Reason #449 to love summer: Sprinklers

This happens at my house almost every night when it's time to water the grass/flowers. Somehow my kids missed the memo that you are supposed to wear bathing suits in a sprinkler.

But oh the fun they have. Simple summer nights!

Artist in Residence

Today Marky walked in and showed me this drawing in his art notebook (a book he made himself by stapling white computer paper together). I was so impressed and asked him what in the world it was, and he said "the Egyptian Cinderella". I had no idea what he meant until he ran in the kitchen and brought me this book that was sitting on the counter that had come yesterday in a big box with all of his history curriculum. I have to say- it's a pretty good likeness isn't it?

Good news on Noah

I don't know if you are keeping up with my nephew, Noah. But if you are, you will be thrilled to know that he has just finished what will, Lord willing, be his last round of chemo. They have also taken his feeding tube out, and he has begun to eat food for the first time in over eight months. Next week, August 3rd is his MRI to tell if he can stop formal treatment. Please say a prayer for this little warrior. He's been through so much- we all hope he can finally have some peace, some healing and some normalcy.

O God, by Whose help all things grow to maturity and, once grown, are kept strong, stretch out Thy hand over this, Thy young servant, Noah, in his sickness, that he, having regained his health and strength, may grow up to full manhood, and unfailingly offer Thee a loyal and pleasing service all the days of his life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Collectio Rituum (1954)

101 degrees outside

Okay- it is blazing hot again today. Too hot to go outside for anything. This time I'm ready. We have glitter, stuff to make play dough, stuff to make cupcakes and on a whim I signed them up for afternoon swim lessons. Now, what to do tomorrow?

It's hot

It's over a 100 degrees outside and the upstairs air conditioner is out.....again.... Thank you, Lord, for on demand television and the understanding that to everything there is a season...a time to read, a time to watch tv all day. :)

Quote to Remember

If I don't write it down- it will be gone from my memory- indulge me.

This week I was reading a devotional book to Marky and Julia on the sofa and they were totally not listening (I thought). I said, "Marky, what did I just say?" and he literally repeated the last two pages I had read almost verbatim. Including, "the poor man had fallen away from his faith and no longer prayed....he saw Mother Theresa on a plane praying....etc."

Then I read the questions at the end and said, "How can God speak to us?" And he said, "well, when we pray to Him." And I thought, "yes, good answer."

Then he said, "of course, God spoke to Moses through the fire of a burning bush, and He spoke to Isaiah in his mother's womb (remember Mommy how Isaiah said "I knew you before you were born"?) and then for Elijah God spoke to him on top of the mountain in a still small voice."

Thank you, Lord.

The State Bar Convention 2010

Every year we go to the State Bar Convention, which is always held at a beach somewhere. This year we went to Sandestin, and oh the fun we had. It was so relaxing. Partly because little Tuck Tuck went to BB's house leaving us big kids to stay up late and avoid nap schedules altogether.

This year we stayed on the Bayside at Baytowne Wharf and on the way down I was so disappointed. I was used to staying at the Hilton on the beach. But boy was I wrong- Baytowne Wharf is AMAZING! It's all these shops and restaurants and activities and a big pier and tons of boats to watch and live music everywhere and trams to take you to the beach and other shopping.

These two pics are the view from our balcony- the balcony of our two-bedroom condo. Again, we were surprised. We thought we were getting two adjoining hotel rooms, we ended up with a kitchen, den, dining room, two bedrooms, two baths and a laundry room. And there was live music on the lawn and tons of people brought lawn chairs and sat out to listen. We walked everywhere and never left the place the four days we were there.

We ate breakfast at cute little bistros.

And played so hard we passed out at night. They didn't giggle or talk at all when we put them to bed- they were OUT as soon as we hit the lights.



The best part of the bar convention is the attention they give the kids. There is something awesome for them to do every day. The first night when we arrived we had a gourmet pizza buffet on the grand lawn (not pictured) and had a showing of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". The kids got giant cookies and ice cream- such a treat.

We of course, swam all day every day at the pool and went to the beach side once. They had a big fireworks show on Thursday night that we watched from our room.

There were various receptions at night. Here are the kids after the Cumberland Alumni reception- see the spilled water on Marc's clothes- I call this trip the "spill your drink at every meal" trip. It was one or the other spilling a drink ALL THE TIME.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Marc...ziplining across Baytowne Wharf in dress slacks. Marky did it too and we were shocked at how fearless he was about the whole thing. He got strapped in and the guys said, "you're gonna need to just step off the ramp" and before he could finish talking Marky was flying high.

They had jump castles and trampolines one night.

And the kids favorite- a build-a-bear event. We'd never "built" a bear so this was big-time exciting.

May I intoduce you to "Darth Bunny" (also called "Bounce") and Sally the Princess Kitty?

It worked well because I'd forgotten to bring their lovies- now they have new ones.

I have decided my kids would swim all day every day if I let them. Literally hour after hour was spent without getting out of the water. Julia still wears a puddlejumper, but she can put her head under water and float on her back now. (which she did a lot while talking to all the strangers she could). "Hi, my name's Julia, I can put my head under. See? Did you see me? Isn't dis a fun day?"

Marky found boys to play with and mainly spent his time wearing goggles and jumping off this wall.

Julia and I rode this carousel several times.

And Marc did this hamster-ball-in-the-water thing that was hilarious. And he drove these remote-controlled tugboats.

A


I just LOVE the beach. I love getting the whole family all cleaned up late in the afternoon and going out to eat with our slightly wet hair and slightly burned cheeks. I mean, what is more fun?

Here's to our 9th annual conference. Thank you Marc for agreeing to go- even though you have to work when we go. : )

P.S. Don't you worry one bit about Tuckerboy. He had the time of his life. His BB and Poppy completely doted all over him and never let him have one second where he wasn't being swooned over. Here he is amusing them by trying on Poppy's tennis shoe.

They even took him out to Pete's Playhouse. Now that's impressive!

And they taught him how to squirt Poppy with a squishy crab toy, which he found hilarious. They sent us email updates and I called every day at least once. Three nights is the longest I can stay away from my Sugarbear. I had to get home and get some hugs.

I thought I should add...

If you are wanting to teach your kids chess, the way we did it was using this game, Quick Chess.

It has won a bunch of awards and is so simple. You start by playing with just pawns on a simplified board. So the child gets really comfortable with one type of chess piece and how it moves. Then you add another piece, like a knight. In no time they are playing the real deal. Just thought you might like to know about it.

Weekend Fun

So all week this week Marky went to a 1/2 day "Chess Camp". He had learned to play with Daddy (mommy still doesn't know how to play) and we let him go to camp to learn some more about it. He LOVES it- he had the best time at camp and really tried to pay attention. On Friday the coach had a little tournament between two different camps. Marky played and amazed us by winning BOTH of his two matches! He really knew what he was doing and won by getting the other guy in checkmate. They shake hands before and after matches and have a clock running so it's very fast and much more exciting than I was expecting.

In other fun news, we finally joined Alabama Adventure today. It may not be fancy, but it sure is a nice place to cool off and enjoy the summer. We played at Salamander Bay most of the day and did the lazy river and just a couple of the big slides. Tucker LOVED this johnny jump up thing in the water- he jumped in it a ton and laughed and laughed as his feet splashed. Julia spent her time on this baby slide and talking to strangers. :)

You could hear the giggles coming from baby boy as he flew down the slide.

After swimming we relaxed and had snacks. A wonderful wear-out-the-kids day. I hope we can go again and get our money's worth- I'm a little nervous to go by myself- but maybe if I can talk a friend into going with me.... hint, hint everybody.

Happy Birthday BB!

Happy Birthday to everybody's favorite bubbly personality. (Yes, she's the one in the organ grinder's monkey's hat on the left.) We love you and are so grateful for you!

Eclipse and Such...

So Shana and I did our thang we do for birthdays and had our night out Sunday. We went to Outback and to see Twilight Eclipse. Now I don't read the books and have only seen the other two movies once each, but I have to say I think there is no possibility of a team Jacob with that actor. It's ridiculous- he has no game (it's his voice)- he can't possibly compete with Edward's sophisitcation and subtlety. That said, the actual arguments Jacob makes for B choosing him in the movie are very persuasive so I told Shana- they could have really created a REALISTIC tug of war in B's heart if Jacob had been played by Johnny Depp. I'm telling you- that would solve the problem of me being completely not interested in Jacob. That's my 2 cents for the folks who know what I'm talking about.

That's all I have to say except (see pic on left) the kids are in love with their snow boots and backpacks and want to wear them all the time. So I let them. And this pic below was my two wittle ones watching tv after breakfast. So sweet to see little buddy sitting like a big boy! They love to watch Richard Scarry's Busytown.

And these blurry pictures are for me to remember snuggling my sugar bear since there are so few pictures of us together. I was giving him lots of loving the other day and Marky came in and asked to take a picture. Even though they are blurry, I'm so glad he did!