summer cut

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I think Nate's had some words for me swirling in his head.

Its basically summer, nate gets really hot,

so it was time to put my selfish desires behind and cut his luscious locks.

lots to post

I took lots of fun pics on our super fun trip. But, I need a blog-cation to get them all uploaded and posted. We have a friend in town right now. She leaves tomorrow so today we are going to a state park about an hour away. We will see how this goes. We are going to attempt a 1/4 mile hike that is designated as "easy". Yes, with the kids. We had our friends Mark & Jenny and their kids over last night to grill and swim. And later in the week we have some other Baton Rouge friends coming to visit on the way home from their vacation. I have been looking fwd to May because of all of these opportunities. June we will just swim. I plan to blog daily in June like I did last summer. I enjoyed that a lot. But for now I gotta get ready for our hiking trip. I have already made breakfast, packed lunches and got dinner in the crock pot!!! What a morning. I think I will pat myself on the back.

here's lookin' at you Monday

mobile

we (the kids and I) are in mobile, visiting family and friends. having a good time. taking lots of pictures but i will probably wait to upload them when i get home since i did not bring my computer with me. i may put some on my dads computer. we will see how the night goes and where the kids end up sleeping. some of them have been sleeping in the office.

it was a 9 hour trip down here. i decided to take a longer route so that i could go all interstate. so, we traveled from Arkansas, to Tennessee, to Mississippi and finally to Alabama. we stopped for about 45 minutes to eat lunch at McAlisters, potty and rest. all in all it was a good trip down. i will say, the night before i was dreading it big time. but i was pleasantly surprised. not that it makes me want to do it again any time soon!

the next leg of the trip is taking us to Baton Rouge to visit friends and to meet the newest member of the Williamson family. and just in case you are wondering, Chip is at home working hard. i just needed a little break from little rock and the apartment. and since it was mother's day and the baby had arrived it seemed like a good time to go.

new post

there is a new post below the preschool update. it was one i had saved for later so that is where it showed up.

t-ball makes my little boy happy

more pics

preschool update

Ella and Nate are officially signed up for preschool next year. They will go to a Methodist church school here. Our new friend Jenny is sending her son there too, who is Nate's age. I was going to keep them home to save money but I was starting to get apprehensive about homeschooling Streed with the other two monkeys here. They will go two days a week. I basically decided that in order to adequately teach Streed that I needed to be able to give him some undivided instruction and some much needed one-on-one time. Knowing his personality and love languages, he is going to love homeschool.

I am PRAYING that Streed will get accepted into a classical education co-op here that meets all day on Mondays. They are currently full for Kindergarten but may open a second class. If you think about it please pray with me that they will open the second class. It would be so great for him to have one full day a week learning and playing with other kids! He will play t-ball or soccer too but he really enjoyed preschool this past year and made some really great friends.

what we do

A few nights ago daddy decided to grill hotdogs. I like to think that he is grilling them on OUR grill by OUR pool. I guess for now it is OURS! So what do we do while he is grilling? Streed rides his scooter around the pool deck. (DISCLAIMER: I know it sounds dangerous. It is not as bad as it seems). Ella rides her big wheels around the same pool deck. (UMMM...this is as dangerous as it sounds). Nate walks around, sits on the lounge chairs, gets close to the pool, gets in trouble, yada yada. He's 2!

And I...take pictures with my NEW CAMERA!!! I have waited YEARS for this. I was about to send it back yesterday and get a new one because of a few minor issues. But, I stayed up late reading a lengthy review (Olympus e-620). They agreed with my same observations but pointed out other things that I had not taken the time to learn yet. So, today I am more patient and really diving into the manual.

PS-Yesterday we were out there again. One of the girls from the office came out and told me that they really were not supposed to ride or have toys out by the pool. And if they did it again that something else would be said. I was in shock and God held my tongue. I wanted to say, "Exactly what does that mean? You are going to kick us out?" I got really sad because there is no where to play here at the apt. I could drag all three kids and three riding toys up to the parking lot for them to ride by the cars. (We live on the bottom floor but you have to walk down twenty stairs from the parking lot to get to our apt. It's hilly here) This is really my biggest beef with apartment living--it is not kid friendly. Anyway. We are here and will just be making the most of it.

Just put your feet in

Why do I waste my breath? The dynamic duo hears what I say kind of like the teacher on Charlie Brown. That has to be the case. Surely they would not disobey in front of my face...as I take countless pictures of how cute they are in their moment of weakness. I mean, what 2 and 3 year old can resist a pool on a sunny hot day in May.