This is what it's ALL about!!

Summertime Summertime Summertime!!!!

I love everything about it!!!! Yesterday after Emma Claire's cheerleading camp, several moms and I went out to the Captain's Cabin at the Yacht Club and spent nearly 5 hours with about 20 children and NO WHINING OR CRYING by a single one!!! It was MARVELOUS, they (and we) had so much fun! Just pure, old fashioned, summertime fun!!!!

You see that far right bouey, top right, just below the trees. Well, I swam all the way to that and back. It wasn't pretty!!!! There were talks about doing a triathlon and some suggesting that maybe I should do one. Running I have mastered, Biking I can handle after a little practice, Swimming, not so much. Now the fact that I was using kids goggles that didn't fit or work didn't help, but I just couldn't get the whole breathe, swim, breathe, swim thing down. Also add to it my insane fear of snakes and other marine life, and it's not a pretty picture. I might try it again this weekend at the lake, with MY OWN goggles and see how it goes, but this body was not made for swimming - I certainly don't have large, flipper-like feet, maybe that's it!!!!

(sorry ladies, I know I said you wouldn't be in a shot, but it's far off and this was the only bouey shot I had)

Back to our fun afternoon - It was lunch time when we got there, but no one was very interested in eating - Henderson had his yogurt and he was good to go!!!!

Wilson and Lee are both pulling up there goggles seeing each other for the first time - how cute is that!?

I'm serious when I say not a single child whined, cried, fussed, anything - it was almost surreal!!!!

At about 5:15, the storm clouds starting rolling in and we packed up and headed home, just in time, it poured on us the entire way home!!!!

But the fun didn't stop there! After eating dinner AND making chocolate chip cookies, we went out back and caught fireflies (lightening bugs) and our now HUGE black grasshoppers (and they'll get even bigger the rest of the summer)!!!!! Wilson found the grasshoppers on the same daylilly plant we've seen them on since they were born and only about a centimeter long back in April. It's like they're their own little wild pets out in our backyard!!!! We practically know them by name!!!!

We caught the fireflies in a mason jar, but once they were in the jar they wouldn't light up! Is that normal???? I thought they would continue lighting up so the children could see them up close!!!! As soon as we let them fly away, they would start lighting again!!!!!

Emma Claire

I CANNOT WAIT to hug and kiss this sweet little face in a few hours! She left last Sunday with my mom and sister, Katie, to visit my older sister, Lori, in Evansville, Indiana!!!! She's had a great week playing with her cousins, but I miss her so much!!!! God really knew what he was doing when he gave me a daughter - she's provides such balance to the fiesty little boys at our house!!!!

I'm ready to hear her sweet sweet voice and kiss her sweet cheeks and just lay around and talk about all she did this past week!!!! And then play barbies and my little ponies and all the other girly things I've missed!!!!

What I Love!!

I love evenings in the summertime - no longer do I feel the need to rush bedtime - if they get to bed at 7 or 8, great!!!! If not, I know I won't have to drag anyone out of bed the next morning. But isn't it ironic that even with later bedtimes, they still seem to wake up before I would normally be dragging them out of bed during the school year!!!??? After bathtime (or swimtime occasionally) the children usually disappear to the cool basement to watch a movie or play together! They REALLY do play together great and it is so fun to listen to their imaginary play!!!! I LOVE Summertime!!!!

Summer Happens!!!!

Summer is here, but where are the slow, lazy days that come with it? We have been busier than ever, but having a BLAST!!!! I have just returned from a State Tennis Tournament in Mobile where it was HOT HOT HOT!!!! My playing was not so hot, but I had lots of fun with the girls on my team!!!! Then, I left Mobile and joined Will in Orange Beach at one of our friends houses on the bay. We had a relaxing 2 days to spend without children. It was VERY nice. The oil made it's first appearances, we could see tar balls up and down the beach Saturday morning and then the lifeguards started riding down the beach telling everyone to get out of the water. I forgot my camera on the beach, but the normally beautiful horizon was replaced with orange boom as far as the eye could see. And skimmer boats going back and forth and helicopters flying overhead. I pray that this spill will get under control very soon. It's so sad to think what may happen to the most beautiful beaches in the world!!!!

Back home we've played outside alot, but now that's it's nearing 100 degrees and 97% humidity everyday, that's coming to a close.

You see this little guy below: we are dealing with LOTS of discipline issues right now. 3 1/2 is ROUGH - his VBS teacher (who was also his Choir teacher last year) will also be his Sunday School teacher next year, so she's getting to know him WELL - she has her hands full, but I'm also dealing with it DILIGENTLY at home - no one said motherhood was easy - it's exhausting!!!!!!!

The park is always fun, but now you have to go at 5:30 in the morning to enjoy it!!!!

The pool - now that's the place to be!!!!!

We are right in the middle of a busy VBS week, with swimming in the afternoons on most days and nothing on our schedules at night (except for my Thursday night Bible Study on Esther - Beth Moore - it is FABULOUS!!!!!)

Summer time at it's best. We've enjoyed watching fireflies out the windows at night and reading lots of books from our library!!!! The grasshoppers still get tended too nearly daily, it's fun watching them get bigger and bigger and seeing the wonderment(is that a word?) in the children's eyes when they catch one!!!!

Oliver, Critters and More

A few weeks ago (the Sunday night after we got back from the beach) the children had their church choir program AND their preschool end of year program ON THE SAME NIGHT, as usual of the last 3 years!!!! We went to the church program first and let Wilson sing there. When they walked into the sanctuary, he saw me, started crying and REFUSED to go on stage with the rest of the choir. SO, I convinced him to go up there if I went with him. He did, and after much probing and dirty looks and threats, he stood tall and sang his little heart out!!!

THEN, my mom and dad and Will and Henderson RUSHED off to the preschool to get the boys in the class ready to sing their songs there. I stayed behind and watched Emma Claire's class sing!!!!

And boy did they sing! They have a WONDERFUL class of musicians and she has a very LOUD cousin (Patton, 2 to the right of Emma Claire). He cracked me up!!!!! He was belting out singing at the top of his lungs, bless his heart.

As soon as they were finished singing, Emma Claire and my sister Katie and Will's parents RUSHED over to the school where we totally MISSED Wilson and Henderson singing. The good news though, without MOMMY in the crowd, BOTH of them sang their little hearts out and didn't miss a beat. I'm the one to blame.

Well, SUMMER time is here and we are living it up! Playing outside, swimming, watching long movies in the cool basement, VBS, you name it we are doing it!!!!


We have unknowingly harvest black grasshoppers. I should have shown them to you a few months ago, the children found one of our daylillies COVERED with thousands of itty bitty black grasshoppers. And they are still there - and growing. They started out less than a centimeter big and by the end of the summer they'll be huge - like 4 inches long HUGE!!!! All 3 children run out to look for them and catch many of them, even Henderson has gotten good at catching them. We always let them go and thankfully none have gotten in our house YET!!!!

Does this picture not just scream SNAKE!!!!!!

There are the little things...

We also have 2 hermit crabs, Willie on the right and Sandy on the left.

Emma Claire got pinched by that huge purple claw on the first day, so she's a little skiddish of them, but Wilson, well, let's just say it's only a matter of time!!!!

Will caught a frog on Saturday and he stayed in the aqaurium for awhile, but later Emma Claire and I looked out the window and saw Wilson holding him by the back of his neck - he just can't help it, he's ALL BOY!!!! He was soon let go, back to his family!!!!

Last week was also filled with OLIVER shows. Emma Claire was a workhouse kid and in the children's ensemble. Chandler and Mallory were pickpockets.

This scary looking man, is my brother-in-law, Stan, who did a fabulous job in his first ever acting job as FAGIN!!!!! Isn't the makeup wonderful???? You can see a better picture of Stan in my beach pictures!!!!

It was a wonderful week, but rehearsals until 11:30 each night last week and still up at 5:00 each morning about did me in!!!!! To say I was exhausted last night was an understatement!!!!

This week is a short week for me, as I'm headed to Mobile for a State Tennis Tournament on Wednesday, then to Orange Beach with Will for a rare trip without kids!!!! Too bad the oil has beat us there, but the time alone will still be nice!!!!

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