Goodbye summer...

Looking through all of these pictures has gotten me overwhelmed. I realized I haven't posted our trip home, our family vacation and many more. I think I might be done updating. Here's one last look at summer. If you've noticed a theme,yes, Jackson is always in his pajamas. He loves them. Even when sunbathing.

Anna's B-day

The quick pictorial run down of Anna's birthday. I placed the boring pictures of my party prep first so that you will have to look to get the pics of Anna. Lots of prep for 4 family member guests. Still worth it though. The candy bar...
yummy cupcakes and super yummy strawberry shortcake cake.
I thought the biggest hit would be the swim baby, but it really has been the cupcakes and the 5.00 walmart tea set which if you have not seen it and have a girl from the age of 2-8 you should really check out. It's very cute and porcelin and has polka dots and is seriously five dollars. Regular price. Not on sale. Ok, there's my tea set plug, even Jackson gets in on the tea parties.

The night before Kindergarten

It's not a good sign if Mom is crying the night before Kindergarten starts, but it's who I am, I can't help it. I read today that there are two different back to school moms. The ones who do a dance of freedom in their empty house and the ones who make up fake dentist appointments and pick their kids up early because they miss their kids so much. I'm definitely the latter. I just wanted to write a quick note to you Jackson to tell you how much I love you and that I can't believe our five years at home together have gone by already. I know you will do great in school and will love to learn and make a whole new set of friends. I love how sensitive and cuddly you still are and hope that it never changes. I love that you still want the same nigh-night songs that I have sang to you since you were born and that you beg for twenty more seconds of cuddling nearly every night. I love how silly you are and that you love to tell secrets that are 80% of the time telling me you have to go potty or something else completely non-secret related like the following from last month: "Put your bathing suit on and take a hot shower," "Wrap a towel around a pine tree," and "wrap your hair around your face." I love that you make instant friends everywhere you go. I love being your mom and am happy and sad that I have to now share you with a whole new world. You'll still always be my baby boy.

Yes. I took a picture of my son laying in his bed the last night before he was officially a Kindergatener. I already admitted to being that mom. I'm not apologizing again.

So I took the summer off...

Apparently I don't blog in the summer. I have no idea where the summer went but I know we did a bunch of fun things. Here follows the quick lame version of bunches of pictures and events. More to follow in the next few days. I promise to be better this fall.

Homemade finger paints

At some point this summer we made homemade finger paints and the kids went to town on the back porch. I really have no idea when. I'm going to say Julyish...

We started out on paper which became a full on fingerpaint body massage...

which landed them carried directly into here...

End of the summer beach trip

My friend Jen and I decided to forsake all sanity and take all of our kids together to the beach last weekend and stay overnight in a hotel with all of the kids piled in. It actually went amazingly well with the only bummer being my children's inability to sleep in. Anna was up bright and early at 5:45 but it was one day so we survived. And considering Anna slept in the living room area with us we had to go to bed by 10:30, which hasn't happened in about 3 months for me, so I was well rested. We cheaped out and brought all of our food only spending 5.00 on ice cream for the kids. It was definitely worth the 120.00 it cost us both for two days of beach fun.

Burying your kids in the sand is fun. I'm serious. This was almost the best part of the trip for me, I'm not sure why...

Fourth of July

Here are some pictures from the fourth of July. We love our simple fourth of July's which include root beer floats and then playing on the golf course until dark and watching fireworks.

And of course plenty of cherries while watching fireworks.