We love our friends from far away

We met and became friends with so many wonderful people when we lived in St. Louis.
We were thrilled when the Miles' made the trip to visit grandparents and made time to come play while they were in town. Dorothy and I took the kids swimming then did dinner. It was a wonderful evening for the kids to play and for Dorothy and I to catch up.
Thank you, Dorothy, for keeping up with me during our move and not losing us.
We can hardly wait to see y'all again (someday)!

Jump On It

Earlier this week we had our usual play date with our friends, the Lees. The kids play beautifully and Nicole and I could talk ourselves horse. We took the kids to Jump On It. Its a huge indoor space that is half trampolines and half inflatable slides and bouncy houses. Our kids were in heaven. Best part, because my kids are young it only cost me $4. I love that kind of "tire the kids out but stay in the air conditioning" entertainment.

Below: Grace decides to marry Kennan about once a month.
About 1/3 of the trampoline area is netted off for smaller children. Even Joe was able to run and bounce. Nicole is a very cool mom and friend that I love to hang out with. And such a talented aerialist too.
Nicole has turned us on to lots of super fun indoor play places. They will be invaluable this winter when it is far to cold to play outside.

Back To School

Ella's first day of first grade was yesterday. What a big girl we have! It was RED day at school which is, apparently, terribly exciting. Ella was excited about two things in the first grade. 1) they get TWO recesses on the big playground, not the kindergarten playground 2) getting to eat lunch at school in the cafeteria. Notice her cool pink lunch box/bag with hearts on it. Her backpack was empty going to school but the lunch box could not possibly go into the backpack. Then no one could see it. What was I thinking? Duh!

This is the first ever "getting on the school bus" picture I have. There are four little boys at the bus stop with us who mostly just stare. Ella loves to play "Simon Says" at the bus stop. I am always Simon and if the command doesn't involve running, skipping or hopping somewhere Ella says, "Mom, you're not playing right." I love, love, love taking her to the bus stop.
In kindergarten Ella only rode the bus in the morning so two bus rides in a day is a new thing for us. Everyone wanted to come and meet the bus yesterday. Ella was super excited that we ALL came.
Ella had a wonderful first day of first grade. She likes her teacher, loves the two recesses, only ate half her lunch and wasn't the lease bit tired after seven hours of school. In fact, she was up (in her bed) until 10:30 last night. I hope she doesn't crash at school today.

Best Pappaw Ever

My kids are blessed to have the best and coolest pappaw, pretty much ever. My dad makes an extra effort to stay close with my kids even though we live so far away. Ella and Grace LOVE to call pappaw at night for bedtime stories. They put the phone on speaker and lie in bed, in the dark and listen to my dad tell them stories that he told me as a kid. He then sings them a few songs. He sings them songs that were passed down from their four times great grandma (Grandma Dean) whose husband died in the Civil War battle at Shiloh. And he sings them Elvis.

My dad (and mom) were supposed to be here Wednesday night to stay for a week and attend the Boston Family reunion. But work got all messy for dad (other people, not dad) and now he HAS to stay in Memphis. Thankfully my mom is still coming but we are thoroughly bummed that pappaw wouldn't be.

I am so terribly thankful for the wonderul parents Heavenly Father gave to me and the incredible grandparents they are to my kids. The video above is black since it was dark in my girls room when story time was winding down. This is my dad singing Elvis to my girls. How cool is that?

Is food for playing or eating?

I love, finally, having a camera phone. So many times I don't have my camera handy but I almost always have my phone on hand. I didn't realize how many food pics I have. I love them so much I thought I'd share.

Yeah for kiddie cones at "Mickel Donalds".

Joe loves him some egg rolls

Does every kid in the world do this with olives?
My kids will totally chow Sonic corndogs.
Joe finally figured out how to eat corn on the cob.

Stay tuned for more pictures that have been hiding in my phone for months.

Hot Summer Days

I found myself in a nearly rotten mood this morning so instead of staying home and wallowing in it we got out of the house. I took the kids to one of the water features downtown for some cooling off. Ella got soaked to the bone, Grace refused to get in all together and it took Joe a good 20 minutes to get used to the idea of getting wet. Everyone was happy in the end.

Grace looks a thousand times cute in my sunglasses, wouldn't you say? No outing is complete without fruit snacks. I don't keep them visible around the house b/c when I do the kids ask for them CONSTANTLY. I save them for fun outings like this one.

And in case you're wondering, I've tried every fruit snack on the shelf and the Wal-mart smiley face ones are the best, hands down. In the purple box, not the tropical ones.

When Joseph finally decided he liked the water he had a blast. Apparently he's thirsty and the bottled water I brought is boring. Adam will die when he sees I let Joe "drink" the water. I actually have pictures of all my kids "drinking" the water but since Joe thought of it I used him.

Near the water feature is a stage where, while we were there, a dancing/singing group of teen something girls was having a recital. Ella was mesmerized (sorry, no cute pics). We stayed and listened to some really awful singing and embarassing dancing for 30 long minutes. Ella talked about the pretty singing and beautiful dancing all the way home. She is just dying to take a dance class. I want to settle into full day first grade then see how the schedule looks. You never know, you all may be able to say, "I knew her when. . . . "

Cinder-Ella

Ella and Grace helped me clean up the house before and after our Pioneer Day guest visited. Ella, especially, is loving having music on in the house. The girls have their own playlist with their fav songs. They rock out to Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, REM, Sara Evans, Blake Lewis, Laurie Berkner (very cool children's music) and SheDaisy.

Ella was wiping the walls (since her footprints were on them from practicing head stands) when I sneaked this video. She was really into the cleaning and dancing. Enjoy the moves and the music.