Lunch date

I had a lunch date today with two of my favorite first graders and my little man!

 

 

 

I love that our school allows and encourages lunch dates!

 

 

I also love that Maggie and Isaac have the same lunch so I can spend time with my nephew too!

We ALMOST got a new pet today

We went to a farm today and had so much fun! I have many pictures I will eventually share but for now I will just share this one.
We ALMOST got a new pet today! Well, here's what happened, Connor was drawn to the baby goat area where you could sit and hold baby goats. The three times he went this baby goat ended up on his lap and would settle in and fall fast asleep. Pretty much every other time, every other goat, with any other kid, lasts a few seconds because te baby goats want to wander and play not sit on kids laps. But not this baby goat, oh he was so sweet! We named Connor the "goat whisperer" which thrilled him.
So Connor at one point said to me, "can I pleeeeeaaaassseee have a pet goat???". And my answer was, "how about this, if you can have THIS baby goat you can have a pet goat.". Well didn't I quickly eat my words when the person working there said, "they are up for adoption"! Oh crumb-buckets gotta take back that answer! Sorry Connor but no, you can't have a pet goat, since, ya know, we don't have a barn and all!
But if we did, I totally would drive down there tomorrow to bring that sweet baby home!

Weekend at the beach!

What great fun we had with our friends when we all went down for a weekend at the beach!

My bestie had given me this idea for "glow stick figures" and the kids LOVED it!

So much fun! 

 

We did some mini golfing after dinner and the kids had so much fun although none of them actually followed the rules!  But hey, rules aren't what it's all about, fun is!

Oh, my sweet Caylee girl!  How I love her sweet face and her stripes bathing suit!

Dinners on the grill!

 

 Sucking on lemon contests!

 

Walking around town after dinner!  Ice creams and candy in hand!

 

Spending the day at the beach hunting for all kinds of creatures!

 

 

Relaxing in the swing!

 

Watching Caylee have her first ice cream cone and swatting her mom's hand away whenever she tried to take it! 

Just hanging out and chatting with great friends!

Katie and Savannah

We went down to play at Auntie Neala's house and were able to visit with some animals while we were there.  Which if you have even read three posts from my blog in the last three years you know is my children's favorite past time.

This is Savanah, she is their very sweet dog!

Just two houses down there is a miniture horse farm that we love to visit!

Standing on the fence, or on the ground, wherever we can see best.

The miniture horses come over and say hello.

Ben watches contently waiting for the horse to come see him. 

Even Savanah and the horse say hello.

So sweet!

Then back at the house the kids do a little snuggling with Lucky the orange cat.

He has the coloring and huge paws of a of a tiger and the patience of a saint!

Then on the way out I was admiring the beautiful bush filled with flowers just like this. Which has nothing to do with animals but I wanted to put on here anyway!

Another fun visit at Auntie Neala's!

Yes, the big boys were there also but Drew and Connor were, as Drew put it, "Come on Connor, we gotta go save the world!"  My favorite quote of the day!

Ben gets brave

The other day I mentioned that the three older kids are wild and crazy about all the creatures they have been catching this summer.

What I didn't mention is that Ben wants NOTHING to do with such things!  He looks from afar but would not go anywhere near the creatures.

That is until now!  I walked outside to see him getting really close and watched him do some creature catching of his own.

I couldn't believe my eyes but pictures don't lie.

He got really close, like basically climbing into the habitat that the big kids created for the tiny toads they caught.

He was even starting to pick them up and move them from habitat to habitat.

(Although, this is not his hand, it's actually Maggie's)

( And yes, Maggie is still in her jammies, outside.  Drives me a little crazy when she does that.)

Maggie and Ben looked all through the habitat to find each tiny toad.  They are good at hiding under the small rocks, grass, and moss.

 Then when you find one you have to be quick to catch it!

 After they caught them they moved them to a different habitat next door.

 This guy as nothing to do with the above post but I thought it was a neat picture and wanted to share!

Way to go my brave Ben!

(Although, I will add, I don't think he has touched another frog, toad, or salamander since.)

Swim Team

The girls have been on swim team since the beginning of the year.  They swam last summer too but then took the fall off for soccer.  This year was different though as they did more of the meets.  Last year they were new to the sport and we just wanted to get their feet in the water persay.

This summer though, Katelyn stepped up and began swimming in the "age group" level which practices five days a week.  She loved it! Maggie continued on where she was and practiced three days a week.  This spring and summer also brought a number of meets that the girls participated in and had a blast.

Katelyn has decided the butterfly is one of her favorite strokes and has been told by many people that she does a beautiful butterfly stroke!  Her coach even told her that she reminds him of her dad when he swam which made Katelyn very proud!

We love going and watching the girls swim.  Well, Chris and I do, the boys are kinda dragged along.  They enjoy watching their sisters swim but the very long stretches in between, not so much. Fortunately they usually find something to do to occupy the time. 

Maggie has a beautiful backstroke!  She's gotta figure out a way to stay in the middle of the lane and not "ping-pong" but the stroke she's got down!

 

Like I said, there is a lot of time in between events, like hours some times! So we just hang out.

But I will tell you, it's well worth it.  I LOVE watching these girls swim!

 

At the last meet Katelyn won her heat for the first time and we were very excited for her.  She beamed!  She was very proud to place 8th in her 50 free, 6th in her 100 free, 6th in the 50 fly, and third in both relays. Also she scored points for her team in all of her events which helped them to come in second place.

Maggie is more of a laid back kind of swimmer. She's got the strokes but isn't in a real rush to get to the other side.  But, she really enjoys it so that is what really matters.  I have a feeling it's gonna click one day and she is gonna take off. 

Oh, and during our spare time, holding a baby is always something Maggie would love doing!

Have I said that I LOVE watching these girls swim?  Oh, I did, well that's ok, I said it again!

Hanging out with friends is a great way to spend the day too!

And by the end of the day we are all wiped!  Thankfully daddy has strong arms and a cozy shoulder for the youngest fan! 

Fun with friends to kick off summer

It is surely not a secret that I am very behind on blogging. As was seen just the other day when I finally blogged about Connor turning 8.

But sometimes I look back on pictures and even though they are not new I must get them into my blog!

Like these taken on Memorial day when our good friends came over with their two little girls.

I mean, look at these pictures of Ben and Caylee reading together, even blurry they are simply adorable!

And then there's Leah, seriously, she's precious.  And oh, what a great personality this little girl has!  She reminds me often of my Maggie.

I wish I had gotten a better shot of Connor playing with Caylee through the glass door. OMGoodness it was too cute for words.

Don't you just want to eat this girl up???  She is one of the happiest babies ever!

This is Katelyn comforting Ben because he was upset when I wouldn't let him crawl down the stairs, head first, like a dog...  Yep, sometimes I have to be a meanie....

It was the perfect kickoff weekend to summer.

Filled with smiles and happy kids.

Along with a little mischief here and there, like Connor climbing up the outside of the deck stairs and being quickly told to get down!  Go figure I get a good picture of him finally and he's doing something naughty!

Love days like this!