We're home from camping! More posts to follow.

A little self-promotion never hurt anyone...
...that I know of.
I bought Jack and Selah Paix-la matching bibs- which is why Jack is wearing such a pink bib. With my mom's house almost empty, the kids had ample room to play with each other, and each other's toys.

I figure I can make a sweet profit from renting out my children's bib space, so, if you want anything advertised, contact me.

Maybe we can make a deal.

I'm not joking.

Josh walked into the house yesterday, and my first reaction was, "OOOOooohhhh!! A package!!" and my next reaction was, "Oh, no! From Abigail!" Why, "Oh, no?" I'll show you in a second...

Inside was a bunch of treats to make the chickens go crazy. A gorilla, and a baby gorilla? Lucy just about passed out. And a present? And hidden treats underneath? My favorite part was the hand-embellished Jack Fox onesie...really beautiful, and the card and letter...I love letters.

I let Jacky play with the gorilla first. He did give it a kiss and a hug before Lucy took it off to play.

Lucy and Bowden were very excited about the letter from Millie, and loved her drawing of an elephant. It now lives on our fridge so that we can gaze on it periodically throughout the day.
Lucy loved, loved, loved the dress, and had it on for the rest of the day over her clothes.
This is why I said, "Oh, no!"

I have had this package in my closet, ready to go, for about a month...to go to Abigail. Inside, if you think getting a gift for an eleven-month-old is bad, how about getting a baby present for a little filly who is older than Bowden? Oh, yes, there is a present that I got shortly after I saw John and a three-month pregnant (?) F-Abigail at Houghton in 2002...and never mailed.

(I remember, during that visit, asking Abigail what the doctor said, and being shocked that she hadn't gone to the doctor yet...babies were a strange and alien experience back then.)

So, my friend, thank you TREMENDOUSLY, and I have ruined the surprise. Buckle up, because now I have to mail it soon.

I let Jack play at the mall playground this weekend. He mainly hung out on the big fish.

He pushed Lucy's hands off when she came near.

He really loved that fish.

After our visit to the Urgent Care Center, Bowden wanted to me to take a picture. It was 110 degrees out, so we stood in the shade. Lucy was distracted, by who knows what, and my little savage of a Bowden did not start out the day in a shirt torn and mangled, just so you know.

Tough guy, Jackson.

The top car, Lucy's flower and paint extravaganza, was our fastest, and had it not raced in the Open Heat with all of the dads and crazies, it might have won. Lucy did all the underlying paint herself- picking out the colors and slopping them on.

Bowden's creation had been in his head- he actually wanted stripes on it as well, but since he painted everything but the vulture and the fire, the stripes did not come into being. On this car, at least.
Jacky's car is really ugly, and we had it weighted down on the bottom too low, so that the chassis hit the track. Bowden painted much of it, and the rest, I admit, was done by me. Bowden especially liked the hot cocoa color on top.

I love the Awana Grand Prix. I never did anything like it as a chicken, but I live vicariously through my brood now.

This year before the Awana Grand Prix, Josh and I thought about how to design the cars so that they would actually make it past the finish line- last year they didn't. Despite that, only one was fast, and the other two did not meet our goals.

We had told Bowden, "Now, you won last year, this year it is someone else's turn to win."

We almost hoped that he would lose- it's a good lesson to learn, but...

He won first prize in the design half to the judging. I haven't taken a picture yet, but it is is decorated with a very fine-looking vulture, breathing fire. I even gave it wings- I think they are what slowed the car down.

He's a bad loser, but an okay winner.

We got fake tattoos, balloon flowers and swords, just plain balloons- because that's what Jacky likes best- candy and hot dogs and bounces in the bounce house.

Bowden actually disappeared for a time, and when he returned, he was decked out in full bat-face.





My little Lucy had a hard time of things- while twirling with her flower balloon- purple, her favorite color- she fell and landed right on the edge on a box toy...the deep cut was evident right away, although it didn't bleed right off, oh, but when it did...
Josh had been asked last minute to give a short message, so he was up talking while I was running around with a screaming, bleeding Lucy.
I ended up taking her to the fire station, where the firemen looked at her and cleaned her up. We came back to church to race our cars.
We took her down to Eisenhower Urgent Care after the races were over and the nicest doctor and nurse looked at her, glued her shut, and made her feel fine about the whole thing.
The only weird part was when we first walking in and one of the admitting people said, "Oh, but this isn't plastic surgery!"
Oh, Palm Springs. I just wanted my girl put together, not plastified.
(While we were down, we ran some errands and spent our tax refund to buy a new laptop! And an adapter!!! I'm posting from my house, way too late at night!)
More tomorrow! Why? Because I can!

The annual Awana race was on Staurday. It was very, very exciting. Lucy liked the ring pops. She also liked the races- they are surprising interesting.
Jack liked the long row of chairs to cruise on.

Some of the girls...Maraja was especially excited.
This is Bowden's cubbie teacher, Miss Irene, cheering on her kids.
Lucas and glum-face Bowdo, and Lucy, watching different parts of the race- although Lucas is actually watching the cars.

I'll have more later, but for now, enjoy the unfolding saga.

Josh and I try real hard to get our young'uns to eat healthy... ...sometimes we just let 'em have whatever they want.
I mean, this kid, with the tattoo and all, he was a-fixin' to lay us out if we didn't buy him the 44 ounce at the supermarket.

Guess how our cars did?
Next year, yes, that's it.

Who is in her living room and blogging?

Oh, it's me!

Hurray!

I got all three chickens clean at once.



The water was pretty full after those kidlings were all in.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!! We had a dinner party last night, with the Towlers and the Whites, and a brief drop-by by Lisa and Larissa Shirley and Tonya, a girl from youth group.
I made chila quiles, an old family recipe...well, my sister made it for us at Christmas, and I got the recipe from her. I also made tamales, and taquitos and virgin lime-watermelon-strawberry margaritas...and flan. The kids wore sombreros, and we took to a pinata after dinner and before dessert.
Ole!

Payton, the object of Bowden's somewhat dying affection, had a pirate birthday party on my mother's birthday. We went there and then left for the Valley to be with her. I had the clothes for to dress my pirates.

I don't know why Lucy's holding the cup, but it is gold.

Arrrrrrr!!!!

Had some business in Hemet, so I treated the chirrens to some cookies and milk. I picked Bowden up from preschool and we left, and he was dirty the entire trip. Why not?
Lucy kept her cookie in her bag, and enjoyed it furtive.
Jack tried to drink Aunt Lisa's caramel macchiato. Aunt Lisa was having none of it.