Splash Pad, Slime, Pizza and Bounce Houses

About a week or two ago, I started my own Meet-up group on Meetup.com for parents with children who have autism. Our first meet up was this morning at a splash pad park. So I dropped D off at Vacation Bible School then the boys and I went to the meet up.

It went really well!

I didn’t take any pictures. Maybe next time.

After the meet up I dropped the boys off at home with DH and met D at VBS for the end of the week party.

The pastor got slimed.

There was a pizza party.

Playing a game with some of the kids.

No party is complete without bounce houses.

D went down the slide one time and said, “It’s hot. This isn’t what I was expecting. I want to go home.”

So we came home.

Potty Parties

I bought J a toddler potty the other day. You can tell by the look on his face what he thinks about it.

Is it just me or does it look like he’s trying to give me the finger? He did calm down after a bit.

This potty claims to play music when used properly. It even has 4 different tunes. I’m anxiously awaiting to hear the sound of the tunes! Although I do think the music will seriously freak J out.

D won 2nd place at Vacation Bible School for having the most Silly Bandz. The ring pop on her finger was her prize.

Silly Band Day

Today is “Silly Band Day” at vacation bible school. If you are a parent of a young child, you probably know what Silly Bandz are and can skip the next two paragraphs. Unless you are an Angry Birds fan, then you might want to read the sentence in red.

If you don’t know what Silly Bandz are; they are bracelets that come in a variety of shapes. The bandz stretch to fit around your arm. (I just looked at their web page and they have Angry Birds shaped Silly Bandz!)

They were so popular and so much of a distraction many schools across the country had to ban them because the kids would trade silly bandz instead of doing school work.

She’s holding a bag in her hand that have more silly bandz. She didn’t have time to put all of them on before we left the house.

She said, “When you put this picture on Facebook, be sure to tell them I don’t know how many silly bandz I have, but I do know it’s over 160.”

Whoever is wearing the most bandz at VBS today wins a prize.

Last night was a rough night. Haven’t had one like that in a while.

• C and D were awake until 11:30.
• I fell asleep on the couch while DH was watching television.
• I woke up during the 2 o’clock hour because I was cold and still on the couch.
• C woke up during the 3 o’clock hour.
• C woke the other kids with his crying.
• J went back to sleep during the 4 o’clock hour.
• C was awake for a while after that. My guess is he fell back to sleep during the 5 or 6 o’clock hours.

I have no idea what we are going to do today. Might just set up the swimming pool and the Slip-N-Slide and throw the kids in the backyard for the day.

Crazy Hair Day

I’ve gotten bad at updating. We’ve been keeping busy this summer and I haven’t made the time to blog. This week D is in Vacation Bible School at a church down the road. Today was crazy hair day.

I told her it looked more like crazy face day to me. Apparently she’s trying to go the extra mile.

My plan was to drop D off at VBS, feed C breakfast, then meet my mom’s group at the park.

But this happened while I was making breakfast.

Out of the blue, C went into full-blown melt down mode. He was so upset, he didn’t even notice I had made his eggs and toast and had set the plate down on the table. J and I looked at this face for 50 minutes. We missed our play-date at the park too.

Luckily, C found a stale cheese ball under the couch cushions. Seeing the cheese ball made him remember the reason for the meltdown.

He was hungry!

He went into the kitchen, found the plate of cold eggs and toast and gobbled it all up. Never mind the countless times I tried to show him the plate of food during the meltdown. Anyway, he has been very happy since he ate breakfast.

After lunch we went to a nearby splash park.

See the pond off to the right? Here’s a better picture of the pond. It’s behind the splash pad.

Pretty, isn’t it?

This splash pad is kind of tricky. The water runs for a bit then it shuts off. The kids have to turn the water back on by rubbing these things. Here is D rubbing one of the things.

There were two of these, one on each end of the splash pad. The secret to getting the water to come back on is someone has to be rubbing both these things at the same time. If you are the only person at the splash pad, you are so out of luck.

And the water doesn’t come on right away.

You’ve got to really rub these things to get that water back on so it stays on.

Remember the pretty pond? Whenever the water would turn off C would try to make a run for it to the pond.

Here is J having fun at the pad.

And C

And now D

At the pad, D made some friends. They were sisters. D said she thinks the family had 4 kids.

I said, “Four is a lot of children.”

D said, “It’s only one more than 3. I think we could do 4.”

I love how she says it like her opinion counts.

Settling In

We have completed the big move from Mississippi back to Texas. Everything is unpacked and we are settling in nicely. I say it’s all unpacked, but if you open cabinets and closets, you’d realize it isn’t all organized.

We’ve had a lot of fun this summer and we’ve had a few hard times too. Our days are MUCH better when I can get the kids out of the house.

Any activity involving water is an activity all three kids can agree upon. Playing in the water really wears them out too! We’ve also had lots of fun visiting friends we haven’t seen in a while.

The days we stay home are the bad days. The messes, the meltdowns, the messes, the pity parties, the messes, the laundry, the messes, and the dishes. Ugh.

Did I mention the messes?

As soon as I get one picked up, there’s another one waiting to be cleaned up. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one that sees them. Ha! I guess since I’m home all day long I am the only one that sees a lot of the messes. I know that’s typical, but oh so frustrating sometimes.

This house is just a tad smaller than our house in Mississippi was. The boys are sharing a room now. They are still adjusting from having their own room to now sharing a room. It is taking a little longer at night to get the boys to sleep, but I have to say it is going much better than I thought it would.

Not only are they adjusting to sharing a room, all three kids now have different beds!

In Mississippi, Desiree had bunk beds. We put them in the boy’s room when we moved here.

Desiree is sleeping in what was Christopher’s twin bed.

Joshua’s toddler bed is in John’s office for the time being. There have been a few nights we let Joshua sleep in that room to avoid him waking up the other kids.

Nap time has caused me some concern. I worry about Chris wanting to play in his room and then waking Joshua up. To avoid that, I’ve been letting Joshua nap in John’s office or in my bedroom. Most days it hasn’t been a problem because his nap took place in the car traveling from one place to another.

So far, Chris has not shown an interest in playing in his room during nap time. But I know as soon as Joshua is napping in that room, Chris will find a way to get in the room and wake him up.

And now Joshua is fussing so I’d better see what he wants before he wakes up Chris.