Flashback Friday: Dishes in the Bathroom

Friday:

We had a play date with Hunter and his momma (Louise, our pastor's wife, and my new best friend).  We went to McEuen park, which also has a splash pad, dog park, pavilion, tennis courts, and basketball court.  We haven't known Hunter for very long, but one thing I DO know, is that he LOVES getting wet.  It was a chilly morning, and I was a little concerned that he'd want to get wet.  Thankfully, they turned the water off! Whew!

The best part of the playground is for kids 5-12.  The part for younger kids isn't the best, so Kora and Hunter took their lives into their own hands and went for it on the BIG playground.

Hunter joined us in this log tunnel and another random girl.

Friday was Hunter's birthday, he turned 3.  Hunter and Kora are buddies, they go to nursery together on Sunday mornings during church.

I got in with the kids, and they didn't stay as long as I wanted to!

This sand pit, is so fun.  My kids like getting dirty!

This was around 11:40, Doug was going to be picking us up, and bringing street tacos with a couple of friends of ours.  For some unknown reason, I did not bring snacks or the kids water cups.  A mistake I hope I never make again.  Both kids kept saying how hungry and thirsty they were, so I decided to walk over to a coffee shop, grab a drink to share, and ordered them a grilled cheese.  Then, Doug just met us over there and we ate outside the coffee shop.

I asked the guy working at the coffee shop what he italian soda he recommended, and he suggested Huckleberry Vanilla, and it was SO good!

 The kids enjoyed the whipped cream on top!

After a couple sips, I told the kids we were going to save the drink till we got our food.  Kora was simply starving, starving I tell you!

We had a lovely lunch, then the kids and I dropped Doug off at work and we headed home.  I wasn't feeling the best, sinus junk, so I took some medicine and laid down for 45 minutes or so. The kids were so quiet in their room.  When I woke up, Kees wanted me to check out his work.

Kees said, "My cars are ganging up to get that bad guy!"

Kora was reading, one book at a time, and putting them back on the shelf!  YES!!!!

After I checked on the kids, I went into frantic cleaning mode.  We had friends over for dinner. And then Bonnie and I headed over to another friend's house for ladies night.  We ate pizza and brownie sundaes at my place, so we weren't starving for snacks, but we ate them anyway, to be polite. ;)

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Saturday:

I love Saturday!  Doug's home, football is on, and I can catch up on a few things.  About midday, I asked the kids if they wanted to go play in their room or clean up. Kees actually chose to clean up, I was surprised, not overly surprised, cause he is a hard worker.  They love closing the door and surprising me with their clean room.

Ta Da!

Kees was explaining what he picked up and where he put everything.  Look at that face!

And since their room was so clean, I figured it was time for them to get dressed for the day, in their Oklahoma stuff, of course!  They love their OU clothes, Kora was hugging her shirt.

Kees tracking down his OU socks.

Doug took the kids for a walk and to the park, I sent my camera with him, so these next few he took.

Kees loved rolling down the hill.

At the park!

When they got home, Kees was pretty upset and itchy (from rolling down the hill).  He washed his face with water, and I suggested a baby wipe. When both of those things didn't work, I just gave them a bath.

Kids were in the pjs by 4 pm, before the game even started here!  And Kora fell asleep right before the OU game came on at 5.  She slept an hour and a half, and then woke up to eat and play some more.

They played football for a while.  Kees was OU, and Kora was Tennessee.  After 15 minutes, Kora found a light up stick, and then she was done with football.

OU was beating Tennessee in the 4th quarter, 34-10, and I decided I'd better run to the store before it closed.  I needed a side dish for a potluck in the park after church the next day.  Doug suggested Asian salad, so I bought the stuff.  After the grocery store, I was compelled to check out Dollar Tree, cause it's right there!!!  And I found a few cool things.  I came home and made Asian salad and 100 ants on logs for Kees.

I may have been up until 4:30 for no good reason.  Whenever I get crafty, sometimes a light switch flicks on in my brain that is VERY hard to turn off.

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Sunday:

Kees took a little nap during church.  A very nice man sitting behind me, hugged my shoulders at the end of church and said how sweet it was to see me with Kees.  I have a tendency to fiddle with his hair while he sleeps.  I go out of my way to enjoy these moments because I know one of these times will be the last time he lets me. (And now I'm crying, seriously! Stop it!)

Potluck in the park, celebrating a couple birthdays.

Who remembers this boy? He's the one who splashed Kora at the block party, guess they made up.

And this is when I started hearing, "There's puke in the tunnel!"  I let another adult go check it out, turned out to be dried chili.  GROSS!

There were a couple of puddles inside the pavilion. Two kids slipped and fell.  Kora put her hands in the water and made hand prints on the dry ground.  I decided to just let her play, and for once, she didn't get that dirty!

Not sure what she was upset about, but she was letting me know.

After lunch, we got cupcakes!!!

One of the ladies got Hunter bubbles for his birthday, then she made bubbles for the kids to catch.

This is Kora with one of Hunter's older brothers, Wyatt.  Not sure what he's doing, but I LOVE this picture.

Wyatt and Kora playing with Hunter's new truck.

Action shots of kids are great.  More adults should jump around like this.

BLUE skies, not a cloud to be found.

 They found tiny little pellet things.

On our way home.

We went back to church, we're going through the Truth Project, which everyone already knows if they are friends with Doug on Facebook because he live tweets the whole time.


My new best friend, Louise, took these pictures of my kids.  (There's a little contest going on about who my best friend is, we're all just joking, it's been really fun!)

When we got home in the evening, I had Kees peek at his school work for the coming week.  Kora enjoyed looking at the stuff too.

I was hangry (anger induced by hunger) when we got home.  So I was trying to get food, clean out the fridge, put some leftovers into containers for Doug, situate the kids with snackies, and generally ready to snap!  And guess what moronic thing I did, I tried to boil water (for pirogues) on the wrong burner!  Once I figured that out, and got them made and eaten, I was a much happier camper.  I should also take this opportunity to thank Bonnie for explaining to me how to cook these the best way (boil first, then sauté in butter, salt them, and serve with sour cream), and Louise made the most awesome brownies in the world, and had them at church.  Okay, okay, technically I wasn't starving because I DID get a brownie at church, but I needed REAL food to subside my hungriness.

Monday:

If I remember correctly, last Monday we stayed in jammies a while. Maybe Mondays will be Pajama Days at our house.  Sounds like a plan to me.

My kids are playing so well together lately and for LONG periods of time.  I don't always pay attention to what they have dreamt up as their new dramatic play.  This morning, I overheard them saying, "Oh no, Grandpa Boo and Ginny, we better save their lives!!"  Later they were saving some of their cousins.  And in the next picture, I think they were fixing this car.

This is why I should have a blanket "NO!" when Kora asks for a second bowl of cereal.  Two things: 1. Glad there was a towel.  2. At least she didn't have milk in her second bowl.

I have become addicted to pierogies.  This is the second phase of cooking, the sauté in butter step.  And for the record, one serving is 4.  I wanted 6, so I compromised and ate 5, YUM!

Grilled cheeses and grapes for the little people.

Putting our ants to good use.  First I had him put his flashcards and ants (1-20) in order.

Apparently I left my camera sitting on the table...Kees took this picture and you can see my giant OU hammer pants.  The kids had gotten dressed, but I wasn't quite there yet.  Don't judge.

Now for the fun part!  We put the flash cards in this bucket and the kids took turns drawing a number and finding the ant that matched.  Kora was surprisingly good at this!  She doesn't know the names of the numbers, but she can match them.  Yay!

Once he matched them he put them to the side.

Kora's fingers creeping over to find her number.

Kora's chair is a nightmare, of EPIC proportions.  I decided to get a scrub brush after it, she joined in the fun.

Second round of fun, we put the sticks in a cup, and pulled those out.  Kees added the element of trying to find the correct number flash card with his eyes closed, and if he got it wrong, he put the stick back in the cup!  This made the activity last even longer and gave him more exposure to the numbers. Win-win!

Look at that face.  One great thing about homeschooling, I know exactly what kind of day my kids have had, and I see those smiles!

Kees decided to draw a picture.

He said, "This is Daddy.  That's his coffee. Daddy's mad cause he wants coffee."

Last week, Doug was sharing his home roasted (in a popcorn popper) coffee beans at work.  When the jar ran out of beans, his friend, Dean, put a sad face post-it note on top, and took it to Doug.  Doug was so happy his coffee passion was being shared, and came home and told me about it.  The next day, I found the sad face post it note on the ground and started panicking!  Who left me this note? Was it on our door?  Did we upset the neighbors???  Then I remembered it what Doug had told me and got a good laugh out of my ridiculous paranoia.  I left Doug a voice message on Voxer about it, Kees overheard me, and then wanted to know what paranoid meant. I showed him the sad face and explained.  Guess he remembered THAT story!!

I also bought at Dollar Tree, the other day, some alphabet beads.  Kees had several new sight words, so I gave him a skewer, his word cards, and the beads. He made a stick with all his words on it.  He loved it!  After 3 words, he asked, "Momma do you have more words, I want to do more when I get done with these!"  Yes, yes I do have more words.  By the time he was finished with his first set, he saw Kora playing with play dough and decided to do more words the next day.  He made sure to mention it when we were going to bed.

Play dough.  It's getting rough, so we need to make some new.

Doug came home from work, made the best fried rice ever, and then I went to my ladies bible study.  On the way home I stopped at Dollar Tree, don't judge me.  And guess what?! They have coconut milk from Thailand!!!  Did you also know, that the initials for Dollar Tree are "DT", just like my Doug Tomlinson!  Coincidence?  I think not!

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Tuesday:

Kora had breakfast, and then we filled up the sensory table with soapy water, sponges, and a tiny plastic tea set.

At one point I glanced over and Kora was attempting to remove her clothes.  NO!!!!

And of course, there's always the behind the scenes, working on the blog.

Kees slept so late. Guess about once a week, he just needs to catch up.  But it can't be on Saturday because that's when Daddy is home.  Kees wakes up EARLIER on Saturday so he can have special time with Doug.  Plus, also, Doug makes pancakes on Saturdays!!!

Kora used her tiny spoon and tea cup to pretend she was painting the siding.  She was also humming a little tune.

When Kees woke up, I told Kora to tell him about the special thing we were doing today.  And instead of telling him about the sensory table, she said, "SANDY!!!"  Aunt Sandy was coming over for lunch.

Kora gave Kees the sponge that had his name on it.  She showed him his name.

Then she found her sponge and said, "Kora!"

Kees was a little taken aback about the hydrating beads being gone.  But, he warmed up to this idea a little.  It got much better, later in the day, when he added his cars!

Kora loves looking at books.

Kees still has his smock on from earlier.

Working on his sight words again, with the letter beads.

I snuck in some study time.  Shout out to all my FRAZZLED ladies!

If you want Kora to be your best friend, read her a book.

Kees was listening, at a safe distance, and waiting his turn to read.  He can read about half of the words in the book he is holding and I help with the ones he doesn't know.

The kids wanted to show Aunt Sandy their numbers.

CARS!

This girl loves making a mess, but technically this time, it's soapy water, so she's cleaning.

We babysat for a friend on Tuesday.  And for once, Kees was outnumbered!  Too many girls. So he decided to get all his dolls and count them as boys.  Which led to an epic battle and a great way to practice counting!

WE GOT OUR UNIFIX CUBES!!!!!!!!!!!  (Slightly random, but YES!!!)

Super hero!

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Wednesday:

Strangely enough, on really fun, really busy, I sometimes forget to get pictures.  We got to have the Millers over for lunch. We were laughing so hard, my tummy was sore, and I kept crying!  So much fun!  Really glad they made time for us, and we got to meet their two lovely girls.

As soon, as our company left, and Doug went back to work, the kids and I took a nap.  When I woke up, Doug had texted to let me know that a few guys from work were helping move couches.  So I frantically cleaned up the mess we'd left and got dinner going.  So, so glad Krajec came over to hang out and eat tacos. And we still had a lot of dessert left from lunch.  We had a great time.

Around 8, I realized, we hadn't done much math for Kees's school work.  So we counted to twenty with unifix cubes and then he built a city.

Kora helped!

The kids cleaned and cleaned in their room and then surprised me.  They are just too sweet.

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Thursday:

We've been coming down with something for a couple days.  After a crummy night, we had a pretty mellow day.  Kees found this empty cereal box, and decided to cut words out for our labels and logos box.

While Kees was doing sight words, Kora did some art, and then we made up a song about the marker lids on her fingers.

Doug came home, and then went to bible study.  While he was gone we rested a bit, and then I had Kees use his ants and number flash cards for a little while.  He was looking so tired and miserable.  Poor guy!  Hope we all start feeling better, because I'm supposed to be going to a ladies retreat with our church.

Ugh! In other news our kitchen sinks and dishwasher are completely backed up and maintenance couldn't come today.  So I got to do dishes in the bathroom. I was feeling sick and overwhelmed and not in the best mood about this, but then I started reminding myself of all the things we DO have and what I have to be thankful for.  Doing dishes in the bathroom really isn't that big of deal in the whole scheme of things.  (Sorry for the melodrama Douglas)

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and that your sink is functioning properly!!!