Candy Class

Camden and Lincoln had a blast at a candy making class at the Blue Owl Sweet Shoppe this past Sunday. Harlyn and Brooke were there also, but the boys only paid attention to each other. They only made it to the second candy before they were begging to eat something. So, Rachel and I took pity on them and let them try some of their creations. They made chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered marshmallows, cookie cheeseburgers, chocolate suckers and had some tootsie roll chocolate playdoh that they made into shapes. It was a fun afternoon!

Happy Birthday, Paul, no...Rich!

We spent an awesome Saturday with the Bates' celebrating Rich's 70th birthday. These people truly are our 2nd family and we have such good times together. It was a fun day and we hope Rich has an awesome year!

The story behind his cake: Rich likes to buy everything off the clearance food rack at Wal-Mart, so Mary had the cake made to look like they got it off the clearance rack, had the name crossed out and his  name added. 

This was a funny app the kids were playing around with that switches the faces in a picture. I think Camden makes a pretty cute girl-even with a mustache! 

This picture cracks me up because these two munchkins had not eaten much all day(just chips). It was 8:30p.m. and they decided they were hungry. So, Amanda grabbed some canned green beans. They watched TV and ate the whole can! I wasn't complaining-at least it was healthy. 

10 things right now

• Loving to play outside since its summertime and find bugs(even first thing in the morning-you ask to go outside) 
• Eating chocolate cookies and cheese sticks and drinking apple juice(those are your 3 staples)
• Watching Transformers Prime, Super Heroes Squad and EvanTube on Mommy's computer
• Wanting to see your friend, Lincoln(good thing we have a play date this weekend)
• Exercising on your swing set(that is what you tell us you are doing when you are swinging)
• Playing with all the forgotten about toys in your closet(you re-discovered that you have a closet a few days ago and have drug out every single toy that was in there)
• Asking every day for Bey Blades(your friend, Blake, at school brings them and you LOVE them)
• Looking forward to Mommy being able to take you to school(Daddy has been taking you and picking you up while Mommy has summer school)
• Singing(or humming I guess) the theme song to Star Wars
• Negotiating to skip a bath every night

Hello, Jefferson County!

So, Todd surprised Camden and I with a blow-up pool one afternoon last week. I got a text with a photo while I was teaching summer school. My first thought was oh, wow we are definitely looking like Jeff county now. Ha! But at least, you can't see it from the street.
Camden had been asking if we could get out his little pool. Todd spotted this pool in the Aldi's ad and knew Camden would love it. For $23, the pool has already paid for itself since the boys have been in it every day that it's been warm enough and hasn't rained. The water has been a little chilly, but once it warms up, I promised Camden I would get in. This boy loves the water!

Happy Father's Day

I think Todd's favorite part of Father's Day was reading Camden's answers on his My Great Dad page from preschool. We were cracking up! I love that we have this to remember how he thought of his daddy at age 4. 

Summer School

So, I am not going to lie. I was not at all excited to teach summer school this year, but I knew we could use the money for adoption expenses. And I was especially apprehensive when I saw Paint-A-Palooza next to my name for the afternoon fun classes. When I opened the boxes and saw all these 35 bottles of tempera paint, my Type A personality just about fainted. I had visions of my neat classroom covered in paint....

Well, today I am halfway done with summer school and it hasn't been that bad. I can honestly say, at times, it has been fun. Here are some of my creations from afternoon Paint-A-Palooza:

First Pool Visit

Today was the first really hot day in a while and tonight, Mom had us all up for Imo's pizza and to go swimming. Sometimes the best times are not planned. Thanks, Mom!

We've been flocked!

We came home from the lake on Sunday to find a flock of flamingoes in our front yard. It was a hoot! Camden couldn't get out of the car fast enough. The flamingoes are a fundraiser for the Senn-Thomas volleyball team and we had been flocked by Macy and Sherry Pope. Camden was a bit disappointed that there weren't flamingoes inside too. I posted it on Facebook and Bates' commented that he likes how Todd was trying to figure out a defensive scheme to keep the flamingoes from scoring!

Lake Weekend

We spent a very relaxing weekend at the lake with some Hillsboro friends of Todd's. To be honest, I was not that hip on going due to the predicted bad weather on Friday night, but "we" decided to brave it. Mom kept us updated on the watches and warnings via texting on our way there. I came pretty close to having a full-on panic attack while we were driving through the heaviest rain I have ever seen for about ten minutes(and I just about gnawed my lip off), but, like usual, Todd took it all in stride  (my Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected). Once we got there, the rain stopped and then weather was beautiful on Saturday. The kids insisted on swimming, so we tried it. They lastly less than five minutes-the lake water was just too cold. It was such a good time with no schedule and nothing to worry about-just hanging out, playing and talking. The view from their deck was just amazing and so peaceful. I am very glad "we" decided to go!