End of the Year Celebration!

Jaden goes to the largest elementary school in our district. Because of the number of students, they do not do a school carnival. Instead, they have an end of the year celebration! There are lots of blow-up slides, obstacle courses, and bouncy houses for the kids. They even had a local radio station show up to provide music and food! Lincoln Elementary has a huge grassy lot, so there was plenty of room for kids to run!

First, Jaden braved the Titanic slide. She had to crawl up the middle (see where it says "First Class" there by the guy in green?) and then choose a side to slide down.  It is a super tall slide! Taylor decided to keep place in line for the bouncy house instead :-)

My kids LOVE bouncy houses! They could probably spend an entire day in one if given the chance... wait, they have :-)  I'll get to that post another day!

This bounce house had a slide exit. Pretty cool! Taylor has an interesting way of going down these slides...

 

While waiting in the long lines, Taylor found a friend!!

She LOVES these little potato bugs! (but will scream if she sees a fly or gnat)

While Taylor bounced in the bounce house, J held place in line for the obstacle course.

After the obstacle course, Taylor decided she was brave enough for the Titanic slide...

Everyone in line chuckled at the major wedgie she had after this one :-)

We got out of there JUST IN TIME. That pretty rainbow broke into a downpour right as we were pulling into our garage.

It was a super fun evening! So thankful for such an awesome school... Thanks Lincoln!!

I'm participating in the Nester's 31 Day Challenge!

An Apple A Day...

When we moved into our house last summer, we inherited an apple tree. I wasn't very excited about it because growing up, I remember walking down the alley to my best friend's house. There were always those soft, green, apple-like things all over the alley. I don't know if it was the apples or the caged German Shepherd, but that alley smelled awful!  To this day, I pair that smell with those apples (or whatever they were).  So, when we learned of our apple tree, I just knew we'd have that smell in our backyard... yay.

The apple tree became a nuisance.  Mike would have to pick up the fallen apples before he mowed each time.  Although it didn't reek like I had expected, it was still a pain compared to the rest of the trees in our yard.

Dad came over a month or so ago and grabbed a couple of apples off of the tree. He was going to eat them! What?!  I never even considered eating the apples!  I don't know why the thought never crossed my mind. Maybe it was still the stinky apples that I remembered growing up. I know that those (if they even were apples) were not to be eaten.  I was surprised that Dad wanted to eat them.  I told him he could take as many as he wanted... What was I going to do with them??  In the meantime, I continued to buy apples every week at the store.  Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous this sounds.

Last night, I was out back grilling our dinner and I noticed how many apples were on the tree. It amazed me!  Wow! I actually have apples on my apple tree!

I gave the girls a bag and told them to get picking!  We were going to be set for LIFE!

Although small, these apples looked great!

 

I washed and cut one for Taylor and I to try. It was delicious! A little tart, but very good!  I will not be buying apples from the store this weekend, that's for sure.

We have enough to feed an army! Come on over and fill a bag!  I'm excited to eat fresh apples all fall :-)

Snow Day!

I just realized that I am SO behind on posting.

This has been a pretty mild winter.  We've had cold but not SUPER cold temps.  It will snow really good one day and then be in the upper 40s with rain the next.  The snow will come and then completely disappear before it snows again.  We've had hardly any of that nasty gray slush on the streets and sidewalks.

One day last month, it snowed pretty good.  The girls and I decided to head out and have us some FUN!

Jaden's lanky body is the perfect snow angel maker!  Until she tries to get up :o)  Then it just looks like a snow angel crash landed.

We tried making snow balls.  When I say "we," I obviously mean "they."  I don't have waterproof gloves!  Plus, I'm on camera duty :o)

Taylor's version of a snow angel... It just didn't work :o)  She's fallen and she can't get up!

Jaden's friends told her it was ok to eat the snow.  Well, my picky child was a little hesitant.  

"It's snowing!!"

Then, of course, there is the swing set!  What kid can resist a snow covered swing set?!?

Taylor had a hard time walking through the snow.  It was so deep and her snow pants were SO puffy!  Jaden crawled to make a path for her :o)

Then, we sledded down our front yard!

Pictures ended here because it was my job to drag these beasts back UP the hill after they sledded down it. Talk about tiring!  We still haven't gotten our snowman family built... I really need some better gloves!  But, it's only February and I live in Indiana.  Odds are we will be building snowmen on Easter!

Happy Thursday :o)  Stay warm!

What's Nifty About Today??

Maybe it's the fact that it is Friday the 13th?  Nope. 

Maybe it is because I was right about Idol and Mike was wrong?  Nope. 

Maybe it is because the temps are above normal and it is SO nice out?  Wrong again!

Although all of the above are true.

Did you notice that I am sporting the BLACK today?

You want to know why?

It's because today

MY MOM TURNED 50!!!

But, even though it's my mom's birthday we are celebrating, it is the girls that are benefiting!  When Dad asked Mom what she wanted for her birthday this year, she decided that she didn't need anything for herself.  Instead, she asked for a.......

SWING SET!!!

She and Dad bought the girls a swing  for our back yard!  They LOVE it.  I think Gramma J's birthday has bumped ahead of Easter on their list of favorite days of the year!

It is positioned perfectly in our yard so I can see it from the kitchen.  I know that Jaden and Taylor will be begging to go out and play on it every day!

Finally, J has a slide that she can sit at the top of and NOT have her feet touch the bottom :o)

Have I mentioned how much they love it?

Yeah, that's love!

Even Taylor can brave the BIG slide!

Thanks, Gramma J!! 

Happy Birthday!  Looking forward to a fun weekend of celebrating!

So, yeah... It wasn't all rainbows and butterflies though.  We were all hanging around, playing with the girls on the swing set.  Jaden was playing with Mike on the slide and he was pulling her up it when all of a sudden, she started screaming bloody murder.  Seriously, if you had been within a 10 mile radius of my house last night, you would have heard her screaming.  She was holding her wrist and saying that Daddy hurt her arm.  We looked at her wrist and it wasn't swollen or bruised.  We iced it and she could move it so we figured she must have bruised or twisted it.  She cried and cried and cried.  We also figured that only having a 15-minute nap that afternoon was adding to the drama of her twisted wrist.  We carefully tucked her into bed and checked on her often.  She fell asleep, only to wake up at 11:00 in pain.  Oh, and keep in mind that she was still wearing the blue fishy dress because she wouldn't let us touch her arm to help her out of her clothes, into the bath, and into bed.  We avoided a fight by letting her sleep in her new dress.  Anyway, she woke up crying so I decided to take her to the ER.  I carefully got her out of the dress and into a T-shirt and shorts.  When I was trying to get her into the car, I realized that it was most likely her shoulder or elbow that was hurting because she screamed when I tried to pick her up to get her into the car.  Sure enough, we get to the ER and find out that her elbow was partially dislocated -- Nursemaid's Elbow is what they called it.  The doctor rotated it back in and Jaden stretched and bent her arm and said, "It's almost as good as new!"  I felt SO HORRIBLE that we didn't take her in when it happened but like I said, she was complaining about her wrist... She is  fine now and is feeling MUCH better!  I'm just happy that she doesn't have to spend the summer in a cast!  The moral e story is: DO NOT EVER lift or pull a child (especially under the age of six years) by his or her arms/wrists/hands.  They dislocate very easily!

Have a great weekend!  Stop by and play on our swings :o)