Micah & Benjamin

Vacation Bible School Lifts Off!

We had a very well attended and very fun VBS this year. These pics are from the program where the kids sang the songs they learned with Ms Holly Ruth. Yes, Gabi is wearing a pink and orange skirt and cowgirl boots with her blue VBS t-shirt.



Here's a video clip featuring the Kylie & Micah fan club.



Here's Gabi with her friend Sydney.
Micah always has to visit Moses (who was painted by his Grandma and Mommy) when he's at church. If he's run away (which is often), you'll often find him here with Moses. Not sure if it's Moses that's the attraction or the fact that the Moses door leads to the church playground.

Roller Rink

Gabi went to her church friend Natalie's 5th birthday party at the skating rink. This was only Gabi's 3rd time to go skating, and she goes pretty well. She had lots of fun with lots of church buddies. After spending all morning with them at VBS, running into some church friends at lunch, then seeing htem again for 2 hours of afternoon skating, in the van on the way home she said, "Church people are my favorite kind of people. Can we have some over for dinner?" I counted myself lucky that a PK felt that way, but deflected the suggestion that we invite some over for dinner. At least not on that particular night. LOL.


They even had a pair of skates small enough for Micah and he gave it a try for, oh, 2 minutes, before he said, "Skates no fun. Want my shoes." Then he found plenty of ways to pass the two hours--- shooting and steering in the arcade (fortunately he's still too young to know video games take money), running and dancing with his buddy Kylie (her big sis was skating, too), and of course eating yummy cake.

Do you speak Toddler?

We had VBS at church today, and in the car on the way home, I asked Micah what he did in the nursery. He chit-chatted all the way home. And he used to hardly say a thing. (Side note: Gabi caught whatever virus Micah had last week so she was home with Blake. Perhaps Micah was just able to get some words in with out the aptly named gabby Gabi in the van?) Here's a sampling of his jabbering:

"I pay wid Ah 'n Ben. I and Ben pay twucks. Ah 'n Ben boaf my fwens. Eat gahm kakas and laff Ky-yee. No jump. Ben. Jump scared me. Nu-kah Ben like paygrowwwn!"

My best guess on translation? "I played with Noah and Benjamin. Benjamin and I played with the trucks. Noah and Ben are both my friends! We ate graham crackers and Kylie laughed. We didn't like the bump'n'jump because it was big and scary, but we (Micah & Ben) really like the playground."

Bloomin' Backyard

After being sick most of the week, Micah is finally up and around, running in the backyard again.

I have several things blooming right now. I must say that Gabi, Micah, and I grew all of these from seeds. We're so proud of our little garden. I have to get close-ups though so you don't see the weeds.



Micah was so delighted when he saw this flower. He cried out, "Blue!" (his favorite color.) He immediately picked it and gave it to his sweetheart:
These are our morning glories that are growing on the chain link fence. It's never looked so pretty!

Brother Bride

Will Micah ever survive into manhood being dressed-up by his sister?

We've been to the Zoo!

All through high school, there were three of us who stuck together like glue. Blake, Ashley and me. Yeah, sometimes there was a no-need-to-be-named fourth wheel-- but really, it was the three of us. Today we had a reunion of sorts but somehow the three of us found ourselves joined by 5 small children! (Of course, 3 of the children came with a wee bit of help from the deservingly nameable fourth wheel of Ashley's husband, Britt, although he missed the reunion due to some silly excuse like work- what does he think he is, like, an adult or something?!)

I got a couple of pics, and supposing Ashley (hint, hint, if you're reading this) e-mails me her snap shots, I'll update with more later.

Here's Haley and Rebecca. They are in front of some linoesses, but you can't see 'em. Gabi is missing from the pics b/c she was at a Zoofari education class. The original intent was that Gabi & Rebecca (who is 2 weeks older than Gabi) were going to the Zoofari together but the class got full. But don't worry, once Gabi caught up with us, the giggles ensued.
Here's Micah telling baby Braden about the lions. You can't see Braden, because he is happily chilling out in his Jeep stroller. (BTW Ashley was brilliant enough to wait to have her third baby til her first one was old enough to nanny. Haley pushed the stroller through the whole zoo! )
Micah & Haley-- you can see the lion a bit better in this one!

Oh, and I just wanted to add that a bird landed on my head. And if you are an Arkansawyer who would like to experience a similar adventure, go check out the new Lorikeet landing at the zoo. FYI: If you lean in close to a branch, the bird'll hop right off your head.

Best Buddies

Micah has a best buddy. His name is Benjamin, but Micah just calls him Ben. Their friendship is so reminiscent of the Gabi-Fowler bond we watched in Texarkana. Faces just light up at the sight of each other, and all I hear is Ben this, Ben that. They share a great affection for Thomas the Tank Engine, too. Benjamin's mom, a.k.a. Meron, has some cute pics of the two buddies on her blog if you'd like to check them out. There's one from the Independence Day Eve party.

Soccer Camp, part deux

Micah wore his shin guards and borrowed Gabi's small pink soccer ball today so he could play at soccer camp, too. (We played over to the side and before camp started.) Gabi has gotten pretty good, especially at dribbling the ball with her feet, this week. During the silly skills games she even could kick another person's ball away and block her own pretty well. I still don't think she wants to actually play soccer, though. She of course had to blab to the coach that I'd called him Prince Harry all week.
Now all she has left is one day at the Zoofari then VBS at church and then she's off until Kindergarten starts!

Little Choo Choo Dude

Micah's showing off his Thomas the Tank shirt, engineer shorts, and light-up shoes. He especially likes the choo choo shoes.

Sprinkler!!!

We were stuck inside for several days lately with rain. So, how do we take advantage of our first sunny day? Play in the sprinkler. Why I didn't just throw swimsuits on the kids and send the out in the rain, I don't know.

British Soccer Camp

This week Gabi is getting her first taste of sports by attending British Soccer Camp. University students from England come over and coach at these camps, where kids learn some soccer moves and tidbits of British culture. Gabi is having fun and has lucked out with nice weather (a shower here and there has kept it cool, but not overly drenched), but I think she's decided that soccer isn't really her thing. In the meantime, she has some fashionable pink shin guards.

Here she is making a pretty decent shot distance-wise, just ignore that she was supposed to be aiming between the two orange cones.Queuing up for her turn to try shooting the ball.
Here's Gabi with Prince Harry, errr, I mean, her coach Mickey. Gabi got to be the "mud monster" for the game b/c she made good scarey faces and noises like a mud monster would do. The mud monster's job is to kick the other players balls out of the square so they are stuck in the mud. I think this is her favorite thing at soccer camp so far.
The kid in yellow is Jadon who went to TLC with Gabi.

2Kats (so they don't feel neglected)

Cool Slideshows!

Art Camp Masterpieces

I forgot to post about Gabi's adventures while Blake & I were in Vegas. MiMi took her to art camp at the AAC! She had a lot of fun. This year they focused on a lot of basics- shapes, lines, colors, perspective. Last year art camp was during the Picasso exhibit so they did a lot of funky cool paintings, but her drawings this year are awesome. Here's a sample of her masterpieces, with her own titles!

"The Owl Landing in a Tree"

"The Giraffe That Ate More Than the Other Giraffes"

"The Rainbow Peacock"

"A Landscape of Something is Close and Something is Far Away"
(a perspective study)