I guess that's about as often as I've been blogging lately.  Nothing exciting has been happening, but everything exciting has been happening.  You know, the exciting things that make up every day... cuddling with my girls, taking walks to the park, bike rides to the library, kicking the soccer ball in the backyard, visiting friends, going to church, making forts in the living room, singing songs and just having fun.

I am having fun being my girls' mom.  What a great gift God has given me... and great responsibility, too.  Ainsley has been asking some pretty deep (in 4-year-old terms) theological questions.  It's nice to see that she's thinking about spiritual things, but it also makes me so nervous to answer them.  How do I explain things on a 4-year-old level?  What if I blow it and totally ruin her spiritual life?   How silly I am!  I think I give myself too much credit.  God is working on her heart, I just need to pray for wisdom and for the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say.  God will take care of the rest.

Josh and I had a nice time on our anniversary date last week.  We didn't do much, but it was relaxing and nice to have a night without the kids.  Golfing last Saturday went really well.  Us ladies did much better than I had expected.  I even won the longest drive competition for the ladies.  However, I injured my thumb.  I am finally going to go to the doctor about it tomorrow.  My thumb bent back on my backswing and I heard a crack.  Since then, it has been swollen and it HURTS.  I can't use it very well.  It's my left thumb, so at least it's not my right, but it's still hard to do quite a few things without its use.   I had to play the piano on Sunday and yesterday at church... and let me tell you, I was suffering for Jesus. LOL!  It wasn't that bad, but it didn't feel too great.  So pray it heals... quickly.

Other than that, we are enjoying some cooler late summer weather.  And I am fighting a cold coming on.  These late night watching the Olympics are killing me, but I can't help it.  I have to watch!

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary.  I can't believe we've been married that long already, and I also can't believe it hasn't been 99 years.  Not in a bad way, but it seems like we've been together a very long time.  Sometimes I can't remember what it was like to not be married.

We were married young.  I was just 20, he was just days from turning 22.  Neither one of us knew exactly what we were getting into.  Who does?  But over the years we have learned to weather the good and the bad together.  And God has protected our marriage through it all.  I am very thankful for my husband and our wonderful family.

We will have a low-key day today.  We plan to put the kids to bed early and have some take-out by ourselves.  Tomorrow night my mother-in-law has agreed to take the kids overnight.  We don't have any concrete plans, but we'll be by ourselves... and that's all that matters.  We won't get to sleep in, though.  We're going to the church golf tournament early Saturday morning.  I'm playing with a ladies team.  Only one of us knows what she is doing, and it's not me.  I've golfed a few times, but it's been a really long time... and I've only been on smaller par 3 courses, so this will be something to behold, I'm sure.   The driving range has been my friend lately...

I feel as if I am still recovering from our crazy-busy month of July.  There was literally not one day on the calendar that didn't have something on it for us to do.  Now that it is August, life has slowed down and we are enjoying some truly lazy summer days. 

I haven't been able to get back into blogging much since our vacation.  And with last week being Bible School, I was pure worn out.

Bible School this year was called Faith Expedition.  It was probably the best VBS we've had at this church (as long as we've been there, which has only been 5 years.)  I taught the 4th graders, which ended up being a very small class all week long.  It was nice though; I had a lot of one-on-one interaction with the children I did have.  The curriculum focused on six faithful men in both the old and new testaments.  It was interesting, and well done.  I am very thankful God gave us a good week.  We had awesome weather all week, and the kids behaved wonderfully, including my own.  I was worried a bit.  We were coming off a very busy vacation, and then had night-time VBS, which had them in bed after 9 each night.  But God is good, and we made it through.

Ainsley goes to school exactly three weeks from today.  Can you believe that?  It's already back to school time!  I have her first semester completely paid for even though I barely wrote anything all of July with us being so busy.  I am so thankful that God kept me so busy with articles at the beginning of the summer.  We got her school list a few days ago, along with the name of her teacher. 

So, now I am just trying to enjoy the end of our summer with my girls.  We've been having relaxing days this week, staying home and playing, walking to the park and library.... just simple things. 

At the end of this week, Josh and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary and I'll be playing in a golf tournament.   More on that later...
Now that's a tease, isn't it?

We're back from our vacation in Chicago, but I've been so busy, posting has been out of the question.  That and I have more than 200 photos from the trip to wade through.  I don't want to bore you with all of them.

We had a wonderful time with my family.  My grandparents took us, my parents, my brother, his wife and their two kids with them in their motor home (think very nice RV) to Shelbyville, IL for two days on my grandpa's boat.  It was nice, relaxing and fun.

I also had plenty of time to just relax at my parent's house.  My girls and my brother's boys had so much fun together and they played together really well.  But four children four and under running around a boat is downright tiring!

Here's a few photos to show what our trip was like...


All the kids in the bed in the motor home during our trip down to Shelbyville.  It was about a 3 hour trip, taken after church was over on Sunday night. 

My grandpa and Ainsley navigating the boat.

There's nothing better than relaxing and cuddling with my baby.

We had a great time pulled by the boat on this tube.  And yes, Lorelei went willingly and LOVED it.

All four of the kids on the boat.  They were done by this point.

A swinging quartet.

More at a later date...

VBS is this week in the evening... we need to eat and get going.  I'm teaching fourth grade....

We're heading out on our trip to Chicago this evening.

Have a great week, everyone.  I'll catch up when we get back.

Last night after swimming lessons I took Ainsley out by herself for a little while.  We went to have dinner, get our hair cut and buy a backpack.

It was nice to spend some time alone with her.  We chatted over dinner when she said, "Mom, you're really nice to me."  The comment surprised me.  I sometimes feel as if I am always on her case, so I was happy to hear she didn't think that.  I asked her why she said that.  "Because sometimes you let me stay up late and do fun things with you."  Aaaah, the truth comes out.  Well, at least it was better than her prayer at lunch the other day: "Jesus, please help mommy to stop being so crabby." Ouch.  That one hurt.  LOL!

I've been growing out Ainsley's bangs since about Christmas.  They're now about to her chin, so I decided to get her hair cut in a little bob, to blend in those bangs.  It's so cute, but she looks WAY too grown up.

So, here's Ainsley's new 'do...

Can this possibly be my baby?  She looks too old to my Ainsley.

Here she is all dressed and ready to go to her day camp.  Don't you love the shin guards and soccer socks with the purple outfit???

By the way, she LOVES the day camp.  It's a perfect fit for her.  She's having a great time.  And she's come home very tired both days.  Woohoo for nap time! 

I spent today's time without her working on a story.  Poor Lorelei isn't getting as much extra time with mommy as I first thought.

This stay at home mommy handed her oldest child over to someone she did not personally know today.

It was a bit harder than I thought it would be.  Ainsley started her first day camp.  It's a sports camp to teach the fundamentals of soccer, basketball and baseball to kids 4-7.  She was gone for THREE HOURS!

Now, when I signed her up for this, I had no qualms about it.  I just thought it would be great for my very active 4-year-old.  But as the time grew closer, I started thinking about what it was going to be like to hand her over to someone I don't know for three whole hours.  I realize many moms do this every day, but for us stay at home mommies, handing over the reigns of our children can be difficult.

Of course, I've left my children with other people... family and friends... but never in a situation like this... never with someone I did not know at all.

I was put at ease very quickly today.  The workers for this camp had everything covered and seemed to genuinely like kids.  We've been to a few recreation department events where it seemed like the workers were just there to get paid and really had no interest in dealing with the children.

Ainsley, of course, instantly made friends and when it was time for the parents to leave just said, "bye mom," and ran off with them.  I guess she's ready to be let go.... even if I'm not quite ready.

She'll be going to the camp each day this week.  I figured it would be a good way to get us used to what it will be like when school starts.  Today, Lorelei and I just came home, played with puzzles and picked up a little bit before it was time to go back and get big sister.

We also started swimming lessons last week.  We have them this week as well.  Sports camp in the morning... swimming in the afternoon.. it's a busy week for us.  And then we leave on Friday for Chicago! 

As for swimming lessons... both girls are doing wonderfully.  Ainsley has been jumping off the diving board and swimming in the deep end.  The instructors made her swim the entire length of the pool the other day.  She was tired after that!  Lorelei is thoroughly enjoying her parent and tot class.  She is really coming out of her shell this summer.  She's no longer so timid and afraid of everything.  It's so much fun.
 
In other news...
Check out what's growing in my garden!
I'm finally having some success growing things here.

Yummy!

Saturday took us to a zoo we had never been to before.  It was about a 45 minute drive, but our library had a free pass, so we decided to check it out.

We enjoyed the bird show.  Giant birds of all kinds flew right over our heads.  If you know me, you know I am not a bird person.  They kind of freak me out a little, but this show was pretty cool, and when you have kids, you get over some of those silly things anyway.

Peacocks roamed free on the grounds.  He was showing off for some "girls" right outside of this picture.

Our little peacocks.

After the zoo visit we started driving home and the day sort of unraveled.  We discovered that I had lost my cell phone.  We were able to find out that it had fallen out of my bag while we were at the colonial village the night before.  Thankfully, someone had turned it in, but we had to go back there and get it.  Unfortunately, the village was 45 minutes north of our home, so we had to the 45 minutes back to our house, and then 45 more minutes to get to the village and 45 more minutes back home.  The kids were done, and losing it in the back seat.  Josh and I were ready to pull our hair out.  I'm thankful we all made it home without someone dying.

On Sunday we took the kids to a place that has a four level playscape.  It was huge!  This slide went right into a ball pit. 

There was even a slide that went down all four levels.  I got to go up all the way to the top with Ainsley.  And I slid down the really big slide.  It was actually quite fun.  And I was not the only parent climbing around with his or her kids.

There was not one but four ball pits in this place.  I hadn't seen one for years.  I thought they had been outlawed or something.

The rest of they day, we just relaxed and played with the kids in the backyard.  It was a very nice staycation.  We needed to get away while not really getting away, know what I mean?

God is good.  I am thankful for my little family and that we have the means and the desire to spend time together.

We had a great weekend together as a family.  Does it have to end?

Here are some pictures from our fun.  On Thursday night we went to Six Flags and had fun in the water park.

Is she beautiful, or what?  I'm a little biased.

She was having so much fun.  And she's getting braver every time we go there.  The first time she was terrified.

Me and my girls.

We left the water park part of Six Flags and went to ride the rest of the rides.  We rode the tea cups and then found out that Ainsley has officially reached the 42 inch mark, so she could ride some new rides.  But she ended up getting kicked off because it started raining.. with thunder and lightning.  We tried to wait out the rain, but it just kept going on.  We finally just decided to run back to the car.  Well, that's easier said than done in the pouring rain... and it's a long walk.  We were soaked!  We ended up eating our little picnic dinner in the back of our van.  As we say in our family when things aren't going exactly the way we'd hoped, "It was an adventure."

On Friday (July 4th) morning we went berry picking.  We were able to pick strawberries, though because it was the end of the season they were few and far between and very small.. but very tasty.  We also picked raspberries and while we were there they decided to open the early ripening blueberries for picking.  We ended up picking 10 pounds of those!  They were so good!  I love having blueberries stocked in my freezer.

The girls were good helpers for the most part.  Lorelei was actually a better helper than Ainsley.  Ainsley kept getting caught eating.

That afternoon we went to a barbecue at a friend's home.  I forgot my camera for that event, but Ainsley kept trying to climb in all of their trees.   She got pretty high in one of them.  I'm glad Josh is so tall.

That night we went to the Colonial village for fun and fireworks.  I don't have a lot pictures from that because my camera died and I forgot to bring extra batteries.

Ainsley got to do a sack race.                                     This one is right before she fell flat on her face.

She had fun and even had her picture taken by the village's publicity photographer.

The girls having some snacks while we waited for the fireworks.  The show was great.  Lorelei got a little scared at first, but then she settled down and just cuddled with me until it was over.  I was just fine with that.

More tomorrow...

I'm looking forward to the weekend. 

I'm sure many of you are.  My husband doesn't take many three day weekends even when he has the opportunity.  Often, he is allowed to work and make triple-time.  That's kind of hard to pass up, so he often works at least some of the holiday.  But not the 4th of July.  There is no work offered, and I don't think he would be working even if he could.  We need some family time.

So,we have plans for raspberry and strawberry picking, a barbecue at a friend's home, a visit to a Colonial village for sack races and fireworks, a trip to the zoo and anything else we come up with.  I'm looking forward to spending time... just us.

I bought the tickets to go to Chicago today.  They were NOT cheap.  I called my grandpa to tell him, and he said, "I don't care.  I just want you to come."  I am so thankful!!!  My grandpa is probably the most generous person you will ever meet, and he has the money to spend.  He just wants us to be able to join in on the vacation they're taking down to a place where he keeps his boat.  So, we'll be spending some time on the water.  We'll be leaving the evening of the 18th.  The girls and I will be staying a whole week.  Josh is going to come home on Wednesday.  I can't wait.
 

(Poor Lorelei ... we're always doing crazy things with her hair after she gets out of the pool.)

Have a lovely Independence Day, everyone.  I'm going to enjoy the freedom I have to spend with my family and do what we choose.