10/10 - Daycare picnic & Awana

On Saturday, the boys daycare had a family picnic. It was from 12-2 which makes no since to me seeing how they nap at daycare everyday from 12-2. Anyway, we went for part of it and got there right at 12. The boys were excited to see the jump houses. We let them jump for a bit and then persuaded them to have some lunch.

They ended up eating a few bites and then going and playing and then coming back for more lunch. Below you can see Aiden throwing a ball at a couple of plastic cans and he knocked some down. He was having a blast.

Eli follows Aiden to most places so he wanted to try the game too. He was too funny. He didn't have enough skill yet to actually hit the cans from the far away so we had to eventually move him closer to the table.

He thought it was awesome when he actually hit some and they fell.

After success at the cans, Eli headed back to eat some of his hotdog. Of course Aiden wanted nothing to do with a hotdog so he had his yogurt.

Aiden is loving bounce houses now and usually asks to go in it right away. Eli is still learning to like the bounce house so he hesitates a little more. They both finally got in there and enjoy bouncing and wrestling. Eli is in the blue shirt with sleeves on the left and Aiden is towards the back with a white shirt that has a helicopter on it.

You can see in this next bounce house picture that Aiden was taking down Eli. I should include another picture showing Eli taking down Aiden but I'm saving space. These two go at it in the bounce house and have fun. I was so scared they were going to hurt someone else though so I eventually had to slow them down.

There was another inflatable there that had a ladder-type thing on it and they had to climb up it and then slide down. Here come Eli and Aiden down the slide. Eli loves to slide laying down and it's rare that he actually sits up to go down an inflatable slide. 

I was able to get a picture of Aiden with his teacher, Ms. Jennifer. She has an awesome southern accent that cracks me up. She does really well with Aiden and he likes her and is learning a lot.

The boys even got to go fishing. This game cracked me up. They put a fishing pole over the curtain and then someone puts a treat on the end of the line and then pulls at it (like a tug from catching a fish). Both boys enjoyed it and thankfully the teacher attaching the prizes gave the boys the same thing so there was no fighting later at home.

The other game they had there was a throwing the bean bag in the hole board. Here is Aiden throwing his bean bags. Eli did it too but he had to scoot a little close to get them in the holes.

Even though it's October, it was quite warm and sunny out on Saturday. This picture below is a special group of ladies!!! They are my Journey Girls (Journey is the name of the daycare/church) that I train a few times a week. From left to right is Susan (she's an unleashed monster), April (the director), Me, Erica (Eli's former teacher), and Shenika (Eli's new teacher). It all started with Erica and it's been so fun to train these ladies and see health-related improvements in them. Erica and Shenika think they are going to stop after the holidays but they don't realize I won't allow that :)  They are all doing such a great job.

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been updating Aiden's Therapy Book to include his occupational therapy exercises. While I was taking pictures of his stuff the other day, he insisted on being in the picture. He cracks me up. He likes tools and such so when Rusty showed us this exercise, I knew I would have to get some stuff so we could do it at home. He has to take the little nuts and gather them in his hand, one by one. Then he has to put a little nut inside a big nut one at a time (using only his left hand). This makes him have to manipulate all the muscles in his hand to move the nuts around so they won't fall and is great therapy. After I bought the gigantic nuts (we literally bought the biggest size they had), I told Rusty we had gotten some nuts for us to do therapy at home. She asked if I got the bolts too. I said, "no, we didn't use bolts the other day." She then informed me that putting the nut on the bolt is good therapy as well. I went back to the store and took my big nut with me but to make a long story short, we ended up just getting a package of nuts & bolts so he can do that too.

We check on the boys every night before we head to bed and I had to take a picture of Aiden. He was so cute because he was curled up on his pillow and had his head on his blanket. Totally opposite of how he should be. 

Here are a few pictures from Cubbies that I took on Sunday night. This is such a neat group of kids and I've enjoyed teaching them so far. The woman in the white sweater is Kristy, one of the leaders. Aiden is sitting at the table (it looks like she is pointing to Aiden) playing with play-doh.

I took this during 'Coming In Time' after we handed out all the vests. I want to get a group picture and think I'll try that this week. I imagine it will be difficult to get a group picture of this class but I'm going to try. 

Here is Aiden and two other Cubbies (DaMond & Eric) showing Cubbie Bear and Luv E Lamb the bugles they made. Another one of the leaders built that stage this year for our puppet shows and it's been great. Another friend had a good idea when I saw that she puts plastic table clothes over the toys and things that they kids are not supposed to play with. That works awesome for this class especially since there are a handful of kids that have an extremely hard time staying in their seat and not playing with things.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the year offers for Cubbies. I'll post more about Aiden's therapy and some medical stuff I've been dealing with in the next day or so.

8/20 - Church outreach

Last Saturday we had our first outreach with our new church. We met at the local park (Brad walked there while I dropped the boys off at the church) and did an afternoon cookout and games. I also had pink eye but wore sunglasses most of the time so no one knew so if I look a little funny in the picture, that may be why.

We finally got to meet the pastor of our church and also got to know some of the other members. We had a few families come down and visit at the park. At about the halfway point, Brad went to go pick up the boys since it was kind of slow and I could handle our station by myself (we were in charge of games). The boys had a great time. Here they are drawing with sidewalk chalk.

They tried to participate in the games and relays we were having but the egg on the spoon was a little too tough for them. There was one family that came and they had 10 children (and 2 parents). The kids were all so sweet and cooperative. It was fun to play games with them.

I eventually went to the house and got the boys' bikes so they could ride around. Here is Aiden taking a break from riding his bike to eat some popcorn.

Eli had a snow cone but as you can see, was having some issues. Neither boy napped that day and I wasn't sure how long Eli would hang in there. He had a few minor meltdowns but did pretty well. He is upset here because he spilled some of the melted snow cone out of his cup by accident. Overall, I think the church outreach was a success and am hoping to see one of the families that we saw at picnic come to church soon.

I let the boys decide what to do last week when they stayed home with me for a day. Here is what they planned for us:

They decided on eat breakfast, play on the iPad, play trains/cars, go to Pump It Up, nap, mommy exercise time and then bikes. What a day we had planned. They actually switched things up a little and played trains first. We got out the track and I let them set it up in the kitchen (which is a huge treat) and they had a blast. 

They then got to take turns playing on the iPad. They love that thing. I'm always curious to see what they are in the mood to play. Most recently, monster truck racing has been a big hit. Eli likes to make letters and Aiden likes to do matching games and a drawing game. They both enjoy this game where you have to find the right shape and drag it to the picture and match it up. Here is Aiden playing while Eli watches on. They are so cute together.

We finally headed to Pump It Up. Eli is on the far left in the picture below and Aiden is on the right. They were doing the obstacle course and having quite a fun time. We  played pretty hard and I was even sweating at one point.

Here are the boys getting ready to do some crafts and cut some paper. They love just cutting paper up into small pieces and then gluing them together. Amazing what can keep them occupied for a while.

Aiden and I were sick this past weekend and stayed home from church on Sunday. By the late afternoon, Aiden was feeling significantly better so we went out to eat to get out of the house. He had a major meltdown at the restaurant because his ears hurt so bad but we eventually got past that. Aiden still has a bit of a cough and Eli has a runny nose but other than that, they are doing well. I'm still feeling like garbage but thankfully Brad hasn't gotten it so far.

Last week was a shock to both Brad and I as he finally returned to school full-time. Being married to someone in school is no fun. The poor man is gone all day and then comes home and has to start reading right away for all his classes tomorrow. I try and find stuff to do quietly in the evening but eventually he goes to the bedroom so I can watch tv for a little bit.

6/4 - Sunday school party & the cousins

On Saturday afternoon after Aiden's party, we had a sunday school party to go to. The kids were allowed to wear their bathing suits to play in the kiddie pools. Both of the boys wore their suits and I brought extra in-case the cousins wanted to get wet too but they decided not to change into suits. Here is Eli in the red swim trunks trying to fill up a water gun thing.

Here is my dear friend Stephanie. I can't believe she is going to be moving to Texas in less than a week. I'm pretending like she's not really moving yet though. In case I haven't mentioned it, her family is moving to Houston, TX to plant a bilingual church. They are not bilingual (yet) but have been taking spanish lessons for the past 6-7 months. God is going to use them in amazing ways. Their church is called Advanced Church of Houston. Please pray for them as they start this new journey.

OK. Back to the party. The cousins were pretty worn out from getting up really early to drive to Jax for the party and from playing so hard during the party. In fact, they all fell asleep on the way to the sunday school party that started at 4:00pm. Aiden fell asleep in the car too since he didn't take a nap. It took the cousins a while to wake-up but once they did, they were having a good time.

Grayson was helping Aiden and Eli and showing them how to put water in the guns and squirt them. Aiden even "washed" Grahams feet off with the water. Once we all ate, we inflated the bounce house and the kids had lots of fun playing in there. Poor Grayson was such a good sport. He was mobbed by all the kids but he was still playing with them all. Look how red Aiden's face was after the bounce house. It's a little hard to see but it was actually bright red. He rehydrating with daddy by drinking some water.

We came home and my boys went to bed right away and the cousins went to bed not too long after that. On Sunday morning, the cousins were playing while we got various kids ready and got things packed up. They played so well together at the train table. Aiden and Eli don't play well with other kids at the train table .... except with their cousins. It was quite amazing.

After church but before nap time, we blew up the bounce house. This thing weight 175 lbs and Brad was such a trooper for setting it up again. We also needed to set it up so I could clean/sweep the inside of it though. Daddy and the boys played for a bit and it was fun to watch.

Eli loved running over to Brad and tackling him. He had the cutest, most determined look on his face too. It was adorable.

The boys actually did well chasing each other too. It was a good way to burn some energy right before nap time.

In this last picture of the boys, the were about to gang up on daddy and try and catch and tackle him. They were all having fun.

I decided to flip around for a bit too. It's been years since I've done anything but I did some backhandsprings and some back flips too. These first two pictures are as Aiden says, "flips with my hands" and the last one is a "flip without hands."

It was fun to play around for a bit. We had a great time with the bounce house and thought that for $120, we got our use out of it since we had it from Fri late afternoon to Sunday late afternoon. :)  The boys went to daycare today and I've been busy working on a few projects. I need to go help Steph move and get a workout this morning before Aiden has his feeding and speech therapy later this afternoon. 

10/15 - Lots of church stuff

This week has gone by pretty fast. The boys are doing well and I've started to get behind on school work again. I have lots of grading to do at the moment. I'm excited to be teaching at UF and I knew it would be a challenging effort but I still think it's worth it. It seems like I get home and after the boys go down, I'm busy doing work until bed time but I love teaching. Brad has been such a huge help by taking the boys to daycare and sometimes picking them up. Without his support, I would never be able to do this. He's also been good about letting me do work at night and respecting that I have work to do although sometimes it's just doing my BSF homework or other bible study work since I don't have time during the day to get that stuff done.

Our church is having a Missions Week and there have been lots of activities planned. We went to the community cookout in OakLeaf (they did cookouts in 3 different areas of west Jacksonville/Orange Park). We brought our grill and Brad was the cook. They had a bounce house for the kids which was a huge hit. I'm not sure how many people were from our church versus just neighbors who came out but it seemed like fun for all. Here are Aiden and Eli with one of the missionaries daughters, Ashton. She was so sweet and helpful to them.

Eli actually usually doesn't like bounce houses but he did go in this one when it was just him and Aiden and 2 other kids. Once everyone else started coming, it was too crazy for him. I was excited he at least went in it a few times.

We had some of the hotdogs that Brad grilled. Aiden wanted just a bun, no hotdog. What a crazy kid. I got him a hotdog anyway and made him take a few bites of it. Eli, never one to waste food, eventually ate Aiden's hotdog too.

The boys got new long sleeve Gator shirts and I put Eli's in his when it was a little chilly this morning. He looks so cute in it (Jess - I have stuff for Liam and it's just been sitting at the house; let me check with Brad about mailing that off).

Today, one of Aiden's friends from church, Maddie, had her 4th birthday party at a local park. We went and the boys had a ton of fun running around.

Eli got in this dinosaur rocking thing but had a very difficult time getting out. I was cracking up. He couldn't have made it more complicated if he tried.

Aiden got to enjoy some new climbing with daddy.

Eli, of course, enjoyed the food and ate his hotdog again.

We were all decked out in our Gator clothes (except Brad).

Kyleigh and Regan came with use to the birthday party and they were so cute.

While trying to convince Aiden to eat his muscle food, Eli decided he would show us his muscles. He's so stinkin' cute.

Aiden got to experience his first pinata today. They all got to pull strings until it opened up. For never having done this or seen this, Aiden was prepared. Look at him standing under the pinata with his bag open. Smart boy!! With a little help from an adult, the pinata opened and the kids quickly went to the ground and after the candy. It was much less chaotic than I imagined. At the end, Aiden wanted to know why everyone else had a whistle and he didn't. Brad tried to tell him that he didn't pick one up off the ground and that's why he didn't have one. He was pretty bummed about it. Eli got ahold of some candy and even tried to eat the plastic that covered it because he was so impatient.

The other night at about 8:00pm, our doorbell rang. I was frustrated and Brad and I ran to the door. Who on earth would be ringing our doorbell at 8pm? We have kids sleeping! Anyway, we were Booed! Someone left a Halloween bag outside our door with goodies in it. We have 2 days to buy stuff and Boo other people in our neighborhood. Once you are booed, you put a sign in your window so that people know. How fun. We can't wait to ring someone else's doorbell and run tomorrow!