Catch up

Cheers for the last day of school!

Elizabeth had her spring ballet recital June 7th.

Justin's last soccer game was June 7th.

The week after the kids got out of school, we went over to Ohio for the week. (Aaron came over Thursday night). We had so much fun swimming, relaxing, and visiting family and friends. Another highlight of our visit were the baby kittens at Mama and Papa's house. The kids spent so much time holding the kittens and of course asked several times to bring one home (not happening). Monday night there was a terrible storm that picked up the trampoline and carried it into the power line. Luckily, everyone was in the house, but the trampoline was not so lucky. The kids were sad about losing the trampoline.

Memorial Weekend

Tire swing at the park

Madelyn loves going to the park!

Our family enjoyed a busy week with a lot of visitors. We started out the week with Aunt Marsha and Sam, Jenny Perry and her two kids Emmitt and Molly visiting for a couple of days. They left on Wednesday and Grandma and Grandpa Power came that evening. The kids were so excited to have them here visiting from Idaho. They watched the kids all day Thursday while I went to Chicago and picked Aaron up. He had been there since Sunday evening for business meetings. We went to the temple and enjoyed a nice dinner out before coming home. Aaron took Friday off work and the kids stayed home from school so we could have a little extra time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was such a nice weekend because Aaron didn't have much homework, no work, and even his church meetings were shorter than usual! It was wonderful to spend the weekend together and enjoy the warm weather. We (mostly Aaron) were able to get some yardwork done, have a picnic at the park, a bonfire in our backyard, and lots of good food!


Saturday most of our family from Ohio came over for Elizabeth's baptism. She was thrilled to have everyone here and was also excited that her teacher from school and our next door neighbors came. She was so nervous to be in the spotlight and I thought there for a minute she was going to change her mind, but she did it! She had all of the cousins sing a song and she sang a solo which really surprised us. It was her idea and she did a great job! All of the family came back to our house after for a BBQ. It's so nice to have family close and only wish more of the Power family could have been here too!

Elizabeth with both sets of grandparents

Family picture

Bike skills

Here is a picture of Will posing with his new bike. He's so proud! It's a little big for him, but he's determined he's going to ride this one. He's had really good balance for several months, but Justin's old bike needed new pedals and we haven't been able to find them so he hasn't been able to learn. Now we don't have an excuse!

We are getting lots of exercise helping Will ride his bike. He does great as long as he doesn't have to start, stop, or turn. We're still working on those. In the meantime, Aaron and I are enjoying the exercise as we jog along side.

Don't throw away your plastic!

Recently I have seen lots of news stories flying around raising concerns about the safety of plastic products that contain Bisphenol A (BPA). I did some research on the subject and found two sources of information that put an end to the debate for me.

One
The FDA released the following statement on April 28, 2008.

Based on our ongoing review, we believe there is a large body of evidence that indicates that FDA-regulated products containing BPA currently on the market are safe and that exposure levels to BPA from food contact materials, including for infants and children, are below those that may cause health effects. However, we will continue to consider new research and information as they become available.

Click here for the full statement. http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bpa.html
Two
An article written by Steve Milloy from the Fox News explains that the source of the scare is from the junk science of activists, media hype and greedy class action lawyers.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354616,00.html

My 2 cents:
I think we need to more afraid of the damage caused junk science, media hype and greedy class action lawyers than BPA. Instead of spending money on replacing all your plastic products that contain BPA, use that money and buy John Stossel's book Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know is Wrong. This book is the Bible of Common Sense and teaches why you can't believe everything you see or hear in the news.


Aaron

Elizabeth's big day

Elizabeth celebrated her eighth birthday this week. On Saturday she enjoyed having seven friends over for an American Girl Spa party. It was all girl. The girls had facials, pedicures, manicures, and fixed their doll's hair. Our friend Alisha Jeppesen came over from Toledo with her daughter and one of Elizabeth's cousin and helped me with the party. The girls were so fun to watch. The funniest part had to be the facials. The girls thought it was so funny they were putting yogurt, oatmeal, and cucumbers on their faces. The instructions said to leave it on for 15 minutes, but I don't think any of them made it longer than the minute it took to take a picture!

Elizabeth enjoying a facial!

Last night we had our family party and Elizabeth had her favorite dinner...tilapia with couscous. I don't think there's too many kids who would chose that, but she loves it! Her favorite gift was a pink Nintendo DS lite. Now she's excited to take it on the bus and be able to chat with Justin. She's not been very interested in video games ever, but she seems to be very excited about her DS.


Elizabeth will be getting baptized on May 24th. We are looking forward to sharing this event with many of her family and friends. She is such a sweet girl. Sweet, but bossy. She's also a very good helper. Madelyn loves her big sister because Elizabeth is always carrying her around. Aaron had to take a picture of her with Madelyn on her hip while we were at the Children's Museum in Indy. They were watching the carousel while we waited for our turn.

These are a few of her favorite things:

• Perler beads
• American Girl Dolls
• Crafts
• Telling her teacher at school everything that happens in our family
• Shopping with Mom
• Scrapbooking
• Fighting with Justin
• Organizing family parties

We love you, Elizabeth!

Happy Birthday, Madelyn!

On April 12th we celebrated Madelyn's first birthday. This is always such a sad day for me; I'd like to keep them little forever! Because this is not possible, I guess we'll just have to enjoy her growing up and celebrate all of her milestones. We just love our little Madelyn. She gets so much attention from everyone and seems to love all of it. Here is a little trivia about our little princess:

Size: 28 inches, 18 pounds, 7 ounces (still a peanut!)
Favorite food: just about anything right now, but milk is probably her favorite
Biggest accomplishment: stopped sucking her thumb (She had to have her thumb wrapped a few weeks ago because it was drying out and getting yucky. It was wrapped for four days and she hasn't sucked it since!)
# of teeth: 6 (4 up, 2 down)
Mode of transportation: crawling or cruising along furniture
Language: waving, clapping, nodding yes, Mama, Dadda, uh-oh
Favorite game: hide and seek, emptying the pantry shelves, peek-a-boo
Favorite activities: Riding in wagon, playing with dog Buddy, being outside, being with family
Least favorite activity: Riding in car seat, getting diaper changed
Personality: Playful

We love you Madelyn!

Spring Break

Kids' playscape

Zoo playground

Petting sharks

Our family enjoyed a few days in Indianapolis for Spring Break. It was great to have Aaron off work and spend time together. We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel. We had a suite so we had two bedrooms. The kids thought this was pretty great. Elizabeth went up with Aaron to unload the luggage and was very impressed. When we all went up to the room she whispered to Justin, "welcome to the good life!" We don't know where this came from, but we thought it was pretty funny.

We went to the zoo on Thursday. The big hit at the zoo was the "petting pool" they have for sharks that are about 2-3 feet long. We had to go back a second time because Will and Elizabeth decided they would try to pet them. The kids loved it. Friday we spent all day at the Children's Museum. It's the largest one in the world and was so much fun. Here are some of the exhibits we saw: dinosaurs, trains, robots, Curious George, a play of Frog and Toad, and a glass exhibit. There was so much more. In fact, we didn't even stop for lunch and no one seemed to mind. We left when the museum closed at five. Bruce crashed as soon as he got to the car and slept right through dinner! Saturday we did a little shopping and came home. It was a short, but very needed getaway for our family.