We interrupt these thunderstorms to bring you...

pictures from last week before the terrible storms came through.

Notice Daniel is swimming "like a dragon fly" with his noodles has his wings. Joshua is now swimming underwater.

That little boy can't seem to keep his mouth closed in the pool. He drinks up half the pool every time we go swimming - all the more reason to ditch the chemicals and go salt water next year.

I chuckle at this picture - his little arms are so skinny! He was complaining that the noodles were heavy!

I was sitting on the edge of the pool, and Keith swam up to pull me in, but luckily, I was holding the camera. I had just dried off so that I could go inside to start making dinner.

My new wheels

Keith had been talking about getting new tires for the minivan for quite some time now. The tires were really worn in some areas, and the front driver side was constantly leaking air to the point that I had to stop and put air in the tire at least once a week. So the hubby had been shopping around locally for the best deal for all four tires. He very brilliantly decided to check to see what eBay had to offer, and got extreemely lucky. He found 4 tires on new wheels and had it all shipped here to the house for way less than what just 4 new tires would have cost here in town. He's pretty pleased with his frugal purchase.with the old wheels

with the new wheels

I love that the wheels are so much easier to clean. My ride is so smooth now!

Megan's Pre-School Graduation

This weekend, Megan graduated from the FLEC pre-school program. We absolutely loved Ms. Dianne and Mrs. Joanne this year. It was really fun and we look forward to sending Daniel to the same pre-school program in 2011. (Wow, did I just type 2011? It seems as though when I was in elementary school, I thought we'd be flying our cars through the air, and eating all of our food out of the same containers that Astronaut Ice Cream came from. Maybe I spent way too much time at the Boston Museum of Science as a kid. And now I'm way off-topic.) I can't seem to get the picture to scan in without being fuzzy, but I have a great picture of me and my mom from my pre-school graduation from Head Start when I was 4 years old.

Megan and Ms. Dianne, her teacher.

Megan and Joshua in Megan's classroom. Daniel was busy exploring the room, so he didn't get in the picture.

The boys anxiously waiting to get this party started. The school put together an adorable photo slide show to some great music for us to enjoy while we were waiting.

Megan, crossing the stage to get her diploma. Check out her stride, the girl was hustling across that stage.

Of course, once the diplomas were handed out, the kids were amusing themselves for the rest of the program, after all, they are only 5 years old.

Grandma and Grandpa came to the program.

Megan with a hand full of sparkles. She calls it pixie dust.

Megan and Samuel, her bestest buddy. They both bring tomatoes to school every day for lunch.

Megan and her teacher again. They are really going to miss each other.

Love this picture! Megan and Grandpa together. Her pink cap and gown makes her complexion look very pink!

Daddy never made it to graduation. He met us out front when we pulled into the house. Keith had duty over in Clearwater the night before and didn't get off work until 8am, so the timing just didn't work out. He may have had a chance to make it to the graduation on time, but he stopped to change a tire for a pair of little old ladies that had a blow-out right in front of him. What a great guy!

I also have some video from the graduation, but it's not loading well right now. Maybe tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day!

Keith had duty today over in Clearwater, so it was just the kids and I. It was actually the cat that woke me up first at 6:44am. So I then woke the kids up and announced that we were having donuts for breakfast. Joshua gave me a look that said, "who are you and what have you done with my real mother?".

We actually had a mini-Mother's Day celebration on Friday afternoon when I got home from work. Keith had a beautiful orchid for me along with a hilarious card. The kids colored adorable cards for me. I also got a new treadmill earlier last week. I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time on it with all the food I ate this week!

I let the kids each pick their own donuts. Daniel was all about the sprinkles. Megan wanted a plain donut. Joshua had a jelly donut, which then got Daniel a little confused about why his donut had a hole like a bagel, but no jelly inside. There was an older couple sitting within earshot, and I overheard them giggling as they probably couldn't help but overhear our conversation.

After washing everyone up in the DD bathroom (because they can't seem to eat a meal without wearing half of it all over their faces), we were off to the Silly Park. We've renamed every park in the Altamonte/Longwood/Maitland/Casselberry/Orlando/College Park/Winter Park area. The Silly Park has giant musical instruments, ramps for wheelchair bound kids and some really neat sensory activities. The kids call it silly because of the giant "umbrellas" over the top of the different jungle gyms.

They were so cute sitting together watching the train go by, that I couldn't help but get a picture. Megan was making a heart with her hands. Daniel looks like he needs a nap.

After the park, it was time to go shoe shopping. Daniel has outgrown his church shoes and Joshua needs new sneakers. We ended up with new shoes for each of the kids, new socks, church clothes and some groceries. Whew!

My friend Rachel wrote recently about going to Steak and Shake, so I thought I'd give it a try with my crowd. Yippee for a fun lunch. The kids had a great time. I was slightly cringing thinking that I could have made them their grilled cheese and applesauce at home, but then our adorable waiter told me that the kids eat free on the weekends. Whoo hoo!! I think there really is some rule about one kid eating free for every adult meal purchased or something like that. I questioned my little waiter and he said not to worry about it.

It was a super-fun Mother's Day. The kids and I had a really great time hanging out. I got a new CD yesterday at church for being one of the moms with the most amount of children present. I kindof giggled silently to myself to suppress my guilt from my moaning and groaning earlier that morning that I was tired and not wanting to have to get dressed, feed the kids, get them dressed and then out the door in time for church. I slept really poorly the night before. I think Keith's schedule is actually harder when he's home for a few days then gone for a few days. The kids sleep poorly and then I end up sleeping with one eye open just wondering which small person is going to make their way down the hallway asking if it's time to get up at some insane time of the night.

After all the shopping, eating and swimming we did today, everyone should sleep well tonight. Yesterday, Keith and I were splashing around in the deep end of the pool and Daniel was playing on the stairs. Daniel decided that instead of swimming with his pool noodles, he jumped into the pool with nothing to hold him up and immediately went right under. I swam over and scooped him up and put him back on the stairs and he acted like nothing happened. Today when we were getting back in the pool Daniel turns to me and says, "don't let me sink, again". He's so cute! I'm hoping to sign all the kids up for some swim lessons for this summer.

Kindergarten End of Year Field Trip - Wet-N-Wild

All four kindergarten classes from the kids' school gathered together for their annual end of the year field trip to Wet-N-Wild. I am very fortunate to have some flexibility with my work schedule, so I was able to take the day off and go play with Joshua for the day. Each student had at least one parent present. I think all of us adults had more fun than the kids!

Joshua is quite the adventurer. The kiddie play area was pretty cool, with plenty of things to swing on and climb just for the smaller crowd.

Joshua had a blast in the kiddie area with the entire Kindergarten crowd. After lunch, we explored the rest of the park with our friends Adam and Lisa. The boys decided they wanted to go down the Bubba Tub, which is a big slide that we all went down together in a 4-person round float. By the time we got to the end of the slide, Lisa and I were in stitches because the boys were not happy. Both of them didn't like how fast and bumpy the ride was. They might need a few more years to grow into doing something like that again. It was really pretty funny. What's funnier is that now Joshua talks about it like it was the coolest thing at the park.

It was such a beautiful day. It was in the high-80's, but because we were in the water all day, it felt great!

The kids' play area has a huge teal colored bucket that fills with water and then periodically dumps out. At one point a bunch of parents and teachers were standing under the bucket chanting for the water to spill. Once the bucket of water fell on all the grown-ups the kids cheered and laughed themselves silly! It's so good for the kids to see us grown-ups letting our hair down and having fun, too!

At the end of the day, I knew Joshua was tired. He was sitting on the side of the kiddie-pool with his feet in the water. On the ride home (we took the mini-van instead of riding the school bus), he fell asleep.

We've been a little MIA

About 2 weeks ago, I left work early because I was sick. I toughed it out for a few days at home and then finally ended up at the clinic and subsequently on antibiotics for strep. I can count on one hand in my entire 33 years the amount of times I've been on oral antibiotics. I will also mention that every time I've taken oral antibiotics, I've broken out head-to-toe in a rash. So the doctor and I had a nice long talk (seriously, he was one of the nicest doctors, ever). Anyway after talking about the pros vs. cons of going on antibiotics, I left the clinic with my subscription for gigantic pills with orders to take them for the next 10 days. I'm sure the suspense is killing all of you, but yes, as per usual events, yesterday was day 10 and voila - head-to-toe rash, right on cue. It's not as bright red today, and now there is just a little bit of the rash left on my face and my neck and chest. Thank goodness, because Joshua's class is going to Wet N Wild on Thursday and I'm going as a helper - bad enough I have to wear a swimsuit and I've had all school year to lose these last 10 pounds and I haven't. Much less, I have to go looking like a page from A Bad Case of the Stripes. This picture was from a few months ago (notice the long hair). It's classic Megan in the morning. She's like a teenager in the morning - it's pure torture to get her out of bed. It's pretty funny how she comes out with her hair a mess and her eyes all puffy. Thank goodness Keith was home last week because I was really slow getting motivated in the morning and he was able to bring the kids to school, saving me over 30 minutes off my morning commute. My office is really only 10 minutes away from my house. But I probably spend over 50% of my time at the main hospital about 30 minutes from the house (not really a full 30 minutes of driving, but I give myself that long because of the parking garages and trekking across the hospital to get to wherever I'm going).

This little guy here is getting so big so fast. Tonight Keith wasn't home, so it was just the kids and I. We all went swimming in the pool right after dinner. Daniel likes to "swim like a dragon fly", which is basically when someone hands him 2 noodles and he puts them together across his chest, tucks them under his arms like long dragon fly wings and jumps off the stairs. He kicks his little legs with all his might and propels himself across the pool. I'll need to get some video of this, because it's hilarious. I thought about running back inside to get the camera, but the kids were already starting to get in the pool, and I don't even let them in the backyard when there's not an adult out there. Especially since Megan fell in the pool last week. She was in her swimsuit and we were sitting on the edge, she got up to go sit on one of the stairs and lost her balance. She panicked and didn't realize that she could stand up to rescue herself. I reached in and held her hand and made her stand up and walk herself out. After some hugs and kisses she was fine.

My benadryl is kicking in and I'm slurring the words in my head, so it must be time for me to go get in bed.