Isn't it interesting how family is always so important, but taken for granted so often at the same time. Mike is the youngest of five children. With all five kids having families of their own and busy lives, seeing one another does not happen often enough. Yesterday we had the good fortune to spend the late afternoon and evening at Mike's sister, Debbie's house with her family. Debbie's husband Greg grilled hamburgers and we helped him roast hot dogs over the open fire. We tried to get the kids to help out, but they were a little uncertain and did not get too close. Debbie and Greg's boys, Cory (graduated from high school last year) and Chad (in high school), joined us for dinner and then we all went swimming. Ryan jumped in the water time and time again like he has done before, but Lydia and Emily joined in feet first! I have always been very comfortable in the water and a pretty strong swimmer. I hoped my children would enjoy the water and be strong swimmers themselves. We are planning on signing them up for swimming lessons, but are showing them things on our own at this point. Emily was jumping in the water over and over, jumping higher and higher each time she would jump. The first time she went under she swallowed some water, but after that first time she held her breath and did such a great job! We were so proud of her!! After finishing off the evening of great fun and fellowship, we shared a watermelon dried off and headed home. The kids passed out on the way home. It was a great time! Thank you Debbie and Greg!

Touching the life of another

For those of you that know me even a little bit have heard the name Arvetta from time to time over the years. Arvetta is the lady that lived next door throughout my childhood. She and her husband, Kermit (who died in 1980) purchased their home the same day my parents purchased their home and ended up living right next door to each other. My brother, Paul, and I spent lots of time at Arvetta's house through the years. She kept us sometimes when our parents went out and we would go over just to visit. She became somewhat of a Grandmother to us. Our Grandparents lived far away and we did not see them as often as we would see Arvetta.

Friday night I took the kids over to see Arvetta for a while. She now lives in an assisted living apartment at Bridgewater Home. We had a great visit and she read to the kids like she used to read to my brother and me when we were kids. She even read "Nobody Listens To Andrew." She read that to Paul and me many, many times!!! In less than a month, July 17 to be exact, Arvetta will be 100 years old. Her mind is still very sharp and she walks with a little assistance from her walker. Her hearing has dwindled over the past few years, but she is still just as pleasant to be around. We love her very much!!

Two and Three year olds go on a "field trip"

During the summer at our preschool we have lots of school age kids on top of the normal enrollment we have on a day to day basis. As a result, the school agers and the 4 & 5 year olds go on field trips and trips to the park and pool on a regular basis. The little kids don't go because with their age we would need lots of parents to go and it is hard to get that many to volunteer. Terasa Leel is the teacher of the 3 year olds and some of the older 2 year olds-Lydia and Emily are in her class. (We have a lot of two year olds at our center and I could not have all of them in my room--therefore they moved some kids around to accommodate all of them). Terasa and I decided to take a mini field trip with her kids and mine. Since we could not leave the school grounds we decided to have a mini-field trip on the school grounds.

The big kids go on their field trips in a small school bus we own. Terasa and I loaded all of our two and three year olds on the school bus and drove them around the parking lot for about 10 minutes so they would think they were going somewhere. They were so excited about riding the school bus!! At one point, when driving around the parking lot, Lydia says "Mommy, why we passing the van?" Of course we thought we could outsmart our kids by driving them around the building a few times. Lydia noticed her van too many times to think she was going anywhere:).

Once off the bus, we hooked up a sprinkler and had them run through the sprinkler for about 45 minutes, we went up on the playground to play while they dried off a bit and then brought their specially packed lunches (for our field trip) up to the picnic tables and they ate their packed lunches outside!

After lunch, we went inside to change the kids out of their bathing suits and lay down for a nap. All but about 2 of the 20 kids that went on the "mini-field trip" passed out within about 5 minutes of laying down. It was a fun day! Terasa and I have decided we would like to do this again, but we are going to re-coup a little bit before tackling it:) Lydia and Emily, along with all the other kids, had a great time!!

Best Job Ever!!

I have the best job! Today I had the great fortune to go on a field trip with Ryan and his class while helping out with the kids and getting paid for it!! I left my class of two year olds in good hands this morning and began the two hour van/bus drive to Safari Park in Natural Bridge. We had several parents go along so my group of kids I was responsible for was only three--Ryan being one of them. We went on a wagon ride through the Safari Park while the various animals came to the wagon to eat out of the buckets of food that we were given. We saw camels, emus, zebras, donkeys, elk, buffalo, tigers, deer, giraffe and a host of other safari animals. Seeing them up that close and eating out of my hand was a trill for the me as well as the kids. Ryan was a little skiddish of the larger animals, but jumped in there and fed the smaller ones. He did feed the larger animals, while still keeping his "safe" distance. I highly recommend a family visit! I plan to take Lydia, Emily and Mike later in the summer. It made our zoo trip pale in comparision.

Zoo Trip

On June 6 we took the kids to the National Zoo in D.C. We chose to go early in the summer before the weather got too hot. Turns out, June 6 was the hottest day we had, had at that point:). We packed a lunch and ate it beside our van so we would not have to take out a second mortgage on our house to eat in the park. The kids loved seeing the animals and were so excited the entire day! They fell asleep as we headed home that night. It was a great day!

Best 30 bucks I ever spent!

My brother, Paul and his wife, Allison, told us about the little kiddie pool they saw and my niece, Adella, used while visiting my Uncle Bill and his family over the weekend. We had been wanting to get the kids a softside pool or something, but did not know what route to take. After hearing about this one, we went online and found one that fit the same description at Target. I drove into Target that evening, set it up, and they have been having a great time ever since! Definitely the best 30 bucks I ever spent!! (small note, please ignore the scraps of wood in the yard, we are building a deck)