bowling

we are headed out to bowling today the Perry Hall Brunswick runs a special in the summer on mondays where everything is $1-games,shoes, fries, sodas- its a good deal and a fun way to get some summer energy out. So off we go. All the kids really like to bolw too, even Adam who is actually pretty good at it. So off for a fun afternoon, with some good friends.

Shawns first black-eye

yes that milestone has been reached:-) yesterday Madeline was vaccuming the living room for me while I folded towels. When she was done she went to unplug the vaccum and Shawn went to pull himself up with it and pulled it over on himself amd wa-la a blackeye. Then he feel off the sofa and got a nice egg sized bump on his noggin not a good day for him. But on the bright side he shook it off pretty well and was up and running again pretty quickly,thank thelord:-) I will post a photo of his 'first' in a bit:-)

we love dogs

we love doggies:-) especailly our Bandit:-) we have been thinking of adopting another dog from the Humane Society once our remodel is done. I think it would be fun. and if we get one now while we have Bandit, a pup tends to follow the older dog as far as potty training and all goes so who knows could be an adventure in itself.

Great American Campout

is this saturday June 28th. We are really looking forward to it and plan to camp in the yard, and have a fun night. It will be nice to get the tent and stuff out and use it for the first time this season.

Wonder if the raccoon will be visiting.:-)

a few of my favorite things

a rainy day, choclate covered kisses, my kids laughing, wiggly worms, baby hugs, lady grey tea w/honey, a kiss from my hubby, someone else doing the dishes:-), rainbows,a sea breeze, strawberries, smores over a campfire, a walk in the woods,steamed mussels with butter, choclate chip cookies, horses, kittens, a garden fresh warm tomatoe , sunflowers.

and my very favorite - JESUS

we have some interesting neighbors:-)

last night Doug and I had a nlate dinner by ourselves outside after the kids went to bed - a bit of a date:-), hey make them how you can right:-)-. Anyow we kept hearing this loud noise int he trees inour neighbors yard - theres a huge mulberry tree by the water there, finally we go the flashlight and we have a whole family of raccoons living int he trees there, we saw the nest and mommy and a few babies eating berrries:-) They where quite a surprise to see but funny. We have decided not to tell the kids cause Grace will try to find them and Madeline will try to feed it and lore it over for a pet- not a friendly pet either-they just look cute but they aren;t cuddly:-) Last year Doug encountered one on our trash cans that was huge and hadn op roblem chasing him back into the yard.I am sure he was this families papa:-)

Anyhows it was nice to see our new neighbors on the upside they do eat mice, and hey they won;t be peeping in our windows or anything:-)

no power

last night we where withour power for quite a while happens here alot during the summer storms. The kids had a blast making boats out of all our recycled stuff. today they set them to sial in the pool almost all of them floated a bit

summer relaxaton

AHHH! the pleasure of no outside activities for a while, it is nice to kick back and hang out in the yard and enjoy the season. We have been hanging in the pool grilling , and catching lightning bugs at night. All the fun summer time stuff. I like to recharge for a few weeks and get energized again.

I am currently getting ready for a new year and have been going through my KONOS volumes to get ready to start again in a few weeks. We are doing Wisdom, which includes, Elelction Process, Founding Fathers, Government and Presidents. I figure with the coming elelctions it is a timely unit to do.

And one that will be more concrete to the kids since it is the hot topic in the news right now. And with the Fourth of July next week, it is also a good time to remembert hose founding fathers who gave so much so we could be here today.

rectial success

Grace had her very first dance recital last night and she was wonderful. Actually the whole show was pretty good, everyone worked hard pulling it together and it was a great night for the girls/boys and their families. Though it was awfuly hot.
Especially in the cafeteria where I was room mom with the girls waiting to go on stage.
Anyhow Grace and all her friends looked beautiful and Grace really enjoyed herself. I will add some pictures a bit later today.

fun with friends and family

the cousins

Pop and grandmom

best friends Grace and Victoria and Madeline and Khyron

family times

meeting a neighbor:-)

mud monster

sisters:-) at Iceworld for a skate a thon

all our family

our newest family memember Max

Big Bys and thier toys :-)

o

dance recital prep day

Grace during rehersal

tonight and tommorow are the rehersals for Grace's dance recital I am helping as a room mom. I am excited for her, she is really cute in her costumes, one is a bit small though luckily its the one she wears first so I hope it holds out for a few minutes , then she gets to change into the other one. Anyhow she is already planning next year.

frog fun

WE LOVE FROGS:-) GETTING READY TO LET TWO MORE GO IN THE GARDEN:-)i HOPE THEY EAT ALL THOSE PESKY MOSQUITOS:-)

fun in the summer sun

Yay it is so beautful and the days are longer, we are enjoying our summer fun. My girls would live in flip flops year round if they could, it is a fun free feeling to let those toes breath:-) Of course I find Grace's shoes all over the house yard and car, she is my barefoot girl, her feet are purple on the bottom from walking through the mulberries.

Right now the main thrill is watching a tank of tadpoles turn to frogs, these where 'rescued from across the street in a puddle', they are really cool to watch so far we have released 10 back into the garden . We have had a few casulities, but thats to be expected. I love when we are handed a lesson like this.

Adam's party

Happy Birthday Adam

Yay, Adam is four years old today:-) He is such a big boy:-) We swam in the pool and had cookies and icecream and he opened his gifts, from us. He was very happy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM !! WE LOVE YOU ;-)

the pool is open

Yay we finally got to get in the pool tonight:-) amd just in time,too, it is suppose to be near 100 this weekend, so we will need an evening swim to cool down before bedtime. And a morning swim to burn off the energy before we are forced inside due to the heat-Shawn can;t be out in it for too long.

a hot and stormy day

today is the first reallyhot day so far this season- more to come I am sure- and they are calling for severe storms this afternoon, the last two we had knocked our power out for a day, what fun,hahah. The kids enjoyed it we are on a dead end street so when a tree goes down the kids can skateboard, and bike all over without worrying about cars. They have even talked a neighborhood dad into putting upa skateboard ramp in apart of his property for the neighborhoodl to use.

Anyhow the pool is just about ready for us to use, we can use it today for sure-whew I am sweating- good thing for popsicles and wading pools. We have also put a huge float in the river for them to jump on and hop in outof the river from. They have even rowed it across the river, with our dog the ever faithful Bandit pulling them along.

And tonight we have Grace's softball it is a bi-week for Madeline so everyone can go watch Grace she is very excited about this, I hope the storms hold out till shes done, and of course until after we stop for snowballs- a softball game tradition:-)-.Adam calls them 'blue skies';-}for the sky blue flavor he likes. Madeline wants to get a snowball machine and sell them here in our driveway this summer the machine is about $50, so I am thinking on it, it would be a good junior business for her to get into. And the start up cost is small, ice and flavor not to bad. Guess I will research if we need a license and how much that is first. I don;t want to go to jail over some crushed ice:-)f course Madeline will have to pay all of that back from her profits- to see how much her bottom line really is-. I think its a neat wway to learn basic accounting , budgeting etc..of cours eshe has already bribed Grace and Adam to work for her with the promise of free snowballs:-) Well when your 4 I guess thats a good deal.

my artist

Madeline has been creating really cool pictures in our paintshop on the computer, I htink she may have a real eye for the asthetcis of art and color. She likes to create, give her a ball of clay, a sketch book, whatever and you won;t see her for hours. She has drawn tons of cartoonie like pictures-angels are her favorites- and I think she does a great job, I would like to make a book of all fo them for her some day.

She is getting interested in photography and we are going to start going to a photography club on Wednesdays Aat Marshy Point the nature center near us, it should be a fun class/group and its a chance for her and I to do something fun together.

I am striving to do something with each of them one on one at least once a month, Doug does too, he likes to take them to Coffmans for milkshakes after softball, last night was Madeline's turn.Adam likes to have 'guy' movie time with him, they lay inour bed and watch Speedracer or mmonster truck rallies together and Adam loves it.Grace is happy with someone to hold the bug container while she hunts and Shawn right now is too busy checking everything out.

Itailian Day

we had such a fun afternoon today it was National Italy Day, so we had fun colring a flag, and doing some mapping work. We had pizza, and discussed where olives grow,and we made :"wine" by stomping grapes. We love these obsure holidays to learn.

What destination are we off to next.

softball

we are almost done with softgball for the season, Grace and Madeline both had games tonight. It has been a fun season with new friends and fun. But we are ready for sometime off of activitys for a few weeks Closing day is june 28th at Eastern Regional and that is such a fun park can;t wait to go.