Gardens

The kids have been wanting to grow a garden. Unfortunately our backyard is too shady to grow much of anything.  Aunt Megan was kind enough to let the kids pick out their own gardens in her yard and let them grow whatever they want. They were very excited to get started and had all sorts of ideas of what they wanted to grow.  Since it is pretty late to start growing stuff we had to make do with what was on hand at the store.  A couple of times a week we are planning on going over to our gardens to weed and water.  Hopefully some of our things will grow!  Lucy is certain that her watermelon plant will grow.  Come the first of September, Safeway might have to help us out a bit with that!

The joys of time outs

Yesterday as I was vacuuming Lucy's room I found her chalkboard behind her door with this drawing.  She had been sent to her room earlier for destroying the older girls puzzle they were doing.  When asked why she destroyed the puzzle she answered, "cause."

This picture had me laughing all afternoon.

Summer cuts

Swimming Lessons

These two girls just finished up swimming lessons for the summer.  Lucy was SO excited that she was able to participate and lets face it, I might have been more thrilled that she wasn't sitting by me in the stands.  I really wanted Julia to take one more level of swimming but after last year and the trauma of trying to learn to dive, she REALLY didn't want to. I relented to letting her stay home so it was just Nat and Lucy.  Both  passed their swim classes and are on to the next level.

A couple of months ago I realized that if I wanted Lucy to learn to put her face in the water that I was going to need to get her some prescription googles.  Her eyes are so sensitive.  She wouldn't wear normal googles because she is so blind that she couldn't see a thing out of them.  I found a website online that I was able to order some for her.  The googles were a little funny since they were tinted but that is all that was available.  It worked like a charm though, she was able to see, kept them on and learned to put her face in the water.

One of the greatest things about having older kids is that I was able to leave them home everyday and they didn't have to come with me.  Cameron and Julia came with me a few times after Lucy begged them to come watch her.  We had a little fun with her glasses while she was swimming.

She is so cute!

My Guys

Seriously... love these two!!

Raspberry Picking

Took my slave labor to the fields to pick some raspberries.  

Since the car is in the shop we took Mitch's car. Cameron was my co-pilot and helped me not get lost without my GPS (The girls were not so lucky the day before for their Glider's meet).   I think Cam was relieved when we got home without an incident.  My POOR, poor, sense of direction!  None the less the raspberries were huge and delicious and the trip was a success.

Julia and her gloves--To keep her germs to herself!

 
Afterwards we had ice cream cones to cool off and for a job well done.  I was able to make 19 containers of jam today!

Medical Marvel

For the past week Julia has had a rash with bumps and blisters all over her hands.  Finally on the day of her birthday after it just wouldn't go away, we went to the Dr. office.  The doctor thinks that Julia has Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.

Yeah, that's right.  Good Grief!

The doctor wasn't 100% positive that is what it is since the oldest patient she has ever seen with this has been no older than 5 years old.  What can I say, she is a medical marvel.  Unfortunately this is a virus so there is no medicine to help it go away and can be contagious.  Fortunately, since Julia is 11 and not putting her fingers into other peoples mouths and licking other people's property the chance of others getting it around her are small.  Also since everyone other than Lucy is older than the age of five it's not too worrisome. It does however keep things interesting around here.

Side note:  Julia is official 5'3......

In the Dr.'s office this sign was hanging on the blinds.  I had a good laugh!!!

ELEVEN

Julia turned 11! She is becoming an awesome young lady.  Her actual birthday was a crazy day filled with swimming lessons, Dr. appointments (to be discussed later!), Gliders meet and a one car family as the van is in the shop.  We did manage to celebrate her by the end of the night.  Lucy summed it up best when she said "Julia is so lucky to be grown up.  She has a purse, a wallet, sunglasses, gum, and lipstick (chapstick)."

Julia knew for months that she wanted an emoji birthday party.  

Trying out her new flamingo she named "Fanny."  If you want to see something impressive, it was me fitting 4 kids and all those inter tubes in Mitch's car for a day at the beach!