I'm calling the police!

A couple of cute, little, healthy feet! Caden's at the Falls.

Paige is has been talking on her phone. She is telling someone that Mommy has a broken bone foot and she isn't using her crutches. There has been lots of talk about how I hurt it and getting a cast but mostly the fact that I'm not using the crutches. So I finally asked her who she was talking to. Her answer? The police! That's a new one. It's usually Grandma or Nana or Daddy - not the police. Apparently I'm being tattled on.

***UPDATE***

X-rays say it isn't broken, just a bad sprain. I guess that's a good thing. I just had to promise no running or jumping for a week. I think I can handle that.

Jamborees and ice packs

So is it more fun if I post all the time? I thought I'd try it out and see. More, less exciting posts. What the heck, why not?

Anyway... Soccer Jamboree was this morning. Trace's team played a girls team that was a year older. They actually played pretty well and only lost by two or three points. The second game was against a same aged boys team. By that point they were tired and mostly ran around in circles or stood around watching. Oh-well. Football Jamboree was later in the afternoon. It was definately more exciting with 56 teams competing! Not all at once though. Just lots more going on. Caden was not too hard to pick out after a play had started because he was usually turning in circles not sure what to do. It gave us a few laughs. Not too sure this is his sport!

The best part of the day was the following conversation I had with Caden this morning:
Caden: "Soccer's fun."
Me: "Yes, it is."
Caden: "I think I'll play soccer again next year."
Me: "Why wait I could get you on a team today!" "Ya think so? That's probably a good idea."

The worst part of the day was when I stepped down the bleachers and twisted my ankle horribly! I actually felt it pop and pretty much collapsed . It takes a lot to get me down like that, which I know, so I was a little scared I'd broken it. Trace ran to get me some ice from the snow cone maker so I took the cloth book cover off my day planner and dumped the ice in it. Made a neat little ice pack. So here I am here at home now with a princess ice pack watching Sponge Bob! The ankle is definately swollen so we'll just have to watch it and see!

I'm gonna suck at this...

I sat through football practice tonight fighting the urge to march out onto the field, grab a certain kid by his face mask and throw him to the ground. Then I'd get right in his face and tell him to back off my kid!

Now, I know football is violent. I expect him to get tossed around, shoved down and even pulled down by his legs. That's the game. What I didn't expect was to see another kid grab his face mask and throw him to the ground so hard that he nearly flipped him over! By the face mask! After the next play the kid then ran up behind him and slammed his fist into Caden's back. They definitely had my attention at that point! But when he got Caden down and the play was over and Caden rolled onto his back and the kid took both fists and slammed them down on Caden's chest and stomach so hard that Caden doubled up - then I was MAD! Then next play Caden just dropped to the ground immediately in a ball and put his hands over his helmet and didn't move. Yeah, he's really learning about the game that way! I am still fuming. Boy is Rick going to get an earful when he gets home tonight! I didn't want to say anything for fear of being the overprotective mom but since Rick is at most practices helping with the coaching I'm hoping he can keep an eye on the situation and say something if necessary. Oh! That little brat! I just want to smack him!

The only good thing about the situation though was listening to Trace in the car on the way home. At first he wasn't sure that Caden wasn't exaggerating (not Caden!) but once he heard that I'd seen it too then it was a different story! He was going on and on about how this other kids should be kicked off the team and he hoped the other kid gets kicked out of school for being a bully and any number of other scenarios he could think of. It took me a second to realize that that was his way of supporting and protecting his brother. Awww, see they do love each other. Sometimes.

Just another day

Getting ready to go watch a little of this... (that's Caden on the far right in white)
some of this...

and a lot of this...

Yes, there is more helmit than body on most of them! So far Caden loves it - much to my chagrin. So night after night we haul him to two hours of practice. Once school starts it will only be three nights a week. I'm not too sure how he is going to do once it starts raining on them though!

So, I've had a busy day. I spent about three hours on a job application - that's how it goes with three children constantly interupting you! Heck, the rate I'm going this post might just take me three hours! Then I scrubbed out our shower - whoo hoo - don't I know how to have fun!? After that I put labels on all the boys school supplies and put them into bags ready for the first day of school. Which, by-the-way is in twelve days. Not that I'm counting or anything. Really I'm not. Finally, I changed our bed and vacuumed our room. Now here I am with 1/2 hour to go before I have to take Caden to practice by 5:30 then run back across the freeway to get Trace's number put on his soccer jersey at 6:30 then turn around again and go pick Caden up at 7:30. I can only hope they are all in bed on time tonight! It's going to be a long weekend...

Seattle

We were in Seattle last weekend for a family gathering. So naturally we decided to take the kids downtown and see Pikes Place Market and the Space Needle. Pikes was mostly just a crowded place the kids only half enjoyed. The Space Needle they thought was pretty cool. But the best part of the trip was the monorail ride between the two! It was fun to show the kids around the area and just relax together as a family.

The main reason we were there was for a birthday party. The party was held at a lake house where the kids were able to fun free, jump on a trampoline and swim all they wanted. Of course no adult wanted to swim because it was not exactly a hot day but that didn't stop the kids - especially Trace.

This is where he spent most of the day.

Caden spent most of the day with his new friend LunaBella (the girl! The dog is Murphy!).

He never did get that name right slaughtering it a dozen different ways!

Paige had a good time too.

She spent much of her time involved in this activity with her

cousin Ethan.

All in all it was a great weekend. We still have the soccer and football Jamborees this coming weekend and one last trip after that. Summer isn't quite over but we're getting there!

Have I mentioned she's Daddy's girl?

A lot of updates!

We have been so busy that I've hardly had any time for updating here! I usually like to leave a few days between posts, but if I do that then I'll just keep getting more behind! So bear with me and read through them. There's some pretty good stuff! Let me know what you think too - please.

One of our favorite places to be as a family...

Is camping. We've been blessed with a place to park our trailer for the last two summers and the kids are building so many memories! This was our first trip to this spot with my parents along (in their motor home). We roasted marshmallows and hot dogs - not necessarily in that order though - and spent a lot of time on the beach.

These two seem to have some special bond!
Probably the most exciting part for Trace was learning how to fly a stunt kite. They are very popular because of the amount of wind at this beach. Sometimes there is too much wind! Trace did and awesome job though and even bought his own before the trip was over.

Caden spent as much time as he possibly could in his Papa's back pocket with his Papa. He tried his hand at the stunt kites too but just isn't quite ready for that yet!

Paige just had fun being Paige. What else can I say?

Caden did spend a lot of time running on the beach! Usually to help lift a fallen kite which he got quite good at!

Both boys were taught how to whittle a stick into a hot dog roaster by Papa. They loved it and were so excited. Maybe someone should tell Santa?

The trip home was more exciting than usual because we made a stop at an old military fort. There have been some locked doors leading to underground bunkers that the boys have always wanted to see. Well, Papa found out when the tours were and we timed out trip home accordingly. The boys were SO excited when they found out!

All that fun just wears a kid out.

Cousin It Caden rode home in our car while Trace road home with Nana and Papa. (He was totally asleep under there for about 1/2 an hour!)

Sleeping beauty just slept almost the whole way home!

County Fair

What summer is complete without the good 'ol county fair? Our kids don't seem to think it is really summer until we've gone. Unfortunately it doesn't happen until summer is over half over! Oh-well, we'd been saving a little money for the big day so off we went. The animals were as entertaining as watching grass grow they always are. Although the rabbit who had a sign on his cage that said, "I'm not a dog, I'm a rabbit", was pretty hilarious. It really did look like a little Yorkie! After the animal barns we had a little picnic lunch while watching the water dogs.

Paige was better entertainment than the dogs though. She decided to go down the lawn a little way from us and put on her own little dance show! She was singing and dancing for all she was worth. No one could hear her but everyone got a good chuckle for the day.

And what's a fair without blue lips? While waiting to see The Knights of the Realm we kept cool with a little Hawaiian Shave Ice. Paige's was a little more like kool-aid by the time she was done 1/2 hour later in 90 degree weather.
While we were watching the show Paige kept going down and sitting next to Caden. This is how sweet they looked from my view. Caden is always occasionally this loving toward his sister!

Redneck reunion

So how many of you have gotten to family reunion by traveling 12 miles down a gravel forestry road? Probably not too many! Well, to be fair it wasn't completely intentional. We did see the road closure signs. But we were sure that either a) our destination was closer than where the road closed or b) we could probably get through. I guess not. So the better of our two options was to take the twelve mile, gravel, logging road. Or so we thought. I must say though that not only did we create a new memory for the kids but we all got a lot of laughs that afternoon!

One portion of our unplanned scenic drive.
THEN we arrived at the reunion itself. It was in a tiny little town pretty much in the middle of nowhere. (don't ask why, we won't go there) The town happened to be having its annual celebration! We were just in time for the main event! The lawn mower races which were happening right beside the campground! We were unable to find anyone from the reunion until we went searching through the crowds lining the banks beside it. Our family does know how to have a good time now!

Of course the campground that was chosen for the occasion was an interesting place itself. Pretty much in the heart of town and had probably once been just a small regular park. Then because of the events they decided to stack the trailers in so they were doubled to campsites! Wow, that was good planning wasn't it?

The kids did have fun at the big playground with some of their distant cousins and taking a whack at the pinata. Even Trace was laughing at the crazy family by the time we went home! You see we have a self titled "wagon-master" in charge of events. And I do mean in charge. She is older but not that old and yet still pushes her walker around and tries to control everything. We were instructed to eat dinner - get a group picture taken- then have dessert. Well, the dessert was just sitting there and of course no one wanted to wait. So people were sneaking over and helping themselves. Once the "wagon master" discovered this she was of course not happy. We watched her covering up the food while holding onto her walker with the other hand. Then as soon as her back was turned it was like soldiers in an ambush as everyone scurried over, quickly grabbed something then hurried back to their table to eat with their hands protectively guarding their precious goodies. Apparently the "wagon master doesn't quite have the control she thinks she has! It sure gave all of us a good laugh though.

And finally, what campground is complete without a pet horse in the middle of it? Now, most people bring their dogs and a few even bring cats but this has to be a first for me to see a pet horse tied up behind a trailer! When Paige went over to visit is gave us a loud whinny as if to say she was a bit busy with lunch. After that Paige just thought it was a noisy horsey. And, well, I guess I can't really call it a redneck family reunion if I don't admit that it was a member of our family that owned the horse. Enough said.

I took the kids to the park

But not just ANY park - oh no! We went to this one...
The kids call it the fireman park. That isn't it's official name but it was built by the local firemen so that's how it got it's name for us. It is the biggest park in our area (the picture doesn't do it justice). I just hate love the place myself. It must have been designed by a bunch of men wonderfully talented people. Because of it's size there is no way to keep an eye on your kids as well as I'd like - especially three of them! So you spend your time walking in circles and smashing your head on the equipment itself in order to find your little darlings who somehow constantly manage to stay out of site. For those reasons we don't make it there very often. But we happened to be in the area the other day so I decided to be a nice mommy and surprise them. They loved it, of course.

Paige loved the springy 'motorcycle'.

She even does her own stunts! (which comes from

watching a few too many video games)

Caden attacking the playground!

And just checking things out.

Summer Fest at Church

Every summer our church spends two weeks serving others and having a blast. As our pastor often says, "We take our God seriously so we don't have to take ourselves so seriously!" When they have fun, they do it BIG and our kids look forward to certain events all year long. We took them to a special event just for kids the other day. They had all you can eat cotton candy, snow cones, hot dogs, nachos (with green cheese), lots of gooey stuff to get messy in and play with but best of all was the extra long 'slip-n-slide' covered in soapy water. They had inner tubes hooked to bungee cords and launched the kids one or two at a time down the 'slide'. It didn't matter that the weather was cool, the line was always long!

Caden didn't have much luck holding on!

But he did enjoy himself and got up laughing.

Trace was able to hold on a little better...

and made it to the end.

Paige was quite content with her cotton candy!

Next week wraps up Summer Festival but the one event the kids look forward to the most happens at the end of the week. Hopefully I'll have more pictures then!

"I'm a reader girl, Mommy!"

And yes, she is. Tonight her usual Bob book was downstairs so I pulled out the next one in the box - one she has never seen before. She knew the first word "Sam" from the other book. I helped her sound out a-n-d. Then I pointed to the next word and asked her what the first sound was. Her response? "Cat" Um, yes that is the word, I guess the first sound won't be entirely necessary now will it? After helping her one more time with -and- she had it down and proceeded to pretty much read me the rest of the book. I know I say she is smart as a whip, but dang did that catch me off guard! I refuse to push her so this is entirely on her own. Now, for those of you who might be reading this and thinking your kid is a total dolt - she still isn't recognizing numbers! Does that make you feel better? Maybe I should work on that with her? And maybe not. I have two very smart but mostly average boys ahead of her so this is just fun for me to watch.

Now, on another note. The next time you see us do not refer to Paige as tiny, small or little. While she may refuse to look at you or say 'hi', she will suddenly come to life and vehemently deny being any of those! She is a big girl, plain and simple. So I'm trying to remember to use the word petite - until she figures that out. And petite she definitely is. Still weighing in at a mere 25 pounds at almost three and a half. Just a little peanut. We passed on the pink football at Toys R Us last night as per the pediatrician's suggestion. I'm sure there will be no pink basketballs in her future either!

A couple more pics form yesterday...

I don't know why, but for some reason I like this picture of Trace. Maybe it's because he looks at me like this a lot!

This was Miss. Happiness moments before the meltdown over taking her shoes off that lasted until she finally fell asleep in the car!

Mr. Caden obliging mom with "one more picture"!

Out and about

I can't handle any more bickering. Really. I can't handle it. So I brushed off the dishes, the vacuuming and the ironing. Ignored the messes and dirty beds and loaded the kids into the 'ol Suburban. I added my camera, some water, a healthy snack and the first aid kit to a backpack and off we went. We headed up to a natural wonder of our area. I grew up here and yet had never been to the place we went today! It was beautiful! We all noticed the wonderful smell of evergreen and relished the sound of rushing water. The temperature was much cooler and the spray from the waterfalls helped a lot too. Of course I had to take the camera along! What a gorgeous background setting.

After our little hike and fun tossing rocks, the kids got to spend a little time with Grandma and I got almost TWO hours completely ALONE! That was great. Then it was off to soccer practice. I still can't wrap my mind around that. Trace has practice again on Thursday from 5:30-7 then we have to be about 15-20 minutes away for football with Caden at 7. Mmmm? It's getting interesting already. Thank goodness Dad is home this week! I think I'll need to stock the car with plenty of snacks and drinks it looks like we're going to be on the road a lot over the next few months! I can't complain though. Life is good.

What have we been up to?

Yesterday we took a little drive up North to see some relatives and relations (as Pooh would say). The host has built a real working miniature railroad around his property. The engine is about 6 feet long by 2 feet high and the flatbed cars have seats bolted to them so the kids can go for rides. They all had a lot of fun riding around in the hot sun!


Just the little princess after church last week.

Enjoying a ride on the train. I love the reflection of the tracks in her eye!

A romp through the grass on a beautiful summer day.

Other than that we haven't been doing much else. I cleaned out Paige's closet and started on Caden's. How's that for excitement? No news on the house front. Rick is "home" for the month of August. He is actually on reserve (on call) so he'll be in and out. Might be an interesting month! We have the county fair coming up, some exciting events at church, soccer practice starts this week, football gear gets picked up this week, at least two more camping trips, back to school shopping to get done and Caden's birthday in just a few weeks! Isn't August wonderful?!

Oh - on a fun note... We (Caden) found Trace's glasses that have been missing since last spring! Why I didn't think to look on the floor in Caden's closet under at least a foot of clothes I have no idea! Last time they disappeared for a while they were finally found in the Lego bin!