Weekend Pix

I just had to share these cute pictures I took over the weekend.

Miss M holding her new baby cousin.

Banana deep in thought.

Mr. H lying in a field of clover.

We had a fun and busy weekend. We went bowling with a homeschoolers' group on Friday, attended an ice cream social at church on Saturday, and on Sunday Miss M's softball team won their first City-County playoff game. And what an exciting game it was!! I had so much fun watching Miss M and her coach (Dad) at the game yesterday. I cheered so loudly that I was nearly hoarse afterwards. I am so proud of both of them. And I'm looking forward to the next game tomorrow night!

Slip’n and Slid’n

Yesterday we got together with the G.I.F.T. (Getting Interracial Families Together) group for an outdoor game day. We had a water balloon toss, sack races, and fun with a giant parachute.

There was also a Slip-n-Slide. It was the first time that my youngest two children had ever seen a Slip-n-Slide. I know. They’re deprived children. Ask my dad about the time he brought over a box of Twinkies. My kids had no clue what they were.

Anyway…we tried explaining the concept of running up to the edge of the slippery yellow strip and tossing yourself onto your belly for a wonderfully wet ride with an exciting splash at the end. It sounded simple enough, but for some reason the kids weren’t getting it. They were all sliding on their knees, which is a clumsier trip, and not all that likely to get you to the big splash. It wasn’t just our kids have trouble with this concept either. I heard one of the little girls say, “My mind says ‘belly’ but my body says ‘knees’”. Many of the parents were shouting out their best slip-n-sliding advice. My older boys eventually got the hang of it, but Banana was still having trouble. We finally just had to shove her all the way down.

Mr. H just crawled down it until he got to the little pool at the end.

But once he figured out how much fun it was to play on the Slip-n-Slide, it was hard to keep him off of it. I was afraid he’d get plowed over by the bigger kids.

Thankfully he became interested in the playground while the older kids finished up with a water balloon fight. It was a fun afternoon.

…Aaaand we’re back.

Sorry about that, folks. We were dealing with some “technical difficulties”. There wasn’t anything wrong with my computer, but I was technically swamped with difficulties. There was end of school-year business, a major family vacation, Girl Scout camp, sports camps, and Vacation Bible School to name a few. FINALLY, July is here and the calendar looks do-able again. Baseball is over for the boys, and Miss M is close to being finished with softball. We survived!! And, despite being away from the blog for three months, I am still here.

We had a great time visiting Disney World. It was the longest trip we have made so far, and the kids were actually pretty good in the car. Once we arrived at Disney, we were off and running. We were always busy, but we were able to see and do pretty much everything we wanted to in less than a week. Mr. H and Banana stayed at home with their grandparents to take care of them. Feeling guilty about leaving them behind, I cried everyday for five days straight. Of course they were absolutely fine at home being spoiled rotten. The rest of us enjoyed Disney so much that we decided we have to go back again in another five or six years when all the kids can go with us.

As soon as we got home we had three straight weeks of activities. We had tennis camp, basketball camp, Girl Scout camp, Vacation Bible School, and theater camp. Not to mention the baseball/softball practices and games. Add to that a wedding shower for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, a visit from my out-of-town cousin, my 14th wedding anniversary, Father’s Day, and a (paying!) gig with the band. Needless to say, I was ready for a long holiday weekend for the Fourth of July. It was nice. It was made twice as nice with the addition of a new niece. Baby Abbey was welcomed into the world with fireworks and sparklers.

Despite all that excitement, the biggest development for me was simply a letter…a letter that I had been writing in my head for months. I began researching the idea of homeschooling my three oldest children for the last part of the school year, and I was really excited about what I was learning about it. I wanted to try it, but was very concerned about making such a big change in our family. I went back and forth on an almost daily basis, and the stress of making the final decision was beginning to weigh on me. I was worried that my kids would be really upset, even angry about my decision; and that was keeping me from pulling the trigger. June 30 was the deadline – when tuition at the kids’ school was due – so it had come to a head that last week of June. I finally broke the news to Miss M, expecting drama and tears. But she was very cool about it, expressing her feelings very clearly – a mix of fear and excitement. I told her those were my feelings exactly, and we shared a hug. I wrote the letter to the kids’ school immediately. What a good way to start!!

Now…the real work begins.