Evidence that my children have watched too much tv...

So...I'm in the running for "Mom of the Year" in case you hadn't heard.

My kids may or may not have watched a little tv this summer. It's mighty hot outside...

That's my excuse anyway.

My kids are inserting commercial slogans and jingles everywhere! Landry was taking her turn praying over dinner the other night and ended her prayer with, "Dear God, pleeeease let me get a Build a Bear workshop for the my birthday, where friends are made. Amen."

I was wrapping something in foil in the kitchen and Gib came in and said, "Mom, from the people that brought us the tortilla maker, there is now a Wraptastic!"

Hayden was asking for a pair of shoes called Stompeez. "I really need these Stompeez! With every stomp you're friends come to life!"

Good thing school is about to start. I think their brains may be mush.

Summer Stories

The boys played hard today - fishing, hiking around the lake in the heat, just generally being boys. Grace went to volleyball practice and got all stinky. The parents took a wiff off all that stink and off to the showers they went!

The beauty of summer is that we are slightly...er...a little bit...er...a whole bunch of lenient during the summer.

Landry managed to slip through the cracks of doing enough outside to warrant a bath today. So...she just kept really quiet and no one noticed.

Except Hayden.

"Eew! You stink!" he told her.

She went to my bathroom and got the "girl spray" aka my perfume and took care of that problem. A half bottle later...

"Don't I smell great, Mom?!"

She's getting a bath first thing in the morning.

San Jacinto Monument

This summer I took the kids to the San Jacinto Monument. The state park houses the monument, the battlegrounds of the famous San Jacinto battle that defeated Santa Anna and won our Texas independence as well as the Battleship Texas.

The monument itself is SO tall! We rode an elevator all the way to the top and then had a chance to look at breathtaking views. 

After we watched a couple of educational videos, gaped at blue skies and lush green landscape, and toured the museum, we headed out for the hiking trail that is maintained by Texas Parks and Wildlife. We enjoyed looking at the swamp land and birds and didn't even get eaten by mosquitoes! It was a good day!

Summer Canning

This summer I decided to tackle canning. When I was a kid, we canned and preserved all kinds of produce all summer, but since I've grown up, I just haven't. I don't really even have a reason...

Anyway, this summer I decided that it was beyond high time...

I met up with a friend of mine and we canned her batch of cucumbers and turned them into pickles. I also took advantage of some great sales on strawberries and made a bunch of strawberry preserves. (Hayden is a HUGE fan. Strawberry anything is his favorite.)

Then I moved on to peach preserves. These just happen to be Shane's favorite. I have made several batches and would say that we have plenty to keep us for a while. Gibson has proven to be a great help in the kitchen when it's time to can peaches. He can peel and slice with the best of them.

Of course I had to make cobbler. That many peaches around just screams flaky crust and vanilla ice cream! Yum!

It's extremely satisfying to have little jars that I made myself!

My baby is not really a baby anymore...sigh...

As we were eating pizza for dinner, my youngest jumped up from the table and ran screaming to the bathroom.

She was in complete hysterics from the other room. I had her come back and she had a mouth full of blood. (She hates bleeding of any kind more than anything in the world. She has a very real fear that her body is "leaking" and that she will die.) As she was showing me her mouth, she just reached in and yanked out the whole tooth. I didn't even know that it was loose! The crying continued because now her teeth were "broken."

Dinner was full of drama as she was finished eating and asked a million questions.

She wanted to know if I still thought that she was beautiful.

Then she let me know that she has lost part of her "collection" of teeth. She has names for every. single. one. of. them. The one that she just lost is Jade.

The tooth fairy will be making a visit tonight!

Gettin' Old

Landry has been looking forward to her birthday since Christmas was over.

As her birthday is the last day of August, it has been 8 months...

For 8 months she has been talking about the toys that she is going to get, the cake that she will have, the cute and sparkly party that is going to happen...

Cut to this morning.

I was brushing her hair and she was crying (nothing new). 

"Landry, you are almost 6! You can't cry when you are almost 6!"

This just made her cry harder.

"I don't want to be 6!"

I asked her, "You don't want to have a birthday?!"

"Yes, I want to have a birthday! I just don't want to be 6!"

"Well, why don't you want to be 6?"

"Because it's just so old..." she moaned.

Sister Weekend 2013

The highlight of my summer, so far, has been Sister Weekend 2013. 

I am the oldest of 8 kids (for those who may not know), and there are 5 girls and 3 boys in our family. Dan married, so that adds another sister, Naomi. 

This last weekend, we were able to get all of the girls together for a very fun filled, and fast, trip. They all came to our house and we swam in the pool, lounged at the beach, shopped along The Strand in Galveston, ate LOTS of food, and just generally had a great time. This is a must-do for each summer, I think.

As usual, I got busy having fun and then forgot to take pictures...sigh...

I did get a couple at the beach and so did Mia, so I'll share what I've got!

 Here are all of the girls. From left to right: me, Esther, Judith, Mia, Bekah, and Naomi.

 Lots of sunning was going on, especially since the jelly fish were really bad. I have never seen that many come in at once. We had a few casualties of our own.

 The jelly fish made us look for lots of shells and beach goodies...

 And of course, there must be snacks!

Mia took these pictures and did a great job capturing the afternoon.

 Hayden

 Landry

 Aunt Bekah and Grace

 This was all of us scooping a jelly fish in the bucket and then trying to avoid the tentacles and get it to the trash.

There were some mad chess matches happening throughout the weekend.

We had a great time. I love my sisters and can't wait until we can do it again!