What giving looks like at 3

 We like to involve the girls in giving to others whenever possible.  This past week Molly has had a lot of opportunities and it has been fun to watch her.  She helped Jon with putting labels on waters bottles that said LIVE in the FLOW John 7:37-39 that he gave out as part of his sermon illustration to remind others to live out what God has given you - don't be stagnate and only receive. Also her friend next door had surgery so she went through the $1 section at Walmart and picked out a bunch of gifts to give her - she might have had to be reminded once or twice they were for our friend and not her:)  She loved putting it on the door and has talked about how she gave lipstick to her sick friend.  Today we went a got her hair cut.  A few months back I chopped my hair off to donate and in passing I asked Molly if she would like to and she said yes so today was the day.  We went to the salon and Molly sat extremely still, during the process she said she didn't like it but since coming home she has noticed that she now matches Riley and me with short hair.  She is also glad that someone else will get to have hair or Rapunzel as she calls it:)

Molly modeling her Live in the Flow water bottle (and boo boo)

The bag of goodies to put on our friends door.  Riley isn't as thrilled but give her a few years!

Sitting very still for the last time with long hair

  

Cutting away

Styling the new do

Getting ready to bag it up and send it in

Short hair

The back

Strawberry picking

 What is not the best idea with 2 small kids and 1 pregnant lady?  Strawberry picking by yourself.  It took over 40 minutes to fill up the smallest basket while hauling Riley up and down the aisles and helping Molly pick a few berries here and there to actually put in her basket.  But it was a fun way to spend Saturday and make the time fly until Jon gets home.

 

Molly ready to pick

 

Riley ready to eat and supervise

 

 Getting started

 Can you tell who had a lot of fun eating the strawberries?  Just had to make sure she didn't get to many unripe ones

 Almost a full basket and still happy!

 Messiest strawberry eater in the family!

 Afterwards we had to make a trip to the store to get supplies for chapel and they had fake nails for $0.23- who can pass up a deal like especially when someone has been begging for them since she saw some friends with them a few weeks ago.

Yes they are Dora the Explorer with pink sparkles on the end - ah the joys of a girly girl.  At least the small things in life make her happy. 

Iron Chef

So I mentioned to a friend how I wanted to learn a few new dishes but I am a very hands on learner when it comes to cooking and everything I try on my own is usually bad. She took pity on me and offered to give me cooking lessons!! She is passionate about cooking and from all the pictures I had seen she eats very well (not the bag meals that Jon has gotten sick of - or my concoctions that look like throw up to me). We decided fish taco's would be a fun and easy way to kick off the classes and since I had some halibut from AK it would be even better! We had fish taco's with coleslaw, salsa, guacamole and chips. Riley and Molly loved the fish and were begging as she cooked for her to give her pieces as it came out of the pan. I should have taken a picture of the meal before we ate but with all the crying from 2 girls who really wanted to dig I forgot. But if you come over to my house you may get fish tacos now since I am the fish taco master after my lesson!!
Anyone have suggestions on what I should have her teach me next??

Cooking the halibut for the taco's - Riley and Molly are right under Sarah's feet hoping she will drop some for them:)

Riley grabbed an apron and brought it over to me. Sarah and I both had one on so I realized she wanted to be in on the apron action also. This is Riley in her apron but mad because I won't give her more fish I made her wait until it cooled down - what a bad mom I am:)

Beach Trip

Jon's unit had to go away for a 2 week training and a friend in unit asked if we would be up for going on a short trip to make the time fly. How could I pass up a deal like that? We found a condo on vrbo.com that was super cheap and split between 2 families was affordable to go on a 4 day vacation to Myrtle Beach. Monday we loaded up the car and drove out. Our condo was in a hotel located on the beach with over 5 pools. It only took until the 3rd day for one of the 3 kids to throw something off our 14th floor balcony - luckily it was bathing suit not a sippy cup to hurt someone. Molly loved the pools and Riley loved the beach (sand) so it worked that one was happy all the time (just not both). We also got to do some touristy stuff and visit Broadway on the Boardwalk and go to Ripley's Aquarium which has a 75% military discount!! The kids favorite part about the aquarium was the climbing places and Molly thought about touching the sting rays. Our condo had a kitchen so we shared cooking duties but my favorite dinner was Chik-fil-a where the kids ate then played in the play place for over an hour and we had great conversation without having kids run around. We were near Chik-fil-a because we had to make a Target run since I forgot to pack pj's and underwear for Molly - luckily my friend's son had unpacked her underwear and bra's so she also needed to make the trip.
Enjoy the pictures:)The beach!
Sand, sand and more sand - every kids joy to dump things over and over and not get yelled at!
Finding entertainment in our room. The air conditioner was something all 3 enjoyed changing for us. We even had heat a few times:)
The view from our room - as nice as it was we couldn't leave the door open unless one of the mom's was sitting on the couch supervising the balcony to make sure things didn't go outside. Clearly we got a little lax by day 3 but it only took like 15 seconds and all 3 kids out there with our drying suits for something to fly:)
Getting ready for the aquarium.
Molly getting to try and touch the sting rays
Where we had to drag the kids away from at the aquarium
A slide with no stairs so you had to tell your kid to climb up the slide - Molly and Adian were up for that!
Riley sunbathing and reading her Rainbow fish book while Molly made creations.
We buried Molly and then she wanted to bury her baby
Beach baby! Sand everywhere (and a little oreo)

Riley made friends with the little old ladies next to us and decided to sun bath with them and read her books since she was not a fan of the pool. They were gracious enough to go along with her and joke with her. I didn't get a picture of it but at one point she was in the chair next to them laying out reading her rainbow fish book trying to copy them - it was super cute!
Molly got out of the water only for snacks!
Just don't make me go in the water and I will be happy!
Riley played in the baby pool for a little while but was much happier to walk around on the dry ground and not have to be in water - she is like her dad! Here she is with our traveling buddies - Adian and Laura.

Happy Easter and Jon's B-day

This past weekend was a fun one for the family. It was Easter and Jon actually got the 4 day weekend with only a few calls and things to do (which is rare in the Army). We each got some one on one time with the girls, projects done around the house and had some good family fun. A church in town put on an Easter egg hunt downtown, it reminded us of the times we did outreaches with Antioch in Waco. After the hunt we walked over to the North Carolina Veterans memorial park to enjoy the great outdoors a little longer. Molly and Riley love the 10 fountains they have and it was such nice weather we didn't want to go inside! Everyone enjoyed afternoon naps and I got to go on a trip to the store by myself!! Easter Sunday we went to chapel and then came home and spent some time doing egg hunts in the backyard and just relaxing as a family. We ended the night going to a soldier in Jon's unit for dinner and games. Jon's birthday was Monday and in honor of that I let Jon mow the lawn and take care of the girls while I went to a doctor visit. Then we took him out to lunch, let him play his video game for a little bit and went to the lake to feed the ducks. For dinner he got to eat on the You Are Special Plate and we remembered all the fun we had these past few days - we were never exhausted or bored either which are usually the 2 extremes we hit on 4 days. As an awesome way to tease us all after a 4 day with Jon he is leaving us for 12 days in the field - maybe I will get in one post during that time but who knows.

Collecting eggs downtown


Riley had such a huge bucket:) She only wanted one egg so it worked out well for her.
Molly loved getting as many as she could
Bounce houses are always a hit even if we had been to Monkey Joe's the day before.
Riley wanting some candy and snow coneMolly and her snow coneEnjoying one of the many fountains
The baby dolls needed some sun and had to watch the egg hunt
Molly hid some eggs for Jon and Riley but as any great supervisor she was letting them know exactly where they were at before they could even start to look
CANDY!! Let's just say there might have been some sugar overload this weekend - and Jon's birthday lunch she ate more salad than anyone else.
EGGS! She loved running around and finding the eggs over and over.
3rd times a charm - Happy Easter!
She was not happy - she wanted to be in Daddy's arms and was not pleased to take an Easter picture with her sister for me.
Riley was not happy - this was attempt one:)
Jon's Special Day dinner on the plate! Breakfast for dinner.

Flat Stanley and Strong Bonds

This past week we have had the privilege of having Flat Stanley come to visit. Since Jon had a retreat planned we took him to Myrtle Beach with us and he had a blast! Friday afternoon after a morning of intense cleaning (or picking up and organizing maybe a better term) and ignoring the girls I picked up Jon and headed to the beach. Jon was able to put on a marriage retreat for the soldiers of 5-73 and this time he covered the material for 7 habits of highly families - military edition. 28 families came and it was an interesting weekend to say the least. Friday night he kicked things off with the newly wed game and the winning couple received a bottle of sparkling cider and Lindt chocolates - prizes on a budget:) After that Jon had a couple who has been doing the military for 16 years as enlisted and officers and who love the Lord get up and share how they have been able to make their marriage work in the midst of an environment where 75% of couples get a divorce. It is always nice to see people who make it through hard times and don't give up and are willing to share their experience with others. To end our night Friday we took the girls to the beach at 9:30 since we weren't able to get down earlier because of checking others in and getting stuff set up for the weekend.
Saturday we got more classroom time with Jon giving everyone his vast knowledge and bringing fun to a group of soldiers with games. The material was really great and I highly recommend looking up Steven Covey he has the 7 habits of almost anything - people, families, companies, etc. The main point he really gets across is being proactive and having a goal to aim at. Saturday afternoon was beach time and Saturday night was date night! Jon has been able to work in getting childcare most Saturday nights of his retreats so couples can get a date night and either have some fun or process the material we have been learning. We went on a double date and had fun at Medieval Times (Flat Stanley did get to join us but he wasn't too loud). I think the most entertaining part of the night was Jon and Eric yelling likes maniacs at our knight and occasionally giving military advice on how to fight or ride the horse (I guess being in the Calvary has gotten to his head even though he doesn't ride a horse he has earned his spurs:) ) After that we hit the boardwalk and got ice cream and ran into some other couples from the retreat and just talked and had a good time.
Sunday morning was oh so joyous with both girls waking up in tears - too much fun but we pushed through! Jon taught a few more hours and while he loaded up the car I got lunch for us so we could give Molly a couple more hours at the pool and beach before heading home. The trip home was very quiet at both girls slept and well after about 1 hour I dozed the rest of the drive too.
I love getting to go with Jon on these retreats to meet the other families in our unit and get some family time here and there when he isn't running around. Making memories as a family is so fun!
Getting things set up - notice Molly's buzz lightyear phone she is always such a great helper. She does like to help pass out the candy to each table but I think that is because she sneaks a few pieces.
Minute to Win it games - you can get people to do most anything for a gift card!
More games!
The newly wed game - 1 team from each troop
King and Queen McP with our only son we will ever have Flat Stanley
Eating with our bare hands - yum
Flat Stanley buried in the sand
Family photo on our way back to the room after a long Saturday - Molly was screaming she was not tired but fell right to sleep after a quick bath to get the sand off. Riley barely made it through bath time awake but she did and was asleep before her diaper was put on. The ocean air, sand and water wore them out!