Summer Bliss

We are staying busy doing nothing and everything.  Summer basketball leagues, playing video games, having play dates and sleepovers, crafts, swimming and "being bored."  Ahhh, summer.

Here is Ainsley Grace's tiger mask she made - so CUTE.

Anderson begs me to play with him at every waking moment.  I don't get to very often because something ALWAYS had to get done.  Baby, dinners, schedules.  But this day we played Ninja Warrior Cats.  I love him, love him, love him.  He did MY face and he asked Lexi to copy my face onto his face.

 Here are some paper dolls lulubee made.... Great style!

Speaking of style, I feel like the look on Whit's face in this picture.  It's summer!!!  Anderson likes to dress him up.  Whit likes, too.  Sweet Brothers.  I predict a good relationship between these two when they grow up.  Something is there... It just is.

 Here is Daddy doing squats with some unrequested extra weight.  Ainsley is such a fun play mate with her baby brother.  She does what others want to do.  Not what she wants to do.  She is sweetness.

Here is Whit's first ring pop!  He liked.  Here is Lexi with one of her buddies getting some friend time.  Cute girls! 

 

 So our sweet kids are loud, they fight and argue, they are needy and demanding.   They are funny, compassionate and are full of life.  Summer could not be more blissful.  Thank you God for children, summers and laughing.

Just keep swimming.... Just keep swimming....

Anderson finally did his first swim meet.  He said he was scared during the warm up but he kept it in check and had a great race.  So proud of him this summer, he overcame his fears and worked hard.  Loving swim team this summer with all three of them doing it.  Here are some videos.

2 Cantaloupe, many softballs and but mainly baseballs

Craziest 15 minutes I can remember.  We just had made it home from a basketball game about 30 minutes prior and had sat down to eat dinner when we started hearing the tapping on the windows.  Then we heard a BIG tap and thought we should go look....  We walked to the front door and low and behold, this was not regular hail storm.  This was a once in a lifetime hail storm - it was wild.  We saw a whoooooole LOT of baseball size hail and we noticed many many softballs.  And we saw two that were bigger than the softballs just in our front yard from our perch.  And they were all just slamming to the ground.  We may need a new roof, 1 broken window and my car got 6k worth of hail damage!  Stan's was much less but still damaged.

Take a look at this beautiful house on Swiss Avenue with the original 100 year old roof.  This picture says it all.  The ground everywhere you went looked like it had ground cover...  All of Swiss looked like this, plus we had many friends with soooo many broken windows.

  This was my windshield.

We were all okay thank goodness.  We decided instead of putting so much money into my 6 year old car, we would upgrade my minivan.  We said good-bye to Blackbird Maddie (girls named her on the way home when they were 2 and 4 and I was expecting Anderson.) and we said Hello to White Knight (Anderson got to name this one). 

Here is my favorite part about my new mini-van.  USB Port, Navigation, XM Radio (sweet!) and my own custom picture as the wallpaper.... hee, hee!!

Here is the kids favorite part about my upgraded mini-van.  A double wide screen that they get to play a video game on one side while watching a movie on the other.  I'm sorry, but mini-vans are the most awesome vehicles on the road today!  Allll that PLUS 20 miles to the gallon!  Just sayin'!  ;-)

How to celebrate 15 years of marriage?

Van Halen floor seats of course. The show was awesome!!! We've been "merreed" 15 yrs and together 19 years! Yowza. I think what that translates to is that Stan is very OLD. 

Kindergarten Graduation

Oooh, my boy.  LOVE HIM SO MUCH.  He was very excited about graduating.  He said, "Mom.  Do NOT call me a kindergartener ANYMORE!"

His sisters were very happy for him!  Here they are at the reception after the ceremony.

1st Grade here we come.

 

Hula War

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the little kids how to Hula Hoop during P.E. and at the end of the year, they have a big Hula Competition.  The last kids standing have to have a Hula War to determine the final winner.  Ainsley Grace did a lot of preparation to get ready.  She did great, but got thrown by one of the tricks and didn't make it til the end.  But, that's okay, it was so much fun getting ready and watching the big event! 

First they did the boys, then the girls.  Here are the girls getting started...

After they hula for 2 minutes, then they start the tricks. Here is the series of tricks AG practiced to get ready. CUTE STUFF!

Finally, in the end, they had 2 winners.  Here is the Hula War.  It's very exciting, fun fun.

Date Night with Waldo

Lulu and I got to have a date night, we had a very good time together.  We went to see Hunger Games so we both had to wear Katniss braids.  But, of course, first we had to have her favorite meal from Luna ("Lite lunch" Tortilla Soup and salad).  

 

We like this picture because our legs look alike. ;-)  

This is her favorite picture.  She emailed it to herself so she would always have it.

Where's Waldo?