weekend fun

We had a really fun weekend.  Typical of weekends, it just didn't last long enough though!  Evie has started rolling over!  She is really starting to show her personality, and we are loving how happy/fun she is!  She seems to be a pretty happy kid.

She put on quite a show for Uncle Colin.  Smiling, talking, jabbering at him.  He is just as smitten as the rest of us I think!  Colin has ridiculous stuff happen to him, and has crazy stories.  I always get a kick out of him.  I am happy he came down.  Andrew was happy too, because he likes having a fishing buddy.  They also got the derby car resurrected. 

Saige was invited to a friend's birthday pool party.  Luckily, it was Saturday evening and warm enough to swim.  Sunday evening they would NOT have been swimming I don't believe.  Saige had a great time at the party.  She sometimes feels left out, so I was happy she got invited someplace.  

Madison insisted on buying Evie a pool.  Every kid needs a pool right?  Evie was NOT impressed!  Sunday, when we drove by dollar general, Harper wanted me to stop and buy a bigger pool, because Andrew takes up too much room, and Evie doesn't have enough space!  I told her maybe next year!  :)  

At one time this weekend, we had all 8 of our kids home at the same time.  It was nice to have a little time to visit with them.  It doesn't seem to happen all that often these days.  We also had a visit from Uncle Eric, who helped us sort off the 4-H goats and get them on their feeding regime.  We have roughly 60 days until the sale.  They all need weight put on them!  Hoping this "magical" feed will do the trick!  Time will tell I guess.

On Sunday evenings, Andrew likes to cook bbq food.  We like this set up too!  He made up a feast of kabobs, but we had to eat them late last night because Quincy had a rescheduled double header.  I think that Quincy is in for a long season.  For one thing, her team moved up, so they are the younger people in the age group.  But the other thing is that they just aren't trying very hard.  I hope they get more motivated as the season goes on.  Quincy played really well though, and did a pretty good job pitching.  It was one of those bi-polar Kansas weather nights, so I was sort of happy when it ended.  It felt like football weather!  I was very amused with Harper and have to tell this story.  The little girls both had practice, so they were at the games.  They got cold (understandably).  Grandma fetched a blanket out of her car, and Harper went to our van in search of jackets.  The only jacket she could find in there belonged to Quincy, and she borrowed it.  Except Quincy is always playing with critters, and the jacket smelled like straight up duck poo.  Harper wore the jacket anyway because she was cold.  When we got home, she put hoodies and a blanket in the van so that in the future, she won't have to borrow one from Quincy!  

I am sad the weekend is over, but happy because life is good!

happy places

A few days back, I blogged about how I was looking forward to relaxing days of summer.  I realize now that relaxing was the wrong way to describe summer.  But we are having fun.  It is still chaotic, but a different type of chaos than the school year!  Ball games eat our evenings, but the kids love playing.  Summer practices, weights, and summer programs eat our days, but the kids are thriving and happy, which in turn makes me happy!  The two little girls really enjoyed the bird program that the library put on for their summer reading program.  Saige and Harper have been filling some of their spare time reading books because if you log hours reading, you win prizes.  I love seeing them read for fun.  Harper accurately pointed out that reading the stuff you pick out yourself is so much better than reading assignments!  :)  

Have I mentioned lately how in love we are with this little girl?  All of us!  I read an article this week that said children who are held and snuggled with have better developed brains.  She should be a genius!  Who can resist this sweet face?  The article did not mention if children who are held and snuggled ever learn to walk!  Just kidding of course!  She is just such a blessing. 

The city pool has been somewhat of a nightmare for Jim.  They have had broken pumps, broken lights, broken skimmers, chlorine problems, and I can't even recall what all else.  They finally managed to get everything working and they opened for the summer yesterday.  I am relieved that the girls are talking to their dad again.  He had been walking in at night to "Is the pool open yet?"  instead of "hey dad" for a couple weeks!  They were definitely happy to get to get busy swimming.  I dipped my toes in the water.  No way would I get in there!  It was like a melting ice burg.  :)  

Side note - swim suit shopping with Quincy was quite an adventure.  She has outgrown the kids section.  She was completely not amused with the selection in the junior and women's departments.  I fully understand her complaints, but was pretty much hysterically laughing listening to her.  I saw several women in the store shaking their heads agreeing with her, and am fairly sure they were amused too.  WHY do they put huge boob pads in there?  Why do they cut them so your whole butt hangs out?  Why do they all have to be weird fleshy colors?  Why can they not make it where it looks like you are a stripper?  I was able to talk her into exactly one suit.  I sure hope it make it through the whole summer!  

Colin was in some sort of a dodge ball tournament at the gym where he is a member.  He needed a couple more players, so he recruited Preston and Cameron.  They won.  They got a belt, a shirt and a sign.  They were pretty pumped up about it.  Cameron made it seem like the competition was pretty tough.  Preston happened to mention to me that one team was a mother/son team where the sons were around 9 years old.  And one team might have been pregnant women.  So yes, my sons are dodge ball champions who whipped up on little kids and pregnant women.  Cameron said hey - you set foot on the floor at dodge ball, and all bets are off.  Proud parent moment.  haha!  I am happy that my kids like doing stuff together.  They might be a little more competitive than what is actually necessary, but I am calling it a parenting win! 

signs of summer

Monday  night, Harper had a game at home, Preston had a double header in Carbondale and it was 4-H night.  We watched the first part of Preston's first game, ran to the meeting, and came back in time to watch Preston's second game.  Jim was on Harper duty.  Saige and I were sad to learn that Preston had made several really good plays while we were gone.  We were not sad that we also missed the rain delay though!

Saige was on a "blue" kick.  She had a blue popsicle, blue Gatorade, and a bucket of blue cotton candy.  I told her that her lips matched her eyes!  She may or may not be allowed to go to the concession stand without a supervisor in the future!  :)   

After the rain moved though, it got pretty chilly at the game.  Saige ended up sitting in the van.  I was happy when this one ended.  Preston did get to pitch in the second game.  He has not really pitched that often, so I was surprised.  He did a great job!  They ended up winning both games.  We are enjoying ball park evenings!

Strangely, we had no games last night.  Or I forgot something.  The girls asked if I would take them over to Lone Star Lake.  It is the only lake in the area that is open right now I think.  I told them if they got their chores done, I would take them over.  That was absolutely the fastest chore time ever!  

They enjoyed getting to swim finally.  The city pool has had some issues, and isn't open yet.  Dad has been nagged to death about it.  He promises it is close, and will open this week.  I hope he is right because I bought a pool pass, and these 3 water babies are more than ready!

Weekend/not weekend

Without a doubt, we look forward to the weekend every week!  Even Evie knows the value of Friday!  Mallory took this picture of Evie and Harper.  I love it so much.  Mallory, Quincy, Harper and Saige love being aunts!  So much joy from such a small human!   

On Friday, Quincy had her first games.  Mallory has a part time job this summer working concessions at the ballpark.  She and I both had to leave Friday to get to the ballpark, and we needed to leave about 20 minutes before Andrew gets home from work.  Madison was on the later shift.  This left Uncle Cameron to come to the rescue.  He seemed super excited to babysit!  He said he would watch the baby, and he was willing to stick a bottle in her mouth, but she was on her own in the diaper department!  Good thing he was only watching her for 20 minutes!  

Quincy's team finally got in some games.  She had a double header.  They got creamed both games though.  Quincy (and really the whole team) had an off night.  She said she just couldn't get anything to go right.  I think it might have been partly exhaustion from all the other stuff she had going on last week.  In the whole scheme of things, it isn't too big of a deal.  There are plenty more games where that one came from!  She had been missing Landrie, who was in Minnesota last week, so she was super happy to get to see her bff!  

Photo credits go to Saige, who once again went to the ballpark in search of a different dinner than the one we fixed at home.  Her dad was there, so of course she was able to con him out of some good stuff!  We are on to her now, so this week will be harder for her!  :)

Saturday we played catch up.  Jim and I did the shopping, errand running, and we even made time to sit down and have lunch together.  Sometimes it is good to take a moment to visit with your spouse!  The man I married is a pretty amazing guy....I enjoyed having some time with him.  Plus, we made the kids happy since there are now groceries in the house.  Summer seems to make food disappear!  

When we got back, the girls and I ran over to clean the church.  I was overwhelmingly happy to see some sunshine/blue skies.  We got our duties done, and had a few extra minutes before we had to pick up Preston and Quincy from work, so we also drove around checking out some of the tornado damage.

We were so focused on the blue sky, that when the storm warnings were being issued on the radio, I thought the weather people were crazy.  Then I turned into the driveway where Preston and Quincy work and saw this behind me.  Kansas weather is always interesting.  Luckily, we did not get any rain.  I am happy to see stuff drying out a little bit!

We also got some work done around our house.  Andrew is helping Preston fix up a vehicle.  Preston desperately needs a car of his own so that he can stop borrowing mine!  They got the bumper on, and now we just have to get some tires.   Andrew also helped fix Cameron's car, helped Jim with the mower, and helped Jim figure out a couple of other problems we have been having.  I am thankful that Andrew doesn't mind helping us out!  

Jim has been busy chopping down trees from the fence lines.  We tried to burn some, but I think the humidity was too high.  The fire just wouldn't stay lit.  Jim likes burning stuff.  He is a pyromaniac.  

Colin, Cameron and Spencer went to a wedding this weekend.  I love these pictures and wanted to save them.  Cameron said it was a really fun wedding.  Colin was down to help me with a project on Saturday, and he told me that he won't get a hair cut or shave until after his 21st birthday driver's license photo is taken.  When he was down, he had on a hat.  Looking at these photos, I think it is a good thing his birthday isn't far away!  :)  He is enjoying his internship at Westar I think.  He said he is learning a lot, and said that working in the tornado damage was an eye opening, sad thing for him.  I am very proud of my big boys.  They are making good life choices.

It was a great weekend.  I can't believe it is already over.  They just never stick around as long as I would like!