7th Birthday Party Water Wars!

We had Joshua's 7th birthday party at the Fellowship pool it was quite the splash! Our guests were Jack Powell and siblings, Ethan Harper& friend, Patrick Scott, Maddy Maddox, Matt Drye and siblings, and Jackson English along with most of the parents. The kids had a blast shooting each other with water guns...it was definitely the hit of the party. Not only did the kids enjoy the shooting wars, but the parents got just as competitive with each other!

Joshua turns 7!

Joshua had his much anticipated 7th birthday today! He couldn't wait and so he was allowed to open one gift over the weekend which was a lego semi truck from Grandma and Grandpa...it has already been assembled and then crunched by Taylor. So...now he gets to re-assemble on another day. He woke up this morning and came into my room all excited and happy. Poor Mommy was really tired and so he let me sleep a little longer. I had to get the house picked up some before we had a visitor (the previous PTF treasurer) who dropped off all of the records and treasurer info for me. Next, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and games. The kids had a great time running around and we spent a couple of hour there. All of Joshua's tokens earned him some fun dip that he gobbled down in the car. Our next stop was Dollar Tree for some bday balloons and a few odds and ends for his upcoming birthday party at the pool this weekend. We then went to Publix and purchased a yellow cake with chocolate frosting with balloons on top. The kids, of course, got their free Publix cookie during the cake choosing process and then we headed home. Daddy was already home when we got home and so Joshua got to open another gift from Aunt Tricia which was a Zhu Zhu Pet police station and police car. Joshua immediately put it together and stuck his Zhu Zhu Pet in it...have to admit that these Zhu Zhu pets are cute:) We then grilled burgers and when it came time to sit down, Joshua decided for a hot dog instead so we popped one in the microwave and with mac and cheese on the stove for Taylor, our individualized meals were almost ready! Prior to dinner Joshua got to talk with Gran and Grandaddy and thanked them for the body board they sent money for and chatted for a little while. We got the cake out and had 6 little candles plus the big "7" candle put on the cake. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Joshua, even though Taylor has insisted all day that it is her birthday! We dove into the yummy cake, sporting the cherished "Happy Birthday" plate and "Celebrate" plates and then Aunt Angela and the kids called to talk with Joshua and wish him a "Happy Birthday". He had just opened their gift about an hour earlier which was a pirate lego set and dive torpeoos to give him practice diving down in the pool. Daniel and Lindsay both made him birthday cards as well as the joint card from everyone. After the cake, we all settled in the living room for the moment that all kids live for...the opening of the gifts. As they all sat there all pretty with their bows on the couch, Taylor was hoping that some were for her. She just couldn't accept the fact that it was not her birthday. But, she enjoyed Joshua opening his gifts and even helped clean the paper debris from the party scene. Joshua received many of his "wish list" items and seemed very excited with his gifts...thanking us after each gift! He received a sonic boom lego set, bubble plane flyer, zhu zhu kung fu pet and military vehicle, Scourge transformer, nano habitat for his hexabugs, a remote control boat, a voice changer and Star Wars plane with ripstick. After all of the gift opening, Grandma and Grandpa called and sang "Happy Birthday" to him and chatted for a bit and then we were off to the pool for an hour of swimming and playing with the R/C boat until the pool closed at 9pm. Aunt Tricia called earlier in the day, but we missed the call, and Aunt Chris called at 10:15, but missed the boy to sleep by 15 minutes. We warned her that if we woke him to speak with her that he would probably cry the whole time. He was one tuckered boy whose rational function had reached it's limit! Hopefully, he will be all rested and ready for a day of play with his new toys tomorrow!!
Happy Birthday, Joshua!! We love you:)

Jumping off the Diving Board!

Our little 4 four year old JUMPED off the diving board at the Fellowship Pool tonight! We just joined the pool three days ago and Taylor has taken off in her swimming skills/risks! She saw Daddy dive off the diving board tonight and decided that it looked like a lot of fun...so she walked over to the diving board with her princess pool ring and walked up onto the board. She walked out a little past the rail and decided it was too high and walked back down, but then turned around and decided to give it a go again! She didn't turn around this time and jumped right into her daddy' arms below! I was shocked that she went ahead with it...and then she jumped in about 20 times after that. Since she doesn't know how to swim yet, and has decided to just jump ahead (literally) to the diving board, we decided to work with her on learning the doggy style swim so that she could start learning how to swim. I have a feeling that she will be swimming like a fish by the end of the summer.

Joshua met a new buddy tonight at the pool named Daniel, and two nights ago, he met a girl named Reeve that he hit it off with, too. He's been having fun with his flippers and body board as well as his water guns. He's a little bit more cautious in the water, so it's great that we could join a pool so close by for him to get plenty of pool time to work on his swim skills and get more comfortable swimming around again. We are really enjoying being members of the pool this summer! Yay for summer fun!

Leapin' Lizards...it's a tick!!!

With it being Memorial Day, we spent the day preparing to have our sump pump removed by Doug removing tile and me washing clothes as we will not have access to the addition for several days while the concrete cures. We wanted to get the kids out of the house, so we first checked out a potential pool membership for the summer and then went to Thompson Park to feed some very fiesty geese...one of which bit Taylor on the hand (luckily not hard as she didn't seem to be disturbed by the event). After playing a bit, we came home for some yummy burgers and then went for a walk/scooter ride to the Silver Comet Trail. On the way, Doug encountered a cute little turtle who seemed to be lost and out of sorts from his typical environment. Doug decided to relocate the turtle and Joshua excitedly followed. They ran through some tall grass to place the turtle back in the creek and then we continued on our journey to the trail, stopping every so often to pick some wildflowers/daisies along the way. On the way home, we enjoyed the first lightning bugs of the season and I caught a couple of them to show the kids. When we got home, Doug went outside with the kids to catch lightning bugs and then we decided to take quick baths before bedtime to wash off the stinky deet bug spray. I noticed that when Joshua took off his shirt, he had something black on his back. Doug soon noticed, too, and realized that it was a TICK!! Doug quickly got the tick off of Joshua and the tick hadn't seemed to bury his head into Joshua's skin yet. YUCK!! So, we all began scanning our bodies for bugs and I'll probably have nightmares about bugs tonight! Oh, those pesky bugs. The one downfall to summer!!! Otherwise, it was a great night!

Headmaster's Award!!

We are SO proud of you Joshua!! You graduated from first grade with the Headmaster's Award for all A's all year!!! That is a huge accomplishment and we know that you worked hard for this. You are becoming a such an amazing young man and we enjoy watching you grow and change and develop that traits that the Lord has given you. Wow! I was so honored to be your mom and watch you receive your award! Way to go! Now, you can sit back and relax this summer and have some quality family time in the pool and traveling around. Love you so much! Oh, and to top off the award, you lost your fifth tooth at home on this day as well! For your big accomplishment, you picked out an big Army Jeep to play in the driveway with. We love you!

Bible Memory Award

You brought home the "Bible Memory Award" for excellence from your class today. You have done so well memorizing scripture this year and it constantly amazes me how much you are able to memorize. It helps me memorize scripture as well by helping you! Way to go on a wonderful accomplishment that you can carry with you throughout your life. Keep those verses in your heart!

Walking pneumonia....again!

Joshua has had a fever on and off since last Tuesday (6 days) with coughing, fever (high of 100.8), sore throat, and headache. He missed two days of school last week and missed school today which is the last week of school. It was an up and down week...feeling better one day, run down and fever the next. So...we headed back to the doctor's office today to find the verdict. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia, and right ear infection. He also had been blinking his eyes frequently and complaining of itchy eyes. He had an vision test which came back 20/20 and Dr Matthews said that he had some conjunctivitis which is related to allergies. So, we headed out of the office with three prescriptions for Azithromycin, albuterol inhaler, and QVar, a new inhaler for long term maintenance of asthma. We should have used the Pulmicort on him to keep his asthma under control, but we thought he was under decent control and so we didn't give it to him. I was told that if we need to use his inhaler more than a couple times a month, he needs to be on a maintenance medication. Live and learn! Maybe now, we can prevent a future case of pneumonia!! Praying that he can enjoy his final week of school relatively sick free with all of the meds he is on now!