whew

Finally, the end of July has arrived! Not that I want to be wishing summer away or anything, but July is always filled with so many extracurriculars that it seems there's little time for sitting back and relaxing. There were soccer games two nights a week, and a week of writing class, and two Saturdays of nature photography class, and a day-long babysitter training class, and Tuesday mornings gymnastics class...

Oh, and a couple days ago, we had this:


The library had a program where the kids could come in and read to service dogs. Oh my goodness, was this a hit with the boys! At first Max was a little reluctant to read, because he's simply not very good at it yet. But once he got started, he did great and read Jenny the whole book. Gray read books to three different dogs. It really was a fun time...and all the doggies were just as sweet as could be!


Anyway, I think (aside from the boys' gymnastic classes which run through the end of August) we're past all that stuff now. So may the relaxing now commence!

(Shhh...I'm ignoring the fact that Annie's schooling year-round.)

What's going on around here?!!

This is just downright freaky, but it is after 8:00am and not a single kiddo is up and about! Normally I'm lucky if we make it till 6:30. And for that I'm generally thankful as it wasn't that long ago when one of them was usually up by 5:30. Anyway, the girls may stay zonked till noon...I have no idea what time they finally went to sleep, as they outlasted both Rich and I. Gray is actually awake and was up to go to the bathroom, but went back to his bed to read. Max, usually the first to be up and about is still sleeping soundly. Freaky, I tell you. But I'm not complaining!

I've decided to blow off Menu Plan Monday this week. I'm such a rebel, huh? LOL. Anyway, Rich has the week off between summer sessions, and when he's off we tend to run around a lot, taking lots of day trips to state parks and the like. And we're leaving Friday morning for my family reunion anyway, so I just figured a menu plan would be hard to stick to this week. Hmmm...I'm getting quite adept at rationalizing, aren't I?

On the book front...we did get to Barnes & Noble yesterday. Not a one of us left empty-handed, I'm afraid. We're simply spineless when it comes to books. I told Carl that Neil Gaiman should start giving him a cut of his royalties...and I hold fast to that opinion. I simply could not stop myself from buying M is for Magic yesterday. I told myself that I could pick out a few of the stories to use for school next year. Again with the rationalizing, huh? I'm also excited about a book I bought for Annie called Fablehaven. It sounds wonderful, and I hope I can work it into my summer reading somewhere. In other book news, in the past week, 4 of Annie's books have been requested through Paperback Swap. She'll be giddy when the books arrive at their destinations and she's able to choose 4 books for herself!

I really must get some things ready to take to the post office in the next few days. So, if you happen to read this Jean, Carl, and Carrie, hopefully you will be receiving a little something later this week.

Well, this has been another hodgepodge of unconnected ramblings, hasn't it?

nothing much

Just not much exciting going on around here the last few days. I don't even have a "words on Wednesday" post today, because I didn't come across any new words this past week. Must not have got much reading done, huh?

Anyway, evenings are still filled with soccer games. Gray scored his first goal Monday night! And days have been spent doing normal stuff. I've been working on trying to "condense" the classroom, so I can move my scrapbook stuff out there. Also been working on getting the IHIP (Individual Home Instruction Plan) ready to send into the school district for Annie's next year of homeschooling.

The kids seem to be enjoying their first week of summer vacation so far. No "I'm bored"s yet anyway. Gray, of course, spends hours each day drawing. And Annie, of course, spends the bulk of her time reading. Max, as usual, spends the majority of his time trying to annoy Gray and Annie. When failing at that endeavor, he inevitably manages to find trouble elsewhere.

Since I've nothing else to talk about, I figured I'd post a couple of layouts I completed over the last couple of weeks...



Both blasts from the past. I randomly chose a photo box, and then randomly chose a photo. How fast time flies...those pictures of Annie are from 6 years ago, and the one of Gray is 4.5 years ago. Wow. Thank heavens for photos!



And this is just a card I threw together for a friend's little girl's birthday.








And now I guess it's time to sign off from this less than exciting post. But Mom, I'll bet you at least enjoyed the pictures of the munchkins, huh?

confession

Yep, suppose I should 'fess up and admit that I didn't get nearly all I'd planned done over the weekend. I did manage to get tons of school prep work done. But all the rest of my plans, well...

I could have spent yesterday painting my craft room. But it was sooooo gorgeous outside and the gang wanted to head up to the lake to do some beach-combing. Rich offered to take them by himself, but I really wanted to spend the afternoon hanging with my little gang. Those walls aren't going anywhere, after all, right? And it really was a glorious day at the beach. We found oodles of treasures...pretty rocks, and crab claws, and pretty shells, and fish vertebrae, and feathers... An absolutely perfect family day!

And speaking of perfect days, this is how Annie spent her Saturday morning...

Spending the whole morning outside reading...she was in heaven!

And Maxidoodle had a great time this afternoon...his first play date. Alec, his sweet little friend from preschool, came over. My heart just melted...they were so adorable to watch! Max and Gray are both shy little fellows, polar opposites of Annie with her outgoing, gregarious ways. So it's always nice to see either of the boys having so much fun with a friend of their own.

Well, I suppose I should go get my rolls prepared and onto the baking sheets to rise. Then maybe I'll be back to post about yet another reading challenge that Annie and I want to participate in. Yep, you read that right. What is my problem?!!

munch, munch, munch

Yes, that sound you hear is me eating my words! I promised Baker I would set the record straight. Our paunchy little pooch passed his doggie training final. He even has the certificate to prove it. (Frankly, I think the teacher, who also happens to be our next door neighbor, just loves him and fudged his scores a bit...but don't tell Baker I said that, o.k.?)

Another update--there still have been no actual broken bones since the discovery of swing jumping. But there is a bruise about as big around as a saucer on Gray's leg. And Max is sporting a nice fat split lip. Miss Annie is still unscathed...because she's too scared to jump from more than about a foot off the ground (and believe me, this is just as well!).




And, totally unrelated to anything, we made a successful haul from the thrift store today...5 shirts and a book for Annie, 4 shirts and a light sweatshirt and a book and a pair of boots (to grow into) for Gray, 3 shirts for Max, a book and a pair of shoes for Rich, and a pair of shorts and a shirt and a pair of shoes for me...all for 38 dollars!

oh no...she's rambling again

*5 minutes of peace. Is that too much to ask? In this house, yes. I take short showers, usually about 5 minutes. Well, this morning, during that 5 minutes, each and every child felt the need to come in and disturb me with an "emergency". Annie felt compelled to let me know that she wanted to shower this morning, Max wanted to know if he could have a yellow rubber band, and Gray, with the closest thing to an actual emergency, came in stark naked to let me know he couldn't get his closet door open and thus couldn't get his clothes. I know, I know, I suppose I should lock the bathroom door...but in typical worrywart fashion, I imagine all manner of disastrous situations that might develop, and thus feel compelled to leave the door unlocked so they can have access to me should a real emergency arise. The problem being we have very different ideas of what a real emergency is.



*Our porky little piglet went to the vet yesterday. We've been concerned that Baker might have a thyroid problem. Vet said she wouldn't be surprised. But she also said beagles can be prone to being overweight. We should know later this week. And tonight is the night that Baker will fail his dog training "final exam". No, I'm not being pessimistic; I'm simply being realistic.






*Was hoping to finish Inkheart this week, which, by the way, I am enjoying thoroughly. But then reality reared its ugly head, and I realized that I need to read Just Jane for our upcoming literature unit. Started it last night, and I must admit I'm enjoying it as well, though it's quite different from my usually reads.


*Annie had a wonderful birthday weekend! Thank you everyone, for all the sweet birthday wishes!















*I've continued plugging away on my "craft room" for the 30 Day Organizational Challenge, but I'm beginning to doubt that I'll finish in time. I've decided to really do things right, so in the end, I hope it will be well worth it. On Saturday, Rich tore down the horribly ugly, crumbling drop ceiling that was in there. And then I spent nearly an hour vacuuming out all the cobwebs, etc. that had been hidden up above. But beyond that, I didn't make much progress over the weekend. But hey, it was Easter and Annie's birthday, right?

*The kids have discovered what great fun it is jumping off the swing. (How we managed to keep this great joy of childhood from them for so long is beyond me!) But back to the worrywart mommy, but I'm just waiting for a broken arm here this morning while Rich has the van off for its "check-up"...thus no way to transport mangled child to the ER.

Okay, guess it's time to cease this incessant babbling, and go accomplish something.

Saturday round-up

*Max started his Soccer Tots class. We were a bit worried...he's nervous about starting new things, the class had actually started three weeks ago so the other kids would already be a bit more comfortable with it all, and as much as he keeps telling us that he wants to play soccer, when we told him we signed him up for this, he started bawling and saying he didn't want to do it. But all turned out well. He was nervous, and even cried at one point. But he really did have fun, and joined in on every activity and game. And he actually seems to have some innate talent, too.

*While Rich and Max were at the soccer class, we had a candy hunt. Annie, Gray, and a neighborhood friend of Annie's asked if I would hide candy all around the yard for them to find. I told them I didn't have any wrapped candy, so they all went off and raided their stashes. They gave me this big bag they managed to gather up, and I proceeded to hide it all over our front yard. They had an absolute ball searching it out and then trading what they found. What an easy way to keep them amused for an hour...and it was all with candy they already owned anyway!

*Managed to get a little bit of work done for the coming school week. Still have quite a bit to do today though. Anyone have an ecology test I could borrow?

*Went to the Lamberton Conservatory. All of us, even the boys, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It's small, but very nice. The boys, who originally moaned and whined about the idea of going and looking at a bunch of plants, actually requested to go through a second time...and we did. Took a lot of photos, but haven't loaded them to the computer yet, so I'll have to wait until later to post a few. (This was actually a field trip for Annie...she was looking for examples of plants that would grow in various biomes.)

*Our basketball watching came to a bitter end, with Memphis's loss to Ohio State. Oh well. Usually those last few minutes of a game are so exciting, but in that game, they were simply depressing.

*Rich and I watched a little more of The Stand last night. While watching, I finished up Annie's scarf. Yeah!

In one way or another...

all kids are absolutely incredible! And yesterday was Absolutely Incredible Kids Day.

To celebrate this year, we took the kids out to eat to a buffet they all love. And during supper, Rich and I took turns telling each of them some of the things we thought makes them each incredible...


Annie:
*your insatiable thirst for knowledge
*your love of other cultures
*the way you find the good in others
*your moral conscience (for example, your refusal to eat meat











Gray:
*your abundant creativity
*your gifts of observation
*your always outstanding behavior in school
*your meticulousness














Max:
*your overwhelming sweetness
*your gracefulness
*your helpfulness
*your silliness













After supper, we took them to the mall and let them each choose a stuffed animal. I tried to get a photo of the three of them with their new buddies...but they were being absolutely incredibly uncooperative kids.

a brand spanking new meme

Just stumbled across a totally new meme. And this week's was so easy to answer that I just had to play.

Tina's Tuesdays for March 13, 2007:

*Topic: Children
1.Do you have children? If not do you want them?
--Yes, I am extremely blessed.
2.How many do you have or would like?
--I have 3 sweet (well, most of the time) little munchkins living here with us. One sweet munchkin who died before he was born.
3. What are the names?
--Annie, Gray, and Maxwell. And Casey.

going to get our baby!

Been an awfully busy day here...trying to finish up this week's "schooling", making special cupcakes for my dad's birthday, and getting us packed. As soon as Gray gets off the bus, we're heading to my parents to pick up our Maxidoodle!

My gosh, have we missed the little bugger! In a lot of ways, life has been easier and less stressful around here without him, but it's also felt empty and not nearly as fun!

We're not even sure he wants us to come and get him. He's apparently been having soooooo much fun with the 24/7 attention and spoiling he's been getting from Grammy and Papa.

But the trip has been a success. Nothing short of miraculous, if you ask me. We took him there in a last ditch effort to get him to use the potty. He's 4 1/4 years old...I'd say that's past time to give up diapers. I've had people say he's not the only one to wait this long. But no one seems to actually know anyone personally.

Oops...Gray is home. So we've got to run. Will continue when we get home tomorrow.

A wonderful weekend to all!