Overload

I have so much to do today, it's rather unreal. Thus, it obviously makes perfect sense to start out my work day blogging, right? I make smart choices ;)

As much as I am not a fan of summer, I have to admit it is flying by. I cannot believe it's almost August, and in less than three weeks I will be sending my little boy off to Kindergarten. In case anyone's been wondering - I am SO not okay with this. Wasn't he just born?

I've lived most of my life in the fast lane - not in an edgy, let's-go-skydiving-every-Saturday sort of way, but I always tend to cram so much life into my weeks, that I end up sort of grazing over experiences instead of experiencing them fully. My mind is always onto the next thing before the current thing has a chance to even BE a thing.

There have been consequences for this:
1) I don't always listen as carefully to God as I should

2) I don't move on quickly from hurts because I put off acknowledging fully how they affect me

3) Although very guarded, I  tend to grow close with people very easily, because I often don't take the time to discern true character.

4) I begin to place more importance on serving up Jesus to my kids via bible stories and Christian music
rather than showing them an example by being unashamedly in love with Him in front of them.

5) My house is a mess.

Before summer is over, there are things in my life that need to change. I need to re-prioritize. It's a good thing I'm already a compulsive list maker.

- I need to wake up in God's word. Right now my quiet times are usually at night, when I am exhausted. God has given me a gourmet feast of a life - it's so good - he does not deserve solely my leftovers at the end of the day. Some of the strongest Christian women I know read their Bible first thing. I need to do this. Lock myself in the closet if I have to.

- Organize the house. It's clean - but is it organized? Nope. I want every single room to look like a Pinterest post, damnit.

- Spend a day with Sam and Sam alone. He wants to go to the Zoo and he's made it crystal clear Charlotte isn't invited. This is really important to do before Kindergarten begins.

- Get crazy organized and reignited about Royal Stage.

- Stay out of God's way and let him do his thing.

Summer is flying by!

Our Favorite Hideaway

For some it's camping, for others it's a favorite ice cream shop. For our family, it's Disneyland. This is not new information to anyone who knows me. Frank and I are utterly disgusted by capitalist America - but we can make an exception for Mickey, right? 

This is the first trip I started to love Disneyland in a whole new way - for the first time both of our kids were old enough to get really crazy excited about things. And they delivered. 

    On her very first roller coaster in Toontown

   Forgot her hair barrettes so we bought these in an attempt to tame the curls. She walked around screaming "I'm Minnie! I'm Minnie!" For three days. 

    Exactly 40 inches tall! Star Tours yay! 

    I'm particularly proud they requested Alice three times on their own. 

    It's been all about the Star Wars lately....

   She chose a baby Ariel. It's been all about mermaids lately.....

    How was Disneyland? A little sunny...

    Both kids are going through the awkward smile for the camera phase. Awesome. 

    Best seat in the house - between nana and grandpa. 

    Mommy, she is crying on dumbo??? What the heck! 

    Well fine then I'm going to cry because  upset she's crying......

Truly though, we remained pretty happy at the Happiest Place on Earth. I love our family. 

Lively Little Lives

My dear friend Ashley took some random shots of the kids last night - the results capture their personalities better than any other photo I've seen.  I am so blessed.

From her facebook: 

My random afternoon with the Warta kids!

I got to spend some quality time with the funniest kids on the planet...and try out my new lens to boot! FUN 

 

 

A Whole Hand Old

Sam is officially five. He has made sure everyone knows it. It's all he talks about.

"I'm a WHOLE HAND."

"I'm FIVE now."

"I'm allowed to watch STAR WARS now!"

Five is a big deal. We haven't had a big birthday party for Sam since his 1st, which took place at a park during a heat wave with about bajillion people in attendance. We celebrated his 5th in much the same way.

It's hotter than Hell outside - it must be Sam's birthday.

In a cute little twist of irony, Sam specifically requested Dinosaurs in the Snow as his party theme. I capitalize that as if it is an established party theme, a children's movie or something....nope. I was on my own with this one. Even Pinterest just shrugged at me with its stupid "no pins found" page and left me in the dust.

We worked it out. Pretzels for dinosaur bones, powdered sugar donuts for snowballs and plenty of ice blue and white lollipops and vanilla tootsie rolls. We found a dinosaur cake at the store (store bought! hallelujah!) and I added some marshmallows to it for "snow."

The kids had 4 activities - arctic swimming pools, ice boat races, snow n' slide and blue water balloons. All activities were destroyed in about five minutes - the snow n' slide (tarps with shaving cream on them) bunched up in the grass and the cream ran out quickly. The arctic pools (baby pools) became murky from the shaving cream covered bodies jumping in - but it actually ended up making a cool arctic effect in the water, so yay! The ice boat races were bars of soap with little homemade sails out of scrapbook paper and those worked well - as did the blue water balloons that seemed to completely drench about four children while the rest managed to stay dry.

I made 17 tiny scarves and/or winter hats for all of Sam's toy dinosaurs, and we taped down winter and dinosaur themed jokes onto the tables. All our scarves, gloves and hats made an appearance.

And I forgot to take pictures of everything. Ah well! I did get pics of the adorable kiddos at the party - this was Sam's first "friend" party and he has some pretty great ones.

                                         Elisa came over early with Cara, where we proceeded to
                                        get the most awkward photo ever of our three kids. Hey,
                                        at least he's wearing pants....

                                          They picked up where they last left off and got along famously :)

                                          I love that our daughters are only 6 months apart! So many incredible years ahead.

                                                    I can't believe that little tiny baby is 5!

                                                    Sam got a birthday cupcake from Autymn. He was awestruck.

                                                     Sam was so excited he was allowed to drink Kool-Aid, he went a little nuts. He pounded it like cheap beer at a frat party and ended up puking in the grass at the end of the day.

                      After the cake, Annie was crazy excited she was allowed to go wild with the remaining marshmallows.

                                       I told Charlie no to candy...but Pastor Michael said yes.

                                         Gabriel made Sam the cutest card. I just love these two :)

                                          Best friends holding future BFFs :) Love these ladies.

                                          I probably should've taken the cake out of the box and at least
                                         pretended I made the cake....

                                                   This child is not uncomfortable with attention ;)

                                         All of Sam's friends. So blessed to know all these incredible kids, most of which go to our amazing church. Such wonderful families - excited for more parties!

                                                   Don't mess with Charlie when she's eating Nonna's homemade ziti.

                                          Best friends.

 Tracy was Sam's overnight NICU primary. 5 years later, we still keep in touch with her. Still surprising, she showed us she has had Sam's first footprint and handprint on the back of her badge for five entire years. Cannot believe how far he's come.

                                                  Izzy loved the "snow"

                                         Charlotte's friend Vanessa - inseparable.

                                          Hailey and Aiden in the "arctic pools."

                                         More "snow."

                                          It didn't last very long.....
                                          

 

                                         Covered in "snow."

                                                    Some of the dinos' winter ensembles

                                                  Charlie got a new present too. She takes her play kitchen very seriously, and now she has an outfit to match.