scary

Nothing exciting about this blog but I wanted to post a few scary things this week for those not on facebook.
Sunday we had 2 guys with alcohol on their breath come into our backyard where the kids were playing. Avery told them to go back through the gate and ring the door bell. I really don't like having a for rent sign out front. We never know who is sitting in front of the house or coming up to the door asking to see the inside.
Then last night I was up late sewing a patch on Justin's uniform and I notice someone outside. It was a truck the pulled up behind our van. I was more scared then anything so I woke Justin and they must have seen the light go out and they pulled away quickly. Well this morning everyone else on the block had their back windows bashed in. I guess here in town the number is up to 50 maybe. I feel so sad for everyone with a broken window. But then I also feel so blessed again to look out the window at that moment and have scared them away. What a sweet mercy to not have to deal with such an issue.
Also our big side gate next to the kitchen window and the garbage can the gate was left wide open last night. No one ever comes to that side(except the night someone pulled a hot four wheeler across the neighbors yard along our fence.) and we never leave it open so it makes me feel weird to think someone was walking around last night. Well I guess maybe these are all helping me ready want to move to a safer place.
I feel so blessed that my kids and family (and car) have been safe so far.

Art

Avery and Paige's new art

Paige's oil painting

My attempt


Time to update, so here are some pictures of what we have been up to. Friday I had a birthday and Justin picked up an ice cream cake, YUM! I decided to do something for myself and worked on a wanna be talent, I decided to paint as Justin already had the paints out. So it was fun to play for an hour and a half after the kids were asleep. It isn't done but maybe next year I will make time to work on it again.
Well Sunday when I was taking a nap and Justin had to pull duty on base someone slipped into my room and did a little painting of their own. I was very very relieved that they didn't get it all over as oil paints are not fun to clean up. Well when I figured out who did it I decided I had a little paint left over and the canvas was half empty so I asked Paige to finish her picture.
That of course made everyone else want to paint. So we picked up water colors and did pictures yesterday.
Last Saturday when we were up at Justin's parents they gave us a couple of these cool frames with mats. So there is a picture of Avery's and Paige's new art work at the top.

Saturday

So I don't know if you can see but there is some railings missing from one of the fence sections. Yeah that was Paige. She dismantled the fence. The park ranger thought it was funny when she dropped the rail on herself. What a big job for such a little girl.





So we decided to check out the battle fields here around our house. We tried to do it pretty quick and could surely spend a lot more time but we had fun running around looking at the stuff. It was pretty cool to learn a little more about this country and some history. The Crater was our favorite. This battle site's exit is only about a mile from our house and there are earth works just a couple blocks over, I think it is called Fort Walker. Funny huh?

Dates?

Here are a few photos from our dates, here we are at the driving range. Justin has great form, I am just lucky if I hit the ball. We went to Swadders, next time I think we are going for the batting cages.






Avery took this photo but it is a rare shot so I am adding it with the glare and all. Justin and I have been trying to get out more and do the dating thing. Last month we had probably the coolest date ever. We got a babysitter for all of Saturday and drove to Norfolk and saw the Wicked Broadway show. Man it was the best. We had so much fun and laughed so much it was a much needed day. Sadly my camera wasn't working so I have no proof. But as we left Justin commented on how he wished he could meet the cast they were so cool and fun. We didn't know what we would say if we did so we went out to eat. We found a little Thia restaurant after some wrong turns and construction and one ways not going our way and decided to eat there. We sat by a group but didn't pay any attention to them until they all got up to leave. I looked up and thought it was odd how the guy looked just like the lead guy in the play. So I mentioned it to Justin and said he should go see if it was him. (he was sitting on the outside. :))So he followed them out and had his wish come true as he met the real Fiaro. So we had dinner with the cast (if we had just looked at them and realized a little sooner who we were sitting by). Yeah it made our night and no we didn't get any autographs I told you we didn't know what we would do or say if we did met them. It was a fun day and we hope to have more dates soon.

Kid stuff

Ben at his happy moment at Avery's field day.



Paige was playing fire man yesterday. I didn't catch on when I saw her in the living room dressed like this and I tried to sit on the couch, apparently it was on fire. She started yelling and telling me to go out, hurry get up, get out of here. Then she chased me out of the room as I had a little fire still on me. I of course had to run for the camera as I thought she made a cute little fireman.


Payton with both of his front teeth. (Hopefully the dentist can help us again.)
The other day someone asked how to spell Payton's name I said P-A-Y-T-O-N,
he got very upset and started pulling on my arm. After I was done talking with the friend I asked what was wrong. He kept insisting I spelled it wrong. I said PAYTON? He said yes. The he went on to tell me how his name is spelled P A Y T N and no O. He said either people have to start spelling the way it sounds Paytn or they need to start saying it right Pay-TON. So just to warn you Payton may be changing his name.


So last night was CiCi's Pizza night. No we didn't go out. I was going to make homemade pizza and Payton insisted we make it CiCi's so we of course HAD to make brownies with the powdered sugar on top. Then Avery insisted that we decorate. So she did all these crazy little "decorations" but my favorite was the sign I found hanging across the entrance to the kitchen. Notice it says 39 and under are free. She couldn't remember if dad was 34 or 35(He isn't either) but she wanted to make sure he didn't have to pay so she set the age at 39.

Here is Avery after Kinder Graduation. Her little friend wanted to take a picture with the camera.

if you like it... dance

Here are a few dance moves done by K-3rd graders. Sorry this one is sideways. Just tilt your head to the left. She knew all the moves even if I couldn't get a good clip of it. I hope it is ok to post others.

Everyone to the right...

So this one is to show how all the kids k-5 know what to do for every song. It was impressive. You could spend a year teaching dance to kids back at home and not have near the sincrinzation or half the moves these kids got. So this one I have to warn you BEN SCREAMS in it so PLEASE TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN before you click on the play button. The whole day was rough. Paige and Ben were upset most of the time.
Also you should turn off the music that automaticly plays on my playlist on the right of the web page. Just push pause button before seeing any of these clips. I hope you enjoy.
I loved how as soon as they turned on a new song everyone would go wild and know the song and all start doing the same moves and singing the words. Including the kids in line going to class, the parents walking to their seats and the teachers. Wow.

dance

Here is a clip showing how they all seem to know the words.

dance lessons

So this post is purely to help my family get a better picture of things around here. I will probably erase it soon as I wouldn't want my kids on someone else blog. But Avery was invited to a school dance grades K-5. Some people asked what kids know how to dance at 5 years old. Well let me SHOW you what kids. It is very clear to me that these kids do and seriously most dance better then I do and they knew all the songs.
So for field day they had music and kids could go up to the stage and dance. So I was pretty amazed by the skills these kids had. My favorite was the tiny girl on the right in the dark dress but she is hard to see as she is dark and the background is dark I hope you can see her.
I will try to post some more if I can get them on with out too much work.

More on Memorial

Paige balancing on a branch. It was a cool branch that was stretched way wide. She asked me to put her up there.


The long road to the tomb of the unknown Soldier.


Justin teaching the kids about a monument. I had to take a picture as they were all sitting still it was really cute.


Ben's first ride on a motorcycle.

The kids view of the house

So when Benny and Mark were coming the kids thought they would get here after we all went to bed so they made signs and hung them around the house so they could find their way around. They made me smile so I thought I would post them. These are the important things they wanted Benny and Mark to know when they came in.


Medicine Cabinet
Toothpaste and
Toothbrushes


Bathroom
Mom and Dad's room
Laundry


Closet here
Attic over there
SPOOKY


Mark in here
Benny in there in Payton's room
Mark in Avery's room Up

Upstairs
Scrapbooking
Kitchen

A PET!!

So Benny and Mark were in town and decided to get a pet for the kids.


Shopping...

Shopping...


Shopping, was almost as fun as getting a pet. Ok not quiet but it was fun to look.




Yep this was the fun find. The best was when all the kids but Ben wanted the rabbit to come to them and it just kept going after Ben he would squeal and try and get away from it.


Benny got the kids 2 cute bunnies. I am relieved we didn't get anything else, Payton insisted a Rat would be cool. NO WAY!! I think there is a mouse in the attic he can catch.
We are still working on a name that fits. The options are so far- thumper, chocolate(for the brown one), cotton, spot, spotty, rabby, bunny, benny, snowball, cocoa, flopsy, and peter.
Our only concern is if we got a boy and a girl.? Why were they in different pens? Well we will only boost our rabbit population in the area. Ha ha....

Just for fun

School Girls. Avery dressed Paige in her old uniform and so Paige thought she was going to school. Boy was she disappointed when she couldn't get on the bus. Soon enough baby, soon enough. Ben fell and cut his lip you can't see the cut inside. This is when it was half healed so it is hard to see anything. Sorry, it was bad. He fell doing some of his risky climbing stunts. Payton and Paige really wanted to do make up when they found some old makeup of mine. I decided I don't mind so much if Payton puts makeup on Paige or me so long as he didn't put it on himself. So for fun the other day that is what we did. Here is Paige's makeover. As you can tell she was really into lipstick. Oh yeah, that's nice.


Here is Payton at the t-ball clinic and draft. See if you can see him behind the coaches. He was so excited to be out there. I don't think we will have any probablem mixing himm up with the other player. He just kind of stands out.