First Half of August

Lindy is growing up.
During the summer I bought some school supplies for the kids. On a whim I bought some for Lindy. Well I put them in her very own box just like her older siblings, put her name on it, and she was SO thrilled. Completely over-the-moon about it. I loved her reaction. I can tell I'm going to have to incorporate her differently this year with school. She actually wants to participate and be big. If the kids are reading me a book, she enthusiastically shouts, "MY TURN!" and then she proceeds to "read" to us. We have to give her our full attention, otherwise there is shouting. If the kids are spelling their sight words for me, she starts "spelling" hers. She wants to be grown up so badly, which is super exciting, but also sad for me. It's all happening so fast! :)



Kayaking
I had the strangest weekend last week. On Thursday I was feeling unusual. I actually thought I might be going into labor. I didn't know how to describe the pain, it just felt odd. By Friday morning, I knew I had to call Richie to come home from work because I wasn't functioning super great. At that point I realized I wasn't in labor, just sick. So he came home and took over while I slept. When I woke up, he told me he was planning on taking the kids camping in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard to reward them for awesome school behavior the past couple of weeks. So off they went. And I had the entire house to myself all night. It was so awesome and weird. The next morning, I was expecting them home anytime, when he called and said, "Hey, we decided to go kayaking. See you in a few hours!" So again, I had an entire Saturday morning/early afternoon all to myself. I tried to take it easy because I still wasn't feeling great, but when you have that kind of time, it's hard not to want to get everything done you usually can't with kids running around. It was so odd, and so wonderful. Mostly I was so glad that my husband is so awesome and proactive and gives our kids these cool experiences.



Karate
Gwen has now had 2 of her 4 rec center karate lessons. She is loving it! Only girl in her class, smiles the entire time, totally capable. It's a fun activity for her and for me to watch her.



Sunflower
The first year we lived here, we planted giant sunflowers outside our front window. Every year since then, we get about a million sunflower volunteers. I was getting a little tired of them, so we've since pulled the front ones out, but not before I snapped this picture. At night and in the early morning, the bees would all congregate on a few flowers to sleep. I found that so interesting and beautiful.



Swimming lessons
Well the kid's swimming lessons finally came to a close. Lindy was my little buddy, waiting it out in the heat every day. She handled it like a champ. She knew that as her reward, once the kids were out of the pool, she was allowed to go put her hands or feet in the water. Ha! Maybe next year she'll get to participate. Miles and Gwen impressed me so much with their abilities and improvement. Not to mention their "go-get-'em" attitude the entire time. I am a proud mama. I now feel fairly confident about them being in pools without floaties! Hooray! They can't wait to do it next summer.




Eyelashes
The other day, there was a mysterious pile of what seemed to be black hair on our bathroom sink counter. No one in our family has black hair. So we asked the kids if maybe one of them gave Ozzy a little trim, which they all denied. The next day, I was looking at Gwen thinking, "Hmmmm, something is different about her...whatever it is, she looks tired." Then she had some sort of problem and came crying to me and when I held her close, I got a front row seat to the eyelash trim of 2016. 2 years ago she cut off about half of her hair, this time I guess it was only her eyelashes? Ha! It made me sad. She had such pretty long eyelashes. Good thing they'll grow back right? After I took a picture to document this momentous occasion, Lindy request I take a picture of her eyelashes. Her eyelashes are insane and so pretty! I'm jealous of my girl's eyelashes.