3 Years and Counting...

As of today, I've been among the blogging community (as much as I hate that term) for 3 years now. Most of you will not commemorate this day today, and I probably won't really either, other than taking the time to write this post.

Okay... and MAYBE eating some fried cheese curds, (since I'm writing this post in Wisconsin) but other than that, that's it, I promise.

Just for kicks, I thought I'd visit some of my most favorite stories over the last three years. On the right hand side over there -->
is my top 10 list of my favorite blog posts (yes, Carrie, yours is still there!).

Now that's sad, isn't it? I'm a fan of my own blog, enough that I have a top ten list of favs. Sad and depressing for sure.

At any rate, have a little looksie if you dare. I enjoyed going back through them and revisiting each story as it unfolded. My family scrapbook is online to be looked through over and over again by the world, instead of on a bookshelf were no one bothers to take it down and flip through it.

And okay... maybe "the world" doesn't really look at our scrapbook (more like all 3 of you) but a girl can dream, right?

We *heart* the Library

A funny thing happens to you when you move three blocks from a fabulous library... you find yourself over there ALOT. Not only do we go to pick out books and play on the computers, but it's a great place to go when you're close to insane and wanting to kill someone, uh, I mean, kill some time until the hubby gets home. Shhhh... don't tell anyone about that, okay?

One of my most favorite things about the library isn't the books (as sad as that is to admit), but the FREE videos! Our library has a whole SLEW of videos you can borrow. And I'm not talking old movies (although there's plenty of those to go around). No, no.... Our totally awesome library has NEW movies out. Almost as soon as they are released on DVD, they've got 'em.

The kids' videos are almost endless as well. I don't even remember the last time I paid to borrow a movie from somewhere! Well, unless I'm overdue on returning it to the library, but even then it's only like a dollar and I'd MUCH rather pay it to the library than some skanky video rental store. (Is it obvious how much I dislike video stores?)

So anyway, every summer the library has a "Summer Reading Program" for the kids. Aidan participated last year, but after a while he ran out of interest. This year is a whole other story! All three kids have been participating and they are tearing it up!

After certain hours of reading, they get prizes. Tonight we just got back from getting their prize for reading 8 hours!!!! I'm so proud of them! 8 hours is a LONG time for them! The prize was these totally awesome summer reading program bags.The kids LOVED this prize because I have a certain library bag that I've always carried with us on our visits there, and now they each have their own! How exciting!

Hay, Batta batta batta!

I guess Josh was so inspired by our two recent visits to the Mud Hens, that he just HAD to play on our church's softball team tonight! He hadn't played since he was a kid (and I'll even have to confirm that with his mom!). He went out and bought a mit and some hip new shorts this afternoon so he was all ready.
We happened to be playing against Mario Dominguez's team, so when Josh got up to bat for the first time, Mario said, "move on in everybody!" and the pitcher even said, "Easy out!" But I'm pretty sure it was on the very first pitch that Josh nailed it and it went flying in the pitcher's face!

Ha! Take that pitcher boy! I guess you shouldn't tease a Pastor after all! Let that be a warning for ya!!

Josh ended up being a pretty great batter. He had some really good hits and the team ended up winning 14 to 2! I think he liked it so much that we'll be spending more time out at the field with him.

yea.

uh, I mean YEA! THAT WOULD BE FUN!

Freedom Fest

Freedom Fest has come and gone again this year! It ended up being a really nice night for it, too. We got to hear Sanctus Real play again (click here to listen to some tunes) and the fireworks were REALLY good. We had fun! Here's a few pics from my cell phone....

Ahhh...the lap of luxury...

Freeload, v.: to take advantage of others for free food, entertainment, etc.

Freeloader, n.: Josh and Stacey Plaisance.

So yeah... maybe we freeload every once in a while, but you do to and you know it!

Stop that lying!

YES. YOU. DO.

What did we freeload? Well, some really good friends of ours called us this morning (side note: apparently it pays off to answer the phone in the morning around here!) and asked us if we could find a babysitter for tonight. They had 5 tickets to the Mudhens game. No big deal, right? Well these weren't just ANY tickets... they happened to be tickets in one of the "luxury suites!"

Now I don't know about you, but anytime I hear the words "luxury" or "suite" in a sentence you can pretty much guarantee that Stacey's going to participate. I even just love saying those words... luxury. suite. luxury. suite. luxury. suite. Ahhhhh.....

So for about a whole 4 hours we lived like freeloaders, ur, uh... I mean, Royalty.

Here we are just chillin' in the inside part of the luxury. suite. Let me just say... the food was so good. The drinks were endless. And as if that wasn't enough, there suddenly appeared out of nowhere a [insert angelic music here] "dessert cart."
So. much. fun.

In front of all the suites are balcony's. Josh sat out there more than I did. I was having too much fun being in the luxury. suite.

[giddy laughter] I just love those words!

Here's the view from the luxury. suite.

Okay, okay, I'll stop.

And after the game there were fireworks. Did I mention we had a nice view from the luxury. suite.?

Sorry, I just can't help myself!

Talk about a fun way to watch a baseball game! It's quite possible I'm ruined for life. I guess it's a good thing my kids know how to bring me back down to normal life again.

Finally.

After much whining and complaining on the part of a person that shall go nameless...

*cough* Carrie *cough*

...we've FINALLY had the White's over for a marshmallow roasting event!

It was a really fun evening! Carrie not only brought over stuff to do the Smore's with, but she bought the BIG Hershey Bars (which are a luxury in our family. I mean, only Doctor's wives could afford those... uh, wait a minute... well that explains it...) AND she brought the kids over bottled water with Batman on it. How fun is that?

Isn't she not only gorgeous, but a great marshmallow holder, too???

All 5 boys (our 2 and their 3) ran around like wild crazies squirting each other with water guns... that is, when they weren't peeing behind our garage (what's with boys and peeing outside?).

Josh and Ben held down the chairs around the camp fire really well. And see Josh... he's got his hands in our most favorite bag of chips ever, (geez, talk about getting your hand caught in the cookie jar...) but you simply MUST try them and I KNOW you'll agree! (but if you happen to disagree, just nod your head yes and humor me, okay?).

In other news, Aidan likes to poke around the fire with sticks, but the smoke was getting to him, so his solution was to pull out these:
Too funny! He may, or may not, have learned that from his mama who may, or may not, cut onions with those on, but who's to tell for sure?

Anyhoo, we knew the night was over when we heard Carrie say, "Come on White boys, it's time to go." Geez, that Carrie, she's always been so racial.

Hahahaha!

Artsy Fartsy

I've always heard such wonderful things about the Toledo Art Museum. Several times I had heard about the Family Center where kids can go for free to play and create things. Today I decided to take the kids on down there and experience it myself!

There are two rooms in the Family Center... one is for making arts and crafts and the other room is for playing.

Aidan had fun creating drums out of the materials they had out on the table. I think we ended up leaving with 6 drums altogether!


Bryce had lots of fun on the old typewriter. I couldn't hardly get him away from it! None of my kids had even seen one before and I had fun trying to remember how to load the paper and use it!

Caylin painted two pretty pictures for us to take home. She had a blast doing it and mommy had a blast because she didn't have to get it all out and clean it all up afterwards either! [Can I get a "whoot-whoot" from all the moms out there?!]

After we left the Family Center we walked over to the actual Art Museum. I was blown away by some of the gorgeous paintings. It is truly amazing the talent God can give a person! Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because the kids weren't too into looking and NOT touching.

If you live in Toledo and haven't been down to the art museum in a while (or ever) then what are you waiting for? Go check it out sometime!

Josh's 30th Birthday!

Today is the day! Josh turns the big 3-0! I've been working on a surprise party for him for the last month! It took lots of thought, preparation and a crew of wonderful people to help pull it off!

The plan was to have the birthday boy "kidnapped" from our church at 11:00am while all the rest of us waited at Swan Creek Park. I asked the "kidnappers" - Matt and Kevin - to blind fold Josh and drive him around until he was confused about his whereabouts. Then to deliver him to the park at 11:15.

Here Josh is getting out of the car at the park...


Kevin video tapped the whole "kidnapping" so I'll have to post video footage as soon as I get some! Matt had Josh duck a couple of times (even though there wasn't anything there). It was pretty funny! Here he is walking towards us....



Then the blindfold came off and we all yelled "surprise!"



The crowd was quite large! About 92 people showed up...

The food and the cake was DELICIOUS. SOOOO very good....

Josh opened lots of gag gifts... some of the highlights were:

Prune Juice:

A beer mug with "Cheers to 30" on it (very appropriate for a Pastor, and apparently Josh got a big kick out of it...)

A magnifying glass:

And lots of other funny stuff, including a "sympathy" card! It was a beautiful morning and the party had just ended when the dark clouds started rolling in. I'm listening to the sound of rain as I post this blog! Praise the Lord! He worked everything out!

Happy Birthday Josh!

We were Kung-Fu Fighting

Today in the mail somebody from Josh's family (I haven't figured out who yet) must have turned in a bunch of cereal box tokens for free Kung-Fu Panda headbands and had them sent to my kids.

The kids went crazy over them (well, mainly the boys) and the rest is captured on camera....

Caylin was not as excited. She didn't want to be a Kung-Fu fighter, she wanted "to be a bunny."

But the boys were cracking me up!

Thank you to whoever sent those to us! It was a big hit!

Mudhens Game!

This morning at about 10:30 Josh got a phone call from a friend that had 9 tickets to the Mudhens game and he was looking for some people to take him up on them!

Josh is a good person to call in this situation, because in a matter of 10 minutes Josh had all 9 tickets gone. 5 of them being to our family!

The kids were so excited to go to a baseball game and it was a BEAUTIFUL day for one. While we were waiting by the gate for the tickets to arrive, a lady approached us about doing a 5 second spot for 13 ABC News. Once again... Josh is the PERFECT person to ask in this situation. Before you knew it, Josh was saying into the camera, "We're the Plaisance family from Toledo. When we want to know what's going on with the weather, we log on to 13 ABC!" It should be airing soon, so I'll be sure and post it when it's available!

Anyway, here's some pics of the game...

Bryce, Wesley Richmeier and Aidan:

Aidan was very into the game. He's our little sports guy!

It was a great game... Mudhens won 5 to 4.

I love a parade!

Today immediately after church, we walked in the Strawberry Festival parade!

See our nice shiny "bathed" car in the background? That's why we gave it a bath!

We all slapped some "Dwelling Place" hats on and got in line, ready to go!

We had lots of balloons to pass out. They had our church logo, name and website on them. They were a big hit, but also a big hassle! They were so tangled up by the wind! But we managed to get them all passed out and the kids loved them!

We also passed out candy and inviation cards to our church.
Even Baby Joseph helped!

And we had "Salvation Dalmation" on our car ready to go!

And puppets armed and ready...

This is Ila Mae. She had SO much fun making her puppet blow kisses to the crowd. I have NEVER seen a crowd react to a puppet the way they did with Ila's! It was hilarious!

Caylin and Bryce were in their battle stations, ready to wave...

Aidan was in charge of pulling the wagon full of candy. I was SO proud of him! He not only walked the whole parade, but he pulled that heavy wagon the whole time! He didn't even complain once... what a good boy!

And off we went...

Josh and others passing out candy...

Ila Mae's puppet blowing kisses...

It was so much fun!

Bath Time?

Tonight the kids were so excited! They got to give the car a bath!

They all worked so hard...

Why are we "bathing our car?" You'll see tomorrow!

Looking good!

Our flowers are really starting to fill out now and get nice and full! They look so pretty!
(compare to when we planted them)

"We made you something!"

This evening after the kids had gotten out of the pool, I heard them rummaging around the kitchen for a snack. I was on the computer down in the basement (as every good mom is, right?) so I didn't really pay too much attention to what they were doing.

A few minutes later all three of them came downstairs carrying a baking sheet and said, "We made you something!"

Who doesn't love a smiley face made out of grapes??? They even cut the grapes in half so they would lay flat (with a butter knife)! How cute!

Is she not gorgeous?!

Pool Time!

It's pool time again! Every year we get a little bit bigger kiddie pool. This year we got a 10 foot octagon pool and the kids are in heaven!

Toledo Zoo

This evening we got to go to the Toledo Zoo for a Homeschooling Information night. Can't beat a free trip to the zoo!

Also can't beat free train rides!!

We also got to see the polar bears play with a big barrel in their water habitat. It was amazing watching them jump and play with the barrel in the water.

When it was time to go, Caylin insisted on a few glamour shots....

Glamour Shot 1:

Glamour Shot 2:

Glamour Shot 3:

The boys needed a picture, too:

It was a fun evening!

Flowers Planted: Check!

I've been wanting to plant my flower boxes and pots full of flowers since it started being somewhat warmer, but I resisted the urge since it was still cold at night. I'm so happy to say I don't have to wait anymore! Josh and I got them all planted this week!

We pretty much did the same thing we did last year since our friend Tami was so right on with the red popping against our green house (thanks Tami!). Now we just need them to all fill in and get nice and pretty.

How do they look?

The Office - Japan

If you love The Office, you will LOVE this....

glumbert - The Office Japan

Bryce's 5 Year Old Pictures

I realized about a month ago that I had completely forgotten to get Bryce's 5 year old pictures taken when he had his birthday! My friend, Brenda Winchester, has a picture studio in the basement of her house, so I set up an appointment with her and we got them all taken care of.

She did a great job and is very reasonable! I got a whole disc of pictures that I can pick and choose from. I like that much better than having to decide in a split second at a "professional" picture studio which ones I want to keep and which ones I want to trash. Plus, there's no copyright on them so I can get them developed however I want and I can actually email/post them! Whoo-hooo!

Check 'em out...

Isn't he so handsome? He did a great job posing. :)

When I grow up...

Today I interviewed each of my children to see what they wanted to be when they grow up. I thought I'd share with you their answers....

Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Aidan: "An artist, but not with paints, just crayons."

Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Bryce: "Superman."

Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Caylin: "A big girl."

That's right folks... I've got some real aspirers here. Don't be jealous.

The Presence of God

You know when God shows up. No one can deny it when He shows up. This morning was incredible. The worship was out of this world and the fiery presence of God was among us. God is moving. Thank you Jesus!

If you haven't heard of the Florida Outpouring that is going on right now down in Lakeland Florida, then you MUST check out http://www.god.tv/. Every night it is aired live at 7:00pm. Click on the "Watch Now" icon and register your info. Then tune in!

Lunch

After making Lunch and putting it on the table today, I came back into the room to discover Caylin sitting at the table dressed to the nines! She said to me, "Mommy, do dese shoes go with dis dress?"

She stood up for the picture, but it was so much funnier when she was sitting...

Then I realized Bryce was decked out in Superman attire. He had created a "jail" out of the chairs and requested a picture be taken of him in front of them....

Where DO these kids get this from?!?!?

I haven't a clue!

The joy of sidewalk chalk...

Hmmm... what to do when it finally gets warm enough outside to enjoy it?

Why not color all over your driveway?! At least that's what our kids do. And today Bryce and Caylin got VERY creative. They drew their very own rocket ships to sit in and play!

Caylin had a little bitty rocket:

And Bryce had a much bigger one!
Here he is adding more buttons to his so he could have plenty to push once inside:

The firepit makes a comeback!

Tonight we had our first fire of the season. We invited the Richmeier's over (or did they invite themselves over? I can't remember!) ;) hahaha!

So seeing that the fire pit is "ready to roll," we are now taking reservations! It's a first come, first serve basis, so you Texas people better get in fast!