Silent Protester

We got our family pics taken by my Uncle on Saturday.  It was a big ordeal getting all the clothes to match and then getting all our men to participate.  (actually, they were very good about it, we just knew they had other things they would rather be doing.) 

So, about two minutes before we walked across the street to our destination, Ava was in at my Uncles table and reached out to touch a cactus.  I later realized it was her middle finger that had been prickled but I didn't realize it then.  She was so upset and bugged by the pain in this finger.  So now here we have the photo shoot.  take notice of the silent protester.  The men may have verbally protested but just you notice the silent one. 

Yup, that is pretty much what we found on most pics from our photo shoot.  It had to be the middle finger, right?  Anyway, thanks to my intelligent brother, he can photo shop that pretty easily but my father thinks we should keep the original.  :)

When we got back to my aunt's house, she walked straight into the table in the kitchen where the sat the cactus.  She crossed her arms and said, "Why would anyone bring a prickly bush into there house for someone to hurt their finger on.  That is stupid!!!"

:)

Letter B Week

Again, I am doing this for my own records, but I have to blog about what we did for letter B.  It was a fun week.  Our verse was "Blessed are they who dwell in your house, for they are ever praising you." Psalm 84:4.  Ava did actually learn this verse and she loves it.  She sometimes mixes it up with Letter A week verse and it come out something like this. . . Blessed are they that dwell in your house, oh, my soul pants for you Oh God.  Kind of funny, but then she usually realizes and corrects herself. :) 

We had a lot of fun with B week.  Some of the activities we did was coloring butterflies, making Blue Bobby Buddy B Bag, and then we walked around and found things that start with B and placed them in the Bag.  The kids loved this one. 

This allowed them to use scissors and glue though they did need some assistance.

We worked on the normal things like writing the letter B and singing the Letter B song.  Then we learned a new song call the "Bumble Bee Song" and the kids loved it.  We sang that a couple times a day and it carried over into C week. :) We also made a list of anything we could think of that started with B.   

Some of the foods we focused on were Bite Size Bagels for Breakfast or Blueberry Pop tarts.  One morning we got up and made Blueberry Muffins for Breakfast and of course that was a hit.  One day we Baked Cookies for a Bake sale and talked about how important it is to Bless others.

We had to pick out a person who's name started with B and take them a Blessing.  Ava was excited cause she realized Erin Berry's name started with B, so we took her some Blueberry Bite muffins and I already blogged about that earlier. :)

Making Blueberry Bites for Erin Berry.

The Best part of B week is the other people who are doing this Curriculum with us.  Michelle and Angel brought over their chillins to hang out and celebrate B week.  We did a ton of fun things.  We started with Decorating Bear gingerbread cookies and they loved it.  Then we had Bagel Bite Pizzas, Broccoli, and Brownies for lunch.  We read the B Book and a few others.  Then we had an exercise time with exercises like the Butterfly, Bridge and so on.  Fun to be creative with that one.  We learned a new song called the B-I-B-L-E sang to the Bingo song tune. 

Helping little man with his Bear Cookies.

Look at Beans finished Bear.

The entire group of kids learning about B.  Camille even had on her Blue Bubble Skirt.

Ava, Olivia and Con man.  They were not so interested in B, but when M week comes they will have it down pat cause they love their MOMMYs.  :)  They are adorable.

Michelle and Camille working on their Bears.

Angel and Lilly have fun painting her Bears.  :)

Over all, B week was a BLAST.  I love this curriculum and I think it gives me some insight on how well Ava will actually do if we decide to do home school.  Who knows. 

Oh, P.S. We did end B week with a new Birthday Bike for Bean and then followed by a week at the Beach.  :) 

Home from Business

So, Micah was away for three days on business.  I knew the kids missed him so much.  Ava kept asking me when he was coming back.  She was telling everyone he was away for 10 weeks!!! Her sense of time is not so great.  :)
He got home last night at 12:30 and the kids were thankfully sound asleep.  SO, this morning, he woke up and ran over to say hi to Christian.  I was in bed and this is what I heard. . ."I Miss you Daddy!!! You go jogging again?"  He thought daddy was jogging for three days.  I guess his sense of time is a little off too.

More of our Beach Trip 2010

When we got to the condo, Ava started in right away, about wanting to go to the Ocean.  She was so excited she couldn't contain herself.  Finally, my dad told her he would walk her down to the water while we finished unpacking and then we could meet them on the boardwalk.  This was a great idea in her eyes.  She smiled and in a very excited voice said, "come on Paps, we got to go."  He said that on the way, she was telling him she knew how to get there and he could just follow her.  When they got to the water, she was squealing and screaming, like she does lots of, and she wanted to run into the waves.  My dad told her she was not to get wet, he didn't want her daddy to get mad.  She was still in her clothes.  She smiled and said to Pappy, "My daddy won't get mad, he is a nice daddy."

Dad bought a pair of sandals and the first time he put them on, three out of four of the tabs broke off.  They did end up making it through the week, but we laughed pretty hard as he was putting them on.

The first day on the beach, we got all settled and then we built little man a huge 'mountain' with a moat around it.  He loved it.  We started referring to him as our little "sandy" because he loved the sand so much.  He would sit down and just pile sand on his hair and pack it down, on his legs and arms and then he would pack sand behind his ears and in his ears and on his chest.  He loved to be covered in sand.  At one point, about three other little boys joined Christian at his mountain of sand and they played for a long time.  They didn't really communicate but they were having a blast.  He was so happy to have friends to hang out with.  It was funny though because they were typical boys, just living life in silence, quietly enjoying one another.  Woman do not usually know how to do this. :)

We took pancakes that were left over from the morning breakfast out and fed the sea gulls.  The kids loved this.  They had tried it one day earlier in the week and the sea gulls were all eating as they usually do.  WE made the kids stop feeding them, so they wouldn't poop on the people around us and the kids were not happy with us.  Ava and Christian and Titus were explaining to us that the birds needed them to feed them cause they were hungry.  Sure enough, when we took pancakes later on to the beach, the birds swarmed around and the kids had so much fun feeding the birds.  I was singing the "feed the birds song" from Mary Poppins movie. :)  Ava said she would stay and feed them through the winter months when she heard that they sometimes starve to death in the winter due to the lack of food supply they were used to in the summer.  This really concerned her.  Daddy told her they really just flew south.

One of the days, while on the beach, a few ladies behind us were watching Christian.  They came up to us after awhile and asked if they could take their pictures with him.  We said that they could and before we knew it, there were six young teenagers around him, posing and smiling and taking pics with him.  He acted kind of shy, but I think he really loved it.  They were having him pose and show his muscles and smile.  He liked the attention, though I am not sure he knew exactly what to do. 

On Wednesday, the storms came in and it rained most of the day and it was cold.  We didn't get to go to the beach that day but the storms really brought up some sea shells.  Ava realized that we could have all these sea shells and started picking up the broken pieces of the shells for her Grandma Bumbaugh.  She spent forever that afternoon picking them up, so the next morning , Pappy and I promised to get her up early and take her out to hunt sea shells.  She was in amazement at all the "perfect ones" on the beach.  Before long her bucket was so full and she was trying to convince me to go back and get her another bucket.  She was so slow and we were trying to get her to walk faster and only pick up the special ones but she wanted to pick up all of them.  At one point she told me, "mommy, I am trying so hard to hurry for you and pappy, but I can't stop looking at these sea shells."  another time she said, "mommy, you are a great sea shell finder.  Am I?"  This is actually how she got her Pappy given name of "sea shell."  :)  She would have searched for hours if we would have allowed it. One last Ava quote - "Mama, I just can't believe all these sea shells!! They are so Perfect!!"

Christian kept calling the ocean the big pool.  He didn't really want to get in, he just wanted to run down to the waters edge and then run away as the wave was crashing in.  He was so sweet as he watched in amazement at the waves.  He found a friend in a woman sitting on a blanket near ours.  He went and sat beside her and she helped burry him in the sand.  He sat and talked to her for about 20 minutes.  He is such a people person.  He knows no strangers. 

Many more beach moments to come. . . .

Boardwalk Fun and Activities at Ocean City MD - 2010

We hit the boardwalk every night.  We come out on Talbot Street and we always started the night with Korh Brother's Ice Cream Cones.  Our family favorite was chocolate peanut butter twist.   Mom loved the Strawberry-Banana Twist. 

MMMM - Ice Cream . . .this became Ava's first question everyday when she woke up. . "Are we going to get ice cream tonight?"

My 2 Favorite MEN

And this is my tribute to the awesomest ice cream ever!!

The boardwalk always is so interesting and different every night. The kids got balloon animals, hats and swords.  They also got to see many different characters including Dora, Sponge bob, the Easter Bunny (don't ask), Spiderman, Superman, Minnie Mouse, Statues and puppets. 

The kids loved seeing the characters.  I happened to have my camera when they saw the Cookie Monster.  Christian was so excited.  He loves to blow kisses to the characters. The funniest thing was when he walked by Spider man and turned around, smiled and blew him a kiss.  I started laughing and explained to Christian that it is one thing to blow kisses to Minnie Mouse, cause that is what she does to all the kids, but Spider man would prefer a high five.  Not sure he got it but I had to laugh.  :) It actually was kind of cute.

There was a gold painted statue that was so life like. You actually wondered if he was a real person and then he would bend over and hand the kids lollipops when they tipped him.  He stood as a tribute for all those who have served.  IT was pretty cool. There was a girl painted in silver too and she was pretty cool.  The kids were very confused and then surprised by these two characters.

All over the boardwalk, they were selling these toys called clapper balls or something like that.  My mom had these when she was a girl and I knew she could do it.  People were stopping and looking and asking her how to do them, and I think the store would have hired her to stand there and do that all night.  She was impressive with her talent. I had, the night before, tried to impress Micah with my talents but failed miserably.  :)  She succeeded in impressing him. :)

We even had Troy and Carrie trying them.

And then, Of Course, the kids had to have a go at it.  They were funny.  Notice they picked the color they then wanted to purchase.  We didn't buy them for the kids though.  Definitely be a weapon issue some day.

The boys waiting for mommy to get her DDs coffee off the boardwalk.  We walked 9 streets for this coffee. :)  My family loves me.

Our three little monkeys, hanging out on the BOARDWALK.

The kids had so much fun seeing all of the entertainment.  :)

One of my favorite part of the boardwalk was the night we stopped to see this guy make some puppets sing and dance and play instruments.  They asked for a volunteer and my kids raised their hands.  He called them up and gave them guitars and told them to rock out with the puppet.  Christian was in his element.  He was standing there, the exact same height as the puppet and he was dancing and rocking away.  Ava was up there too, but she was old enough to be slightly nervous knowing all eyes were on her.  HE had no clue.  He was just having a blast. At the end, the guy thanked them and gave Ava a rose for helping and handed Christian a dollar.  :) I was so proud of little man. 

Hanging out on the boardwalk.  Fun group.

Spending time with the love of my life.  The Boardwalk was the first place Micah told me he loved me.  It will always carry great memories for us.  Love you Schmookums.

First Day of our Beach Vacation 2010

What a day.  We got up and packed Suki and we were on our way.  The drive down was a bit overwhelming for me, since we had to strap our beach chairs and umbrella to the roof and I kept hearing the wind hitting them. I was certain we were going to lose the items and cause a huge wreck.  God kept us safe though and Micah had to reassure me like 20 times in four hour period.  :)

Our trip down was cramped, being the four of us and then mom and dad too.  We had fun though and at one point we decided to play the "quiet game" with the kids.  Really us adults just needed some silence.  So we were all being quiet except, Christian.  We were just outside Ocean City and there were all sort of shops and mini golf places and exciting things to see.  Christian didn't realize we were all being quiet and he was talking non stop saying, "look at that, race car, fast, right? . . .look, crab, eat me, right?. . . ooooh boy . . ..monkey . . . .big crab. . . " and so on and so forth.  We were all trying so hard not to laugh and finally, after literally three minutes of constant talking like this, he realized that he was the ONLY one talking.  Then he started saying, "SHHHH!!!" over and over again, even though none of us were talking.  :)  He gave us all quite a laugh.

When we arrived at the condo, we did our normal routine of carrying all luggage up two flights of stairs and then we started to unpack.  We ate dinner at the famous, "Dough Rollers" and then off for our Korh Brother's Ice Cream.  It was a ton of fun that first day.  There is no other feeling of anticipation than that day before vacation really gets started.  :)

Eating at the Dough Rollers.  The kids were so excited to be going out on the boardwalk later.

Getting our first Ice Cream Cones for the week.

More Ice Cream Cones.  NOT sure why Ava looks as though she is licking Nana.

Mom made two beautiful cakes for the trip as per Troy's request.  He loves her cakes and that was her payment for coming along. ;)  These two cakes were gone by the end of the week. This was awesome how she made a beach and waves though.  We were very impressed and they were delicious as always. 

Falling asleep on the first night.  Carrie and I got back from Wal-Mart and found these two sleeping on the couch.  Already pooped before vacation really even got started. :)

The last highlight of our first night.  . .at 2:00 a.m. Dad came and woke me up and said the fire alarm for the building was going off.  I got up and sure enough, it was sounding loud and clear. I ran up and woke Carrie and she and dad went downstairs to find out what in the heck was going on. People were getting their kids and evacuating to the downstairs and we were not sure what to do.  No sign of smoke or fire and the sprinkler system in the room was not going off yet.  Micah quickly packed a bag of stuff we needed and got the living room and kitchen ready for easy evacuation.  Mom, Ava, Christian, Troy and Titus slept through it all.  We finally found out that some boys were hanging on the downstairs sprinkler pipes and one broke.  Water was everywhere and the cops had already arrived.  They told us all was fine and we were to go back to bed.  Later mom was saying how scary that was and we were laughing at her cause she never even got out of bed.  She said, "I figured I had enough obsessive compulsive people around me that loved me, I would be safe.  They wouldn't let anything happen to me and i was tired."  hahaha. Love her.  It was a great way to start our week of relaxing vacation.  :)

Serving with Letter "B"

For Letter "B" week we were thinking of people we knew who had a name that started with "B."  It is Ava realized that Erin Berry started with "B" so we decided to take her some Blueberry Muffin Bites.  The kids had fun making, or should I say, eating the Blueberry muffins.  :)  Here are a few pics of the kiddos trying to put the blueberry batter in the muffin pans. 

He definitely got more on his hands than in the pan, but he had fun just the same.

She actually did pretty good, but I had to stay on top of her to NOT lick the spoon or her fingers.  I promised them that when we were done, they could clean out the bowl of batter.

And now they are finishing the rest and eating the batter.  They cleaned that bowl really very well.  Then it was time to go and see our Berry good Friend.

Here we are giving our blueberry muffin Bites to our Beautiful Bachelor Watching Buddy Erin Berry.  Christian picked out the same outfit to wear that he wore last time Erin came to visit.  It is his dress to impress outfit.  :)  His camo pants and brown race car shirt.  He wanted to wear cologne too.  So funny.  Then we said a prayer for Erin Berry and that was our service for B.

Birthday Bike for B week!!!

Ava has been talking about wanting a princess bike that she saw at Wally World since this past March.  We told her she would maybe get one for her birthday and we fully intended on getting it for her earlier so she could have longer to ride it.  She has a September Birthday and who wants a new bike they can't use during the favorite biking months of the summer.  So, we went back in April and they were out.  You couldn't even order it online anymore.  We tried all summer but couldn't get one.

I should also tell you that this week is "B" week in our preschool Curriculum.  We have been having a great week and learning lots.  Anyway, so we went as a family to Wal-Mart the other night.  Daddy happened to check back in the bike section to see if they had gotten any in.  THEY HAD!! We were almost as excited as the Bean.  We told her maybe she would get one for her birthday and she was so sad.  She wanted one NOW.  I took her and we went to the grocery section.  Daddy and Christian snuck the bike out and bought it and hid it in our car.  She was so sad the entire Wal-Mart trip, saying how badly she wanted the bike.  I told her she needed to talk to Jesus about it, cause that is what we do when we want something really bad.
On the way home, I heard her say, "Jesus, I really really want that bike, Thanks!!"

Daddy and I hid the bike down under our deck.  We told the kids to start at the top of the house and race around back.  They were running toward us and we were standing on the other side of the bike.  Ava ran to us and on her way, looked over at the bike, but never registered.  Then she whirled back around and was so excited.  There it was, her BIKE.  She had a grin that wouldn't stop.  She later called her grandmother and told her, "I asked Jesus and he helped daddy to get me my bike!!!"  She understands that it is her Birthday gift, a little early.  She loves it though. 

Still Grinning, thanking her Jesus for her Birthday Bike!!

A little bit nervous but knowing Daddy has her back / bike. Notice the Back back for snacks on the front along with the little drink mug.  She was so excited about those two things.  "so, when I get hot, I take this out and drink it like this. . . and then I put it back" as she demonstrated this for me.  :)

What a great way to end "B" week with a Birthday Bike for Bean!!

Cowan's Gap with My Bumbaughs

We headed up to the Gap with family today.  The kids love this place, of course.  We went with Lori and her kids and Fawn with Isaac.  Ava loves her older cousins and her aunts.  She refers to anyone in Micah's family as "My Bumbaughs".  My kids love  hanging out with their cousins.  This has to do of course, with the fact that our nieces and nephews take time with them and love on them. 

 My children actually believe that they are part of the older crowd. Have you ever seen that tiny toy poodle running beside a Great Dane and though it looks odd to all of us, you can see the little dog has no idea it is running with the big dog.  In fact, you may even at times see this small dog yipping and barking at the big dog, completely unaware the big dog could eat it alive.  Well, this is a great word picture for you to see how my kids are with their cousins.  They not only love the attention, but they expect it.  They almost think their cousins are there for their sole entertainment.  It is scary, but comical.  I sometimes see them grabbing an older cousins hand to lead them where they want to go or even barking orders at them.  My nieces and nephews are all so very sweet and awesome that they take and it make my kids feel so special.  It makes me so happy to see some of my favorite people in the world loving on my kids.  The same goes for the rest of our family.  Family is awesome.

So we went to the Gap and the kids played and practiced swimming.  Christian was looking for fish with Renee and Garrett and Isaac.  Ava was jumping like a dolphin with Kelsey and Brooke.  

 

Kelsey and Christian eating and posing for a picture.

Gorgeous Niece of mine. . .Love her.

Two of my beautiful sister in laws.

Renee and Kelsey. . . sisters and best friends.

Garrett and Christian playing in the small water hole. 

Hi Isaac!!  Eating his chicken strips. . . real food as he referred to it.

Garrett and his French Fries.

We did have fun and on the way home, Ava told me I should call her Bumbaughs and tell them we are going there again tomorrow and swimming and eating.  :)  Isn't she funny?  It was fun though.  As close as we are going to get this year of going to the beach together. :)