I'm sure lots of you have seen the infamous YouTube video of the dad doing his daughter's hair using his shop vac. I told Colin about it this afternoon, and he had to test it out for himself. He is pleased with the efficiency and accuracy! LOL
Monday, April 29, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Wow, it's been a while!!
Enjoying another picnic by the lake:
Ready for gymnastics:
Daddy dressed us in matching outfits. Boiler up!
Last weekend the 3 of us met in ATL for a girls' weekend. It was priceless to say the very least. We don't see each other nearly enough (although we do text constantly), but when we do, we pick up right where we left off. Such great friends!!
This was taken at our first lunch of the trip, at Mellow Mushroom.
This was our first night, and sweet and thoughtful Colin and Jack had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries sent to our room. Kudos to Colin who managed all 3 kids solo for a solid 2 days!! 3 freshly bathed and ready for bed babies were in the van when he picked me up from the airport. I came home to a clean house and everything perfectly laid out for the next day (something I always do). :)))
Our hotel was amazing and extravagant. Thanks to Katrina who generously covered the room by using her points!!!!
Here we had lunch at Cinco, which we had seen the Real Housewives of Atlanta enjoy a huge bowl guacamole on the patio here, so we scouted it out.
There was a huge mix up among employees regarding using points for spa services, along with a 24 hour cancelation notice or you pay 100% of the service. When we found out they weren't going to honor our points toward the massages and facials we had scheduled, we tried to cancel, and the hotel was going to cover the cancelation fee. We were outside waiting on our car when the front desk girl came out to tell us they were going to let us get the services, free of charge. We were so excited!! It was literally a good $600 worth of spa services.
This was our last selfie, taken at the ATL airport. Sad to say goodbye, but ready to see our babies! An EXCELLENT and much-needed break for us.
Monday my van was broken into at the gym. I stupidly leave (not anymore) my purse in the van daily when I work out. It's never in plain view, and plus my windows are very darkly tinted. Along with the fact that Clermont doesn't have crime really. Anyway, I got there around 3:30 and was back to my van at 4:15 to discover a van full of broken glass and my purse gone. There was another lady next to me whose purse was also stolen, and 2 cars in the middle of the parking lot whose windows were busted and purses stolen. We took the kids to school every day, and Colin has literally spent his entire week picking up the pieces of this nonsense. We had to close our checking account and start over. All of our bills were set up for automatic deduction, so to make the change was a huge process. Yesterday an $1800.00 check cleared out of our old checking account. (We were reimbursed immediately.) I have my strong suspicions that the people who did this are these guys. Here are the 3 car seats lined up in our truck, since the van was windowless until Thursday.
Erin's language is exploding. She's using quite a bit of full sentences. For example today when we picked them up from the gym's day care, Colin had asked her if she colored the picture she was holding. She said, "No, Gracie did it, Daddy." It's funny to hear a "baby" speaking in sentences. She's also doing good on potty training (nowhere near trained, but progress!)
Saturday morning color time:
She picked out her ensemble today.
Jack is still really into pirates (understatement of the century). Here he is as Captain Jack Sparrow. He watched the movie, then immediately needed to stick a toothpick in his bandana. ??? I don't remember that detail of the movie, but I'm sure it must be true.
Grace is the best independent player. She organized this entire "house" with her kitchen, babies, etc. then played quietly and contently in it for almost an hour.
And here is when she got into the nail polish, very sneakily.
Here is an entertaining performance by the McCormick trio. This was moments after we sold the TV. The stand turned into their stage, and the baby proof strap into a microphone.
Here is Jack reciting his verse of the week at home.
And here he is doing it with a friend at school.
Have a fabulous weekend!! We are off to PF Changs for an impromptu date night after a week full of stress!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Enjoying another picnic by the lake:
Ready for gymnastics:
Daddy dressed us in matching outfits. Boiler up!
Last weekend the 3 of us met in ATL for a girls' weekend. It was priceless to say the very least. We don't see each other nearly enough (although we do text constantly), but when we do, we pick up right where we left off. Such great friends!!
This was taken at our first lunch of the trip, at Mellow Mushroom.
This was our first night, and sweet and thoughtful Colin and Jack had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries sent to our room. Kudos to Colin who managed all 3 kids solo for a solid 2 days!! 3 freshly bathed and ready for bed babies were in the van when he picked me up from the airport. I came home to a clean house and everything perfectly laid out for the next day (something I always do). :)))
Our hotel was amazing and extravagant. Thanks to Katrina who generously covered the room by using her points!!!!
Here we had lunch at Cinco, which we had seen the Real Housewives of Atlanta enjoy a huge bowl guacamole on the patio here, so we scouted it out.
There was a huge mix up among employees regarding using points for spa services, along with a 24 hour cancelation notice or you pay 100% of the service. When we found out they weren't going to honor our points toward the massages and facials we had scheduled, we tried to cancel, and the hotel was going to cover the cancelation fee. We were outside waiting on our car when the front desk girl came out to tell us they were going to let us get the services, free of charge. We were so excited!! It was literally a good $600 worth of spa services.
This was our last selfie, taken at the ATL airport. Sad to say goodbye, but ready to see our babies! An EXCELLENT and much-needed break for us.
Monday my van was broken into at the gym. I stupidly leave (not anymore) my purse in the van daily when I work out. It's never in plain view, and plus my windows are very darkly tinted. Along with the fact that Clermont doesn't have crime really. Anyway, I got there around 3:30 and was back to my van at 4:15 to discover a van full of broken glass and my purse gone. There was another lady next to me whose purse was also stolen, and 2 cars in the middle of the parking lot whose windows were busted and purses stolen. We took the kids to school every day, and Colin has literally spent his entire week picking up the pieces of this nonsense. We had to close our checking account and start over. All of our bills were set up for automatic deduction, so to make the change was a huge process. Yesterday an $1800.00 check cleared out of our old checking account. (We were reimbursed immediately.) I have my strong suspicions that the people who did this are these guys. Here are the 3 car seats lined up in our truck, since the van was windowless until Thursday.
Erin's language is exploding. She's using quite a bit of full sentences. For example today when we picked them up from the gym's day care, Colin had asked her if she colored the picture she was holding. She said, "No, Gracie did it, Daddy." It's funny to hear a "baby" speaking in sentences. She's also doing good on potty training (nowhere near trained, but progress!)
Saturday morning color time:
She picked out her ensemble today.
Jack is still really into pirates (understatement of the century). Here he is as Captain Jack Sparrow. He watched the movie, then immediately needed to stick a toothpick in his bandana. ??? I don't remember that detail of the movie, but I'm sure it must be true.
Grace is the best independent player. She organized this entire "house" with her kitchen, babies, etc. then played quietly and contently in it for almost an hour.
And here is when she got into the nail polish, very sneakily.
Here is an entertaining performance by the McCormick trio. This was moments after we sold the TV. The stand turned into their stage, and the baby proof strap into a microphone.
Here is Jack reciting his verse of the week at home.
And here he is doing it with a friend at school.
Have a fabulous weekend!! We are off to PF Changs for an impromptu date night after a week full of stress!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Tiger Pride
Last night, Jack had the best game yet. I was bursting with pride. Up until now, it has been extremely frustrating to watch the games, only to see Jack playing around, climbing the dugout fence, covering his helmet and/or hat over his eyes and trying to run or walk, playing in the dirt, gathering sticks in the outfield, high fiving the other team's players as he runs by them, sitting down on every base while other players are running towards the base, etc. etc. etc. You.Name.It. He never complains about going to baseball, but he has mentioned to me a time or two that he gets bored because no balls come to him in the field. And that he's frustrated that he can't hit the ball as far as the 5 and 6 year olds.
Something got into him last night, and he was amazing! I honestly think it was a mixture of a) the fact that tons of balls came to him at shortstop, causing him to need to pay attention and b) he gained a lot of confidence after he saw that he could hit the ball hard! The coaches were incredibly proud of him, which was so nice to see. They are just parent volunteers, and they had such pride and enthusiasm for him that you would've thought he was their own child. After each good play that he did, at least one of the coaches would verbally praise him and give him a thumbs up or a high five. They were genuinely proud, and I just think that's awesome considering they are just out there for the good of the kids. At the end of the game, they made a big deal out of awarding him the game ball, and all of his teammates hugged him. It honestly brought tears to my eyes. It was so sweet, and I was so proud of him. I looked up and his little red cleats were off the ground because they were hugging him and picking him up. So cute! The sad thing was that it was Colin's one night to work the concessions, so he missed it. I'm hoping for a repeat next week.
The girls were at home with a sitter, so I texted her to see if we could be a little later so we could take Jack out for a celebratory ice cream. Jack was ON TOP OF THE WORLD (as you can probably clearly see in the below picture). He was sooooo proud of himself. We then stopped at Michael's and got him a special case for his game ball, which he really loves.
It's been a rough week around here, behavior-wise with all three (mainly Erin). Everyday that I've picked them up from school, I haven't got the normal good reports. One day Erin bit another kid, which shocked me. The next day she tore the posters off of the walls in the classroom, among a long list of other things the teacher reported to me. Jack mainly just wasn't listening or being his usual self. His teacher said she can tell he's tired (um, yes...when isn't he tired?). We started a new marble behavior incentive that seems to be really working so far! We've noticed huge changes. Grace didn't get more than one bad report, which the teacher said during snack she stood up and balanced a chair on her head (lovely, Grace). Prayers for a much better week next week!!!
Today after the gym, we headed to Target. I had tried these homemade protein bars earlier in the week that my friend, Lisa (hi, Lisa! I think you stop by every now and then!), brought to school. I wanted to make them myself today. I spend a lot of money in protein and fiber bars every week since I eat one of each daily, and they have tons of extra, unneccessary sugar in them. So I wanted to make these myself, and they turned out GREAT. Now I'm on the search for a similar bar, only fiber rather than protein. Anyway, all of that to say, I trekked all 3 in to Target just for bananas. I texted a couple of people saying, "Pray for me. I'm goin' in!" You never know how these trips will go!
Her favorite past time - dress up! I think this was around 6:15 this morning. We've all been awake since 5:30 when Grace woke up SCREAMING for the babysitter. She assumes she will still be here in the morning, since she is the one that put them to bed at night. She wasn't pleased to see that she had gone home.
We enjoyed a (dirty) backyard picnic this afternoon with a little bit of swinging and playing. The playtime ended short when Jack was picking a weed that happened to be what I'm assuming (Katrina educated me on this.) was a stinging nettle. He SCREAMED like he never does. The kid really isn't dramatic when it comes to getting hurt. I was trying to peel his shirt off because I assumed he had an ant biting him. Eventually I realized it was his hand that was hurting. I googled, and found that lemon juice can alleviate the sting, which it did temporarily. He took a bath to try to rinse the chemical from his skin, but it really really REALLY hurt him for at least an hour. I was really close to calling the doctor because his screams were killing me. He was saying, "MOMMY PLEASE HELP ME. MOMMY, I NEED YOU. MOMMY, MY HAND." over and over and over. I tried wrapping it in a cold wash cloth, giving him an ice pack, and finally I gave him some Advil. I read that Benedryl can help, but I didn't have any for kids. Anyway, he is A-OK now, but he was in some serious pain for about an hour.
Then nobody decided they needed a nap (surprise, surprise), so we made our way to the fire station, which was really nice and relaxing for a change. The kids just played outside while the adults chatted. I left my phone in the van, so no pictures this time.
Jack was reading books to the girls before bed tonight. Such sweet big brother moments.
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These are some from earlier in the week:
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| I wanted to take Erin outside for some pictures with my camera because I thought she looked so cute in this outfit with her pigtails. Once we got out there, my camera battery was dead, so I just snapped a couple with my phone. Such a character! |
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| Jack came in our room a few times this week for various reasons. He looks like such a little baby in this picture. Colin wasn't too happy about the flash while sleeping, apparently. |
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| More dress up! The knight and his princess |
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| Last weekend I took the kids down by the lake for a picnic. It's so nice and peaceful down there. We should do this more often. |
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| I compiled a list of the all the "kids eat free" places in Clermont. There's at least one for every night of the week. Anyway, this place is called Graffiti Junction, and they have the perfect FENCED IN area for our crazy and loud family! We spilled two milks, and nobody even cared! lol This might be our new Tuesday night tradition. :) |
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Happy Sunday
We had a usual busy week, and the weekend is getting away from me way too fast! I'm sitting on the couch finishing my coffee before getting up to get us ready for church. All 3 kids are quietly working on a puzzle together. I'm not sure what else is on our agenda today, besides going to the gym, but I'm sure we will find stuff to keep us busy!
FYI - I read in my Family Fun magazine that today, April 7, is National No Housework Day! Keep that in mind when planning your day today. :) I know I will.
Here are some pictures from the last few days.
Grace enjoying Venice Beach:
Another bragging moment. This was Jack's monthly report card comment section:
Some of the girls' artwork that is displayed in the hallway at their school:
Devin and Kelly were going to come to Jack's game this week, but it got called off at the last minute due to thunder and lightning.
Colin took G to gymnastics Wednesday, and here are a couple of pictures.
I attended a Literacy Symposium at UCF on Friday. Here Kelly and I are pretending that I am the keynote speaker. Being slap happy will get the best you, apparently. I'll also add in that I was asked (by a college student who was directing people where to go) if I was there for the college orientation, which definitely made my day! :)
All the kids love imaginary play, and of course the girls love dressing up. My mom got these cute fairy dresses for Grace's birthday. They had lots of fun with them!
Colin and I went to Outback to eat and watch the game last night. We got back earlier than our normal date night since we stayed in Clermont. Therefore, the sitter hadn't got the kids down yet. When we checked on them, Gracie had fallen asleep in her chair. At least she didn't push Erin out of the way, in order to squeeze in with her like she oftentimes does!
Jack spent a solid 5 minutes doing his hair this morning.
Another verse that Jack memorized.
Ah, it feels great to be blogging again. It was nice to not have that hanging over my head after getting the kids down in the evenings, but I really did miss it! Have a great Sunday!
FYI - I read in my Family Fun magazine that today, April 7, is National No Housework Day! Keep that in mind when planning your day today. :) I know I will.
Here are some pictures from the last few days.
Grace enjoying Venice Beach:
Another bragging moment. This was Jack's monthly report card comment section:
Some of the girls' artwork that is displayed in the hallway at their school:
Devin and Kelly were going to come to Jack's game this week, but it got called off at the last minute due to thunder and lightning.
Colin took G to gymnastics Wednesday, and here are a couple of pictures.
I attended a Literacy Symposium at UCF on Friday. Here Kelly and I are pretending that I am the keynote speaker. Being slap happy will get the best you, apparently. I'll also add in that I was asked (by a college student who was directing people where to go) if I was there for the college orientation, which definitely made my day! :)
All the kids love imaginary play, and of course the girls love dressing up. My mom got these cute fairy dresses for Grace's birthday. They had lots of fun with them!
Colin and I went to Outback to eat and watch the game last night. We got back earlier than our normal date night since we stayed in Clermont. Therefore, the sitter hadn't got the kids down yet. When we checked on them, Gracie had fallen asleep in her chair. At least she didn't push Erin out of the way, in order to squeeze in with her like she oftentimes does!
Jack spent a solid 5 minutes doing his hair this morning.
Another verse that Jack memorized.
Ah, it feels great to be blogging again. It was nice to not have that hanging over my head after getting the kids down in the evenings, but I really did miss it! Have a great Sunday!
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