What a week!

This past week was VBS and it was quite a week! I do not have any clever write ups, all I can say is VBS was great, but I sure am glad it is over. Here are some highlights of the week....

This is the real Kindergarten class

Center TimeRoller Coaster Ride!Face Painting...oh yeah baby, Logan is an honarary Ninja TurtleSweet SiblingsAs many of you know Logan had a pirate birthday party. Well for some reason he asked me to make him a pirate ship cake, and I said that I would. I always buy a Costco cake, but for my precious 5 year old son, I wanted to make it the best cake ever. I practiced this dog gone cake 5 times before I got it right. I was frustrated and practically in tears. I called my friends for advice, a recipe, anything to help me out. I called my dad who thought I was just crazy for ever trying. He told me I was not Ace of Cakes, and should stick to what I was good at. Sadness. Well, despite every ones doubts, I did make that cake. Sure it took me a couple of tries, okay, 5, but perseverance is a part of life. We must always look toward our goal and not stop running until we get there. I was super proud of how it turned out. When Logan saw it he was amazed and so thankful and proud of the cake. He ran upstairs and got me his pirate Mickey to put on the ship. Yes, no fears, I disinfected it first! Logan's face was priceless and it was totally worth it! And a picture of my sweetness Ry Ry...she was not old enough for VBS this year and was quite bummed...I promised her next year, hopefully she will have some rockin' teachers.

FOR THE LOVE....

Well, yesterday something crazy happened. Rylan, who is now almost 3, has decided that she needs a raggy. What is a raggy one might ask, well it is a burp cloth converted into a "special blankie". HELLO!?! The only child who I have ever know to have one is my friends daughter Rachel, but she has had hers since birth. Why Rylan suddenly needs one is beyond me. I have to laugh because the girl is super protective over this cloth. No one can touch it but her. She will not sleep or take a nap without it, and wants to carry it continuously. Anyhow, I have some great pics to put up later, they are loading now.

VBS

Today was the first day of VBS. I am working with the kindergarten class. It was a great first day. The kids were great, the help was great, and it was just straight up fun! Looking forward to the rest of a very long week! Sorry, no pics. But there is one hot picture of me on the Archer website, yeah, when you look at it I was JUST KIDDING! Why do friends do that to you? Put up horrid pictures. Anyhow, I will take my camera tomorrow. Catcha later.

Similarities

I took the kids to the park last night because it had been an oh, so long day. There are a couple of families at the park so Logan immediately finds some older boys to play with. They are there with their dad so Rylan, Madison and myself take ourselves over to the swings. I swing Rylan for about 20 minutes and then we move on to the carousel and the slides. After about 45 minutes the dad of the boys starts walking over to me. I was thinking uh oh, what did Logan do. He proceeds to ask me if I am married to Shelby Smith. I have no idea why he is asking, but of course I say yes. He says "I knew it". He tells me that he just had this feeling that this little boy reminded him of someone. He couldn't think of it and then apparently Logan said something and did something with his hands and it all came rushing to him at once. In what world does this happen? People knowing our children because they act like their father, when they do not even know the kid? Go small town America! I will admit that this was a wonderful reminder to me of the importance of being a good role model for my children. Good Times!

Holiday World

So, we wake up Monday morning ready to go to Holiday World. I spent some time in prayer that morning thanking God for all of my blessings. As I looked at my precious children sleeping I was just moved by God's greatness. A couple of hours later we pack up the kids and the car and off we go. The camera is sitting there and I just have the urge to try one last time. I know it wont work, but I just had to sulk. I turn it on and you will never believe it...it totally worked! What a blessing. The kids had a total blast at Holiday World, Logan told me that it was "totally awesome"! We are all looking forward to going again next year!
Madison's first taste of powdered sugar! Thanks Logan.

Logan saw this water racer and said he had to do it. I was very nervous and did not want him to do it, I did not think he would remember to hold on. I was wrong, he and Shelby did it and he loved it.

Farewell Red Wings

Logan has just finished his first T-Ball season. He was very sad for it to be over :( He absolutely loved playing ball. I am so happy because this thrills my husband to no end. I do not even want to know what would have happened if Logan hated it, probably a deep depression....just kidding. Here he is accepting his first trophy, such a cutie!

Mini Family Vacation

This past weekend we packed up the kids and took a little vacation down south....not that far South....just to KY! Here we are getting ready to leave our driveway...the kids were so excited. I dressed them in their matching brother/sister shirts, which Logan was very upset about. How sad that he is getting older and totally wants to tell me what he wants to wear, rather than just putting on what I tell him to wear.For our first stop we went to the Louisville zoo, which was very awesome. The kids had a blast checking out all of the different animals. During our visit to this lovely zoo, actually at the first animal we stopped at, a Stork, which I will never forget, I dropped our camera into the water behind the fenced in area surrounding the stork. Sadness overwhelmed me. Well, all I can say is whoops!! Shelby just walked away for a minute...I knew he was mad, but I was happy he did not say anything to me. I had to go hike up a huge hill to find a zoo worker who then had to go find a claw device to fish it out. I knew the camera was never going to work again, but I hoped that the card would still be okay and that I could retrieve my pictures. The guy finally came back and fished out the camera...it is so not working. Sadness overcomes me and at this pinnacle point in my day I decide to take the higher road and not sulk and get upset like I wanted to, after all it was just a camera, a nice one, but something that could be replaced. Just for fun I took a picture to see if it would work

uh, no! Anyhow the day continues and we still had fun. We left the zoo and drove to Dale, IN to spend the night in a hotel before hitting Holiday World on Monday. I tried the camera again just to see if it was working. Yeah, still no camera working. So sad, I just kept wondering, how will I take pictures tomorrow, how will I find a wal-mart in the middle of this cornfield where we are staying, how could this happen to me? TO BE CONTINUED.....

Mama

This past Saturday we went down to see Mama, Shelby's grandma. I thought that this picture was just too precious not to post. Rylan wanted to give Mama a hug, she settled for a loving hand embrace.

Nothing New

Today I have nothing new and spectacular to report. We did take a trip to the library and happened to stumble upon my dear friend Heather Painter and her boys. The library did not know what hit them. I am sure the they quite enjoyed the Hayden yelling Ry loudly throughout the library, and Rylan saying Here Haaaayyy. The icing on the cake was when they disappeared for a moment and suddenly we hear extremely loud pounding on a glass case in the corner which appeared to be housing barbie dolls. The librarian asked them to stop, then mom intervention. GOOD TIMES!!!! Other than that same ole, same ole. Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I started reading a chapter book to Logan, our first, and he loved it....he kept asking me to keep going. I sure hope he has my love of books. I went to the chiropractor today and had a very positive comment from the massage therapist. She couldn't believe that I was not crazy tight. All I got to say is thank goodness! That is an answer to prayer for sure. Tomorrow is the grand finale of garage selling and then what is left will be hitting the road to goodwill. Can't wait, Shelby either...he has been bugging me to get rid of it forever. If ya read this tonight and live in Indiana, do not forget to go to the youth's last car wash tomorrow in the Kmart parking lot, 9-12! They need some extra support. Happy Friday night! I hate not having a picture so here goes...my sweet Rylan on her first Easter..ahahahah....wish I still had that basket.

Happy Day

Sweet Madison...I have no idea where this picture was taken, but it is cute. She is growing so quickly. Logan sang at the Southern Baptist Convention this past wed. Check out pics on some of the other websites. He did really well. You can watch it online, the link is on painter el cinco. Have a happy day!

KUNG FOO PANDA!

On Monday we went to see Kung Foo Panda. Logan and Jake loved it! They were adorable coming out thinking that they were karate fighters! It was super cute.

Ry and Hayden made it through about an hour of the movie, but then they were done. We went out to the car for some high quality Nemo time, thank goodness for a DVD player, and fruit snacks, and pushing buttons! GOOD TIMES!

The Block Party

This weekend our church had a block party. The goal was reaching out into the community and showering people with God's love and sharing the Christ with them. Well, Friday night the sirens started going off and the rain started to pour. Never fear, Hope Community Church does not cancel, they move it inside! It turned out wonderfully. There were bounce houses, wonderful food, all beef dogs may I add, and I think that all of our children have had enough popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cones to last a lifetime! It was so much fun! It was wonderful to see how people all rallied together to make the best out of the move inside, and it was incredible how many people braved the weather to come.Bounce House Fun!

So, I am helping serve food in the kitchen and Paul Painter, Jakies dad, comes in and tell me something extremely interesting. My husband, has turned the flooded church yard into a water slide. Yes, definitely a youth at heart. He not only decided to take a ride down this hill, but he coaxed others to do it as well. As I am hearing this I am absolutely mortified. Of course, I try to remember it is Shelby and to just let him have some fun, right? Needless to say the younger children wanted to partake in the fun so I figured why not go for broke and let them. They had fun and they were super dirty, yuk!

It was a wonderful day and I am not gonna lie, I was beat afterwards. We came home and chilled out the rest of the day.

And for all who are concerned....I will never forget who Frank is and I am pretty sure he will never forget me!

Bowling Pictures

Well, I finally got them loaded..the craziness of bowling!

Rylan really tried!Go Jakie!Logan gets a strike!

Friends till the end!

RYLAN

Here is our sweet Rylan. Heidi shot a quick picture of her for Aunt Pammy today during Madi's photo shoot since she wouldn't take one for me yesterday. Thank you Heidi. Madison took her first ever photo shoot with Mrs. Hackney, photographer extraordinaire....they were cute.

Tonight we went bowling with the youth. It was a lot of fun. It has been such a long time since I got to hang out with my youth pals, gotta say, totally beat out Cubbies! I took the kids and Logan brought along Jakie, his pal. Let me tell ya, they were hysterical. I took pictures, but they were just goofing off, so they are not looking at the camera in any of them. They would roll the ball, well let me rephrase that, they would bounce the ball down the lane. They slammed the ball down so hard I thought for sure they were going to dent it up, but no, it was fine. Logan did cross over the line once and totally flew through the air. He cried. It was kind of sad. He did hurt himself, and it did not help that all of the youth were laughing at him. His bottom may never be the same. Overall, the boys had a blast, and Rylan, well she did really well for the first 30 minutes, and then she just roamed and drank a lot of Pepsi. Good times. On a super happy note I have a 30% off to Kohls, so I just may hook myself up with a new shirt. WOOHOO!

FOR PAMMY!

My sister has been very disappointed in my lack of updating kid photos, so just for her here are some random ones. Sorry Pam, Ry would not take any.
I promise I will do better family!

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart

Shelby How do I love thee, let me count the ways. Just kidding...maybe another time. Happy Anniversary Shelby!

Random Logan

Yesterday I was looking high and low for the camera. I could not find it anywhere. Well, today when I was cleaning Logan's room I found it. It was on his bookshelf with his turtles. I talked to him about how we do not play with Mommy's camera and then I went to load the pictures up. This is what I found.
And for my favorite...I was just thinking "What?!" I think he was trying to be a turtle, maybe?