The Ballpark

First, THANK YOU for all the feedback. It gave me some ideas to roll around in my head. I may even try and become more crafty!!!   Not quite a natural thing for me.   But I definitely got some ideas floating around in my head.   Now, if there were about 6 more hours in a day! HA! Or a fairy to clean and cook at my house. :-)


Last night Robert join up with his old softball team. It's been a while since we've been at the ball park. Once we hit 3 little ones, it just was too hard to fit in evening softball with everything else we had going on. Then Rhodes came...yeah right. But we've gotten to a really great place with the kids. They can run around an play. Rhodes even gives me a good 40-45 minutes of peaceful stroller time until he says "ENOUGH!".

And with this cloud behind us, it couldn't have been a nicer evening. There was even a little breeze!!!

I love the above shot!  I set the ISO at 160.  I shot it on manual with spot metering, auto white balance, shutter speed 1/320 at f/16.  Then in camera raw (I shoot in RAW) I boosted the blue saturation a bit.  Then ran Pioneer Woman's fresh and colorful action!  I thought it turned out so pretty!

One of 2 shots of Robert.  I need to get better at sports photography!

Robert has the kids addicted to sunflower seeds!  It was funny watching Landon eat them and then spit them out just like Robert.






Lillian preferred a bird's eye view.  Even climbed up higher, above the bar before I could yank her down.

Rhodes was a good boy for the most part!!





Saw his feet and realized somebody had a little coloring party on them.  One guess.





Yes her.

I think I'm ready to get back into going to the ball park! The kids really enjoyed it and I wasn't a nervous wreck trying to watch them all!

Hey You

Yeah. You.  I see you.  Out of my left eye...

No.  Make that my right eye.


Ok, anywho....I'm gonna put myself out there a bit and ask a little question.


Is there ONE thing that you'd like to see more or less of on this tiny little blog I have???!?


I know for me, it's [the blog] has turned into an outlet of sorts.  Photography, my kids, silly stories.  Every once in a while a tip or trick I've learned during my few short years as a mom.  I don't have time to write novels on here, but I have enjoyed showing a SLIVER (I emphasize sliver, b/c this blog doesn't even come close to showing 1/100th of what goes on in our life...believe it or not) of what goes on under our roof!


Honestly, "the blog" is more for me than you.  Since I stay home SO much - literally - it helps me feel connected - in a weird over The Internets way - and I also enjoy reading other blogs (family blogs and informational blogs) out there in the blogosphere. 


I'm not out to target a certain audience or become some famous blogger, but I wouldn't mind just a little feedback.  Just to get my brain churning.  Get the creative juices flowing, if you will.

I guess I'm asking you to slightly inspire or challenge me.

So, throw it out there if you want.  I'm up for it.




And one more thing.

Have you ever seen an Aqua Skipper?!?!

I 've seen pictures of them before, but I got to witness one in real life this past weekend.




They.Are.Intriguing.

To say the least.

It's one of those things that looks so easy but one you hop up on it, it ain't as easy as you thought.

But once you "get it"....you're good as gold.  Skipping around on top of the water!!!








It's a hydrofoil.  And you have to self propel it across the water.  It's a challenge, but super fun to try.

And even more fun to watch!!!





I wish I had pics of Robert and I trying.  Maybe next time.  I'm sure they're slightly comical.

Makeshift Carseat

I just love kids.  Especially my kids.  :-)  They can be so creative in order to do/get what they want.  For instance, the other day, Lillian was determined to get the mail.  She saw the mail man come and Olivia and Landon weren't home to help her up to the mailbox.  So she took it upon herself to figure out a way to get up there.  In fact, she didn't even ask for my help.

I look out at the mail box and she had carried the potty stool all the way out to the mail box, stood on it, got the mail, and then carried everything back.

Get it girl!!

So Olivia has been dying to drive Rhodes around in the jeep.  I've been hesitant.  But I sneaked away the other evening sans kids and came back to this.

She had a made her own car seat for him to sit in.

And get this...it actually worked.  For the most part.

His little bottom fit perfectly behind the lawn mower and it anchored him just enough for him to keep his balance.  And the jump rope was adjustable.  So he could move around and not fall out.






And (no surprise here), he LOVED it.





He even had a chew toy - the wooded end of the jump rope.









So they played and played and he was as happy as can be. 




Kids come up with the craziest ideas sometimes.

Our Daddy's Day

It was like...a million degrees on Father's Day this year - MELTING - and it's only June.  So we tried to cool things off courtesy of one of Lillian's birthday gifts.

The kids played!




Rhodes wasn't a fan of the water.  I think it was a bit cold for him.





But he's always a fan of eating.  Look at his little folded fingers!  Too cute!

And hangin' out half nekid.





With some sister love.

I guess golf was on Robert's mind because he had the U.S. Open on all day.  Scratch that - weekend.





So he dug a hold and played a little chipping game with Landon.  I got in on the action a little, but was NOT good. 

We snacked and played. 

Robert and I sipped on "lemonade".  ;-)





It was a nice relaxing Father's Day.  Especially after the crazy weekend before!

Happy Father's Day Robert! You're a GREAT Father!! To many more!

We Love You!

The Birthday In The Dark Part 2

Ok, so where were we.

Oh yes.  After cake it was PRESENT TIME!  :-)  She received some great gifts - some that we put to the test on Father's Day.  But more on that later.

The balloons (and string) were a hit with the babies!  They crawled around after them all night!








Before it got too dark outside, we had ONE more game to play.





Classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Robert demonstrated.









Then the kids went!!!





It was hilarious to watch.  Can't go wrong with this game!





As you can see, some were real close and some were WAY off.  ;-)

So here's where it gets memorable.

At, I don't know, around 8:30 the POWER GOES OUT AGAIN!  We had kids all over the place, including the basement and it went PITCH BLACK on them.

So all the freaked out kids came upstairs and ALL sat on the couch together.  We had candles galore going.  Safe.  Real safe.








Then Robert, brilliant idea man, decides to get a balloon and pop it behind the kids head to scare them again.  Nice, huh.  He thought it'd be funny.

I promise he's loving.  Promise.





The kids.........were NOT amused.






Did you know it's really hard to take pics when the power is out?  Yeah....I can just hear my mom saying, "Lindsay, just turn on the flash!" ;-)

So we all sat around in the dark talking and stuff until I guess everyone got bored.  ;-)  No, just kidding, it was time to put the kids down.  Or try anyway.

I guess everyone fell alseep ok.  But Robert, poor Robert.  Was LIVID.  He called the power company and they said it would be on by 1:15 a.m.  Then another lady said by 10:30.  He was tired and hot and just frustrated with the whole situation.  He said he laid awake thinking, "It's GOT to come on right now."  For 6 hours.

Well, 3:00 a.m., it finally comes back on.  Well, what happens?  ALL the lights come back on in the house.  So he got up and turned them all off.

Well, the next morning everyone slept til 8:00.  Which is a record around here.  AND we made it to church at 9:30.  ;-)  Just had to add that in.  I think that's a record too.

All in all, it was SO much fun.  But I tell ya.  There just isn't anything like good ole electricity!  I would have NOT made it in the "olden days".

And that's the story of the birthday party in the dark.

Happy Birthday Lillian!  We Love You!

Birthday In The Dark Part 1

LILLIAN TURNED 3!!!!!!!!!!!!

 And we all know that anything with Lillian is never less than adventurous!!  Her birthday proved to be one that will go down in the books for SURE and a very memorable party for all that attended!!

Little Miss Thang knew exactly what she wanted for her party.  Anything with Tinkerbell.  So Tink it was!  She wanted a Tinkerbell cake (of course) and in my head I wasn't forking out the $40 or so that it costs for one of those cakes.

So I made my own!  For $12 (the Tink doll) plus the cost of butter.  :-)  I have a dome cake pan and it was SUPER fun to make it for her!

She loved it!

Ta da!!

Ok so her party was at 5:30 on Saturday.  Well, at 1:00 p.m. we had a freakish storm cell clip us and the power went out.  And FINALLY came back on at 4:45.  So much for prepping in the light.  We were still a "go" since we were grilling everything and could have just played outside.  I mean, electricity is awesome and all, but we could have (worst scenario) pulled it off sans power.






Hottest grillmate around!! ;-)  Did I mention he's taken?

But thankfully, the power came back on in the nick of time.  Like 45 minutes before the party started!  The guests started arriving and Lillian was quite the little hostess greeting them all!






So...........the first game we had lined up was courtesy of the VBS the kids attended this past week.  And I knew we just HAD to play it!






First, you tied balloons on a string to everyone's ankle. Then everyone had to try and pop everyone else's balloon.  The last person to still have a balloon on their ankle won!






Huddled up ready to go!




And they're OFF!













And guess who won!  LILLIAN!  I think her strategy was perfect!  Don't. Stop. Running. :-)





After the balloon game (which we totally thought would be hilarious for the daddies to play) we played outside some more, ate dinner, and went in for cake!

Red Rover is an awesome game.  Nuf said.  It was HILARIOUS to watch. 

Being careful not to set Tink on fire!










Love how AB is DYING to get to the cake!





After cake is when the REAL fun started.  :-)