July 31

Happy Anniversary Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw C!

 

 We had friends over yesterday. Including Jonathan, there were 11 kids here. It was a little crazy!

Kat decided that I needed a makeover too. Lovely.

Bedtime story  

July 30

Kat wanted shorter hair. I love this look on her. 

We went to the $1 movie to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. I wasn't expecting much, but I really liked it. I laughed out loud - alot. Enough that Julia later told me that I embarrassed her. The first of MANY times she's going to be embarrassed by me! Ha!

I scheduled the kids for their well-child exams all at one time. These exams are mandatory for us to keep our foster care license. Our pediatrician's office was awesome. They asked us to come in 30 minutes early. We pretty much had the office to ourselves, so that they could dedicate more medical assistants to our exams. At one point we had our five, Jonathan, me, and three medical assistants in one tiny exam room. The kids did great! I love our pediatrician.

Julia is in the 28th % for height

Kat is 44th % for height

Elliott is in the 12th % for height and 30th % for weight 

Lucy is in the 9th % for height and 41st % for weight

Elliott and Lucy are built like me - short for their weight. :P

July 29

Yesterday we tried a new (to us) water park. It was hot outside, so the water felt great. Hulk learned to swim! He's quite proud of himself. I worked with him no more than 5 minutes and he got the hang of it. He's ready to go swimming again!

 

 

 

 

 

We spent time Skyping with Peggy last night for the first time since she moved in February. It was good to see her face!

July 28

 I had a dermatology appointment yesterday and took Hulk with me. We got some ice cream after the appointment and then went school supply shopping - he's ready for kindergarten!

 Julia (in the blue) doing a middle split stretch (?) at gymnastics. I call it "Ouch!".

July 27

 Julia had fun playing with baby Raina last night at a cookout with our Sunday School class. The picture is blurry, but you can see that both girls were having alot of fun.

We wore Gus out this weekend apparently.

July 26

Julia and Kat were in their first piano recital. They did great! Kat was more nervous than Julia before the recital started, which I wasn't expecting. She's usually pretty confident. Julia, who's normally nervous about performing, acted pretty cool about it.

 Click HERE to hear Julia's song

Click HERE to hear Kat's song

The girls with their awesome teacher, Isaac

July 25

 We had 3 extra kids over for a few hours yesterday. This picture was taken after lunch when I made them watch part of a movie so my nerves could get a break. :P

 The girls talked me into letting them play "Chopped"

After we dropped Julia off at gymnastics last night, we headed to the zoo to enjoy some time in the splash park area. The weather was great and the crowds were almost non-existent. That's the way to enjoy the zoo! Forget the daytime summer crowds!
 

 

 

 

Last night the kids and I had a slumber party in the Family Room. The girls and I just finished the book "Because of Winn Dixie" which was a great book. We watched the movie last night and it kept all five kids' attention the entire time. It's one of the best family movies we've enjoyed together.

July 24

Happy Birthday Bapaw!!!

Mamaw and Bapaw took Lucy and Elliott to KY Kingdom yesterday. The rest of decided to take advantage of the "Kids Bowl Free" summer deal.

 The Fierce Four

 

 It was Hulk's first time bowling and he loved it! He came in 2nd place in the first game (the bumpers helped). The hands on the hips picture cracks me up. Sometimes he had to wait a LONG time for his ball to get to the pins.

Since Clay is out of town for work, I have been living it up after the kids go to bed. By living it up, I mean organizing and Spring cleaning (you can do that in the non-Spring too, right?). Do I know how to party or what!?! I have steam-cleaned the carpets, mopped floors, filed paperwork, organized the clothing storage closet in the basement, and organized field trips for the school year. My goals for the next few days are to clean the kitchen cabinets, organize the craft drawers, clean windows, and ... dust the ceiling fans. You are jealous, I know. 

July 23

Both Julia and Kat really like the show "Chopped" on the Food Network. Every day they ask if they can play "chopped" in the kitchen. Well, I say no to that alot of the times because 1 - I don't like the mess, 2 - they waste alot of food, 3 - they use ingredients I need for our meals, and 4 - they enlist the little kids as their judges, which means the little ones are snacking all day long! I told them that if they want to play "chopped", I will give them recipes and they can start cooking meals instead. So far, so good. This  "Chopped" game might work in my favor! :P

When Clay is out of town, we try to eat things that he doesn't like to eat (things we normally don't get to eat). Last night Kat helped me make meatloaf.

PS - The meatloaf was yummy, Clay!

July 22

 

Jessica and Abbie came over and spent the afternoon with us yesterday. Mamaw and Bapaw took Julia, Kat, and Jonathan to KY Kingdom for the day.

July 21

 

 

 

 Here are some more pictures of Elliott at the bike park yesterday. He loved it. Ummm.... we didn't even think about putting a helmet on him. #parentfail

Lucy enjoyed her crepes yesterday.

Clay left this morning for 2 weeks in Utah for work. He'll be back just in time to have shoulder surgery. Good times ahead!

July 20

 Now we're losing molars! That's a mighty big gap!

This picture makes me smile. Sister snuggles and cartoons. Life is good.

With a heat index of 100 degrees, we stayed inside most of the day yesterday.

Clay took Elliott downtown this morning to the bike/skate park.

July 19

The boys spent some time this afternoon playing Nintendo.

July 18

Kat and I just got back from Mother-Daughter camp with church friends. The theme was Asian Adventure. We did crafts, had worship time, recreation time, swam, and learned about Japan from Japanese Missionaries. It was our third time going, but the first time going without Julia (she's too old). It was Kat's last time going now too, which is sad. She was really sad about not going back.

 

 

 

 Japanese Bible

We sampled seaweed (gag), dried shrimp, and these dried fish (double gag)