How They Change!!!

Like a lot of people I know, we have pictures flash on our computer screen as a screen saver. Yesterday, I saw this picture of Sarah at 5 years old by the fountain in Lake Tahoe and remembered we had a current one of her from this year, at 9 years old. I thought it would be fun to see the changes in her in the last 4 years!

My Princess Oldest is definitely growing and maturing in many wise and wonderful ways! Next week she will start 4th grade and has already started her readers for the year. She loves on the little ones and was truly the happiest of all the kids to find out we were having a 6th baby. Like a true female she laughed and cried at the same time! She appointed herself to be Lizzy's kindergarten math teacher and is seeing for herself how much patience it takes to teach math! She is helping me to cook more and more, especially now that she can see my energy is zapped in my 3rd trimester! God knew I needed her help since He knew how many kids we would have and how helpful girls can be to their moms! I continue to pray for her heart that it would cling to Jesus and she could know his love and peace for herself, but I will continue to pray and trust God for that joy! In the meantime, she is my beautiful first born and I love her so much!

More fun at the Dubois Park "Galoon" as Jakey calls it!

If you look closely, you should see dozens of dragonflies!
Lizzy and cousin Rachel up in a Mangrove tree above the water.

Sarah and her "bosom buddy" Ashleigh Connor.

So he found this and started playing with it . . . yes, it is a Heinekin Can

Leah really needed her comforts this day: Bear Blankie and Binkie-Boo.

Jakey has started calling the Lagoon, the Galoon. I LOVE IT. I just wish the older kids would stop correcting him, because when they say funny things like that, you try not to correct them for a while and just enjoy it. The older kids just think he needs grammatical correcting :-).

Bounce House Waterslide FUN!!!

Our steal-of-a-deal waterslide rental. It's good to know people !!!
Isn't this how it is supposed to happen?

Sarah and Lizzy hamming it up for me!

This was Leah's favorite part-THE BOTTOM!

We have some friends that own a bounce house franchise as a side-job. I decided that since we were celebrating both boys birthdays in June that we could splurge and rent a waterslide at my friend's great price. Then, in God's great providence upon my children (though not my lawn) my friends told me that the day I wanted it fell during their summer vacation and did we mind having it at our place for a whole week???? Hmmmmm, let me think about that!!!

I am SURE our neighbors all thought we hit the lottery or something since we had this rental for over 7 days! There were only a couple of days in there that we didn't blow it up, but it was pretty much up like this in our front yard for over a week ( for those of you not from this part of Florida-there was some weird opinion years ago that people would like a larger front yard than backyard-so our backyard is barely 12 feet deep, whereas our frontyard is at least 36!)

We had our cousins over 3 times, the neighbor kids, church friends and two birthday parties on the same day with LOTS OF BOYS!!! I am SO glad that was all a month ago, because I don't think I could have handled all that outside-wet and wild kids and laundry at my current state of 30 weeks pregnant!

Thank God for this special treat my kids got to enjoy with their friends for a whole week. I am sure they won't forget about it any time soon!

Sleep-Showering?

Last night as Marc and I sat in the living room chatting with friends we heard the shower turn on. As I went to investigate, I found our 9 1/2 year old taking a shower. Mind you, it was 10 p.m. and she had been in bed since 8:45. Is it safe to assume she was sleep-showering? When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I don't know. I don't know why I'm taking a shower." I can only guess she did wake up when the water hit her! :-)

Back In Florida

Daniel and his board!
Dan, TJ and Isaac found a whole bunch of 2 inch crabs.

Lizzy is practicing her back float :-) Easy in 7 inches of water!

My mom took this shot. She liked that I was uninhibited by children and actually drinking a soda. A small pleasure for a mom of 5 +.

The 3 of them sat together without being asked. It was too sweet!

We have been home in Florida for a week now, but since Mom just left yesterday, it seems we've only now started back to reality a.k.a NORMAL life. And normal life has taken off with a bang!

I currently have a 15 ft inflatable waterslide staked down in my front yard and am having two birthday parties tomorrow. Jakey's from 12-1:30 and Dan's from 3:30-6:30. My kids have had so much fun on it already but they SWEAR they will still enjoy it tomorrow. I got a sweet deal from a sweet friend and since this week JUST HAPPENED to be her vacation, we got it for A WHOLE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about paradise! Anyhow, today I have been getting the house cleaned and creating cakes!

Yesterday we had cousins over and my brother and sis-in-law, today I took the kids to the free movie at the theater and through it all, totally forgot to take the kids to piano lessons. Like I said, back to normal/crazy life!

The only thing worth reporting in pictures is our trip to the Dubois Park Lagoon last Monday when Mom was still here. Thanks to her, I haven't had this many pregnancy shots in about 3 pregnancies! Enjoy the view of life in the Tropics!

Flying Over Westover Field

Taking off (Or Landing)

Lizzy is smiling here, but apparently she cried alone in the backseat during take-off!

Not much cuter than a 3 year old with great-big headphones on.  He LOVED this!

Papa and his brood of fliers (though Leah didn't fly)

     My dad has had his pilot's license since I was in high school.  The last time we had the kids in the airplane was when Daniel was just 3 and Sarah was 4 1/2 and we lived in Palmdale, CA.  Today my dad took the kids up in pairs: Daniel and Lizzy and then Sarah and Jacob.  My mom wondered if Lizzy was OK in the backseat.  I said, "Of course, she is my brave one."  On the contrary, we found out when Papa returned her to the ground that she cried from the time he revved the engine before take-off until halfway through the 10 minute flight.  I guess she was a little nervous of the loud noise and without Mommy there to reassure her.  

     Otherwise the kids had a blast flying in Papa's "We-pleene" (as Jacob says).

Playtime at Grammy & Papa's

4 of the Fab. 5 on the lawn swing

Grammy helped Jacob roll out and cut Molasses cookies.

Lizzy and Jake LOVED painting Grammy's house with water & paintbrushes.

Grammy's has a lot of pools-they just don't fit big kids very well!

LeLe had a great time with pails of water as well!