The End of Summer...

This summer has been great.  It's been really busy and loaded with activity, tiring on mama, and not one bit boring!  But I loved it and wish school didn't have to start back!

 There was an end of the year banquet for swim team.  The kids dressed like rock stars!  Piper really ended up enjoying swim team.  Her favorite was the daily practices because she got to swim and see her friends every day.  The meets were intimidating!  Below is Campbell and Nora at Hawaiian Falls water park.  It was an end of the year celebratory thing the swim team does together.  Campbell's mom graciously took Piper!

We had an annual summertime lemonade stand with Nora.  They split the proceeds and Piper used to it towards purchasing a watch!  She loves her watch!  

 This was Piper's first year attending Pine Cove In the City.  It is a daytime church camp.  She obvioulsy loved it but I think it stirred her heart in the area of her relationship with God!  I'm so thankful she had this week to focus on that and be with special friends! Her counselor for the week went by Koala Balla!  She did not reveal her real name until the last day.  But I cannot even remember what it was.  Koala Balla gave Piper an encouraging certificate at the end stating that Piper was compassionate to those in need and expressive in the way she communicates to those around her! Sweet and pretty accurate! I was a proud mama!

 More Pine Cove...

 She attended with three friends from school...Emory, Campbell, and Nora

 She began a little journal that week.  So sweet!

 And this is Super Piper on superhero day of camp!

We had some friends over to water slide!  This was the only time we got the slip and slide out!

 Michael treated us to a Texas Rangers game one afternoon.  The weather ended up being breezy and cooler, especially in the shade!  No complaints here!

 And, a very special treat Piper was invited to be a part of, was preparing and hosting a tea party with Nora!  Nora's grandma, Moe, asked if she could take the girls for a few hours and led them in preparing the food and setting up the table and then serving me and Kate!  While we ate lunch and sipped on tea, Moe played with our younger children and fed them lunch upstairs!  Sooooo Nice!! Piper was extremely excited and loved every minute of it!  I love it when other adults invest in her life!  She loves it too!  I think they had a fantastic time and may have been a little crazy for Moe!

The End of July...

The end of July, means the end of summer is near.  Some parents love this but I am particularly not fond of it this year.  I get these sad butterflies in my tummy!  School and schedules and waking up early is around the corner.  

 Towards the end of July, Briggs came down with some weird virus that caused him to fever for four days and have a tummy bug as well.  It was a lot like the flu.  Emerson got the tummy bug too but no fever and she wasn't sickly for days like Briggs.  Poor buddy did not feel well!

 After being cooped up together, I took all three kids to the mall to run one errand, which turned into several errands, which turned into lunch at the mall and several other things.  But this unprepared mama was not expecting The Great Diaper Blowout of 2015 while we were there.  I thankfully had diapers, but no wipes and not change of clothes, so we walked around in Northpark looking like this below! (Because she was unable to sit in the car seat/stroller because of said Blowout! Her rolls sure are cute though!  Lugging three hyper kids around and riding escalators together is not cute!  

After everyone became completely well, we left for Oklahoma.  We stopped to see the kids' great grandma Homa first, then stayed at Grammy's house.  Aunt JuJu came for dinner and gave the kids these silly faces notebooks.  Instead of using the stickers to make silly faces in the book, they decided to make their own faces silly!  Hehe!

 Aunt JuJu is fun!  She helped Piper pull a few pranks on me and she let them play games on her phone.  You're always a child's favorite if you allow games to be played on your phone!

 Grammy, JuJu, and Piper

 After Grammy's, we drove to Grandma Judy's & Papa Roger's house.  The highlights were sleeping and playing in a tent Papa bought them and set up in the living room and picking tomatoes, peppers, and squash out of Grandma's garden.  My kids are completely city-fied though because they were so squeamish around the plants and the bees.  I didn't like the bumble bees either!

 After Grandma's and Papa's, we drove to OKC and Piper had her eyes rechecked.  She needed glasses again.  I really think she needed them this past year as well but that's another story for another day!  She chose these red ones this time around.  After the eye appointment, we stayed with Aunt Sheryl and had fun swimming most of our short time there!

 Emerson really loved being at Aunt Sheryl's.  Really, she loved being at everyone's house.  She did not like Grammy's church nursery!  I was paged twice but the pager never worked so I was the lucky person called out in the middle of the sermon as all eyes watched me walk out of the sanctuary.  Fun, fun!

And, on the very last day of July, Piper was invited to spend the night at Nora's house!  But before they went to Nora's, the Wallace kids came to our house to play and eat dinner.  Here they are at the dinner table being silly!