Dance Night at the Maurer's

It's nights like tonight that make all the difficult trials and tribulations of having 3 toddlers worth it. At 9:00pm, when we are usually winding down, all 3 kids were wired. They were running threw the halls pegging each other with plastic balls and we knew they weren't tired because no one fussed when they got hit, in fact they laughed. So I decided it was time to do some dancing, maybe wear them out. I pulled the CD player out of their closet and tried to find some music on the radio worth grooving to. In the mean time Wes went and found some old mix CDs that we have and then the dance was on.... a little Milli Vanilli, old school Brittany Spears and numerous others. "Blame it on the Rain", Milli Vanilli.... oh yeah, we told the kids to hold up their arms in the air and shimmy them down like it's raining every time the song said "blame it on the rain". It was HILARIOUS. Austin was more into than Avery... he could shimmy like no other. "Shout" was another favorite... we'd all jump, yes all 5 of us, everytime they said "shout". It was good family fun...

"my" songs

I have sacrificed many things for my children and will no doubt make many more in the years to come. One of those sacrifices is a quiet ride into work listening to mainstream radio for "my" songs, children's songs that must remain at a high volume until we meet our destination. I have several children's CD's that have made their way into the car and I admit that I am the one who got my children hooked. I enjoyed them.... at first. There are mornings where I put on the radio first thing, but before we are down the drive way, Avery usually yells "I wanna listen to my songs, mamma". My songs include everything from "I'm a Little Teapot" to "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain" to "Peace Like a River". We got a new CD from Bible school with all new songs and that was a nice break for a while, but now they only want to listen to a few certain songs and they want to hear them over and over and over.... I must admit the sound of children singing is like that of no other, but not sure I enjoy it every minute I am in the car.

Hungry Hungry Hippo

It's 100 degrees outside.... miserable to do anything. So what better to do than to

play a good ol' game of Hungry Hungry Hippo? I bought this for the kids last week and we finally pulled it out on Friday. According to Wes, he had to play it at least 50 times with Austin on Saturday. It's quite entertaining to watch them!

A Friday of good news

After a day of what seemed was filled with the sad news of 2 American icons passing, this Friday has gotten off to a great start. I checked my email and found an email from Heidi Parker with a link to her blog. I bookmarked it on my blog list so you can check it out to find out why the Parkers are SOO excited. Also check out the Siemsglusz's blogs.... such good news!!!! This is why I love blogging, it keeps me connected to friends and family.
Another reason I am excited is because I am off to a girls weekend this weekend. Three high school friends and I are headed to Boerne for a little small town shopping, pool lounging and lots of catching up. Can't wait! Of course I will miss my crew. Pray for Wes. He has to be at a baptism in Conroe at 8:30am on Sunday with all 3 kids.

hot, hot, hot

It's summer and man it's hot... hotter than "normal" I do believe. I can tell that the kids have a bit more energy when they get home in the afternoons because they are not getting as much outside time at school since it's too hot to take them out on the playground in the afternoons. We use to stay outside for a while once we got home, but now we usually go inside for a while and let the sun go down a bit so that things cool off. This week they are going to Bible school at St.Paul's in the morning and bringing home some pretty cool crafts in their backpacks. Their tubs of school work and art projects are already full and they are 2 & 1! Soon I will learn not to keep everything.
Avery has a new fascination with their backpacks. My daily routine is to bring in all the backpacks, put them on the kitchen counter and pulling out the daily notes and then right away prepare them for the next day. Now she insists on doing the same. She will take all 3 backpacks into her room and take everything out of them, including the ziplock bag with the extra change of clothes, then she puts everything back in... she may do that a time or two. Not sure why that fascinates her, but it keeps her busy!

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there!! If A&A&C could type, they'd say that hands down, they have the best dad in the world. Austin would say he loves that his daddy lets him ride around on the tractor with him and takes him fishing. Avery would let you know that she loves her daddy because he treats her like a princess and Caleb, well Caleb would say he wants to be with his daddy 24/7..... that's how much he loves him. I love him because he's an amazing father and puts his family first.
We have 2 other wonderful dads in our lives, Popo and Grandpa Otto. We love them very much!

Treats...

So, Wes made a grocery run yesterday and picked up a few extras/treats. Here's the kids enjoying a mini ice cream sandwich. I think we will be doing these outside next time.

VBS finished up tonight and Austin & Avery did a fairly good job of singing at the closing program. Caleb fussed when it was their time to go up and sing, so he actually went up and sat on the steps with them. I think he is glad VBS is over with so he will have a little normalcy back in his afternoon routine.