Summer Days

Hello again, all!  I have a few random pictures of some things we've been up to.  The summer has, once again, been much busier than I'd like.  I tried so hard to "just schedule a little."  Cline has been working so much, though, that it's busy when we have things to do, and it's busy when we don't.  I still have to feed and clean everyone, even if we don't have a "camp" that week :)  Summer is always going to be busy, though, because all of our birthdays fall between March and September.  I suppose we could not celebrate as much, but birthdays are a big deal over here.  They certainly don't have to be for everyone, and we probably go a little overboard with our parties, although I try to keep them simple.  I am just so thankful for my husband and my kids, and I get so excited every year when we get to celebrate another year together.  It's hard to cut back, especially at the fun ages that the kids are.  At any rate, we've done a few other things this summer, as well, mostly indoors, because it's been HOT.  Plus, Cline's been working a lot, and I'm too much of a wimp to take the kids swimming by myself. 

Christa got this great new backpack for her birthday.  I noticed about a week after her party that she was carrying it around constantly.   I figured it must have replaced her old backpack - a pink bag I bought her for the pre-k 3 class 2 years ago.  I think I've mentioned this bag before.  She carried it around everywhere with her.  She had her bag, her duck, and her blanky at all times.  But for a week after the party, I didn't see the pink bag.  I saw the new Ariel bag.  I figured she'd moved her treasured Squinky toys and mints over into it.  As I was cleaning up one night, I realized she'd left the Ariel backpack downstairs.  It felt a little heavier than I was expecting, so I opened it up and found....

..... her old, pink bag stuffed into the new backpack, of course!  My girl clearly loves her bags!!  Cline would say she gets that straight from me, and would prove it by the pile of 20 or so duffel bags that occupy my closet floor :)  We got a great laugh out of this one.

This year, for the first time, I decided to start teaching Christa about managing money.  We took all of her birthday money and put it into three piles - one to give to God, one to save, and one to spend.  She took the money she could spend, and we went to T.J. Maxx, where she picked out this great tea set.  It's ceramic - a "real" tea set, according to her :).  (The girls have a couple of plastic ones).  She was thrilled when I told her we could have a "real" tea party (with water and real sugar)!  She set the party up all by herself and picked out my outfit.  We brushed our hair and put on a little makeup.  It was a lot of fun!  And the tea set looks great on my new bookshelf, so I'm really glad she picked this out!  She had enough money for a second toy and chose a set of Hello Kitty Walkie Talkies.  Unfortunately, they don't work so well, but she got so many great toys for her birthday, so we're not too worried about it.

Elizabeth thinks she's a big girl.  She got into the diner booth all by herself, and now makes sure she's included in whatever the big girls are doing.   Christa set up a tea party for the two of them (with the plastic set).

Tea time!!

Finally, the girls have dance camp this week.  Cousin Maggie Beth spent the night last night, and it went really well.  Maggie Beth and Christa are in camp together, and Abby Kate has her own little class with a friend from school.

Have a great day!