It's About Time!

Yep, I finally did it! Finally took the boys to get their hair cut. I know it was a bit overdue, but I loved their long, blonde, surfer dude looks!

*Drew Before*

*Drew After*

*Hunter Before*

*Hunter After*

Me for President?! Hmm.....

Press the little play button at the bottom and see this strange thing that's happening!

Free Peep Shows at the Swimming Pool!

So, what do you do when you're in a crowd of people and one of your Girls comes flying out? Do you stand there and laugh it off? Do you run and hide?

I kind of did both.

Drew, Hunter and I went to the pool today. We were going to meet Louisa, her best friend, and best friend's mom and brother. They hadn't shown up yet so I went to talk to another lady I knew. When I turned away from her to chase Hunter out of the deep water he was walking toward, I noticed my top was on very crooked. One side was okay, but the other side was much higher than it needed to be. I pulled down my top just a little. It did nothing to fix the crookedness. I pulled a little harder and... Oops! Out pops a Girl! Wow! Right there in front of swimmers and lifeguards and everything!

You know how you have that one moment where everything stops, it gets quiet, and you know all attention is on you? That's what it felt like. For all I know, no one saw a thing. But in my mind everyone saw, everyone stared, and everyone was talking about me.

I sunk down deep in the water with Hunter in front of me. I was pretending to play with him when really I was still trying to adjust my top. It was still crooked and now it was wet and there was no way I could get it to look right. And it took Louisa and her friends another 10 minutes to get there! So here I am swimming around by myself, totally self conscious that everyone there saw my little peep show, desperately waiting for my friend to show up so I could try to act cool again....

Only me, folks. This stuff only happens to me!

School Already?

The shelves in WalMart are packed with back-to-school supplies. I guess it's that time again. But I feel like we *just* finished school! There's no way this summer is three months long. Oh ya, that's cause it ISN'T!

Our school district finished on May 29, and starts back up again August 8. August 8!!! How is a kid supposed to enjoy their summer? What happened to the dog-days of summer? Long lazy days where you sit under a shade tree with your friends and trade Pokemom cards, or talk about the cool new Jonas Brothers movie? My kids will spend the dog-days of summer in school. Doesn't seem right.

Today we registered Louisa and Drew for school. Louisa will be going into 5th grade (how?!), and Drew.... well.... we're not sure. He didn't technically finish 1st grade since I homeschooled him. The new school he'll be attending told us that he has to be tested. That's fine. We don't mind. The funny thing is that the secretary made this test seem so hard. Like only kids who've actually went through a full year of 1st grade could pass it! hehe! I'm very amused by that. We'll show them, won't we?!

There are a few things I want to go over with Drew before he takes the test. We didn't really sit and do worksheets all year, so some things he might not realize he learned. I have a month or so to give him a few last review-type lessons. He'll do fine, though. And if for some reason he does have to start out in 1st grade again, I am confident they would move him up in no time. No worries!

Louisa is technically supposed to be headed to the local middle school, but I don't feel that's the right atmosphere for her. It's not the best run school in the area, and I don't think 5th graders belong in a middle school. She is fine with not moving forward with her classmates. She understands and knows she will know people at this new school. Plus, her bestest friend in the whole entire world will be going there as well (her mom feels the same way I do about the local middle school).

The new school has grades kindergarten thru 6th at the elementary level. The middle school and high school are also on the same grounds. I've heard nothing but good about this school and it has a large military population since it's right outside our army base. Today they had open enrollment and we were registered with no problems. That was a big relief to me! I was worried all the open spots would be full by the time we got there.

Louisa was excited because in 5th grade you get to choose from choir, band, and creative arts (which is *not* an art class, it's like creative writing and drama). Louisa chose choir. She told me that she felt like a grown-up, getting to make an important decision like that. I told her to stop that!

Here's looking forward to a new school year, at a brand new school. A new start for Drew will be good for all of us.

We really weren't going to do much for 4th of July this year. Or, Independence Day, I guess I should say. On our army post they had a small Freedom Fest that we could have attended. Lots of carnival food (besides the fried Oreos, I'm sure there was nothing we needed anyway!), some kiddie games, bouncie things, and a concert with a country singer named Neal McCoy. And as nice as it is that he's giving us a free concert, I had no desire to see him.

So I called up my friend with the horses and said "Hey, whatcha doin' on July 4th?" She said she couldn't leave the horses because the fireworks scared them too much, but we could come out by her. And that was just what I was hoping she'd say!

We didn't ride the horses this time because she needed to keep them calm for when the fireworks started. Most of her neighbors had some pretty big fireworks displays going, and they were probably much better than what we saw on post last year. My friend also spent a small fortune on fireworks for us to shoot off. She had fountains and roman candles and sparklers and all sorts of fun stuff. There was a big area of land away from the horses and the house that we shot them from. Every once in awhile she'd go check on the horses and they kept creeping farther and farther into the trees until we couldn't see them anymore.

Hunter loved holding the sparklers. She had really long ones that he could hold easily. He didn't like the short ones. He'd say, "No, hurt me!" when I tried to give him a short one. Drew's favorite fireworks were fountains that shot a parachute guy out of them. He'd run and find the parachute. A few landed on her roof (and she was very greatful she had a metal roof instead of traditional shingles!)

We had a good time, stuffed ourselves with hamburgers, watermelon, German potato salad (that is actually supposed to be cold, not warm), and chocolate cake. Shot off some fireworks, and had a much nicer time than we would have if we'd stayed on post.

Also, please say a quick prayer for the Napolitano family. John II would have been 40 yesterday, and having lost a SIL who would have been 30 last year, I know how much those milestone days hurt!

Fun with Pictures

I was re-doing the Playgroup's information page last night and decided to add some "oompf" to it. I wanted pictures of the kiddos playing, examples of the fun we have, without full-on face shots because the information page is public. A few of the pictures do have faces in them, but I came up with a creative way to take attention away from them. It's not an original idea per se... it is colorful, though!

Horsin' Around

Earlier this week we visited a friend and her daughter at the brand new house. They just finished building it and moving in. They are an army family like us, and the dad is in Iraq just like ours is.

Their new house sits on 10 acres, enough room for 4 horses and 2 donkeys to run and play. Drew and Hunter got to ride a horse named Belle. Louisa did, too, but she didn't want me to take pictures of her. She's too big-girl for that stuff now.

Drew and Hunter had a blast, though. Neither one was scared at all. My friend led the horse around and the boys sat on the saddle very well. She went into a full trot with Drew, but he said he preferred the slower pace.

I don't know too many people who can keep up with Drew and his non-stop chatter, but this friend can. Her and Drew and Belle walked in circles for a long time and talked about horses and how to ride them and care for them.

Louisa got to spend the night and learn how to wash and brush a horse. When we came back the next day the girls had braided Belle's mane! She also got to lead the horses.

They have another horse named Waylon who is still a teenager. He's a bit feisty still and they don't attempt to ride him too often yet. He needs to be broken, yet he's part Arabian which means it will be quite a task to break him. My friend loves his wild side and doesn't want to do too much to take that out of him. She told us not to pet him or get behind him, but Louisa with no fear walked right up to Waylon and pet his nose. She talked softly to him and kept petting him. After that he followed her around. Future "horse whisperer"?

Now of course she's begging for horse lessons. We've been around this circle before. Our friend's neighbor does give lessons for pretty cheap.... so..... we'll have to see.

Until then, here's a few pictures of the boys and Belle.