And the wall came tumbling down...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Eat in kitchen no more!!!! Mark did such a good job. The kitchen seems so much bigger now. We taped on the floor where we want our peninsula. Tomorrow we are going shopping for cabinets and countertops. The kids are going to the neighbors' (YAY) and Mark and I are getting the whole morning to shop and go out. We (ok, so I mean Mark) still have a lot of work to do, but phase 1 of the kitchen is now complete.

Vote on the new kitchen colors. I fixed it now so anyone should be able to leave a comment, so PLEASE let me know you're reading!

Kids say the darnedest things

Some funny things lately....

Becca's learning how to talk. She can say many words, including more, milk, all done, no, up, down, baby, yes....she can even say Elmo and Big Bird. Her favorite word is "Mommy." She walks around the house yelling "Mommy Mommy" over and over again. But she doesn't say "Daddy." In fact, she calls Mark, "Mommy." She even calls the dog "Doggie" but when she says it, it sounds like "Doddy." So whenever she sees Spike, she calls him "Doddy" and Mark thinks she's talking to him, but she's not, and then she calls him "Mommy" again. He's irritated, but I think it's funny.

Nathan's afraid of bugs. One of the neighbor boys taught him to step on bugs. One day, I found a praying mantis, and I showed it to him, and he said, "I'm going to step on it" and I told him that if he steps on it, then the bug will die. So he stepped on it, and sure enough, the bug died. Later, my neighbor caught a frog and showed it to Nathan, and Nathan said, "If I step on the frog, it will die." I got him a little remote control car, and Mark told him not to step on it, and he said "If I step on the car, it will die." Mark had to explain to him that the car would not die, but it would break. It's funny to hear how he interprets what you tell him at this age.

Due to the abundance of pregnant women (not me) around us, Nathan also says he has a baby in his belly. I asked him if it was a boy or girl, and he said it was a boy. It's name is Helicopter. I guess Nathan's destined for stardom, he'd fit right in with all the weird Hollywood parents.

One sad...(not really)....we got our first preschool letter. My baby's going to preschool this fall. I can't believe that it's only a month away!!!!

Tractor Time

The kids love playing on the tractor, so I thought I'd post some videos. I looked up, and Nathan was helping Becca do the tractor, so I ran for the camera. As soon as Nathan saw me, though, he wanted to drive it, so it isn't very long. Not the best videos, but they're cute!!

Daddy was busy tearing down the wall between the dining room and the kitchen....I'll add pics of that as it is done.

There's no place like home...

You know the saying...we plan, God laughs.....

On what we planned to be the last day of vacation, I woke up sick, so we had to stay another day. Poor Mark had to try to keep the kids away from me, which was not an easy task in a small hotel room. He had fun taking the kids to McDonalds for their first ever Happy Meals, and letting them play on the playland. Then, after naps, he took them to Valley Forge National Park, where they learned about George Washington.

We also had our first scary "lost child" incident. Mark was bringing the kids back to the room for their naps, and he was holding sleeping Becca and the diaper bag, and when he got out of the elevator, the doors shut quickly behind him, leaving Nathan in the elevator all by himself. Mark frantically pushed the buttons and tried to get the door to reopen, but the elevator returned to the main floor, and thankfully, the receptionist recognized Nathan from Mark having to re-check us into the hotel. The receptionist called me and told me they had Nathan, and Mark showed up shortly after that. I shudder to think of all the stuff that could've gone wrong (elevator stopping at another floor, Nathan wandering to the parking lot, etc.) but thankfully God was watching out for all of us. He burst into tears when he saw me and over the course of several days, has told me about being "lost."

So, instead of the 3rd, we spent the 4th of July at Sesame Street again. It was still fun the second day, but it was really crowded. Nathan rode a rollercoaster with Mark and a waterslide all by himself. Both kids zonked out as soon as they hit their carseats, and slept until the next morning. The only fireworks we saw were little ones as we passed over the mountains. We made it home after a brief detour in Indy to see Grandpa John and Grandma Dee Dee, and another stop in Bloomington to get Spike from Grandma Susan. After almost 1900 miles this week, I do not want to even look at my van, let alone ride in it ever again.

Eleven Score and Twelve Years Ago....

We were so close to Philadelphia, that we couldn't resist trying to see some of the historical sites.
Mark and I are amateur history buffs, and we love learning the things that we didn't learn in school. Philadelphia is a really neat city; there are storytellers throughout the historical areas. Many of the buildings were available for free tours, and many people were dressed "in character."
Nathan would tell the characters about his airplanes, and they would tell him they had never heard of those before. It was funny watching him explain airplanes. Here's Betsy Ross with Mark and the kids. The woman who plays Betsy and the man who plays Benjamin Franklin are getting married in real life tomorrow!! They are throwing an old-fashioned wedding presided by the mayor, and it's going to be televised.


Here, though it's not the best picture, is them getting interviewed by one of the local news crews.
Here's Nathan in the same room that the constitution was drafted.









One of the people was showing Nathan how to play a game similar to horseshoes. He said that they quit playing horseshoes during the war, because they needed to the metal, so they resorted to playing with ropes.


We're heading back to Sesame Place tomorrow, and then we're coming home.

Can you tell me how to get

how to get to SESAME STREET??



We've spent our first day at Sesame Street (we have 2 day passes) and we had SO much fun. Nathan and Becca rode ride after ride. We spent the morning riding the dry rides. Nathan got to "jump" on Ernie's bed and go down huge slides. Nathan and Mark rode a ride that shot them in the air and brought them down fast and we all rode Elmo's flying fish, and the carousel.



We ate dinner with Big Bird and friends. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, and the characters came by and spent time with each table. I was really impressed with the amount of time each character spent with us. They performed during the meal, and Becca loved to watch them dance. At the end, we all joined the characters in a congo line.

Words cannot describe the excitement on Becca's face whenever she saw a character. She would scream "HI" at them, and she would wave her arms. She would sign and say "More" when every song ended. She threw a fit, when we wouldn't let her join in the parade. It's hilarious to see the differences in our kids. Whenever Nathan saw a character, he went into his serious mode, absorbing everything he saw, but Becca's excitement was written all over her face.

After the parade, we hit the water. It was a very hot day, so we were ready to get wet. There were many pools that were just perfect for the kids. Nathan loved the water slides, and cried when we moved to the next area. Becca took her nap on the lazy river. We walked through the gift shop on the way out, and Mark let Becca hold a stuffed Elmo while we looked around. She held it so tight, and wouldn't give it up for anything. She cried and cried when we left without Elmo.

Nathan crashed at the end of the day. We get to spend 1 more day at Sesame Place, so I'll post more pictures then!!