I know these are so out of order . . .

I used to be concerned about timeliness when it came to blogging, but . . . well, we got a puppy. These are in no particular date order, but at least I'm getting them posted, right? Less verbage than before, but we're late for a pool party, so enjoy the pictures! Each is worth 1,000 words (at least!)

Cabbage Patch is such a doll~! Love those chubby cheeks . . . and he's wearing an outfit both my boys wore as babies. Awww! Love it, love HIM! :)

Time to open presents, oh, by the way, these are pics of my brother's birthday! :)

 G looks alarmed, "It's just cake buddy, everything is okay." :)

 Nice smile from Uncle L

 Wow, that's a lot of kids in the hot tub with the leak . . . they kept the hose running into it so there was water to splash in . . . it was SOOOO cold, I don't know how they could stand it!

 Brother Bob and his sweetie girl!

 A . . . a.k.a. SUPERMAN!! He worked with me to get this pic :)

Puppy Love

A few pics with our very, VERY patient puppy :)

If three's a crowd . . . how about 8 kids, 2 growns, and a puppy? We added the desks to the puppy's room so the girls & Brennen could do school work this fall and hang out with Chauncey (thanks Rebecca)! Yesterday, Chauncey enjoyed the company from my sis & her fam, and my mom & brothers. Thanks for stopping by!

They Built-a-Bear and now they Built-a-Boat

Girl Scout Troop Leader Annie saw a cardboard boat race advertised at our local aquatic center. She rallied up the troops and had a pizza party/build-a-boat event at her house. The girls (and a handful of boys) had fun duct-taping cardboard like crazy, into the shape of a boat. We ended up with two boats and then drew names to see who would ride. Caelan picked boat #1 with Della. Gabby was happy to cheerlead, until another little girl's dad built a boat on his own time and then she picked Gabby to ride along with her. We realized once we got the girls in the boats on the water that a few instructional moments in paddling a boat "how-to" would have come in handy . . . :)

Launch! Gpa B will be so proud!

His granddaughters are sailing in "duck" tape boats! :)

Gabby's team needed a little help from the friendly lifeguard :) 

 Caelan & Della made it across the pool, but got caught by the slides on the way back :)

 The girls received some intense coaching from Troop Leader Annie before the second leg of the race :)

 Graysen kept begging, "Mom, can I get in the pool?"

 This boat made it through 4 races! The last two were parent/child races. Here is Della and her dad (he's blocking his head from the oar in the first one, ha!)

Love Della's grin!

Dance/Slumber Party

C & G invited their twin friends D & D over for a sleepover, first ever. It went really well. The girls planned out a list of activities and let their friends draw from a hat. They made jewelery, played dress up, played outside, made art projects, played London Bridges while Caelan played London Bridges on her violin . . . all kid-directed, loved it!

Before (what I thought was going to be) bedtime, I made the kids kettle corn and they watched a Backyardigans DVD. Well, that turned into a dance party in our little living room. So fun! The boys have some crazy moves, let me tell you, ha! Then it was dark enough that they could turn on the little planetarium star dome dealy they found in a cupboard in the classroom. They spun it around disco style and had another dance party in their room.

Next thing you know, the fireflies come out. Well, when there are fireflies and 6 kids still awake at 9 PM--why not go try to catch some? So, out we went. Said hi to our neighbor who was painting his garage in the dark from our car port, and that's when I heard echo across the dusk-lit lawn . . . "This is the BEST sleepover EVER!" Whoohoo! Our first, and already the best ever!

I think it was 11 before the girls finally settled down and went to sleep. They were having trouble deciding who was going to sleep with who in which of the beds. When I went in to check on them (after whispers and giggles subsided), I found they'd come up with a solution to their dilema . . . scrap the beds and all sleep on the floor inbetween them :)

 

Sleep of course didn't last long . . . a thunderstorm rolled in around 4 AM, and when the girls woke, they just decided to stay awake. Buck and I found this note outside our door . . .

Breakfast and a few hours later, we bid our guests farewell and loaded into the van for swim lessons. Fun, sleep-deprived day :)!

Oooops, missed one! :)

Another puzzle DONE!

Swim Lessons

Super fun time splashing in the pool this summer! With weather and scheduling changes, our lessons ended up spanning almost all of July (and there were only 5 :) Swim coach Josh did a great job, my favorite . . . teaching Graysen the monkey face where he has to hold his breath to go under water. Ha! Too cute! By the end, both girls were swimming under water (hence Caelan's thumbs up pic) and Graysen even on the last day went down the big slides! Brennen caught a live frog in the water (the other got away) and I just won't mention what we spotted floating in the water after one big storm . . . ewww. Glad Josh had a net.

Goofy Dog

I won't always flood the blog with updates on the dog, but we are new to this pet thing, and find the dog both exhausting (crying at night) and hilarious! He has no coordination, randomly runs into things, is afraid of the pug half his size which belongs to our neighbor; he sleeps on his back with his feet propped up, and now that he's finally got the hang of staying in the laundry room . . . even when I walk away for several minutes and make interesting sounds . . . when I come back, he knows he's done a good job, so he's laying on his back, eyes open, waiting for me to rub his belly! What a funny creature :)

It's also fun to have friends stopping by all day long to meet Chauncey. Our kids are so excited that I can hardly get a word in edgewise. Gab especially, that little girl can live up to her name :)

Here are a couple more kid-dog bonding moments :)

Pet Project

In order to make an attempt at turning our white-walled, cinder-blocked, antique basement space into something semi-friendly and pleasant to spend time in with the puppy officially named "Chauncey Dodge," the kids and I grabbed some non-toxic kid paints and went to work!

They started by sketching out their ideas in chalk--some ideas were just get something on the wall so mom will let us paint . . . others were very detailed, but all were full of color, which is what I was hoping for.

Chauncey watched quietly as we worked our wonder on his room. After awhile he decided to explore the paint drops on the concrete, and required a bath after our project reached completion . . . he was one colorful pup! :)