Three full days

The last few days have been pretty busy. So, I am just going to discuss and post pics later. My camera is still full, my phone is now full and I have been utilizing other people's cameras/phones. So, pics will definitely be a hodge podge. Monday I took the kids to the library, the YMCA and the movies. I only took the boys to the movies. Me and three little boys at the movies. But it was totally awesome. This is how I would describe them at the movies. They were like kids in pictures. You know how BEFORE you have kids how you assume they are always cute and act perfect and how you just know 'your kids will NEVER act that way'. Well, that is how they were...totally absolutely perfect. Complete perfection. The day was crazy, but the movie experience was awesome. Tuesday we spent the entire day at my sister's house. It was not perfection. My sister ended up having to do a bunch of work stuff. So, I had all six kiddos during the day. It was a lot of crying, fighting, screaming. Oh, and one incident of hiding from me. Yes, I thought for a moment I had lost a child. But he was hiding from me. Yesterday was a very long day. Then we had a tball game in the evening. We didn't have dinner till 9p. At 9:30 Jackson was still eating dinner and asking for more. Oh, I just wanted to cry. I didn't think the day was ever going to end. At 10p I was doing story time. Today we stayed home all day. Oh, lovely staying home. Well, we did make a run for McDonald's for lunch. But we were home the rest of the day. This morning I spent nearly 2 whole hours in the kitchen cleaning. I know exactly how long I was in the kitchen because I set my timer. I set my timer for 15 minutes......then 15 more minutes.......then 15 more minutes. The kids were playing awesome. Well, Juliet had found the half full carton of orange juice I accidentally left out. She poured the whole thing on the table, which ran all over the floor. So, a good portion of that time I was cleaning the floor. Then April and her kids came over. We did lunch, then headed outside. I made these sponge balls for the kids to play with. And I made homemade bubbles. Love the homemade bubbles. They are so much more bubbly than store bought. The kids played in water, which led to mud. So much mud we did baths at 4p. Then we baked cookies. We were busy. I have zero plans for tomorrow. I am still debating on having a garage sale this weekend. So, I really need to be making some decisions about that.

Cookin

I have been doing a lot of baking lately. The other night I made 'baked oatmeal'. You prepare it the night before and let it sit in the fridge. In the morning pop it out of the fridge and bake for 30-40 minutes. This was so super easy. The kids loved it. I really liked it too. I opted to pour vanilla almond on mine. The kids liked it that way too. This is going to be a new staple in our house. Cheap and easy.

This is what we are having for dinner tonight. It is on the grill as I type this. It includes green, red and yellow peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, carrots, cabbage (my favorite), mushrooms, and polish sausage. Wrap in aluminum foil and put on the grill. I found this little recipe in a cookbook. I am not that creative.

Tonight we are going to the fireworks. I have prepared these little cuties to take with us for an evening snack. Strawberries, marshmallows and blueberries on toothpicks. So festive. I love it.

Friday blah?

I am supposed to be giving my kids baths right now. So, I have 2 nano seconds to spend blogging. I am really just putting off bath time until I absolutely have to do it. In the meantime they are destroying the house. Some days it is just easier to let them destroy it and clean up later. That is the kind of mood I am in right now. Jeff has been working over every night. Thursdays he has class. So, he is not here at all. By Friday I am just needing a break. I do have plans to be gone all evening. I am taking a little class on couponing. Following that I have a late night planned with the girls. Unfortunately, Jeff is working over again today. So, he will be running in as I am running out. The really bad part of that is 1. I won't get to talk to him at all 2. I will have no assistance is trying to pull myself together to look decent enough to go in public. That is something I am really struggling with. Another big decision I spend WAY too much debating on is short hair or long? Really? It is so silly but I think about it so much. I really like my hair short and big. I mean BIG! I love big huge hair. I could really get carried away with it. However, I think my big short hair makes me looks older. So, now the debate starts all over again. Short, long, short, no definitely long. Anyways. It is raining in Indiana. I keep picking up what seems like the same toys over and over again. I have emptied and reloaded the dishwasher twice so far today. I have a to do list a mile long that I never ever get to. I am just very blah today. I am really feeling motivated to tackle some projects I have been thinking about. My kids are so incredibly hyper and I am just really in the mood for silence. Awesome news! My hubby just called me to tell me he has decided NOT to work over tonight. What an anwsered prayer! He will be home in less than an hour. See, putting off bath time was worth it. Now we can do it together. God always knows what we need and when. It is something small, but I feel like a new person after that call. What a reminder of how He is always with us!

PB & J cookies

There are some things I just know about myself. I go through seasons where I am all about something. Then, I am just the complete opposite. I am either working out 2-3 times a day or I haven't seen the inside of a gym in forever. I am constantly cleaning and organizing my house. A couple weeks later I find myself 'running errands' all day to avoid my house. I am blogging several times a week or I haven't logged on in months. Right now I am crazy about baking. Yesterday I made pb & j cookies. I didn't care for the jelly part. But my kids told me, "mom, that is the best part!" Well, except for Jonah. He doesn't like anything anymore. He only wants hot dogs with mustard and a bun. That is how he orders it for nearly every meal. For the last month or so I have been working my way through a cookie cookbook. I don't know why, but on my bucket list is to make every single recipe in a cookbook. Well, in true Jackie fashion I chose a cookie cookbook. Honestly, this little cookbook is darling. I received it as a baby shower gift when I was pregnant with the boys. It is a Winnie the Pooh cookbook. Next up is nut bars and lemon cookies.

Oh, and I am working on my 100 days of summer. We will be making homemade bubbles soon. Yes, they are easy as they sound. Water, glycerin and dish soap are the ingredients. I know the kids will think it is so cool to make the bubbly mixture ourselves. And I want to try and take the kids blueberry picking this week. The hard part is locating a u-pick blueberry farm close to our home. Do you know of one?

Watermelon waffles

Continuing with the 100 days of summer I made watermelon waffles for lunch today. I was going to go outside and play with bubbles. The weather is rainy today. Instead, I opted to make waffles. The waffles do not taste like watermelon. Simply make the waffle batter, divide the batter and dye with food color pink and green. Then sprinkle with chocolate chips for the watermelon seeds.

I was a little disappointed how these turned out. They were so much cuter on the website where I found the idea. They tasted great!

Staycation

Jeff was on vacation all last week. We stayed in town all week. These are some activities included in our week. Swimming! This was Juliet's first time swimming this year. She did really well and loved it. The boys are getting so much better at swimming. They can each touch bottom when they are in the shallow end of the pool. That is very exciting.

Last Saturday was PBS meet the characters day in the park. It was so hot, but I am glad we went. The kids enjoyed meeting Elmo and Clifford.

I totally splurged and bought the kids each a balloon. Look how cute they are?

These are some random photos from the week.

Jacob and Jackson playing.

Jonah playing.

This week included a trip to the zoo. My sister, niece and nephew went with us. The weather was perfect. We had a great day.

Jeff and his Dad have been putting a fence up for our back yard. The boys were taking their tools and stealing things out of Charley's work truck. I had to snag this pic of them playing out back.

Tball season

In the spring the boys participated in their first organized sport, soccer. That was a ton of fun. Now they are participating in tball. Each week you can see their progress as the grasp the ends and outs of the sport.

Friday family fun day

I mentioned before that the boys had vacation Bible school. On Friday, their last day of vbs, Jeff took a half day. Our plan was for Jeff to go with me to pick the boys up, take them to the park for a picnic, out for ice cream and then the library. The boys had no idea. The whole day was a surprise. They didn't even know Jeff was going to be there to pick them up. It worked out that their Mamaw, Papaw and cousin would be able to join us at the park too. It was a great day.Jackson with his ice cream. Jacob making a huge mess with his.

The girls playing at the playground.

Jacob

The day ended up being a huge success. The boys were so excited that Daddy picked them up from church. We had lots of fun at the park. We were there forever. The kids were super sticky by the time we got to the library. But it was fun regardless. We signed the kids up for the summer reading program. I have been reading to them so much lately. I have started reading my Bible to them. I have always read their children's Bible to them. I think just hearing me reading the stories to them is great for them. Plus, it helps me have time to do my reading too.

VBS

I am a little behind on my blogging. I know I haven't maintained my blog for months. But there has been so much fun stuff going on lately. I really want to make sure and document it. A couple Fridays ago Jeff and I had a last minute date night. I say 'last minute' because we had no idea our kids would all be gone to Mamaw's house. My in-laws stopped by and my kids begged to stay over. When they left I told Jeff, "well, I am going to clean the kitchen and do some other cleaning. We can have leftovers for dinner." Jeff said, "No way! Go get in the shower we are going out!" We went out for dinner and a movie. Total bliss! Last week our kiddos had vacation Bible school. They totally loved it. I am so sad it is only a week long. They learned so much. This was on our way to vbs.

Juliet is too young to attend vbs. I was trying to save fuel so I stayed in the area everyday during vbs. Juliet and I had to find some things to do during the few hours the boys were at church. We went to the park everyday and hung out.