peaceful house

Camille has been amazing this week too. I just can't believe it. I miss Av and I am sure she does too but she is soooo good at just going off and playing by herself each day for quiet time so I can get a break and get some stuff done. With Av each day quiet time was just a hassle. Guess she just does not need it anymore and was bored. Camille will give me such a break that when it's time to resume playtime while E finishes his nap it's a joy and very fun. She has been so good this week. Camille and Avery either get along great or are fighting like cats and dogs. It's so nice right now not to be listening to them fighting on and off all day. Love the peace that has become my house. I hope this is a sign of how this school year is going to be.

camp

I am beyond proud of my super duper big girl. She is rocking camp. She loves it!!!! Every night she comes home with tons of energy and bounces around the house asking if she can go back the next day. Her bff was not going to camp yesterday and I had to break the news to Av that morning. I was dreading telling her. Just worried it was going to break her camp mojo. It didn't phase her. She said "ok mommy." She was more worried about her friend not feeling well and missing the tie-dying day than anything. She is so sweet. She got out of my car and went off to her day the same as she would have knowing Caroline was going to be there. I was slightly worried when I picked her up how her mood would be but I should not have worried. She was still in a great mood. She had a great day and was very happy. She just makes me so proud of her. She is so much stronger than I ever was. She is an amazing little girl. I am so glad I decided to do this camp for her. 2 of my major concerns about sending her to K have been checked off my list. Would she have the energy for all day 5 days a week and how she would do wo her bff (they are off to 2 different schools)? She has once again proven to me that most of my worries in her case are more about me than about her. She can do it and she is!!! I love you so much Avery Lou Lou. You blow my mind everyday!!!

look where i found e

Bittersweet

This week has been VERY bittersweet. It is the beginning of the end of our summer. Av has started camp. It is 9:00-3:00 5 days a week. The plan was to use it to get her ready to going to school those hours. Even though the last few weeks she has been bored silly at the house and requiring tons of stimulation and driving me nuts I miss her sooooo much. The house is super quiet wo her here. Today was my first ever trip to the zoo wo her. My buddy, where is she? So sad. So far she is LOVING camp. Comes home very happy and yesterday she was fine all night and not super wore out by it. I hope that means she will have the stamina for school. I know she is growing up and I have to let her but it is so hard. She is my baby. Wish she could stay my baby forever.

great friends

We went to the lake this past weekend and had the best time!!! Despite E having a high fever all weekend, Jackson throwing up Saturday night and the boat not working it was still wonderful. I feel so lucky that even with all the above mentioned trouble we have friends that you can still have a GREAT time with. We arrived about Friday at 6. Made a quick dinner and got ready for a evening cruise on the lake. Kids were all in bathing suits when I discovered E's fever. I didn't bring a thermometer but I had meds. So I gave him some and sent everything down to the lake. Him and I stayed back a few minutes to let the meds kick in. 20 minutes later we headed down and found out something was wrong with the boat. J worked and worked but couldn't get it started. So the kids swam off the dock and I took E back up. Got him to bed early but it took us to about 10:45 to get the other 4 to sleep. Surprisingly it was Av and Stella that were the last ones to fall asleep. The next day E still had his fever. After J got the boat working off we went for a nice ride and swim. I only kept E out there for brief periods of time. Marci couldn't keep Emi out for long either bc she is only 5 months and it was super hot. So her and I spent a lot of time in the house with the babies while the dads hung with the big kids. They had a blast. They tubbed and tubbed and tubbed. A lot of times it was Jackson on the tub with the Av and C. Even at one point Marci and I tubbed. They even got me to try wake boarding. I was kind of close but I think my fear kept me from totally getting up. Saturday night we grilled and then took our sunset cruise. We got the kids to bed much earlier that night. 9 I think. Somewhere around 11 is when Jackson threw up. He was fine afterwards, never found out why. It was just weird. Sunday the dads and big kids spent all day on the boat again. Marci and I and the babies were on and off of it all day. When we finally left at 5 C was asleep in the car before we even got on the main road. A Taco Bell dinner stop was slightly a disaster (C had peed herself in her sleep in the car and I didn't have any clean clothes for her and then I spilled my huge Sprite on myself, E and C in Av's clothes. J hates Taco Bell and I'm sure I will never talk him into it again.) and ended our fun. The weekend went too fast. It was one of the best weekends. We love you guys Marci, Brent, Jackson, Stella and Emi!!! Thanks for being such great friends.

paci

Something from vacation that I forgot to write about. We have 3 paci's for E that just stay in his room. One goes to sleep with him and two on his dresser if we need to plug it in the middle of the night. Which hasn't happened in awhile. Anyway on vacation he had all 3 in his pack and play. Since those can't fall out he always had access to them. Several times when we went in there he would be standing with one in his mouth and one in each hand. Pretty cute sight esp since we have never had a paci baby before. We really try to limit his use of it and the plan is to take them at a year. He knows his paci stays in his crib so when I come in he spits it right out and then stands for me to grab him. heheh He goes days without using one other than in his crib but then sometimes he gets away with having one more. Lately he has been getting it more. I found the best use for a paci ever. I can't believe I have never heard of this before. Almost mad at paci mom friends for not pointing this out to me. At play places like Av's gymnastic or the pool he is mouthing everything!!! Random pool toys to balance beams to gross balls. Yuck. I found though if I give him his paci he sucks on that and doesn't put anything else in his mouth. The BEST use for a paci ever!!!! Maybe he will have it longer if need be! Had I knows this little secret with the girls I might have forced a paci on them!!! I did always wonder why kids had pacis at places like the pool. Now I know.

great weekend

We had the best family weekend. It started off with our usual friday night. Feed the kids, hang outside with friends and then J and I get take out once the kids are in bed. Very nice. We watched the series finally of our fav show. Friday Night Lights. The end was sad and we are very sad it's over. Saturday we all slept in till 8:30!!! After lounging for awhile we went on a family run. Then J mowed the grass while we played with the neighbors. After that we went inside and moved the playroom to the basement. It feels great to free up some space on the first floor and the girls were so happy to get some basement space to themselves. A lot of their friends have the basement as kids zones so they were happy to get one. Then we picked up dinner and had a picnic in the park!!! We checked out a new park in town. It has a playground and a sprayground. It was so nice. Planned out well and very pretty. The kids had a BLAST! Even Everett got in on the action loving the slide. Sunday started out as our usual too. Boot camp for J and I and Jplay for the kids. We all love it. Afterwards J and I get a little time for coffee and then off to the pool we all went. It started raining but it was not a bad rain so we stayed and played. I remember how much I used to like swimming in the rain and wanted the girls to get that too. Every Sunday that we are home we grill out so we made BBQ chicken. The kids (including E) ate it up. It was very good. E loves being able to eat normal food. You can tell he feels so big. It's National ice cream day so the ice cream place up the street was having scoops for 1.49 so we decided to have a special treat and walk up there. As we got outside it started to sprinkle again. We figured it would stop soon and the ice cream place is only 3 blocks away so we just could not drive so off in the rain we went. The girls were on their bikes and loved riding in the rain. It never did stop and rained pretty decent but no one cared. C saw some pink ice cream and decided that was the kind she wanted. I assumed it was strawberry and so that is what I ordered her. When she got it, it was not pink. She was mildly disappointed but who can be disappointed for long with a cup of ice cream in their hands. The rest of us got cones but she is still a cup girl and didn't care she didn't have what the rest of us did. She sat on the bench outside looking at the rain and ate most of her ice cream. The little bit that was left Jack got to enjoy. We never feed him anything so that was even more of a treat to her that Jack was eating her ice cream right out of her cup. Great end to a great weekend!!!!

"I feel raindrops"

No honey, that's actually daddy's sweat drops. hehehe We have been going on family runs on Saturday mornings. We all love it. "Faster daddy" is heard over and over from one stroller while squeals of delight are heard from the other as E's hair blows in the wind.

Whale's Tail and beach walking first night

Seaside

cute girls

C's new obsession of dresses, wearing dresses the minute we get up and dressing herself started on vacation. This was the beginning of the end. Notice she is wearing a lot of clothes. The other pic is 2 girls in cute new mating suits. C would not look at the camera so we got a look at the back of the suit.

fish fry

Look at these hot cooks!!!

Dewey Destin

chasing crabs