Proof and picnics

I found the picture is was that proves Uncle Paul was involved in teaching my child at a young age about fire. Notice that he has a lit match in his hand! Gotta love the Crissman boys and their love of flames.

All is well around here today, very quiet now that the banging on my house has stopped. We had workers wrapping the wood trim with PVC the past 2 days. It looks great but I am glad the kids will be able to get decent naps today with the noise waking them up.

Caroline has yet to do the monkey bars again, so no picture and I can't even get her to pose for one either. I thought she might since we had a picnic lunch with all our friends today. And for a little while I had 8 kids under the age of 5 with just me watching up on the playground. Surprisingly they were all getting along remarkably well. Meaning no arguing over the 2 swings. The good thing was all of the kids can walk, so that helped alot, and the fact that they had just been fed!

Big girl stuff

Today is a milestone of a day. This morning before lunch we were up at the playground with some friends when Adrianne said, "Ms. Julie, look at Caroline!" I turn and look and Caroline is doing the monkey bars all by herself!!! She was half way across when I turned and looked and sure enough she made it all the way. I was so proud because we do the monkey bars like a million times when we are at the playground. She didn't make it across again while we were out there, but I know it won't be long until she does it again. She is the first of her little friends to make it across.


And Will is fine after getting his hand stuck in an elevator door yesterday. We were at Justin's office and Will was down the hall trying to reach the water fountain. Justin and I were walking towards him talking to others in their offices when I had that heart stopping cry of my hurt child. I run to him and he can't get his hand out of the door. The worst part was the door wouldn't open up again! All the pressing the button wasn't opening it. So what does the calm, cool, collected mother do when her child is stuck and crying? Hit Justin and yell, "DO SOMETHING!" Just at that moment Will got his hand free and the door then opens. Will is a crying mess and he takes him into a conference room to settle down. Will and I settle down but then he doesn't want to leave his daddy arms. So it was a hard good bye for Will yesterday. Surprisingly he doesn't have any bruising just a little tenderness on a few knuckles.

I might be calm when others get hurt but I can't seem to get it together when it is my own children. I am working on it!

Memorial Day weeknd

The gang walking towards the mansion.

Granddaddy teaching Will the finer points of pyromania ( like a good Crissman boy should, right? U. Paul was teaching Caroline about the love of fire at her 1st bday if I remember correctly.)
Well while Granddaddy was busy checking out the flames he didn't notice that Will decided to put the flame out by poking it with one finger, which is what Will is showing him in the picture!


But, I hope everybody had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We did lots of things and had a great time. The kids and I sure are missing Justin after having him home for 4 days. This morning at breakfast Will turns and looks down the hallway and calls out "Dada, dada?" looking for Justin and wondering where he was.
Our long weekend started out with Justin going to go play an early round of golf with Graham then coming home and hanging out with us for naps and the rest of the afternoon. Saturday we got up ate a quick bite then went to Towson to hang out with Susan, Graham, Granddaddy, and Mimi. Then Sunday started out with me going to teach a water aerobics class then meeting Justin and the kids for church. After that we had lunch at Panera and had a fun trip to Walmart. Monday was a day full of good friends and 2 cookouts. We went over to some friends from our sunday school class and had hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch and they had a slip n' slide for the dozen or so kids that were there. Then home for naps and I decided that I would call my friend Ellie and see if their family wanted to come over for grilled chicken. The funny thing was that she was just getting ready to call me and ask the same thing. They had been in Aruba for the past week and Ashley and Caroline were ready to play some serious dress-up. Which they did and Ashley cried b/c she didn't want to leave and take the Cinderella dress off. We all out on our back porch and had a great time talking and visiting while the 4 kids had a blast playing in the sand table and playing dress-up.
After all that we go back to regular dinners and no Justin during the day. Caroline hasn't really been herself, meaning not as much singing and dancing, today, except when we were at Justin's office and there was a crowd to entertain.

Singing my way up the hill

I wish I had a tape record for this one but I didn't so I will try to replay it as best I can. Caroline gets to watch a movie on the weekends otherwise no TV. Several of her favorites are Mary Poppins, Lion King, Cars, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (Do you remember her real name Dad?), and Happy Feet. Notice the theme is singing/dancing and lots of it. The more songs or dancing a movie has the high it rates on Caroline's list of favorites. I can't wait until she is older so I can show her the Sound of Music. And if you are around Caroline for any length of time or talk to me on the phone you will her a little voice serenading you in the background. She is always singing and dancing.
But yesterday as I am heading up the hill out of our neighborhood Caroline starts singing "You can do it, you can do it, tada dada(made up words), there's nothing to it really!" from when the mice are singing about helping Cinderella fix her dress. It was so funny and it did help me up the hill though I was laughing while pedaling.
And when she wasn't singing she was asking me if we were going to clean house today and when I asked why she told me because the house is messy! Yep, that is true, but I didn't need my 3 year old to tell me!
Will on the other hand is learning new words everyday and some of his new ones are "good job" and "teetoes" for Cheeto's. Yes, I let my kids eat Cheeto's. Only at lunch at the table so the orange fingers don't get all over the place. Will is also still working on his manners as he is pretty good at saying pees (please) and tanktoo (thank you), and escuz ooh (excuse you) when he burps.

A giant among the little people

Will is following his sister's lead again and ridinig the Little People bus. Don't think this is what they had in mind for the bus' use but it works and keeps him busy. At least for a few minutes.

He was looking at the bus thinking, humm, will it still go?

This morning was dress up time. Caroline is in a Barbie Island Princess outfit and will just wants to wear all the beads he can find! In his hands is the baby monitor and he figured out how to turn it on and then put it to his ear like a phone and was saying hello.

Not too much going on today besides going to the gym (rode my bike and made it up the hill!!) and then having a picnic lunch at the playground. We shall see what this afternoon holds for us. It looks like it might rain again so instead of riding bikes (Caroline not me!) we might be playing inside.

Last day at school

This is Caroline's Terrific Two's teacher, Mrs. Pitts. They love each other and will definitely miss being in class with each other. The good thing is we will see her in church on Sundays.

Here they are dancing like butterflies. Will couldn't resist joining them (little blond with the green shirt).

It is a sad day because today was Caroline's last day of her Terrific Two program. She went every Tuesday from 915-1245 starting in Sept. She and I have loved it for very different reasons! I love having her with other kids her age and I love spending one-on-one time with Will. Caroline on the other hand has told me when I ask her "what did you learn at school today?" "Oh, nothing. It isn't a learning school just a playing school." Which isn't entirely true since they do learn a different bible story each week and work on colors and numbers and such, but play they do too. She will start back in the fall at the same church but with different teachers and going 2 days a week. She is already looking forward to her "Lunch Bunch" as they are called since they stay till 1 and have lunch together.

As a side note I made it up "the Hill" Monday after riding to the gym, teaching a water aerobics class for an hour, taking the kids swimming by myself, and then riding home. I had to say "one more tree" as I passed each tree on the way up the hill and I almost didn't make it but at last I did!

Fancy Nancy

So this is what Caroline wore to go out to dinner Friday night. Nothing like adding some color and patterns to your outfit! If you haven't read the Fancy Nancy books you have to check them out. Caroline is trying to be her own "Fancy Nancy."

This is Friday after naps. Will wasn't in the best mood but after a kiss from his sissy(that's what he calls her) he was happy. I have it so they take naps at the same time. SO that means that i can usually get 2-3 hours of sleep time from them. There are days of course that one of them decides that they either don't need a nap or only take an hour nap, but that is rare. Those few hours are very precious to me and I love them. I don't answer the phone or call people during that time either.