"Pass the Captain' Crunch Please!"

The kids and I woke up extra early this morning, so we decided to let Kris, Dean and Grandma sleep in a little and we got breakfast going. Here are a few pictures of breakfast this morning. It was quiet and peaceful, if you can imagine 5 children eating quietly and peacefully! :) They're all such good kids.

"Gotta love Captin' Crunch!" (Abigail and Samuel)

"Mommy, Aleah and I want the same cereal. We want to match." (Avonlea)

"Auntie Kelli, I'd like some cereal too please!" (Aleah)

"Some Cheerios and sliced banana please Mom!" (Lincoln)

A Few More Pictures...

Hi Friends/Family!
Get ready cause there are LOTS of pics and videos I've updated. We've been up to sooooooo much here that I just couldn't leave anything out. :)

This is what breakfast looks like in the Bates house lately (and there are a few people missing)! As of today, we had a total of 13 people living here! It's been LOUD and FUN!!

Swimmin' in the backyard. Man it feels so good on a summer day!

Dutch Blitz

Here is a glimpse of what we've been doing almost every night here in the Bates house. It's called Dutch Blitz and it's an awesome game that we've been playing for years. It can be quite physical and a bit brutal, but still, it's fun. This is one of the more calm games we've had (couldn't get a "wild one" recorded) so enjoy!

Beach Trip

We got a nice visit from Uncle Don and cousins Izzy and Zander this weekend. We decided to take a trip out to a local beach, go fishing and grill out hotdogs. We all had a really fun time.

Izzy and Abigail were stuck to one another like glue the whole weekend! :)

Eating watermelon...yum!

Grandma cooking hotdogs on the grill

Backyardigans

Avonlea loves to watch the Backyardigans! Not that there aren't better shows out there (Veggie Tales, Sesame Street, etc.), but she does enjoy their singing and dancing on tv. So, I saw that they'd be coming to town and bought tickets months ago. Little did I know how disappointed we'd be at the show. Don't get me wrong, we were blessed to have the opprotunity to go as a family and enjoy it, but the characters didn't even resemble the real characters and the voices were completely different. Avonlea didn't recognize them until we pointed each one out to her. Needless to say, we did have fun, but we won't be going to see the Backyardigans again. :( Sesame Street live is coming to town soon and you'd better bet we'll be there.

Dancin'

Blazin' Bonfire

Friday night, we decided to lay low at home and we decided to go swimming, have a treasure hunt in the backyard and roast marshmellows on the bonfire. It was a blast!

Our blazin' bonfire...

Roasting, roasting...

Abigail's smore...a work in progress-yummy!

Sam had the right idea by wearing his goggles to roast his marshmellows over the hot bonfire.

Aleah enjoying one of her many marshmellows! :)

Left to Right...Aleah (2), Abigail (9) and Avonlea (2) wearing their Chinese Olymic shirts Grandma brought back from China

Drydens and Disney World

We've been having a blast so far as the Drydens have been here all the way from London. Kris, Dean, Abigail, Sam and Aleah arrived last Satruday evening and the very next morning, we got up and drove to Orlando for our Disney World trip. Everyone had a lot of fun and it was nice that there were multiple adults so we could take turns watching the little kids and go on rides. Avonlea is almost 3, Aleah just turned 2 and Lincoln just turned 1, so we definately had some little ones to look after that day. We rode all the fun, kiddie rides (Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo, etc.) and the big kids/adults rode Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, etc. I must say that the kids did amazing without naps. Lincoln usually takes two naps a day, but he went from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. and finally passed out during the light parade at night. We very quickly snuck out of the park before the fireworks began since Avonlea flips out to loud noises (thunder, fireworks, etc.) and the little guys all fell asleep by the time we got back to our cars. It was definately a fun time.

As we are back and in the swing of things, it's nice to have clean laundry again, having children taking naps again and back on a schedule. We're looking forward to a bon fire tonight, roasting marshmellows and making smores as well as a weekend at the beach with Uncle Don and Izzy and Zander. Rob's family is very spread out all over the world, so when we're all together, it's rare.

Here are some pictures of this past week and there will be many more to come...

Abigail on the computer before Disney. All the kids couldn't wait to get there. You know the feeling, like when you were a kid and it's the biggest day of your life, going to Disney. The excitement in Avonlea's face when I told her that we were going to Disney that morning, I can't even tell you how excited she was!

Avonlea and Aleah eating breakfast.

Breakfast Time! The Dryden's LOVE our Amerian cereal. Sammy espcially likes Fruit Loops, although I didn't get a picture of it. :(

Grandma patiently awaiting the coffee to brew in the morning. Let's just say that this coffee maker (in our resort) didn't work so well and the adults NEEDED their coffee!

The "little kids" and I with Pluto. Avonlea and Lincoln loved meeting the characters, but Aleah wasn't so sure. She clung to me like glue the entire time. Poor girl!

Linkster meeting Chip and Dale. He followed them around forever!

Avonlea and I "shootin' 'em up" on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Rob and Lincoln on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Grandma holding Avonlea on the tram ride back to our car. She was out like a light!

Aleah and Lincoln...too pooped to party!

Look Out Pottery Barn!

So I was over at my friend Tracey's house the other day taking her family dinner (they just had a new ADORABLE baby girl), and as I was walking down the hallway, I saw the neatest idea. She bought this great growth chart at Pottery Barn and she keeps record of her girls' height every year, and writes it on the chart. Well, I thought this was the coolest thing so I decided to make one...yep, MAKE one. I made the whole things for about $12.00 too! I went to Home Depot and picked out my piece of wood, sanded it and painted it black (a flat paint), bought wooden numbers (1-6) and painted them white with Avonlea's Crayola paint and then marked out the spaces, like on a ruler and free-handed the little, white lines. The whole project took me a few days but that's because I had to wait for paint to dry. Now I just have to mark the kids' height and put the year at where they measure out. It was a really fun project and cheap to do. Many people have this tradition where they mark their kids' height on a door frame or another part of the house. I liked this idea for two reasons, I can take it with us if we were ever to move someday and I loved the look of it, so I created mine the same way. Give it a try! Your kids will love it.

First, I painted the board (I bought it at 6 feet tall so I didn't have to cut it).



Secondly, I hot glued the numbers on (found them at Michael's Craft Store). I then drew out lines on white paper (using a measuring tape to look at) so it was large scale for me to see as I free-handed the lines.


The finished product

HIKE!

I thought I had posted this at an earlier time, but I guess not, cause I can't find these pictures. Anywho...we have a tradition of taking pictures in certain "outfits" as the kids age each year. Avonlea dresses in my wedding dress and Lincoln wears Daddy's football jersey/helmet. Well, it's too heavy for him to wear now, but he'll grow into it. It's just a neat way to show how the kiddos grow each year. I saw it in a magazine with a mother dressing up a daughter in a bathingsuit from when she was 1 to age 18. Cute idea! Although this was the Linkster's photo shoot, Avonlea had to have a turn trying on the helmet and she made a pretty sweet face too! :)

Grrr!!!

Lincoln trying to lift up the helmet. He WAS successful folks!

Watching for Daddy

It's a big deal when Daddy leaves for work and gets home. He practically has fans waiting for him. :) In the morning, the kids and I stand at the front window waving goodbye to him and blowing him kisses. Lincoln has just recently started standing on a stool we found around the house, so that he can see and I don't have to hold him. Sometimes during the day, I'll see him climb up on the stool, looking out the window for Daddy and I'll have to tell him, "Daddy's not home yet, Pal. A little bit longer." Poor boy. He adores his Daddy! :)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We all know that rising gas prices and grocery prices are enough to make any mom frustrated at trying to save money. There are typical things that usually cost more money at the grocery store: trash bags, meat, fish, fresh produce, icecream, bread and laundry detergent. I did a little research and found some homemade laundry detergent recipes, so I decided to try one and see if it worked or not. I bought all the ingredients at Publix (Borax and washing soda are in the laundry detergent aisle and next to each other), but the soap I bought at Target (we were there, so I picked some up, but you could use Dollar Store soap to make it more cost-efficient...soap is soap people, right?). Anyway, I included the recipe and some pictures so you get the general idea. I thought I'd be slick and make a BIG batch to last us awhile, and turns out that I made too much! So, don't double/triple the recipe! I had to use a storage bin to store it all in our garage. Here's the recipe and let me know if any of you try it and like it. I'm interested to see! Oh, by the way, it made our house smell soooooo good, like a house of fabric sheets! :)

1 quart water (boiling)
2 gallons water (room temperature)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda

1.) Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.

2.) Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.

3.) Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
4.) Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).


**You will DEFINATELY save lots of money this way!!!!

Unselfish Children...

"...Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-2

So, my mother-in-law told me about this wonderful book and if you know me, I'm a sucker for a good book, so I went out and got it. It's called "Raising Unselfish Children in a Self-Absorbed World" by Jill Rigby and it's WONDERFUL. I think every parent should have to read it. There are some amazing facts/statistics in this book that astonished me such as:
- "Companies are designing charge cards for kids, such as the recently announced 'Hello Kitty' debit card with a target audience of ten to fourteen-year- olds." (SCARY!)
- "Fourteen million households own four or more televisions. Americans spend more to power home audio and video equipment that's turned 'off' but still plugged in than they do to power such devices while actually in use."


We WANT, we WANT, we WANT!!! Our kids are buying into this mentality at such young ages these days. If they don't have the latest and greatest "thing" for Christmas, they get upset.

It's been interesting to see how different schools (one local one in particular) promote themselves in ways of advertising and the pamphlets they create talking about a child's SELF-ESTEEM. "Jesus says that the opposite of high self-esteem ('those who exalt themselves') is humility ('will be humbled'), and He makes it as clear as clear can be that high self-esteem, the UPLIFTING OF SELF, is not the ideal. In the Sermon on the Mount, he blesses the meek, the poor in spirit, and those who mourn. The higher one's self-esteem, the lower one's self-control; the highter one's opinion of oneself, the lower one's respect for others."

This book is absolutely amazing and it ties everything in Biblically. I personally, like to write down the verses and keep them in my Bible or post them around my house to remind myself to serve others and not myself. It gives great examples, stories and situations and shows the everyday, average parent how to resolve situations of selfishness in the home and in the hearts of our children, no matter how big or small they may be. It gives a large list of ideas on things you can do to promote an unselfish attitude in yourself and others in your family (activities, outings, etc.). I highly reccomend it and just so you know, there are other books in the "series" (it's not really a series though). I'll have to find the names of them. So, go out and get this book, or better yet, find some friends who will pitch in together for the book and take turns reading it, annotating it (mark up your book with notes and highlights...I ALWAYS do this-visual learner!) and discussing it when everyone is done. Happy reading!!!

Baby Mine and "All Done"

From the moment each of our children were very young, I (or Rob) have always rocked and sang to our babies before putting them down to sleep. One of the songs I usually sing to them is "Baby Mine" from the movie Dumbo. It's such a sweet, soothing lullaby, yet a difficult scene to watch during the movie (mother and baby are seperated...tear). I was in the process of getting lunch ready for the kids today and Lincoln was really upset and crying heavily. As I'm trying to calm him down from the kitchen, I hear Avonlea singing to him the "Baby Mine" song and he immediately calmed down. Of coarse, I had to ask her to sing it again so I could get it on video.:) She's so sweet on her brother!

Here are the lyrics:
Baby mine, don't you cry.
Baby mine, dry your eyes.
Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine.
Little one when you play, don't you mind what you say.
Let those eyes sparkle and shine, never a tear, baby of mine.
If they knew sweet little you, they'd end up loving you too.
All those same people who scold you, what they'd give just for the right to hold you.
From your head to your toes, you're not much, goodness knows, but you're so precious to me, cute as can be, baby of mine
If I could figure out a way to put music on my blog (help!!!), I would have posted that too.

Lincoln is learning sign language now (has been for a few months). He knows "All Done" and usually says "All Done" (just not is this video) and can sign "Please".

Walmart Baby

Rob, Rob's mom and Avonlea went to church last night to help raise money for a missions trip our church is taking soon (Rob sang), so that left Lincoln and I at home. Avonlea needed some new shorts, so we were off to Walmart. *Just on a side note...Avonlea is officially potty trained (with the exception of an occational wet pull up when she wakes up in the morning)!!!! Number 1 was pretty easy, but number 2 was a different story-yikes! Needless to say, she is very proud of herself for accomplishing this grand task and frankly, I'm happy to be done with diapers and the fuss that comes with them (changing them and the expense!). How did we do it you ask? Persistance. From day one, she was in underwear and we never went back to diapers (with the exception of naptime and night time). Sure, we had accidents, but I just took her every 1 1/2 hours or so and it really wasn't bad at all! We'll see how Lincoln goes though. I've heard that boys are a whole different breed. :) Anyway, back to Walmart. We went to a local Super Walmart and if you've ever been there, you probably know they have fish there. So that's where we found ourselves when Lincoln was getting cranky. He was super excited to watch them (as you can see) and I was super excited that he wasn't cranky anymore. :)

Ahh, Tuesdays.

So, we've been getting back in the swing of things around here and I will say that it's good to be back on a schedule. As for the kiddos and what's going on with them...

Avonlea is growing out her bangs as you can see here in the picture (notice the very pointy ponytail!). I wanted to do this a LONG time ago, but got impatient with the "fuss" so here we go again. Her hair is super short so it shouldn't take too long to get it to the length of her hair.



Lincoln loves doing anything his big sister does (or any other older child around him). He has to go outside when Avy goes outside, color when she's coloring (in which he usually eats the crayons), eat when she's eating, playing with a certain toy when she's playing with it and brush his teeth when she's brushing her teeth. Don't get me wrong, this is a good habit, but when both kids want to brush their teeth at the same time and there's one very small and narrow stool to stand on, push can come to shove amongst siblings. Avy is quite patient with him and corrects him often. What a good big sister. So, here are the kids brushing their teeth.


The Linkster is also wearing shoes these days (thank the Lord he can walk because 27 pounds gets heavy to carry all the time). I had a sweet friend give us some outgrown shoes of her son's (thank Christina!) and here is Lincoln trying them on for the first time today. He did pretty good.

Happy 4th Everyone!

Mom's holiday tree decorated up for the Fourth. Cousin Grace helped decorate a cheesecake for our dessert. Our Fourth of July was so relaxing and let me just say that it was good to be back in the good, old "U" "S" of "A" ! We spent the day gardening (I got inspired after watching how the people of Yelapa garden in Mexico...just gorgeous and they just take clippings and plant seeds to reproduce their plants...no Home Depots!), cutting the grass and enjoying time with our kids and Grandma. We later headed up to Gram and Pa-pa's house for a cookout and fireworks. Avonlea and Lincoln were scared of the noise so they sat inside and watched "Mickey and the Beanstalk" while the rest of us went outside to watch the festivities. Lots of fun and great burgers Dad! =)

MEXICO

Anniversary Dinner at San Lucas' Restaraunt in downtown Puerto Vallerta, Mexico Robbie and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary this past week and we spent it in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico (that's why I haven't posted in so long!). It was so wonderful. The kids stayed home with Grandma Bates and did splendidly. They were able to stay on their schedule, which helped a lot. As for what we did, it would take forever to write about it all, but I'll give a brief story. We stayed at the Barcelo Le Jolla De Mismaloya hotel in Puerto Vallerta and it was soooo beautiful. We were between two mountains, yet on the beach. A weird concept for a Florida girl to grasp since we have no mountains here, just flat beaches and coastlines. We woke up in the morning to monkies and tropical birds singing as well as listening to the waves of the ocean. It was like a movie. We had clost to no civilization around us with the exception of the local people. As we ate breakfast everyday, we watched them set up their fishing boats and restaraunts. Dogs are abundant along the beach and they "live the life" totally free to swim and play in the sand all day. We mostly hung out by the pool the first day and explored the hotel and the beach. We got a couples message on the beach (so relaxing!), ate coconut, found granite rocks to bring home, watched the locals fish (no fishing poles, just string, hook and bait), we went ziplining (well, Rob did...read on to find out why I didn't), we took a catamaran boat along the coast of Puerto Vallerta to go snorkeling and explore an old fishing village (my favorite part by far). We took a taxi into town and visited their markets (found some souveniers) as well as ate dinner (we both got sick from the food) at an authentic Mexican restaraunt. We spent 6 days and 5 nights there which was just enough for us. We were really missing the kiddos by the fourth day. It was hard to call home and hear their voices, but not be able to hug and kiss them. Needless to say, we enjoyed the time alone and away from the everyday. We got to celebrate our anniversary in a beautiful country that I'm sure we'll visit again. It's been 7 wonderful years!!! The waterfall in Yelapa where all the locals go swimming. It was beautiful. The water was brown that day because it had just rained. Rob and I went for a swim as well. A local wood worker who uses Rosewood, a very strong wood that is very rare and illegal to use unless you're in Yelapa. We bought a vase to hold some flowers. After swimming on the beach of Yelapa Rob going ziplining in the mountains...yes, folks, I chickened out. =) In Yelapa (an old fishing village that you can only get to by boat...just got electricity 4 years ago!), a woman carrying fish. La Playa De Mismaloya, outside our hotel La Playa De Mismaloya Rob at the pool in our hotel Heading home...bittersweet