Starkey Spray Park

Oh how I wish I knew of a good spray park near us where we could take the children on hot summer days. Instead, our children spray each other where we park the cars.

The boys were helping me water our new plants one hot afternoon last week and got a little carried away with the hose. It started with an innocent dump truck washing and ended with Wesley soaked from head to toe and Jack in his crocs and underwear. By the way, he is only wearing his underwear at my insistence; if it was up to him, he would just be wearing the crocs on account of not liking to get his clothes wet. Luckily this particular day, both of them enjoyed being sprayed by the other. On any given day, this activity can insight yelling, crying, fighting and tattling which requires a lot of referring on our part.

Elise couldn't miss out on the fun. Although she stayed much drier (again at my insistence). She would much rather suck on anything that comes within 6 inches of her mouth anyway.

Hold on to Your Wallets

In the name of global warming (a theory that is as unsupported by science as it is supported) our government is today voting on a bill that will increase our taxes by $2 trillion and eliminate millions of US jobs.

According to The Heritage Foundation, Cap and Trade:
1. Is a Massive Energy Tax
2. Will Not Make A Substantive Impact on the Environment
3. Will Kill Jobs
4. Will Cause Electricity Bills and Gas Prices to Sharply Increase
5. Will Outsource Manufacturing Jobs and Hurt Free Trade
6. Will Make You Choose Between Energy, Groceries, Clothing or Haircuts.
7. Will Be Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Corruption
8. Will Hurt Senior Citizens, the Poor, and the Unemployed the Worst
9. Will Cost American Families Over $3,000 a Year
10. President Obama Admitted “Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket” under a cap-and-trade program. (January 2008)

Members of our House of Representatives will be asked to vote on this bill today just hours after receiving the final 1,000+ page document. A responsible representative would read through a document he or she was asked to vote on. It's not possible when only given a few hours to do it. The attitude in Washington seems to be "hurry up and push it though before anyone knows what's in it."

According to Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann on the Chris Baker show this morning, 85% of the taxes generated by this bill will go to special interest groups. She says you can also expect to pay 75% more at the gas pump, twice as much for electricity and 55% more for natural gas (as of yet I have not been able to validate these statements). To see how this bill will impact people in your district, read this article and look at the attached table.

Any Guesses?

What is going on in this picture?

Daddy's Day

Knowing that Father's Day was going to be busy for us, I wanted Saturday to be a day for Sean. I tried to let him sleep in, but apparently the noise created by "managing" three children is just too much to sleep through.

Despite the warm weather, we opted to head to the zoo for a picnic and to check out the new Africa exhibit. The lunch left us hungry (probably because I forgot half of it) and the Africa exhibit left us a little underwhelmed. However, we did get to spend the day together and the kids had a great time (hopefully Sean did too).

The obligatory pictures of children on the tiger.

Wes, Jack and Daddy admire Africa.

Elise spent the last half of the trip like this.

I know that if crying wasn't the only way they knew how to express themselves (Jack included), the children would say they are lucky to have such a great dad that loves them deeply, plays with them as if he was a child himself and provides a great example of what it means to love Jesus.

Somewhere...Over the Rainbow?

After a rain storm the other day, we saw a beautiful rainbow behind our house. Sean went out to get a couple pictures.

When he came back in, Jack wanted to take some pictures of the rainbow as well (remember our budding photographer?). This is Jack's version:

Dirt

We've all been playing in the dirt lately. In an effort to get some landscaping done before our sod is laid, we've spent nearly every evening over the last two weeks working outside. Sean scoured the neighborhood for boulders to use for a retaining wall. This project proved to use more brute force as well as creativity than he bargained for, I think. The final result looks fantastic, though. We followed up the wall with prepping the soil and finally getting about 20 plants into the ground. The kids helped us a little last Saturday when we were planting. By helped I mean dug holes in the garden, filled pots with dirt and followed up with plenty of water to make "fixins" for mud cake as Jack likes to call it. Jack is a little more cautious when it comes to getting dirty than Wesley is. Wes just dug right in.

After the mud cake, we let them play with the hose...

on the driveway...

in their underwear...

kind of like a very cold outdoor shower...

brrr.

Wanna Hear a Story?

...says Jack on our way home from Grandma and Grandpa's house last night. Usually we're the ones telling Jack the stories so this was a welcome change. "Sure," we replied and the following tale ensued:

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack. One day Jack and Grandpa went to the cabin and went swimming. They were swimming along when all of a sudden - SNAP! (complete with hand motions) - an alligator came and ate them. The end.