Thursday, February 23, 2012
Science Experiments!
In my efforts to be more "messy" we have tried some fun science experiments the last few days - baking soda volcano and bubble blowing in the kitchen (learning bubbles are only round). The boys have enjoyed these moments, but again I need to work on letting the mess go. My children also need to work on "patience" as I am setting up and cleaning up our fun experiments. We have really enjoyed these educational moments . . . let us hope they continue (better check out that book again from the library!).
Painting Time for Joel
It is so easy to let my 3 hours without Cade on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to slip away without doing something special with Joel. Usually we are accomplishing house work or grocery shopping, but Monday we had a great time painting before we got out the door to the grocery store. Joel absolutely LOVED it! Though it drive me a bit crazy to let paint be anywhere and everywhere, I am still trying to let it go. I wish I was a mom who could just let the mess go and not let it bother her. I struggle with messes and things not in their places. I always blame it on the size of my home because I don't like tripping over toys or moving crafts and things off of the table every time we need to eat. I am such a perfectionist . . . LET IT GO JESSICA!
Here is my wonderful artist Joel!
Here is my wonderful artist Joel!
Mission Accoplished!
During our week at the Dells and after Joel has accomplished his potty training! My experience training him has been so different from training Cade. Joel was going poopy on the toilet before consistently going potty, where as we had many hardships getting Cade to go poopy on the toilet. Joel is able to get to get his pants down, get to the potty, and "mount" the toilet when he needs to go without any prompting!
The thing that has surprised us most about Joel is how strong his bladder is. He can hold his potty from 7pm - 7am very easily. He has worn underwear to bed at night for more than a week now with no problems.
We are still wrestling the nightime wetting with Cade. He has gotten extremely upset about his bedwetting, so we are working with him to help him stay dry. We know that this is completely normal for boys until that age of 7, but it is his concern for it that we are trying to help. For 2 weeks now, Curtis takes him to bed at 11pm and then he stays dry the rest of the night. He has only woken up wet one night in those 14. We told him that after 10 dry nights in a row he would be awarded with a special surprise. Today is the day . . . He received The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which we are enjoying right now!!). We have purchased a "potty alarm" which we will be starting to use to see if Cade can start to wake in the night by himself (or with the alarm at first) to get to the bathroom (pray he does not fall down the stairs!). We will continue on this journey of accomplishing the big battle of bedwetting!
The thing that has surprised us most about Joel is how strong his bladder is. He can hold his potty from 7pm - 7am very easily. He has worn underwear to bed at night for more than a week now with no problems.
We are still wrestling the nightime wetting with Cade. He has gotten extremely upset about his bedwetting, so we are working with him to help him stay dry. We know that this is completely normal for boys until that age of 7, but it is his concern for it that we are trying to help. For 2 weeks now, Curtis takes him to bed at 11pm and then he stays dry the rest of the night. He has only woken up wet one night in those 14. We told him that after 10 dry nights in a row he would be awarded with a special surprise. Today is the day . . . He received The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which we are enjoying right now!!). We have purchased a "potty alarm" which we will be starting to use to see if Cade can start to wake in the night by himself (or with the alarm at first) to get to the bathroom (pray he does not fall down the stairs!). We will continue on this journey of accomplishing the big battle of bedwetting!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Wisconsin Dells
This year my family decided to forgo giving Christmas gifts and in turn spend 4 days together vacationing at the Wisconsin Dells. My brother and Katie have spent a couple of weeks at the Dells in the past and kindly invited us to attend with them. My brother is a deal finder and got a great one for us! We stayed at the Wyndam Resorts of Glacier Canyon which is connected to The Wilderness in The Wisconsin Dells. My brother purchased a time share from someone else for $500 for 5 nights on E-Bay. My brother's family had one "apartment" and our family stayed with my parents in another "aparment." Each "apartment" had a living rooms space, a master bedroom, 2 other bedrooms, and a kitchen with eating area. The square footage was larger than our house. It was a beautiful place, and the King size bed I LOVED (especially in the morning when the boys came in to our bed with us - I wasn't squished)!!!
The week before we left I made 3 freezer meals, so dinners just had to go in a baking dish and into the oven. We tried to make the food really simple and very cheap. My Mom is always willing to keep the kitchen tidy and food on the table, so we definately enjoyed her work and care for us.
Now the next best part of the vacation . . . the swimming pools!!! We got passes to the swimming pools at The Wildreness with our "apartments." We had 2 options of pools, which were a good 10-13 minute walk (that was the one negative of the trip, LOTS OF WALKING). Cade's favorite pool was the wave pool. He could have spend 6 hours a day at this pool. He loved riding the waves and just playing in the pool when the waves were not on. I was so glad Curtis was there because I didn't enjoy fighting the waves. I was too afraid of being pulled under or one of the kids getting pulled under. Curtis was much more confident of Cade's swimming abilities. He knows he is such a fighter. Joel didn't enjoy the waves, just like his mother. We didn't spend a few episodes of waves together on the pool, but he did not enjoy these moments. Grandpa Bill even choose to ride the waves a couple of times. It didn't hurt his back, but his shoulder definitley felt the affects of the strong waves.
Joel did spend some time in the baby pool section of the wave pool which had different things for the little ones to climb on and wheels to turn to make water turn on or off. Joel got cold very easily on our trip. I think that it was because he was on steriods because of his chest congestion and asthma symptoms. He would ask to get his towel after being in the water just 3-5 minutes. He seemed extra sensitive temperature wise. Mommy and Joel spend many minutes sitting on the beach chairs cuddled in towls and eating snacks. Yummy!
We went to the other pool our first evening at The Wilderness and found ourselves to be FREEZING cold. The place had large ceiling fans running on the ceilings, and since it was a park that you were in and out of the water doing activities it made it very cold. There was a large "playground" type structure for the kids to play on in the main part of the pool, which had a fun slide Cade enjoyed. It also had a HUGE bucket of water that would pour out onto the whole playground area every 5 minutes or so. Cade enjoyed standing in the BIG shower. After the first time he realized he needed to hang on to his swimtrunks because they would come down because the water had so much force! In this pool area there was also a lazy river, a big person body slide, and a dark tube slide. The first evening we spent many of our moments in the lazy river, as well as the basketball pool (size of a backyard pool) because we could submerge our bodies into the warm water.
We went back to the playground pool on Wednesday morning with the whole family and found ourselves to be a bit warmer. Every morning at this pool the KidsClub of The Wilderness held Rubber Duckie Races. The children were allowed to pick out a small rubber duckies which had a different theme to them - princess, cowboy, explorer, cheerleader, army. The ducks would then be placed in a basket and thrown into a section of the lazy river to "swim" to the finish line. The first 3-4 of each round would win a duckie whistle. In the last round the winner would receive a FUN PASS! We didn't have any grand winners, BUT every child (except Glory) would won a duckie whistle!
Another way to receive the FUN PASS was to play Bingo each day at 3pm in the KidsClub room. We didn't know that we would win such great prizes when we showed up, but it ended up being a great deal. Each day they would play 4-5 rounds of Bingo. In the first rounds the child that won would receive a goodie bag or 20 tokens to the arcade, and then in the final found a FUN PASS would be given out to the first black out winner. This worked out mighty well because every kid walked away with 20 tokens to the arcade the first two days. The worked in the Bingo room changed each day, and so did the rules and the prizes. The last two days we didn't win tokens to the arcade, but still gained a FUN PASS to use for the end of the week when the whole family would participate in the FUN PASS games - miniature golf, high ropes course, laser tag!!
Normally our family would not spend money on the arcade, but with the free tokens we ended up getting to play in the arcade everyday. It was a special treat for the kids (and the adults too!!). They even got to get little (cheap) prizes with the tickets they won. Grandpa Bill purchase his own tokens and bought prizes for each of the kids at the end of the week. Cade chose a samari sword and an inflatable sword for his prizes! And Joel got a couple of bouncey balls!!
The excitement the last day of our trip was playing Laser Tag. We had no idea we would be given 4 more FUN PASSES our last day at BINGO! Therefore, everyone in the whole family got to play laser tag. What a great time! The real excitement of the FUN PASS was the High Ropes Course, which was on the ceiling in the arcade. This course was just installed a few weeks prior to us arriving. Julia, Brody, and Cade were very excited to go, but when they faced their first obstacle they were a little uncertain. I also was harnassed in so I encouraged and helped them through the obstacles, as well as one of the workers (Paul) and the rest of our family watching us. After we reached the 2nd level of the course Brody got extremely freaked and didn't want to move. Katie paid to do the course, got harnassed in, and went to rescue Brody. We had a great 30 minutes watching each kid grow in their trust of the equipment and having faith that it would hold them. I really enjoyed this activity. And as a matter of fact, CADE DID TOO! He asks every other day since we have left if he can go back to the rope course. How fun!
Near the arcade was also the ball pit. This area was a glorified McDonald's playland. It had 4 levels of climbing cubes with obstacles to climb through or rope ladders to cross or tunnels to crawl through. Joel LOVED climbing through all of the nooks and crannies, and Mom worked at keeping up with him as fast as she could! Cade also loved the pit, he could have spent 2-3 hours there a day. The reason why it why we called it the ball pit was because in the middle of the area were many many foam balls that could be used in air-gun shooters. These shooters went up 3 levels, so it was a big game of shooting others with these foam balls. It was hard for the little boys to see where to shoot with the shooters, but they enjoyed pressing the shooter buttons that made a loud noise as the air bellowed through the hole to launch the ball out. Cade loved to collect all of the balls in his shirt and take them too the shooters to laugh them. Soon he found bags that were meant to carry the balls in, so he had a mission to fill the bag and collect as many balls as possible. It was like a dream come true for him - climbing, shooting, running from others, and friends to play with!
Our four days away were four days of fun! We are really looking forward to going back someday. Our 3 bedroom apartment was beyond belief and we felt so blessed to be staying in such a wonderful place. In the future we are not sure of how it will work out to go because we will not want Cade to miss a week of school, but maybe, just maybe, we can make it work. I hope so. It was a great Christmas.
The week before we left I made 3 freezer meals, so dinners just had to go in a baking dish and into the oven. We tried to make the food really simple and very cheap. My Mom is always willing to keep the kitchen tidy and food on the table, so we definately enjoyed her work and care for us.
Now the next best part of the vacation . . . the swimming pools!!! We got passes to the swimming pools at The Wildreness with our "apartments." We had 2 options of pools, which were a good 10-13 minute walk (that was the one negative of the trip, LOTS OF WALKING). Cade's favorite pool was the wave pool. He could have spend 6 hours a day at this pool. He loved riding the waves and just playing in the pool when the waves were not on. I was so glad Curtis was there because I didn't enjoy fighting the waves. I was too afraid of being pulled under or one of the kids getting pulled under. Curtis was much more confident of Cade's swimming abilities. He knows he is such a fighter. Joel didn't enjoy the waves, just like his mother. We didn't spend a few episodes of waves together on the pool, but he did not enjoy these moments. Grandpa Bill even choose to ride the waves a couple of times. It didn't hurt his back, but his shoulder definitley felt the affects of the strong waves.
Joel did spend some time in the baby pool section of the wave pool which had different things for the little ones to climb on and wheels to turn to make water turn on or off. Joel got cold very easily on our trip. I think that it was because he was on steriods because of his chest congestion and asthma symptoms. He would ask to get his towel after being in the water just 3-5 minutes. He seemed extra sensitive temperature wise. Mommy and Joel spend many minutes sitting on the beach chairs cuddled in towls and eating snacks. Yummy!
We went to the other pool our first evening at The Wilderness and found ourselves to be FREEZING cold. The place had large ceiling fans running on the ceilings, and since it was a park that you were in and out of the water doing activities it made it very cold. There was a large "playground" type structure for the kids to play on in the main part of the pool, which had a fun slide Cade enjoyed. It also had a HUGE bucket of water that would pour out onto the whole playground area every 5 minutes or so. Cade enjoyed standing in the BIG shower. After the first time he realized he needed to hang on to his swimtrunks because they would come down because the water had so much force! In this pool area there was also a lazy river, a big person body slide, and a dark tube slide. The first evening we spent many of our moments in the lazy river, as well as the basketball pool (size of a backyard pool) because we could submerge our bodies into the warm water.
We went back to the playground pool on Wednesday morning with the whole family and found ourselves to be a bit warmer. Every morning at this pool the KidsClub of The Wilderness held Rubber Duckie Races. The children were allowed to pick out a small rubber duckies which had a different theme to them - princess, cowboy, explorer, cheerleader, army. The ducks would then be placed in a basket and thrown into a section of the lazy river to "swim" to the finish line. The first 3-4 of each round would win a duckie whistle. In the last round the winner would receive a FUN PASS! We didn't have any grand winners, BUT every child (except Glory) would won a duckie whistle!
Another way to receive the FUN PASS was to play Bingo each day at 3pm in the KidsClub room. We didn't know that we would win such great prizes when we showed up, but it ended up being a great deal. Each day they would play 4-5 rounds of Bingo. In the first rounds the child that won would receive a goodie bag or 20 tokens to the arcade, and then in the final found a FUN PASS would be given out to the first black out winner. This worked out mighty well because every kid walked away with 20 tokens to the arcade the first two days. The worked in the Bingo room changed each day, and so did the rules and the prizes. The last two days we didn't win tokens to the arcade, but still gained a FUN PASS to use for the end of the week when the whole family would participate in the FUN PASS games - miniature golf, high ropes course, laser tag!!
Normally our family would not spend money on the arcade, but with the free tokens we ended up getting to play in the arcade everyday. It was a special treat for the kids (and the adults too!!). They even got to get little (cheap) prizes with the tickets they won. Grandpa Bill purchase his own tokens and bought prizes for each of the kids at the end of the week. Cade chose a samari sword and an inflatable sword for his prizes! And Joel got a couple of bouncey balls!!
The excitement the last day of our trip was playing Laser Tag. We had no idea we would be given 4 more FUN PASSES our last day at BINGO! Therefore, everyone in the whole family got to play laser tag. What a great time! The real excitement of the FUN PASS was the High Ropes Course, which was on the ceiling in the arcade. This course was just installed a few weeks prior to us arriving. Julia, Brody, and Cade were very excited to go, but when they faced their first obstacle they were a little uncertain. I also was harnassed in so I encouraged and helped them through the obstacles, as well as one of the workers (Paul) and the rest of our family watching us. After we reached the 2nd level of the course Brody got extremely freaked and didn't want to move. Katie paid to do the course, got harnassed in, and went to rescue Brody. We had a great 30 minutes watching each kid grow in their trust of the equipment and having faith that it would hold them. I really enjoyed this activity. And as a matter of fact, CADE DID TOO! He asks every other day since we have left if he can go back to the rope course. How fun!
Near the arcade was also the ball pit. This area was a glorified McDonald's playland. It had 4 levels of climbing cubes with obstacles to climb through or rope ladders to cross or tunnels to crawl through. Joel LOVED climbing through all of the nooks and crannies, and Mom worked at keeping up with him as fast as she could! Cade also loved the pit, he could have spent 2-3 hours there a day. The reason why it why we called it the ball pit was because in the middle of the area were many many foam balls that could be used in air-gun shooters. These shooters went up 3 levels, so it was a big game of shooting others with these foam balls. It was hard for the little boys to see where to shoot with the shooters, but they enjoyed pressing the shooter buttons that made a loud noise as the air bellowed through the hole to launch the ball out. Cade loved to collect all of the balls in his shirt and take them too the shooters to laugh them. Soon he found bags that were meant to carry the balls in, so he had a mission to fill the bag and collect as many balls as possible. It was like a dream come true for him - climbing, shooting, running from others, and friends to play with!
Our four days away were four days of fun! We are really looking forward to going back someday. Our 3 bedroom apartment was beyond belief and we felt so blessed to be staying in such a wonderful place. In the future we are not sure of how it will work out to go because we will not want Cade to miss a week of school, but maybe, just maybe, we can make it work. I hope so. It was a great Christmas.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Ice Fishing
We have had an EXTREMELY warm winter, so the days to ice fish have few and far between. Curtis has been able to get out on the ice for a few days with a man from our church. He has had a great time when he has been out. He recently brought back a Wal-Mart bag full of fish to filet. He had a really nice bass, which made a nice filet. BUT his other fish, blue gills, were itsy bitsy and didn't make much for filets. :) It was so fun to see the boys look and try to touch the fish while they were in the sink. They kept flapping and scaring Joel because Cade would scream! Cade finally was able to get the gumption up to hold one and boy was he excited. Just hoping one day both boys will want to be in the great outdoors with their Dad, content and quiet in God's creation.
Rescue Heroes
For about the past six months I have been taking clothes and toys to our local consignment shop in town to make a few extra dollars. The store is really nice (though prices are higher if you are buying), and I have not had much success in sales. I think I made about $25 (I have taken in at least 50 items), which is better than nothing! Near the end of each season the owner starts to mark items down so things are a bit more affordable for "used" clothing. That is when we start to shop at the consignment store! Whenever Cade asks for anything I always tell him to wait until the price tag gets a red mark on it (teaching his frugile habits), which will reduced the price 50%. Cade had been eyeing this large Resuce Heroes Ship the last month we have been in the store. I was sure it would be sold before it went half price, so I told him when it gets a red mark on it we could get it. Well, guess what I was carrying home the last Saturday we were in there, YES, the Rescue Heroes Ship! It was a steal, only $7 ($299 on Amazon.com), but it is very large and does take up lots of space. Hopefully it will be played with OFTEN and I will find this fun endeavor well worth it!
Reflection
The maid of honor in our wedding recently shared with us the awful news that her 8 year old niece has cancer for the second time in her life. She had cancer when she was 2 years old and is now faving this awful disease again, which could very well take her life. For the past 9 days I have been reading my friend's brother's blog posts about the treatments his daughter has been receiving and their family's journey through cancer. I have been reading these posts later in the evening, which has put me in a rather reflective mood at night. I just keep thinking . . . what if that was me? How would I respond? Would I be mad at God? How would I parent and reason with my child about this awful disease? These are questions I can not answer, but it has helped me think about every moment of everyday a little bit more. Oh, how I love my boys. Oh, how I love their smiles. Oh, how I want to hold them and not let them know the depravity of sin. I try to live every moment of everyday honoring my Lord and spending sweet moments with my kids. I wish I didn't have to do dishes or laundry or deal with sin. I know that it is not realistic to live without those responsibilities and our nature, but oh how I wish I could. How I wish we could just play and laugh all day long. I love you Cade Allen and Joel Charles. You are so special to me.
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