I am really trying here...

Eric is a fire fighter. He has just rescued his pig from a burning room.
Scooby Doo was spotted roaming my house today. I hope he's house broken.
Ethan, another fire fighter has made a hammer to break open the ceiling for smoke to escape.
I have the cutest little fire fighters in my home today. No chance of any fires going unattended.

....well not very hard. I had all these great plans for Spring Break. We had our days lined up with events scheduled. Our first day was cancelled. We were going to drive up to Mt. St. Helens. But somewhere in the morning there was a mention of swimming and that trumped the entire day. It's their spring break, I am just the driver. So we went swimming and had a few banner moments which made this mama cry.

Ethan took off on his own. He is now a safe swimmer. Jumping off the side into the deep end. This is my deaf child. The one with a condition called Enlarged Vestibular Aqueducts. He should not be able to be doing this. Piffle!! He is swimming and I will soon have the pictures to prove it. My friend was there taking pictures. She's coming on Thursday to load them onto my computer.

Eric, was taken from the safe haven of the side of the pool into my arms. Clinging for dear life. He's the three year old. The first thing I teach my young swimmers is how to get to the side of the pool and then walk with your hands along the wall to safety. I don't care about the form, how you get there, but I must know if you are knocked into the pool you can get to safety. He screamed, clung for dear life, but within 20 minutes was able to get to the side and walk along the wall with his hands. That night at dinner he announced to Papa his big success story. So I guess I did not traumatize him.

Emerson, with his life preserver on was all over the pool. He's a little fish. In the arms, with a healthy fear of the water. He knows his limits and I am so proud of him.

Emily....I forgot she was 18. At one point it felt like I had two five year olds in the water. She is also a fish and had such a blast playing with her brothers. I love her spirit.

So with the ending of our swim session, everyone was happy to be home, worn out and lots of stories to tell. Over and over and over.

On Tuesday we had plans to spend the day at our friends farm. She called the night before to let me know that all her kids were sick. I am not about to go through another round of sickness around here, so I appreciated her call. Which lead us to visiting an ice rink. I have been wanting to take the kids ice skating. We did not skate. Instead all the little boys got an education about the ice, watching other kids, how cold it is, the little boy holding onto the wall as he is learning, that you just don't step onto the ice with skates and know how to do it. So this little outing will prepare us for real ice skating adventure. We did end up later going to a small local airstrip where we got to see a small plane take off. We are able to walk down where the small planes are parked. This was an adventure as it's a small walk and these dark clouds broke in giving us a nice down pour and beautiful rainbow.

It's Wednesday. Day three into spring break and guess what? My children have all changed my living room into a campsite. They have not wanted to go anywhere. They love just being home and playing. I am fine with that. We are going to the mall later this afternoon. I have cracked up more than once watching my 18 year old playing with the three little boys. She's the highlight of their day. And she just jumps in to wrestle, sing, be silly, and even make them a cool lunch. I am a blessed mom.

Here are some silly pictures from around the house this week. I am still working on how to load them, so we shall see what we end up with:

Okay, so all the pictures are at the top of this blog. I swear I had the curser at the end. I am so, so not interested in figuring this out now. Blessings to all. elizabeth