August 2017, Part 1

Our first full day home from all our summer travel was August 1! The McDonnells moved out of our house while we were in Idaho, but Aunt Sang left some sweet gifts for the kids... and what did I wake up to Tuesday morning? Yes, two boys in their new Captain Underpants undies (on their bodies and heads!) running around playing 'Captain Underpants'! Hilarious!!! 

 First on our list was trying to finish the boys summer work books. Today we are focused on the science experiments, and no one wanted to change before diving in!

 Freezing different colored ice cubes to determine freezing and then melting points under different conditions... these boys (especially LJ so far) LOVE their science!

 Quick photo shoot to get a picture for Evan's birthday invitation. We have a very serious Power Ranger here!

 There's my boy!

 LJ wants in...

 The faces are killing me!

 Another trip to the Austin Aquarium! Just a few more weeks on our membership... this day some friends from LJ's school met us!

 Chatting bird!

 Feeding birds... well attempting to, but no one was hungry!

  

 Girls night out to celebrate Rubi's birthday...Grateful to have these sweet girls in my life!

  

 Shopping with a beautiful mermaid!

 She wouldn't let me get a good picture, but she looked so cute! Eve's hand-me-downs, which were SO PRECIOUS and so many, have finally caught Ellie's eye! She goes from one outfit/ princess dress to another, and I just love seeing what she wears! (Even if she changes 3 times a day and makes lots of laundry for me!)

Final book club of the summer- hosted at our house! The book the boys picked was The Day the Crayons Quit.

We thought it was super cute, and we had a few fun activities for the kids to do.

 Kids got to draw a picture with a crayon / color that wouldn't normally be used to draw that item... loved their creative ideas! LJ drew a green man with green hair (giving the poor peach crayon a break!).

 And for an extra little treat, we had a quick celebration for the three August birthday kiddos! They had a cake, blew out candles, and got balloons!

  Cuties blowing out the candles...

   

 Good-bye hugs for our friends!

  

After about 30 minutes at LJ's first (VERY HOT) flag football practice, and after Ellie accidently stood in an ant pile and got so many bites (it was awful!!!), some of the moms and I decided to take the little siblings and go back to our house to play inside while the practice finished! Great idea! So we packed into the minivan and went home! 

 Of course, it turned into a fun summer night of playing too late and all kinds of fun!

Ellie was loving Keller!  

Gym time with my little partners!  

 An attempted run with this pretty dog, and she protested in the heat!! Apparently the Skye is not the limit- a hot summer morning is just about enough!

 A summer of travel, friends, and chaos, followed by 3 playdates and not making the kids pick up left our play room looking like this! Holy. Cow!!! 

 One Saturday to myself while Barrett took the kids out for most of the day, and I had it back to this! I had every bin emptied, reorganized, relabeled, and put away! I can breath!!

 And then Barrett and I celebrated by joining our friends at the Neighborhood Annual Bash- an 80s Prom theme!! Too fun!!!

 Prom pose!  

 Dancing- my favorite!

 My handsome date!

 Oh, the Saturday with their dad included the kids going to the pet store to pick out their new fish!! The tank and water were finally ready! They each got one Glo fish: LJ got green and named it Flashy; Evan got blue and named it Batty; and Ellie got red and named it Princess. I think these are all perfect and fitting names! Our tank has a black light we can do do show off the cool fish colors, and they are so cute!  

  

Sunday morning we skipped church to attend a great event called Stuffing of the Backpacks. Each of my kids picked out one new backpack to donate at the event, and we got bulk of school supplies. Then all kids there stuffed backpacks with several school supply items so that underprivileged children would be given a brand new backpack and supplies. I loved this event - hope the kids got something out of it! If not, hopefully next year!

And then we got to play at the community center pool with our friends for a while! Fun reward for our donation!  

  

  

    

 Sunday night, some friends of ours had to leave town suddenly so we got to hang with their precious children (only the youngest 3 of the 4) for 24 hours. LJ and Landon are in school together, Evan and Gracie are the same age and play sports together, and their older sister Abby goes to LJ's school too.

 Reading before bedtime...

 Breakfast with the clan!

 My plan to get everyone out of the house early in the morning didn't work out as it started pouring rain in the middle of the night! Boo!!! So after a couple hours of morning crafts and experiments, we headed to Catch Air to get all our wiggles out!

 Thank goodness for the minivan!

 Rex and Rendin met us for some extra Catch Air fun!

  

 Quiet and empty house... so more crafts ....

We are watching Daniel Tiger in an attempt to get Ellie motivated to potty train! But really, this moment just cracked me up! Skye thinks she owns this bed now, and Ellie's face is so serious!

Ice cream date with these two cuties while Barrett and LJ fish!

 Yummy!

  

  

 HEB is more fun with my monkeys!

 LJ heard Gigi was coming to town, so he ran into her room as soon as he woke up!

 They weren't convinced, so they even looked in the bathroom and closet!

 Oh Ellie!!! Thank you for always making me laugh and keeping me on my toes! 

 Same friends ended up having to leave town for the entire week with their kids, so we just watched they cute dog. The introduction with Skye went very well!

 And then I realized what a huge water dog he was! What a mess!!!

 He loved Gigi the most!!!

 This went ok... not the greatest but we got through!

 Shoe shopping with our Gigi!!!

 Thank you SO Much Gigi!!! All the kids LOVE their new kicks!!! So cute- and now we are ready for school!

 Lunch with the McDonnells... Gigi and the clan!

 Poor Josie- Ellie has quite a grip!!

Gigi teaching Ellie how to do her hair and be beautiful!! Thankful!!

Quick visit to see Uncle Joe! Yay!

My cousin Cindy found this picture to give to Joe of him as a one year old with my parents... 

And then we noticed she is wearing the exact same earrings in the photo as she has on today!! 

Target run to pick out a gift with the $20 Grandma sent each kid!! 

We love costumes... even when they are creepy!! 

Shocker- Boys picked Legos! 

And so did Ellie! 

And there went the next many many hours at our house... Yay for Legos! 

Hat shopping! 

Donating school supplies to schools during 'Stuff the Bus'... my kids helped picked items off the 'most needed' list, and then we got to drop it in the basket!  

August is flying by!