slip sliding away

We belong to a super fun health club that has an awesome aquatic center.  I kid you not, they call it an aquatic center.  There is a huge indoor pool for all year swimming, an indoor lap pool, a therapy pool, a huge hot tub and a 50 meter outdoor pool.  All the indoor pools are enclosed in glass, it reminds me of pools in Florida, and it has huge garage type doors that slide open in the summer for easy access to the outdoor pool.  We love to go swimming in the indoor pool when it is snowing outside, it is so pretty. 

It has been really hot and humid here so we have been spending a lot of time at the pool.  Once aspect of the pools that we have not taken advantage of is the huge indoor water slide.

John is a cautious child.  He is the type that will assess every situation before entering, he likes to know what the risk is going to be and if it is worth it.  Due to his personality, John was not interested in going down the slide last year and was hesitant this summer.  In an effort to talk John into going down it, we talked about the safety aspects.  There is a life guard at the top telling you when to go and at the bottom in case you need help.  The water is not going to be over his head and he is a really good swimmer.  In the end, all it took was some cold hard cash!

Yup!  That's right.  I told him I'd pay him 5 bucks if he went down the slide.  I knew that if he did it once he would love it and that due to his personality it was going to be really hard for him to go down the slide the first time without some incentive.  I knew that that if he didn't at least try it once, he would be sorry.  So after all the rational arguments, friends trying to talk him into going down, and dad offering to go down it too.  It ended up being a bribe that worked.

And look at that face.  He loves it!  The only way to get him to stop going down the slide at this point is when they close it for the day.  I consider that money well spent.

In order to go down the slide you have to be 42 inches tall.  Which meant that Luke did not qualify until this summer. 

In a strange twist of fate, Luke was scared to go down the slide even though he was tall enough this summer and has been talking about the slide for about 18 months.  He said, 'dad, I'm not scared I'm just cautious'.  Which is a hoot!  Because unlike his brother, cautious in not a word that anyone would ever associate with Luke.  I mean never.  So we talked again about the safety and the fact that mom could be in the pool waiting to catch him if he wanted me too.  But still he hesitated.  So, I did what I knew would motivate him.  I went down the slide.  It was really fun and so much faster than I realized.  That was all it took.  After seeing me go down and love it, he decided to go down it himself.

 Now all he wants to do is go down the slide!  The pool that you land in has a almost tide effect under water and Luke loves to come down the slide and then go into a dead man float, letting the water push him to the side.  I had to tell one of the life guards that he was okay and didn't need rescuing because he never came up for air. 

I'm so happy that both boys conquered their fear of the big slide this summer.  It makes going to the pool much more fun because they have more to do.  It has also been great to watch them both step outside of their comfort zones and 'go for it'.  In their own way, they are learning confidence from this slide and independence. 

I look forward to milking using the experience of the slide and spreading their wings for a long time to come.  I picture myself handing out sage advice in their tweens and teen years and being able to dole out wise parental advice based on the lessons we learned this summer of conquering fear.  After all, it did cost me 5 bucks.  I need to get my money's worth of experiences out of this.

HERR's snack factory tour

Last week Mark was on vacation, so we had a staycation.  Which explains the blogging and email black hole I fell into.  We were able to check off a bunch of things from our summer fun list, including a tour to the HERR's snack factory. 

The HERR's factory is located about 20 minutes from us but we have never taken the time to go on a tour.  We decided it was time to check it out since it is so close and the tour is free.   It was blazing HOT the day we went but since we didn't spend too much time outside the boys didn't mind.  Well truthfully, anything with the word snack in it is going to be okay by them.  We are a snacking family!

They do not let you take any pictures while on the actual tour, but they do show you all around their facilities and have places where you can observe all of the different process.  This factory makes all varieties of potato chips, pretzels, corn chips and cheese puffs.  The tour takes about an hour and is really well done.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.



Chipper is the mascot of the HERR's company and Luke was excited to meet him.  Unfortunately, Chipper was on 'vacation'.  Maybe next time...

Since we were not able to take any pictures inside, we took some outside in front of the factory.   I love that picture of the boys.  I think I'm going to post it in their playroom, to remind them that they do love each other - we've had lots of fighting this summer!

I'm so happy my friend Bri challenged me to be in more pictures with my kids this summer.  Since I told Mark my goal, he has been very good about making sure I come out from behind the camera. 

By this time, the boys were hot, tired and hungry - so this was the best picture I could get of Mark and the kids.  Good thing the tour ends at the gift shop, where you can buy any HERR's snack you desire.  We ended up with a bunch of Oops! products and two cars they just had to have. 

If you are local, the HERR's snack factory tour would be well worth your time.  It is great for kids of all ages and accessible for strollers or wheelchairs.  But best of all, it is free and they give you a bag of chips at the end of the tour.  All that and a bag of chips!

put me in the zoo

On Friday I took the kids to a small, local zoo.  The Plumpton Park Zoo is about 25 minutes from our house and has been around forever.  I remember going with my nephew Joe when he was little and he is now 14 and as tall as me.  The last time I took the boys to this zoo was four years ago and not much has changed.  It is under new ownership and I did see them starting to make changes and improve the conditions.

Even though it was small and at times confusing (not all the cages had signs as to what we were looking at or some had signs and were empty), the kids all had a blast.  The weather was great and it was not crowded, so we basically got to run around outside and look at animals for a few hours.

They have a few animals in pens that you can pet and feed.  They sell the cups of animal pellets at the gate when you pay your entrance fee.  I wasn't sure if the boys would feed the animals but we got a cup anyway.  As it turns out they did feed the animals but not out of their hands, out of the cup.

Some of our favorite animals were;

the giraffe, although John thought he looked lonely being the only giraffe in the whole zoo

the zebras, this guy kept turning his back on me.  The boys kept saying 'where's Alex and Gloria?' and then cracking up, like they were hilarious.  Anyone else know that movie?

This little bobcat was cute!  And we got to see the zookeeper feed her.  The keeper was serious about his job, told us lots of interesting facts and patiently answered our 8,000 questions.

This zoo has peacocks who roam around the grounds.  They are such beautiful birds!  We did not see any with it's tail feathers displayed but we saw plenty in trees and other places.

This guy was one of the first animals we saw when we got to the zoo.  We saw him walk out of his little house / enclosure and start walking towards the fence.  The boys were excited because they thought he was coming to see them, I thought he was coming for some shade.  However, dude just kept walking and walking right at the fence and then right into the fence.  He bumped right into it.  Zoos always make me kind of sad.  Seeing all those animals out of their natural habitat and in cages with not much to do all day, I always imagine them wishing they could get out and go home.  And then, this old tortoise just kept walking towards the fence like today he was going to get out and just keep walking...

We also loved seeing the Black Bear and the Siberian Tiger.  However, neither one of them would cooperate for a good picture.  John said, 'too bad they have so many wires and fences in front of the bear it's hard to get his picture'.  Me on the other hand, I was happy to forgo the picture for a little extra fencing.   The kids loved the zoo and now want to go to another zoo that has a lion (or to go see Alex as Luke kept saying).

Grace enjoyed the zoo and since it was so small, I was able to let her walk around for a little while.  Although, she did kind of freak out this old couple because she kept walking up to them and staring at them.  It made me laugh because they didn't know what to make of her.  Then she started her shrieking and I put her back in her stroller.

John is making a summer scrapbook with all the photos he is taking on our summer vacation.  So far he has a few hundred.  He is really excited to print them and put them in an album.

Overall, we liked the zoo.  As I said, it is small and a little unorganized but it was the perfect size for me and the kids.  We also get to check one more thing off our summer fun list!

princess party

We have been going to our church for almost 3 years now and have been blessed with an amazing church family.  One large part of our love for our church is that we are a part of a small group or home group for families.  A small group, for those of you that are not familiar with this concept (as we were not when we joined), is a group of couples (in our case) that meet on a consistent basis to study God's word together, to grow in our relationship with Christ and to provide fellowship.  Our small group has been a life line for our family.  We didn't know what we were missing all those years, but now that we do we couldn't function as well without them.  We joined our small group when we started going to our church.

We see our small group 3 weeks a month and our kids don't remember a time when we didn't see each other this often.  Our kids are great friends with all the kids in the other families.  We are beyond blessed by the relationships, friendships, fellowship and prayers of these families.

All of the kids just accept Grace for who she is and isn't.  No one makes a big deal about her differences, they just play with her as best she can.  It is truly amazing to see the kids try and include her in their play time.  One of the little girls had a birthday recently and invited Grace to the party.  The mom said, she asked for Grace by name. 

This was Grace's first birthday party and it was a princess party!  All the little girls either came dressed as their favorite princess or borrowed a princess costume at the party.  Grace got to dress as Ariel and she looked so cute in the costume.

I wasn't sure how she would do with putting on a costume but she really seemed to like it.  She kept looking at the dress and playing with it.  She loved the colors and she looked so cute!  She 'sort of' participated in the princess parade, she gets lots of practice at home following her brothers around the house.  All the rest of the party stuff went right by her, and it's okay she was having a great time watching all the little girls play and decorate their cupcakes.  For now, it was a big step that she was invited to a party and had fun being there.

All in all, her first princess party was a huge success.  I will always be grateful to the birthday girl and her mom for including my sweet girl in the party.  And to our church, for putting such a focus on community and fellowship.  We would be lost without the support and love from our small group.

summer days = fun times

We are quickly crossing things off our summer fun list and having a blast doing so!  I feel like our summer days and weeks have found a rhythm and we are enjoying being carefree or at least school free right now.  I have been planning activities or outings 2-3 days a week and it seems like the perfect balance for our family.  The boys are enjoying a few days of getting out of the house and doing stuff.  But then there are days like yesterday when they spent until 1:00PM in their pjs, got their suits on for some backyard water play and then changed into their halloween costumes for some superhero play.  Like I said, the perfect balance for our little family. 

One thing the boys put on our list was a slip and slide.  So we went to the store and bought one with a HUGE splash pool at the bottom.  The boys had a blast the first time we used it.  It was super slippery and the huge splash pool was super fun to, well, splash into.

I can't count the amount of times they exclaimed, 'Mom, this is so fun!', 'This is the BEST slip and slide ever'.  They literally played on it for over an hour.  Which is a long time at our house.  And then the unthinkable happened. 

It ripped!  The slide part separated from the HUGE splash pool part.  There were some very upset boys at our house.  So now we have a $9 one from a large Mart and it is not as fun or as cool as the other one, but it has lasted longer!

This is just a random picture of our lifeguard.  She won't go to close to the slip and slip but she likes to watch the boys and she yells at them the whole time.  I'm tempted to put her on the slip and slide and see if she likes it.

Happy Weekend to You!

blueberry picking

We are checking things off our summer fun list quickly around here.  It is strange though because even though it feels like we have been really busy and we've had a lot of fun, some of our days seem endless.  I guess it may be due to the fact that two tired boys fought and cried most of the afternoon today.  It is on those days that I am not as organized and not at the top of my game, that things feel off a little bit.  Today was one of those days.  

As for our summer list, I had grand plans of blogging about each item that we checked off our list.  However, summer vacation and reality set in and that just isn't happening.  I do have the list written out and am thinking of making a scrapbook out of the list and the pictures that I take of some of the things on it.  It seems like that could be a do-able project and one that could either be an annual scrapbook for me to complete or maybe a big one that we add to each year.  I'm not sure which I'll do but the more I think on it, the more I like the idea of a summer scrapbook.

Last year we went with friends to a local farm to pick blueberries and peaches.  It was so much fun that the boys put it on our summer list for this year.  Unfortunately, due to schedules we ended up going alone (just me and the boys).  We set off with great optimism and expectations that it would be as fun as last year.  Those thoughts lasted until we got to the first blueberry bush.  I kid you not.  We pulled in to the parking area and talked with the farmer about where to pick.  Then, we set off to fill our bucket. 

As I reached out to pick a few blueberries, I surprised a daddy long legs spider.  It crawled off the blueberry bush onto my arm, I squealed and brushed him off my arm, right onto John {yikes}.  I nonchalantly tried to brush the spider off John but I had to tell him what I was doing.  And that was all she wrote.  Neither boy wanted to touch a blueberry bush after that. 

Not to be deterred, I continued down the rows picking blueberries as I went.  There were lots of bees, beetles, spiders and other crawling insects to contend with.  One of the things I love about this farm is that their berries are spray free however, you encounter a lot of bugs in that environment.  Not only were there lots of bugs flying and crawling around, it was really hot.  Luke was complaining of the heat, he doesn't like to be too hot, and John was complaining about all the bees.  All the while, I was going down the row picking blueberries as I went. 

We stayed about 35 minutes, filled half of our bucket and took some pictures.  Did I mention the heat?  It was so hot that day.  After the farm we drove to my parents house to share some blueberries with them.  My parents were watching my sister Cathy's dog for the weekend, so we got to see both Sam (my parent's dog) and Max (my sister's dog).  Which I think the boys enjoyed more that the blueberry picking.

Overall, it was fun.  John and I ate almost half of our haul the first day.  We are going to do some baking with the rest this weekend.  And I'm hoping to go back next week with my sister Patty.  For those of you who are local, we went to Spring Valley Farm.  It is located in Cecil County, Maryland which is about a 25-30 minute drive for us. 

birthday tradition

As our kids have gotten older, Mark and I have discussed being purposeful about family traditions.  Okay, really I have talked and he has listened.  But we are in agreement that now is the time for us to implement traditions create excitement, expectation and a sense of belonging to our family unit.

One family tradition that we started last year, sort of by accident (which I guess goes against the whole purposeful argument), was going out to breakfast to celebrate birthdays.  Mark works a lot of nights and weekends and therefore isn't always home for dinner the day of one of our birthdays.  In fact, last year he had to work 2 - 10 PM on his birthday.  I was trying to figure out how to celebrate his birthday, when I realized breakfast out would be fun.  So the kids and I took him out to breakfast for his birthday and a tradition was born. 

We typically go on the person's birthday or as close to it as we can get.  This year we took Mark out to breakfast almost a month after his actual birthday, but no one seemed to mind.   The boys always get the same thing.  Sprinkle pancakes with a side of bacon for Luke and Chocolate Chip pancakes for John.

This was the first time I brought my camera, which I find hard to believe since it is usually attached to me like a third arm.  After we had finished eating, we asked the waiter to snap our family picture.

Now I think another family tradition has been born, taking a family picture at our birthday breakfast celebration!!

party of five

Typically we rent Saturday to Saturday and therefore our family unit leaves on Friday to avoid all the beach traffic.  However, this year our beach house rental was Sunday to Sunday.  As a result, all the other families left on Saturday and we stayed until Sunday by ourselves.  It was really fun.  One of my goals is for our family of five to vacation alone.  Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are tied to our family vacations.  Those are the times that really knit our family together and strengthen the bonds of siblings.  This is not to say that I don't cherish the time with extended family, but I want for my kids what I had.  Vacations that just included our family.

Since most people are just getting into their rentals on Saturday night, the restaurant we chose had no wait.  We had an enjoyable meal at one of my favorite beach restaurants.  This restaurant is on the water (I'm not entirely sure what water it is but I know it is not oceanfront).  So we went outside to the dock behind it to take some family pictures.  We were really hoping to see someone else who we could ask to take our family picture, but we were out there on our own.

One downfall of this particular dock is that it is REALLY windy.  But I love the first picture of the kids and it may make it into our Christmas card...


After dinner we went to Jockey's Ridge State Park to climb the sand dunes.  This is something that the kids really love to do.  We attempted to do it when all the cousins were here but a storm rolled through right when we got there and they closed the park.  See below for picture of the stormy sky.

Since we had brighter skies, we decided to go to the dunes on our last night.  This was Grace's first time at the dunes since we normally leave her with Mark's mom.  She love it!  The sand is so soft and wasn't as hot as the sand on the beach.  Mark did have to carry her part of the way and down the big cliffs of sand but otherwise my girl did it herself.


  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the sand dunes.  The one of the boys running down gives you an idea of just how much sand there is on the cliffs.

We were able to find someone at the dunes to take a family picture for us.  It is not the best picture of any of us as individuals but it is a sweet reminder of a great time, so I'll take it.

This last picture of Grace is to show how much she loved the sand at the dunes.  It is really incredible for us to see her playing in sand.   It is hard to see but she has a huge smile on her face.  I'm not sure if her therapists read our family blog but I hope they do!

After the dunes, we went out for ice cream.  Grace ate almost half of Mark's dish of cookies and cream ice cream.  Which is a pretty big deal for him her.  To top off the already full night, the boys went night swimming in the pool once we got back to the house.  Overall, I would say our last night at the house as just our little family of five was a HUGE success.  One we are all looking forward to repeating next year.