Things that make me go "Hmmmm"

There is a fruit fly that lives in my bathroom. Every day I kill it, but yet every day there is still a fruit fly flying around as if it owns the joint. It is annoying.

First Day of School 2013

 Smarty pants 7th grader on his way to Middle School.

 Delightful 5th grader so excited for a new year.

 Sweet boy of a 1st grader. We knew today would be rough and he tried his very best to keep everything under control. The anxiety was high, the panic was real, but he was determined to beat them both. We offered to drive him to school, but he wasn't having it. He wanted to ride the bus with his friends.

He made sure to have his water bottle to help wash the anxiety down.

 And he did it. So proud of my little man. I am definitely going to miss these guys during the day, but I know this is going to be a great year for all 3 of my little pickles.

Vacation Day. . .whatever

Honestly, vacation week was kind of a blur because Doug and I spent every day working like crazy so by the time the evening rolled around when it was time to have fun with the kids, I was totally exhausted. I know that one of the nights my sister organized a family trip to the state fair and they were kind enough to take the kids, where they had the time of their lives, but since I wasn't there I don't have any pictures of that. Another night we took the kids fishing. The boys just love to fish. Woo likes it sometimes, but more because she doesn't like to be left out, not because she's just dying to catch a fish. I don't even remember what we did the other two nights, so obviously those weren't very memorable, although I'm sure we had a good time and I'm sure they involved ice cream. So, to finish up the vacation posts, here are some fishing pictures.

 King of the rocks

 Woo's expression explains clearly how she felt about fishing this night.

Happy fishing boy.

 Family fishing time.

 Sparky fished a little bit, but he was more interested in examining the water life up close. Plus, he and Doug had already gotten up early that morning to go fishing, so he was good.

I love my goofy kid. He certainly does not lack in personality.

Vacation Day 4

The kids were expecting a beach this year and sadly, this was the best we could do for them. To make matters worse, it wasn't even sunny or super warm. We will definitely make it up to them someday in the future.

 Trying out the new boogie board.

 Brothers being cute.

 Happiness is chasing seagulls. As long as there were seagulls to chase, he was running, and boy was he fast.

 This girl would live and breathe water if she could.

 Playing in the sand.

 Of course there was lots of splashing,

 and swimming,

and Tiger pretending to be a Zombie. You know, the typical beach stuff.

Vacation Day 3

Go Karts, Bumper Boats, and Miniature Golf

Vacation report days 1 & 2

We had ourselves a little staycation this year where we worked like mad on our house all day long and then took the kiddos to do super fun things in the evening. It was both productive and tons of fun at the same time. The hardest part however was trying to keep our energy up for the kids at night because we were exhausted. The first day we got up early and went to breakfast, then we hit the mall and watched a movie and shopped our little hearts out. Then we went out to dinner. When we finally got home we were beat and so we all just crashed and had ourselves a mellow evening. The second day of vacation we drove a bit to a walking park that we have never been to before. It was gorgeous! We all fell in love with it immediately. Of course it didn't help that the weather was absolutely perfect. We will definitely be going back there again and again.

 A lovely bridge found in the Asian garden.

 The family at the lookout tower. Tiger wasn't too interested in looking out.

 The view from the lookout tower.

 Brotherly love. Tiger just loves his big brother and Sparky does a good job of being a big brother. They call themselves Bros.

 Tiger never misses an opportunity to be weird.

 Sparky found this tree by the lake that was just begging to be climbed.

 In one of the gardens there was this beautiful field of sunflowers. As soon as I saw it I knew that these kids were going to find themselves posing for some pictures.

 Oh no, the dreaded sun came out. I don't know what it is, but Sparky in particular is incapable of taking a picture if the sun is out or if it is in any way bright. He is suddenly unable to open his eyes as if the sun is burning holes into each one of them. He's trying his best in this picture, but alas Tiger has decided that he is unable to open his eyes as well. Woo just thinks her brothers are the funniest.

 Tiger then decided that he needed to find his Zen.

 Perhaps if I had them stand up? So close.

 I give up. This is really all they wanted to do anyway. 

I also gave my camera to Woo and Tiger and let them have fun taking some pictures. Here are some of the the results: 

 All in all it was a glorious day and we were all glad we made the trip. We will definitely be going back again, but next time we'll get there earlier so that we have more time to explore.

Thoughts

1. This past week has been a rough one. It has been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. Basically, I am beat. I'm not going to go into details, but I just want to say that we learned first hand (once again) that the Lord is in charge, not us, and that faith is real and requires action on our part.

2. We have done so many fun things this past week. It has been a week of fun, fun, work, and fun.

3. School starts in 15 days. 15 days! Where did the summer go? I'm still waiting for it to get here. It has been a weird summer for sure.

4. The fact that school is starting has made me think a lot about my little man. See that picture up there? He just kills me. He starts first grade in 15 days and will be in school all day long for the first time ever. To say that I am nervous for him is an understatement. You see, he is and has always been his own special person. He is delightful and funny and creative. He loves nothing more than to pretend, play with friends, and play video games. He is seriously one of the sweetest boys around. He also suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, and some mild agoraphobia, struggles with some developmental delays, and battles a bit of ADD. Needless to say, first grade is going to come with some struggles and it makes me incredibly nervous for him. Luckily he has some fabulous teachers at school and we have recently started working with a psychologist, but I still worry.

5. Little man needs his tonsils out. I have been putting it off for a year now and dreading it with everything inside of me. But, I will pull up my big girl pants and get it done (at some point before the year ends.  :)

6. This past week we probably got about 4 months worth of work done on our house. We may actually have this baby on the market by the end of the month.