A note from Bekah

Rebekah wrote this little note for me on Sunday. It was so sweet, I just wanted to share. And check out that picture of the heart lady.

Daddies and mommies

David had a meeting in Nashville just a little after I got off work yesterday. So we did a whole switch-a-roo with the girls. He brought them to the office with him, so that I could run them home and he could keep heading to Nashville.

Sunday evening, we were hanging out with the Maizes and got home a little after the girls’ bedtime. They really needed a bath that night, but they fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we just took them straight to bed.

When I was driving the girls home last night, I asked them, “Did you guys take a bath today?”

The girls said, “No.”

I acted frustrated and said, “That Daddy!”

And Rebekah just looked at me and with the straightest face said, “Daddies are not a lot like mommies.”

So true. So true.

(Mommy is good for baths, bed time stories, nail painting, and crafts. This Daddy is good for trips to the park, finding cool bugs, tickle fights, and anything in general that can be seen as fun.)

Happy Tuesday to you all!

A (hot) day at the zoo

After church Sunday, we headed to the zoo for a picnic and then some fun. Only, I think we chose the hottest day of the year to do it. It was SO hot!

The zoo was giving out fans with meerkat faces on them. Everyone got a pretty big kick out of the fans. =)
Lydia got these sunglasses in her goodie bag at a birthday party she attended on Saturday. She snapped the sides off her sunglasses, an then reattached them upside down. I just thought this was funny. =)
I did get Lydia to pose for this one picture. I said, "Lydia, look sweet!" And this is what she gave me!!

By this point in the visit, everyone was getting hot, sweaty, thirsty, and tired. Here's Lydia, still checking out the animals (but look how tired she looks).
And here's Rebekah on our way out of the zoo. She was ready to go. =)

Lydia's physical

Yesterday Lydia had her physical that she needs to enroll in Pre-K. It was a really great visit. Lydia is seeing 20/20 and her hearing is great. The doctor said that kids don’t usually see 20/20 until they are 7-8 years old (because their eyes are still developing) and many children Lydia’s age cannot even take the hearing test. She’s 39 inches tall and weighs 35.5 pounds. She’s right at average for both – in the 50th percentile on her height and just above the 50th percentile for her weight.

The doctor analyzed her speech and said that she didn’t think that Lydia would need speech therapy, but said that it wouldn’t hurt to have the school evaluate her. (Lydia has a slight lisp…we’re just not sure if it is something she’ll grow out of or if she needs a little help.)

The doctor, while checking her speech and a little bit of her knowledge, starting asking her questions about colors. She pointed to something green and Lydia said, “Green!” She pointed to something blue and Lydia said “Blue!” She pointed to something red, and Lydia said, “Rojo!” The doctor paused for a second…and then said, “That’s right. I know that rojo means red because my daughter watches Dora.” Lydia was SO excited to share her love of Dora with the doctor.

Lydia was so dramatic when the doctor came in. It was so funny. The doctor said, “So how’s Miss Lydia today?”

Lydia faked a cough, “Cough. Cough.”

I just rolled my eyes. How does she come up with this stuff? Then, trying to look as sickly as possible, she said, “I’ve had this cough for a long time.” The doctor looked at me and said, “Has she been sick?” Of course she hasn’t! So dramatic.

Swimming with friends

Darren & Kaleena invited us over to her parents' place to swim. We all had a great time. Here are some of the best pictures.

The girls had fun climbing all over us. David threw the girls in a few times (from inside the pool). It was only 3 feet deep (no worries, Grandma).

The last day of Kids' Summer Celebration (VBS)

I have been a little behind in my blogging. We have had a lot going on between school, church, and friends.

And I have been on an organizing spree through the house. Don't know what hit me, but I'm riding it as long as I can...

Here are the last few pictures of the girls at KSC. Here is Lydia with her teacher, Mrs. Deb. Later, Deb told me about a little conversation she and Lydia were having. (I'm glad I snapped the picture.) Lydia did not want to go upstairs for worship. She wanted to stay downstairs and have snack. Mrs. Deb led the class upstairs and Lydia asked if they could go back downstairs for their snack. Mrs. Deb said that they would stay upstairs for worship. Lydia sat in her lap for a minute and then looked at Mrs. Deb and said,

God told me that we should go downstairs and have snack now.

That girl is so hilarious! Mrs. Deb told her that we hear in part and that God wants us to have worship too. =)

Rebekah practiced and practiced her memory verse. Lots of kids were getting called onto the stage to say their verse, but Rebekah didn't get picked. So she started crying. Well, Miss Howdy couldn't let a little girl be crying, so she pulled Rebekah up on the stage and even let her wear her hat so that she would feel better. Then Rebekah said her verse and won some stickers. (Stickers make everything better, you know.)

Kid's Summer Celebration Day 2

Tonight was a blast. The kids are getting a little more relaxed and really having fun. Lydia's very excited about her class now. She went in with no problems.




And Lydia's class got to come to come up and have worship with the big kids. Lydia had a blast dancing with her friends!




I dressed the kids up with pigtails and I painted little freckles on their faces. They got a kick out of that! =-) I got someone to get a picture of us all dressed up for Avalanche Ranch.





The lesson tonight was about Namaan. Here he is "washing" in the Jordan. The kids all thought it was pretty funny.



Here are the girls in their cowboy hats they made for craft tonight. They are both too big for them. They kept flopping down over their faces.

Kids' Summer Celebration (VBS)

Today was the kick-off for Avalanche Ranch, the Vacation Bible School program at our church. David heads the green team, I'm heading up part of the blue team, Bekah is on the purple team, and Lydia is on the orange team.

The whole church is decked out like a ranch. Here's David playing with "Sherriff" Eric Belcher and his band, "The Hay Bales." See the straw in David's mouth. Hilarious!

The kids all had a blast singing and dancing to the music. Here they are doing a silly song with silly actions to go along with it. Rebekah was such a ham!

The main characters of Avalanche Ranch are "Boss," "Buc," and "Miss Howdy." Here's Kaleena's mom, Becky, as Miss Howdy. She was great!

Lydia was really disappointed to find out that her class would be downstairs. She just cried and cried because all the other classes were upstairs. But her teacher was great and Lydia calmed down and made a great farm craft. I snuck a quick picture of her (without her seeing me) watching Veggie Tales' Little Joe cartoon with her class.

All of the crafts and food ("Chuck Wagon Chow") are themed for the week. We had 40 kids sign up and I counted 36 there tonight. The kids played a game where they had to knock over farm figures with a water gun. Here's Bekah going at it.

We're home now, and tired. Gotta gear up to do it all again tomorrow night!!

Look now, because it won't be long...

until Bekah is missing a tooth.

Yes!

Rebekah got her first loose tooth today!

She called me at work today to tell me all about it. She was so incredibly excited! It's her bottom tooth, just to the right of the middle.

Lydia's insomnia

Lydia has inherited this from me. She requires very little sleep. Her bed time is 8:30, but she is almost always awake until after 10:00.

The other night she came in and told me that she was having thoughts about pirates and could not go to sleep.

I told her that she needs to turn her brain off and get some sleep.

She said, "But I don't want to turn it off! I might NEED it!"

Blue's Clues! It's Blue's Clues!

So our neighbor brings us some squash from his garden.



What does Lydia do? Picks them up and starts singing "Blue's Clues! It's Blue's Clues!"





They DO look a lot like Blue's ears (only they're yellow!).

This child...

This child is the only one that I know that can get jelly on her eyebrow when she's eating a sandwich.

She's the only princess I know that can get bubble gum stuck in the armpit of her favorite princess dress.

She's so much fun!

A heads up.

Saw this on another blog and thought I should pass it along...
Google has implemented a new feature which enables you to type a telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and you will be given the person's name and address. If you then hit MapQuest, you will get amap to the person's house. Everyone should be aware of this! It's a nationwide reverse telephone book.
If a child gives out his/her phone number, someone can now look it up to find out where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious, and alarming.
Note that you can have your phone number removed or blocked. I tried my number and it came up along with the mapquest and directions straight to our house. I did fill out the removal form for myself, and encourage all of you to do the same. Quite scary.
Please look up your own number.
In order to test whether your phone number is mapped, go to: google.com. Type your phone number in the search bar (i.e. 555-555-1212) and hit enter. If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging your private information, simply click on your telephone number and then click on the Removal Form. Removal takes 48-hours.
Check your own number and although this may not apply to you if you have an unlisted number or cell phone as primary contact, but you may know someone who needs to know this.

Happy Independence Day!

After taking Dana to the hospital (and getting to hold Alli!), we spent the evening with friends at the Green's house.

Kathy set up the slip and slide and a kiddie pool and the kids had a blast.

This is Lydia's hairstyle that she made for herself.

Then we grilled out and pigged out, and shot off fireworks. Remember these little worms? I remember having these every 4th of July with my grandpa. Now my girls love it just as much as I always did.

Kathy broke out the bubbles and sidewalk chalk and the kids had fun with that too (and largely ignored the fireworks). =) Lydia said this is a picture of Grandma.

This is Jaden before and after the fireworks. (Needless to say, Jaden didn't really care for the loud noise!)

Rebekah had a lot of fun with the sparkers. She was doing little dances with them.