A Trip to the Aquarium

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Aquarium with my Aunt Hoolie, Cousins Chelsea and Casey and Chelsea's little boy, Jay. We had never been before and it was a great time! The kids loved it. Here are some pictures:

L to R: Aunt Hoolie (aka LaVonne), little Jay (her grandson), Parker, Carter and Hunter. They're looking at Sea Lions.

Beluga Whale. They were awesome looking, and very playful with the people looking at them.

In the Arctic section they have some of the rock formations painted to look like snow. Of course, the kids had to go touch it to make sure it wasn't real.

African Penguin

There are huge catfish swimming over him right now. Yikes!

In the Whale Shark exhibit (which was another awesome thing to see). That's Chelsea with Jay and my aunt is in the background.

Notice Parker on all fours behind them, looking at the fish.

The aquarium's mascot, "Deepo". Parker still isn't too sure about these things. He's saying, "Keep your fins where I can see 'em, Buddy"! Hunter still won't go within 100 yards of these costumed guys. Almost 7 and still not ready for Disney?!? I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the time when she was 2 and I took her to the library to hear a book reading and "Miss Maise" (which is a giant white rat) showed up. I thought she was going to pass out!

Trip to Florida

I went to Florida for a girls' weekend with my best friend Kim. For a good synopsis of our weekend, visit her blog, metime-cates.blogspot.com! I'll post more pictures later!

Our God is an Awesome God

These are pictures of Carter and Caleb belting out their favorate diddy: "Our God is an Awesome God". This song can be heard very loudly, any given night after dinner. Carter likes to do the hand motions (which he learned at VBS), but Caleb prefers just the vocals. The other day when we were pulling into the parking lot of Caleb and Carson's daycare, we were listening to a cd and Caleb informed me: "If "Our God is an Awesome God" comes on, I'm not getting out." What can you say to that? Except, "OK".

PS: You get that purple mark down your chest when you try to touch your sister's stuff during coloring time--just ask Carter.

I'm going to Florida to visit Kim for the weekend. I still have more to post about stuff we've been doing and I'm sure I'll have much more when I get back! Vacation-Yay!

Hey Brent, There's Something in Your Eye!

Yeah, so Brent likes to rough-house with the kids. We call it "Rasling". I find it very annoying (because I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt), but apparently, it's something boys do. Hunter does it too, which really annoys me. This is a nightly ritual at our house. Last week, while rasling with the kids, Brent poked himself in the eye with his thumb! A few minutes later I said, "Hey Brent, you have something in your eye!" It was blood! Ewe, gross. It continued to worsen over the next few days so I was finally able to convice him to go to the doctor. She basically said that it's a bruise on his eye and that it will go away in a few weeks. Meanwhile, this is what we have to look at! The kids are scared of it. Poor Caleb didn't want Uncle Brent to go to the doctor because he was afraid he was going to die. We were able to convince him it's not life threatening, though! (Please continue to pray for this fearful little guy!)

I think it's a sign from God that they shouldn't be rasling and I think it's a little amusing that Brent was the one that got hurt. He thinks it's amusing to tell everyone who asks about it that I hit him. Nice.

A Visit to Nana and Papa Joe, Part 1

Last Friday we decided to take a trip to Virginia to see Brent's mom and stepdad. We got in safely on Friday night. On Saturday, Nana and Papa Joe made us a delicious breakfast of waffles, sausage, eggs and fruit. Then we went to the park. In the afternoon, Nana had planned a family birthday party, since she hasn't been able to celebrate with us in a while. We got presents and had birthday cake. The kids got balloons and party horns. Nana knitted us all slippers. I realize that they look like they're a little too big for us, but they still need to be put through a special shinking process. After a nice nap, we went out for Mexican food, where we enjoyed the live entertainment of Parker woofing down a whole bowl of salsa--the hot one. Afterwards, we went to another park to play, and watch people fly gas powered model airplanes. It was really cool, the kids enjoyed watching them do loop-d-loos and low fly-bys for their entertainment. In the evening they got to stay up late and watch a movie. On Sunday morning we went out for breakfast buffet and took off for home. Perfect! We all had a really nice time and thank you to Nana and Papa Joe for taking really good care of us, as usual.



It's funny, when Parker gets something in his mind, it's very difficult to get him to change it (he's just like his father). For instance, at Christmastime, he insisted on calling my dad "Tummy"; when James and the boys first moved in, he insisted on calling James "Dominic". Well, this weekend, he insisted on calling Papa Joe "Grandma". Much to Papa Joe's shagrin, I'm sure. On the way home, we had this exchange:

P: "Where are we going?"

Me: "Home"

P: "To Grandma's house?"

Me: "You mean, Papa Joe?"

P: "Yeah--Grandma!"

Poor kid is a little confused. When we got home, he told his cousins that the fire truck he got from them was from his Grandma--I know he meant Joe. (Sorry Joe, I had to do this :))
There are more pictures in the post below this one.



Slippers, before the shrinking process.

Parker gets a present.

Me and the kids with Nana and Grandma (Sorry Joe, I accidentally did it again).

McCaigers at the park.

A Visit to Nana and Papa Joe, Part 2

Hunter in the pink vest Nana made her.

Hunter at the playground.

McCaigs5 in Virginia

Carter in his slippers

Carter doing the monkey bars

Feeding the Ducks

"The geese are coming! I get to throw rocks!"

Our neighbors down the street live on the lake. They have a whole bunch of animals that they take care of, including hand feeding the ducks that live on the lake. While they were away last week, we fed the ducks and bunny for them every morning. The kids had a great time with it. The duckies would be waiting in the yard for us when we got there. They'll eat out of bowls or right out of your hand. I love it when they walk across my feet with their webbed feet, it feels cool.

Also living on the lake is a group of about 25 Canadian Geese. These geese are fairly nasty by nature. They're mean and very aggressive. I'm pretty sure they would kill you if they could. They chase the kids around and try to flap them to death with their wings. They also chase the little duckies from the food and eat it all up, so someone has to stand lookout. When the lookout sees the geese coming, we throw rocks and pinecones at them to get them to swim the other way. (Parker loves this part--the part about throwing rocks). I had a pic of the geese coming, but I accidentally deleted it.

On the 4th of July, Daddy got to come with us to feed the ducks. I'm not sure that it's really necessary for people to buy special duck food for ducks that live on a lake and hand feed them twice a day--but it was fun for a week!

P.S. No animals were harmed in the making of this post.

Playing in the Water Fountain

The kids love to run in the water fountain at the mall. These are from a couple weekends ago.

Recycling Tip

Why waste good money on shoes for the kids? Just stick empy Capri Suns boxes on their feet and Voila! Not just shoes, kneehigh boots. (This might be good for Austrian winters, Stace!)

Fun with Dad

An Afternoon with Aunt Laura

On Thursday, Aunt Laura came over to go to the lake with us. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up in Meltdown City, Population: 1 (6 year old drama queen), so we had to cut our afternoon short. It was ok though, it was brutally hot and we had a nice afternoon anyway, chatting and playing with the kids. Then the boys and James got home and got to play with Aunt Laura and she ate dinner with us. After that, she came with me to a home party for a company called...well I forgot what it's called but it's about creating good memories for your family by starting traditions and stuff like that. I had never heard of it before until recently. It was pretty interesting, I bought the book that gives good ideas of things to do with your family. As a free gift, I got the "Candle of Honor". You're supposed to use it at dinner time. You choose one child who exemplified some family value that day (sharing, responsibility, kindness, etc) then you light the candle in their honor and let it sit by their plate during dinner. We've done it the last two nights and the kids loved it. I'm worried about when Parker gets to have it though, I think he'll just want to sneak his food into it and watch it burn. Oh well, family values aren't his forte right now anyway! I was glad Laura came with me, it was a great day afterall.