Wrapping Up Summer 2016

The last few weeks of summer break flew by.  Here's a look at how our summer wrapped us. Despite the circumstances of their visit, it's always great to see my sisters.

Here's me with my brother and sisters..  You can tell from looking at me, that I had a major lack of sleep, but I really love this picture.

 Payton's summer got cut short when she got picked up for the 7th grade volleyball team.  She and Sarah are the only two 6th graders on the team.  Our kiddos have played a lot of sports over the years, but this is the first time we've had a student athlete in the family.  I had no idea the work and dedication it took.  Payton had many two-a-days, sometimes in a heat index well over 100 degrees.  She never complained!  Since school has started, she has to be at the gym an hour before school starts and play all the way to second hour.  I'm so proud of how well she's doing.  She's going to start private lessons soon and plans to play all through the rest of her school career.

Back to school shopping made us super hungry.  My girls love chowing down on Chinese food.  I love this picture of Addi.

 Payton and Karsyn are super silly.

Most summers, we find ourselves praying for rain.  That hasn't been the case this summer.  It's rained almost once a week.  Any reason to wear rain jackets make my littlest ladies happy.

 Our Natalie left for college.  We couldn't send her off without one more trip to our favorite ice cream joint.  We had to have pictures with our incoming Freshmen.  Here's Nana, Nat, and Papa.

 Me and my girl.

Uncle Billy called this picture a college day miracle.  All 7 kids were not only looking, but smiling!!!!!  I love this!  Seriously, I think it must be framed.

Blue eyed girls!

We laughed. We cried.  We ate yummy ice cream.  It was a great night.

We got back to school hair cuts.  Everyone got trims, except for Addi.  She got 6 inches cut off!  

We also cashed in our free custard coupons we got through the summer reading program.

Stephen and Evan had Rookie Camp at Junior High.  Yep, these boys are going to be 8th graders.  They learned the layout of school, got their schedules, and ate pizza.  It was fun.  I guess our guys were a little thirsty. lol!

All of the teachers at our preschool got new back to school room decor, which meant one thing - lots and lots of laminating.  We spent hours cutting.  I had to call for back up.  Payton and Evan both cut things out for almost 2 hours!!!!

Later in the day, we got Payton's sports physical.  There are times when I feel like I have being a mama together.  This appointment reminded me that I don't...not even close.  I think Payton's face says it all.

 We went to Meet the Teacher Night.  There are lots of changes in staff and facilities this year at both schools for the girls.  That meant it was a very hectic night!  Even so, I think it's going to be a great year.

 To wrap up our summer fun, we went skating with church friends.  I don't have any pictures, but we had a great time!  School has started and we are back to the business of being busy at our house.  We are doing our best to stay on top of things and so far, it's working out great. =)

Summer Days Drifting Away

 Our summer days really feel as though they are drifting away.  It always feels like we go from celebrating Independence Day to back to school prep in a matter of a few days. So, here's how we've been soaking up our summer days since the last time I posted.  A couple of Thursdays ago, we were at Wal-Mart buying a few things for Evan to have a buddy over, when we had to take tornado precautions in Ladies Apparel.  

No tornado swept through, but we did have hurricane strength winds rip though our area.  We were very fortunate that little damage was done to our home, but we were without power for 2 days.  We were very blessed that it did get too hot on those days.  It was also a huge blessing that we had so many family and friends who invited us to come over, but we couldn't leave our house. We had to wait for the power company to come and do some checks. The neutralizer on our power line was damaged, so there was no regulation of voltage coming into our home.  This caused our neighbors house to catch fire - they caught it very quickly and were okay.  When we tried our power, our house started making the same loud popping sounds and light bulbs started bursting.  It was scary!  We borrowed Papa Floyd's generator and a couple of window units, so we stayed nice and cool the second night.  I jokingly told Jason that I wanted to take the kids camping this summer, but never expected to do it in our own house.  Here are the kiddos playing Clue by pop lights.

A couple of days later, we were back to our normal summer fun.  We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the Free Kids Summer Movie Festival with our friends.

Payton made a new and rather interesting friend. =)

We've also been busy doing our back to school appointments.  Addi and Karsyn's peepers checked out just fine.  Evan and Payton both ordered new glasses.  

We heard on the radio one day, that women over the age of 34 should not take selfies.  I decided to break the rule.  Because, why not?  

We had Emily and Mr. Stephen over for a swim.  It's not summer for our little family unless we spend a lot of time with our cousins.

We spend a lot of time in the pool.  Karsyn can swim the length of our pool underwater.  I think she's part fish!

Addi is a girl who loves the water too!

Karsyn's best friend celebrated her birthday.  We had a lot of fun at her party. The girls are a little less than 3 weeks apart, but as you can tell, there is quite a bit of size difference.  Karsyn's a tall girl!

We had a fun family lunch out.  

Hoping to soak up the rest of the summer.

The Weekend What

The kiddos and I kicked our weekend off at our favorite Friday night hangout - Addi's SLP's office.  She is continuing to make great progress.  When we wrapped things up there, the kids and I made a trip to the mall.  We had an order to pick up and we also ended up doing a little shopping for Evan.  He really needed a few new shirts. He's grown so much this school year!  I wouldn't be surprised if he's taller than me before he starts the 8th grade.  After the mall, we had McAlister's for dinner.

We got home right when Jason got off of work.  The little ladies went to bed and the rest of us stayed up and watched Netflix together.  Saturday, we spent the day doing this. And why yes, Addi is wearing the same clothes as she did the night before.  And no, I don't know why.  

When Jason got off of work Saturday evening, he started working on our dishwasher.  It was starting to sound like a helicopter and leaking water like crazy.  I was beginning to think it was time for a replacement, but after watching several Youtube videos, Jason got it working like new again.  Unfortunately, it took him until the early hours of the morning.  So, we were church skippers, because Jason really needed to rest up. That afternoon, we went on a picnic and a hike with Nana and Papa.  We had so much fun!  Payton carried our pack this time.  Here she is with Nana.

Our little family plus Papa on the bridge.

 It had rained earlier in the week, so we spotted a lot of animal tracks.  This print belongs to a deer.

 Here's our little family about half way through the hike.  There are a lot of benches along the way.  Five out of six of us are looking.  We'll count it a success.

And here's the very cute Nana and Papa.

After taking a few pics, we hiked down to the creek.  We got closer to the water's edge this time.  Papa pointed out some big turtles that were sunning on a log.

 We hiked around another ridge on the creek and saw a lot more animal tracks.  Then, we saw three Whitetail does!  That got our group pretty excited.  Before we finished up our hike, we saw a baby snake.  Jason and Papa assured us all that it was just a baby grass snake.  In all, we hiked a little over a mile and a half.  We enjoyed it so much that Papa declared it our family sport. =)  We already can't wait to get out and have more family come along with us.

I hope your weekend was great too!

Week Seven of Summer {2015}

Week 7 of summer was another full and busy week!  We celebrated the 4th of July and Karsyn's birthday.  With all of those fun things already blogged about, that leads us to Monday.  I loaded up our kiddos along with Sarah and went to the park.  To beat the heat, we decided to go early.  It was our first chance to go to the kids' favorite park this summer.  Shortly after summer break started, the park got shut down for renovations.  It recently reopened. The kids all loved the new features.

I think Payton could be on American Ninja Warrior.  She has a lot of upper body strength.

Addi loved the new bouncy balance beam.

Evan and Sarah enjoyed the new wobbly stairs. 

Getting a picture of Karsyn at the park is a near impossibility. I got a few shots of her pony tail as she was running to the next fun thing.  After we played, I took these 5 kiddos to lunch.  Later in the evening, Addi, Payton, and I picked up Aunt Jennifer and Sarah.  The girls had their very first session of Hip Hop Camp.  Here they are after class.

Tuesday morning, the kiddos all wanted donuts for breakfast.  The little donut shop in our town is the best!

It was a rainy day, so we spent the day at home until it was time for night 2 of Hip Hop Camp.  My little dance campers were looking extra tan.  Addi and Payton totally get that from their daddy.  We picked up Sarah on the way.  The girls were all so excited after class.  Payton spent the rest of the evening showing us what they learned.  She really blew me away.  I think Hip Hop might be her dance specialty.  Addi didn't want to show us what she learned.  She just wanted to dance free style.

On Wednesday, we worked on getting things together for our upcoming garage sale with Nana, Papa, and Aunt Kary.  Of course, that led us to playing out in the back yard.  This little monkey dressed herself.

In the evening, my little dancers had camp.  Here's a peak into their class.

On Thursday morning, we hit the road early, but not before we grabbed Sarah and Stephen.  A new theater opened in a town that's about half an hour away.  The theater is hosting a summer movie program where they play free movies, give out free popcorn, fruit snacks and soda.  We got a hot tip from Facebook saying to be there at least half an hour early because the line to get in is really long.  We got there 30 minutes before the movie started and ended up getting inside the last open theater.  They opened 9 total. We got seated and then Olaf and a couple of minions came by for a visit.  After they left, the curtains went up and Turbo started.  It's a really cute movie!

My crew of 6 kids

After lunch, we took Sarah and Stephen home and then spent the rest of the afternoon resting during a severe thunderstorm.  The rain cleared out in time for the last night of Hip Hop Camp.  Addi was my only camper willing to take a picture.  I got to watch all 3 girls dance tonight and they all did soooooo good!  (Call me crazy, but I think Addi looks like a young Taylor Swift in this picture, no?)

If you can believe it, school supplies are already hitting the stores.  We are down to just a handful of weeks left before the first day of school.