Photo dump time for July!

I love having kitchen helpers. Trying okra for the first time.  It got two thumbs up too!

First Krispy Kreme.  Yep.  Two thumbs up as well.

Double pig tails!  She finally has enough hair.

Fort sticks…one of the best and most fun toys we own!

Waiting to get fingerprints with immigration.  Our selfies are awesome. Rain shower in the summer means ice cream break in the garage.

My hearts. Opening a gift of a watch from a friend.

Curled up with Babbitt the Rabbit, unnamed pony and Dr. Snuggles.   First milkshakes

Lego Junior building success with two funny brothers.

“Hello!”  Practicing her phone skills early. Playing in the rain. Posing before bed.

Early morning snuggles.

My goal for the start of school was to take pictures of the kids like this:
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Pre-k pictures (1st day of school pictures)

1st day of first grade

3rd day of third grade

With some goofiness in between.

And then Emmie fell. And then our first day pictures ended.  Oh well.  Maybe the second semester we can pick up where we left off.

Summertime and the pool.  Ahhh, we absolutely love living in a neighborhood where we can walk less than half a mile to the pool and jump in.  Yes, we have to pay for upkeep but we, personally, are not responsible for the chemicals and cleaning of the pool.  I just love that.

All the kids were thrilled to have several pool days during this summer.  One of those days, Mark took the camera and got some great shots.

Mid-air Be still my heart…Y the Brave knows just what to do to make mama freak out! This was a much better jump.

Last year, we had some wonderful neighbors who organized a summer blast for the whole neighborhood.  Water slides, free food, and lots of fun.  They worked so hard and put together a wonderful time for all our neighbors.  This year, they did it again.  The whole neighborhood raised money and put together a fun party that lasted from ten in the morning to late in to the evening. Waterslides and cupcakes.  They made for happy kids and great memories.

Y tried to learn how to play cornhole.

If we are close to a chaperon from New Horizons for Children during hosting, the rule is to plan a time to spend with the chaperon.  Well,, we were close to chaperons but they were about two to three hours away.  And, then there was the minor problem of transportation since, with Y, we are at capacity in our van unless there is a super skinny person who can squeeze in the back seat.

We really wanted to meet and spend time with the chaperons but we just couldn’t figure out how to do it.  Then a hosting family/friend, had the idea to bring a favorite chaperon to our area and we could split time.  When I told her what we were going to do, I told her that they could join us too.  So they did.  And the kids opened the fun trunk to find tie dye kits.

The fun happened before all of this though.  Ace woke up the day before with a rash that we thought might be poison ivy.  But, when the rash started moving around and we talked to other people, we realized that it was actually probably hives.  I made a call to the doctor and got an afternoon appointment thinking we would be done tie dying in plenty of time.  I totally underestimated our tie dying timing or skills.

Our friends arrived and we got to work. Soon after starting the dying process, we realized we didn’t have enough dye.  H, the other host mom, made a mad dash to Walmart to try and get more dye.  Just so you know, when it says it will dye nine shirts on the kit, what it really means is if you put one dot of each color on nine shirts, then you’re covered.  One dot is not enough for our crew.  They needed full on dye. In the middle of the dye-fest, Ace’s appointment approached.  I begged H to stay at the house while I took Ace to the appointment.  We found out he had an allergic reaction to who knows what and needed to stay on an allergy med for awhile and then made a mad dash back to the house.

Even though it was quite chaotic, I think we all had a wonderful time.  And Y got to see his favorite chaperon, M.  It was a blessing for us to see her too.

I just love our local library.  We always have some pretty special events during the summer and even throughout the year.  Aside from the mountain man performance, we also got to check out some awesome animals from a wildlife group.  The kids were pretty impressed.

The following pictures are from Zoe.  I threw her my phone when Emmie decided she needed to have a walkabout during the presentation.

This possum was our absolute favorite.  He was the cutest thing and was so sweet to look at.  And for those wondering, Y was just as impressed as our kids.  The guest started with small animals but as they got bigger, they all got more quiet and really enjoyed seeing and hearing about them.