Garrett's random pictures

 Garrett asked for a camera for his birthday, and got one from my mom.  He's forever taking random pictures around the house.  Enjoy!

Helicage (one of his favorite things)

 

Monster crafts

 On the way to the beach

 Lizard in the bug catcher

And Garrett letting that lizard go

Hurricane Weekend and more. . .

We here in SoFl celebrated the first week of back to school by hosting Tropical Storm Issac for a visit over the last weekend in August.  The kids got an extra day off school.  We spent the time before the storm outside enjoying the calm before the storm. Although really, the storm wasn't bad at all--just wind and lots of rain.  The worst part of it was that it canceled my plans to bike all weekend :-)  But alas, we still had fun.

Summer is obsessed  with these awesome letter mazes from 1+1+1=1

 We made sidewalk chalk paint to have some fun outside before the storm came.  1c corn starch + 1 c water, then add food coloring.

 Always a clown

 They worked great too!

 Since we don't have a basketball hoop, Garrett and Brady, one of our neighbors, tried to make a "basket" into the tree. Brady achieved many :-)

The second SHORTENED week of school was uneventful.  I went in to work on Tuesday and Brad held down the fort.  We baked/cleaned/did our usual things.  We spent this past weekend relaxing.  Garrett wanted to go fishing.  He FINALLY caught his first fish from our lake, a small large-mouth bass.  Unfortunately the only OTHER thing we caught all weekend was ducks.  Stupid, annoying Muscovite ducks, the bane of our lakeside existence . . . they actually tried to steal our bread and got caught on our hooks TWICE.  No one was impressed with that.  It was quite the disaster.  I would try to reel in the duck to cut the line under the bobber and Haylee would try to swim in the water to try and eat the duck.  We ended up losing the bobber the 2nd time and Haylee got lots of baths.  **Facepalm!**

Happy weekend!

Last bits of summer fun and the start of school

Long time, no post.  What can I say, we've been busy having fun.  Summer flew by too fast.  We went on a trip to Missouri in late July/early August with a detour at Mammoth Cave, KY.  Hopefully I'll find time to dedicate a post to that, because it was a really fun and noteworthy trip.  Here are some random shots of the kids enjoying the last bits of summer and of their first days of "school".

Angry birds printables from 1+1+1=1  = great rainy day play!

 

One of the may lego creations of the summer.

 Daddy and Garrett working on an electrical circuit

 Four legged babies enjoying their lives

 Rainbow fish project for school

 Summer sporting her stylish "headphones" that make her not freak out during fireworks and thunderstroms.

 Adorable Rapunzel bow crafted by our neighbor, Dapper Duckling Designs

 Garrett's trash robot, one of his many, MANY recycled creations.

 Summer was over way to soon.  Garrett started his first day of First Grade happy as ever.  We are loving our new routine of walking to school every day.  It gives us a chance to chat and stretch our legs.  Our lives just feel so less "rushed" than they did.  Traffic is a non-issue since our feet and our bikes are the prefered mode of transportation.  I still have some stress over the size of his school (650 K-5th graders), but its been a good fit.  He's in an accelerated program, something that wasn't available at our last school, and he is loving his teachers.  (Sorry for the poor photo quality, my flash failed and I didn't realize it till later so I had to doctor the photo).

 

Summer has started "school" too.  She isn't eligible for state-funded Pre-K yet so we started doing some Pre-K homeschooling.  Here she is doing some marble patterns.  It blows me away how big she is now--she definitely has her own little crazy personality.  She is so excited to go to school next year, but I'm really grateful to have this last year at home with her.  I know its the end of an era, I'll never have someone home with me every day once she starts school (summers notwithstanding).  She really misses her brother though, and has a hard time understanding why she doesn't go to school when almost everyone else she knows does.

 

 As we settle in to our school year routine, I hope I will get a little more consistent on the blogging front!

4th of July fun

We had no big plans for the 4th this year.  We went to buy Summer ear protectors in anticipation of her fear of loud noises.  THAT was well worth the $20 investment--she LOVED the fireworks and happily wore her "earmuffs".    We made homemade ice cream and invited a few friends over to play.  Other than this single picture, I didn't take a single photo of the entire day.   We were just too busy having fun.

I DID however, score this hilarious video of Garrett and his friend dancing Wii Just Dance Kids to "Hey Mickey".  Yeah, it was HILARIOUS.

I hope your 4th was as fabulous as ours!

Long overdue #2 -- this time its an UPDATE

Its a sad, sad commentary that its JUNE and I've only posted 10 blog posts this year.   So much has happened since the last time I posted.  Here's a rundown of what's been going on in our neck of the woods.

Garrett played his first ever basketball games with his team at SoHo

 

His Kinder teacher went on maternity leave. 

 

I ended up with 2 day jury duty and practically had a heart attack over the stress.

Garrett's class went on a trip to the zoo (and I got to chaperone)

My Grandpa passed away over mother's day weekend so I took a trip home. It was a sad event, but it was also great to see everyone. 
Sandra had her  baby, who was as beautiful as expected.

got lots of things he's been asking for as birthday presents, including a telescope and camera.

 Garrett turned 6 and had a Mario birthday party with his closest friends.

 And cupcakes at school to boot.

 Garrett graduated from Kindergarten.  Goodbye SoHo, helllllooooo summer fun!

Summer fun has included washing cards, obstacle courses, lizard catching, the beach, and just lots of fun times with very little schedules to follow.

On top of all of THAT, I did the Merril Down and Dirty Mudrun with Leanne and Val  (who are both moving to Virgina this summer-boo) and a Sprint Triathlon.  Read about the later one here on my new fitness/healthy lifestyle blog.   Happy summer!

Long overdue

I hated high school. I couldn't wait for it to be over when I was there. And looking back now I still think it was pretty freaking pointless. The ONLY thing that kept me sane growing up in a small town with nothing to do was my very best friend in the whole wide world, Sandra. We met in 8th grade. She had just come into the public school system after being homeschooled. I was in an advanced program with a bunch of people who were absolutely NOTHING like me. We did pretty much everything together. Band geeks. "Whos Line is it" marathons. Our graduation party.

17 years later, we are still friends. We haven't kept in touch like we should have. And we haven't seen each other in 5 years. But she was my maid of honor at my wedding. She'll always be my best friend. The person who made high school livable. One of the few people in our little podunk town who understood me. One of the few people who still does (although thankfully that list of people who really get me has gotten slightly longer).

She's having her first baby. I'm so stinking excited for her I can hardly contain myself. If ever there was someone who would make a fabulous mother its Sandra. Her babyshower was this weekend and for the first time EVER, I left behind Brad AND the kids and went on a trip. That in and of itself was long overdue. I love my family dearly but it was so nice to get away. But I still can't believe it has been FIVE YEARS since Sandra and I have seen one another. We added it up, we've been friend for 17 years. That is a LONG time. When in the heck did I get old enough to have done ANYTHING for 17 years?? Then again, Brad and I are coming up on 10 years of marraige. Sooo . . .
(A note on the picture to the left. I've always wanted to do a picture like this. Sandra's cute belly + red shirt made it perfect!! Add in Ricky's tats for a little character and it turned out awesome!)

We really didn't do anything other than hang out, catch up, and shop for baby stuff. It was exactly the break from the craziness that I needed. Oh, and we went to see the Hunger Games too. The baby shower was all kinds of cuteness, Sandra's mom Mary did a great job.


Sandra and her fiancee Ricky. Aren't they cute?? :-)
Some of the yummys. Mmmm, fondue!
I can't even remember the last time the four of us (Sandra, me, her mom and my mom) were all together. It was probably at our high school graduation.
Time passes and things always change. People move in and out of your life. But there are certain people who will always be a part of it. I'm so glad I got to go and share in the excitement of this little baby, see my friend and meet her guy. My husband is wonderful for taking a few days off and holding our house together so I could get away.