Saturday Jobs

So this may sound crazy and I'm quite sure my kids wouldn't agree with me, but lately one of my favorite times has been doing Saturday jobs as a family.  There is something about working together as a family, and teaching your kids how to work that is really fun and exciting.  Lately I've started looking forward to Saturday morning jobs.  Its so fun to see how both of the kids are getting better at doing jobs and it definitely seems to make them a little more responsible during the week as well.

Happy Cleaning!

Puppet Theater

Before Christmas I was thinking of things to get for the kids and Reid and I talked about making a puppet theater.  We talked about making a bigger wood one, but I wanted something that wouldn't take up space.  So I found this tutorial online for a puppet theater that hangs on a tension rod you can put up in the doorway and decided to give it a try.  As I have mentioned I am not much of a sewer, so luckily I have several friends that kindly helped me with some of the trickier parts (OK most of the sewing) and I was able to finish it up myself.  I think it turned out really cute and the kids just love it.  It is definitely my favorite new toy from Christmas!

Dollywood

We took the kids to Dollywood last week.  They got kicked off the ducky ride for fighting.  The ride attendant seriously had to stop the ride, ans said"mother, you better come get these kids".  So I had to walk the walk of shame as I went in to get them and put one in each arm and got out of there.  Other than that fun memory, we had a great time it was a fun end of summer hurrah.  I can't believe school starts next week.

Summer Time

I love summer time, here are some of the things we've been up to.

Hiking- At the end of May we went on a hike up to some waterfalls.  The kids did great they both walked the whole way (about 2 miles total), it was so much fun to get out and do something together.

Swimming- We love hanging out at the pool.  It has been so great having a neighborhood pool, we love going all the time.  I sometimes get tired of the extra towels to wash, but the kids never get sick of going, they just love it.

Gardening- We've been really excited about our garden this summer.  It has been a while since we've been able to have a real garden and Reid worked really hard on it. This is just one bed, the other is the same size.  We've gotten so much zuchinni, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, okra, and peppers; so delicious.  I've been working really hard to try not to waste anything, but I'm kind of afraid of canning so our freezer is kind of crazy right now.  We have over 70 cups of grated zuchinni, 3 loaves of bread (we've probably made over 15 loaves), 20 cups of tomatoe soup, 12 cups of chopped tomatoes and 10 cups of diced squash, we kind of need a deep freezer if you can't tell!

I was so excited for my hydrangeas to bloom this year.  I think they might be one of my favorite flowers, they are so pretty.

One of Brooke's summer projects was to plant sunflowers.  She did a great job remebering to water them.  Don't they look awesome?

Swim Lessons- I signed both of the kids up for swim lessons.  I wan't sure how Owen would do, but I thought I would try it so I didn't have to spend 30 minutes every day chasing him out of the gym where the youth camps play basketball.  He had a rough start, but by the third day he was doing so great. They both had such great teachers. Brooke was so excited she finally got to jump off the diving board. 

Visitors- In the beginning of June, my dad and his wife stopped by for a couple of days.  We love them so much and is always fun to see them!

Random Fun- I just love all the fun stuff that happens in the summer.  It sure is fun to get to hang out with these cute kids!



Brooke made some goals of things that she wanted to do this summer.  One of them was to make a cake by herself.  She picked out the recipe, made sure we had all the ingredients, and made it (I think all I did was get it in and out of the oven), she was sure proud of that thing, and she was nice enough to share with her friends.



Tybee Island

We went on a trip down to Tybee Island, right by Savannah, Georgia. We stayed in a little house 2 blocks from the beach and we had so much fun. I am not really a beach person, open water freaks me out and sand is really dirty and gets everywhere; but I can't think of a more perfect vacation forour family right now. We all had so much fun!

Brooke loved looking for seashells and had fun trying out boogie boarding, Owen had fun digging in the sand and jumping in the waves, I had fun running on the beach and reading, and Reid enjoyed not having to go to work, getting to play with his kids, and eating yummy seafood and delicious key lime pie. We also got to spend a morning in Savannah on our way home. We went on a tour of the city and had fun learning all about Paula Deen, Savannah's pride and joy. I got Paula Deen's cookbook and I am excited to try some of the recipes out, they look so good! We also stopped at Savanna's candy kitchen and bought some delicious pralines, oh they were so good. It was the perfect vacation for our family, we all had so much fun!

Sometimes I Wish We Lived on a Farm

Sometimes I wish we lived on a farm, but then I remember I don't like getting up before the sun, I am kind of terrified of animals, and I don't really work that hard. So I guess we'll have to be content with riding horses. This great lady from church lets us come and ride her pony and the kids have so much fun. Owen, kept saying "Yeehaw" when he was riding, it was so cute. Brooke even trotted for a little bit, they did great. They have so much fun, hopefully we can go more this summer.

Easter Weekend

We had a fun time over Easter. Our kids really got into decorating eggs, even Owen only broke about half of the eggs he dyed :)!





We invited a few of our neighbors over for an Easter Egg Hunt which was great. We live next door to two families, one that has triplet 5 year old girls and one that has twin 5 year old girls, funny huh? Then we also have some neighbors that have 4 boys. So we didn't have to invite too many families in order to get a good turn out. Also, let's just say we didn't mow our lawn so it would be easier to hide the eggs, ok?




My sister Elizabeth also came out for the weekend and we went to Dollywood, had smores, took her to a local restaurant where she was weirded out by the printed Bible veses on the menu (life in the South), watched a lot of movies and had a grand ole time!