Another August

It's the first week of school.  Again.  I'm always surprised when it comes and then as we sit in morning car line and I'm tearing up dropping off my big kids, it almost feels like summer was just a dream.  Every summer feels like it has a theme... usually nothing huge, just what I felt like our few months were characterized by.  This summer was kind of a multiplication, podcast, basketball kind of summer.  A lot of the kids' downtime at home at the beginning of summer was spent listening to a podcast- Six Minutes.  They bonded listening to this teen adventure story and it kept the peace on our road trips too.  We also picked up some other fun trivia ones along the way.  And then Allie got a cd player for her birthday and has played a narrative of Curious George stories and "Tangled" (the Rapunzel story) about 25 times a day.  She (and the rest of us) can now quote much of these cds.  Not a podcast, but sort of.

And then there was multiplication.  Boy was there multiplication.  In an effort to help Julia with math, we had her make flashcards and began reviewing with her.  It quickly became clear that we would not get out of this unscathed unless we found some way to motivate her.  So we dangled ear piercing (pun intended), which she was going to get on her 10th birthday, as the prize for learning them all.  There were many tears, arguments, sighs, complaints...and that's just from us parents-- don't even get me started on Julia's demeanor during these 15 minute, twice a day sessions ;).  But finally, one week before school started, she did it!  More about that process below.

Lastly, basketball.  We did the summer rec league and boys had to be in different age groups, so there were lots of separate trips over to the rec center, but it's close and they love it so much.  Both teams did well this year and the boys seemed to progress a lot with their skills.  Joshua is continuing to work toward his goal of making the school team and will do a short weekend league this fall.

Here's how we spent August....

Family walk while Joshua had practice.  Allie-- Miss Fine Motor Skills-- taught herself to put her hair in a ponytail this day.  She still has that toddler body structure where her head is so much bigger than her arms, so she can only put it in front like a unicorn, but hey- I'm still impressed.

Gray headed off to his 3rd year at Camp Lutheridge with buddies Will and and Eli.

And Julia got to have some fun with the Baker girls hitting the movie theater and Freddie's.

Gray all settled into to his open air cabin.  All it takes is throwing your blanket on the bed to be settled in, apparently.

Wonder Woman herself, getting strong on the rings.  This summer Joshua also took up weightlifting, Matt of course continued, and I maintained a pretty good streak of lifting too.  Joshua has nearly caught me already.  Matt has a ways to go.  ;)

Julia LOVED her week of farm camp just outside our neighborhood.  She got to go with some of our new neighbor friends and Addie.  They did farm chores, played in the creek, held bunnies, road horses, and stayed outside all day every day.

Gray loved his week at camp.  It was a smaller group and they had adventures, fun, and bonding.

 The kids tried their hand at the neighborhood yard sale.  Julia spend days cleaning and organizing her stuff, which was awesome, and then the boys threw in some stuff last minute.  They all made some money.  Gray spent a good bit of his on dvds from the neighbors, but all were happy!

Our good friends the Steinrucks moved to SC mid-August so we had a going away party at our house to say goodbye.  Sad to break up this great crew of adoptive families!!

 Meanwhile Matt was enjoying his annual trip to the river with his friends.

 The same weekend of yard sale and going away party, we threw in a 4th grade playdate to help our new neighbors have some familiar faces when they started school.  There were new friends and old and it was a wild time!  

 Allie just continues to grow up.  We tried to go on a bike ride, but she ended up carrying her bike while declaring "I'm a biker!".  She also had lots of fun making her own lunch like the older kids and packing it in a lunch bag.  "Looks like I'm going to school", she says.  She can't wait to start preschool again!!

Julia's earrings!  We had a great experience going to Merle Norman.  The lady that did it used to work with Matt's mom and remembered Matt as a kid.  While they reconnected, another customer calls down to Matt and said she used to babysit him.  So funny.  Took a little of the tension away with Julia, who kept a death grip on my hand.  It was over quickly and she did great.  She's been very responsible about taking care of her ears too.  Something tells me we'll have an easy time coming up with Christmas/birthday gifts this year.

Everyone got a little restless the last week of summer.  It's that in between feeling of knowing your freedom is gone, but not quite knowing what to expect from school yet.  There was a lot of waiting and wondering about schedules this year, which came very late for the boys.  Gray dealt with his uncertainty by creating a new hairstyle-- ponytail-- and often wearing his old "night night" as a cape. Whatever works, buddy.

Julia got to go to a fancy tea with Nanny and the Washington Duke Inn.

The Friday before school started, Julia got her special trip with Matt to Carowinds.  She was quite cautious about riding rides...and felt frustrated with her fear... but overall had a blast and only left around 8pm when they got caught in a downpour.  

Meanwhile, Joshua had an end of summer pool party with friends.  He was a little outnumbered, but doesn't seem to mind.  ;)

And Gray had a fun "progressive" party with three friends, traveling to three houses for dinner, dessert, and movie.  They loved it!

Gray's team made it to the championship game against his buddy Will's team.  I loved watching them play together, trying to guard and steal each other's ball.  

Gray's team ended up winning.  Very exciting.  Matt helped coach and enjoyed working with the team.  There were some characters for sure!

Final moments of summer were spent at the pool.  Ready or not, school is coming!!

 Oh school mornings, I have not missed you.  Getting everyone ready, no matter my approach, is always a little hectic at the least and maddening at the worst.  The barefoot one cannot take his attention from Allie for anything.  Anything.  She has some kind of magnetic force to him that he can't resist.  But we made it out the door and all were smiling.

 Sadly, I got a call midday to get Julia from school because of an earache and fever.  She had to miss the 2nd day too.  The boys had a great start to their year.  They like their teachers, have had a few bumps with using lockers for the first time, but overall managing the logistics.  Gray made a new friend who was born in South Africa and reconnected with a friend from 4th grade that had moved schools.  He has football practice every day after school and loves it (195 on a scale of 1-200, he says).  He can't wait to start hitting and scrimmaging (today...yikes!!).  Joshua gets to come home at 4 and he's working on weight lifting and practicing basketball and lacrosse.  He's keeping up with his responsibilities, though I'm trying to sway him from his new technique of using his arm to write down his assignments.  He enjoyed meeting friends to fish at the end of the summer, but they are in school sports practice after school now, so it's a different kind of season for him.  He will start with his sports in a few weeks.  Julia went back to school today and was happy about that.  She doesn't have any close friends in her class, but I'm hopeful she will make some.  She's excited to see her old friends and our new neighbors on the playground.  She was so pumped to be allowed to ride her bike with them (and no adults) or run down to their house on her own this summer. 

And Allie and I are passing the time till our school starts.  We went for a walk in the rain today with Raven.  I'm still teaching most mornings and hoping to start subbing at Cameron Park soon, though I've heard that process is much less simple than you'd think.  I will start my 5th year of teaching 4's next week and I'm looking forward to it.  Here's to another great school year for all of us!!

On the Road Again

July began right away with a road trip to take Joshua and a friend to Woodlands Camp in Georgia.  It was a complicated scheme in which I dropped different kids with different relatives along the way so I wouldn't have all day in the car with all the children, but it went smoothly and I got them checked in just fine.  I had decided to take the rest of the week to see some of my side of the family, so Gray, Allie and I hung with the Moores and were later joined by Matt, while Julia spent time with Mimi and cousin Carly, and then we all met up in Asheville on July 4th to see more family and switch out Gray and Julia and then finished up a few days with Jeannie before camp was over.  Then I picked up camp kids and Matt took the rest of our kids home.  Simple plan that makes perfect sense, right?  For some reason, I had to explain these logistics to Matt and the kids on an almost daily basis.   

Joshua and best bud Connor right before check in.  

Impromptu early bday party for Allie at the Moores.  Her reaction says it all.  

Jeannie planned lots of fun things for us to do, like bowling at this fancy place.

Gray was totally obsessed with taking selfies on the scoreboard, which projected our faces onto animated characters like muscle men and grandmas on the big screen.

Just hanging in the yard. 

We did a lot of pool time.

Having my family in all different places was a weird feeling.  Felt like I was constantly checking in for news of those not with me.  Thankfully camp posted some pics each day.  Joshua looked to be doing well, but then we got some really sad news that on the second full day of camp, his friend Connor got an appendicitis and had to go to the hospital for an operation, then home to recover.  

Joshua did have 4 girls from school/neighborhood with him also and he managed to pull through the rest of the week with them, plus a few new friends from another cabin.  He sure missed his partner in crime though.

We were so excited to meet the newest member of the family--my cousin's son Jude.  Gray was particularly enamored and couldn't get enough of holding him.

We did a few small firecrackers/smoke bombs, had some great food, and sent all the kids to a nearby pool for awhile.  Such a nice afternoon catching up with family!

We came back hoping to catch fireworks on Jeannie's neighbor's porch but it was storming a bit so they never materialized.

Joshua continued his adventures with zip lines, climbing, white water rafting, etc.

The last time I went to Clemson, I was really pregnant with Joshua and coming to a friend's wedding...14 years ago!!  I was so happy to revisit the place that holds many great memories.  

It was a terribly humid day, but the kids hung in there on our walk around campus for the most part.  The highlight for them was the tiny frogs they played with outside the library.

Two Clemson girls!  We were able to go in one building where we remembered often checking email in the computer lab there and going to Campus Crusade meetings.  

Soon our week was at an end.  Joshua had ice cream and donuts for breakfast at camp and then I picked up him and 3 of the girls to make the trek home.  It was nice to see Joshua had bonded with these friends a little more over this trip.  The ride back was a good chance for me to hear about their week.  I didn't realize they had had no toilets!  Joshua seemed to take the primitive conditions in stride and wants to go back next year.  

After a few days at home, we hit the road again for Emerald Isle.  We did a lot of beaching and game playing.

We hit up Matt's beloved Ben and Jerry's after dinner one night.

The small water park on the island was such a hit with the kids last time we went and this time Allie and I got to go as well.  She did not want to slide too much but enjoyed it when I made her.

One morning, we headed to Beaufort for a boat cruise and stopped at Fort Macon on the way.  You couldn't get in the water, but the morning was a little overcast and cool and the beach was fun to explore, as it was at the end of the island, had lots of shells, and looked a little different.

 Then we headed to the cruise.  The weather was just perfect and it was a lot of fun being on the water.  The kids liked sitting on the net at the front of the catamaran.

 Our favorite moment was crossing over a channel, which felt a bit like those circular raft rides at theme parks (my fav!) and was exciting for the kids.  Not so excited was Allie.  She was sitting alone in the net while the captain warned that those at the front might get wet.  While I was deciding whether to move her, a huge splash came up and drenched her like someone dumping a big bucket of water on her.  She just sat there frozen with a cold stare on her face.  Poor little thing, but it was totally hilarious.  She needed some extra snuggles after that.

 We finished up our trip to Beaufort with lunch at a delicious sandwich place and a little souvenir shopping.  Notice Joshua's pose in this pic.  He's doing "the Gray".... every time Gray would tell someone at the table or the waitress that he wanted to order a small Caesar salad, he would subconsciously cover his mouth and obscure his speech.  We all (including Gray) had a big laugh over that.

 Another of our fun stories from the trip involved the bird above.  We looked out while Matt was boogie boarding one day and noticed a bird that looked like it was riding the waves.  So funny, we thought, and even funnier when we saw Matt getting the bird onto his board.  Then it fell off and began to be pummeled by the waves as it came into shore and I got a little worried that this bird was really hurt and not going to make it.  Nanny was brave and picked it up to put in the shade on the dunes while Julia faithfully attended it, bringing it water and peanuts.  She was so concerned about it and I didn't know what to do.  It seemed to have a broken leg and wing, poor guy.  Then I remembered that my aunt Kathy would surely know what to do, as a local and sea turtle nest patroller.  Well, she did and got the right people to come get it and take it to their wildlife rescue center.  Whew.  

Our last day with Matt, Nanny, and Pa was Allie's birthday.  She was sooo excited, particularly about graduating to a 2 vitamin dose!  

She has gotten so strong this year and has gone from barely walking any distance to pulling the wagon much of the several block walk to the ocean.  

Our little one LOVES the beach.  She did not once ask to go inside.

So Julia had been practicing hand stands like crazy and Allie wants to be just like her, so she started trying to hand stand too...and then Gray and Matt followed...and then poor Joshua went (pic above) and as he went over onto his back, he somehow landed on his face, making a huge scrape on his nose and lip and tiny shells stuck all over his face.  

After nap we had a little party for Allie with a "nudicorn" cake, ice cream, and presents.  Then Matt and his parents (oh, and the dogs) headed back to Hillsborough and two of my friends and their kids joined us.

Day 1 at the beach.  We lined up all 11 kids and numbered them.  That was so we could say, "I'm sending 3 and 4 down to you on the bikes." or "Looks like #9 is our only kid in the ocean right now."  

The oldest ones were very helpful in wrangling the kids and keeping an eye out in the ocean.  They seemed to enjoy their time together a lot.

This was an evening trip to the beach.  

Moon's out.  We got out the helicopter slingshots and they had lots of fun.  

These two just read "Soul Surfer" and were pretty obsessed with trying to "surf".

Gray with his buddy Will.  The kids spent a lot of time with their closest friends in the bunch, but we also had a nice mix of different combinations of kids hanging together too.  So fun!

These two were so funny.  They each had their moments of little kid drama, but enjoyed developing their friendship too.  

Mom pic!  It was a lot to get these kiddos ready for the beach, fed, cleaned, and to bed each day, but it really went pretty smoothly and we had some moments to sit and talk too, even if a lot of it was a bit late at night. 

Last day on the beach!  All a little tanner/redder, closer to each other, and more tired that when they arrived, but lots of memories made!

We got in a quick visit with our resident turtle expert, who answered a lot of questions for us.  Thanks, Kathy!

Our last night, we walked down to get ice cream with everyone, pulling the littlest in a wagon.  Then we maneuvered our crew through a crowded pier shop to get out on the long pier and enjoy a night walk.  It was super windy but felt so good and everyone enjoyed.  

We ended the night walking the 15-20 minutes back to the beach house via the beach, which was beautiful, with a large orange moon over the ocean and cool sand on our feet.  Trying to find where to get off the beach was a little bit of a challenge, but we did it and it was a highlight for many of the kids.  

The next morning we cleaned and headed home to get back for a visit from Mimi and GrandGene and a basketball game for Joshua.  Unfortunately in the haze of getting resettled I did not take a single picture, but we did have a good time and enjoyed going swimming, playing games, and (for me, Mimi, and Julia) seeing the new Lion King movie.  

And so that ends our summer travels as a family.  Gray has camp coming up in Asheville, but otherwise, we will be sticking here in Hillsborough soaking up one more month of summer break!