Let's play catch-up! Again!

It's a good thing I'm not doing this professionally since I didn't think more than once or twice about posting something on here to show what we were doing during this summer.  We had a blast and I want to remember it, which is really the only reason I'm even doing this now.  I know in a few years I'll look back and this and it'll help me remember the fun we had.  So once again, the last couple of months in pictures!

I sewed a tablecloth for my Mom and Dad.  It had a border on it. It wasn't as hard to do as I thought it was going to be.  Just don't examine it too closely.

I ran out of red thread for said tablecloth.  I had one more panel to sew.  One!

 

 The girls and I went to The Farm while Hubby was in CA doing a meeting.

Then we stayed with my sister and bro-in-law for a few days.  The B-I-L grew up with one brother, so we're a bit much for him to handle in large quantities, but he's getting used to us. 

So used to us, that when I asked them to bring me back something from Scotland, this is what he bought me.  Note--that's not my hair attached to the hat.  I laughed.  It is pretty funny!

On to my parent's house for their church's VBS.  The girls always enjoy it.  And we enjoyed spending time with everyone there.

I think my brother wears the hat much better than I do!

Or #4

We had a shower for my brother and Sis-In-Law for our newest niece.  #1 was sick and not able to be there, but the other girls had a good time.

 

Then the girls all stayed while I drove 12 hours home by myself.  I felt like this the entire way.  I swear towards the end I was stopping every 30 minutes because I was guzzling the soda to stay awake.  You would think all the salt from the sunflower seeds I was eating would have helped that, but all it did was give me cankles!

However, the girls got to spend time with my parents and my sister and bro-in-law and they had an awesome two weeks without their parental units around. 

All the grandkids for my parents at church together.  LuLu (the one we threw the shower for) wasn't quite there yet.

Hubby and I had a lot of fun being able to go and do whatever we wanted without having to think about the girls.  For instance, we spontaneously decided to drive 3 hours one way to hear The Fabulous Equinox Orchestra.  Clay is our friend, but we've never heard him perform with his group before.  So we drove there to hear them with every intention of driving home that night, but we were given a hotel room on the Mississippi River so we just stayed the night.  It was awesome!

After two weeks those in my family who could come met up in Hot Springs for a family vacation.  And this is the only picture I took.  I will eventually get more from those more picture conscious than me and I'll do a different post for it.  Because it was an amazing week!

Except for the trip home when #4 had a fever and was miserable.  Everyone ended up getting sick, but I was thankful we had made it home before it hit!

And since being home I've finally finished the t-shirt dresses I promised the girls I would make them this summer.  #1 and #2 have one also, but again, not picture conscious! 

So ya know, nice, typical, slow summer for us.  Wouldn't have it any other way!

A Month in Pictures

Oh look--a month has gone by since I put anything on here.  I've thought about it a couple of times.  But then something else would come up and it wouldn't get done.  And I really don't want to write several posts to get caught up.  So here's a month's worth of living in picture format.

Sewing.  Lot's of sewing.  The first is a skirt that was supposed to be #1's, but I messed up on the measurements so it became #2's.  It looks nothing like the picture in my head.  But she likes it.

Family movie nights.  Carmel popcorn always makes it better.

A spur of the moment trip to go see my sis-in-law, Mom, niece and nephew.  Missed my brother this trip.  But enjoyed our time on the farm.

That would be #4 with Rapunzel hair.  It's actually an old Moby wrap my sis-in-law used.  Braided like my brother braids his heavy duty extension cord.  Because he's creative like that.

A trip to the gator farm with our homeschool group.  It was amazing!  We had such a good time, despite the heat.  We're probably going to be going back with my in-laws in September.

More sewing.  The skirt is more like what I saw in my head this time.  Hooray!  The bottom is a tablecloth I'm making for my parents.  Sewing a large rectangle, no problem.  Adding a colored border around it, mentally taxing.  This is the method I finally went with.  Still not completely sure how it's going to turn out, but there is no going back now!

A birthday party with a mustache theme.  Those things did not want to come off. 

VBS this week.  We did more than just bowling, but since I was helping I didn't really get any pictures.  And those aren't actually my kids bowling.  Because apparently I'm good at remembering to take pictures of my friends' children, but can't remember to take them of my own.  We did have an awesome week at VBS though.

Notable mention with no pictures:  My Mom came to visit for a few days.  I miss my family coming to see us, so I was glad she was able to come. 

We went to a pottery painting place with some friends.  Lots of fun! 

The three oldest went to their first sleepover.  They've had friends over to spend the night, but this was their first time going somewhere.  I hear they stayed up till 2.  There were no bad attitudes, so I didn't care how late they were up.

Bought #1 a bike for an early birthday gift and Hubby one for Father's Day.  We've gone riding 3 times a week for the last three weeks.  We love it.  Hubby is the only one who gets chased by dogs.  Hmmm....

And now we have a week left before going to visit family.  A bit of relaxing before beginning a serious search on finding a smaller place so we can save some money on rent.  Yay for moving during the hottest part of the year!  Again!  Maybe this time we won't be doing it the day after a hurricane blows through!

3 weeks in less than 200 words!

Whew!  These last few weeks have been crazy!  So I'm going to just sum it up!

Thursday:  Easter Egg hunt and picnic with homeschool group.

  
Saturday:  Sold Suburban 3 days before leaving to go to Oklahoma for a week.  Bryan took three oldest girls to a Father/Daughter picnic.

Sunday:  Mad scramble looking online for a van hoping we can go to a dealership on Monday and buy one before leaving on Tuesday.

Monday:  No luck with vans.  Thankful a friend let us borrow his vehicle to travel in so we didn't have to rent a van for a week.

Tuesday:  Leave at 5 in the morning, drive for 12 hours and make it to parent's house.  Girls are excellent travellers.

Wednesday:  Start meeting at church.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday:  Food and Family.  We had lunch and dinner every day with different members of the congregation.  We were so thankful for their hospitality.  And so very full!  Also saw 3 siblings and their spouses and child.  Spending time with family makes my heart happy.

Sunday:  Finish meeting, Easter egg hunt, too much candy, family leaves.  Find vans at dealership in Texas for a much better price than what we would pay at home.

Monday:  Stop at dealership on the way to brother's farm.  Make a deal, buy a van, drive two vehicles to farm, get in worst storm we've ever driven in, make it to farm safely.

Tuesday:  Head home in two vehicles.  Get home at 4:30, leave by 5:15 to drive to New Orleans to visit friend in hospital.  Home at 10.

Wednesday:  Decide that we are all too exhausted to even contemplate school, go to a late breakfast, get some groceries back in the house and unpack.

Thursday:  Friend didn't get to go home from hospital so we went to see them again.  Took up most of the day.  Dropped in at a used homeschool curriculum fair.  Didn't find anything.

Friday:  Start of homeschool convention.  So thankful I was able to go.  Hubby took girls to co-op.  Came home with several curriculums I wanted to research.

New History curriculum for next year.  Super excited about it!

Saturday:  Another day at the convention.  Awesome speakers.  Didn't necessarily learn a lot of new stuff, but was definitely encouraged.  And I got some awesome info on homeschooling in highschool.  Looking forward to those years!

Monday:  Finally started school back up.  Looked over remaining school work and decided we were on track to finish a week earlier than planned as long as we did school every day for the next 3 weeks.

Tuesday:  Decide at the last minute to join some friends at the zoo and skip book work.  Because I'm learning to be more flexible and realizing that my girls will remember impromptu trips to the zoo more than the worksheets I make them do.

Wednesday:  Laundry and catching up with everything else that needs to get done.  Enjoying nice weather and being with my girls.  And we'll still finish school a week early!

***You didn't really think it would be less than 200 words, did you?