More pictures from Katy's party!

These are pictures that my mom took at the party - she wasn't as busy as I was!

Feeling overwhelmed?

Katy loved this caterpillar tunnel that she got...

...Brooks wasn't so sure about it...

...but his daddy thought it was great!

Laura and Bret and Grandma and Grandpa Reimer

Kids Camp: Space

This past week we did space camp!  Once again, we did activities on a couple of different days since we were pretty busy!

One rainy afternoon, we painted Styrofoam balls to look like planets:

Our finished solar system wasn't very accurate, but the kids love it!  Lane made those "satellites" all by himself during quiet time one day.

The books that we read were The Moon, The Planets, The Sun, and The Stars.  They were easy to read and a good introduction to everything in the solar system.  We also watched a Curious George episode (Rocket Ride) and a silly video called There Goes a Spaceship.  I was really disappointed that I couldn't find any other cool space videos at the York library!  We also checked out some pictures and videos on the NASA website.

Our other craft was Puffy Paint Moons.  It was pretty messy and neither kid really liked using their hands to spread the "paint", so I ended up finishing them both.   Lane really liked the end result though - they are both hanging on our fireplace.

For a snack, we tried the freeze-dried astronaut ice cream that I ordered from Amazon.  I liked it, but the rest of the family thought it was pretty weird!  I also made a snack for the afternoon: marshmallow stars, "planet" Cheerios, and "moon rock" M&Ms.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to my mom's to do our two "games" for space camp: walking on the moon and flying a spaceship.

First, Lane and Katy played in this old spaceship that Bret had when he was little.  It has lots of levers and gadgets to mess around with.

Next, mom had made a "moon" to walk on - a large plastic sheet duct-taped shut and filled with water.  It was really fun!

The water inside felt nice and cool on a hot day and it was really squishy and funny to walk on!  They also had fun throwing "Saturn's rings" around.

The funniest part was when Lane was playing by himself...all of a sudden, the tarp started to slide down the slight hill towards the dog pen.  Lane was crawling as fast as he could to keep from hitting the pen!

Next up: dinosaurs!

Katy's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Katy's 2nd birthday with all our family (minus Rachelle and Brent & families)...it was quite the crowd!  I decided to hold her party a little earlier so that my Grandma and Grandpa Reimer were able to attend - I was glad they could make it!

Katy really liked all of her gifts - she commented on every one as she was opening it!  Her favorite was probably the Lightning McQueen car from Bret and Laura. (There is hope for her though - I saw her making Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen "kiss"!)

I decorated with streamers and helium balloons.  The kids had so much fun letting the balloons go outside and watching them float away!

For the food, we had Jimmy Johns' sandwiches, chips, macaroni salad, and fruit.

While researching rainbow parties, I came across this cool drink idea:  make ice cubes out of Kool-Aid, then pour Sprite over it.  It was pretty yummy - and really pretty!

Katy had a lot of fun running around and being silly.  Chad brought the slip n slide over, so all the kids put on their swimsuits and got wet.  It was a perfect night - warm, but not too hot, and just a slight breeze to keep everyone cool enough. (Hopefully my mom or Casey has some pictures of this...I was too busy cleaning up and didn't get any!)

Then came Katy's favorite part:  the cake!

She did a really good job blowing out her candles!  She liked it so much that Curtis re-lit them three or four times for her.

The cake!  It was a fun cake to make and I think everyone really liked the rainbow colors!  It turned everyone's tongues different colors :)

Both kids stayed up way too late and had way too much sugar.  I caught Lane downstairs at 4:00 this morning playing with Katy's presents.  I guess he figured he had to be early to avoid fights!  He willingly went back to bed when I pointed out that it was way too dark to be awake.

We got Katy a few things for her favorite doll - a cradle, a high chair, and a sleeper outfit.  She was really excited to get everything out this morning.  This was the first time I've ever seen her play with a doll so much - she fed her, gave her a bath, and then put her down for a nap.  So cute!

Review of "The Fiddler"

After reading almost all of the previous Beverly Lewis books that are set in Amish country, I was excited to be among the first to read The Fiddler.

The Fiddler takes place in Lancaster Country, Pennsylvania near the fictional town of Hickory Hollow.  Englisher Amelia Devries finds herself lost in snowstorm, with car trouble, and ends up at a tiny cabin owned by Amishman Michael Hostetler.  There is instant camaraderie between the two as they realize how similar their hopes and struggles are.  Most of all, they end up helping each other see their situations more clearly.  However, can they stay friends despite the fact that one is English and one is Amish?  Will the People be okay with the fact that Michael has befriended an English girl?

I was happy to find that (although this is the first book in the series) I felt like I "knew" the characters.  Many of Lewis' other books are set in Hickory Hollow and it was fun to see how she wove the other stories into this one.  I love the little glimpses into Amish life - the decor of a room, the colors of a quilt, the foods eaten for a meal.  Although life in an Amish community looks simple and idyllic, that seems far from the case in most of Lewis' novels.

However, I didn't "devour" The Fiddler like I have so many of Lewis' other novels.  In fact, it took me almost 2 weeks to read (when most of the time, I am so enthralled by the story that I finish a book in 1-2 days).  It might have been the musical terms/fiddle playing that distracted me and seemed to interrupt the story line or it might have been the lack of "drama" in this book - I was never afraid for the characters.  It almost seemed slow-moving or repetitive at times.

Of course, I am sure that I will read the next book in the series when it comes out.  There was just enough hint of coming drama (that I'm sure most people probably didn't even catch) to keep me wondering what is going to happen to the characters in the next books.

Thank you to Bethany House publishers - I was sent a copy of this book to review at no charge.  All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review of the book.

22 weeks

22 weeks today!  In some ways, this pregnancy seems to be going faster than the other two (thank goodness!).

-I am much more exhausted this time around.  Not so much tired, but plain old exhausted.  Probably from chasing two kids around in the heat.
-I have only gained 9-10 pounds so far...much better than the 20 I had gained by this point with the other two.  Probably due to chasing two kids around in the heat :)
-It's a girl!  Excited that Katy will have a sister to play softball with someday and excited that I have a pretty good wardrobe for this little one already.
-This pregnancy is completely different than the other two...so I hope that means this one won't be such a difficult newborn?
-I'm actually not sleeping too bad - my hips don't hurt as much and if I am awake in the middle of the night, it's typically only for about an hour instead of two.  I did figure out that it's much harder to go back to sleep after tending to either of the kids if they wake up...so Curtis pretty much gets kid duty at night ;)
-We've already kinda started the transition to the new sleeping arrangements - we moved Katy to a twin bed.  So far, she's done great!  Stays in bed, falls asleep quickly, and loves her new Lightning McQueen sheets.  The next step is getting Lane used to bunk beds, then moving Katy in to his room.  I'm not expecting either of those to go as smoothly!
-Mostly just craving mozzarella sticks and nachos.  And Twizzlers.  I've given in to Mt. Dew cravings a few times, too.
-I am tired of maternity clothes already.  And why do they have to be so expensive?
-The sign behind me is the latest addition to our basement.  We got it from my grandparents - it's so cool!  Grandma is supposed to be getting me some pictures of the chicken hatchery and I'm planning to add those to the window frame.

DIY Kids Camp: Ocean

Lane really misses the structure of preschool and getting to do the "fun" stuff there.  So, my plan this summer is to do "summer camp" with the kids once a week or so.  Each week (or every two weeks) I'm planning a day where we learn about something by doing crafts, games, reading books, and watching videos.

I started out with Oceans since there was a ton of ideas on Pinterest and there were so many different aspects of the ocean!  For this camp, I split it up in to an afternoon and a morning since we've been so busy lately.

Monday afternoon, Lane and I made sock octopuses while Katy napped.  The octopus is simply a knee sock stuffed with batting and then cut into 8 "legs".

Later, after Katy woke up, we watched Ocean Habitats: Shoreline and Reef.  It was a little advanced for Lane (lots of terms that I'm sure he didn't know), but he soaked it up anyway!  (I just grabbed ocean-themed videos and books at the library hoping for the best!).

After the video, the kids had fun "fishing" for Goldfish with a pretzel stick dipped in peanut butter.

I read them the book A House for Hermit Crab and then they stayed busy with a corresponding preschool and tot pack while I made supper.  This was Katy's first time doing a tot pack; she needed a little direction, but she loved it and did great!

Camp began again on Wednesday morning.  We started out by reading books: Mister Seahorse, The Snail and the Whale, and Trout, Trout, Trout.

Lane was super excited to do the "ocean craft."  We made an ocean in a bottle...I tried to find tiny shells or sea creatures to put in the bottles, but after searching Walmart and Amazon, I didn't find any!  I ended up taking apart the beaded necklaces they made at VBS last week since there were dolphins and whales mixed in.  

They look less than thrilled in this picture, probably because I gave them
strict instructions not to touch!  I didn't want blue food coloring
all over the floor!

Later in the morning, after I got some chores done and the kids worked out their crabbies by playing outside, we watched a few videos about sea creatures on the National Geographic website.

Since the kids have been obsessed with cushions lately, I made up a game called "Save the sea creatures!".  They had to rescue Nemo, the octopuses, and a duck from the couch by only jumping on the cushions and not landing in the "water"...otherwise sharks would get them.  Katy didn't get it, but Lane was so into it that he was running and jumping and out of breath.  He saved the creatures about 4 or 5 times :)

Finally, we enjoyed an ocean lunch of jellyfish hot dogs, a bread and cheese boat (that had a pretty sad sail!), and ocean jello.  Curtis and I were fine with regular hot dogs ;)

The kids had so much fun doing all this and even more fun when they got to tell Daddy everything they did!  I hope I have enough motivation to keep it going all summer....and hopefully we can make it a summer tradition.  (That's why I'm blogging about this...so that next year I can remember what I did!).  Next up: Space!

Aluminum Foil River

As part of our "Ocean Camp" (more on that later this week), we talked about how boats and other things go down the river to the ocean.  Time for a river for our boats (thanks Pinterest for the idea!)!

I simply unrolled aluminum foil down a hill and kinda folded up the sides a little bit.  We put a hose at the top and the boats floated down!

The kids LOVED it.  The boats just got faster and faster once the water flattened the foil down a little bit.  They played for a half hour and probably would've stayed out longer, but it was time to get ready for bed.  We will definitely be doing this again!

When Lane grows up...

...he wants to be a farmer.  No surprise there!  However, for months he has wanted to be a road construction worker...he said Katy would do the farming.

Lately, he's been going with Curtis more often to fix pivots or ride in the tractor or do what farmers do.  He has really enjoyed all that time with Daddy (and I really enjoy it too!).

A few days ago, Lane was playing quietly on his own (a rare occurrence!) and I wondered what he was up to. About 10 minutes later, he showed me his list.

Lane had written down all the farming tasks that he had to do that day.  First on the list was spraying, then cultivating, then fixing tires, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember.  He took his list and was busy for the next half hour doing farming things.  He even made a list for Curtis that included things like drive the Bobcat, fill in the hole, etc.

Makes me wonder what he will be when he grows up!

*Notice the letters that he used to write his list?  He likes "L" for Lane, "t" for Trenton, "M" for Miles, and "E" because it looks the same upside down.