4th of July

Drive-In Tradition

Every year we go to the Drive-In. I love the drive in! I love getting to watch two movies back to back and not worrying about having to get the kids home to bed. They take their sleeping blankets and we take out a seat or two from the back of the van. We take pop-corn in a grocery bag and yummy grapes or other fruit. Then we get there, park the car backwards, pop the hatch and lay on the floor of the van eating pop-corn and watching movies. The two younger ones usually fall asleep before the middle of the second movie and when it is all over, we drive home in peace. (exhausted of course!) We haven't made it there yet this summer because they haven't shown anything the kids could see without nightmares so I am now crossing my fingers for a kid friendly show so that I won't be forced to break our tradition! Here is the front of our drive in, notice the movie titles and you'll see what I mean. Cross your fingers for us, OK?!!

Blueberry Pickin'

One of the most fun days this summer was spent with my pal Becky, her kids and my own favorite Bubble Gum Girl. We went across the river to pick BLUEBERRIES! We all had so much fun. First off, we all rode in one van together so we got to talk and laugh which was wonderful in itself when you don't get much "Girl Time". We got there and the girls took off toward the blueberry field. Here is a cute shot:

Of course the girls decided once we started picking that we were going to have a contest between the mommies and the daughters on who could pick more blueberries. We each had our own bucket and they let Em be on my team. (The littlest one and apparently also the biggest eater!) I think those girls knew what they were doing when they assigned the teams cause this is what my bucket looked like when I handed it to Em to carry: Here is what it looked like when I turned back to add more: Hey Em, where did all of Sweetie's blueberries go? Funny huh?!! Em's mouth was stuffed full! Pretty cute! All in all, we had a great time!

Back to School Blues

It is that time again! I have to tell you that I hate when my kids have to go back to school. I love summer and I love having my kids around and I LOVE being home with them!! Home schooling is looking better and better all the time. I had a wonderful two weeks getting up early and having quiet time with God all to myself and then having the kids come down and join me. Each day they would ask me to read a specific part of the bible and I was happy to oblige! We read about Moses, Esther, Jesus & the Sermon on the Mount and the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Quinn also memorized Psalm 23:4 after he had asked me about it. (Love my kids getting into God's word!!) We had such a peaceful morning time! My favorite was reading Proverb 11 (on Aug 11, of course) and that was the same day we read Galatians and putting Proverb 11:30 together with Galatians 5:22-23. Go ahead and check it out for yourself. Cool huh?!?! Well, now it feels like all he** has broken loose trying to get it all together and get them out the door to school on Thurs and Fri. Yipes! Where did all our peace go? I am going to have to figure out how to work that back in to our routine. I am secretly hoping Q's football practice will move up a half hour SOON. The we can get him into bed at a reasonable time. (and he can wake up earlier) We did decide to get dinner on the table by 4:30P for the football/soccer/cross country season so that we can all eat together. That was a good move. (Pat on the hubby's back for that idea!) That is much better than eating at 8:30PM! Oh, and Bubble Gum girl is going to be a cheerleader for Quinn's football team! How cute! They even have uniforms! (Yes, this may kick my Cheermania back into overdrive but I will try to stay out of it.)(For this season at least. All bets are off for next year though!) Hope everyone else has a smooth transition back into school!