Breakfast in the park followed by exploring and playing.  A great few hours!Then Brent was off to the studio to finish recording the LAST SONG for the upcoming CD.  Can you tell I’m excited =)   In honor of his last day at the studio, we stopped by to take some pictures.  Justus REALLY liked the microphones and all the buttons that he could push.  I took him out of the studio in tears as he screamed, “more, dadda, more!!!”  

On the way to some friends house for dinner, the kids and Brent wrote the following song.  I think it may become our family theme song =)
Good song, right? Do you think they’ll be that enthusiastic about singing it when they’re 10?

Its official. I’m back to posting weekly. At least every Tuesday and Friday. =) I think I’ve said it before but Family Fun Day is my favorite day of the week!

In full confession, Brent did work for a couple hours in the morning while I went to the doctor, so our “day” didn’t officially start until 11am, but once it started, we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. Here’s most of our day in pictures.

Do I look tired in the picture below or what? This sickness has kept me up every night for the past week! Just wanted to justify the bags under the eyes =)

The past couple months have been pretty busy which hasn’t allowed us to have consistent family days. The time away from our family day has made me treasure them even more. Our Fridays are our down time and our time to reconnect and I had forgotten the purpose of them until they were gone. Brent and I looked at each other last night and both commented on how refreshed we felt after just a relaxing day as a family. What can I say, we both just love our family =)

I sit here writing and am at a loss for words that will adequately describe the past week.  Pine Cove Family Camp is amazing and so many amazing things happen during the week that it may take me two posts to fully describe them.   =) If you want to see all the pics from the week, click here

We left last Sunday right after church and drove into camp around 3:30pm.  As you can see, the little man drove us into camp this year =)
Once we got into camp, the fun didn’t stop.  Avery was a “Wild Kid” this year, Elliana was a “June Bug”, and Justus was a “Rollie Pollie” which meant Elliana and Justus both still got naps in their class while Avery got to do fun things like have water balloon fights, shaving cream wars, swimming contests, and pony rides during naps.  All three of them love their classes.  In fact, Brent and I had a plan to take the kids out on individual dates throughout the week.  We’ll just say it took some convincing to get the kids to leave their class to go out with mommy and daddy!

I don’t have any pictures of our dates with the kids.  So wish I did!  But on Monday, we took Elliana out on the boat and she rode the water rocket.  You sit on it and hang on for dear life while the boat tries to throw you in the water.  Every time a wave hit the water rocket, Elliana yelled “yeehaw”.  She loved it!  I took Avery out on the boat to do the same thing on Friday.  I think she giggled through the entire thing =)  REALLY really wish I had both experiences on video!

Brent and I also got a few dates throughout the week.  A breakfast trail ride, a morning water ski outing, and 2 dinner dates.  I think that’s one of the things I love about Pine Cove.  It provides amazing family activities as well as amazing couple activites and amazing kids programs.    Everyone in the family gets to have fun without mommy and daddy feeling like they are working overtime to take care of everyone!So because I can’t really put into words the amazing week of vacation, I put together the video below that somewhat captures our week.  I know its long, but I’m sure the grandparents will be as excited about it as I am =) If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, you should skip ahead to about 3 min. & 40 seconds  and catch a glimpse of the kids’ musical debut.  I’ll just say Elliana learned to use her hips that way from her father.  =)  Hope you enjoy!

A family bike ride followed by yard work and washing windows=productive morning this week.

We finished in time to watch the big soccer game…who needs cable when you have a computer =)The day ended withMy birthday present from Brent!  It was AMAZING!!! A great night with a great man!  We got home this morning just in time to start planning Brent’s Father’s Day activities.  Maybe they’ll be some pics up about that soon =)

At 9am, Brent and I looked at each other, said “IKEA?” and within 20 minutes we were in the car and on our way.   Did you hear that spontaneous decision followed by quick action?  Man, life gets easier the older they get =)Brent needed something for work, so while he measured and found what he needed, the kids and I discovered the really important part of the store… the toys.   The toys were only put aside when the word “lunch” was spoken.   Cheap food eaten in front of cartoons…IKEA speaks my kids’ language. I did make an impulse buy.  Pretty sure I’ve never made it through IKEA without making at least one impulse buy!  The middle child loves trains so much that when I saw this train set for $10, I convinced myself to buy it.  I didn’t tell the kids though.  They walked out after nap, saw it, and were ecstatic.  $10 well spent =)We weren’t even out of the parking lot before the little guy crashed!We got home later than anticipated so nap time was pretty much a disaster.  No naps and a busy morning equals REALLY cranky children (and a cranky mommy if I’m honest!)  When they are all cranky, keeping them home is miserable.  We’re still working on being kind and sharing even when we’re grouchy =) Its been a looong week, and the thought of disciplining children all afternoon was enough to make me cry.   So instead of staying home, enjoying the new train set, and getting a couple projects finished, we went to the waterpark.  Its hard to be cranky and mean at a waterpark.Now all the kids are sound asleep in bed and Brent is off building  a desk with a friend.  After this busy day, I think I may turn on the World cup and be lazy on the couch.  The perfect end to a great family day.

I won’t bore you with the details of our boring morning this week.  But I will leave you with a sneak peak of what we spent our afternoon and evening doing!It is dance recital season!  Dress rehearsal was Friday.  The girls are in 2 different recitals and I ended up being the room mom for both of them.  Avery’s dress rehearsal was first.  She did fabulous =)Then the next few hours were spent with Els at her rehearsal.  Exhausting is the only adjective to describe keeping track of six 2-3 year olds!And Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Friday as well.  YEAH!!!!!!

And look what Brent surprised me with a the end of the evening.A little b-day cake with my parents.  My birthday week just keeps on getting better!

Check back later for a little video of the girls dancing on stage.  It will melt your heart =)

Season passes to the waterpark may be the best thing we’ve done in a while.Bunk beds are ideal for fort making.  This fort began as a “girls only” fort, but after some cries from baby brother it quickly became “the Minter family fort”.  Good thing too.  Daddy is way more fun in the forts than mommy. Its now officially HOT outside so Popsicles are a must. Especially after the hard work of replanting bean plants the girls have tried desperately to grow.  The plants have seen better days, but we’re hopeful.Then off to bed for the kids and the grown ups made some home made chocolate chip cookies.   YUMMY way to end the day.

Family Fun Day was a laid back day. The girls declared this morning a PJ day, and I whole-heartedly agreed!  This afternoon we got a couple fun things done, but the highlight of the day was….

Justus got his first haircut!!!

The Minter children usually don’t get a first haircut until way after their 2nd birthday.  I think this may be the first of many things that I must do differently with boys.

And now I want another baby…NOT REALLY,  but I do tear up thinking this is the last 1st haircut I’ll ever take a kid to.   I’ve been in the baby stage for almost 5 years and now I feel like I’m coming out of it a bit.  It feels weird!

The theme for the day was “the wise man and the foolish man”.     Most of the conversation with the girls this morning consisted of the difference between a wise man and a foolish man.  So it was only appropriate to sing the song over breakfast.  “The wise man built his house upon the rock….and the rain came tumbling down.”  Its fun to watch little brains process new information!Then Brent left to go help friends move, and the girls and I made cookies to take to our friends who were moving.We spent the rest of the morning at a playscape area at a local church.  This place is amazing and the kids always have a blast when we go.  By the grace of God, we left right before the huge storms came through and were able to make it home in time for lunch and naps.The rest of the afternoon was a lazy afternoon.  The rain outside made it seem appropriate to do things like watch cartoons and fix vacuums.  And we got new neighbors a few weeks ago, so they came over after dinner and hung out this evening.  What a blessing!!  A perfect way to end a relaxing day.

The McManus clan was in town for family fun day this week!!  We got to spend the morning doing fun stuff like

(shhhhhh…don’t tell their daddy about this next pic!)  I’ve already gotten the lecture from Brent about how I need to buy boy dress up stuff for when the little man gets older!

Followed by and yes, the whole family participated in that much needed activity!  Unfortunately,  the little man didn’t get the memo about the naptime needing to be extra long this particular day, so he also got some fun time doing this with daddy.We ended the evening with a family bike ride/walk to the video store Followed by family movie night.   Tigger and Pooh and the Super Duper Super Sleuths was the chosen movie for the evening.  Did you know that if you eat celery, you can fly?  And carrots make you see really really far away.  My kids have been talking about their carrots and celery ever since.  I think we may rent this movie again soon!