Big Brother

I am always amazed at the softness and kindness Ethan shows towards his little sisters. 

Particularly the littlest of the littles.

(This photo was taken so very late at night when I had reached my absolute capacity with bedtime craziness and needy children. Ethan offered to watch her while I corralled the others and it completely saved my bacon.)

Spontaneous abundance

The garden is in production mode. Nature is making an appearance.

This year I had quite a few "volunteer" plants come up in the compost pile and the garden that was last years compost pile. The think they were mostly Romas and grape tomatoes.

They were....abundant.

I make tomato deliveries tonight!

Time to return

Mathew was TOTALLY on board with "It's your first day of school!" photos this year.

He was lovin it.

Meg was excited. She was geared up. She had her favorite new outfit on....I was just hoping she wouldn't pass out...seeing as it was still crazy hot outside. Fashion comes at a price, I suppose.

Laney's first day isn't until the next day, but we couldn't resist posing with the huge bee. HuH? I don't remember having life-size mascots available for photo opportunities on my first day at Barnett.

Nope. Don't remember that.

Megan scored a great 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Mowrey.

Mathew also got a great teacher, Ms. Frieberg....but still seemed a little less than excited about my presence in his classroom.

I let him know that if it would help, I'd sing him a little song just to make sure his year would start off on the right foot.

Ethan is in 7th grade this year so he and Laney (first time kindergartener!) got an extra day at home.

The next morning we were out on the porch ready to go!

Ethan has his Beast Mode....ON.

Laney is sporting her sparkly pink sneakers.

And the assurance that she is not going to look completely out of place on her first day.

The littles are ready for the Parental Zombie Walk to the elementary...I'm telling you...it's weird. It's like everyone just stumbles out of their front doors and shuffles down the street with the promise of peace and quiet awaiting them back at home for the first time in months.

Not me! HAHAHAHAHA!

(silently crying)

After school we pick cantaloupes. And then we pose with those canteloupes. Because...

uh....

we can.

There's a sport that involves swordplay

When I brought up the idea of the boys doing fencing as their summer sport...

I think they were thinking, "She must be messing with us....that's not a thing."

"And then they got extremely exited and I became the BEST MOM IN THE WORLD" for like two whole days.

It totally beats going to practices and games 2-3 times a week and baking in the hot sun all summer. Instead, I would drop them off and go down the block to the fancy new Hy-Vee and get myself an assortment of baked goods to enjoy while I sat in the parking lot waiting for them. I highly recommend the Mint Chip cupcakes and the Coconut Lime cupcakes. Hea....ven....

Summer...in the truest sense of the word

Even though we do our level best to make our summers fun and fantastic and memorable, my favorite part is always the stuff we end up doing in between.

While we are waiting to leave for church...

A quick game of "Bust the Eardrums"

Trying to pop Dad's toes...

Re-purposing the branches after Dad prunes the trees.

Guitar with Dad.

Breakfast in bed...you should have seen the kitchen!

Playing jail...or zoo...or crated dog...or pound...or pet store...

Brother pillow.

Trying to get a tan on my legs while letting the baby sleep in the shade. The kids were kind enough to pour cups of pool water over my feet when I couldn't take the heat :)

Going fishing

Attacking Dad with our marshmallow catapults.

Raiding the Halloween buckets.

Sister secrets.

Crazy eights...

Lots and lots of snow cones....

Rescuing the baby bunny from the window well. 

Free slurpees on July 11th. (7-11 day!)

This is the stuff that makes the summer good.

Summer Adventures part 2

Relaxing days at the pool...

Making sun catchers from plastic beads.

A bagel run. 5 of the 5 solid food eaters chose cinnamon sugar bagels.

Swimming lessons with the Optimist Swim Club.

Kung Fu Panda 2...using our "Buy the big popcorn and drink combo and then ask for boxes and smaller cups in order to share it all out and then go back for refills" method.

Kaleidoscope with the McCauleys

Creating t-shirts with crayon/sandpaper iron transfers.

The giant backyard slip n slide.

Power Play and Minsky's Pizza with the Allreds.

Deanna Rose Farmstead

Basement mural.

Science City.

Wowsers....