July 4th

To celebrate Independence Day this year we went back to Tennessee for a long weekend. Jason's brother had four days off but the Army would only let him travel so far, so we decided to go to them instead. We took turns having girls day and guys day. My sister-in-law and I spent a really fun day together....clothes shopping, lunch, winery tour/tasting, more shopping and coffee.

The guys spent a day fishing. I have no idea why or how they had matching shirts.

The kids went fishing, too.

We all went out for a very hot and muggy evening of beautiful fireworks over the Cumberland River.

See the little faces in those windows? That's the jail. I guess if there's such a thing as having a prime cell, these people have it.

We dressed up the kids

There were lots of afternoons in the water with popsicles.

And in Tennessee it's legal to buy and set off your own fireworks, so we had our own fireworks show two nights in a row. Jason and Jeremy tried to pretend they bought the fireworks for the kids, but in the end we all knew that when they said kids they were referring to themselves. The pink smoke was for the little girls, though.

Of course on the way home we had to stop in Newport, Kentucky to eat dinner at Pompilio's. Yum, Italian!

Parental Celebrations

So I'm a little behind with my posts for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Yes, I realize it's now mid-July, but I figured better late than not at all.

For a long time now I've been wanting to go to the paint-your-own pottery store to make a family birthday plate. I thought it would be a neat tradition for the birthday person at our house to get to use it on their special day. My mom's group went there for an outing but I knew I'd never have time to complete one, so I ended up making this plate....

I love it, but it doesn't fulfill the purpose I needed, so for Mother's Day my mom and I went to a different pottery store to each make something. We had lots of fun painting as we drank big fountain Coke's and ate Arby's. No one at my house likes Arby's so sometimes it's my special treat to eat when I'm with my mom. My mom made a plate to match her kitchen and I made my birthday plate. It took me 6 long hours, but I'm happy with the result. It takes a lot of coats to get that paint dark.

The kids made each of their grandmas a decoupaged vase and we went to Jason's parents for a cookout. Jason and the kids also made me breakfast in bed. I forgot to take pictures of all that. I remembered to take pictures of these though.....

For Father's Day the kids painted some canisters and we made all the grandpas some cinnamon-sugar popcorn.

We went to dinner for gyros with my step-dad and mom and then Jason's parents, his sister and boyfriend and my dad and step-mom came for a cookout. Jason treated himself to some private fishing time and the kids and I made him a few gifts.

Not sure where we're going to put the stepping stone, but I made sure it was LSU colors.

June no more

Where has the time gone? The first week of July is already over. Here's a quick summary for the end of June.....

The kids made their own kites. Out of coloring book pages and yarn. On a day with absolutely no wind. As Xander would say, we like to be "resourceful" here by using what we have on hand.

We have a garden this year. If you could call it that. It's about a 5' x 5' square Jason tilled for me that I filled with WAY too many plants. I have a LOT of lettuce, so I decided we'd have taco salad one night. There might be other vegetables out there as well, but if so I can't find them.

The kids went to a birthday party for our neighbor, Megan. It was a candy-themed party and the kids were super excited that I let them eat a bunch of yummy junk food. Xander's girlfriend was there AND he won a game. It was a banner day for him.

We've had out the pool.

Jordis hid from the camera, as usual, though getting creative this time in her escape. I thought I had her cornered on my mom and step-dad's porch, and then she just climbed right up on their garden hose reel.

Yep, that about sums up the end of the month. July is super-busy, so stay-tuned.

Backyard Bible School

The week before last the kids attended Backyard Bible School. It's a program similar to Vacation Bible School, but different people hold it in their backyard for four days. The activities director at the nursing home where we attend story time holds it there so the residents can enjoy the kids, and then the last day is at her home. The theme was Son Harvest County Fair and this is what the kids decided to wear on the second day when they were told to try and dress up like cowboys and cowgirls. We probably could have come up with something a little better had they enlisted my help, but they felt pretty cool with these outfits so I just let them do their thing.

By the last day they had learned a bunch of songs and bible verses, which they still know, and they also made fun crafts and ate candy. I attended the last day at Ms. Connie's house and it was quite the affair. She has four acres so there was a lot of room for the 40 or so kids to run around. There was a ring toss, boomerang throwing, balloon toss, and a few other games.

At the end of the day some of the kids got to smash whipped cream pies in the faces of the teenage helpers. The rest of the kids got to "clean" them off with water guns and water balloons. Xander smashed a balloon over this girl's head.

Miss Connie has a slide on the side of her garage and a rope swing that capped off their adventurous week.

Polar Bears

Our zoo opened a new polar bear exhibit this spring and the kids have been so excited to check it out. The weather seems to not cooperate on Jason's days off, or we've had plans, but we were finally able to make it there yesterday. Jason didn't get to go with us since he was at work, but my dad was on break from teaching and wanted to go so we took him with us. We got there shortly after the zoo opened and went straight to see the twin bears, Aurora and Anana.

The coolest part of Polar Frontier is that you can go underground and watch the bears swim over you. They're so cute when they swim!

Next we went to the reptile building. Jordis spent the whole morning talking about how she couldn't wait to pet the snake, but when we got there she refused to do it becaue a man was holding it instead of a woman. Xander pet it this time though, which is rare.

Next we went to see the manatees, which have also had some additions lately. There are six of them now, including some babies.

After some recreation time at the playground it was starting to get warm and we were getting hungry, so we left the zoo and went to Subway. The kids said they weren't ready to leave, but they complained all the way to the car that it was too much walking, so I know we picked a good time go to. They both ate a 6-inch sub and a bag of chips, more than I ate.

It's official

We have a first grader at our house. Got his grade card the other day and it's written right on there. We're so proud of his accomplishments in literacy and reading, especially his sight words. He was supposed to know 50 by the end of the year and he knew 85. He's also reading one level higher than expected and socred above-average in math. I don't recall reading or knowing any math in kindergarten so I'm pretty impressed. Just need to work on a few behavioral issues and using a ruler and hopefully things will go well for him this next school year. Here he is with his diploma.

The week before school was out he got to practice eating lunch at school in preparation for being there all day next year. Luckily I had bought his lunch box in advance and he was so excited to try it out.

Looking forward to enjoying our summer together before he goes off to big-kid school.

Feeling crafty

I love doing projects, but what usually ends up happening is that I've got 5 projects going on and none of them ever get to completion. So imagine my surprise when I finally finished these within two weeks of each other.

My first project was making Jordis some customized capri pants. She can wear size 3 pants around the waist but they're too short and her size 4 pants are long enough but don't stay up. Something gave me the idea that I could jazz up an old pair of Xander's size 3 jeans and make her something cute to wear, so I gave it a try.

I cut off the bottom portion of the legs and then cut out some shapes to cover the holes that were forming in the knees. I cut out a flower shape and a letter J. Since I'm horrible at cutting anything straight I decided to fringe the bottom to mask my scissor-wielding. I cut the slits and then sewed some ribbon around each leg. Then I sewed on the patches and fringed the bottoms.

I sewed on some buttons and then put a few on the back pockets as well. Jordis loves them!

My next project was to frame some pictures Xander had drawn at school. I actually have had this lying in my dining room for months now and finally made myself put it together over the Memorial Day weekend.

Xander came home from school one day with these little squares he had drawn faces on. He told me they were monsters. I thought they were adorable and knew I couldn't just put them in his schoolwork binder, so I concocted a plan to preserve them. I found a frame and then some scrapbook paper to match and set out cutting and measuring to make everything fit. I did not inherit my father's math skills so this was, of course, the most difficult part. One of the squares is a little smaller than the rest, but Xander loved how it turned out and can't wait to hang it in his room.