Who thinks blogging is stupid? I beg to differ!

WOW! If I ever once thought blogging was a waste of time am I wrong. In response to my last blog I already got an awesome idea on getting my kids to work and I am going to try it! For those of you who are interested (katie-you may have already done something similar) check out my sister amy's link and then link over to her friend Amanda's. Read down a few older posts and you will see her ticket idea!

By the way--still no hamster!

I feel like a Drill Sargeantt!!!

Okay I need help. It's only the 2nd week into summer and I am already having problems. How do I get my boys to work without me holding a gun to their heads? (just kidding about the gun) No seriously, I came up with this plan for our summer days. Monday mornings are cleaning day. The other days we get up and get the house pulled together with a few varying chores through the week and the HIT THE POOL! Well, last week the boys wanted to earn money for hamsters (which we lost BOTH of them today in the house but we found one. The other one is MIA and I am freaked out that it's gonna die somewhere and make my house stink or worse find it in my bed one night) anyway back to the story. So the boys wanted to earn money for these hamsters and started doing chores for me. They did them PERFECTLY and quickly coming to me after asking for their next chore. Well, now that there is nothing to bargain for they are just TERRIBLE. They whine and complain and get distracted and do a half-way job and you get the idea. I have tried the old "you live in this house and need to earn your keep" thing. It's not that they flat out refuse but they are just so lame about it. I am feeling like the mom who does everything and gets no help and I am starting to feel like this might be a hard summer. Is it just because I have boys? Are girls naturally more willing to pitch in and get things done? I want my boys to learn how to work so they don't turn out to be male chauvinists pigs but how I do it without being the drill sargeant? Please refer any of your friends to my blog so they can give me ideas! HELP!

p.s. I really do adore my boys and they are good kids and they KNOW how to work but it's just an issue right now.

I've seen castles in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and NONE compare to this castle built by my boys!

When C asked AC if he would help him build him a castle I knew he was in for much more than he bargained for. (C that is) AC doesn't do anything half-way! (Yes, I was going to say half-@** but I thought I would keep this family friendly!) Anyway we had a great time in Hawaii-the weather was great and the water was even better. We did lots of snorkeling and that was a blast for the kids. C pretty much ran up and down the beach non-stop for hours on end. When we would put him in bed at night we couldn't even turn out the light before he was ZONKED! (that is not an exaggeration!) We all got along (which was a surprise-other than a few squabbles with the kids.) We felt lucky to be on such a great vacation but were also ready to come home. One great thing for me about vacation is that I look forward to it for so long and can't wait to get out of my same-old same-old life for a bit and by the time the vacation is over I am acutally anxious to come home and get back into my same-old same-old. Is that weird? Does anyone else feel that way? I actually look forward to fixing good meals again and running errands and even doing a little cleaning. The pool is opened and SUMMER IS HERE! I can hardly wait! Here are a few more pictures of our trip.