Maris make me laugh

So the last entry was all about Macie, now for Maris. I have been getting to enjoy Maris much more now that Macie is gone all day at school. She has been cracking me up! She grabs my hand and pulls me where she wants me to go. One day, we spent like 15 minutes racing from the backdoor rug to the kitchen sink (3 feet). She would say "Go!" and then run and giggle and giggle. It was hilarious. One day she brought me Macie's gloves and wanted them on her feet. She wore them around like this for about an hour. TOO FUNNY!!! She is also very into her babies right now. She loves to feed them, put them to bed, read to them. So sweet!

First Day of School

We survived the first week of school! Macie has enjoyed it. I was surprised that she wasn't just completely exhausted when she got home. On Thurs, I was talking to another mom and she said she thought her daughter was running on adrenaline and she was waiting for the crash. I laughed and thought, that was a possibility. We had been walking to and from school, but this day I decided to drive and then go to Sonic for drinks. On the way, we drove by Nature School. Macie casually said, "There's my old school. I miss Ms. Terry." Then, she started bawling her head off! She cried and cried. Poor thing, I couldn't even hug her cuz we were driving. (She climbed up to the front when we got to Sonic). Later that day, our whole family was in the car (on the way to the Cowboys blue and white practice game at new stadium) and I commented to John that I was proud of Macie for not having her pin moved in class. She then said "I almost got my pin moved today." I asked her why and she started bawling again. Through her sobs she said: "I love my mommy and daddy too much to tell them this news." She got that from a book we had from the library before school started called "The Bad News Report Card". It was funny, but sad all at the same time. She was just exhausted. What wonderful parents to drag her off to the Cowboys thing. Anyway, we never did find out what she did to almost get her pin moved. Friday after school, we had a bunch of her friends from church and the neighborhood who go to her school, over to play on the big water slide. Everyone had a great time. So tomorrow starts a new week. I think she will do fine.
As for me, I am handling it well. The neighbor has offered to take her to school in the morning. I am secretly very glad that Macie wanted me to take her last week. She has to wait in the cafeteria until her teacher comes out and takes the class back. She was in their with 5th graders! Gasp. But, next week , I think it will just be 1st grade. She told the neighbor tonite that she would walk with them tomorrow. I may try to weasel my way in just one more week. But, on the positive side, I did get the carpets cleaned in Macie's room and my room and the hallway. This week: closets watch out!
I have to say that these pictures are not the best in the world. We were running late of course. I still remember exactly my first day of kindergarten picture. Sorry Macie. This is yours! The second one was taken in her classroom. Oh, and by the way, I have to say that neither the backpack nor the lunch box would have been my choice. I really tried to get her to choose a cute flower or butterfly, non-character lunch box. (The backpack is from last year and a long story). But, then I thought, I had a Strawberry Shortcake lunch box and a Holly Hobby. So, who am I to deprive her? And, what difference does it make anyway? I think I would have drawn the line at Hannah Montana, but thankfully, that did not come up.

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.