Summer, Week 2

Monday:  Today, we woke up early and had to take our car to the shop.  Once we got home, we met our friend Kristin and her little girl and boy at a nearby park.  We packed a picnic lunch, so we were able to play and stay through lunchtime.  They came back to our house for a little while to play some more.  When they left, Parker went down for a nap, and the girls and I went across the street to our neighbor's house to play.  Their little boy is 3-1/2 (and he has a baby brother) and the girls like playing with him and all his thousands of toys.  Literally.  We left their house to go pick up our car, and that night, we went to church for Vacation Bible Camp!  I am leading a group this year, and both Sydney and Taylor are able to participate.  Parker came with us, too, because Stephen had a late conference call for work.  We didn't get home until 8:45, so it was a late night for the kiddos!

Selfies on the long ride to the car shop!

Sydney got up on stage to recite a bible verse!

Tuesday:  Stephen left town Tuesday around lunch time, so I got to run at the park in the morning, and then the kiddos and I stayed home all day!  We played outside in the morning, did some "school" while Parker napped (I got them some workbooks to work through this summer).  We went to Chick Fil A for dinner and then headed to VBC again.

"shooting" the lizard.

Sydney wanted Parker to have a mohawk.

The 4 girls in my group!

Part of my VBC group.  I think I'm the only one looking!

Wednesday:  Our babysitter came over this morning so I could go to the park and run.  Our friend Raegan came over today, too, to play.  We did a bunch of stuff... rode jeeps, rode bikes, went on a walk, did school, board games, played outside in the water, did a craft, etc.  We ate dinner and then we all headed to VBC again!

Visiting the neighbors.

Thursday:  This morning, I took the kids to go pick some strawberries.  It was a little muddy from yesterday's rain, and the kids weren't really into it... and the strawberries were a little scattered, since the season is about to end.  BUT, we did it!  We got a gallon of lovely strawberries.  The kids cheered up when we got some homemade strawberry ice cream and went to a nearby park.  When we got home, Parker went down for a nap and the girls did more school stuff.  They're really excited about it!  We went to VBC again that night.

Friday:  Today was the day of no rest!  I did the grocery shopping (something Stephen has done oh-so-faithfully for the last few years, since he could work from home on Fridays.  Now, it's all me!) first thing in the AM.  I got home, fed the kids lunch, and we drove into Marietta to go visit my BFF's new house and her and her boys.  The kids played for a couple of hours and had fun!  Though my 2- and 4-year-olds were starting to get cranky, and it was getting close to traffic-time, so we headed out about 3:30.  I thought traffic would be fine, but it took us 1.5 hours to get home :(  The good thing is that those certain 2- and 4-year-olds had a good nap!  We whipped up a quick dinner at 5:00, ate, left at 5:30 to get to VBC at 5:45 (the last night!).  We wrapped it up, and the girls and I stayed late to help clean the church up and get it back together for Sunday.  Then, we headed to Chili's for a very late night snack with some friends.  We didn't get home until 11 PM- my girls have never been out this late before!  Luckily, Stephen had kept Parker, so he was sound asleep.  It was a late night and I was absolutely exhausted... I think I can chalk it up to the first week of summer and getting used to being on the go all day long, and also going to VBC every night and keeping up with and entertaining a group of eight 4-10 year olds.  Whew!

The girls made their own lunch. Suh-weet!

At Ashley's house!  This is Landon and Sydney.

they were O-U-T!

Alexandra and Lindsey, the two best role models!

The kiddos made the slide show!

Heading to Chili's!

Taylor was sad Friday night before bed, so I slept with her.  Stephen took this picture in the morning.  Poor Taylor!

Saturday: The girls and I totally slept in this morning! (well, "slept in" means 8 AM... wow, I'm old!)  Sydney actually stayed asleep until almost 9:30.  Stephen took the girls to do the Home Depot Kids workshop, where they built a little truck.  Parker and I went to the park and I pushed him in the jogging stroller, then he played on the playground.  We played the day away, and I did some house cleaning (no more maids!  This is all me now!)  Around 4, our friends, Monica and Tim, picked me, Stephen and Sydney up and we headed over to the Gwinnett Arena to see Third Day in concert!  (Parker and Taylor stayed with the babysitter)  We met more friends for dinner at Tin Lizzies, and then we headed to the concert.  It was a great concert- there were several other performers (Matt Maher, Colton Dixon, Josh Wilson, Brandon Heath) and then Third Day rocked it out.  We got home after 11, and poor Sydney was just exhausted.  It was her first concert, and it was fun!

Sunday: We woke up, went to church, and we ended up having a really fun/busy day outside.  Our neighbor is completely re-landscaping their backyard, so they've had a BobCat and other fun boy equipment out there for a couple of weeks.  The kids played on those, got to ride on the BobCat, we helped them a little in their yard, they helped sow our ground to plant some grass seeds.  I also got our garden ready and planted some seeds.  Our kids and their little boy played on our jumpy house.  We were outside for probably 7 hours straight.  We were so dirty!  We grilled out, took a good, long shower, and called it a night.  Let's just say we should all sleep well tonight!!

The VBC kids got to sing a song in front of the adults at church!