Last night Jayden finished up a swim session and passed Level 2 with flying colors!  Onto Level 3!  He’s real excited to get past level 3, because then he will be in the same level as how old he is - who cares about the swimming, lets just get the numbers to match up!

By passing Level 2, Jayden has proven he’s excellent at streamline, breath control - bubbles, he keeps his face in the water while swimming, he can kick by himself with a floating barbell, he can do the back float independently, he can roll from front to back and back to front unassisted, he can jump in and roll over and float unassisted, he can jump to his instructor - turn around - and swim back to the wall and climb out of the pool, and finally he can retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool!

Good job Jaydo!!!

#1 : “Jayden, stop sticking your trains up your nose”

I can’t believe how many times a day I have to tell someone to take a toy out of different body parts.

Then, I said something today that I’m going to have to provide some context behind, but I still couldn’t believe that it came out of my mouth.

#2 : “Jayden, would it be alright with you if I used the dead man’s banana for your lunches?”

Jayden had been helping Royal pack his lunch this morning and came out of the pantry holding a banana and this story about a man who was going to eat the banana, but before he could eat it a T-Rex ran up on him and ate the man instead.  So then the banana was all alone in the hot sun and that’s why it had brown spots on it.

Royal’s father’s day started out a little rough.  Jayden woke up at 6:30 with a wet bed.  I got up, changed Jayden and his bed.  Willow woke up at 7:15, also with a wet bed.  Royal got up, grabbed Willow and Jayden and put them in the bath, then went out to the kitchen to finish doing the dishes from the night before.  About 5 minutes later he hears me yell from the bathroom, “Um, Royal, I need your help!”  Willow had pooped in the bathtub and I was frantically pulling kids and toys out of the tub before someone grabbed “something” and was like, ‘what is this?  a new bath toy???’  Luckily things went a better from there, but nothing like being reminded first thing in the morning what being a dad is really like!

We spent the morning at El Dorado where the kids played at a playground, Sam chased some birds, we went for a little hike, and then the kids went swimming.  Royal wouldn’t even put his foot in the water because the lake looks so dirty, so I waded in the water with the kids.  So far, no one has grown an extra limb or anything  :)

The kids got Royal a sno-cone machine for Father’s day.  While in Arizona, Royal was making sno-cones with my parents margarita machine about every hour, so I thought since it is approaching triple digits here in Wichita that he (and the kids) might like some ice treats here too.  I never seem to get to eat mine, because the kids finish theirs off so quick they move right over to mine and help themselves.

I got a package in the mail today!  I knew it was from my mom and I knew it was for my birthday.  I told Kaylee, who I was on the phone with at the time, that I was just going to wait until my birthday to open it.  Then she oh-so-wisely reminded me that I had declared the entire month of June my birthday month.  So, without any further hesitation I opened it!

And this is what was in it :

The truth is, I have been coveting this bread bowl that my mom has had since I started making bread for my family.  I figured that maybe I might get it if my parents ever sold their house, and if not then, then when we were going through their will.  So, basically, not anytime in the near future.  Wichita is not the most health conscious city and when we moved here I was having a lot of trouble finding bread that I liked all of the ingredients in.  Enriched flour this, bleached flour that, high fructose this, sugar is the 2nd ingredient, blah, blah, blah.  So, I decided that I would just try making bread and see how it went.  Turns out it was pretty darn easy!  I usually make 2 loaves at a time, stick one in the pantry and freeze the other, and that’s enough for a week! And wouldn’t you know it, but I needed to make bread today and I was totally procrastinating.  I was, that is, until my present arrived and then I had an excuse to make a bunch of dough so it could rise in my new bowl!

Here’s the recipe in case anybody wants it

Buttermilk Bread

3/4C water
1/2C buttermilk
1T lemon juice
2 1/4t active dry yeast
3C bread flour
1T brown sugar
1T butter, room temp
3T flax seed (I used golden flaxseed meal, then the kids can’t see it in the bread)
1t salt
Warm water and buttermilk up to about 110 degrees.  Dissolve yeast in liquid and let stand about 5 minutes until foamy.

Put remaining ingredients in mixing bowl with dough hook attachment.  Pour in yeast mixture.  Knead in mixer about 5 minutes until dough is pliable, but a little tacky.  Feel free to do the kneading by hand, but I’m about convenience.  :)

Put dough in oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour.

It should then look something like this:

Punch dough down and put in bread pan (or pans in my case)

Cover with towel again and let rise until 1-2″ over edge of pan (a couple hours or so)

Then bake at 350 for 30mins.  I take my bread out of bread pans as soon as they come out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack, which isn’t as easy when you use glass pans, but is a piece of cake with silicone ones!  :)

Voila!  Fresh bread!  Tastes good and your house smells even better!

Jayden was begging to do some painting yesterday, so I decided to set the kids up outside so Willow could participate in her first painting party!

No, we’re not in Washington, at least not yet!  My friend Sabrina invited me and the kids to her condo on Grand Lake for a few days.  It’s our first trip into Oklahoma and I was a little nervous about getting lost because the directions she gave me had things on them like, “go down this hyway, when you see a Wal-mart weave through the construction and make a right”  and “you’ll come to a stop light a few block before a McDonalds, take a left there”  But I only made one wrong turn and we made it here no problem!

Jayden has been a little confused about what lake we were going to.  When I was packing up food for us, I had put together the ingredients to make waffles for them in the morning and he said, “Mom, why are you packing that?  My Nana will make me waffles”.  I’m pretty sure he thought there was only one lake in the world and that was Mason Lake.  Well, he knows where Sabrina’s lake is now, so there are at least 2 lakes in the world!

The condo’s also have a cabana with what seems like a magic margarita machine - it’s always full!  And a pool where Jayden has perfected his belly flops!

We were also playing some music at the pool and Lunden and Willow started dancing together.

Lunden was obviously done with dancing in this next picture, but Willow wasn’t gonna let go of her man!  Willow is in love with Lunden’s mom, Sabrina, and has been since she was a wee little thing.  Willow was fussy and cranky this morning during the car ride, then I told her we were going to Sabrina’s house and she perked right up and didn’t have any more problems.  She screams and squeals and starts shaking with excitement when she sees Sabrina.  She doesn’t do that for anybody except me and when Royal gets home from work.  “Sabrina” was one of the first names Willow tried to say and yelled over and over.  So if Willow grows up to marry Lunden, I’m gonna know it’s just because she’s always wanted to be related to Sabrina!

It took Jayden awhile before he could admit that he really liked Sam.   I think he felt guilty about liking Sam and Scooter at the same time.  Since he knew that dogs and cats don’t usually get along, he was going to side with Scooter and not like Sam until Sam knew he wasn’t suppose to chase Scooter.  Jayden kept telling me that I needed to take Sam back, that he couldn’t stay at our house anymore.  I finally told Jayden that if he didn’t like Sam that was fine, but Sam was mom’s dog and I was going to keep him and take care of him.  Well that fired Jayden right up.  How dare I claim something as my own!  Jayden said, ‘No Mom!  Sam is not yours.  He’s mine’  And ever since then, Jayden has been all over Sam whenever we are outside.

And while Jayden and I were in the backyard playing with Sam, Willow was hanging in the front yard mowing with Dad.  It’s nice someone is taking over Jayden’s role of following Royal around with the mower.  We wouldn’t want Royal to be lonely!
Check out Royal’s outfit - that is HOT!   :)

Summer is here!  Woo Hoo!!  And boy is it hot and humid!

Our strawberries are going crazy.  There are more ripe strawberries each day than we are able to eat!  Royal managed to pick these out of the garden today for us to stick in the freezer.  This is what was left after both the kids ate a ton first!

We also took the kids to Target today to pick out a new pool for the backyard, since both our pool and splash pad bit the dust earlier this year.  I know it’s going to come as a shock, but Jayden picked the dinosaur themed one.  It came with 2 blow-up dinosaurs, has a slide, and a waterfall.  The kids played in this for hours!

…our new dog!

He’s a 3 year old Weimaraner we found at the Kansas Humane Society.  He’s pretty laid back, which is nice that he doesn’t jump all over the kids, and I haven’t heard him bark once since we brought him home.  Jayden told me that he just squeaks, he doesn’t bark.  He also has always been a strictly outdoor dog, so that made Royal pretty happy.

Jayden, despite all his protesting about not liking dogs and never wanting a dog and he only liked cats and he never wanted me to get a dog, LOVES him.  He’s a little upset that Sam doesn’t like to play fetch with him, but maybe we can work on that.  Jayden is loving having something to boss around though, maybe he’ll give Willow a break for a few days.  :)

I think he’s going to be a great addition to our family!

Our jumper has a slow leak in it.  It finally gave into the abuse that is thrown at it on a daily basis.  Jayden has discovered that while he thought he preferred a jumper that was totally blown up and tight for leaping on, a slightly deflated jumper proves to be an awesome launching pad.

Jayden starts on the couch, leaps off, and lands on the jumper…

…to see just how high he can bounce the bear in the air.

Willow has been trying to do it too, just not from the couch.  She flings herself on the jumper from the floor.  Jayden forgot to wait his turn and wait until Willow had completely cleared the jumper before launching himself onto it.  Looks like Willow goes almost as high as bear.