Lakes at Hazel Dell Camp-Out

Last night was our annual neighborhood camp-out. It's held on the last day of school each year. Brian took a half-day at work so we could make it down to the camping field at the beginning of all the activities. Unfortunately, our kids had other plans... They took naps well into the late afternoon/evening. But, we eventually packed up the stroller and made it down there. Good thing Mommy had already gone down earlier to set up the tent!

Ours is the smallest tent, almost directly in the middle of the picture above. (tan and blue)

Brian and Ben really intended to camp out for the night. Mother Nature didn't cooperate. Strong thunderstorms and tornadoes were predicted. Even though there was lightening flashing in the sky, the DJ continued to play until 10:00pm.

Our kids had ice cream, we bought glow-necklaces, made s'mores, and Maggie danced her heart out! Ben couldn't be found from the moment we let him out of the stroller (hence, the lack of pictures). I spent most of the evening searching for him. He was having such a great time running in and out of everyone's tents (not necessarily ours or the tents of his friends!).

Just before the major downpour struck, we located Ben and gathered up our things. We decided to abandon our tent for the night. Several families disassembled their tents and took them home. When morning came, I went out to the field to assess the damage. I wish I had taken some pictures. Our tent survived fairly well. Only a few inches of water inside, and just one corner ripped away from its tethers. The rest of it was still attached to the stakes. Evidently, another tent (one much larger than ours) ripped completely away from its stakes and landed on top of ours. Good thing no one tried to stay out there and brave the storm! Better luck next year.

Avery's visit

Maggie and Ben's friend, Avery Wall came over for a play-date yesterday. We haven't seen Avery in months! She and Maggie have changed so much. Now that they have both passed their 1st birthdays, they actually play together. And, they both eat like it's their last meal!

Memorial Day Weekend

The playhouse / swingset is finally finished! Ben and Maggie have been playing on it everyday since. We love it!

Buddies ~ May 16th

Ben and Carson are such buddies. Even though they are 6 months apart in age, that age difference has finally started to level out. They play almost every evening after dinner, as long as the weather is nice. Carson's sister, Ava, is just three weeks younger than Maggie. We have a feeling that the two of them are going to be trouble together!

Helping Daddy ~ May 13th

The kids were so much help to Daddy as he tried to work on the play-house. Ben loves to take the tape measure and just "measure" everything in sight. Java keeps watch over the lawn and Maggie.

Ben also really likes to use the hammer. This makes Daddy only slightly nervous...

Wrestlers ~ May 13th

These two are always wrestling. I am constantly concerned that Maggie is going to get hurt, but she continues to laugh, and, sometimes, she even tackles Ben. It's so funny!

Clean Popcicles? ~ May 8th

I know I'm a clean freak, but eating popcicles in the bathtub really is the best way to go. It's after dinner, and there's so much less mess! Unfortunately, now, Ben asks for popcicles every time he gets in the bathtub.

Binky is GONE! ~ May 3rd

Binky is finally gone for good! We took Ben to Costco a couple of Saturdays ago, and he "purchased" the Sunray Playset with his pacifier. In this first picture, he and Maggie are posing in front of the playset, and Ben is proudly holding up his ziploc bag of pacifiers.

In the second picture, Ben

is giving all the binkies to the sales clerk. She was so honored to be a part of his big day, and she graciously allowed us to include her in our pictures. There was only about a week of remorse over the spent-binkies. Now, Ben is a binky-free kid, and we were quite happy to make that announcement to the dentist today!

Toddler Trade-Off

My friend, Andrea, and I have agreed to do a toddler-trade on Thursdays. Every other Thursday, Ben visits their house for the day. On the Thursdays in between, his friend, John, comes to our house to play for the day. It is the best gift Andrea and I could have ever given each other. I don't know which days are better: the days that John comes over to play or the days that I get to spend alone with Maggie. These are some pictures from a day John spent with us recently. We walked to our neighborhood playground after lunch and then came home for naptime. I NEVER thought the boys would nap in the same room together, but after a full hour of giggling, they finally fell asleep for a full two hours! I took a picture just to prove that they actually napped. Oh, it's priceless!

Telephone Talkers ~ May 1st

Ben looks so dreamy to me here. He just loves to pretend to talk on the telephone. He is always picking up the little phone in his play-kitchen and calling Gram Linda to ask her to come over to play. This day's conversation went like this: "Hello, Gram Linda and Grampa Hank! Are you coming to my house to play today? Oh, you aren't? Bummer, dude! Maggie, they can't come to our house today. Bye!" Then, of course, Maggie makes her phone call and pretends to have the same conversation. Monkey see, Monkey do!

Lauren's First Communion ~ April 26th

Our niece, Lauren, made her First Holy Communion on Saturday, April 26th in Terre Haute. She looked so beautiful in her white dress and veil. This veil was made from Aunt Janna's wedding veil. All three of Janna's girls wore it, and it is being save for Maggie to wear as well. (Janna told me not to use my wedding veil to make Maggie's First Communion veil because her girls want me to save mine for their weddings.)





Janna also made a First Communion dress and veil for Lauren's American Girl doll. Such talent!

More sickness ~ April 24th

The Martin Family has done a really poor job avoiding sickness this year. Two kids in daycare two days a week has exposed us to our share of germs. I'm afraid that this time, Maggie may have picked this up during our magical visit to the swimming pool the previous weekend. By Wednesday, she had a high fever and had to come home from daycare. By Thursday, she was crying inconsolably almost non-stop. I took this picture of her just to show how swollen her little eyes were from all the crying. On Friday, after two full days of crying (screaming at that point), we took her to the ER (at her pediatrician's suggestion). We left the ER about 7 hours later with a diagnosis of "mystery virus." No one ever figured out what was wrong with her, but after being poked and prodded in every way imaginable (short of the spinal tap they were preparing to do), she sort of stopped crying. Once she calmed down, the ER doc decided it wasn't fair to put her through the misery of a spinal tap, so we just brought her home. She slept for three full days, and by the following Tuesday, she was back to good ol' Maggie again. Strangest sickness we have encountered yet.

Java's Embarrassment ~ April 21st

This is how Brian discovered poor Java as he got out of the shower one morning. The kids and I were already off to daycare and work, so when Brian stepped into the shower, Java saw her opportunity to do a little trash-can-diving. She loves to dig for tissues! Little did she know that Ben's swing-lid trash can would fight back, and she ended up with the lid stuck around her neck. Brian said she crept into our room so sheepishly and hardly looked up at him as if to say, "Don't make me ask you to get this thing off of me. JUST DO IT NOW!"

Indoor Swimming ~ April 19th

We have been wanting to try out the new Monon Center swimming pool since it opened over a year ago. We just haven't found the perfect cold and rainy Saturday to do so until recently. Maggie has never been to a pool, so we thought an indoor pool would be the best way to start. No fear of sunburn or sunscreen melting into her eyes. The kids had a blast. There was a toddler-sized water slide that Ben must have gone down 70 or 80 times. We're going to have to find some swimming lessons for Ben before summer because he has no sense of fear whatsoever!

Tea Party ~ April 17th

Maggie received this adorable tea set for her birthday. She and Ben have been having tea parties DAILY. In this first picture, you can see that Ben is showing her how to set up the "party." It cracks me up how she waits so patiently.

The good manners disappear sooooo quickly when Ben dives right in! He completely skips the tea cup and drinks directly from the pot. He always tells me that it's filled with "hot cocoa" and that he must drink it before Maggie gets any. Gosh, it's so nice how they share!