The Summer ends....

Sniff sniff.  Summer is coming to an end.  Wanna know how I know?  We have to make these....

 

Because we got some letters in the mail telling us who our teachers are going to be.  And then these teachers get all dressed up in grade themes and create a parade through our neighborhood.  Here we are sitting and waiting...

We are all really thrilled with our teacher choices this year (momma and most of the kids prayed quite a bit for good teachers).

Kaitlyn has Mrs. Berry.  She has a daughter who was in 2nd grade with Kaitlyn, and Mrs. Berry was her switch teacher last year for math and science so she's familiar--which is good for Kaitlyn.

 

Sam got Mrs. Lee, who taught Kaitlyn in 2nd grade so we are THRILLED, we LOVE her, she's AWESOME!  I think our whole street must have heard our cheering when he opened his letter...

 

And Lindsey got Mrs. McIntyre who is new to us but she's a member of our church and we know her sister.  She seems like she will be just fine.  Lindsey is not a kid I'm worried about with school.  She's READY!

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So the first day of school came and here is my crew...Kaitlyn in 4th grade, Sam in 2nd grade and Lindsey is our big Kindergartener!!

 

and their individual shots:

Kaitlyn complete with her new messenger style bag, she feels so grown up!

 

Sam was all smiles,

And Lindsey was so eager, she practically bounced into her classroom and was a quick, bye mom.  We dropped her off first and I had 2 other kids to get settled so I left her.  Not a tear, no hesitation, she's fine!  And then after I got the other 2 settled I came back around just to peek in.  She saw me and gave me a happy wave.  She's so big all of a sudden (at least to me).

Last 2 weeks of summer!

I feel like this summer has just flown by!  We didn't "go" anywhere and spent our summer doing local things: The Dallas Arboretum, The Perot Museum, and the ZOO (our only trip the LAST week of Summer, documented below) and spent a lot of time with our local cousins and BOATING.  We read much and swam much and really just enjoyed the relaxing more flexible schedule.

Sam went to soccer camp with half of his "Dragon" team mates:

We finally made it to the ZOO!  This was a long awaited play date with Lindsey's pre-school friend Caroline.  The two of them had planned this for months and we finally made good on the plan, it was a hot day but a fun day!

And I hosted one last book club for Sam where we reviewed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Mrs. Fancher the School Librarian came to help review and we made our own candy concoctions before eating pizza and watching the original classic movie upstairs on the movie screen!  This is still one of the BEST things I've done all summer, it's been just wonderful!

We bought a boat...

Early this summer we spent a day out on a friend's boat.  It reignited our boat fever.  We've talked off and on about getting a boat for a few years but I was always pregnant or had an infant and so it wasn't realistic.  But now....

Then when Stephen went to work and shared with friends how much fun we'd had on the lake, he had a co-worker offer to sell us his boat he didn't use anymore.  It was a pretty sweet deal and so we did it.

But, the boat had to make one final tune up in the shop and that took longer than expected.  Stephen took the whole week off work with the hopes of spending time on the lake but it wasn't until Friday (which was okay be me because my "honey-do" list was getting lots of attention) that we got the call that the boat was GOOD TO GO.  Here are some photos of our first weekend out.

The water was pretty choppy when we first went out, it was a bit unsettling for many of us.  Kaitlyn's hat blew off and we had to try and retrieve it, that was also unsettling.  By the time we got to a calmer part of the lake no one wanted to go in.  So we said a prayer that we'd be able to get over our jitters and enjoy the boat and make family memories (which is why we got it in the first place).  We decided just to jump off the boat and go swimming and that really calmed us all down a lot!

We ended up having a wonderful time.  I am learning how to drive the boat, Matthew lost his Diego hat, I lost a pair of sunglasses, and we have some practicing to do with getting the boat in and out of the water and the storage garage but I think this will be a good thing for our family!

McKneely cousins part 2

So as if we hadn't had enough of our cousins.....A few days later my two older nieces stayed with us for a few days and a good rendezvous spot is half way in Waco at the Mayborne Children's Museum.  

It's getting to be something of a tradition to go here each summer, but this museum never disappoints.  It's incredibly hands on and very easy to just let the kids go and as long as they stay on the floor you can find them without issue.  It wasn't too crowded and it was wonderful.

I even nursed my broken toe (which has to be documented THANK YOU VERY MUCH!--Matthew was playing with something he shouldn't and I was trying to get it from him and he fought me a bit and I rolled my toes, hearing pop pop pop and I hobbled for a good month without putting weight on them and taping them religiously!)

Fun times....

Our Houston McKneely cousins came to visit....

And we had a "stay-cation" of sorts. Cousin time is always crazy and fun!

Day 1 was the Perot Museum--a fabulous new museum of Nature and Science that is super-duper cool.... 

 

 (Matthew and Elisa)

(Shelly and Kaitlyn)

 (our whole crew plus we had 5 adults so we were quite a group!)

Day 2 was spent at a beach area on Lake Lewisville in Little Elm

 

 

And this guy gave us a bit of a scare.  The water here is really shallow and stays shallow for a bit out into the water.  He wandered a bit too far and got over his head.  Elisa was right next to him and caught our attention, Matthew was literally coughing up water and it was a pretty close call.

Day 3 was spent with more water at NRH2O a water park that is very family friendly. I was incredibly impressed with my children's courage and daring nature to try all the big rides, (and for the adults that took them on those rides--because I'm chicken).  

We lost both my boys at two different times during the day.  Sam did the absolute right thing when the group went on and everyone thought he was with someone else.  He went back to our picnic bench thinking I'd return there to look for him and he was right.  There was a group of moms who were there who were keeping an eye on him and were about to take him to the front. WHEW, that was scary.  And then another time Matthew was left on his own in a children's play area with aunts close by while I went with some older kids on a slide. 

We pit stopped at the Prices (The "Dougs") for some pizza for dinner and then at Sonic for some ice cream.  Kids slept well that night....

 

 

A Summer of Service

It's also been a summer of serving.  Mom is still working to launch a new LDS website www.JustServe.org and has tried to involve our family as much as possible.

One project that has been a true labor of love is a project to paint all the fire hydrants in the City of Allen.  There are 5000 of them!  We attempted to paint a chunk of them back in April but we wanted to finish the ones on the east of Allen so we've continued to paint each Friday.

One day we joined the group and were assigned to paint the fire hydrants in the Kroger parking lot.  As we began we saw the local fire truck pull up for the fire fighters to do some shopping and we waived.  Then as they left they circled around and found us still painting.  They pulled up and thanked us for painting.  Explained that what we do make it easy for them to find the hydrants.  They also gave my kids stickers!!  This was SO COOL for my kids and I was so thankful that they were rewarded with something positive for serving--it was so so hot that day!

It's been a summer for reading!

I will raise readers, it's really super important to me.

I love to read to my older two after the younger two are in bed and this summer we're working on Harry Potter #3.  We started #1 back in December while on our Utah Christmas in the snow and we're working our way through them, they're WONDERFUL!

Lindsey and I are doing reading lessons and things are really clicking for her and she's doing so well!

Sam can get lost in a book like no other kid I know, almost to an unhealthy level.  I send him outside to play and I will find him laying on the ground under the trees in the front engrossed in a book.....

I love it when Kaitlyn reads to Matthew.  He has memorized "The Little Mouse, the Hungry Bear, and the Red Ripe Strawberry" and he quotes it in his "scary voice"!  He also loves these books called "I'm Mighty" and "I'm Fast".

Kaitlyn is really enamored with the American Girl series and she's been reading the Felicity series in preparation for our Boston trip next Spring and all the US History we'll be learning.

But something that has been one of my MOST FAVORITE things we've done this summer is helping to organize a book club for a group of boys going into 2nd grade.  We've read 5 books and met every 2 weeks to review a book with activities and it's been so GREAT.  The mom I work with is an overachiever and when we reviewed Mr. Poppers Penguins, she even found a penguin costume to wear!  Crazy fun!

Big Boy News!!

I don't know who is more excited about this announcement, me or him, but this kid is potty trained!!

He's been ready for awhile but just didn't want to.  I knew that once he had an audience of older siblings to cheer him on this summer he'd do it and do it he did!  Woo-hoo!