August

What a month it’s been! We have been on the go almost constantly this month … and we didn’t even go anywhere! Just thought I’d highlight a few of the really fun moments we’ve had this month ….

Beach Night – we went to one of our fave beaches in Rhode Island one night, it’s nice because they have BIG waves there and that night was no exception. The surf report said 1-2 ft waves but I swear we saw some as big as 6-7 feet! We went with another couple and their kids and got there just after 4pm so we wouldn’t have to pay the $20 admission. We brought grinders for dinner and had a BLAST! The kids pretty much surfed the waves for 4 hours straight, the Moms and Dads did a little wave riding but after getting a bunch of salt water up our noses we called it quits and just enjoyed the beach. We saw THE MOST glorious sunset on the beach that night and went home tired, sandy, salty and super happy. It will be remembered as one of my fave nights of the whole summer!

VBS - We had a week of VBS at our church. I helped with crafts and both girls had a wonderful week. I think there were about 24 kids who came to know Christ which is awesome!

The Olympics – one of my fave memories this summer will also be coming home each evening and watching the Olympics with my family. We stayed up WAY too late pretty much every single night but had a great time watching the events and cheering for the athletes we loved. We also ended up doing LOTS of races against each other in the pool! Nothing like the Olympics to inspire a little friendly competition!

Friend time – we have spent lots of days playing with friends. We’ve been to the beach together, spent lots of days swimming, had BBQ’s and campfires and lots of laughs!

Meteor Shower – the night of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics I read on FB that there was supposed to be a Meteor shower … we headed out back to our deck to see if we could see anything and were SUPER surprised. We ended up bringing out a blanket and laying together on the pool deck and watched the sky for HOURS. We stayed up till around 1am and saw SO many Meteors! It was such a neat experience and will be another one of my fave summer memories from this year.

Hope’s Birthday Party – Her bday isn’t until September, but she wanted to have a party before school started and while it was still summer time. So we had NINE girls here for an overnight party! They started the night with swimming and Sno Cones {we borrowed a friend’s sno cone machine} … then we played some games, had pizza and soda and swam some more. They did Cannonball contests and chicken fights in the pool. We did presents and cake with ice cream. She wanted a ‘One Direction’ theme so we made a British flag cake. She helped me with the decorating of it and it came out great!

Later in the evening they did a night swim with lights on the deck and glow sticks in the pool. Around 10pm they all came in and dried off and settled in for a movie. We set them up downstairs in our finished basement and they watched ‘Mirror Mirror’. They had popcorn and waters and when the movie was over around midnight THEY GOT THEIR SECOND WIND! I think they stayed up till around 3am!

The next morning I had to wake them up! I made pancakes and served fresh strawberries for breakfast before they all started getting picked up. All in all it was a GREAT night and they had SO much fun. What a great group of girls … they all got along so well and are such sweet girls!

Rita’s – one of our fave ‘treats’ this summer was Rita’s … they have delicious Italian Ice in the neatest flavors like Swedish Fish and Mango … and their Custard is SO rich and creamy. My fave thing to get there is called ‘Gelati’ and it’s a combo of both custard and Italian ice …. sooooooo good! I will miss going here when summer is over!

Soccer – it’s soccer season again! Hope started with her first practice this past week and we are excited, we LOVE soccer season!

Hair cuts – all 3 of us girls got hair cuts in the past couple weeks. Not sure why I didn’t get pics of the girls though! Hope just got a little taken off, Joy got it cut to about chin length and I got mine CHOPPED and highlighted a little. I haven’t done anything to my hair since January and it was QUITE nasty so it feels SO good to have some style again!

Dinner with our neighbors – we are the world’s WORST neighbors. We had new neighbors move in about a year and a half ago and we just now had them over for dinner. They came over Friday night and we had such a nice time getting to know them! They are quite a bit younger than us and have a little baby girl who’s 8 mos old. But we actually had several things in common with them and had a great time seeing how cute their little baby was! I hope to develop a good friendship with them over the years.

Date Night – the girls went to a bday party last night so hubby and I went on a date. It’s been a long time since we did anything without kids so it was nice. We got the chance to talk over some of our plans for the fall and had a really yummy dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.

And that’s about all for now … we have ONE last full week until school starts so we are planning to RELAX and keep things simple this week. The girls already have everything they need for school so we don't have to do any running around. I hope to use the pool and soak up some sun and just wind down. We will also be getting back on a better bedtime/ morning time schedule starting this week. So, I’m off for now … I’m sure I’ll be checking in with ‘first day of school’ stuff soon!