Lakehouse With Daddy!

KC came with us this time and the kids loved it! . . . (and so did I)

 There were smiles all around for most of the extended weekend.

Castiel loved feeding the fish!

Emmitt loved getting dirty in the sand!

Cameron loved fishing with both Daddy and Grandpa!

Audrey is finally loving the water!

And I just asked Zoe "I love everything about the lakehouse!"

And my biggest kid with his big fishy :)

Not shockingly, Cameron enjoyed daddy's attention, as much as he could get :) Daddy showed him how to cast (kind of), he got to go out fishing with the boys a couple times, fishing in the paddle boat, kayaking with daddy . . . he kept going for most of the four days. And he loved every minute of it :)

Trolling behind the boat, with his Superman pole!

 He was actually picking up worms and giving them to Grandpa  :)

That's Grandpa and Cam out there. He fell asleep until a fish grabbed the line and the pole bopped him in the head!

 Action shot of him reeling in a fish :)

He paddled the entire time while kayaking with Daddy, instead of getting a free ride like in the past. 

Yes, he also got Daddy out of the paddle boat fishing.

 His first Perch! and it was small enough for him to hold the line :)

My favorite funny moment was his naming of this turtle. Two weeks ago he named a turtle "Lucky". This time when he was asked, the name "Billy Bobbers" came out. LOL!

Girls had a great time building sandcastles. They had quite the village going. Daddy had to keep Emmitt (a.k.a. Godzilla) busy, because he loved the sand just as much and destroying seemed to be his specialty :)

Castiel didn't seem to enjoy the sand as much. He was happy in the water or on the boat.

There is a lot going on in this picture! Emmitt is eating the fish food (don't worry, they are oyster crackers), Cam is asking for more, while the girls are seeing who can get their finger bit first by a fish :) FYI, they both chickened out.

Mom's don't make it in many pictures, I think I need to start requesting KC to take more pics so the kids believe I was around too.

Besides the family pic, this is the only picture I made it in. On the sandbar enjoying some Frisbee with the girls. See, that's really me on the right, lol.

KC and I took the girls to the sandbar and for a boat ride while the boys were all down for a nap. It was nice focusing on just them for a bit. We also had a few great water fights!

Talking about water fights! Audrey really got Grandpa :)

And Grandpa got her right back!

This is typical twins. Emmitt getting down and dirty, while Castiel is sitting back observing.

I just love seeing my Audrey in the water. She is so comfortable this year, jumping off the dock, off the raft, swimming across the bay, going down slides and Cam is doing it all along with her . . . I absolutely love it!

She even played King of the Raft with her big sister. It lead to the fight, but I still love that she is having fun in water!

The boys admiring "Billy Boppers" before letting him swim to freedom again.

This was another wonderful time with the family. Cameron is already asking when he can go back :)

I want to thank Grandpa and Grandma S for having such a wonderful place for my children to explore. 

My Little Experiment

One of my favorite movies is "Ever After" with Drew Barrymore as the Cinderella character.

I just love a good fairytale and I just adore Drew :)

A quote from the movie: "A lady ought never to raise her voice any louder than the gentle hum of a whisper in the wind"

The quote popped into my head today as I was yelling above the chaos of my children.

The last couple of days around here seem to be getting louder and louder. They seem to be competing to be heard, which really, how can I blame them for that? I can't.

So, I was thinking. What if I spent the day speaking only in a whisper? If they had to stay calm and listen, would it have a calming effect on our day?

I'm going to give it a try tomorrow.

I'll let you know if I'm heard at all tomorrow.

A day without yelling is making me happy already!!!



And I really love the movie. I'm sharing some more of the quotes . . . I'm thinking it's the English accents that makes the movie great :)
A bird may love a fish, Signore, but where would they live? 
Some people read because they cannot think for themselves.
I will simply deny you the crown and... live forever. 
I know that a life without love is no life at all. 
I would rather die a thousand deaths than see my mother's dress on that spoiled, selfish cow! 
Darling, nothing is final 'til you're dead, and even then, I'm sure God negotiates. 
It is a strong woman who can keep her wits about her, with you trying to steal her heart. 

Posing for Pictures :)

My new favorite thing is to take pictures of my children while yelling "POSE" "POSE" "POSE"!!!

Olivia is not my child, but she seems to enjoy it too :)

 Yes, even the sad face is a pose. He had to look at the camera to see what he looked like sad, LOL.

Lakehouse Getaway!!!

I am playing a little catch up on my blogging.

I'm sorry for being gone for so long . . . I've been a little busy and all my possessions are in storage or in boxes. I've been trying to normalize our life a little, especially for my children.

While we finished up our move and packed away the rest of our life (which, by the way, is exhausting!) we sent our children away with grandparents.

I thought it would be slightly traumatizing for the girls to see an empty house. The end was hard enough for them. As for the boys, they would have been underfoot too much to get it all done. We were grateful to Grandma B to drive them off with 2 days to go.

Before they pulled away, the neighborhood came over to say "good-bye". This is when Cameron started asking why everyone was crying, because the tears were flowing.  :(

 These two are going to miss each other  :(

 These girls have grown up together and plan to keep in touch by email. (I have to let Zoe used my computer tomorrow!)

This has been my children's family. These are the kids that they played with daily. In the last couple years their friendships have grown. These kids have the parents that I trusted my children with. I will miss that sense of security in my surroundings.

This is a neighborhood of friends that we are hoping to be lucky enough to find again.

Grandma B took them north and spoiled them. Grandpa B gave all the boys rides on his John Deere tractor. The girls cooked with Grandma and the boys enjoyed looking at the fish in the pond.

Then Grandpa and Grandma S picked them up and took them further north to the Lakehouse.

Cameron has been asking to go to the Lakehouse since March. It was just such a crazy spring that this was the first opportunity. KC and I were a little sad that they were going without us.

After the crazy marathon pack, I drove up to spend some time with them. Poor KC was stuck at work since he had to take off the time for the move.

I'm just going to share some pics of the fun :)

 Just have to say, Grandpa has a lot of help driving the boat now!

Castiel played in the sand, Emmitt tried drowning twice, Cameron caught his first and second bass, Audrey was jumping off the dock and raft, and Zoe built a sandcastle surrounded by a moat with a waterfall :)  All in all, great get-away.

Such a great get-away, we are going back this weekend with daddy!!!