Operation Overboard

In addition to 2 weeks of summer session, Claire also went to "Operation Overboard" VBS for a week.  (At $15, it's the best deal in town!)  She had a great time and we've been singing along to the CD ever since.  On the last day, they had a picnic in the church gym with balloons and face painting.  It's the first time Claire has ever let anyone paint her face - and she loved it!!  (it's a princess crown)

Rough and Tumble

No fear.  The boy has no fear.  He's been pulling up on everything and using his head to land the falls.  He's even cruising a little and will let go and stand for a second before falling.  I'm looking forward to him being a little more steady!!



And here he is with a bruised forehead (don't know when that happened) and a big swollen lip from falling on Sunday  :-(  Now I'm scared to even put him down! 

Vicki's visit

 

Our friend Vicki from Georgia came to visit and we got to spend a day hanging out with her at Mom & Dad's house.  Claire had so much fun with her - they read books, played Cinderella for a long time and while Fielder napped we all played some board games.  The next day Vicki and Mom came to our house when it was time for me to go to work.  Claire said she needed to dress up for Vicki - and the picture below is what she came up with!  When I got home from work, Claire was very sad because Vicki and Mimi had to leave. 
Thanks Vicki for being so sweet with the kids and for such a nice visit!  Glad you made it back to Georgia after that CRAZY trip to the train station  :-)   

 

Happy 7-11!

 

Free slurpee day on 7-11!  Claire and I went to the pool that night after Fielder went to bed and got our slurpees on the way home.  I'm not sure whether she liked it or not....."Mommy, it's a little too salty on my tongue, but it's good."  Ok, whatever that means!  Gotta love a freebie!

8 months

Fielder turned 8 months on July 10!  He's a busy little man, army crawling all over the place and oh-so-close to crawling.  He just recently mastered getting himself in a seated position from laying down and can go from seated to crawling without the face-plant.  It was pretty tough to get a picture of him laying down - the one above was one of the few I could get before he was rolling and crawling away. 

He can pull himself partly up onto my lap or a step - like in the picture below.  And....yesterday when my mom went in to get him from his nap, he was STANDING!  Yikes!  As soon as I got home from work we lowered the crib mattress. 

He's got all 4 top teeth coming in at the same time which makes him pretty miserable sometimes.  And, I was right....Bob took a peek and sure enough he has 2 fused teeth on the bottom.  I call it his "double-wide."  At some point he'll need an x-ray to see if there are 2 adult teeth or not.

Happy 4th of July!

4th of July weekend at Uncle Chuck and Aunt Bradford's River House!  Thanks for a great weekend!  (We missed you Clay and Patti)




Top 7 things to remember:

1 - Rob and I were offered the "luxury suite" so that we'd have room for the kids - Fielder slept in his pack n play in the closet, Claire on a blow up mattress, and Rob and I in the bed.  I felt guilty kicking out Aunt Bradford and Uncle Chuck, but man it was nice!  It was our first overnight trip with Fielder and I was so relieved that he slept ok!

2 - It was SO hot out so most of the weekend we were all crammed into the little pool.  We even used the hot tub as a pool for a while.  The kids didn't need fancy toys - a corona bottle and plastic water bottle were the items to be fought over!

3 - Unfortunately there wasn't much wind to speak of either, but when it did pick up briefly we took advantage and went out for a ride on the Hobie cat.  It was my first time on it since I was pregnant last summer.  Claire, Mom, Chuck, and I went out while Andy, Tara, Sam, and Samara were in the sailboat.  Rob got jipped and stayed at the house while Fielder napped.  Claire loved riding on the Hobie Cat and I had to hold onto her or I think she would have just jumped into the water.

4 - Samara woke up early Saturday morning and never got a nap.....so she was pretty tired by dinner time that night.  She couldn't even keep her little eyes open and was literally falling asleep on her plate. 

5 - After Fielder and Samara were in bed, we went out on a sunset cruise on the boat.  I think that was my favorite part of the weekend - it was so peaceful and beautiful out on the water.  There were hardly any other boats out and we cruised up and down Sandy Point.  Claire and I sat up front with the wind in our face, just like I used to love to do as a kid (and still do.)

6 - I wanted Claire to stay up and watch fireworks with me, but she ASKED to go to bed!  Must have been pretty tired!!  Somehow all the kids managed to sleep through fireworks going off just a couple houses down.  We sat out on the pier and watched them while visiting with Scott.

7 - The highlight of the weekend for the kids was the swing that Andy rigged up.  First there was one swing and the kids would fight over it, so then he hooked 2 swings together and they could ride at the same time.  Uncle Chuck took a turn pushing and would spray the girls down with the hose!  They loved it and probably stayed in the swings for an hour. 

 

                                                             

Goodbye Turkey Oak

On Wednesday (4th of July) we had our last family gathering at the house Rob grew up in.  There'a contract on it and they'll close in a couple weeks.  Rob's parents built the house and he was 10 when they moved in.  It's not only the house he grew up in, it's where his mother passed away and where he moved back for a while to be with his Dad and brother.  So many memories in that house for him, but also for me too.  It was hard to say goodbye to it, but we are happy for Bob and Coral that they no longer have a big house and even bigger yard to take care of. 

We were about 2 minutes away when I realized I had forgotten my camera.  I almost cried!!  Jake snapped this picture with his phone.  I have quite a few pictures of us sitting on this fireplace from over the years and I think this might be the first one with Fielder.  Luckily Bob had his camera so there are more pics in front of the house so I'll add those later.  We all sat around chatting and enjoyed one last family dinner (thanks Coral!).  It was actually quite funny because Coral had arranged for people to come and take some of the last pieces of furniture.  They happened to show up while we were eating and they literally took the table out from under us.