Archive for the ‘Katie’ Category

If you’ve never seen Aloha Friday then here is the run down from Island Life….

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought on Fridays I would take it easy on posting too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you would like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave the link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participates! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

Now on to my question of the week:

What’s been your favorite thing you have done this summer so far?

For me it’s been having the kids in swim lessons!  Origionally we were only going to put them in one session, but ended up putting them in 2 sessions and am amazed at how well they are both doing!  The first day Kevin was doggie paddling.  Now he is learning to dive and is able to swim without a floation device.  Katie’s first class was more just getting used to the water, but now being in level two she is getting the hang of using her arms & legs (she needs to learn to use her legs more) and the other day ended up jumping off the diving board without a floation device!  She did need some help back, but she is getting there!

While looking for a Sunday Meme to do.. I ended up coming across Straight Out Of the Camera from Murrieta 365. It’s actually quite fun because it’s another picture meme where you can show off what pictures you have taken. The only thing is you can’t do any tweaking or altering, but that’s ok with me as I usually don’t do that anyways. 

I ended up getting a new camera this week and have had so much fun taking pictures with it, I hope you don’t mind that I have more than 2 picture.  

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!!

This week I thought I would post our adverture of going to the airport to watch the planes land and take off. (or in one picture a helicopter that took off) As you can tell most of the time the kids were playing tag or red light/green light.

Only my daughter would run through the neighborhood wearing Daddy’s t-shirt!

Even though we had a great day yesterday going up to Hamlin Lake for some swimming, tubing and fishing I still feel as if I won the worst mother of year award.  We arrived to Ludington around 11am, but by the time we got to the state park and got the boat in the water it was closer to noon.   I put suntan lotion on the kids as I could feel the sun burning already and thought they would be ok since it was waterproof.    Boy was I wrong!

It was around 5pm and we were heading in when I looked at Katie and noticed she already was red under her eyes and her one shoulder was red too.  I know I lathered her up, but I didn’t know how great I did by her eyes due to I always get nervous putting lotion there.    My heart started breaking so as soon as I got home I was searching on the internet how to get rid of sunburns.    I tried the apple cider vinegar and the sour cream, but neither one seemed to work as it’s still red today.  I just thank the lord that it doesn’t hurt her.   I just felt so awful taking her to school today as I felt like I said above that I won the worst mother award.  I was thinking of looking up under eye cream for dark circles hoping something like that might help hide the redness, but instead we went to school the way she was.

The thing was she wasn’t the only one that got burnt.   Both Paul and my back was beat red.  Of course mine was burnt due to no sunscreen lotion getting on it, but I caked Paul’s back in lotion so it got me thinking…. does suntan lotion expire?   So just a little while ago I googled that question and found out that it does!!  When I asked my friend the same question she said every year she buys a new bottle of lotion.  So needless to say all 3 bottles of suntan lotion went in our trash and on the way north today we will be buying some NEW stuff!

So in case you’re like us and have bottles that are 4 years old sitting in your cupboard.. you might want to look at buying some new stuff otherwise you might look like this!

Katie wanted to wear her “Belle” dress the other day (her Belle Barbie has a red winter dress… so this is her “belle” dress) and let me snap some pictures of her…  my girl of many faces!

This morning when we woke up it was raining pretty good, thundering and lighting out.  I guess the good thing when it’s doing that first thing in the morning, Kevin knows that he will be indoors for recess.  So Kevin got ready and instead of walking to the bus stop we just jumped in the car and drove a whole house down.  (Call me a wimp, but I really would rather not stand out in the pouring rain)

I then got Katie ready and took her to school, then my 2 1/2 hrs of free time arrived!!  I first went to the bank to not only get money out for garage saling, but also to get 2 golden $1 coins.  My sister gave my nephew one last month when he lost his first tooth, so Kevin was all excited to get one.   After stopping at the bank, I did a little grocery shopping, but before I did that I just had to stop at this garage sale that sounded oh so good on Craigslist, but with all the rain I wasn’t sure if it would be open or not.

I ended up finding the street it was suppose to be on and saw a different garage sale so I stopped.  If only I was into the stamping stuff.. I probably would of made a killing.  Instead I ended up getting some books for Katie and Kevin.  I was excited about the one book for Kevin as it was a level 3 book about a karate mystery!  It sounded just up Kevin’s alley.  I then left in hopes of finding the sale that sounded perfect for Katie. 

Thankfully I printed off the ad off  Craigslist otherwise I wouldn’t of known they were having one.  While they did have the outdoor furniture they had for sale outside they only had one of their garage doors open with no signs.   I was thinking it would be a bonus for me as then they weren’t going to be picked over.   Needless to say I was quite bummed that all I found was a couple shirts for Katie and that was it.   Here I did better at the sale that I got the books for the kids.

After dropping off the groceries back at home and then picking up Katie from school, her & I decided to do some more garage saling.  I’m glad we did as her & I had a fun time at a neighborhood sale!  I really didn’t get to much, but found some more clothes for her, a few for Kevin and the Harry Potter movie Kevin had been wanting.   Needless to say Kevin was excited when he got home… not just for the cool  clothes I got him or the spider-man coloring book, or the books, but he was really excited that he now has a Harry Potter movie.

Since then, the sun popped out and turned really nice.  To bad now it’s starting to look a little dreary out there.  I know they were talking another chance of rain and a possibility on severe storms with a chance of a tornado.   At least if one did come, my kids are home with me so I know they will be ok.

Now I just hope tomorrow stays nice like they say it will.  If so, I think the kids & I are going to go hit another neighborhood garage sale!  Hopefully we will find some more good treasures!

I can’t believe Katie only has 6 more days of school, while Kevin has 11 more!  Where or where did this school year go?   It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I walked my little girl into a classroom filled with preschool furniture or my big boy into a classroom filled with friends from the year prior plus soon to be new friends! 

My goal for this summer is to not just have a fun/enjoyable summer with them, but also to do some homeschooling.   I’m hoping to get Katie reading more than just Zac the Rat from starfall.com and of course continue her learning how to write all her letters and numbers.  With Kevin our plan (him and I already talked about it) is to do writers workshop (write stories and draw pictures) along with his reading, math & spelling.

Why do I have a feeling this summer will go by just as fast as this school year did?