Berry Farm

Some friends of ours and all the kids went to a local berry farm to do some blueberry and raspberry picking; we looked like a preschool group with all the kids. But every one of those kids and the moms had a great time. The weather was perfect, the picking was great, and fun was had by all!

Maisie was in fruit heaven. The best part was the owner told us to eat whatever we wanted! Ahh, Maisie was so happy.

Tootsie Rollers

While Analise had her softball through park and rec, I signed the other two up for Tootsie Rollers. Maisie LOVED it last year, and this year Sadie was old enough to join the same group.

They went four times for 45 minutes each and used a lot of large motor skills having lots of fun.

In addition to letting the younger ones have their activity, it was good for Analise to watch them for a change. She enjoyed it. And I enjoyed having a daughter that didn't need constant help staying focused or supervised. We both took books and read some, in between all the questions and comments the older daughter provides. :)

Splash Park

This post should probably be titled "Father's Day," but since all the pictures are at the splash park, I went with that.

Father's Day weekend - Brandon spent a lot of time with his dad. All other family members were out of town. So Friday night his dad joined us for dinner; we all enjoyed it. Saturday we went for donuts and to Menards. At that point Brandon and his dad headed to the lake for some fishing.

They didn't come home until supper time on Sunday where we went out to Brandon's favorite BBQ place.

And as much as I loved letting him have time away, and even better, time with just his dad, it was a hard weekend. And when I say "hard" I mean the girls missed him.

They felt fatherless on Father's Day. Analise mentioned it more than once.

I decided to do something fun with them regardless, so we went to the splash park. And Analise promptly informed me we were the only ones there without a dad.

Even still they had lots of fun.

When it's all said and done, Maisie is always the wettest, and I think she takes some pride in that.

And I failed at getting a picture of Brandon with the girls on Father's Day. Oops. That weekend seemed like a blur. But Brandon, in case you ever read this - we love you and think you're the best dad ever! I'm glad you got time with your dad, really I am. Though maybe next year you can have that time on a different weekend. :)

Responsibilty Charts

Each summer I try and create a method in teaching the girls responsibility, and this year all three get to learn! :) I want something that is visible, simple, small and yet effective.

After thinking, praying and talking with friends, I tried something new this year.

Each girl has a bag with her name on it and little pictures showing what I want done each day. (Analise has additional daily things she must do.)

Each time they finish a task, they can put in a responsibility ticket. Analise and I created something to show the girls what the tickets can be used for as prizes. Each ticket is worth 10 cents, so the girls first saved for Squinkies. They've earned tickets to get slushies with dad. They like the dollar section at Target. So in a sense they have to earn and wait, yet they don't have to wait too long for their rewards. And I didn't want rewards to be all about money.

Since we have been doing this, it's been working pretty well!

While I wanted the girls to learn responsibility, I also wanted to reward good behavior. We had been working with that by using stones for the last year. We needed something new and fresh, so I decided to use tickets for this, too.

The girls work collectively to earn tickets to earn a fun, family reward. If someone catches the girls with good behavior, they earn a "God's Girl Ticket." As you can see in the picture, these are the qualities we look for, and qualities we want the girls to learn.

The new twist this year - they can lose a ticket for "ungodly" behavior. And trust me, they've given me tickets. One daughter more than the others. She will remain unnamed.

So far we have the girls  have earned two nights sleeping in a tent in their room, and the other time we went mini golfing. Once they get the next 50 tickets, we'll be going for paddle boat rides.

My mother's heart wants these Godly traits to become so natural, so spirit lead that they have them the rest of their lives.

So this year, this works for us. And as I look at the character qualities, I need to ask myself, "Am I being a God's girl?"

Swim Lessons

A month of swim lessons - let the learning begin! We tried something new this year; we used the same program but went to a different time. The last two years we went in the evenings, but this summer we tried the morning and liked it.

So three mornings a week we were at the pool by 8:15 ready to swim. (Again, this never could have happened in previous years.)

Sadie was in/out/in/out. She is just so little that she gets cold easily. She would swim with the instructor and either hang on the wall or bundle up in her towel while waiting for her turn.

I was okay with that.

Maisie did improve this year, though you probably wouldn't be able to tell because she still doesn't know how to swim. She loved every minute of it and stayed in the water the entire time. What she did learn was going under water and NOT plugging her nose. I call that progress.

And since I am not much of a swimmer...okay, I'll be honest...since I am not a swimmer, I don't push them too hard. But at the same time I want them to learn and enjoy it.

And here is my fish; she must get it from her Aunt Peg. She swam 45 minutes straight and loved it!

The perks about morning swims:

1. Got them finished for the day and didn't mess with dinner time.

2. Smaller group of kids so more 1 on 1 time.

3. The kids who were in the group were some of their best friends.

Summer Softball

Analise wanted to play softball again this year. She moved up with the older kids, and it actually began to look like softball! What I learned was that a lot of girls her age moved to competitive softball, so the girls who played here were more for learning and recreation. Just what we wanted.

We had to miss the first game because we were in Indiana, but we made rest of the games and didn't even have any rain outs. I guess that's one nice things about a drought.

She played catcher once; it wasn't her favorite.

They started the year using the tee but then went to coach pitch. She did a nice job with both.

Her two biggest fans - as long as they had a snack. :)

Two years ago when she started playing, it took everything in me to get all three girls and myself ready to be at the park by 8:45. Now that we have a dog that has forced me into being a morning person, I was up and ready by that time. And the girls are older and self sufficient, so this year was much easier!

Analise was thrilled to have her dad, Grandma, A. Sarah and Aaron come to a game. Thanks family!

Home

While we unpacked from vacation, the girls decided to turn themselves into turkeys. Silly girls - at least they were out of my way. :)

Happy to be home with Caramel. We were blessed to have good friends take care of her for the week.

Leaving is so Hard

Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to Peg and Danny. :( Our fun week was concluding.

We didn't want to leave right away, so we found a fun park for the girls to run around and play.

 My two favorite men

We left the park around 11:00 so we could eat lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and hit the road. However, as we drove away from the park Brandon noticed the air conditioning was not blowing out cold air. Not good. We immediately called a Honda dealership, and the second one we called was open until 3:00 and could get us in. PTL! As we drove to the dealership there went plans for lunch.

We ended up spending a couple of hours at the dealership while they were able to fix the AC. We were so thankful for kind people working, a kid room complete with chalkboard paint and chalk, free popcorn to munch on, and they loaned us a van to drive down to road for a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse.

Finally at 3:00 we left town...in a nice, cool van. Thanks mom and dad for hanging with us even though it wasn't what we had planned!

We drove about 7 hours before stopping for the night. And what a good hubby I have. I asked if we could go into town a little bit to get Chick-fil-A for supper. He said yes. :) It's the little things!

Sunday we completed our drive - complete with a take out lunch from The Cheesecake Factory!

Making Memories in Indy

We ventured south as a family this year. I have been waiting for the girls to be old enough to enjoy the children's museum in Indianapolis. Also, the girls have never been downtown in a big city, so I was excited to do both.

We got up Friday, packed the van and headed to Indy. I heart Indy.

How cool - a dinosaur outside the world's largest children's museum!

We toured the indoor dinosaur exhibit - not our favorite, but it was still really neat. We made sure Analise knew ahead of time that what she read about these dinosaurs would be evolution based, and we know the truth: God created them.

Cute little dinosaurs sitting on some eggs.

Brandon would probably be embarrassed I posted this. But if you don't tell him, he'll never know. I just wanted to show you the funny side of my man that some don't see.

They are all looking up at a glass ceiling full of colored glass. It really was pretty!

And here is the tower of glass.

They were featuring Hot Wheels

And Legos

You two are funny

One of the highlights: a carousal

Looking back, we should have gone to the science area first. They probably had the most fun here.

We also toured Egypt

Pam, "Brandon can you take my picture with him since this is the closest I will ever get to meeting him?"

Brandon, "Sure."

Nice dear, nice. :)

Much better this time

Analise could have watched this water clock for hours, I think. By far her favorite.

After the museum closed, we drove downtown to eat dinner. We ended up at California Pizza Kitchen. Mmm good!

As we walked back to the car, we stopped in a hotel and took the glass elevator up 22 floors. It's the highest the girls have been.

As we left downtown, we drove right next to the Colt's stadium. Analise was so excited.

And then Analise saw this old factory next to the stadium and asks, "Is that where they make all the popcorn?"  So funny.

We got to the hotel later than I wanted, but I had promised the girls they could swim. Sadie pretty much stayed on the steps. Analise swam, and Maisie was well...funny.

Uncle Danny was the only brave adult to get in with the girls. Here he is encouraging Maisie to swim.

He then had her jump in to him. For some reason she was nervous. She would squat and stand, squat and stand. I wish I had it on video because I laughed so hard I thought I was going to wet my pants.

But she did it! And a few weeks later that's all she wants to do at the pool.

Needless to say, it was a great day!