We still have a few weeks of summer and I'm holding them tightly. I love summer. Even at the end of summer I still love it. Sure, I like cool nights and sweatshirts, but I'll take a perfectly warm day over the cold hands down, all the time. However, the rest of our hemisphere is ready for fall and the school buses that we are seeing on the road have declared it so. It's been a fast summer. It's been a lovely summer. These are the photos that have been building up (mostly from my phone).
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| Lots of walks. Or as Vanden says "Let's go on an venture." |
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| Kitties at sunset by the campfire |
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| Silly times with cousins. |
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| Rescuing toads from campfire ring. |
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| Breakfasts with my early riser. |
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| Imaginations running wild (here he is driving his boat). |
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| The kids were often begging to take pictures with my phone of the cats and most of the photos look like this. | |
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| Longwood Gardens. So beautiful. This time there was an organist champion playing the pipe organ. This organ as over 10,000 pipes! It was truly breathtaking. I was a bit choked up. Also, we got to see one of the cats. This cat is definitely a highlight of each visit. Always hanging out by the du Pont house. |
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| We have a membership this year and I've been trying to get the kids to understand that we do not have to try to see everything every time we come. But they insist on seeing the Eye of Water. This is always the last thing we get to and even though they (3 out of 4 anyway) are done they still want to hike to it. As you can see only one of my troopers is really interested in anything at this point. |
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| Rook games with friends. I WON! (possibly my first win ever) |
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| Rides to the river. |
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| "Sleeping" in the woods |
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| Alligator art |
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| Dress up at the library, and someone caught their first fish! |
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| Swinging, sunset and tractor play |
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| Family reunion, celebrating some 60yr old members. |
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| First day of school. Well, first day of consistent school. We knocked a few days off over the summer. |
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| Either I don't remember or this has been my clutsy-est summer ever. The list includes but is not limited to falling down the stairs, falling off the front porch, dropping a full glass 1/2 gallon of milk, dropping pizza off the pan (it landed top down of course), etc. |
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| But this guy helps me clean up. |
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| We had a appreciation bbq for our friends that helped out with our house (paid and unpaid). It was a progressive meal. Dinner was at Dave and Gina's with Dave's fabulous chicken and dessert was at our place. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it was an ice cream bar and it was adorable and delicious. Dennis made an awesome slip and slide and I will let the faces of the kids be the testament to its greatness. |
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| However this cutie was not impressed by me at all. He found me tolerable. |
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| Even though Dennis had to put the sides of the slide away, the kids still pulled out the plastic over the next few days and made the most of it. |
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| When the boys get a little restless at church we head to another room. Here Van is showing Beck how to make monkey faces. Notice Van's footwear. We are halfway to church and we hear from the back of the car "Hey! I can't wear my boots to church!" 1. It's hilarious to me that he would notice and care that he put the "wrong" shoes on for the occasion 2. We need to look more closely at our kids before they head out the door. 3. At least he was wearing pants. I call that a win. |
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| There was a day when they had done their regular work so fast that I said, "go for a walk, find some stuff, glue it and be creative." Homeschooling at its finest. |
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| Today was beautiful. They loved on their cats and had a picnic. |
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| There were also tears and frustration, hitting and yelling, whining and
complaining. Keepin' it real folks. And now they're in bed. Tomorrow
we'll do it again and be thankful for this gift of life and the living
of it. |
