Memories of a Very Fast Summer

Memorial Day - so long ago, it seems in some ways, but so quickly it has become the end of summer as we know it.




School started yesterday - it seems impossible that the three months of summer vacation went so quickly. Feisty has a very nice new teacher, but she's having a hard time weaning herself away from kindergarten and the awesome teacher she had last year - the one who came and took her out to lunch and to the park just because Feisty missed her and was afraid she'd never see her again. Last night she told me that she did not like the new kindergarten class. When I questioned her some more, I asked her if she thought maybe she was just suffering from envy that they were in Ms. Logan's class and she wasn't any longer. She had to agree. She then prayed to Jesus that there would be someone in that class that looked like her so Ms. Logan wouldn't forget her. Awww.

First day of first and third grades.

Last spring, at the end of school, I mentioned that Care Bear's teacher had told me about the haiku she had written (I couldn't believe they did haikus in 2nd grade - I think I was a sophomore before I knew that word!) The teacher kept a copy so she could use it as a teaching tool for the kids this year to understand how to write one. I finally got a copy myself. Here it is:

Haiku

Syllables are cool
Syllables go with haiku
Haiku can be fun

I had the 4 girls a lot, and as I've said before, in the math of summer, 4 is much more than 2 times 2. What better way to spend many mornings than going to VBS? As I mentioned before, the big girls went to VBS at six different churches and enjoyed each one. One of them had a carnival and program on the Friday night - the littles enjoyed the activities as much as their big sisters. In fact, it was the first time we saw them actually interact and "talk" to someone other than each other.

They really didn't like cotton candy after all.

There was a lot of dirt and a lot of baths ---

Throw in swimming lessons, camp, Girl Scout camp-outs, library time, the county fair, swimming for fun, sleep-overs with friends and they've had quite a summer.

Then there was helping Grandpa get the dirt off his truck ---

Helping Grandpa in other ways --- picking up sticks from the wind the night before, then "helping" mow the lawn. BTW, their "twin language" has finally given way to our language, and what fun it is to be able to converse with them a bit - and know what they need a bit more easily!

There was the day that they got to my house really early because I had an appointment to get their pictures taken - wouldn't you think a place that photographs kids all day long would have a better way of keeping a schedule? Or at least have some toys to play with?? I chose this place because it had appointments. If I'd wanted to take a chance on ever getting in, I would have taken them to Wal-Mart and sat all morning. You can imagine how much fun it was to find out they were already behind - one hour after they started. We left. Still haven't had the pictures taken and now school has started.

We headed on up to CSU to get my free parking pass (one of the perks of retirement - free parking on campus for life - not a bad perk, when parking costs go up there every year!) They had some fun climbing on one of the less attractive sculptures (or whatever it is!) Their colors matched.




The fun thing about living in the same town with lots of relatives is that when they get company, it's usually someone you want to see too. Such was the case this summer with my sister when her kids came to visit. Second cousins can be a lot of fun.




The little train in the park with more second cousins was great - the cattle car was such a fun place to ride.







The parks in our town are full of sculptures - Katie wasn't quite sure if she liked this one or not.

But we had some fun at the park by the library -

Care Bear couldn't resist a bit of dramatic acting!

Then there was the day we went and got this beautiful bouquet of flowers for the church nursery attendant's birthday - Sandy is our favorite person! Turns out she was gone for the week - so we ended up enjoying them at home and she had to settle for a nice picture!

Then there was FINALLY losing a top tooth --

What's wrong with this picture? My next door neighbors - nice folks - but they don't seem to get the concept of a BACK YARD. Big back yard. But everything sits in between our house and theirs - I have to work at not looking. DC works so hard to make our space beautiful, and this is such a mess. Especially the compost dealie-bobber - what's up with that??? Don't they have a door into the back yard??? And before you ask, no, we don't have covenants. Oh, my. I guess if that were my worst problem -- but it's not.









Have a great week-end!

Where HAS the Summer Gone??

Well, here in Northern Colorado, at our house, it has gone to lots of time with the girlies, for various reasons. Grandpa is a whiz at keeping the big girls busy and happy - his company closes for 3 weeks, and it has been good for us. School begins next Wednesday already, so I thought it would be fun to look back at the summer.

I was blessed to have missed the one week that the temps were at the 100 degree mark - I was in Minnesota, where I expected to be miserable with heat and humidity. Oddly enough, the weather was very pleasant for me that week and I was able to enjoy a walk every morning - I need to share the pix I took there one of these days.

Because of the nice weather, when I've had a chance to be home without little people, I have spent a lot of time on the patio doing my favorite activity ---




Right now I'm reading the 5th book of the Anne of Green Gables series. I'm reading them again in hopes of visiting Prince Edward Island when we go to see Kevin in Maine the first week of October. I need to watch the movies again. Best movies ever made from a book - ever.

Speaking of Kev - he was here last week and it flew by. The littles fell in love with him - in fact, it was as if they remembered him, though that seems impossible since they were a year old when he left.




Kev was as excited to see his dog, Callie, as he was to see any human in his life. Sema has done a fabulous job of training this huge animal, even though she has only recently become willing to have a pet!



The big girls came such a long ways in overcoming their fear of dogs in general, Callie in particular. This was HUGE and made Kev very happy.




Kev had either a sinus infection or allergy issues while he was home and didn't feel great most of the time. But I'm so thankful he had this week to catch up on his rest and have time to heal.

The highlight of the week for me was Sunday evening, when he shared with our church family. The Sunday evening crowd is always fairly small, but this group was made up of folks who have known him since he was born, watched him struggle, prayed for him, loved him, supported him financially. Now he opened his heart to them and told them things they had never heard. He did a fabulous job, and was, as the pastor said, very transparent. There were many tears, including mine of course, and even some from him. It was a powerful time. Pastor called Sema up and we surrounded them with prayer as they face many decisions in the next year.




Kev left very very early Monday morning (as in we left the house at 3:30 am!) for a six month internship back in Maine. Thank you so much for your prayers for him and Sema over the years, and please continue to pray that they'll discern God's will for the time following the internship.

Remember last fall when we tore out our old patio and put in a new one designed by DC?

Because our yard is so very shady, we can't have lots of roses or petunias or other summer flowers that I love.

This is my only rose bush, not counting the mini ones that do well.

It's funny - DC says we've had these lilies for years, but I never noticed them before!




DC spent a great deal of time finding plants and flowers that could thrive in this cooler area. They're doing well, and it'll be fun to watch the perennials fill in as the years go by.













I brought this dahlia bulb home from the grocery store one day and watched as it grew and grew and grew - very tall. It had one blossom when a huge gust of wind hit one afternoon, snapping it off flush with the ground. It was sad. But, as so many things in life, it came back from adversity and is growing again - I don't know if it will have time to bloom again, but I'm watching it every day. There are many more things that should be blossoming yet, but we'll see if they have time before the weather gets too cool.





I have lots more that I was going to write and show tonight, but decided to give you a break. I'll be back with the girlies' activities soon. I'll close with some beautiful skies.











Have a great week-end!

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy????

So does anybody's life resemble this song? Or the one by Nat King Cole - "Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer"? I feel lazy, but that doesn't mean I can take it easy. Fortunately, I live in a dry climate, so the days aren't hazy. Crazy is the only word in this song that really applies to my life. As I said on Facebook recently (with apologies to those who have already read this), in the math of summer, 2x2 is exponentially much more than 4!

My other slogan for the summer is "terrible twos times two!" They are absolutely adorable, and are so much fun, but they are definitely more of a handful than they were last summer. Kate and Emma went to the doctor recently and they are in perfect health - weighing 22 and 23 pounds. It seems that either Emma is catching up with her sissie, or that Kate has slowed down a bit - don't know which. They are still conversing in their own little language, but they are letting us in on their conversations more often now. That part makes it easier, for sure. The doctor no longer mentioned speech therapy - thankfully. These little rascals don't believe in napping, at least at my house. In fact, their favorite two mini sentences are "No Nap" and "No Nigh-Night." (They do end up sleeping at home after they go home around 2:00 - lucky Kristen!) I do enforce a bit of quiet time, for my sanity, and this is how they occupied themselves the other day --

"Shhhhh - don't tell Grandpa!"

"Emma did it, Grandma!"

Grandpa took it much better than I expected - it took him 1.5 hours to put his files back together. We put Emma's bed in front of the file drawer (which has no lock, unfortunately), but somehow she managed to do it again yesterday, not quite so much. Grandpa wasn't so blase about it this time! After he put the files back together again, he put the kabosh on any further shenanigans in those drawers!

And he's looking ahead to the day they learn to climb out by themselves and help themselves to the other drawers --

Do they ever love being outside! And Grandpa is their best buddy and most fun playmate.

They can discuss anything with him!

Playing nigh-night is much more fun than the real thing.

Playing with a floatie is just as much fun on grass as in the pool!




What is she thinking??

The big girls get to go to Bible camp this summer - Care Bear has been already and Feisty will go to a three-day in two weeks. Care Bear chose to go to Camp Itch-ow-ee this year instead of staying in the cabins. Here are the lovely accommodations:




We picked up the kids at the end of the week - I have to say, I wasn't favorably impressed when we went down to have a look before we went back home. Care Bear, on the other hand, loved every minute - she called it "Home Sweet Home!" They sleep in the tee-pees, use porta-potties, no showers, meals outside on picnic tables (not in pristine condition!), and all of their chapels and fun times around the campfire. The only reason they go across the road to the rest of the camp is for swimming, archery, and all the other recreational activities. Little bitty Care Bear was the smallest in the group, from what I could tell. When we got there, this is the condition we found her in:



Turns out she went horseback riding and came in contact with a tree branch. I never did get a good explanation for how it happened and nobody else was hit. It could have been so much worse - we are so thankful for the angel that was on the back of that horse with her and kept her from falling off! Her glasses went flying, and thankfully somebody found them before a horse stepped on them. She says she didn't even cry. That was the "owie" part of the week --

Here's the "itchie" part --



The day after she got home, she went swimming and the scabs came off. She had me take a picture so she could send it to her two favorite counselors, along with letters and drawings.

Well, I hope this one publishes okay - it's the second time I've written it. It was a good day for a re-write - it's a gray, rainy day.