean bathrooms instead of blog.  Such is life!  I am hoping I get to sleep some tonight and nobody else has any other problems.  They are both feeling much better.  It took Will much longer to get back to eating than Caroline but I think we are almost back on track.

So on to figuring out how to post a video with the new format they have on blogger.

Pickle bombs

Lunchtime with Will is always an adventure.  And I should actually say all day is an adventure with that boy!  But the other day at lunch he asked me why Aunt Karen didn't have any kids.  I told him that she wasn't married yet.  He was satisfied with that answer but you could tell by watching him that he was still processing and going to ask more questions (questions ought to be his middle name).  So his next question was well why isn't she married.  I told him that she just hasn't found the right guy yet.  (more contemplating) Aunt Susan found the right guy, uncle Grahammie.  Yes, she sure did.  I knew what was coming so I just waited for it.  Then he asked why doesn't Susan have any kids.  I told him they just weren't ready yet but that they would someday.  He liked that answer!  Maybe he thinks they will be the lucky kids and get crouton sandwiches!  (Susan made homemade croutons while we were there and then once we got back home he asked for crouton sandwiches!!)  He then told me that I found the right guy, Justin and that I have kids.  So true I told him.  Then this morning on the way to school he told me Caroline found the right guy.  I'm thinking he is going to say Aiden, her boyfriend that she talks about constantly) but he says, ME!  Caroline now jumps in and says I can't marry you!  Then an argument ensues about yes I can , no you can't.  At least he loves his sister.  And I think he understands now that he can't marry his sister but can still love her.
Another story of Will's great creative mind at work:
This morning he was playing while I was doing dishes.  He called me into the living room to look at what he was doing.  He had laid his baseball thing over on its side and told me it was shooting pickles, then pickle bombs.  The pickle bombs were protecting our house he told me.  He said that did a good job!  I was so glad that worked! ( a little background on where he got the pickle idea.  When we were at the grocery store Monday and we walked past the pickles he asked me why we didn't have any at our house.  I told him I didn't like them but daddy did! He didn't say anything after that until today.)

Will also has a sword (not always the best thing) and the other day started calling it his magic sword.  A few hours later he asked me why it was a magic sword!  I told him well you started calling it a magic sword so why do you think it is magic.  He got this whole "oh, yea" look and then went back to playing.

I love the imagination of that kid and everyday is such an adventure.

We moved again

But this time it wasn't us!!  We helped Susan and Graham move across town.  Their new place is great and we really enjoyed visiting and helping them.  They have helped us move so many times so it was great that we could help them!  The kids are great helpers, really, and will go get things for you and are really good at carrying cushions and little things.  They love to be helpers!  There was a lot going on while the truck was being unloaded so I didn't get any pictures of that.  But we did manage to play in all that snow that they had up there.

Somebody had dug a cave in a mound of snow.  Caroline thought that was the coolest thing and wanted to go back all the time.

That is one HUGE mound of snow at the end of the parking lot!  We had a blast climbing and having a snowball fight on that hill of snow.

Will was having fun spitting snow at susan!

The snow was so deep that you could throw the kids up and have them land on their hinneys and they wouldn't even tough the grass!  I have pictures when Caroline was about 2 and a half and we were visiting Susan in NY and the snow was so deep that she could be thrown up and land feet first in the snow and be waist deep.  It is fun to play in that much snow!

Justin and Caroline enjoying some cuddle time at the end of a long moving day.  Susan and I were able to get some pictures hung too.  The room above is the living room and is the front room of the house.

Will and Susan studying the Appalachian picture that hasn't been hung yet.  He must have asked her 30 question about that 1 picture!  The great Aunt she is she answered them all!!

We enjoyed our visit and were glad to be able to help you!  Love you guys!

Second stop in NC

After stopping in Salisbury for a few days we then headed up I-85 to Burlington.  We had dinner one night at my moms and then the next might at my dad's.  We of course didn't have enough time, as it always happens, but we had a great time the little we were there.

Keith hung out with us most of the day Wednesday and the kids loved it!  They love uncle Keffie!  

They even love sharing snack with their uncle!  Loved seeing you Keith!

Granddaddy didn't LOVE having Caroline in his lap at all!!  We met dad at the gym for a workout and then went back to the house for dinner and watching Shawn White win the gold medal.  Even though it was very late Will can still pick out Shawn White from a picture!  Will sat in Granddaddy's lap watching with the App football helmet on.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that!!
Thanks for having us!
After NC we headed up to Fort Lee, VA to have lunch with friends from LA. Then on to dinner in DC with Karen.
Pictures from our visit with Susan and Graham next!