one of life's firsts and some other good stuff

I'm slipping. Sheesh, what kind of aweful blogger am I?
Not aweful. Just busy. Enjoying life sometimes comes before documenting life. Sometimes. :)

We've had a lot going on. The kids are out of school now. Their last day was last Wednesday. I went to the school in the morning because Sebastian's class was having a Survivor field day in the park, and parents were invited to come along. That was fun to watch! Survivor-inspired games with four classes of fourth graders. Good stuff!

Thursday my mom came to visit... her first trip to our new house. She was here until Saturday morning. We hung out a bit, and I drove her around and showed her a bit. We took the kids out for lunch, and then went and played at one of the parks. It was a good visiting day.

Saturday morning we did something that was a first for me. Can you guess what it was?


We went and picked up Isaac's football equipment. Pads, a helmet, a chin strap and a mouth guard are now standing sentinal in our dining room (because I haven't found a better place for them yet).

Also while we were there, he had to get a physical. He was NOT thrilled with peeing in a cup. He flat told the doctor, "I don't WANT to pee in a cup." Too bad. Eventually I guess he must have given in because they signed off on the physical.

After the equipment pick-up and a McDonald's lunch at the park nearby, we headed home, got our bathing suits on, and headed to the beach at the lake. It was near 100 degrees on Saturday, and the kids were begging for some water in which to submerge themselves. The lake was the closest and cheapest option. It worked. They had a blast.




Imagine. Those sandy stones ended up ALL OVER our floors. There were sandy stone piles in the bathroom, all three kids' bedrooms, and even in the middle of the stairs going upstairs. Nice. Our vacuum cleaner didn't know what to think! Lesson learned... next time we'll take our clothes there and change out of bathing suits before we come home. Leave the bulk of the stones there that way I think.

Yesterday Lucas left for a work trip. A short work trip. So we're on our own for a few days. Which means that today I get to take all three kids to the grocery. Oh joy of joys. But it will be a good day. I am determined!

Oh, one more note before I go...

While we were at the football equipment pick up, they were also signing girls up for cheerleading for the football season. One of the coaches asked Meagan if she would like to cheer. She gave him a look like he was from another planet, wrinkled up her nose, squinted her eyes at him and said in her very best are-you-kidding-me voice, "Um, nooooo. I'm not really a cheering kind of girl." He laughed and asked her if she would rather play football. "I'll play football," she said, "but I am NOT going to cheer." Love it. The girl definitely has her opinions.

Okay, I'm off to prepare for the grocery! Have a lovely day!

**********

Bus Stop

These pictures are from the first day of school, 2009. I only have about 100 more photos from that day that I still need to get into album-ready-form... I'm getting there. :)

Journaling:'The bus stopped right at our house this year. The first day of school, you were so excited as you saw the bus drive down the road. I loved the look on your face as you turned to wave bye.'

(Click here to view full credits)

Here's the kit I used to make this layout...

Each month, Krista Sahlin (Sahlin Studio) highlights a kit of hers that is already in her shop. This is the kit for September. Definitely worth checking out... there's a contest to go along with it. You can check it out on her blog here.

Photos Today - 6/27/10

Several pictures from today...

McDonald's Sweet Tea on the way home from church... I tried a new church today. It is such a weird feeling to be a stranger in the crowd again. I haven't felt that for a long time. Starting over...

Bacon spinach salad and bread sticks for lunch. Yum.

Hot. 'nuff said.

Made this castle for the hall tree in Isaac's room. He chose dragons and castles for his room, and the one thing he asked for is a sign that says "Isaac's Castle." We found this little castle at Hobby Lobby, although it was all pink and purple. Nothing a little paint can't fix!

Playing in the sprinklers with the neighbor boy and two other little boys. Six kids, 6 sword-like weapons, two sprinklers, and wild imaginations. I think they were all secret super spies who were fighting bad guy aliens or something like that. It always makes me smile to overhear their play.

After getting our 1/2 bath painted yesterday, today I semi-decorated. I decided to refinish the mirror since it didn't match anything else that was in there. Gonna do white paint as the base and then go over it with crackle paint. Hope it turns out...

Week 1

As with last year, I started out this year with the idea of documenting the entire year with photos. The idea - one photo a day to capture every-day life. The reality - sometimes I forget. Life goes by so quickly sometimes, and I just simply forget to grab the camera, or to stop and take a moment to snap a photo.

Although I have not gotten a photo EVERY day, I still plan to do my best to document each week of this year through a combination of photography and blogging. This should make it much easier to pull together a complete album at the end of the year, having the photos and the stories already captured.

So here is the start of it all.

Week 1: Jan 1 - Jan 7, 2010

Grandma H. cut Meagan's hair. Meagan was not pleased with the whole process. Too much sitting still.

Isaac used the money he had been saving to buy this dragon mountain, among other things. It was, much to my surprise, quite a hit.

She is forever in a costume. Some days, she is in every costume she has at one point or another.

Isaac got a book for his school Christmas book exchange that is a collection of Curious George stories. He is turning into quite the reader.

Meagan had a friend over to play for the afternoon.

Our weekly routine - picking the boys up early so that we can get to gymnastics on time. Our first week of January was full of a steady supply of snow.

Credits: Photo editing utilized Leora Sanford's Photo Overlays: Celebrating Color

How Do I Manage to Forget Everything?

For a week or so before the end of the year, I had been thinking of starting a new project of sorts for 2009 - a photo a day. I've been looking forward to it, and had thought of it almost every day. However, somehow, when 2009 began, I all of a sudden forgot about it! So now, I find myself on day 3 with no pictures yet. I guess I'm just going to have to skip the first two days...seeing as I can't go back in time and remedy the problem. Oh well. Hopefully I can do a better job from this point forward remembering to pick up my camera at least once a day... however, something tells me this won't be the last time in the next 362 days that I forget. I'll do my best!