It's been real. It's been fun.

And actually? For the most part? It's been real fun! Exhausting and busy but fun :)

I am actually doing a separate post about t-ball. It is deserving of more than just one pic and a quick word, because OH MY GOODNESS watching Samuel play t-ball was so much fun! Hysterical fun! Watching so many children squeezing inappropriate parts while listening to my son yell for someone to, "THROW TO ME!!!! I'M OPEN! I'M OPEN!" while he was playing left field and being open is never really an issue in baseball anyway.....which is where the hysterical part comes in.

It was non-stop, old-fashioned, belly-laughing fun, so in an effort to wrap up the last 6-8 weeks of life, I have to include it and say that we finished t-ball about a month ago.....Amen.


We finished field hockey about the same time. We prepared for a Saturday tournament that should have ended after the first game. We had the worst record of the season, so who knew we might end up spending the whole day fighting our way through the loser's bracket and beating the #1 team (shout...NUMBER ONE TEAM!) and knocking them out of the tournament??? Well, it happened and Hannah scored the goal that tied that game! It was so exciting. And hot. I was thrilled to be sitting in my Mamaw chair with Benjamin. I cannot say enough about this chair.
I took Hannah to get a summer haircut and asked for about 3-inches to be taken off. Somewhere that request was lost in translation and the lunatic woman (who will remain nameless ) took off 6+ inches and chopped my girls hair into about 8,052 different layers.

It has been a wonderful opportunity to stretch me us in the area of vanity, humility, forgiveness and anger control.

Who knew that hair could invoke such dangerous emotions? After picking up the phone several times to work that lady over speak with the owner of the salon and realizing that I might resort to hair-pullin & name-callin' behavior less than Christ-like, I have decided to sneak up on said lady and scalp her bald headed forgive and forget.

That's about all I can say about that for now. Hannah looks lovely and we have cried our last tears over hair....for a while ;)

Oh, this picture was taken at our "regular" salon during our "please fix it" haircut this past week. You can see the sides of her hair in the mirror. They won't even go into a ponytail.

FYI.

Her hair was to the middle of her back.

We gotta move on. I'm starting to twitch a little bit.

Joshua turned three! Remember last year??? The pictures are still floating around over there in the Flickr box. I need to tend to this blog and make it all purty and put out some new links and thing-a-ma-jigs, but I am Flat. Plum. Tuckered. Out.

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Sophia came over and taught my girls to knit and crochet. Kelly whipped out a wrap and queen-sized afghan and all I managed to do was pump some milk for my baby.

I kid. Kelly did catch on rather quickly but then again she always has on matching shoes and I'll be darn if she doesn't always brush her teeth too.

Show-off.

To everything there is a season.

This ain't my season to learn a new skill.

Chris was out of town for a few days and in his honor Emma wore one of his hats each day and slept in one of his shirts each night.

I guess you'd say, she's a Daddy's girl ;)
I cannot explain these photos. She is my daughter. I will claim her.

That doesn't mean that I can explain what the fizzy is going through her mind or her rabbit ears at any given moment.

I will tell you that she has begun to "officially" babysit and loving every minute of it!
She leaves the rabbit ears at home, of course.
And this one? Well, she obviously takes after her daddy.
Everybody says so.
Just some ball throwin' in the backyard. I just love to see my boy throwin' the ball in the backyard. I don't want to forget his last little-boy summer. He seems to be on the edge of big-boy every day.

Sigh.
Chris' company picnic. This past Saturday. It was so blazing hot, I can't even remember what happened.

Oh yeah. I remember now. My skin caught on fire and my children's clothes melted to their bodies.

Good times.
I'm hot. I can throw a ball 22 miles per hour. But nobody cares cause it's too stinkin' hot.
Here is Emma waiting in line for this very exciting bungee-trampoline thingy. She waited in line until my skin caught fire and then she waited some more.

Then she just about had a nervous breakdown when it was over because after all that insane waiting in the blazing hot sun....it wasn't even fun.

IT WASN'T EVEN FUN, MOMMA!!!!!

The baby is trying to steal my cookie. Baby? Don't you even think about it.
Samuel decided that there was a hot breeze blowing on the train and decided to stay there until we left.

Never mind that everyone had left and he was riding solo. That just meant more breeze for Sammer.
Nuff said.
Scott (Chris' brother) and Robin were married in the Bahamas back in April. We were not able to go but the pictures were too beautiful not to share. Scott is like my own brother and not being able to attend this wedding was very hard, but I am so happy for him! I am happy he is married! Yeah marriage!

Now. HAVE BABIES!

Just kidding. I just like to tell people who are married to HAVE BABIES! EVERYBODY! HAVE BABIES! I LOVE BABIES! COME ON EVERYBODY AND HAVE SOME BABIES!

There. I got it out of my system.

I have probably scarred scared Scott & Robin a bit with my whole house full of babies, but I think they love us anyway :)

They certainly love each other....

We went to Pocahontas State Park and they have the most wonderful little water park with $5.00 admission. The only catch is that once school is out the pool is packed and not so enjoyable. We were able to go the week before school let out and had a fabulous time!

Snack on this.


The parks & rec guy came over with his little friend and got the kids pretty fired up. Most of them touched the snake. My daughter actually uttered the words, "I LOVE THE SNAKE" at which point I took all of her belongings and tossed them out of my car.

We can't have snake-lovin' in this family.

Period.

The best part of the snake-show was watching Jenn flip her wig when I made her touch the snake.

Ya'll... It was good stuff! And I have pictures, but I won't show them, since she is wearing her swimsuit. That's called "friendship". Your welcome Jenn.

Let me tell you that if anyone ever posts a picture of me in my swimsuit on their blog they will be dead to me.

Dead.

D.E.A.D.

Capeesh?

But to give you an idea, here is her daughter and her expression pretty much sums it up...

We joined our community pool and even though it costs our life savings a hefty sum of money, it has been so much fun! We have always swam with La La/Lea Ann/The Lurker in her fabulous pool, but then she up and moved away and we to be bonafied members in order to go back to her pool and since I live a good 15 miles from that neighborhood, I just couldn't pull off the charade any more.

Samuel took swimming lessons at the pool and he officially knows how to:

1.) Go up the ladder and not down. Down is bad. Up is good.
2.) Walk. Do not run. Run is bad. Walk is good.
3.) No toys in the pool. Toys are bad. Water all by itself with nothing else is good.

He can also pretend to be a monkey and hang on to the side of the pool and does a great job at plucking out the dive toys with his toes all the while never getting his face wet.

The boy has talent and good looks.

They went down the slide & the diving board on the last day, and their trusty swim teachers caught them in the deep end to ensure that no actual swimming would be necessary.

"Swimming" during swim lessons is apparently optional.

Who knew?


LOOK AT MY SON! HE IS MARCHING UP THOSE STAIRS AND ABOUT TO GO DOWN THE SLIDE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! NEITHER CAN THE OTHER MOMS! LOOK EVERYBODY! SAMUEL IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN THE SLIDE!!!!
Um. Ahem. Pardon me.
Never mind.
I'll pass.
Thanks anyway.
Who needs swimming lessons when life is this good?
Emma with Jenn's girls.
Well, I think that's about it. I have been working on this one post for several days. Summer is busy but not out of hand. We love the free movies and have seen Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (loved it) and the VeggieTales-Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (not my favorite), been swimming (a lot), and are planning a trip to Maryland (fireworks in D.C., Orioles game, and fun at La La's!!!).

More later about my homeschool choices, a fabulous dessert, and deep thoughts from the abyss....

I know you're on the edge of your seat.

Blessings!