It's a Wonderful Life

We were walking around downtown yesterday on our way to the Children's Museum.  On our way there we stopped at several familiar stops along the way (statues, funny shop windows, fountain, etc).  At one stop, I finally read the plaque that I had always noticed, but never took the time to read.  It was about the courthouse building that was converted to a civil war hospital.  After the Battle of Kernstown, a woman took wounded soldiers there and nursed them . . . crazy to think of all the history that surrounds me.

My friend Hannah threw a "Christmas in July" party on Thursday.  She always does the cutest most creative things with her kids!  It was a lot of fun, and I loved getting new ideas from her :) Our first activity was playing and experimenting with a giant ice ball.  She filled a balloon up with water, froze it, and cut the balloon part off.  The kids poured salt on it, pricked it with tooth picks, dyed it, and anything else they could think of. Another activity that my boys loved was "jello painting" with ice cubes on sticks.  It really became more popular just to eat the jello powder but hey, whatever works :) There was more ice fun in her kiddie pool.  She put a whole bunch of little toys in an ice block, and the kids loved trying to extract them.  Also, lots of cute little purple star ice cubes were thrown in. When I asked Wyatt what his favorite part was after we went home, he told me the doughnuts!  We made cute little snowmen ou...

For some reason I have about zero motivation to blog these days.  It seems something always needs doing right this instant , and when things finally calm down I'm too tired to do anything but go to bed! I finally got around to going to one of the Farmer's Markets here in Winchester.  I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  (which I really really loved) and it rekindled my desire for food from the the farmer's market.  I was kind of disappointed that there wasn't really any organic produce at this one, but I guess there is another one open on Saturdays that has a bigger selection.  The bottom line though, is summer produce is super yummy :) Jackson took some cute pictures of Anna And then I took some of him and the rest of my sweet kiddos I couldn't believe it when I came downstairs and found Wyatt like this . . . asleep! making our Friday night pizza dinner  Jackson was very adamant about flipping the pizza dough.  There is a Martha Sp...

Yesterday as soon as Erik came home from work, we threw our swimsuits on and went to the pool. It was a hot, humid day . . . perfect for the pool.  We were lucky and had the pool to ourselves too! Anna loved the water!  I'm sure it helped that it was pretty warm.  I was marvelling at how much easier/fun it was to play in the pool with her this time.  The last time we went, when she was just a couple of months old, she couldn't even hold her head up all the way.  Jackson and Wyatt had a blast too.  Wyatt is getting much more comfortable in the water. After pool time, we had a quick dinner and then our Family Home Evening.  Jackson and Wyatt were pretty excited for the lesson.  Earlier in the day, Jackson told me he wanted to act out the nativity for our lesson.  He really wanted to make a crown for one of the Kings to wear.  Rather pull a "Christmas in July," I suggested he find another scripture story to act out that had a king ...

I know Anna has been rolling over for a couple of weeks (at least stomach to back.  I put her in the crib on her stomach and she's always on her back when I get her), but yesterday I finally caught her in the act!  She was a rolling over maniac, going from back to stomach, then stomach to back.  It was really fun to watch, and to hear the boys yell, "Mom!  Anna rolled over again!!!!" Yesterday Erik took the boys for some one on one time.  First he took Wyatt to Lowes to look at and sit on the "tractors" (sitting on the riding lawn mowers is Wyatt's favorite thing to do).  Then they went to McDonald's a happy meal.  Wyatt was so excited when he came home to tell Jackson all about it. In the evening Erik took Jackson to the car races here in Winchester.  They went for the first time with James and Paul a couple of weeks ago.  One of the Pro Build salesmen drives a car, and he invited Erik to come down to the pit with his crew and ...

On Sunday, we had a nice relaxing day.  After church, we went back to Uncle Jimmy's. I thought it was funny that Erik and Paul were dressed like "twinsies" as Jackson would say.  Sometimes their swings would be synchronized too. I was so happy that Kaitlin and her baby Toa were able to come out to Pennsylvania.   Toa is just about six weeks older than Anna, so it was fun to see them together. There was a blight to our nice afternoon.  Wyatt, while playing on a four wheeler, stepped onto the hot muffler and got a really bad burn on the ball of his foot.  It was so sad to see him hobble around the remainder of our vacation!  Luckily, it is really starting to heal up without any problems. After Uncle Jimmy's, we had some yummy ice cream and then our little family went to a park in Williamsport.  I'm so glad we did, because there was a patriotic band putting on a concert at the park.  It was so nice to see people from the community c...

Saturday was the Logue Family Reunion (Erik's Grammy is part of the Logue family, which was quite large).  It is held every year in Williamsport where there is a big amount of family property that is just beautiful (this is where Uncle Jimmy lives as well).  Erik remembers going when he was 6, and had such great memories.  He was really excited to go again. Erik's great Uncle George has a huge collection of Caterpillar tractors.  Wyatt was pretty much in heaven! Janet, her six siblings, and her Mom I thought it was so cute how Adelyn pretty much attached herself to Grammy all day.  She is such a sweet, funny girl. One of Janet's cousins has an airplane hangar that was just completed.  They dedicated at the reunion to Erik's uncle who died from MS, that they believe was a result of his service in Vietnam and the chemical agent orange he was exposed to. All in all, it was a great day of meeting new people, being in the pretty out...