VBS 2012

We just finished up an amazing week of VBS at our church; Ansley got on stage to sing for the last day and Eric caught a few shots and a video.  WARNING: video is not for the faint at heart/stomach!!  If you get sea sick easily, do not watch the video as it is very shaky!!

 a little red eye...........

As you can see from the above pictures, she is wearing a HUGE white bow in her hair.

We were in boot camp all week and now we are part of God's army.  The kids had fun and enjoyed spending time with the bigger kids who were the helpers.  I was one of Ansley's teachers and can honestly say it was an experience!!  I would go to VBS from 9a-1p and then work until 3:30 or 4 when Eric would bring me the kids and go to school.....it made for a long week!

Eric allowed Ansley to be a photog later!

Austin had fun too; he was given lots of Happy Birthday high-fives on Tuesday and then got to tell all about his party when he returned on Wednesday.

6

Ansley is happy to say that Austin made it to 6 today!

 Here he is this morning opening a gift from Farya, Paul & Milla in Austin/Seattle.  Austin and Paul are kindred souls as they share the same birthday just a few years apart :)

 Austin was too excited to open his presents and cards from Texas; he even did a little chicken dance!!!  This all before 8:30am when we left to go to Vacation Bible School at our church; we are in Boot Camp VBS style all week, so I am starting to talk in cadence.

Then later on, we had his birthday party at the pool. Here Eric is teaching them how to do pop rocks; only a mother could love that choice!!

 Then on to the pinata!!  What is a Texan's Juneteenth birthday celebration without a pinata?!? 

 While that is a nice line of kids, I can assure you it did not take more than a few hits for it to come crashing to the ground!!

 Austin was so nice to share some of his candy with his Uncle Bunny!!

 And then of course Eric had to get in and take a few Tootsie Rolls.....

 Ansley was so proud of her loot!!

 Time for singing and cupcakes!!

 The most painful part of the whole party was I made Austin wait until we got home to open the gifts so I could keep track of things and of course install batteries, etc......needless to say, once we got home it was a free for all!!

This is some sort of scary reaper; he might use it to slay the Lego men in his bed!!

All in all, we had a great day!!  Albeit so very long!!  I swore to myself I would post these before bed and I have, but now it is time for some shut eye!! 

Just a few quick notes for my "baby book" before bed: Austin you are in love with Legos right now; my feet on the other hand are not :)  You are working hard on your worksheets this summer, despite the grumblings we get in the mornings!!  We need to work on your swimming as you really wanted to go in the deep end today with your buddies but were too embarrassed to wear your life jacket.  But I was proud you did not try to be brave and go in the deep end just to show your friends you could!!  I love your energy and perseverance!  We are so glad we could see you grow for your first 6 years!!  Love you!!

Long lost & forgotten

Don't worry blog world; I did not forget about you!!  But I did get a little busy!!  Enough excuses!!  Let's get to the pictures!!

 This is from LegoLand; needless to say Austin is obsessed with LegoLand and his Grandma took him to it over Spring Break.  However, after waiting for over 2 hours and not getting in due to the length of the line, she just got Austin a cool Lego set and headed home.  Can't blame her for that!!

 They also took AC1 to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and went to this cool bird farm; they also found this neat bridge to cross over.

 Then Grandma took Austin on the train; it will not be long until they are the same height!!

 We cannot forget about Charlie; the only blind Labrador who is not a retriever.

 This is from Ansley's end of school party, she is signing Our God is an Awesome God; her favorite song!!  I will try to add a video of this later.

 So this is the snake Eric found in our garage.  He found it a few days after Ansley had stumbled upon one in the yard.  Problem was, she found the snake and in a normal tone of voice said "snake" while squatted down on the ground looking at the snake that was only inches away from her.  Once I realized what was going on, An & I had to have a BIG talk about what to do when you see a snake!! 

 This picture is from today when the kids found out Eric was going to be taking them to a huge park to see a soap box derby.  They were super excited!!

 Eric took tons of pictures as he of course wants to try and make one next year with Austin......we'll see how that works!!

 They had to take a break; they were on the side of the road from where the cars came racing by....it was a bit warm today here; but nothing compared to Texas!!

 Ansley found her a new friend, as they did not take Charlie with them.  It seems our next pup may have to be a golden retriever; maybe it can retrieve :)

They were playing in this field where all of a sudden parachutes began to land with people attached to them; Ansley told me all about how these people just came out of the sky and kept falling to the ground and they could not stay up in the sky...

So otherwise, what have I missed out on posting about.........well, there was a trip to Texas for Dad's ##th birthday; fill in the blanks for whatever year you want to make him :)   A nice April filled with lots of sun & flowers; Eric finished his undergraduate coursework after 19 years of trying and is now in graduate school (he did not graduate, he will walk when he gets his master's degree; I am not that awful that I did not get that picture!!); Ansley finished preschool; Granddad & Nanny came to see Ansley for her 4th birthday; Austin finished Kindergarten; and we have been going to the pool a lot!!

I know; where are the pictures???  I must do better!!