Life is Good

Life is fast.  

We are at about 34ish days til school starts.

Our family enjoyed an outing to a fun, local water park this past weekend.  The kids had a great time on the big slides and lazy river.

The kids and I had a great mini trip to Houston last week to visit with Grandma & Bepaw.

It was wonderful to hang out at their house and give the kids some outdoor freedom. We rode bikes all over the neighborhood and to the pool.

I slept in my room and slept great, as I always do there.

I loved being with my mom and dad. I'm very thankful for them.

Conleigh outside the Wunche Brothers Cafe in Old Town Spring.  See the train chuggin' by?

Conleigh is thoroughly enjoying her week of acting camp.  She has not complained at all! That is rare for her. The first day she was a tad disappointed because they aren't having a couple of the characters from Annie that she was hoping to be, aka Grace - Daddy Warbuck's sidekick.  She will be one of the orphan's, Kate, as luck would have it.  There are 19 kids in the camp and 18 are girls. Don't you know that 18 girls went to camp Monday hoping to be Annie?

She said they are learning some choreographed dances and songs.  It is hard work and she is loving it.

I can't wait to see the show on Friday.

Peter is enjoying the evening tonight with some work colleagues at the RR Express game.

I am super thrilled to be done with the required conference calls and randomly being called on to demo technology. This exercise took the place of the national sales meeting that I have attended for the last 15 years.  I like it this way for sure!

 

Alex participated in the Space Race with Boy Scouts. He painted and made this little rocket and they raced them in the school cafeteria.

Last night I went to see the movie BERNIE with the girls from Sunday school. Highly recommend! 

It was hilarious!

Tonight the kids and I watched Big Miracle with Drew Barrymore.

Alex has moved into the next stage of correcting his teeth.  Doesn't this contraption look comfortable? Poor kid.  He will wear this for a year. We crank it every other day to expand his palette. He is a trooper and learning what he can eat and what gets stuck in that thing.

Life is good!

Randoms

Five Alive at Krispy Kreme on a Saturday morning.

Besties since they were 18 months old.

Who can resist this girl?

Recap

The week flew by.

Campbell got sicky sick last Monday night. Poor baby. She was in barf-ville, thus, we were all in barf-ville. No sleep for us on Monday night.

She still felt rotten on Tuesday and missed her drill team camp. 

You know a girl is feeling lousy when she doesn't want to d.a.n.c.e.

Thankfully, she was as good as new on Wednesday. I headed to Kerrville to pick up Conleigh. The other mom whose daughter was there and I rode together. It was a great visit and a good time to get to know her better. I was also glad she was driving. :)

We arrived right on time. Girls were very happy. I was so happy they had a good time. After worship, singing, and goodbyes to their counselors and new friends, we headed out.

Within an hour of being home, Conleigh declared boredom! 

C: "It's so boring here - not being at camp."

Mom: "I am so glad you are home."

C: "Mom, I totally could have stayed longer, like a whole week or two. 

Mom, I'm growing up."

Thursday we got to see Campbell Shake it Up with the Westwood Sun Dancers. She was a few steps behind the whole time, but she looked cute and was acting big. 

The kids all went to Acrotex for camp on Friday. I sat and worked for five hours straight, and I have a lot more to do.  The Summer of Learning where we watch videos and take tests over our product content and technology ends this Friday. I gotta get movin'. Then, next week we have conference calls where we get called on and have to demo on the spot. Eek. I'm already dreading it.

We had nothing on our weekend calendar which is ah-mazing!  Grace & Katie came & spent the night on Friday. It was pouring rain. All the kids went out to the trampoline and got beyond soaked. After pizza, lots of silliness ensued.

Conleigh & Katie during the fashion show.

Henry & Alex in the wild, wild west.

I was super duper tired on Friday night and fell asleep in bed before all the kids. Sweet Peter took care of getting everyone in their place.

Saturday morning we went to Krispy Kreme.

The below picture doesn't do justice to the hilarity of this picture.  The grils were getting snapped, and Alex tried to photo bomb, but he jumped and fell through the gate into the serving side of the KK counter. You can barely see him on the left. It was super funny.

After church today, Alex and I took a bike ride. We rode through the neighborhood and took a few breathing breaks. People zoom through out hood, up and down the hills. I was panting after one hill.  We had a good time, and biked up to Subway and ate lunch together.

This afternoon Peter took the kids to Main Event so they could rock climb. I stayed here and worked. Then, the rains came and we all settled in to watch Edward Scissorhands.

Once again, the children couldn't resist the rain, and put on their bathing suits and enjoyed a few raindrops.  It was lightning and thundering though, so that adventure was shortlived.

Conleigh & Alex are jumping from the loud clap of thunder. Campbell is busy collecting roly-polys.

And, that's a wrap!

Convo with Alex

Alex: "Mom, do you miss Conleigh?"

Mom: "Yes. I do. I really miss her."

Alex: "I can't believe you miss her. You just dropped her off yesterday."

Mom:  "Do you miss her?"

Alex: "No! I'm happy!"

A Few Words & A Few Pictures

We took Conleigh to Mt. Wesley in Kerrville yesterday.

She was very excited. I was surprised when there were only 20 kids registered.

I really hope she is having fun. I couldn't sleep last night. She was on my mind.

She has a friend from church there with her and the girls were excited to choose 

their beds and get settled.

Conleigh & Alex chose beds near the door. There are 15 girls in the cabin.

We walked around the camp before check-in. 

Alex & Campbell stayed in Austin with friends. The day was a lot longer than I anticipated, so I was happy they were not on the long ride to and from Kerrville.

On our way back, we detoured to Luckenbach.  Peter and I had never been there, and it was not out of the way at all. We both liked it. Totally laid back, with people playing guitars, a small shop, bar, and carnival food.  We had a beer and got on the road again.

Today Campbell started her drill team camp and then her friend Keira came home with us. They played and then we went to gymnastics.  Alex had soccer this morning, so I got some work knocked out.  This evening we had a glorious storm. A real thunderstorm.  I can feel the grass, trees and flowers smiling.

Our swim team banquet was this evening.  We are proud of all our kids for their hard work on Sharks this year. They got medals this year instead of trophies. I like it.

Campbell wasn't feeling too well, so she said she could only lie down and have her legs crunched up for the picture. You can see the bowl...just in case.

goodnight

Weekend News

 Birthday party at the skating rink!  Nash celebrated his 7th today, and our family was there to help ring it in!

Campbell and her new friend Sadie.

Conleigh won the skating races for 10 and under girls today. She and Emma enjoyed skating.

It was wonderful to not have anywhere to be this morning. Peter bought a lot of mulch and got busy mulching our front yard.  I washed clothes and the kids played on the trampoline.  After lunch, we headed for the birthday party of the weekend.  This evening we ate at Torchy's with the Schultz's.  

Tomorrow we head to Kerrville to take Conleigh to her first overnight camp. She's a little nervous. I hope it is a great start to many years of summer camp.

Independence Day Mantle

 Happy 4th of July!

I like to decorate my mantel.  Honestly though, before I set up this patriotic display, there were still Easter decorations on it.

 Per ususal, I got most of the decorations at Goodwill.  I saw this big tin star there back in June. It had some hideous paint job on it. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the before. Anyway, for the $4.99 price tag, I knew I could make it work. What better than my favorite Cherry Red spray paint (Krylon) to make it pop for the 4th of July.

I found this free printable on a blog. God Bless America...land that I love.  I wish I had bookmarked where I found it, so I could give credit where credit is due. I had it printed at Walgreen's and framed it. The big American flag is something that was passed on to Peter. It was his grandfather's and has flown over the White House. It is really, really big and usually is in a closet. I thought I'd put it out for the holiday.  Inside the jar, is some random red,white & blue fabric. 

Finally, here is my home-made bunting. I had everything here and if you don't look too closely, it looks alright. I had some burlap, so I eyed it and cut out the above shape. Then I took my favorite Cherry Red spray paint and sprayed some of the pieces. I had some blue paint that I just sponged onto the other pieces. We had some white yarn, Elmer's glue, and waa-laah! Bunting!

Our family plans to spend the afternoon at our swimming pool and then see some fireworks!

Happy 4th! God Bless America!