Yay for summer!

The kids are loving that school is out for their friends. We've been partying non-stop this week between end of school year church flings, a birthday party for our buddy Meg, and a playgroup where everybody got to come. I decided today that if the year could be half summer (no school, lots of playtime, easy schedules, and of course, camp), and half the regularly schduled program, life would be PERFECT! I think all the time outdoors in the sunshine has put me in a good mood.

Alright, now imagine that I actually posted this week before last when I wrote that last paragraph. Tack another week onto the next bit of this entry and you'll be up to speed on where we are now.

The last three weeks wrapped up our school year and since I was in a field tripping mood after the long, nasty winter, we tried to see how much we could stay gone.

There were a few days at home though, and we had some friends come play a time or two. Look at this cutie pie.

Tozer, who will be two in July. He and brother A.J. came to play while Alison went to get a haircut. This is before Elliott was out of school, so we were missing him.

We played outside for awhile, and I asked Amelia to watch the littlest two for a minute while I ran in to get everyone some water. They like to try to ride tricycles down the big hill by the house, wander away in the woods, pull the big kid bikes over on themselves, the usual fun. I figured Amelia could at least alert me if some mischief was happening. Here's what I found when I came back out.

She sat them in the rocker on the porch and was singing "Wheels on the Bus" to them, which at the moment is Elizabeth's all time favorite song.

She's going to make a great babysitter.

This weekend we're putting Amelia in charge and James and I are going out for a date night. I'm sure she can handle it.

Buddies!

I've still yet to figure out why Shannon likes to choke his friends in pictures.







Not to be left out of the silliness...

We took a field trip to the Atlanta Botanial Gardens the second week in May. I don't have many pictures and the ones I have aren't that great, but it was a colossal effort to take out the camera while pushing a stroller and keeping up with three little people running in different directions. We met our friends the Sumptions there, as well as another homeschooling mom who had set up the trip. There are all kinds of great deals for homeschoolers out there if you know where to look. I don't, so I jump on board trips other people have painstakingly researched and planned! It was a lot of fun and we spent several hours there.

There were ponds and fountains everywhere. This one had fish, tadpoles, and frogs in it. Who even needs the plants?

We rushed through the buildings and displays full of plants, not bothering to read most of the plaques. It would definetely be fun to go back there sometime minus the speed demons.

There was construction going on outside one of the buildings and they would have spent the entire rest of the afternoon there, especially the boys.

We joked that it was a live deforestation exhibit.

Turns out they're just putting in some steps.

Wheee!!





Looking for...

Great big frogs.

I finally found the perfect plant for my windowsill!

The kids on the fieldtrip.



Including the little troublemaker who didn't want to sit with the rest of the kids for the picture.

There was a children's garden which was very cool. I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy following the little people around and keeping them out of the ponds. There was a small fountain they could play in so we came prepared with swimsuits.

Metal slides are very slippery when wet.

Splash fountain!

Avery demonstrated the booty dance for everyone.



We wrapped it up for the day and headed to my folks' house for the rest of the weekend. James had left that morning for Panama City, Florida with our friend Chris to be moral support during Chris' half Iron Man triathalon. He also wanted to check out the scene so he'd know what to expect when it was his turn to do one, hopefully before this year ends. Since we weren't too far from mom and dad's and would have been home by ourselves anyway, we chose to avoid home and have a mini vacation instead. James met us Saturday night and we stayed in McDonough for Mothers' Day.

Continuing the field trip theme, Friday morning we got up and headed to Noah's Ark Animal Rescue, a place not far from my folks' house. We had been there once before, and enjoyed walking through and seeing all the animals.





It's not easy to sneak up on a peacock.



Bye Mr. Peacock!

Elizabeth wasn't too thrilled about the warmness and brightness of the day.

This was one of the first hot days we've had this year, and nearly all of the animals were sacked out napping. We also saw bears, wolves, lions, and an assortment of farm animals...all asleep.

The monkeys and orangutans were awake and playing though, and some of them were making quite a lot of noise. I'd have taken more pictures of them but I was trying to console Elizabeth, who did not think the creepy swinging, howling creatures were cute at all. This one was though.



Saturday morning I reconnected with a college friend who I haven't seen since I graduated in 1996. There's no good reason for it though, because she lives in McDonough! We had a lot of fun catching up on the past 14 years and our EIGHT kids had fun playing together.

Joy and her husband Blake. I wish I had gotten a picture of the entire family together. Their daughters are Emma and Ella (five year old twins), Ava who is three, and Allie who is a few months younger than Elizabeth. Joy beat me in the how close can you have kids together department.

After the kids destroyed the house together for awhile, Blake got out their new super cool backyard summer fun toy. The Himstedt children said they must have one.







Avery especially had a blast on it.



Elizabeth tries out her new four wheelin' skills. She actually drove it all over the yard. The steering thing was a little bit of a puzzle, but she could zoom on the straightaways.

Back in the water.

A chivalrous gentleman driving a young lady around. Boys with sisters don't care if their ride is pink and purple.







Corie and Joy, looking exactly as they did 14 years ago. (In their own minds, anyway.) We had a great time catching up and hanging out, and vowed to do it again. Joy and I had some good times in college, including a great deal of weekend roller blading all over Rome, Georgia, hanging out at the local favorite Mexican restaurant, and enjoying friends and good times. There might have been this one time some of us took a sink apart in our dorm's bathroom to rescue a friend's gold earring from the drain too. You're usually drawn to friends because of their character and how much you enjoy them, and those are the things that don't change over the years. It's fun to know I'd still pick her as a friend! (And not just on Facebook.) :)

Mothers' Day was nice too. We went to church with Mom and Dad, then went to my Uncle Ned and Aunt Dawn's for lunch. (He's my mom's older brother.) Her other brother and his family were there too, as well as Nanny, Aunt Dawn's daughter, and a few other assorted family members. We had a fun afternoon hanging out and enjoying a yummy dinner that I didn't have to make! We headed back to Cleveland that evening.

The next week we finished school and mid-week started some staff trainings for camp. One of them was the horseback riding certification clinic I do each year, and we had participants from four different camps. It ran for three days so thankfully my mom came to help with the kids. We also did a riflery certification that week.

Sunday of that week Amelia's choir (K-5th) did their yearly musical. This time it was GPS (God's Plan of Salvation), and it was really cute. She didn't have a special part this time since we were out of town during auditions, but she enjoyed being a part of the choir.

Some dudes.



There's so much I could say about this one. For instance, I didn't realize God had gas...however, the dancing gas tanks were extremely cute and did a good job.

Amelia singing but for some reason looking bored alongside her friends Ruth and Wyatt.

About halfway through she decided to kick back with her shoes off and relax while singing a song. It was next to impossible to get a decent picture.

I'm not really bored!



The week after that was the week before this past one, if you're reading this in real time. (Huh?)We had archery and lifeguarding certifcation clinics going on, and I worked on getting a few things in order for the start of the summer. I tried to, at least. It never feels like I get tasks actually accomplished. We also interspersed playgroup, Thursday night dinner with friends, and other various parties in there. (Read the first paragraph. That's what we were doing that week.)

Today wraps up our offical staff week, where all the Strong Rock counselors and staff are here for seven days of training, planning, and preparing. It was a full and fun week. We let the staff off for some R and R this afternoon through tomorrow, then camp opens Sunday. Yay!

Here are a few shots of the fun (not meeting) parts of this past week. They had to try out the blob.







The blob was a bit on the too full of air side at first so counselors were having a hard time staying on.











The ones going head first are trying to do it. The blob doesn't automatically flip you. I'm not cool enough to do this trick.

Random Shannon shot.

Here's little Carver, son of our director Daniel. He's five months old now, and such a cutie pie! (Daniel's camp nickname is "Bacon." This is "Bacon Bit.")

Staffers also learned to belay each other on the wall.





Elizabeth took a break to do the side to side drunken sailor dance while walking.







) Michael(Cricket)and Jackie (Snaps) who we're blessed to have for their third and fourth summers at camp. Returning staff is priceless.



Talent among us.



And a random Amelia shot to end the post.

Tomorrow is Elizabeth's birthday. It's a good thing two year olds have only had one other birthday for comparison, because she's pretty much getting nothing tomorrow. (Sorry for the bad timing of your birthday, Elizabeth. We didn't plan it that way!) We're going to celebrate with friends on Thursday night of next week. Unfortunately James will have to miss it since it will be the last evening of first session. She's getting a princess cake because we're sharing our birthday celebration with the youngest D. like we did last year, and that's what Lydia wants. She'll be five and has an opinion, unlike Elizabeth who is just happy to have cake of any kind. Or cookies. Or candy. She's not too picky when it comes to sweets.

I'll attempt to post more soon! Farewell.