Eat and Sleep, that's all we ever do... and sometimes at the same time!

As far as falling asleep goes, Carter has been the funniest one of my children. He has fallen asleep in different locations (kneeling down at his chair, on the rug in the front hallway, laying on top of Spencer) and doing different things (playing with toys, playing the Wii, eating.) Of them all, falling asleep with food in his mouth is my favorite. Usually, we don't know he has food in his mouth, until he wakes up and starts chewing again. This time, the cracker was obvious and SOOO funny, I just had to take some pictures!

Williamsburg Days 6 and 7: Water Country USA and Home

On Wednesday, we finally got to go to Water Country USA and had a great time... It was lightly raining all morning, so the park was fairly empty - no lines for anything... We stayed until about noon and were just about to have lunch when they closed the park for severe weather. They didn't think they would re-open, so we were issued rain day passes. They also stamped our hands just in case they did re-open in the evening. So, we left, had lunch, enjoyed a restful afternoon and then Dave, Vivian, and I took the 2 boys back to the park in the evening for another 1.5 - 2 hours. The boys practiced their swimming skills, went down some water slides, went in the wave pool, and we all relaxed in the lazy river.
We came home packed up what we could and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast, finished packing, and left the resort. It was an uneventful ride home and we were sad to leave but glad to be back in our own beds. It was a really great trip to Williamsburg and I look forward to doing it again sometime!

Williamsburg Day 5: Water Country USA?? Nope.

July 8: We were suppossed to go to Water Country USA (a water park), but when Gary and Danielle both found that their cars had been vandalized, plans changed. While they dealt with resort managers, the police, insurance, and making appointments to get their windows fixed, Dave and I took our very disappointed children to the pool. This is the day that both boys learned to swim semi-effectively, under the water. They both got very good at it and fairly comfortable in the water. Also, we discovered that Miana's top teeth broke through at some point either on July 7 or 8, so it was a productive morning.

After naps and lunch, we went bowling, while Grandpa stayed home and watched over the damaged cars (making sure there were no leaks in the rain.)
Spencer did very well, all by himself.
After several frames, Carter even did it by himself.
Dave, of course, is a master bowler...

We ended the day with dinner and treats from Dairy Queen!

Williamsburg Day 4: Swimming and a Movie

July 7: We tried to let Dave sleep in this day because he had gone at 3:30 am to take Don and his family to the airport. Then we took the kids to the indoor pool. Aunt Danielle was a big help, it was great to have 3 adults to 3 children... Spencer and Carter both took turns trying to swim and holding their breath. They were doing really well with it. Miana just absolutely loves the water, so she had a blast. She was getting tired fast, though, so when Grandma came and offered to take her home, we didn't complain.

After lunch and naps we went to see a movie. We went to Wall-E. The boys did really well sitting through it, Miana was a different story... Taking a wiggley, walking baby with an attitude to a movie isn't my favorite activity and it reminds me of why I only watch things when they come out on video. She was eating popcorn off the floor, climbing up the steps, trying to crawl under the seats, and, if you dared pick her up, she would scream and arch her back so you couldn't hold her well. It was horrible. I saw only the first 15-20 minutes of the movie (oh, except those few minutes when I took Carter to the bathroom) then the rest was in the hall with her, except the last 10 - 15 when Dave came and took her so I could watch the movie. He didn't have an easy time of it either... Afterwards he said he couldn't believe how hard she was being... I can, I spent the entire time at National Treasure 2 with her acting that way which is why I had decided I didn't want to go to another movie with her EVER. We were convinced that she was older now and would be better. Um, sure... Nope. No more movies. So, I saw bits and pieces of the show, probably totally up to an hour. Overall, I liked the movie, or at least what I saw of it.

I think we then went swimming again that night, after dinner, but the indoor pool was totally crowded, so it wasn't as pleasant, which is likely why I blocked it from memory.

Williamsburg Day 3

Sunday, July 6, 2008 was a really restful, relaxing day. We went to church early in the morning (I think it started at 9am) we came home, had lunch, played lots of games together, and really just tried to enjoy our last day with Don and Christina and their kids. They left very early in the morning the next day (thier flight left at 6am!) We really loved spending time with the cousins and it was sad to see them go!

Williamsburg Day 2, Part 2: The Children's Museum

After lunch, we headed to Portsmouth. The children's museum in Portsmouth is one of my favorite places. It has something for everyone even a tot area for the little ones to explore and play. They have a planetarium (although I was told it isn't what you think of, I didn't go in), a giant fake computer to climb inside, a train room, an area with rescue vehicles to climb on and in, a play doctor's office, a grocery store, a bank, and areas dealing with sound, balance, magnets, light, and other science areas. Our favorite place is the giant bubbles and trying to get it to go all the way to the top while standing inside. Spencer was the only one that could do that! It was a very busy day, followed by a quick trip to Best Buy and a new video game in the evening. (Not for us, but for us to enjoy - Thanks Danielle!)

Williamsburg Day 2, Part 1: The Beach

On Saturday, July 5, we went to Ocean View Beach Park in Norfolk, VA. The kids all had a blast. Here's my little daredevil, we had a hard time keeping her out of the waves. The beach had some outdoor showers and restrooms, so we were able to rinse off and change our clothes, so we didn't feel so sandy. After the beach, we found a local park to have lunch. We ate and then let the kids play on the playground. The boys loved the tire swing, Baby just loved to try to climb up the slide, she never did make it up on her own, but she tried for a good 10 minutes. Here are the boys...

Williamsburg Day 1, Part 3

I nearly forgot that the older boys (Dave, Don, and Gary) took the younger boys (Spencer, Carter, Andrew, and Brendan) to the pool right after lunch (before mini-golf). Grandma, Christina, Miana, and I all walked over to see how they were doing. These pictures are curtesy of Christina...
Grandma helping Baby put her feet in the baby pool... Carter in the baby pool...
Attacking Daddy...

Williamsburg Day 1, Part 2

After the outlet mall, where I got some really great deals, we went home and had lunch. We found a place to play miniture golf. We played that afternoon, even when it started to down pour.

After dinner we played some games, let the kids stay up late to watch a movie, and we watched some of the DC fireworks on TV. There was a terrible storm so we didn't go anywhere to watch them. Besides, I started to have a panic attack when I heard that Yorktown was expecting 30,000 people, and Busch Gardens was expecting even more than that. I was glad to stay in, nice and cozy in our resort suite. It was a great 4th of July.

Williamsburg Day 1, Part 1

Finally, I am getting around to posting about our Williamsburg trip. Better late than never?

July 3 -

We left in the afternoon and traveled approximately 3 hours to Williamsburg, Va. In my other post, I put a link to the Resort. Don and his family arrived during the night while we were sleeping.

July 4 -

In the morning, we didn't want to wake his family so we tried to keep everyone who was awake in our suite. The kids watched TV together in the bed...

After everyone was up and we had all had breakfast, we decided to spend the morning at the outlet mall.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of 4th of July, 2008

"I'm sad we're leaving, I like it here."

That's what Carter said when we were packing up to leave the resort this morning. We were at King's Creek Plantation Resort in Williamsburg, VA with all of Dave's family. It was a ton of fun and nice to get away. I wasn't very good at taking pictures, so I encourage you to look here, at this post by my sister-in-law. She loves to take pictures and explains well what we did there. I will post more detail soon and a few more pictures.

Grateful for good neighbors and learning experiences

Last week, when my neighbor was out of town, Spencer was riding his bike on the neighbor's driveway and I told him not to ride between the 2 cars, he circled around and rode between the 2 cars. As he did, another neighbor walked between the cars and Spencer had to swerve to miss her and really scratched up the car with his bike handle. So now, 2 things had to happen... Spencer had to be punished for disobeying me (I told him not to ride between the 2 cars) and we had to talk to the neighbor about the damage. So, Dave and I came up with what we felt was fair and a good learning opportunity for him. We estimated that the damage was likely close to $500 (as we've gone through this before, the last time he ran into a neighbor's car) so I figured out what the current minimum wage is for VA and how many hours it would take him to work off the $500. Now, we just had to wait until the neighbor got home to tell them what happened, with the plan being that Spencer would work for us, if we were paying for the car to get fixed, and we would have him work for the neighbor if they didn't want us to pay for it, either way, he would work off the money and not get to ride his bike until it's paid off.
So, enough of the set up, here's what happened: The neighbor got home and Spencer went over by himself and told the neighbor that he scratched the car. He came home and told me that he had told him, so I walked back over with him to make sure that the neighbor knew that we were willing to pay for the repairs. She smiled and said that they would never ask us to pay for it and I told her that we would do it if she changed her mind and that Spencer would be working for her all summer to pay it off. A couple of days later (this last Monday) I was able to talk to her husband and wanted again to let him know that we were willing to pay for the damages. He then told me about what happened the day they got home and when Spencer first told him about the scratch. He said that it was the first thing Spencer did was to confess to him, showed him the scratch, and said that he was sorry. My neighbor then said that he thanked Spencer for telling the truth. He told him that telling the truth is sometimes hard to do, but that it is always the right thing to do. He then reminded him to be more careful with his bike. I am so, so, so grateful for a good neighbor that takes a moment to teach my son the importance of honesty. That same day, I had a different neighbor boy come to tell me the truth about something of ours that he had broken. I had done the same thing, thanked him for his honesty and told him to be more careful. Because both of these things happened on Monday, they were perfect examples to use for a Family Home Evening lesson on honesty that night. It went well and it was good to talk about briefly with the kids. I say briefly because all FHE lessons have to be quick. During our activity portion of FHE, we were playing the Wii together, making it Family Home Wiivning. Carter was playing tennis and Miana walked in front of him as he was swinging. She started to cry and Carter fell down next to her and started to cry too. He was saying, "Oh, I'm sooo sorry, Baby. I didn't mean to hurt you. I hope you are okay, I'm so sorry." He was totally crying. He was so upset that he had hurt her. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. So, I took this moment to teach him. He sat on my lap and I said, "Did you feel bad that you hurt Miana?" He said, "Yes." So I told him that was the feeling I want him to feel everytime I say he should say sorry and that I really want him to feel sorry, not just say sorry. He's only 4, so I'm sure that we will have to talk about it many more times before he really understands. Woohoo for teaching moments!!