Home Alone!

Today is a milestone. Big D is at preschool and I'm not at work!  Yea!!!  It's just me.  I miss him -  he loves to have lunch with me, to run errands (most of the time - as long as it doesn't involve clothes) and take cat naps in the afternoon, or that is, quietly watch Blue's Clues while I take a cat nap.  Is he really that old?  Has time really passed by that quickly?  But, he is in LOVE with preschool, and it was long overdue.  He is so proud to be old enough to have a backpack and go to a school that we drive past.  Every time we go past he says with a very confident smile, and a raise of the eyebrows, 'That's my school!'. 

So, I'm home alone. Amazing! I keep finding myself looking over my shoulder, or pausing and trying to remember where Big D went ... and then it hits me, he's at preschool! I miss him, but I'm enjoying time to just BE. Just be me - finishing up a project, or starting several, cleaning the house, weeding the yard, thinking about dinner, shopping at the store, sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing, just me without responsibility for a few hours - no work, no kids, no husband. It's a good thing.

Our neighbors are moving ... only a couple more weeks.  I am going to miss them, and so are my children!  Miss Lilly got a new bedroom set from them.  She is loving it.   She has a nicer bedroom than I do ...

And, did you know that JCPenny is giving kids free haircuts during the month of August?!  All you have to do it make an appointment!
Well, we went yesterday ... they all needed them badly!

And now they all look so grown up to me!  I kept looking at Master S - they cut his hair kinda like the boys have it cut in 'Leave it to Beaver'.  Anyone remember that show?  Anyway, it looks good on him, just throws me.  And Miss Lilly cut off inches!  AHHH!  It does look super cute though!

1st Day of School!

 If Master S looks a little tired ... he is!  After a whole day at Holiday World with some good friends on Tuesday, we was invited to another smaller waterpark in Carmel with them on Wednesday.  After meet and greet with the teachers last night at school it was bright and early today when he had to get out of bed.  Nothing like leaving summer break with a bang!

 Big D, Miss Lilly and I went to see a free showing of "The Lorax" for our last day of summer.  Cute movie at a great little theater in Danville (The Royal).

 Can't believe how big they seemed this morning.  This is Master S' last year before Middle School!  AHHHH!  And Big D starts preschool in a few weeks.  'Enjoy the moment' is my mantra right now.  On my calendar for the month there is this quote ... "It is only possible to live happily ever after on a daily basis."  Which speaks to me of the need to focus on the things you can do now and the joy you can feel now ... not when you get paid more, or live in a bigger house or the kids are finally getting up on their own or making their own lunches.  Easy to say - so hard to do!

Staying Cool

 Went to the library today, in efforts to stay out of the heat.  We are wilting ... stopped at Walmart for something cool to eat.  Found some fun frozen juice flavors and made some smoothies! 

 Just blend some ice, a little water and a couple spoonfuls of froxen juice concentrate ...

 YUM!

Also made some shrinky dinks ... haven't done that in forever - super fun!

Birthday Trip

My Birthday was extra special this year ... I got to see my brother and his delightful family!  We met in Cleveland, OH as it was exactly the same distance for both of us to travel ... I think we've found some great places the check out in future 'meet in the middle' reunions.  The kids had a blast with their cousins and I really did have a  fabulous birthday! 

Our first stop was Kirtland, OH.  I had never been there and it is a significant place for us, as it is a historic place for the LDS church.  The first temple was built there, although it is no longer owned by the church.  The school of the prophets was held in the upper rooms of the N.K. Whitney store.  It was a beautiful place and it was great to cross it off my 'list'.

We also went to the 'beach' on Lake Erie -- those pictures are on J.D.'s phone though and I'll post them later.  I think the kids thought that was the best part of the whole trip!  Sand, sun and water.  For lunch, my sister-in-law surprised me and got a cake for me :)  That night we got tickets to a Cleveland Indians game, which was GREAT!  Plus they had fireworks and music from the Beatles ... for 30 minutes following the game - the perfect birthday gift!   

 Sunday we got the kids dressed and went to church - tried to get a picture ... how do you get six kids to hold still all at once?!?

 On the way home ... All in all a fabulous way to spend a birthday!

Dog Days of Summer

Most people who have lived in Indiana their whole lives have not seen it get above 100 degrees - and if it does, it happens maybe once a summer.  Usually getting into the 90's is a rare thing, although that lack of direct heat is always made up for with the over abundance of humidity, that makes it feel like it is in the 90's and 100's in a usual summer.  This year has been an exception.  It is crazy dry and crazy HOT.  A friend told me a few weeks ago that there has been more 90 degree days this year in Indiana than in the last 20 years combined!   We are under drought conditions unlike anything in the last 100 years, with water restrictions in place, and no watering the lawn is allowed, only veggie gardens and some flowers, trees that are younger than 5 years ... the whole Indiana corn and soybean crops are severely affected.  We are praying for rain and fasting with our church on Sunday for rain, that this area so desperately needs.

Despite the lack of rain, I have some cone flowers that I planted from seed a few years ago - they grew taller than me this spring and are amazing.  The birds and the butterflies love them - the swallowtail butterfly in this picture had wings as big as my hands.  It was beautiful!

 Because it is to hot almost to even swim, we are spending some creative energy inside - the kids love "lunchables" and I hate how much they cost as well as the lack of nutrition in them ... so I saved some old containers from purchased ones and we made our own.  That way we can add whole grain crackers, fruits and veggies, real cheese --- you get the picture.  The kids love it and they are super cheap for lunch.

We found this on YouTube after a friend of Master S told us about it.  It is a song that is quite popular right now, re-done Sesame Street style - love Cookie Monster and the whole share the cookies thing :)

 Miss Lilly has been begging and you can see in these pictures how thrilled she was when I suggested we learn how to make a tablecloth for her doll table as a FIRST sewing project.  She used the serger, the sewing machine and the iron.  We worked on straight lines ... we will be working on straight lines for awhile.  But, she did an awesome job and loved every minute of it.

The perk of having Miss Lilly sew, is that I have also been able to do some sewing ... remember those blocks for Miss Lilly's quilt?  I put them together and finally was able to lay them out on her bed to get a feel for how I want to set them in a quilt.

 I'm super excited - I'm loving how it is going together, I am just having a hard time resisting the urge to sit at the sewing machine all day! 

Cub Scout Day Camp

 He had a great week!  He's growing up too fast!!!!

What do you do in the Summertime?

Brownsburg's 4th of July Parade has become a tradition for us ... despite the 105 degree weather and the humidity on top of that this year we went.  Thank heavens we found a spot with a little shade or I'm afraid we would have been puddles by the end, wait, what am I saying?! we were puddles by the end!  There are always lots of cool cars, tractors and candy!!!  This one I beleive J.D. mentioned he'd like to own someday ... yeah, I think I could ride in that with him! 

 The parade is like Halloween, only you don't have to dress up and the candy just gets thrown at you.  The kids love it.  The Mayberry Police car was in it this year - There is a cafe in Danville not to far from us ... here is a link to a photo.  http://www.panoramio.com/photo/69976512  It's a great place to eat!

The kids did piano camp again this year and loved it.  Miss Lilly wanted a new dress to wear ... despite it being casual dress :)  Gotta love that - I know it won't last long!

All three have been taking swimming lessons at a neighbors pool - and are doing awesome!  I promised the Zoo if Miss Lilly and Big D would do everything their teacher asked them ... so we went to the zoo this week.  Here is Big D 'reading' the map, directing us where to go.

The elephants are in the background in the next pic - there is a new baby one too.  Master S wasn't with us - he has been at cub day camp at Camp Belzer for Webelos camp and is loving it.  He is so exhausted every night ... sun, swimming, learning how to start camp fires, cooking lunches over them, archery, shooting BB guns, canoes, monkey bridge - it just doesn't get much better than that for a 10 year old boy!

Miss Lilly has been doing gymnastics once a week and is loving it.  She is so excited and energetic about it. She is really close to getting cartwheels, really good at round offs and still working on those splits and hand stands!  Can't wait to watch the gymnastics at the Olympics with her.

This summer has been all about exposing my kids to all sorts of new things to learn about - things that they don't necessarily get exposed to at school.  So, I've been getting all kinds of random books at the library in the mythology, Shakespeare, folktales, biography and non-fiction sections in the children's area.  One in particular sparked some questions from Master S about the periodic table of elements?!?  Yeah, don't ask me how, but he asked me to get a book about it next time, and them after reading it wanted some more books about chemistry.  He is hooked!

We have a coin system for doing chores ... they earn coins to turn in for small amounts of cash, items from a 'coin store' that I stock and wii or computer time.  I found this molecule set at Michael's and put it in the coin store - it's been a hit with him.  Needless to say we've had a lot of conversations about what molecules are, what atoms are and what elements are.  Big D is often heard saying 'Don't eat all the chips molecules, Dad!' or 'Did you know there are atoms in that?!?'

Miss Lilly 'bought' a dragon with her coin earnings ...

Big D swimming - he loves to put his head in the water and is diving for rings, jumping off the side of the pool and so close to swimming!  Just need him to figure out that you don't have to put your feet down on the bottom of the pool to put your head up to breathe.  His little body is so tan!

Miss Lilly can jump off the diving board and swim to the opposite side of the pool now - she just needs to keep practicing those kicks and work on the same breathing issue that Big D has.  I'm getting so close to being able to take a book to the pool and read instead of getting in all the time!  Yeah!