Adrenaline X Party!

My husband has started his own business -- Adrenaline X Party!

Check out his website at http://www.adrenalinexparty.com

He offers a variety of fun games including laser tag, nerf tag, capture the flag nerf style, super water fights and more! It's perfect for a birthday party, bachelor party, family reunion, Boy Scout/Girl Scout event, Church events, Graduation party, or just for a good time!

He had his first party last weekend and it was a BLAST. Everyone was laughing, running around and having so much fun together. It was so great to see people of all ages playing together, being active and having a great time!! There were kids starting with Isaiah (age 3 1/2) to teenagers to parents (we won't go there with ages!). It was definitely a party for every age category - (just ask Levi as he walked around drinking Kool-aid and eating frosting the entire time! HAHA - yeah I know, great mom, huh?)

I was able to get a bunch of fun pictures of everyone -- at this party we played both nerf guns and laser guns...

So if you are in the market for a fun time - check out his website and give him a call!

superman x 2

Isaiah and Caiden were having so much fun with the dress up clothes we have - the 2 red capes in particular. They were pretending to be Superman - one of the capes really is a Superman cape, the other is just a plain red one, they didn't care and didn't even fight over them! They looked so cute.

First they sat on the front step and ate a popsicle.and then they went 'flying' around the yard.
As the boys were flying, Levi decided he wanted to be 'swimming,' I figured, why not.
There's nothing like warm, sunny summer days!

Grundy Pool.

My friend Andrea invited the boys and I to meet her and her daughter at the pool in Grundy Center. I was so excited because I've been wanting to take them to the pool, but haven't been brave enough to take them by myself - especially to the crowded pool in town.

So off we went on Tuesday afternoon. The weather was PERFECT for the pool - hot and sunny! It took us about 30 minutes to get there and the boys were so excited they hardly noticed! When we got to the pool they could hardly contain themselves -- especially Isaiah who just walked right in, past the counter, and to the pool! :)

As expected, they both LOVED every minute of it! (except the lifeguard break where they made everyone get out of the pool. Levi screamed the entire break because he was mad we weren't in the water.)What a great pool! They had so much for kids of all sizes to do! I was impressed! When I asked Isaiah on the way home what his favorite part of the pool was he answered, "the turtle slide." Both boys went down this slide tons of times! It took Levi a few times to be willing to do it on his own, but by the time we left he was a pro!My favorite part of the pool was the bright lines that were painted on the bottom of the pool all throughout the different sections. I was able to see how far the kids should go before it was too deep for them! Levi is such a little swimmer. I didn't get a very good picture of him "swimming" but he would lay down on his tummy and use his arms to go backwards all the while saying, "look Mama I'm swimming" :) (by the way, I don't normally have him swim in a tank top - he just refused to take it off before we got in the water and I decided that it wasn't worth a battle to get him to take it off! besides, it was good sun protection - I'm still looking to find him a swimming shirt like Isaiah has.)
Ava was a little more timid about getting in the water. But she eventually warmed up to it and enjoyed sitting in the water and splashing. I caught her laughing several times while she watched the other kids playing.
The kids really weren't ready to leave the pool, but it was getting late and they were getting really tired. So we convinced them to go to the park across the street to have a picnic (good thinking Andrea to plan this ahead of time!!). And no, I'm not advertising for my work place, doesn't it look like it the way my water bottle is sitting! Tired little Levi, by the last part of our picnic he was walking around the park like this:
Surprisingly both boys made it home without falling asleep. Isaiah did the same thing he did when we went to Adventureland, he kept saying, "I didn't want to go to the pool that far away." and "It's too far until we get home." Silly boy.

What a great afternoon! Thanks Andrea and Ava! Can't wait to do it again!!

quote of the day

Isaiah was watching his daddy do a workout this morning, it involved using heavy weights and doing some sort of arm exercises. Isaiah says, "Daddy you are the strongest in the whole world!!!" then a few seconds later he says "but God is WAY stronger than you!"

Happy Father's Day!

I couldn't ask for a better father for my boys -- or a better father for myself! :) We spent Father's Day enjoying them. Here are the highlights.

I let Mark sleep in too late and he had to eat his eggs in the car on the way to church! :)After church I had the boys pause for a few pictures...and then a few gifts for daddy...new sandalsand Crocs for daddy
Then it was off to Grandpa and Grandma's for lunch. Grandpa wanted to grill steaks - so that's what we did. After lunch, Mark was sitting in the chair and both boys climbed up to sit with him.
Later that afternoon we came home and played some basketball - Isaiah's getting really good at the big hoop! He has made it in the big hoop several times now -- twice in a row once!! And finally, Grandpa came over and picked the boys up for a little bike ride.What a nice relaxing day!

words

We are to the point in Isaiah's life where we need to teach him about words and that some words are "nice words" and some are "not nice." He listens so carefully to everything that people around him say. He uses phrases that I know that I say often and even gestures that he's watched people do. I know eventually he'll say some words that are considered "not nice," we just have to figure out what is acceptable now and what isn't.

He was playing with the pegboard at Grandpa and Grandma's house the other day and stringing the pegs onto a string. One peg was being difficult (as he was putting them on the hard way which is tricky) and he says to himself, "Stupid peg." It was so funny that my mom and I had to try really hard not to laugh. I think we just let it slide and I said something like, "That peg is being silly isn't it?" I don't know if making a bigger deal about the word would make him want to say it more or if I should correct him and make him realize that isn't the nicest. Besides "stupid" really isn't a bad word, but is it a bad word for a 3 1/2 year old? What do you think?

Levi's second haircut.

A few days ago I took the boys together to get their haircut. It was fun to have them both getting their hair cut at the same time! I'm hoping someday I'll be brave enough to do them myself! (not only would that be fun, but it would save me about $25 every 6 weeks or so!!). But for now, I took them together, at least it is one trip and not two! :) This was Levi's second haircut and compared to his first, it was a nightmare!! He was very hesitant to sit in the chair and then almost instantly got tears in his eyes and started crying. This is VERY unusual for Levi. Typically if he's upset he will start yelling or talking, I've never seen him stick his bottom lip out and have tears fall. Poor little guy.

Last time they gave him a sucker before the haircut even started, this time they didn't - I think that was the difference. They did eventually offer a sucker, but he wouldn't even take it! He was just crying and crying. I did finally sit with him and hold him down so they could finish the cut. Isaiah did perfectly, as usual, and sat and sat so still while he got his haircut.All in all they turned out pretty cute!

my choices

Mark and I will often give Isaiah a list of options of what he can choose to do. For example, tonight I told Isaiah, "here are your choices: 1 -- you can go potty and then pick out three stories or 2 -- you can go potty and straight to bed" This was his options when he was resisting bedtime. Typically he responds really well to this and will do the option that he wants (which is usually what we've just asked him to do and he's resisted).

This morning we went for haircuts and a few other errands and in the car Isaiah says to me, "mommy, you have two choices, we can 1 -- go to Chuck E Cheese or 2 -- go to McDonald's." I just started laughing out loud at him. I said, "oh okay." A few minutes later he says, "mommy, I changed my mind - your choices are 1 -- go to Chuck E Cheese or 2 -- go to the Mall." I just kept driving. On our way home we drove past my parents street, he then says, "mommy, I changed my mind again, you can choose 1 -- to go to grandma and grandpa's or 2 -- Chuck E Cheese." After we were past their street he said, "no, your choices are 1 -- go to Chuck E Cheese or 2 --go to McDonalds." HA HA

We did end up going to the mall later that morning, but not because it was one of my options! :)

strawberries!

My Grandma has made her own strawberry jam for as long as I can remember. It is one of the things that I look forward to when we are having a meal with her (especially since you get to eat it on her own homemade fresh rolls!). So this year I took inspiration from her to make my very own strawberry jam. I'm hoping it turns out half as good as hers!

So of course, this meant that we had to take a trip to the strawberry farm. Mark volunteered to stay home with Levi so that I could go with Isaiah. (Levi is at that hard stage where he is ALL OVER the place and refuses to stay put, even in a stroller - so leaving him home on events like this is almost a must! I'm sure he'll enjoy it more next year:) My dad joined us and away we went. We were impressed with the strawberries this year - they were so yummy - much better than last year's. Isaiah was also much more of a helper this time around, here is the post about our visit from last year.
Last year we couldn't keep him out of the port-a-potty. He did remember it when he saw it and we did have to make two potty stops while we were there -- much better than the 10+ last time!

They also allow you to eat the berries while you are picking them. I told Isaiah that I was going to "snitch" one. After I said this, Isaiah kept saying that he was going to snitch one every time he ate a berry. I think he thought he was being really sneaky! :)They have you start picking at a flag (where the last person left off) and then move the flag to where you stop. We had Isaiah go get our flag when we were done to move it. He took us literally and just got the orange flag part and not the wire part. haha, we had to go find another flag because the wire was missing!
As we were walking in, Isaiah got a glimpse of all the animals that they have at the farm. We stopped to look at the huge cage of bunnies, but then went on to pick strawberries. After we were done picking our berries (Isaiah and I picked 12.66 pounds!!), we visited the animals. Isaiah loved them. He couldn't stop watching the turkey say, "gobble, gobble" he tried to mimic it. He watched the lambs, goats and chickens and then he saw the little cows. He yells, "look mommy, they are REAL!" He was so surprised that they were "real" cows. He said it several times. Later that night, after both boys were asleep, I made my first batch of jam. Hooray for me! :)
I had promised Isaiah that he could help make jam so the next day we made more. Jayda was here so she got to help too!

First we cut up the strawberries and then used my chopper to make them into really small pieces.Then we cleaned the jars (we did things a little backwards:)
and mixed the strawberries with the sugar and jam packet...
and put it in the jam jars - that simple!

And of course, after the jam was made we had to have a little strawberry treat - strawberry shakes! (and yes, Isaiah is still in his jammies in the late afternoon when we were doing this!)Strawberry season is so fun!