Turtle, Elizabeth's "Dive", and Breakfast Chex

Drew and Josh found a turtle in our neighborhood over the weekend, and decided to let it go at a park that we like to go to - there are lots of turtles there so we they were hoping he would find a family! They invited us to go with them to let him go. Can you see the turtle on the stick right in the middle of the picture?Here's our group waiting to free the turtle.Here they're checking him out - watching his reaction to his new home. He seemed to like it :)

One last photo before we left. We don't get many pictures of all the cousins who live in TX together, so it was fun to get a few today.

Here's a video of Elizabeth this morning in my parent's pool. This was about the 5th time she went in. The first few times she actually did a dive! (a belly flop to be more precise) By this point she thought she was diving, but really was just kind of jumping with her hands over her head.

Breakfast Chex Mix

Jessica wants this recipe and told me I should put it on the blog in case anyone else needs some new ideas for breakfast! This is great (I think) if you are in a hurry in the morning since it's all ready to just eat and go.

(I found this on another blog...and I can't find it now...so sorry I can't properly acknowledge them)

2 c wheat chex

2 c rice chex

2 c bran chex ( I used corn chex)

2 c cheerios

1 c slivered almonds

4 T butter

1/3 c honey

1 c dried fruit

Put the oven at 300 degrees. Put the butter in a 9x13 pan and melt it in the oven. Add honey and whisk. Pour cereal and almonds into pan and mix. Bake uncovered for 30 min - stir every 10min. Let cool. Add dry berries.

Have a good week :)!

Diving Board

On Sunday my parents invited us and Tom's parents over for dinner. I didn't get a picture of anyone besides my kids, for some reasons adults don't like to get their pictures taken like the kids do! For those of you who didn't know, my parents and Tom's parents were friends before Tom and I really knew each other. Tom and I lived one house apart when we were in high school, so my parents and his would hang outside with all the other neighbors, chatting away. So I think it was fun for them to catch up, and the kids thought it was very fun to have both of their grandparents together at the same time. Ben kept looking at everyone saying "two grandmas", "two grandpas".
Both of my kids are getting very confident in their swimming. Elizabeth now goes off the diving board with no life vest,

and swims to edges of the pool without help all the time. Ben also paddles away in his life vest all by himself. They are a little hard to take to the pool when I am by myself. They both think they can go all over the pool without any help!

Last year she would only go off with her life vest and a tube, and usually someone had to hold her hand to help her jump. What a difference a year makes!

Chance to win $100

Want a chance to win $100 for Father's Day? Just go to this website

http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/06/tv-martyr-western-union-fathers-day.html

and post a comment by FRIDAY! I hope you win :)

Clowns at the Library

Our library has a weekly story time for children and in the summer they sometimes will have special guests. This week they had a clown from the circus! The kids loved it! (most of them anyway) I had Cooper that day (jessica and I are trading off once a week watching each others children so the other person can go home and do work or whatever they want) so the 4 of us were sitting on the floor watching the clown. Elizabeth and Ben looked pretty happy and excited, but Cooper was just looking a little confused and not happy. All of the sudden he burst out bawling, he was so scared of the clown! It took him a little while to settle down and be ok with looking at the clown. I guess Jessica won't be taking him to the circus this year!

Balancing a plate on his chin.

Juggling of course. Now both of my kids want to go see the circus when it comes later this summer.

The next day we went to our neighborhood pool and park with Drew and Josh.

This is a different park then we usually go to so the kids were loving the tire swing. You can't tell by the picture but they were getting the swing to go so fast! We've had a fun couple of days!

Eventful Night

So we had an eventful night last night (as I'm sure everyone that lives around us did as well!) We had tons of storms, lightening, wind, hard rain, etc.... The kids, unfortunately, woke up many times in the night and ended up in our bed. (The lights are out in the picture below - the flash just works really well I guess!) Our kids have never really slept with us before, except on our trip to San Antonio, and they aren't very good at it :) They play too much with each other and every time I would shift around Ben would ask me what I was doing, where was I going. I felt like I couldn't even breathe heavily or he would ask what was going on! So needless to say we did not get much sleep last night and I do not understand how anyone could co-sleep with their kids! It's so much work! :) Maybe they quit when the kids start asking questions! Let's hope for an uneventful night tonight!

Busy Weekend

We had a very busy weekend, and I took literally not ONE picture! I don't know what I was thinking! My Aunt Amy was in town from Minnesota visiting for a girls weekend with my mom (no kids!) so they had a good time shopping and laying by the pool. Jessica and I were able to meet them to shop on Saturday morning (also without kids - what a treat! Not that I don't love doing stuff with my kids but sometimes it's easier to shop without them - you know what I mean) and later that evening we met them for dinner and then back to my mom's house to watch Twilight. I had a great time. The kids and Tom went to dinner with Tom's family for Janet's birthday and I heard that they also had a lot of fun. The kids got to eat tons of chips with their cousins - what's not to love, right?!

The next day was my dad's birthday so the guys took my dad golfing for his birthday present, and after naps we went swimming over at their house and had dinner and cake. The kids love to swim at Grandma and Grandpa's and it was fun all hanging out together.
Today we had playgroup at my house - and again - no pictures! We just played outside with our pool, slip n slide, and sprinkler. The kids had fun playing together and got very exhausted and ready for early naps. After nap we played at Drew and Josh's house and then came home to make dinner. Usually I give in and let the kids watch a show while I make dinner. Today I decided that we are going to try to watch less TV - so instead Ben did puzzles and Elizabeth played with her beads. I actually did get my camera out for that (finally) .

Last Day of Dance

Elizabeth had her last day of dance this Thursday, got her glasses (they were ordered actually) and had her last day of swimming lessons. It was such a busy day!

Elizabeth is very lucky to have so much family who lives here and is involved in her life. Tom was able to come,

my mom, Jessica, and Cooper,

Tom's parents,

and Drew and Josh (and Janet and Zach who I didn't get a picture of). Elizabeth really loves to have everyone come watch her - she feels so special. We are looking forward to this summer though when we won't have much going on. It will be very nice! :)

I Spoke Too Soon...

I thought yesterday's eye was bad...I spoke too soon.

Doesn't seem to be bothering him though, does it?
Do you like Elizabeth's makeup? She did it all by herself and thought she looked so beautiful. Of course I always think she looks beautiful, but how funny is her face?!

Ben's Swollen Face

The past 2 days we have been a little busy with doctor visits. :) Luckily nothing was serious, but Ben sure looked bad to me! Can you tell how his left eye/forehead area is all swollen? That's from a mosquito bite! I took him to the doctor because it made him look so scary :).
Elizabeth loves going to the doctor when it isn't her turn.
Elizabeth did have to go to the doctor yesterday - the eye doctor. And, poor girl, she needs glasses! So that will be a post very soon I'm sure - of Elizabeth and her cute new frames.

Look at that poor kid! Luckily it didn't really seem to bother him - except when he woke up from his nap and his eye was almost swollen shut! We're hoping that it will look better tomorrow!

Slip N Slide!

On Friday last week we decided to have an end of the school year party with some of our friends. Elizabeth was done with zoo school and we wanted to do something special to celebrate. We had a swimming/slip n sliding/water balloon party in our backyard. I got my camera out only for the slip n slide part so that's the only pictures I have from the party.

Here's Cooper running down the slide.
Our friend Anabel slipping on her tummy.

This is what my kids did for most of it- run the entire way and maybe flop on their tummy when they got to the end.

I got a great one of Elliott at the end of the slide!

Our cousin Josh got really into the slide - he flipped all over this thing!

I didn't know the slip n slide would be such a hit - but I think it was a favorite of the party! I can't believe Elizabeth's first school experience is over. On to preschool! Ahhh! Good thing I have the summer to prepare myself for my little girl to be gone 2 days a week!