A Busy Family Weekend

This weekend has been super busy, but we've been able to enjoy lots of family time too!  On Saturday we started the fun by letting the kids play at a newly opened park in town.  We packed a picnic lunch, but it was super hot so we ended up leaving to run a few errands and then coming back to have our picnic.  The kids had a blast and enjoyed seeing lots of other families that we knew (4 all together).  After finally getting home and giving baths, the kids went right to sleep and we had to wake them up at 5:45pm!

After church on Sunday we decided to go to Carowinds.  It was a perfect day with a light breeze, some shade, and really short lines.  We stayed a little over 3 hours and our kids were exhausted!  They were asleep after about 5 minutes in the car. 

Today we have enjoyed another fun family day.  We started our morning super early with going on a family run at the Greenway.  After running several miles we let the kids play at the park and then headed home for some outside time, where they were able to get out their ride on toys and play in the cul de sac.  We then enjoyed going to visit with my friend Scarlet and seeing her newly adopted baby.   After coming home and having lunch, they again took awesome naps. 

To wrap up our weekend, when brushing her teeth tonight, Savannah knocked out her super loose front tooth!  I can't believe my baby girl lost her big front tooth already.  It's soooo sad!!!!

We have all really enjoyed having daddy home for three days in a row, but I guess it's back to the grind tomorrow.  :(  With only 9 more days of school to go we're gearing up for summer and also for the big birthday surprise!!!

Our Week In Review . . .

I have been trying all week to post about our weekend, but am just now making time to post so I'm going to do a week in review.  The fun started last week on Tuesday when Preston came home early from WEE school.  He was perfectly fine when I took him to school and by mid morning his teacher called me and said that he was laying on the floor in centers but didn't feel warm.  By the time I finished at Savannah's school and drove to pick him up he was asleep in his teacher's arms and had started running a fever.  He was super tired, complaining of a headache, and very irritable.  As it turns out a kid in his class passed along hand, foot, and mouth disease.  Fun times!  By Wednesday afternoon Preston's fever was gone and the doctor confirmed that it wasn't strep, rather a strand of hand, foot, and mouth.  So we let him rest another day and by Friday last week he was more than ready to go back to school! 

However, then Savannah's teacher called me and said that she was complaining of a sore throat.  Knowing she had perfect attendance I really didn't want to pick her up since she didn't have a fever according to the nurse, but I knew I needed to so I went and brought her home.  She kept insisting that she wasnt' sick, but her teacher really could tell she wasn't feeling well.  She did seem to perk up and so, like a crazy mama, I took her back to school so she could be counted present for the day.  She never ran a fever and kept saying that her throat only hurt a little so we decided to continue with our plans to go to Burlington for the weekend. 

We had a great time at a huge family gathering on Saturday night and then enjoyed time with Grandma on Sunday.  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins! 

Picture with PawPaw

Poor Taylor was victim of Preston's bear hug!

My silly kids

It took Savannah probably until Wednesday of this week to be back to 100%, but thankfully, neither kid ever got the bad blisters that normally come with hand, foot, and mouth.  They just had sore throats and only Preston even had a fever.  I attribute that to Juice Plus for sure!

So then this week Preston wrapped up WEE school. :(  They celebrated summer birthdays on Thursday.

Here  is Preston wearing the long awaited "birday hat" that he colored

And then today we said goodbye to some of the best teachers ever!

Sweet Miss Amy

Sweet Miss Fran

This has surely been a busy week with parties, school functions, trying to get teacher gifts ready, and then the regular house stuff too.  I'm looking forward to a long weekend with Daddy home!!!

Preston Reaches New Heights

I realized last week that Preston is finally tall enough to turn the lights on and off!  I clearly remember being so excited when Savannah met this "milestone" so to see my little one finally reach this new height was quite exciting!  Now he can help out in turning his own lights on and off too.  The funny thing is that he isn't quite tall enough to reach the top of the switch when it's up (in the on position) to turn it off . . . so in his normal problem solving ways, he has devised a way to use the pad of his pointer finger to pull down on the flat part of the switch that is exposed in order to wiggle it down.

Awesome Freebies!!

What excitement when I opened my package from FedEx this afternoon!!  We received a free box of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal and 5 free box coupons to try more varieties of one of our favorite cereals.  Gotta love being a Purex insider . . . they even delivered a card with a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate for Mother's Day last week.  What an awesome company to be a part of!! :)

Kindergarten Field Day!!

One of the many advantages of being a stay at home mom is being able to help with so many school events.  Today was no exception as I was able to help with Savannah's field day.  The weather could not have been more perfect as the buses arrived with all of the kindergartners.  They ordered out Papa John's for lunch and had an awesome day playing at the Hemby Center.  Things sure have changed a lot since I was in elementary school because our field day was on the playground at school . . . these days you have to pay and are bused to a YMCA facility. 

Lemonade & Answered Prayers

 Our first customer (and only paying customer) Katie

For weeks, okay really months, now Savannah has been begging to have a lemonade stand.  Honestly, I have just been lazy about getting it all together and dreading the mess, but this week I finally gave in.  Now, also this week, I was challenged by my friend Jill to be willing to let our kids make a difference in even the little ways.  She shared via e-mail about letting her kids do a lemonade stand where they put Bible verses on the cups.  Not only was it a good way to share God's love with people, but they also raised over $160 that they used to make birthday boxes for a homeless group here in Charlotte.  WOW!  Along with that she challenged us to start making a difference in our neighborhood.  I have to say that I have lived in this house almost 8 years and have never once taken/invited anyone to church with us.  So, I decided to really start praying about how I might make a difference in our neighborhood.

Sometimes we have to wait years for God to answer prayer, but not this time for us!

The kids taking a break with their lemonade

It started at the beginning of the week with the begging again so I finally gave in and said that we would do the stand this week. However, I told Savannah that we needed to prepare first.  So, on Monday she diligently sat down with a sharpie and wrote invitations to FamJam, the Wednesday night worship for kids at our church, on each plastic cup.  Tuesday was a nutty day so I escaped the lemonade stand fuss, but yesterday was finally the day!  Now I could totally feel Satan pulling us away because suddenly Preston became very weepy and sick with stomach pains, but we pressed on and made it happen!  After setting up the stand, I explained to Savannah that we needed to say the lemonade was free and we would ask for donations.  We did get one paying customer, but really it was just a way for all of the girls on the street to have a party. :)  Slowly the kids came and I about fell over when the girl from way down the street showed up with an "Ice Cold Lemonade" sign and she didnt' even know we were having the stand!  Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, our stand had to be short lived because it was quickly approaching time for church.  I told Savannah this and she immediately invited the entire group to FamJam at church!  But in usual Savannah fashion, she not only invited them to church, she invited them to dinner.

Isn't this what I've prayed for?  But how in the world am I going to feed 4 kids, get my kids and myself changed, and get everyone loaded in the car and to church in 10 minutes?!?  It all worked out and the kids had a blast at church (and at the lemonade stand).  I just pray that some seeds were planted in their little minds and hearts.

I realized a couple of things last night.  First of all, that sometimes God not only has a sense of humor, but quickly answers our prayers in ways we don't even see coming.  Secondly, I realized that my daughter is just like my mom!  She is so giving and loving, and would do anything to have kids at our house (and dinner table) all of the time.  And lastly, I realized that sometimes Satan will use anything he can to keep us away from the plan God has, but we have to press forward and keep our eyes on Him! (Preston slept all night and hasn't been the slightest bit sick since.)

Keys

Yesterday morning I was trying hard to get my computer work done while Preston was doing a great job playing by himself.  I happened to look over when I heard him come into the office on his car and noticed something a little odd.  Apparently he knows that you need keys to drive a car so he went and got my keys from my purse to use in his car!  When I tried to take them out he cried, "NO, mama.  I have to have keys to drive my car."  I'm not sure what it is about keys, but if he sees a lock he instantly wants to try my keys in the hole . . . everywhere we go!