Cool Kiddos

I'm amazed that it's almost September!  Next week we'll be starting Preschool...just two days a week.  I'm excited for the kids to have Ms. Hollee, and I'll be their Music & Movement teacher for 30 minutes every day.  Plus, I'll get to spend more time with my nephew!

I was cleaning out Bethany and Zachary's closet today to make room for some bigger fall clothes.  They found their sunglasses and had fun playing with them :)

Time for some exercise!

I got a new dvd called "Let's Move!"  We tried it out this evening, and the kids seemed to like it.  Zachary loved jumping :)

Care Now

What an afternoon!  The kids were playing in the living room after lunch.  I heard the drawers open to an end table we keep books in (there's also a lamp on top).  Both drawers were full, and Bethany pulled them out...which made the table AND lamp fall on her.  Anyway, she got a little cut on her forehead.  The doctor at Care Now was able to fix it with some Dermabond glue instead of stitches.  We'll go back in a couple of days to make sure it's healing well. 

I tried to get an "after" picture, but she didn't want to look at the camera!

Dessert

We had an after dinner treat tonight!

Bethany likes to hide behind the grill.  Silly girl!

I think Zachary enjoyed his popsicle.

Slumber Party

My niece spent the night last night, and we got pedicures before she starts kindergarten tomorrow.  I can't believe my little Katie is starting elementary school.  She's going to knock the socks off of those teachers!

I thought this picture was cute of Bethany and Katie...even though they're not looking at the camera.  Poor Zachary wasn't feeling well, so he missed out on some of the fun.

Bye to Summer

We're trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer, and even though it's still HOT, we've been able to go outside for a little bit here and there.  I can't believe Zachary and Bethany will be 22 months old next week, and then we'll be starting preschool in September!  It's going to be an exciting year for sure :)

Circus

Today was fun because Daddy took the day off and we all went to the circus.  My mom and dad also went with us.  Here they are with all four of their grandkids!

Me and Aaron with the kids before the show started.

Although the two hour show got to be kind of long, the little ones did great!  I think the animals were the highlight of the circus.  Bethany LOVES elephants, but she wasn't too thrilled about being close to them.  We got to see this elephant "paint" before we headed to our seats.

Pool

Aaron took the kids swimming at his parents' house a couple of days ago, and they got these pictures of the kids underwater!  Bethany and Zachary have been taking swimming lessons all summer, and now they're like little fish.

Play Date

My friend Kim brought her boys over to play today.  Here's Zachary, Bethany, and Jake taking a break!

110 Degrees

I feel like Bethany and Zachary grew quite a bit while we were gone.  She can open doors now, which has been interesting.  They've also been picking on each other more...I guess it's the "soon to be 2" stage.  Here's some pictures from when we were playing at my parents' house yesterday.  You have to get creative when it's way too hot to play outside!!!

Central America

Aaron and I went with 16 others from our church to Jinotega, Nicaragua last week.  It was an amazing trip, and I'd love to go again someday!  The first day we stayed at Mision Para Cristo with a few others from our group to put bags together for Casa Materna (where pregnant women live until their babies are born).  Aaron and Bill played soccer with some kids in the garage area.  FYI...the lady who works with Casa Materna is always in need of cloth diapers, baby socks, onesies, blankets, and especially fabric.  They cut material into 6x6 squares and bundle 36 squares together.  Then the mothers make their own blankets, so if you have any material (baby fabric would be great), I'll be collecting supplies to send before the end of the year.

The next day I got to help the doctor who came with us at a mobile medical clinic.  Here's the line waiting to see him.  I was in the building you see at the back, which was our "pharmacy" for the day.  I handed out a lot of vitamins and tylenol, and most of the patients were kids.

Aaron stopped by after they finished building a house.

On Wednesday and Thursday I got to go to two different schools.  Aaron and I both went with the mobile library.  What a fun day!  This school had 22 students that day.  We sang songs, and Aaron read the story of David and Goliath...in Spanish!

We also brought face paint, which was a hit!

The brave little boy who was the first to let me paint a cat face :)

Reading Dora (they read more to me than I read to them).  The mobile library is also going to start letting the kids "check out" a book to take home, so they'll be needing a lot more children's books.  I'll be collectiong them to send next summer, so if you're at Half Price Books, don't forget to look in the Spanish section!

Nicaragua has the best coffee!

There were 10 of us from our group who decided to HIKE a mountain on Friday morning.  I'm getting too old for this kind of thing!

That afternoon we spent an hour or two with probably 100 children.  We had our own little field day with races.  We were team rojo!

We randomly saw a baby with a Kimley-Horn shirt on, where Aaron works.

The Grapevine Church of Christ group.

We got to be tourists on Saturday and started off by seeing a volcano.

Then we went ziplining.  Aaron had already been twice, but I'm glad I did it!

It was a lot of fun :)

Flying home!