Avalanche Ranch VBS

I got to be directly involved in VBS this year. I've got much appreciation for those who choose to lead VBS and the teachers who handle the classrooms. I only had to do decorations, the easy job. =)

Belle had a blast and loved that she was in the Purple Palaminos group. Even though Ethan isn't old enough to attend, he got to participate in the large group worship at the beginning and end. I think Ethan made friends with Jason Baker who was watching him most of the week. Everytime I'd pick Ethan up, he'd say "fun day!!".






On the last day there was a family night and they had pony rides and inflatables at the church. Big hit with the kids.

The Magic Poop Dragon

We'll pretty much do anything around here to get Ethan to poop in the potty. It has become increasingly apparent that he doesn't have a problem pooping in the potty. He just won't do it. So what to do?

Ethan is crazy about dragons. We bought a dragon he's been eyeing for awhile and sat it up high in the kitchen. He was told that he could have the dragon when he did a #2. And that the dragon would go back to it's spot if he pooped in his pants. This happened several times. He was motivated about getting the dragon back, but not so much about continuing to poop to keep it. So now I've resorted to the dragon sitting the bathroom with him cheering him on. I even tell him that the dragon likes poop. Oh geez, the things you do as a parent.

Nic scored a huge whiteboard out of the work dumpster. Probably the best thing ever to enter this house. The kids love their large canvas. We use dry erase crayons to limit the staining on clothing and my carpet. The white board is also the only way Belle will do her phonics lessons whenever she decides she wants to do school.



Mr Ethan is growing up a lot lately. All the sudden he knows all his letters (uppercase anyways) and about 50% of their sounds. This is not due to my mad teaching skills. I have Leapfrog Letter Factory to thank. Here he is using a Magnatab that I got at the Homeschool convention. Great for his prewriting skills.

Flip movies

Well I cleared out the flip. Here are some movies I found.

Belle and Olivia serenading us at Jamie's garage sale.


Ethan sitting on the pot (whatever it takes to make him stay there) being cute. I was trying to get him to say the words he says that are cute. Like "fundader" (thunder), but he didn't do it.


Belle giving a tour. Don't watch if you get motion sickness. It's dark too. I love her shot of the "outside world" at the end.

Belle's Unicorn party

Well poor Belle has never had friends to her birthday party. We always end up in Ohio for the Strawberry festival and don't have a party in Indiana. So this year I had a play date party. We had everyone over during the week for a big party. I made unicorn invitations and the kids wore unicorn horns. I had even planned on making unicorn sundaes, but forgot to add the horns and they were left sitting on the counter. Unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot of pictures since I was running around.

The kids got to make magical glitter play doh, or glittery unicorn poop (depending on how your mind works)

If I only had a Heart

It's that time of the year again. When dance ends for the year. This year Belle took tap with Olivia Killingbeck. It was nice to see Jamie and Olivia every Monday.

The girls have been working on their dance routine all year. They were the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz. They all did a great job. Maybe I can get the video from Jamie and post it here.

Belle will be turning in her tap shoes for pom poms next year. She convinced me to sign her up for cheer. It's a class that does tumbling, cheer, stunts, dance and of course includes pom poms (the best part).

Strawberry Festival parade

Well we made our annual trek to Belle's birthday parade (aka The Strawberry Festival parade). We send the guys out early to stake claim to a spot so that the kids have a front row view of the parade. Everyone had fun, got lots of candy and enjoyed the show. We came back to mom's house, took naps, swam in the pool and then had dinner and presents for Belle's birthday.







How cute are these cookies that Tish made.


And we knew royalty this year. Emily Henry was Strawberry Festival queen.


LOVED the awning on the pool. My fair skin was appreciative.






We headed over the Freshours Sunday for more birthday fun with presents and dirt cake. We had two potty training boys so of course they peed in the grass. Here Waren thought it would be fun to stick a twig up Ethan's butt. Ethan on the otherhand is concentrating hard on what he's aiming at.


Speaking of potty training. We're doing fairly good. Not too many pee accidents, but we're having poop issues. He'll go on the potty, but only if you catch him at the right time. Just today we had 3 poop accidents. Not fun, especially considering I never went through this with Belle. He'll get it. . . eventually.

Family pictures

We had some family pictures taken last month. Here is a sampling. I'm super excited at how they turned out. It's so nice to have professional pictures. JCPenney portrait studio just doesn't cut it. I just cherish the last photos Sharon did of the kids, as well as the pictures I have of Belle by Jessica Strickland. It's great to have nice pictures of all of us.

Belle's last day of school

Last week was Belle's last day of school. A little overwhelming to think that it could be her last day of school ever. Well thats exaggerating a little. But she may never go to public school. Who knows, one year at a time.

Instead of a closing program they just let the parents come spend the day with the kids. We went around to different stations and played games. The theme was "Day at the Beach". We had fun and I held it together the whole time. Although I got a little teary when the teachers started to cry. =(









Belle and her teachers Miss Mary and Miss Cathi.




And here are a couple of Ethan and friends Titus and Clayton. Ethan loves "bay bays".

Two Little Fishies

This is our last week of swim lessons. I do believe Ethan will be really sad to see the end. Every week he'll come out of the pool with his teeth chattering "pppppooooll fffuuunn"

I've seen good progress with both kids. Belle still doesn't have the confidence to go swimming on her own. Ethan would love to swim on his own, but would probably sink at this point. His teacher is constantly telling Nic how well he's doing and how she doesn't often see kids his age swimming so well. She could totally be stroking our egos or something, who knows. Today they even let Ethan hang onto the edge and kick off the wall. Something about the way he threw his arms up after he kicked off was impressive. Like he already knew to get into the swim position after kicking off the wall. I don't know, maybe swimming will be Ethan's thing. Although I imagine anything physical will be his thing.

Belle is doing good kicking off the wall and swimming to her teacher under water. They have also been practicing their floating. She's pretty good at going from a front float to a back float.

Neither kid will probably be ditching the floaties this year.

Goal!!!

Belle is in her first year of soccer. I am secretly hoping it's her last. I haven't really been digging the sitting out in the cold and rain for practices and games 2 days a week.

Last Saturday was pretty bearable and really the kids played good. I think they are starting to get the concept. Belle even scored a goal. Well she kicked it towards the goal, the other team tried to get it out but inadvertently kicked it in. Still gonna claim it though.

Such intensity. ha ha

Ethan at 2.5yrs

Something happened last month. My baby seemed to grow up over night. All the sudden I see a big kid emerging. Ethan turned 2.5 back on April 2nd. Here is an update on what Mr. Ethan is up to.

Just in this last month I have noticed so many changes in him. For one, the boy is SO ready to potty train. He wakes up dry from naps most of the time. He'll tell me that he needs a diaper change. And is over all interested in the potty. He really gets excited when sissy lets him flush the toilet for her. =) So as soon as I get Sara's "Potty Training in Less than a Day" book and my peeing doll back, we're potty training this child. I'm ready!

Ethan has also surprised me by being able to recognize about 50% of his letters. I'm guessing that is from our time on Starfall.com while sissy is at school. He'll also sing the ABC song and try to count, albeit he gets about 50% of that right too. Oh and if you ask him a color, it's always green. =) Although just this week, he's been getting blue right along with his usual black and white correct.

Ethan has also started swim lessons with daddy. He's a natural. For real, the instructor said so. The instructor predicts Ethan will be swimming on his own by next summer. Something about he's got good form with his kicks. And I imagine the fact that he's fearless helps. All the other kids in the class are clinging to their parents. Ethan is the only one trying to get Nic to let go of him. He's got all the fundamentals down, except he refuses to blow bubbles in the water or hold his breath.

Ethan spends most of his days playing with Belle. And they really do play well most of the time. He can play dolls with the best of them. Although Ethan has a new fascination with dragons. Probably from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" that we've watched a zillion times. A lot of his time is also spent climbing on everything in this house. He tries to find new heights from which to jump.

While Ethan is 100% boy, he's also 100% Momma's boy. And I'm just fine with that.