a "typical" Sunday for us

 Sundays are fulfilling, tiring days for our family. Here's what one is typically like:

• 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. - My alarm goes off, and I finally get up and get myself ready
  
  
• 7:00 a.m. - I get my music together and practice a little, which usually wakes the kids up. One of us forces Jeremy out of bed so he can get ready.
  
  
• 7:30 - I start panicking that we will be late and nagging at Jeremy to hurry up.
  
  
• 7:40 - We throw ourselves into the car and speed off to church.
  
  
• 8:00 - I go to rehearsal for the first service. Jeremy and kids may run through McDonald's or Krispy Kreme drive-through and come back to church. J watches kids, feeds them their cereal and milk, maybe dresses one or more of them too--depending on how late they slept.
  
  
• 9:00 - First service starts. Caeden goes to the nursery. Sylvia goes to preschool class. Annah goes to the pre-K class. Jeremy usually has to leave the service after the worship set to get things set up for elementary kids' church program during second service. I don't think he's heard a sermon in months.
  
  
• 10:00-ish - First service ends. I usually have practice again for second service, so we scramble to figure out who can watch the kids. Sometimes the girls come with me and sit in the front row of the sanctuary to watch the practice. Most of the time, Jeremy wrangles with all the kids plus some extra ones. Once in a while, if I'm not playing/singing for second service, I am able to help w/ the kids.

10:45 - Second service starts. Caeden goes to the nursery. Sylvia goes to preschool class. Annah goes with Jeremy to kids' service. Jeremy is currently one of the leaders for the elementary kids' program. This summer they are doing a church camp theme. They run about 50+ kids and maybe 8 adult leaders. Usually I am playing piano/keyboard/organ or singing, but today I was in the nursery for a bit and the preschool class for a bit.

•  noon-ish - Second service wraps up, and we try to pick up our kids from their classes as quickly as we can. We usually make it to the car with all 5 of us between 12:30 and 1:00. Today it was 1:00.
  
  
• 1:00 - We either run through a drive-through and pick up food or head home. Today, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up milk, TP, and other stuff we were almost out of.
   
• 1:30 p.m. - We get home. Today it was 2:00. I started making lunch, and we ate at about 2:30.
   
• 3:00 p.m. - Naptime for everyone!!!
   
• 5:00 - Jeremy tries to rouse me from my half-coma state.
   
• 6:00 - We scrounge up something to eat. I rarely make dinner on Sunday nights. Usually we have popcorn and watch a movie. Tonight we had pancakes because we did popcorn and a movie last night.

• 7:30 or 8:00 - We start getting the kids ready for bed...brush teeth, go potty/change diaper, get "ni-night waters," march upstairs, put on jammies, read a book or story, say prayers (The girls like to do the "squeeze hand prayer" where we each say part and pass turns around by squeezing hands.), tuck in, hugs and kisses, lights out.

• 9:00 p.m. - One of us has to go upstairs to tell the girls to settle down and go to sleep...

That's how our Sunday's usually go...

Back to the park!

We spent the whole day at the SF Park pool today. Wow. We sure made up for missing the sun most of the week; we are all sunburned. We had waterproof SPF 30 sunscreen on and reapplied it, but alas...we got the burn.

Ashley and Jacob spent the day with us there too, while Matt & Carlene worked on their search for a new home. We are SO sad they are moving away from us, because they are incredibly dear to our hearts. But, we're at least thankful they're only moving into town and not hours away.

Caeden was braver with getting into the pool today!

Colfax Coolness

 Today we visited a couple local establishments in the nearby town of Colfax. We went to the library! Sylvia wanted to bring home every book in the place (It's a very small library.), and Caeden...well, he's just not quite ready for the library yet. Jeremy had to take him out to the car while the girls and I checked out books. He was just a little too [loudly] excited about all the books and aisles to explore in the library!

We also went bowling! That was another first for all of the kids! They were very excited, and enjoyed it for a little while. But, they got really tired and cranky quickly. Caeden got frustrated that we wouldn't let him take the balls out of the return (for fear he would drop one on his foot, which he almost did once!), and was really mad when we took his bowling shoes off to leave, so he started screaming and throwing a fit. Then Sylvia got mad and started crying because we said we were not going to the playground (yes, as we had said we might) after we were done bowling because they were so tired. Then Annah started crying and yelling because she got a blister on her heel from the bowling shoes and actually said, "I don't EVER want to come back HERE again!" so loud that the owner of the bowling alley came over and asked her what was wrong. She brought her a band-aid and put it on her. You'd think I'd want to crawl under a rock, but we really did have a good time until they all started to meltdown!

a little crabby, but ready to bowl

watching the ball go down the lane

 "1, 2, 3!!!!"

 Caeden loved the bowling balls, and thought the shoes were really cool!

watching Daddy in action

I was trying to keep them under control while Annah bowled.

Moraine View State Park

We took the kids to the beach at Dawson Lake today, which is at Moraine View State Park, not far from our house. None of the kids had ever been to a beach before! They were thoroughly excited and thrilled to be there. It was shallow enough that they could go out quite far. Caeden had trouble keeping his balance in the water, but thought it was a fun way to jump up and down and splash when he fell. The girls and Jeremy had fun splashing each other and dumping buckets of water over each others' heads.

We used the self-timer for a family pic of our selves at the park. Hey, at least we were all looking at the camera!

picnicking close to the beach before we swam

The 3 little "chicks" following along...

They dug right into the sand, and jumped right into the water.

Children's Museum

Hmm, our second day of vacation was interesting too. We had a fun time at the Children's Discovery Museum in the morning!

While the kids were napping, Jeremy took the trim off our leaking den window so he could measure it. Well...the whole wall around it fell apart! So, we have to have someone come out and rebuild us a wall. Anyone who would like to fund that project, please contact us right away. Ha ha. Right. Anyway...

The girls are attending Bible school with friends this week too, which has been a blessing they are really enjoying.

Fun at the Children's Discovery Museum!

 playing with the water table

The drum beats out your heartbeat when you put your hands on the sensors. Caeden was enthralled!

making noodle necklaces

 TRAINS!!! Caeden was not-so happily sharing the trains with another little boy.

Daddy pretending to be a dentist

Annah pretending to be a mad dentist?

Staycation Day #1

 So our first day of vacation was kind of a dud. It rained all day. It stormed all evening. Our house leaked--as usual. We didn't get around early enough in the morning to do anything. Argh. We did make homemade ice cream in the bathtub! It's grey and rainy today too. But, we'll try to make the most of it.

There was one cool thing today... Annah had a trial violin lesson!! Since she was 2 or 3 she has been saying she wants to learn how to play the violin. So, I finally got around to finding a teacher, and Annah and I got to meet her today. Miss Ruthie was great with Annah, and in the first lesson already taught her all the parts of the violin, how to pick it up and hold it, and the note names of the strings! Annah was loving every minute of it!! Now we're just trying to figure if we can come up with the extra $100/month for her to keep going to lessons! Aaack!

Actually, I am looking into a couple ways to create some more income myself. I'm sure I'll have more info. shortly, but if you would join me in prayer for clarity of God's will in these matters, I would greatly appreciate it!

Swimmin'

We went to the pool at SF Park again yesterday, and took a picnic lunch too. We're kind of kicking ourselves for not going before now, but maybe we'll make up for it and go a lot more here on! ;)

This week we'll be vacationing here at home! There are so many fun things around here that we've never done, so we're staying at home for vacation!

Today after church we came home and played outside in our little wading pool!

4th of July!

Happy Independence Day! We spent the day hanging out at home. It rained a good portion of the day, so we didn't get to play outside, but it dried up enough for fireworks tonight!

We moved to Arrowsmith 5 years ago today! And, this is the first time we've been in Illinois since on the 4th of July. We weren't sure where to go to watch fireworks, but we chose LeRoy. We're glad we did! The display was nice and long, and we were able to park pretty close by and sit in the back of the car and watch.

Caeden thought he was scared at times, but by the end he was saying, "'A-gin?" and "More?" and "Pretty!" The neatest moment of the night was a couple minutes into the fireworks...Everyone was making their "oohs" and "ahs," and in the middle of everything Sylvia just said, "God, thank you for these fireworks."

Yes, thank you God for fireworks and freedom and family and friends. My heart is blessed today.

The kiddos and I in the back of the Aztek waiting for the fireworks to start.

Daddy & Sylvie enjoying the fireworks

 part of the finale of the LeRoy fireworks

Pretty Growing Girls

Annah felt very pretty and grown-up looking today. She was so excited it was hot out so she could wear her open-back outfit. And, Syvie was happy and super adorable in her little sundress from Travis & Erin. A momma just can't resist taking pictures! ;)

State Farm Park!

Happy 30th Birthday Marti! We love you!


We had an awesome day today! After 5 years of living here, we finally took our kids to the kiddie pool at State Farm Park!! It was SO awesome! The pool is super nice, and surprisingly it wasn't crowded today! The kids enjoyed themselves. After they were significantly wiped out, we got McDonald's, went to a picnic pavilion at S.F. Park and lunched, then let the kids play on the tot playground. We really need to do more "just for fun" family things together.


We also drove through the carwash for our church teens who were working to raise money for their "Experience Jesus" trip this week.



A few weeks ago, Caeden was sitting in his high chair eating dry cereal. Of course, he spilled it. A few minutes later, I'm in the next room and hear him picking up the cereal and singing, "Clean up! Buddy!" I realized he was singing the Barney Cleanup song, "Clean up! Cleanup! Everybody everywhere!"


Caeden is very excited about learning his colors right now. He gets ecstatic about yellow for some reason!


Last night we took a little walk around Arrowsmith. Their was a Sheriff clocking people as they came down Main Street. She got out of her car to talk to us, and asked the kids if they wanted to sit in her car. None of them did, but she turned on the lights for them and even ran the siren for a quick second. She showed them her handcuffs and explained how they worked, and I pointed out her tazer, but the kids didn't really understand what it was. She was super nice, and they kids thought it was really neat to meet her too. We walked all the way to the south side of town and went to the playground for a while. Caeden walked all the way there and back; he LOVES to walk now!!

Daddy & the kiddos chillin' in the kiddie pool at beautiful State Farm Park...

Sylvie needed a break.

Annah likes "the mushroom" fountain.

Daddy went in with her.

Whew!  So much fun, we need a little break!

Little Man & Big Daddy

There are several great playgrounds at the park too. 

We had lots of fun in the tunnel tubes!

We will definitely be coming back to the park more often! What a great day!!