Family Fun

Mike came home from work today and said they were having a family fun event at one of the local Universities. He heard this from one of his students at school, so we were not sure of the validity of it.

As we got close we could see there were some fun things to do. The student must have been right. So, we went to check it out!
They had an obstacle course. The boys really enjoyed this. The went through twice, and would have more, but the line got to be too long!

They were able to race each other through! This was a lot of fun!

Then the boys went off for a little pre-dinner snack. What else would you have for appetizers than snow-comes and cotton candy?

While they ate, they watched people play a game. Then they deiced to play. The game was to throw darts at balloons that had paint in them.

Both boys were able to play, but neither popped a balloon.

They even had horse and carriage rides. The boys and I did this, Mike took pictures. The horses names were Sonny and Cher.

Mike got a picture of us in the carriage. Austin was making me laugh because he would point out all the things that were not like the "olden days." Our driver was drinking a Coke Zero, and Austin was quick to point out, they did not have Coke Zero in the olden days. I'm sure they did not have signs reminding people to stay in their seats either!

They had face painting. Mike did this for Adam...

...Austin made himself into Bumble Bee (the transformer). He painted his arm yellow. He had it washed off before I got a picture of it.

It was a fun time!

Dandelion Dust

Once a week the boys go out and have a "guy time" with Mike. They go for dinner and then check out stores, and just have a good bonding time. I, on the other hand, have time alone to get things done, or go out with a friend (have done this a few times), or run errands, whatever I need to while they are out.

Tonight was their night to go out. I had some things that I needed to take to my parents house, so as it happened I was leaving right behind them. At the end of our road there is a Church, and next to the church is a nice size field. As I got to the end of the road, I saw that Mike had pulled his car over by the field. I wondered if something was wrong, or if the boys were not buckled correctly, so many things crossed my mind.

I pulled up beside Mike and asked if everything was okay. He replied, "Yes, there are a ton of dandelions in this field and I was going to let the boys run through them and scatter the dust."

I drove away and quickly decided to go around the block to go home and get the camera. By the time I got back they were headed back to the vehicle. But Mike got a good picture anyhow.

Mike thinks of fun things to do that would never cross my mind!

Devotions Make Him Think

Tonight I read a devotion to Adam about an iguana that wanted to be like everyone else. He would dress up like his other animal friends. His friends had a costume party and everyone came as an iguana, wanting to be like everyone else Iguana went to change and realized that he just needed to be himself. The story went on to say that God made you who you are suppose to be so don't try to be like anyone else. The only one we should try to be like is Jesus.

Adam thought on this for a minute and said, "If I am suppose to be like Jesus, how am I going to die on a cross and come back to life in a tomb."

WOW! I had to explain that, that is not what the exactly meant. It amazes me how deeply he thinks!

Now The Whole Neighborhood Knows!

This evening I went for my walk. I didn't get very far before I had to turn around, come home and get my camera. The reason being, I found this written on the road.

It's a little hard to read, but it says "Mr. Wampole Rocks." Some of Mike's students live down the street from us, and they are letting everyone know what they think of their teacher.

I have to say, I knew this about 11 years ago. Now the whole neighborhood knows!

Believe It Or Not

A year or so ago, my boys were really into the Ripley's Believe It or Not books. We bought several of them, and they do still look at them and find new, interesting and sometimes disturbing things that people can do.

I have decided that we could have our our version of that book. Although, it would be quite short, my boys have some interesting and sometimes disturbing talents. At first, I was not going to put this on the blog, then my Mom requested that I do it. This is for you Mom!!

Believe It or Not!!

By Austin and Adam

Adam can stick his shoulder blades out quite far. Somehow, this has been named "Adam chicken wing." He will come up to us and ask us if we want to see his chicken wing.

Adam can also flip his tongue over. I don't know how else to describe it! I have never seen anyone else be able to do this.

Austin has a talent too! He can ripple his tongue.

Austin can also flair his nostrils. There is really no way to take a picture of that.

There it is! Our short book!! My boys are full of talents :) I cannot do any of these! This must come from Mike's side (I know the nostril thing is!)

I'm sure in 20 the boys will be so glad that I recorded this for them.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

I go to a Bible study on Thursday mornings. Today we had a brunch with our Bible study groups. I decided to make a Blueberry Coffee Cake to take for our brunch. I was asked for the recipe, so I decided to post, as I find it easier than keeping up with a piece of paper to hand the person the next time I see them.

This is one of my boys favorite coffee cakes! Whenever I make this Austin exclaims, "MY FAVORITE!!" However, he says that with a lot of things, but it still makes me feel good!

The cookbook has this to be made in a 9 inch pan, I always make a 9x13 because I know it will go. I figured the measurements for the 9x13.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar (this can be cut back)

3/4 cup of oil (I cut this back as well)

3/4 tsp vanilla

Beat together until fluffy

************

2 1/4 cup flour

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk

**********

1 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or well drained) (I have been known to add more)

**someone told me that adding 1/2 a cup of sour cream to cakes and muffins really helps them to be moist. If I have it on hand, I will do this.

Fold in. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan

*********

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup melted margarine (I don't measure this, I'm sure I don't use this much!)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (opt-I don't do this because my family doesn't care for nuts)

Combine thoroughly and sprinkle over the top.

**********

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (sometimes I need to add more time). Serve warm.

Christie, I would like a copy of the recipe for what your brought--I got distracted and forgot to ask for it. Thanks.

The Owner

This evening I was flossing Austin's teeth. I often talk to my boys while I floss their teeth, even though it is hard for them to talk to me. Tonight I was telling Austin that very soon I was going to teach him how to floss his own teeth. He gave me a look that said, "WHAT?!?" I told him that he had to learn how to do this at some point. I said, "Can you imagine being 25 and laying in my lap so I can floss your teeth?" With that Austin sat up and said, "Mom, when I am 25 I am not going to be living here. I am going to have my own house by then." I asked, "You will still have to know how to floss your own teeth." Austin said, "No, the owner will do that for me." I am totally confused at this point because he just said he was going to have his own house, I guess I assumed that he was going to be the owner. So, I had to ask, "Who is the owner?" Austin's reply was, "My wife."

Hmmmmm.....now that is something to think about :)

A Family First

A few years ago, the city decided to put a bike trail near our house. In fact, one end of the bike trail is at the end of our street. When this was going in our boys were too little to go on bike rides like that. At that point we were going to the end of the street and back, or on a good day we may have even gone around the church, on the other end of our road, a few times.

Last summer, Mike and Austin took the trail to the other end, which ends up at a local University (the University that Mike went to). We were attending a track meet that day and I knew it would be too much for Adam, so we drove.

Usually, our bike rides consisted of Mike and Austin going on different roads, maybe the trail, and exploring different areas of our neighborhood. Adam and I would go up and down the street, around the church and on the first stint of the bike trail (Adam would be on his bike, me running beside him).


Last week, Mike and Austin went to the University and played eye-spy on the upper balcony of the ad building. Today we decided to try it as a family. However, Adam was not ready to ride on his own. Mike added the tandem bike to his, and we went on a bike trip AS A FAMILY! This is a first for our family. We had a great time.

I got one picture of the boys. I am so glad we bought the tandem bike, I think this is the best yard sale find we have ever found!

Mamaw & Papaw's Pride & Joy

For some time now, Mom has been asking for a picture of all 5 grandchildren. We tried several times, but the pictures never came out to the quality that we were hoping for.

A few weeks ago, Matt, Lana and Grace were here for a visit. We decided this was a good time to get a picture done. We called and lined an appointment up with Wal-Mart studios. About a 1/2 hour before the appointment we got the boys dressed (so they would stay clean), washed faces, got Grace dressed and fed (and hoped she would not spit up). Everyone looked great!

The appointment did not take very long. It only took a few shots to get this one. That amazed me since she was working with 5 children.

Here are Mamaw & Papaw's pride & joy!

Books, Toes, and Stats

Adam is bringing small books home to read each night. He read his book to me, then later I read him one of our books for his bedtime book. He decided it was easy, so he read it to Mike. That was so much fun, he went and got his book from school out again, and read that to Mike as well. It is so much fun to see him blossom into reading, and enjoying it!

Yesterday, I was getting things lined up for this morning, I was picking out clothes for the boys to wear to school, and clothes that I would wear to work. I decided that since it was going to be a warm day, I would wear open toe shoes. This meant that it was the time of year that I needed to paint my toenails, my plan was to do this as soon as the boys were in bed. I was in the bathroom, trying to decide on a color, when Adam walked in and asked what I was doing. He was intrigued!

Shortly after this Mike was in Adam's room praying with him. What we often do, is have the boys say what they want to pray about and let them pray, then we follow up with a prayer as well. When I am not in with the boys, I am always curious what they prayed about-to know what is on their mind. I asked Mike what Adam prayed about and he confessed he was a little confused, "Adam Thanked God for the opportunity to paint toes?" Well, there went my toes getting painted last night! If it means that much to him, I will wait. I went to work with unpainted toes.

But, today after supper, I went outside with the boys and let each of them paint one foot.

See how the paint goes off the toes? I love it! You can't really see it, but there is a glob of paint on my right middle toe. It's staying. My boys lovingly took 20 seconds (that is not much of an exaggeration) out of their busy day to give me this pedicure. When I see my toes, I see love!

Just for my memory years down the road. (I am not good about keeping growth charts)
Austin today was 4 ft 1/2 in. -Only 9 inches to go until we can get rid of the booster!! We just got a new scale and he weighed in at 60 lbs this evening.
Adam was measured in February and I am sure that I did not record it, but he has not grown, he is at 45 1/2" and he weighed in at 41lbs. Mike used to always tell me that boys don't really ever go back and look at this information. I told him that I was not doing it for the boys. I was doing it for their wives, when THEY wanted to know the information. :)

The Rest Of Last Week

I recently did a post on our trip to Matt and Lana's during spring break. I took some pictures of other things we did while off work and our of school. I was going to do them in separate posts, but decided that combining them all into one might be a better idea.


On Friday I was helping Dad watch my nephews. Eamon was invited to a friends house for the afternoon. That left me with Shannon and my 2 boys. I had an egg coloring kit that I had brought over, and I hard boiled 36 eggs. The boys had a great time doing eggs. Austin remembered that if you color on them with crayons and then dye them, it looks really neat!


They found that it took some of the colors longer to get dark and others, so they started to put their eggs in a cup, then went to jump on the trampoline. The entire process took longer than I thought it would, but the boys really had fun with it!

Then Sunday, after church, my sister and I went to Mom and Dad's house for lunch. I brought some empty Easter eggs. We had 1 that was filled for each boy. It had his name on the egg. The rule was that if they picked up an egg that had someone else's name on it they had to put it back. The boys did very well with this. They did not tell the other person where the egg was hidden.

Austin recently got a new hat. He was so excited to wear it Easter morning! He picked out his clothes to go with his hat.

There were a few other things that I got pictures of last week. We got a new board game. The boys really enjoy it (Mike and I have enjoyed playing it after the boys go to bed as well.) One day I was cleaning up the kitchen, and I knew that Mike and Austin were getting ready for a bike ride. I walked into the living room to find Adam playing the new game with...

a stuffed monkey. I guess the good thing is that Adam would win either way!

After our bike ride, the boys were playing outside. When I checked on them, I found them mopping the driveway! Maybe they will soon graduate to the kitchen floor!

We had a really good week off. Yesterday the boys went back to school and Mike and I went back to work. Now, I have to catch up on all the work that I didn't do last week

The Perfect Ending...In My Opinion

Lately the evenings have been so beautiful. I have enjoyed seeing Austin go on the front porch to read before bed. Last night, he read to Adam before he went to bed, then grabbed a book for himself.

I don't think it gets any better than that.

Our Hike

This week our family was on spring break from school and work. We decided to take a quick trip away to my sisters house. We went there on Wednesday. The boys did all the things that they love to do there that afternoon. Meanwhile, I helped Lana switch Grace's clothes from 0-3 months to 3-6 months. We went grocery shopping and made dinner.


Thursday morning, after breakfast, Lana asked what we wanted to do that day. The day before she had mentioned a hiking trail. The day looked beautiful, so we decided that was a good idea.


The trail is not far from their house. It is in a wooded area, but you are not so far away that you have to allow for lots of travel time. The trail was rated as moderate, so I wondered how the boys would do on this, but they LOVED it!

I got a picture of Lana and Grace. This is Grace's first official hike!

The boys took a quick rest on a rock.

The view was beautiful!


They had a nice creek along the trail. We saw a couple of waterfalls, and...

The boys took time to play in the water a little.

It was fun to go on the short get away. The hike was a fun adventure. I have a feeling we will be going back!