End of Summer

End of life as I know it!!!!!! I know, I am being dramatic. But, it is just a matter of hours now that Macie will start kindergarten. Tonite, I had a vision of her eating lunch in that great big cafeteria will all the other kiddos. No me. She will love it though. Probably won't miss me a bit. This is going to be hard for me! Its enough to make me consider home schooling.... not really, but ALMOST! Kindergarten should not be all day. They should at least get out at 2 or something. I think the hardest part will be when Maris and I do stuff like playdates and library. I spent the last week trying to cram in all this fun stuff. We went to the zoo, she went swimming with Aunt Patti, we went swimming for playgroup, went to the Children's museum and saw Imax Dolphins, got her hair cut at Sweet n Sassy and had lunch with Daddy at his office. And, today, the whole family went to NRH2O, a water park. After the intial shock it will all be fine and dandy, I'm sure. I am looking forward to getting into some kind of a routine. School will force that a little. With Maris in mothers day out for 2 days/wk, I have visions of me completing tons of sewing projects, udpating my blog frequently, having a spotless house and catching up on all kinds of projects that have been building up.
Ok, with all that said, I wanted to post some pictures of our summer. Again, I can't format all this so it looks pretty and organized, so I am just going to post pictures and you can figure out what is what. In June, Sara, Lily and Natalie came to visit. It was SO much fun! The girls were a hoot! Lily and Macie staying up all hours chatting and giggling in Macie's room. Sara and I crammed in all that was humanly possible with 4 girls in tow.
For the 4th of July, we went to my parent's house. I think it is going to be a tradition. We picked blackberries and shot fireworks. The guys and the older kids (there were 14 great grandkids there) put on a firework show that would have compared with any city sponsored show. It was amazing. It had poured down rain right before dark and cooled everything off. We snuggled up with blankets and jackets on the front porch and watched the show. Can't beat that. The sky right before dark was amazing too.
In late July, we went to Lake Murray with 3 other families from our church. We stayed in cabins and had campfires and cookouts. One day we rented a double deck party barge thing that had a slide off the top deck and a jet ski to play with. We brought the boat too. We had a lot of fun.
Sometime in there we also went to a Ranger game. Through the library reading club, Macie got to parade around the field before the game started. I think John was more excited about that than she was. But, it was cool. Ice cream and french fries got us all the way to the 7th inning. I was impressed.
August seems to be clouded by the fact that my Dad was and is still so sick. But, like I said above, we managed to do a bunch of fun stuff. We even stopped by Sulphur on the way back from visiting my Dad. The girls loved it. No pictures of any of that.

Ok, are you still reading? This is a long post. I must go now and finish a dress I am making for Macie. Will post more with all my new free time next week........ Here are the pictures in no particular order. I will have to add "figure out how to blog" to my list of projects.

Silly picture

I am the worst blogger ever! But, who cares. Look at my little toot. She is so funny. Snuggled up on Macie's babydoll bed. Too cute! I want to post some more picts from our Ranger game experience and our camping trip. Maybe....

Inspiration

I am doing a Beth Moore Bible study right now and she listed the words of this Steven Curtis Chapman song in the lesson today. I had to share them cuz I think they provide such wisdom! so true with all of life, but I esp feel the trueness of it with kiddos.

There's only on who knows
What's really out there waiting
In all the moments yet to be
And all we need to know
Is He's out there waiting
To Him the future's History
And He has given us a treasure called Right Now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about
And if it brings tears
Then taste them as they fall
And let them soften your heart

And if it brings you laughter
Then throw your head back
And let it go, let it go

You gotta let it go
Listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss
The MIRACLE OF THE MOMENT.

Garage Sale!

Last night on my way home from Walmart, I noticed signs for a "HUGE Garage Sale Thurs ONLY". They got me. So, this morning, I drug Macie and Maris with me. Can't help it, its in my blood... love garage sales. Macie does too. ANYWAY.... Look what I got. It is a Kenner Family tree house. My FAVORITE toy as a kid. (Well pre-Barbie and Cabbage Patch of course). I about knocked Macie down when I saw it there on the sheet for $3. Ha! I bought Macie some annoying knock off Weeble Wobble one a couple of years ago, it just didn't compare. I have previously seen these on Ebay for TONS of money. If you have time and are so inclined, check it out. I looked on Ebay again tonite and there were listings of the complete set ranging from $10-$250 (buy it now price). I am curious to see how high the bids go on the $10 one. OK, I know, I'm crazy. Of course mine has no people and is missing a wall I think, but still. I HAD to have it. I thought I would see if Ebay had the people or furniture. The furniture was about $3-$15 a piece. And, the people were $15 each. So excited, had to post it on my blog! Macie and Maris got toys too. Macie got a talking Dora doll for 50 cents (that will probably see the Goodwill pile next week) and Maris got one of those round toys that you point the arrow at the animal and pull the string and it makes the animal sound... 50 cents. Tonite I saw signs for an ESTATE SALE nearby. I think I will hit it on the way to Maris's Dr aptmt tomorrow!!

Summer!

We are having a fun and busy summer so far. I don't think anyone has been too bored around here. We had a great week with Sara, Lily and Natalie. It was so fun having them here. I think we packed in as much as we possibly could. Lily and Macie had Nature School in the mornings and they played and played the rest of the time. We got the big slide out again and went to a water park. Sara took pictures. We talked, cooked, schemed. We bought fabric and made dresses for Lily and Macie. And, Sara and I even got a babysitter for the kids and snuck away for 1 1/2 hours to a lovely antique store in downtown Arlington. We had tons of fun and gathered some stuff for more projects!!

We are off to OK for 4th of July tonite or tomorrow. (Macie is throwing up today, so don't know when we will leave.... ugh, life with kids). I will be posting lots of picts of projects and the 4th soon.

The BirthdayParty!

Wow. It was crazy. Somehow there were a million kids at my house. And, it was the hottest most humid day of the year. But, it was fun. Again, more random pictures. I had to make the cake twice, b/c the first one looked like crap. We ended up buying a high dollar inflatable waterslide for the party (and to use all summer). I tried to get it on craiglist for 1/2 the price, but the lady was such a flake. I just couldn't make it work with her. She lived an hour away too. So, Target sold it to me for the previous week's sale price and I got 10% off by applying for the credit card. I love doing that. I got the best deal from GAP. And, currently I have $60 in credit at Pier 1.... but I digress...

So, we had the crazy slide which was a hit. But, the kids went crazy for the treasure hunt, too. That surprised me. I thought they wouldn't want to get off the slide. Katy drew a map for me, I tore it in 4 pieces. The first clue we snuck into the pool at the bottom of the slide inside of a plastic bottle. They read the first clue which told them where the 2nd piece was located and so on. Then, they put all 4 pieces together to make the map and locate the treasure. I filled this small treasure box with candy and trinkets. They attacked that thing! It was funny.

After the party, John and I tried out the slide. It was fun. It was a pain to take down and clean and our yard was a swamp afterwards. But, we plan to get it out once every week or two during the summer. I hope it holds up. We read some bad reviews.

Oh, and presents galore! Ha. But, she got some really great stuff. A lot of art things and puzzles and games and stuff. I am definitely going thru her toys and donating some. The girl has too much stuff!! I'll admit it, she's spoiled. Ugh.

Our Trip to OK

Here are some pictures just randomly thrown in cuz I don't know how else to do it. (Sara, you are going to help with that next week, right?) There were surprises all around. The first surprise, which I knew before we got there, is that my Dad has moved back from Korea. Yeah! The other surprise was 2 dirt bikes and a 4-wheel truck thing that we are calling a Kubota, even though it isn't. Anyway.... They were fun. I even tried the dirt bike. I used to ride them when I was little. No fear back then I guess. And, there was a new baby calf, born just 2 days before we got there. They call the mom "Dolly". See why? Poor Mama!