Sweetness

I was browsing through my pictures the other day and came across this one of Parker. It made me smile so I thought I would pass it on to all of you. This kid is so darn squishy!! Here is a little bit of sweetness from me to you!

First day of School

Well... it is that time of the year again. Back to school!!! I know a lot of you may judge me for what I am about to say, but I don't care. I will say it anyway! I love this time of year. I love that I don't have to hear the fighting and screaming all day long. That I get a break from it for a few blessed hours a day. Don't get me wrong, I love my children with every ounce of my being. I just don't like their behavior all the time. This summer was especially rough for me. Maybe it was because I had at least one other child at my house per day playing with my very social little John. That is great for keeping him out of my hair and I don't have to hear the complaining from him that he is board, but it is hard on Sam. My sweet little Sam is at a funny age right now. He wants to play so badly with his big brother and his friends, buy quite frankly, he his annoying to them. This causes hurt feelings and big fits for Sam. And when Sam gets started on something, he doesn't let it go easily. Sometimes it can last for hours! Why can't he just play with Max?? Max adores Sam and is available to play anytime!! School time for me is wonderful because Sam plays with children his own age, for three hours a day five days per week, then comes home and takes a nap along with Max before going to get little John from school. The break makes me a better mommy and it allows me to be excited when I go to pick them up from school! John started 3rd grade with Miss. Hirstein, Sam started his 2nd year of preschool with Ms. Julie, and Max will start his 1st year of preschool in October. I think the Heavens might just open up and we may hear singing when that day comes!

Camping

We decided to go camping as a family last month(i know it has been a very long time since i last posted). This is the first time ALL of us have gone. I think the last time we went, Little John was 3 and Sam wasn't even a thought in my mind! Wow- has it really been that long?? We got off to a late start on Saturday because John had to work. We left around 3:30 and arrived in Shaver Lake around 4:30. We headed directly to "our spot" hoping it wasn't occupied since it is out in the middle of no where and you can't reserve it. It is the BEST place to camp. There is a little creek that runs right by the camp spot with this massive tree that had fallen years ago stretching over it. It is great for 3 little busy bodies to climb on! As we were coming around the bend, we saw clothes hanging on a line and knew that our most wonderful spot was occupied. So we turned around and began to search for another spot. We were very disappointed until we found an even more awesome spot. This spot also had a creek near by and even had lots of patches of snow! It was the craziest thing. Snow in July. We began to un pack our things and get our camp set up while the boys played happily. Once we were un packed, we began roasting our hot dogs the old fashion way... on a stick. They turned out really yummy and we were all full and happy. By that time it was getting dark so we moved on to the best part of the evening- smores!!! Oh how I love smores. They might just be my most favorite dessert. I have continued making them for myself this week with the left over chocolate and marshmallows. Max was ready for bed soon after and asked to go into the tent. Sam quickly followed, expecting a wrestling match which did happen. The sleeping arrangements were as follows: Me and Little John in the back of the truck and John and the two little boys in the tent. Bad idea! My poor hubby had to deal with rain, a flat air mattress,a growling dog right outside the tent, children who wouldn't go to sleep and children who wet the bed. While I woke up rested the next morning, he did not. Neither did Max, which made for a very hard day. He was tripping and falling and crying and throwing lots of fits! It was actually quite funny and we didn't let that stop our fun. We had a great time exploring and it felt like we had the mountains all to ourselves. I would do it all over again...not sure about John though!

On our way up- the people in the back seat were feeling kind of silly!


Yep... your eyes are not fooling you- that is snow that the kids are standing on! We coulnd't believe it when we pulled up and saw snow! The kids were so excited and ran around like fools while we unpacked camp.




Once we unpacked the boys were ready to shoot at some cans with their bb guns and bow and arrow. This proved to be a bit difficult when Sam decided he didn't need any help! We quickly assured him that he did and there would be our way of doing it...or our way of doing it! He chose our way and daddy helped him!


Let me just tell you how annoying John was with this stick. He would not leave the campfire alone. He insisted on poking the logs to "get them in place" all night long.


We made smores- the BEST part of the trip! We all enjoyed them, as you can see!




When the little boys went to bed (actually they didn't go to sleep. They went into the tent to wrestle each other), we started to tell scary stories. We thought John was old enough for that. Apperantly not! Look at the expression on his face in the next few pictures. He was cracking us up!!



Max's morning pee! look at those cute cheeks


John loves his dog. When he feeds her at night he tells me "mom, I am going to go feed my girl now"





We had a very healthy breakfast consisting of donuts! yum yum


As you can see, Samuel thoroughly enjoyed his!





This is how we saw Max for the majority of the second day. He was quite sad and cried a lot. Maybe he will enjoy himself more next year when he is a little more coordinated and doesn't fall as much





The boys all loved jumping over this creek.








Mikey found these little gems! He was so excited because he is kind of obsessed with sunglasses


This is how dirty these kids were at the end of our trip. This is the one thing I don't like about camping!









The boys were so tired on the way home they fell asleep. John was assisting Sam by holding his head up because his head kept falling down and he looked so uncomfortable.
We had such a great time- despite the lack of sleep and the continuous crying from my Maxi! I will look back on this trip with fond memories!

Boys are Gross!

Because when you go fishing they would rather play with the worms than catch the fish

Knotts Berry Farm

I have been wanting to do this post for quite awhile now but have not found the time. We took a trip last month to Knotts Berry Farm with the boys and John's parents. We decided not to tell the boys until we were on our way. It was so much fun to drive past Little John's school and for him to ask why we were not going there. They were so excited when we finally told them.
When we got there the hotel was totally set up for kids. They were able to swim and play in this water feature they had and play some video games in the arcade.


john would pull this string and water would come spraying out of this fountain thing.



Max made a friend with this little girl from England. I think he liked the way her accent sounded.



the water was pretty cold as it was a chilly day. But you know kids, they really don't care how cold it is, they will still swim if given the chance.

Max was so tired he was falling asleep on Karen's lap.

We went down on Thursday morning because we wanted to go to this Pirate's dinner adventure show. I must say that it was quite over priced considering the food was totally gross. We were looking forward to the shrimp and scallops and chocolate cake that the website said would be served. Instead we got some dried out pork and apple pie. The show was fun though and little John and Johnny even got to be in it!!

Here is the pirate ship stage. It was really cool!

John dressed up helping to shoot the bad guys

His official certificate stating that he successfully helped to save the princess

Johnny on his way to help raise the flag!


After the show we went back to the hotel to get ready for bed. We thought the kids would go right down because we had such a long day with no naps. Didn't happen. The room had two queen beds, a roll away bed and a crib. Gigi and Papa slept in one bed, john and I in another along with little john, sam on the roll away bed because he had a terrible cough and shook the bed violently all night long, and Max in the crib. We all got settled into bed and quickly realized that john was waaaayyyyy to big to share a bed with us. He kicked and dug his toes into me all night. Max wouldn't go to sleep with out his usual one hour chat with sam. Then he pooped so I had to get up and change him. After playing musical beds with john and sam we finally settled down. Then Johnny started snoring loudly which made my sweet little husband complain through out the night causing more of a ruckus. And on top of all of that, there was a conference held at the hotel with hundreds of loud teenagers swimming until who knows how late! Needless to say we were all a bit grumpy the next morning.

That didn't stop us from getting excited about Knotts. It got off to a slow start when we first got there. It is hard to plan out your rides when you have kids with such a big age difference who like different things. We first found Snoopy and took a picture with him.

as you can see Max wouldn't look at the camera

Then we split up so john could go on some big boy rides with daddy and johnny and gigi and I took the little kids to the airplanes which were a big hit!


Max looking oh so excited.


Max deciding that it is kind of fun!

When we met up again they decided to do this skateboard ride which looked babyish and mikey wasn't took thrilled about. They waited for what seemed like an hour when they finally got their turn it lasted for about 30 seconds. Total waste of time!!

Max was totally freaking out at first but ended up really liking it. As you can see Sam totally dug it and wanted to do it again.

Waiting in line for the log ride. Note to self; never put your 2 year old in the front of the log. It will scare them when plummeting down the big drop!






we made john go on a baby ride with sam because sam was scared. john was not happy about it.


john trying not to smile despite the fun he was having.


outside the jaguar ride with papa. his school mascot is the jaguar.









We promised the kids they could buy a new sword while we were there because they are all about swords these days. We searched high and low for one. We looked at the pirate show...no luck. We looked in many gift shops in Knotts....no luck. Sam was starting to get very disappointed and I was starting to get annoyed. We finally found it and the best part was that they were only five dollars!!! Note to self: never tell your kids you will buy them one specific item.





The boys were so happy with their treasures until we had to take it away at dinner time. As you can see Max was getting riled up!


I must say I was quite impressed with little John. He went on so many big rides that I was not even brave enough to go on. We all had a blast and finished up our trip with some good old fried chicken at some famous resturant located outside the park. Max finished up our trip with a good old poop in his pants inside the resturant.