Ava the Softball Player

When I played softball we got this cool contraption called "The Hit-A-Way" to help with batting.  It was pretty awesome and it got a whole lot of use.  When I went to college, we wrapped it up and hung it up out in the barn hoping that one day it would get used again.  Well, one day finally came!  Pa got it out for Logan to practice hitting and Logan does a pretty awesome job hitting the ball!  Ava watched Logan play baseball and when he put down the bat to go ride his bike, she picked right up where he left off!

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This is one proud Momma and Daddy!  :)

Bicycles & Puzzles

Our Saturday at Grammy's included some yummy baking and lots of time outside.  Grammy had found some bicycles at a garage sale a while ago.  Since all three grandkids were at Grammy and Pa's it was time to get the bicycles in tip top shape and put them to work!  Pa got the wheels on Carli's bicycle put on and I'm sure he could not have done it with all his helpers!  Ava was especially helpful during the whole process!

Once the bicycles had some tires, it was time to try them out!  And boy did they try them out!  Logan and Carli did a really awesome job riding their bicycles.  They rode a lot all weekend!  Any time someone was willing to go outside and sweat it out with them, they were ready to go outside and ride!

Ava was a pretty good sport about not being big enough to ride a bicycle.  She was a wee bit attached to the swing and going really, really high!  You would have thought she was on a roller coaster by all the squeals!

In between bicycling and cooling off, all three kids thoroughly enjoyed putting together puzzles.  Well, actually Carli and Logan put together the puzzles and Ava was in charge of tearing them up!

Logan's puzzle of choice is the John Deere Tractor.

Carli with one of her favorite puzzles - Strawberry Shortcake.

Grandma even got in on the puzzle action!

Between baking, bike riding and putting together puzzles we had some pretty worn out kiddos at the end of the day.  Worn out and very happy!  :)

Baking with Grammy

After a quick trip home Friday night to pack up in a very hot house, we headed to Grammy and Pa's for the weekend.  The girls were excited and so were Keith and I!  After all Grammy and Pa's house had an air conditioner! 

We got there Friday night in time for bed pretty much.  Saturday morning came and Carli and Ava didn't miss a beat.  They jumped right into helping Grammy bake in the kitchen.

Carli pulled up a kitchen chair to help Grammy make an Apple Pie

When Ava tried to add another chair in the kitchen, Grammy moved the cooking to the dining room which was a little more "helper" friendly!

When Grammy makes anything with a crust it is really good but sometimes the best part about it is the little cinnamon rolls she makes with the left over crust.  Very yummy!   Carli and Ava got a good tutorial in how to make this favorite treat!

The girls also learned a bit of patience!  Turns out it takes a bit for their creations to cook but when they were finally done, Carli was quick to get a few treats!  She wasn't very good a sharing with Pa, but Ava did offer him a crumb.  Literally!

Sleepover at Mom & Dads!

So it turned out that the Thursday our A/C completely died was also a bit warm outside and it was not feasible to have the girls sleep in their 84 degree warm room!  So it was sleep over time in our room AKA Mom and Dad's Hotel.  If you call it a Hotel, Carli is game!  :) 
Our little window unit worked over time but it got the job done.  We holed up in our one cool bedroom, blew up air mattresses, tucked in two little girls and slept quite comfortably all night long!

The next morning I took the girls to meet Kayla and I went to work in Alto.  Keith spent most of the day in our hot house while they worked on the A/C.  They told him mid afternoon that the coil was fixed but now some fan motor was toast and it would be Monday before they could fix that issue.  Thank goodness Grammy and Pa live close by!  Off to Grammy and Pa's hotel we went!!



No A/C, No Problem...

The weekend before July 4th, Keith was sick with food poisoning so the girls and I just did our own thing at home.  Really it was a normal day for us.  Keith stayed holed up in the bedroom until about 4 pm, and then he meandered out and announced that the house was hot.  The girls and I were oblivious!  Turns out, it was 79 in the house and it should have been 74!  I have a tendency to not mind a warm house during the day and like it very cold at night.  Since Keith was feeling better and it was now hot to me too b/c he so kindly pointed it out, we went to eat out for dinner.

The girls actually slept okay in their room and the house never got above 79 that night.  The next day was Sunday and thankfully it wasn't terribly hot outside which helped the temperature inside.  Between being gone for church and naps, the day was pretty tolerable.  We all slept okay that night too. 

The next day the A/C guy came out, announced we had a leak in our system somewhere but he could not find where.  He put eight pounds of refrigerant in the system and said they would be back after the fourth.  So $520 later, my A/C was still not really fixed.  :( 

The A/C held until Wednesday and then it got hot again and fast.  We didn't even bother to leave the fan running b/c it wasn't even keeping the temperature down. in the low 80s.  Thursday the big kids went to school and Ava and I came home to play with Jacob, Kenzie and Hayden since it was my week to watch the kiddos for a few hours.  We filled up the blob and spent most of our time outside since it was much more comfortable there than inside!  I didn't get any pictures of the younger kids playing on the blob because there were four kids 3 and under! 

We actually got naps in despite the heat and then the big kids were ready to play on the blob some more.  It may have been our best blob yet.  We got it much fuller this time. 

Logan LOVES the blob.  With it so full, we turned on the sprinkler and he used it as a slip and slide.  He pretty much entertained me all afternoon!  He was so funny to watch.

Ava wasn't much for the sprinkler spraying on the blob but once we turned it off she had a blast sliding onto it.

We played outside for a good two hours and then made a Sonic run.  Not gonna lie, I went to Sonic twice that day because it was a good excuse to sit in my air conditioned car and well, go to Sonic! 



Bring on the Imagination...

Over the past year, Carli's imagination has really taken off.  First she would go on bear hunts.  She would see crocodiles and owls in the trees and finally the bear.  It was really cute!  Now she and Ava have surprise parties.  They see all sorts of things.  And until Wednesday night, everything was good.  Ava had gotten upset a couple of times because the monsters were coming but it was always after she and Carli had been playing, in the middle of the day no where near nap time or bed time.  Usually we are in the car and Ava would holler, "Oh no!  A monsters coming!"  To which Carli would reply, "Oh Ava, it's okay, the monsters are at home napping."  And all was well.

Wednesday was a particularly emotional day for Carli.  We don't know why but she was very sensitive and after getting in trouble for hitting, she cried for a good two hours.  It got to the point that I had to rock and sing to her to calm her down (I hadn't gotten to do this since Ava was born!).  She eventually fell asleep but woke up more than once and the tears started anew.  Finally, she fell asleep for good and woke up in a little better spirits in time to go to VBS.

VBS was okay...no major emotional disasters.  We got home, and all was well.  We put the girls to bed and I was picking up the playroom when I start hearing this whimpering from the girls room.  I go in the room fully expecting to see Carli pulling my leg but I find her cowering under her blanket, eyes red with tears and fear in her little face.  This is how our conversation went:

Me: Carli, baby, what is the matter?
C:  I don't like monsters anymore.
Me:  That's okay, there aren't any monsters in here.
C:  I don't like crocodiles either.
Me:  That's okay, no crocodiles either.
C:  Crocodiles are at the zoo.
Me:  Yes, they are.
C:  So are elephants.  I don't like elephants either.
Me:  Okay, it's okay not to like crocodiles or elephants.  Does that make you sad?
C:  No.
Me:  Then why are you crying?
C:  Because I don't like monsters.
Me:  Okay, are there monsters in your room?
**She points to the ceiling.**
Me:  Oh, the monsters are in the attic?
C:  Yes, Daddy needs to go get them before they get me.

The whole conversation Carli was crying and Ava slept through it all!  So I get Carli out of bed.  We decide that monsters are scared of light.  Keith gets a flashlight, climbs into the attic and demands all monsters to leave.  We leave the attic light on.  Carli "locked" (really she unlocked) all the doors.  And she finally stopped crying.

We get back to her room and she tells me she needs to read her Bible so Jesus will take care of her and her big Minnie Mouse.  And so she did.  She read her little Bible and I sat in the room for 30 minutes until she fell asleep finally at 11 pm. 

It was pitiful and cute all at the same time.  I plan to get some fabreze and make "monster spray" too.  Maybe between extra light, big Minnie Mouse, monster spray and Daddy's light we can overcome the monster scare sooner rather than later!

The Water Blob Fun Continues...

We have pretty awesome neighbors.  When we were heading out to go to Galveston (the second time) we drove by a garage sale on our street and I saw some pretty awesome looking shelves that I just knew Mom needed for the play room at her house.  Keith wouldn't stop.  He was going to Galveston and nothing was stopping him!  So, I texted my wonderful neighbor Cindy.  Bless her heart.  I'm not sure how many texts, pictures or number of times they walked up and down our street to get answers for us on those shelves, but I know it was quite a few!  Robbie even tried to bargain with them!  In the end we decided they would work and they fronted the money for us and would have gotten them in our garage if the sellers hadn't agreed to hold them until we got back home.  Not only do they do things like that, but when I forget to put the trash out on trash day, they put it out for me!  :)  Yeah, we have some pretty awesome neighbors. 

We offered to watch Robbie and Cindy's kids so they could go on a date night since they had done some much for us.  So a couple of wkds ago, Kaitlyn and Austin came over to play.  Their older brother Chris actually went to a friends house but our house was cooler...just sayin.  :)  Turns out Keith got food poisoning that day and he was holed up in our bedroom.  So it was me and four kids (4,3,2 and 1), a spaghetti dinner and the water blob...yeah, we had a lot of fun!  :)

Little Austin was so much fun to watch on the water blob.  He would run and jump.  Jump up and do it all over again.  I lost count after 15 times.  He was just as tired as he could be but he would not stop!!  I loved watching that kid because he just wore himself out AND he ate all his dinner.  That is a rarity in a house full of girls!

Carli and Kaitlyn would hold hands and stand at the fence then run and jump together.  They ran and jumped, slid down the slide and turned flips for well over an hour.

I thought Ava was being anti social but it turns out the mosquitoes were eating her alive!  I would say one of my biggest failures of the night was not getting repellant put on the kids.  Ava by far got the worst of the bites.  She even had one between her fingers!  :(  She did play on the blob I just wasn't able to get her picture...she blew bubbles for everyone for quite awhile too.

I rarely let my kids stay up past nine but on this Friday night, they stayed up til almost ten.  Mostly because they were all having such an amazing time outside!  When I finally convinced everyone to come in, we crashed on the couch and watched Dora til their eyes couldn't stay open.  :)  I would say we had a fairly good night, and I sure hope the Woodley kids slept late the next morning for their parents! I counted it as a victory when I got to sleep til 7:30 the next morning! 

Happy Retirement Dad!

One of the hardest working people I know is my Dad.  He was always working hard to better himself and in turn make life better for his family.  It wasn't about making more money but about creating opportunities.  He worked for the state for 26 years.  They tried time and time again to get him to move to Austin but he refused to move his family, despite the pay raise and other incentives.  He stayed at a job that didn't require him to travel until us kids were all graduated and out of the house.  And because of that, he was at the majority of our activities, softball, basketball, stock shows.  Dad was always there.  When Anthony graduated from high school, Dad started traveling more for work - but only after all us kids were gone.  Pretty cool Dad huh? 

Anyway, after 26 years, Dad retired on June 30.  They had a really nice retirement party for him at work.  It was really neat to hear all the nice things people said about my Dad.  None of it was a surprise but it was really cool to know that others appreciate Dad as much as we do!

I picked the kids up early from school and we got down to the party just as it was starting.  Carli immediately spied Grandma and pretty much stuck with her most of the time we were there. :)

Actually all three kids were never far from where Grandma was...

Grandma thoroughly enjoyed having people come talk to her and compliment her on her son.  She was all smiles and very proud. 

This is Ms. Monica.  She worked with Dad for a long time and was his assistant.  The girls love Ms. Monica.  We usually would stop by to say hi to Pa on our way to Alto and the girls always ended up playing ball, or in a paper box, or drawing a picture with Ms. Monica.  She is a very sweet lady. 

The people at work gave Dad this really awesome cedar rocker.  The kids thought it was just perfect for them!

Dad really enjoyed getting to see all the people that came to congratulate him. 

Pa with his pumpkins...all smiles.

 

All these folks worked with Dad for a long time.  I know lots of names, but I can't really put them to the right face.  :)  Funny how that is.  They all knew my name, the names of my kids and all sorts of things about me.  That was pretty cool, because it just showed how proud Dad was of all of us too!

 

Happy Retirement Dad! 

Or at least happy retirement from one of your jobs...I am looking forward to getting to work with you lots more at TeraGanix now!  :)

Can't Ride a Bike Without...

A Helmet!  And so it was decided that after naps last Tuesday that we all must go to Walmart to get helmets.  Actually, it was my own fault because I had told Logan to quit riding down the driveway on his plasma car because he was freaking me out.  I told him he could only do that with a helmet.  And so the seed was planted. 

We loaded up and made sure Aunt Chelle and Keith could meet us at Walmart for the adventure and off we went.  Logan found his helmet right off - Spiderman!  Ava got Dora and Carli got the brightest pink helmet I had ever seen.  We all tried to talk her into something a bit calmer but we failed.  We all wandered if she in fact was my daughter.  ha!

Logan had martial arts, so after our shopping adventure, he and Aunt Chelle had to go.  We came home and after dinner went out for a ride/walk/push with our new helmets.

Little Miss Ava with her Dora helmet



Carli with her helmet and new bike.



Ava wanted to ride the bike!

Keith does good to try to show Carli what to do - she took advantage and let him push her!

 

Finally, Ava got a turn on the bike, check out that grin!

 

Ava pushing Carli in Ava's tricycle...can  you say big sister taking advantage?!