Tornadoes

I've gotten several e-mails, texts, and Facebook messages asking how we are doing after the storms tore through Alabama yesterday and last night, so I thought I'd address everyone here. 

Thankfully Enterprise only experienced a severe thunderstorm last night with tornado warnings, and no actual tornadoes. Unfortunately, the rest of Alabama was not as lucky as we were. As of right now the death toll is climbing at 197, and the news reports are expecting to find more bodies since daylight has broken. 

Tuscaloosa and Birmingham (about 2hrs north of us) seemed to be hit the hardest from these storms. An employee at the University of Alabama (in Tuscaloosa) captured this massive tornado that can be seen here. (<--link)

And a picture from The Birmingham News can be seen below. 

We've already been hit by several bad storms this spring. The pictures below are of lightning from the previous tornado warning that we had on 15 April. These pictures were taken at 2am just to give you an idea of how bright the lightning is.

Even though we were lucky enough to escape the tornadoes this time, I ask that you please keep the rest of our state in your thoughts as they begin picking up the pieces this morning.

Dyeing Eggs and Cheesy Faces

How to Dye Easter Eggs and Make the Cheesiest Faces Possible: A Photographic Journey

TA-DA! Finally we finished the eggs and were able to manage a "normal" smile! Although I personally think all of his goofy smiles are fabulous :)

And just for fun... check out this shaggy-haired-haven't-seen-the-sun-in-ages little 3-year-old version of Max dyeing eggs last year! 

Life's a Beach... (sometimes)

We needed a break. Our schedules are still insane, and I've been working extremely hard to get my end-of-the-semester papers and projects done. I usually work on schoolwork during the weekend, but I decided that  we all needed a much deserved break, so we planned a day in Destin, Florida. 

We loaded the car with a tent, chairs, beach toys, towels, a cooler filled with cold drinks, and lots of sunscreen. After all, we would need it-- it was going to be 90 degrees (32C)! We had a gorgeous drive down to the beach: good music to listen to, the sun beaming down on us, and the air conditioning blowing in our faces. Everyone was in a great mood and looking forward to a day filled with sun and fun until we saw this:

A huge line of clouds lined the beach and filled the air with fog. But alas, I was determined to enjoy a day on the beach. So we unpacked our car, and set up camp.

Rob was trying to catch sand fleas to go fishing with...

....and he ended up catch a not-so-happy crab

Max had fun making castles and farming strawberries,

And being the cheesy little dude that he is!

Lucas enjoyed eating handfuls of sand and getting our chairs wet and sandy!

Max was the lion of the beach. I think he makes a pretty cute lion so we decided to take him home :)

Rob kept catching crabs and irritating them. I told him to leave them alone, but he wouldn't listen and ended up with a pincher in his finger. This proves that men should always listen to their wives!

Lucas naturally had his moments that day, but was overall quite pleasant as long as he could eat sand!

Rob enjoyed (trying) to catch fish.

And Lucas gave me his NOM NOM NOM face. (He sometimes makes the "nom nom" sound when he eats) 

I gave up on trying to keep the sand off of his face!

CHEESE!

Yeah, I know... I cringe too thinking about how that sand must have crunched in between his mouth!

Max wanted a picture with his brother,

...but then decided that he needed to be the main focus!

Several jellyfish had washed up on the beach. This particular one is very poisonous and is called a Portuguese Man of War

Just before we went home Rob brought in the biggest (and only) catch of the day! But don't get too excited, it was just a bunch of seaweed! hehe :)

Maxisms

“Mommy, did you know that only the brown bunnies can poop chocolate Easter eggs?!”

(It's only logical, right?!)

“Today I colored a picture at school.”

“That’s nice Max, what did you color?”

“A man that died in the fire and then the men were putting his body on the donkey because God said so.”

(Right… I guess I missed that bible story!)

“Mommy, did Jesus die yet? I wanna paint Easter eggs!”

(I’m glad he understands the real meaning of Easter!)

“My soccer shoes are soooo fast!”

(The magic is totally in those shoes, babe)

“Mommy, what’s on my nap mat?” (pointing to his new outer space mat)

“Umm… that’s called a… (it took me a second to think of the name)”

“METEOR! It’s the same as when the Wonder Pets used teamwork to pull the Chimp's rocket out of the meteor's path!”

(At least my kids watch educational TV!)

“Mommy, can I watch TV because my legs are broken?”

(He wanted to watch TV instead of playing outside! Ha!... He ended up playing outside with his 'broken' legs anyway!)

“Max, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I don’t know yet Mommy, I will have to think about it.”

(10 minutes later)

“I want to be a train!”

“But sweetie, you can’t be a train. You can be the conductor if you would like!”

“No thanks, I just wanna be a train.”       

“Okay Max. Whatever makes you happy…” (something about picking your battles…)

(2 hours later)

“Mommy, you are so silly! I want to drive the train! I can’t be a train!”

Sigh….

Technology Rocks!

Max (as well as the rest of us!) has been missing our family in Holland lately. He often asks if we can go to Holland to see his friends (cousins), but unfortunately our budget and schedule don't allow us to take weekend trips to The Netherlands! 

But thanks to the great inventors of Skype, we can "visit" with Oma and Opa a few times a month. It's always going to be hard for one side of our family wherever we live, but I'm so thankful that Rob's parent's can see and talk to the kids through video chat. It seems to make the distance between us a little shorter!

This past Sunday when we Skyped (is that a verb?!) Oma and Opa, Max got an extra special surprise! Tante (Aunt) Esther and cousins Thijs, Casper, & Joost were there waiting to say hi Max and Lucas! The conversation was interesting to say the least! All of the kids were so excited and English & Dutch words became a soupy mess! But from what we did understand out of their conversation was that Thijs & Casper are playing voetball (soccer) and Joost is potty trained! Two very important details in kid's lives! haha! Maybe someday Tante Esther will even send pictures of the boys playing soccer, I'm sure Max would love that! (hint hint!)

The boys saying 'hi' to each other

There's Joost in the background!

Max wanted to show the boys the computer game that Sinterklaas gave him!

It was so nice to see the boys 'interact' again. I know they've missed each other! Hopefully we'll be able to chat with Noud & Fien soon too :)