Wordless Wednesday

Yes, I am a wimp!

I have decided that we are done with swimming at the pool for this summer. We went yesterday and it was sooo cold! It is only open one more Sunday, so we aren't missing much.

I have decided that I really like heated pools! We found out this year that they heat the pool through June. Next year, I think that we will try to swim as much as possible while it is heated! I REALLY love my friend's swimming pool. She found a spa setting on her heater and the one evening we were swimming, the water was 90 degrees! It felt so good!

A Moment to Treasure

Brian and I watched a movie tonight. The girls were supposed to be in bed. Instead, I found Ladybug reading the book she wrote, to her sisters. I could hear Butterfly asking her questions about her story and she would patiently explain things. They all giggled together at the funny parts of Ladybug's book. So, I left the light off to my room and sat and listened and treasured the moment. It's so neat to be able to eavesdrop on this kind of interaction.

Vocabulary words

According to the 7 year old:

The power that keeps our lights on: lightricity.

Our lightricity went out this morning. It was so convenient that it came back on just about noon. Now I don't have to do a lot of work to reset my alarm clock. :)

I thought about doing a wordless Wednesday yesterday and it was more wordless than planned! Next time I'll try to get a picture in there...

A little drama with your spelling?

I was doing the spelling list with Ladybug, when in the middle of the list she exclaims, "Wait... time out, hold on a minute!" holds up her mechanical pencil (with feeling), gives it a click (also with feeling) and then finishes writing the word.

We had to wait to write the next word because we were giggling too hard.

A visit from a friend

Sunday, a dear friend stopped by and introduced us to their 5 month old daughter. She is absolutely precious.

I had the joy of passing on some of my girls' baby clothes and toys to her. It was such a blessing to pass them on to a friend. I get sentimentally attached to these things which are tied to my girls' infancy. I treasured the time they were babies and it went by so fast. My heart ached sorting through all those cute clothes which were mostly gifts from my dear family and friends. So, to be able to give them to a friend whose sweet little daughter will wear them is such a joy.

I forgot to ask my friend if I could post pictures of her daughter. She's a cutie!

Time for clean-up

I'm not talking for the kids! Yesterday was a major clean out day for us. The pull the junk out of the closet that I stuffed in there when company was coming (um - several times...) kind of clean out. The two boxes of paper recycling kind of clean out. The got behind during the school year and whoops, just lost the summer too, kind of clean out.

Well, you get the picture. I didn't get done by any means. But, it's a few more steps in the right directions. It will make me much happier when we are stuck inside all winter.

Brian even mopped my kitchen floor with the lavender cleaner and it smells so good!

Toothless

I don't know about you - but I love these toothless smiles!

This photo was taken by my friend's daughter, Courtney. This was a preview picture that I downloaded - so the quality isn't as good. I'll be getting the disk soon. I can't wait! Courtney did an absolutely wonderful job!

Where did the summer go?

My last post of June 12. Oops. I've gotten so behind on blogging. I think I have 2 of you left reading this! So, for the 2 of you, I'll update life and then I'll see if I can get going this fall on putting thoughts on the blog.

The end of May was Ladybug's choir tour. We went to Branson and had a great time. In June, all 3 girls had swimming lessons the first two weeks. They also took tennis.

I took two internet classes in June in hopes of keeping up on credit hours for my license renewal. I took a podcasting course and a powerpoint games course. They were both very good, but sucked the life out of my June!

July brought camp. The girls kept busy with art classes. Brian was so good at keeping up with all the household tasks while I was busy.

Now I find myself halfway through August. Brian has returned to school and we are busy in our schedules. I'm setting up lessons and preparing for those while keeping up with the girls' studies and the usual work around the house. Time to buckle up again and hang on for the ride!

Fun With Cousins

On our way home from Branson, we stopped at my sister's house. The kids enjoyed some fun with sprinklers and water guns. My niece and nephew prepared a birthday party for the girls, complete with signs and a place to sit to open presents. It was so sweet!

Silver Dollar City

Here's Ladybug after riding Wildfire. See the loops in the background that we did!

Here's our group trying to decide which way to go:
Here's Ladybug after riding Thunderation as we were waiting on the other children to ride again.

Activities

When we arrived in Branson, we headed straight to the hotel since we were an hour ahead of schedule. The hotel staff kindly unloaded our luggage in the pouring rain! From there we went to the Dixie Stampede. I don't have pictures from there because I was too busy eating the yummy food! For those of you who are not familiar with the menu - all the food is eaten with your hands - there is no silverware. I think all the kids enjoyed that!

After the show, we returned to the hotel and the kids enjoyed swimming together. It was a good thing that we went swimming that evening because the rest of the evenings were stormy or too late to swim!

The next day was the choir performance at the 60s Show on the previous post. After that, the children ate at Pizza World where they also enjoyed go carts, miniature golf and arcade games. Since it was storming and we were not able to swim, my room decided to have a girls night in our room. We invited several other girls their age to join us. We popped popcorn, ate M&Ms, had Root beer, watched tv and played games together.

Thursday was the trip to Silver Dollar City. I'll post photos of that on a separate post. Ladybug was a trooper. The first ride that our group wanted to ride was the Wildfire. Wildfire is the largest roller coaster in the park and has upside down loops. All of our group went on that ride right away. Ladybug was scared to death! She watched the 2nd time as some of the other children rode again. The went to the American Plunge next and cooled off with the water ride. Ladybug enjoyed that one. Next we rode Fire in the Hole. She was ok with that one although the occasional drops surprised her. The declined riding the Powder Keg. She did ride Thunderation since everyone was riding. She said over and over that she did not like that rollercoaster - it was too scary! She also told me that Wildfire is not a ride for a beginning roller coaster rider! So, I think we have established that she really doesn't like roller coasters. :)

In the evening we went to the Haygoods Show. They are a family - 7 brothers and 1 sister who do a variety type show. It was fantastic! They are incredibly talented and full of energy. Everyone had a fun evening!

Friday morning we loaded up the bus and the children headed to a retirement center in Springfield. They entertained the residents there and then headed for home. Brian and Ladybug caught a ride back with a family friend and we spent several more days in Branson with my parents and Brian's parents. We celebrated his Mom and Dad's birthdays and Butterfly's as well.

Choir Tour Performance

The Children's Choir went on a tour to Branson. Here is the theatre where they performed. They were the pre-show to the #1 Hits of the 60s Show. They did a great job!

This is a picture of the choir at their photo shoot:

How to Occupy my Girls

I don't think the kittens are getting any rest. My kids are having SOOOO much fun!

Aren't they cute?!

4th Birthday

Panda wanted her birthday party at Papa John's. So we invited her best friend and her family and enjoyed an evening at Papa John's.

It snowed on Panda's birthday, so some of the family was unable to come. But, we still celebrated with those who were here and had a great time. Here's her kitty cake. I made it and was please with how it turned out for as simple as it was. She seemed to like it too! I can't believe my baby is 4 already!