Brynnleigh and the slide!

Last night O spent the night with my parents and went to the county fair. B was so upset to have to leave without her "Bubba" so we decided to let her have a little fun after dinner. (We called it her own mini fair). She was having so much fun on the slide I just had to take a video! I love watching it and hearing her laugh....it just makes me happy!

I can't wait to have a long fun weekend with my family...and then on Tuesday, O starts school...how crazy is that?  I'm so not ready...but he is, and I love his teacher, so I think we will all be okay.

Happy Friday everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Shoe Fetish?

Yep...we may have one...because this is what we purchased during a rain storm while at the beach.....and this is all we purchased during this shopping trip...

Poor Troy, the originator of our shoe fetish only got one pair, where everyone else got 2 pair each.  And all but one pair are Adidas....and they were bought at 3 different stores!  One last fact...we put back a few pair of shoes we were debating on and never went back to purchase...so who knows how many we would have bought.

Cute side note - B is hilarious trying on shoes....she prances around the store to see if she likes them. 

Things are a bit crazy on my end with vacation last week (and horrible Internet connection), O starting school next week, and being short handed at work.  I promise some good posts coming up...and 2 awesome hair clip reviews and giveaways!

Saturday's Top 5 Laughs - 8/25

Once again I'm doing this from my phone. Our Internet at the beach was horrible but we were having so much it didn't really matter.

5. We took B to play putt putt a few times this week. She would run over every obstacle and place her ball in the hole. It was so cute.

4. B is in love with sunglasses. She's asleep now rocking them out!

3. Mom was saying bye to my brother and his family and B really wanted her to "hold you". When my brother picked B up to hug her she hugged him then somehow ended up with Missy (my mom). She looked at me and laughed and said "Mama I got Missy, I got Missy to hold you!". She was so proud of herself.

2. Troy was channel surfing when O hollered out "Stop Dad, I want to watch big people ping pong". It was tennis!

1. 30 minutes away from the beach O had to potty bad. Of course we were in the middle of no where trying to find a place to stop. He hollers out "that's good over there the bushes are already dead"

Wordless Wednesday - Little Protector

While playing Putt Putt we found a cave under a waterfall.  I asked the kids to stand for a picture but to be careful of the rocks behind them....little did I know just how much O was going to protect his little sister!  I'm scared for all the boys she will try to date!

(FYI - a lot of the difference in their faces is the difference between a nap, and no nap!)

Saturday's Top 5 Laughs - 8/18

Sorry this isn't pretty but I'm doing this from my phone!

5. Brynnleigh is so excited for the beach. Every time we go to get in the car she asks "I go to beach momma? I go wimmin!"

4. Just a few minutes ago O kept asking "Are we there yet?" (we weren't even out of the neighborhood the first time he asked) so Troy told him if he asked one more time he was going to stop the car and not go any further. So about 30 minutes later O asked "Are we closer to the beach than we were?". Troy and I just had to laugh...sometimes he's just too smart and quick witted.

3. I was talking to B the other day and she responded "that awthome momma that so cool!"

2. Remember a while back I talked about dressing B and not detaching the bloomers?  Yep, I did it again and sent her to my mom's for the day!  Luckily Mom fixed it.

1. The last day of swimming lessons O had to jump off the diving board. We kept telling him he would like it once he tried it. Well eventually he tried. As soon as he popped up he responded "I didn't like it. I really didn't. See I'm not even smiling!". (I guess he called me out for all those times I told him I could tell he liked something because he was smiling.)

Wordless Wednesday - High End Highchair.

Dragging Brynnleigh's highchair/booster seat everywhere is a pain, so for quick trips (like to Granny's) we try to make shift as much as possible.  Here's our "South Boston" masterpiece....

Who needs a highchair when you have a case of Dr. Pepper and a belt?  And to be 100% honest, this might not be the first time we've done this before....



O - July 2008



Sorry B, I didn't think to cover the box with the place mats for you!



Saturday's Top 5 Laugh's 8/11/12

I have been trying to get back to these posts and something always seems to get in my way.  This post is one of my favorites to do, I really want to remember the crazy things my kids and husband do...it's too easy to forget!

So I'm linking up with The Mommyhood Chronicles...

5. Owen has been in awe of the Olympics...he watches it all day every day.  His favorite has been gymnastics...before it aired on TV he was all about me signing him up to take lessons.  Then a few days later (after seeing on TV) he told me he didn't want to take gymnastics anymore.  Why....his response "Momma, I just can not flip and jump with ALL of THOSE PEOPLE watching me"  I'm still trying to explain to him that he won't have as big of a crowd as the Olympians!

4. We had the Olympics on and they were showing boxing, B starts hollering at the screen "Piderman piderman" yep, she thought the red boxer was spiderman!

3. Owen was playing with a new little girlfriend for the first time, when it was time for her to leave they hugged bye, and he looked at her and very seriously said "you're still my new best friend right?"

2. Brynnleigh is infatuated with Cinderella "Rella" as she calls every Princess....I've started painting her toenails (the only way I can trim her toenails) and she calls them "Rella toes"...every time she is sock less, she points to her toes "Rella toes Mommy, I got Rella Toes!"

1. A while back Troy & I were at Busch Gardens, near the end of the day we were sitting down eating and there was this crazy squirrel...well a whole table of teenage girls were also watch this squirrel.  As he walked away they were laughing at him and one said "Oh, he's so cute!".  Troy looked directly at the table of girls, pretended to blush and responded "Awe thanks!"  I about died laughing...the girls kinda laughed and left (I think they weren't sure if he was serious or not) and Troy looked at me and said "That's so going on the blog isn't it!"

Kelly Kits Review and Giveaway!

I was so excited to find out that Kelly Kits wanted to participate in the Keeping Kids Creative Blog Hop.  Not only did they want to offer a prize, they wanted to offer 2 prizes for every participating blog that was interested!  How cool is that?

"Kelly Kits encourage art play using a wide variety of creative tools & materials beyond what coloring books can offer.  Each kit contains all of the tools & materials needed for the activities. To increase functionality for homeschooling parents, each activity includes an instruction card with an enrichment idea to adapt the art activity to a school lesson. Kelly Kits are designed to encourage creativity & teach!" (Taken and adapted from their website)

Kelly Kits is basically every Mom's saving grace.  How many times have you gone to do a fun arts and crafts activity with your child to find out that you are missing something?  I know it has happened to me a lot of times, more than I'd like to admit.

Kelly Kits offers craft kits, complete with EVERYTHING you need for that particular craft.  You can sign up for a monthly or annual mail subscription and they also have gift packs, sensory gift packs and even birthday party packs!

Owen was so excited to get his kit in the mail, and we had to open it right away!

He did let me take a quick picture of the packaging...

We received the "Printmaking" kit which seriously had everything we needed included, even the scissors.  The only thing we had to add was a little bit of water to turn the "paper" into a sponge!

With your membership you also have a free online membership.  This allows you additional instructions, videos, and additional contests.  Since O was sooo excited, we did not utilize the online function.  Owen is very particular about his arts and crafts and I like to make sure it is 100% him and his ideas, so I thought this would be best for us.  (He's a bit of a perfectionist, and if he tried to "copy" something and it didn't match exactly he would be very upset).

Here's what was included in our kit:

Owen went straight to work drawing his shape on the sponge..

And cut it out by himself with the little scissors included in the kit.

We then applied the paint and printed on the paper

In honor of the Olympics, which had just started...O had made a flag 100% on his own.  He was so proud!  We added some marker to give the flag a pole...and yes, O decided what side he wanted his flag pole on! ; )

He then did a small triangle shape and used the yellow paint which he said were bees flying around the flag!

He was so proud of his flag, and I was of him.  He did this all on his own, with the help of Kelly Kits!

You can check out Kelly Kits through their Website, Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest,Youtube, and Flicker.

Now for the fun part, the giveaway...Kelly Kits is offering one of The BOAT's readers an annual subscription ($99.90 value)! (This is in addition to the Keeping Kids Creative giveaway to take place September 17-30).  They are also offering a free kit to everyone who enters the giveaway, you just have to pay the $2.49 shipping fee should you chose to redeem the free kit code. (Entering your credit card info for shipping will enter you into the monthly subscription program - this can be cancelled if you do not want to participate in the program).

Go HERE to enter!  Good luck!

Keeping Kids Creative Blog Hop Giveaway

I'm so excited to be a part of another great Blog Hop Giveaway which will take place September 17-30th, hosted by Mama Nibbles and Life with Two Boys.  This event, Keeping Kids Creative is in correlation to "Keep Kids Creative Week" which takes place the last week in September.

My kids LOVE anything creative, whether it's arts and crafts, legos, train tracks, or just plain out imaginary play, so I knew this would be perfect for our family.

I still have a few openings for a few more sponsors if you would like to sponsor me in this hop.  It is a great way to advertise your company and product.  Their are over 95 other blogs participating and each blog will link back to my giveaway page with your company information.  I will post a sponsor spotlight post right before the even goes live, and will do a review of the giveaway product if you would like as well.

Blogger friends, you can still sign up to participate through August 31st!  Just go HERE to sign up.

Now onto the good stuff....as of today I have two awesome sponsors....

Copy-Kids has graciously offered to sponsor The BOAT and will be giving away a copy of their incredible DVD "Eat Fruit and Vegetables" and a cute wooden fruit and vegetable play set! (Over $40 value)

Kelly Kits has also graciously offered to sponsor The BOAT and will be giving away an annual subscription to their monthly craft program that is mailed directly to your door! (Over $99.00 value)

I will have reviews and more details to come...

If you too want to sponsor The BOAT, please contact me via email or shoot me a FB or Twitter message!

Wordless Wednesday -Owen's Book Bag

Owen  is so excited for "5 year old" school to start.  I let him pick out a new book bag and was torn between a cheap character bag vs. a nice sturdy bag.  Of course I stressed and put way too much research into it, but I wanted it to be perfect for my O.

I didn't really want to put any restrictions on O in picking his bag....until he picked up a Handy Manny bag at Toys R Us the other day....then those feelings changed.  It wasn't because it was Handy Manny (well maybe in a bit it was), it was because I knew Owen doesn't like Handy Manny (he used to, then 100% changed his mind, until we were at Toys R Us of course).  Owen picked the Handy Manny book bag because it was the very first book bag that was not pink...he then picked up every other bag.  He didn't want a specific book bag, he just wanted any book bag!

I talked O into just getting a lunch box (Star Wars - another random) and told him we would look around at book bags to find the right one.  We "randomly" received an LL Bean catalog in the mail that same day and I started looking at their book bags.  I showed them to Owen and he fell in love with the camo bag (they have a red and a blueish), and he wanted the as close to brown and green camo as possible.

Before I bought the book bag I asked O 100 1000 times if he was sure that is what he wanted.  We walked by other book bags, and I showed him pictures online of everything I could think of (Angry Birds, Spiderman, etc) and he was set on his camo bag.....so I got it.  O picked out the Explorer Backpack in Mariner Blue Green Grid Camo.

The second we realized it was delivered we HAD to open it.....and he was so excited.  We had to take it with us to MeeMaw's that day, take pictures to seen to Missy & Papa who were out of town, and take it to Granny's this past weekend.  He also has already asked to pack it with his school supplies because he may just be too busy the morning on the first day of school!

I love this bag - and I really love the lifetime guarantee!