Go, go, go!

We've definitely got the "go-go" around here. It seems our days are all filled with fun activities of some sort. We've definitely gotten good use of our aquarium membership over the past few years. I think this is the first time Summer has actually pet a sting ray though.


The butterflies are always one exhibit Summer doesn't want to miss. She tries and tries to catch a butterfly. Lucky for her, one day there was a man assisting people in holding a butterfly. He let Lexie and Summer both have a turn. They loved it.

Of course, my noodle would've loved to hold it all day!

On Sunday after church, we went to the Autumn Festival at the Nature Center. There were lots of games for the kids to play, each one with candy for prizes. After they played them all, we went on a nice hay ride through Reflection Riding. It was beautiful. The girls were most excited about the horse rides though. Lexie kept asking for them the entire ride. So, after our ride, we made our way to the horses. Then it was time for inflatables and then a Fun House (which was a little spooky for kids). There was a marshmallow roast and we all tried some smores. They were very messy and sticky, and I think everyone would've just preferred plain roasted marshmallows. Next was story time at the big tree house that was decorated with huge spiders. The girls both got bunnies at the face painting station. Lexie got hers on her belly though since she was shirtless due to a water spill. Summer picked out a wolf design for our pumpkin. My mom and I carved it while the girls watched the magic show. It was a pretty awesome festival and not too crowded which made it even more enjoyable.

On Saturday, we went to the playground down by the river boat. That always lots of fun for them.

Yesterday, we went to the Discovery Museum with our best buddies. Summer stopped at the face painting place, as usual, and painted herself a cat face, as usual. She did not want to play in the water part one bit and would not join her friends while they did. She did however play in the playground type area above it. I, for once, did not have to climb up and join her. Not that it isn't fun, but it wasn't really made for adult sized people. The slide is not too small for me though. When we went a few weeks ago, I got to go down it with Lexie and Summer. One of her other favorite parts of the museum right now is the outdoor discovery area they have. On our way out, we grabbed a few books. She was really excited about "Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday." One of her favorite books that we have at home is "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." I don't think she enjoyed the new one as much when we read it last night. Recently, she has gotten into a new bedtime book routine. She will pick a set of books that came together, and we read one book each night. Right now we are on the Angels on Assignment series. Before that, we read a Disney Princess series. We were missing the Sleeping Beauty book though and Summer, of course, noticed that. She's so perceptive and still amazes me every day with some of her insights.

On Saturday, Summer, Lexie and I attended the Monster Bash at the Discovery Museum.

We were all dressed as royalty.They loved the sour apples that we got while waiting to go in.They made glow in the dark painting. Summer stuck to using the brush, but Lexie used her fingers too.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed to my Grandad's farm. When we got there, the first thing she wanted to do was to see the puppies. She picked several of them up and posed for the camera.

Then we made our way down to where I can remember playing in the woods with my sister and cousins. I built a fort and she swept or "broomed" all the leaves out of it. She told me she was having a great time which made it even more of a satisfying experience.

She could not wait to get in the barns to climb on the hay. The first barn we got to where I used to play as a child (then it was the 2nd barn, now it is the 1st), the hayloft was completely full so we couldn't go in it. But, she still explored all the parts of the barn that were not full of hay. There was one donkey (or mule?) in it and we pet it for a minute or so. In the next barn, the hay loft had a little room to play/climb in. She went all the way to the top!On the way back to the house to quench our thirst, we came across this horse.And, also this donkey (mule?). We pet them and she commented that she thought they liked it because they probably don't get pet much. As we walked up to the house, she told me that my grandad had the best farm. She said she wished we had a farm at our house in Soddy. LOL I've always wanted to live on my grandad's farm, but I'm sure it will never become a reality. I married a city boy.

Pirates at the beach

Last week we went Tybee Island with our best buddies and best babysitters. It was so much fun. Summer actually loved the ocean for the first time. It probably helped that Willow was running right up to the incoming waves. The waves were pretty huge though so the girls did not really go out in the ocean. One day, we did get Summer to go out and jump the waves before they crashed. She had a great time out there with her Memaw and Nanny. I was so proud of her which really isn't uncommon anyway. The girls played in the sand. Summer built a mound and stuck some sticks and feathers in it. We also made a little sand castle with the our beach toy supplies. The water in the pool was pretty cool, but the kids had fun in it. There were little squabbles over floats which Summer tried to mediate. It was neat to see her trying to accomodate everyone and keep the peace. In the mornings, she and I walked on the beach to collect shells and watch the sunrise. She wanted to find big shells which didn't happen until the last morning. We did find lots of sand dollars and other beautiful shells. She wasn't too big on picking up the normal looking shells that were "everywhere." Instead, she prefered the multicolored pieces of shells. She kept talking about the art she was going to make with them. She plans on keeping some for our family and selling some. I wonder if she really may be a great artist one day.

The girls dressed up as pirates for the pirate festival. Summer's costume was completly adorable. I don't think she could've looked more precious. Summer spotted a booth selling rings at the festival and wanted one. I couldn't say no. She picked one that is similar to my wedding ring which made me glad I decided to let her have one. I guess she wants to be like me. I wonder how long that will last.

The island has an awesome playground and one morning we took all 5 kids. The girls really loved the seesaw. I even took a turn on it and enjoyed it too. I guess I'll never grow up, at least as long as I have kids to keep me young.

A recap of the past week in pictures

This is a cat (which she decided looks more like a dog) that she made out of her Memaw's old business cards. The silver heart on a ring is the collar.

Summer is watching The Lion King in her footed pajamas. She looks so adorable in them. They are from last year, so I'm surprised they still fit her. I had to leave the room because I was repeating every word and I'm sure that could be annoying even to a 4 year old. Yesterday, this is the shirt she wanted to wear (almost verbatim): It is pink with bumpy short sleeves with a white kitty cat. Pink collar with a heart that's red. Pink in ears and white around them. For the life of me, I can't remember, or find, the shirt she is talking about. I figure she has outgrown it and it is in a "too little" box. Speaking of the Lion King, she was going to put on a play with her dolls that she won from a prize drawing from last year's Autumn Children's Festival. It finally happened last night. It took her one whole day to set up the audience. Well, not the whole day, but my living room looked like a stuffed animal bin threw up all over it for two days. This morning we packed them all up, except for the Lion King animals, and sent them back to her room. There are still blankets galore everywhere, but I can deal with those as long as she is playing with them. I still think she thinks that this is a scary movie. We went to see Alpha and Omega yesterday. I had originally planned to take her to see Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, but when I mentioned it she said that her cousin Jonathan told her that people got killed in it so she did not want to see it. Well, I'm not sure that is true, but I don't particularly like to watch people die either (even though most of it is not real in the first place). So, I found another movie that I thought she would enjoy. It was cute. There were a few violent parts when the wolf packs almost fight that she thought were a little scary. But, overall we laughed and left with smiles on our faces, howling as we walked through the theater. It was kind of cool because we were the only people in the movie so we could howl throughout if we wanted. Not that I did (or didn't).

After the movie, we picked up Lexie. We all wanted sushi for dinner and Summer insisted we eat there. She took Unice her unicorn pillow pet in her baby stroller. Lexie strolled with Lolli. The girls both loved the soup and salad and chicken teriyaki. There were no leftovers.

Peek-a-boo

Gymnastics is one of the highlights of Summer's weeks. She is never too sick to go and always has fun.

The girls got their nails painted at the salon. They enjoyed picking their own colors. Summer waited patiently for her nails to be done, but Lexie was ready right away. The problem was she wanted to do it herself. But, once she figured out that wasn't going to happen she gave up and crawled in and out of my lap while I was getting a pedicure. They were both happy with the finished product and posed over and over for the camera.

I love this Halloween outfit and Summer does too. She has worn it several times in the past few weeks.

Summer and Lexie both wanted to wear princess high heels to church.

Summer was a big help with the bake sale goodies.

The art/craft activities were a favorite at the festival this weekend.

The enjoyed petting the animals too and did not even put up a fuss about using Germ-X.

She tried and tried to catch the chickens.

Lexie and Summer went down headfirst.

Is she thinking, what happened to my nap? Or, just focusing on holding on?

Summer enjoyed the ride too.

Having fun even in line!

She's ready for music class. I love the boots she picked to wear too!

Lexie picked out her own clothes too.

Discovery Museum was a hit.

You have to pet the hissing cockroaches unless your name is Lexie.

No time to blog

I feel like I just can't keep up with this blog like I want to. Summer says and does so many things that I want to capture here, but I can't remember them all when I finally get around to writing them. Such beautiful memories....


Summer has been informed that school will be over at the end of October. I don't think it has registered just how short that is though. Her concept of time is still not great I guess because months seem to fly by to me. Where did September go? I am getting excited myself about not having to take her and pick her up. I'm also looking forward to working in the workbooks that we already have. She told me again yesterday that she does not think she is learning anything in school. They did learn to "stop, drop and roll" if their clothes catch on fire last week. Summer missed the firemen and fire truck because she was too sick to go to school on Thursday. That was what she thought anyway. She also told me that she was scared of the firemen that morning. I have no idea why, but I assume the uniforms and/or big truck is intimidating to her. She wouldn't get on the firetruck at the fair Sunday either. The day she missed, I heard her telling Amanda and Josh that she "skipped school today." Yep, she knew she was skipping the whole time. I did take her to the doctor though so we could rule out any illness that might need to be medicated. They said she had a cold and that over the counter medications have been proven to be ineffective. Their recommendation was to let her breathe hot shower air or freezer air. Honey might also help the cough (her only symptom). She's also been taking lots of vitamin C, but her cough has not gotten better. She, again, was not too happy about going to school today even though she only has four more days after today. Thankfully, she did not cry or anything when I dropped her off. She did ask me if I could pick her up from lunchbox early. We'll see....

Last week, we also went to the clinic for Summer's monthly port flush. She put up a pretty big fuss when it came time to access her port. Despite using cream to numb the area where her port is, the anticipation of pain made her fearful and tears were flowing down her cheeks. She was in my lap, as usual. I tried to get her to relax and hold my hands, but it took a minute or two to get her to unlock her head from the left side so the nurse could access the port. When she put the needle in, Summer didn't even flinch so I know she did not feel it this time. They only had to draw some blood and then take the needle right back out. That was nice because the area didn't have time to lose the numbness before the needle was removed. Summer actually flushed her port this time which she used to be unable to do. She weighs a little over 41 pounds and is almost 41 inches tall. Last year she weighed 33 pounds. She has grown so much in the last year, but I guess that is what kids do. They are scheduling her next set of scans now. She will have a CT scan, MRI of the brain, and heart test sometime in November. I am not sure if they are going to discuss taking her port out if everything is okay with these set of scans. She will still be getting scanned every three months for the next year. If nothing shows up during that time, she will be considered "in the clear." I can't wait for that day, although it really won't change anything.

This weekend was busy as usual. Life doesn't slow down much for us. This is what we were doing this time last year. This year, Summer missed the Fun Day at Camp Agape because we already had too much going on. She had a sleepover at her cousin's house. She was very excited to see her cousin Faith who she usually does not get to see. On Sunday, she got to see her cousins again at Sunday dinner. After that, we went to the Autumn Children's festival to have some fun and support the Ronald McDonald House. Summer really enjoyed the petting zoo. She chased the chickens, but could not catch them. One of the volunteers picked one up for her and she got to hold it. She enjoyed that. I feel so lucky to have her in my life so we can have fun times together and make memories that will hopefully never be forgotten. Kids make the world a better place!!!