Friday's Favorite Pictures

Lots of changes...

are coming our way... today was the first of them! We had a celebration today as we said good bye to some of our friends.
This is a group shot of all of my school aged (or soon to be school agers). We have had a busy and fun summer. We have had our ups, downs, drama, "I'm not your friend this minute", laughing, singing, pretending, crying, learning times this summer. And, I would have not changed it for anything!

Today it was all about them. They were excited as they were welcomed with balloons, it was a perfect way to set the mood for our party!

After everyone was here, we started our special snack. We had a special cake (made by Jan Hogan) that had everyone's name on it. It made it very special. When cutting the cake, I had to try to get everyone their own name!

After we had cake (and cookies- Thanks A, everyone loved them), I had a special surprise waiting for them. We love music so much. We have been jamming this week to Kiz Bop 18. So, my kids got copies of that CD. I hope they remember when listening to it where it came from and think of the fun summer!

Yesterday and today the older kids have been working on memory pages. We had printed pictures from the summer and they each got to scrapbook their memories here. They all turned out very well. They were all very proud of the end result!

I hate last days, changes, and saying good bye. My job is very personal as I open my home and our family to each child that attends here. I understand when each child comes to my house there will be a day that they will leave. It still never gets any easier to let them go. My first set of kids are leaving today. Then I am letting go of more when school starts. Today is the first step of a lot of changes coming my way.

this is what happens when...

you loose the camera for a couple of days...

and then you find it in your daughters room!

another ocean themed day...

started out in a "crabby" mood... just kidding!
We just made fun, bright lil crabs...

more painting...

We even had octopus hot dogs with our lunch...

Here is our finished products... so cute!

Our ocean theme...

started out this week by making ocean bottles... we added sand, shells, and water.

The kids had a lot of fun adding the sand into the bottles. It was tough work since the sand was a little wet but they all did a great job!

More work on our ocean bottles...

Then we had some "Ocean cookies" for snack. We baked sugar cookies, made blue frosting, and decorated the cookies with fish.

It was a yummy treat...

Even the lil ones likes them...

Our finished project... a little piece of the ocean!

Friday's Favorite Pictures

random thoughts...

I am so excited... I got some fun scrapbooking supplies yesterday. Now, I just need to get going on the girls' books.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I was planning on going to an all day event to crop in August. Then I saw that there was a daycare training that was 6 hours as well on the same day. And, the training won out. I am a little, ok, a lot bummed I won't be cropping but I really like the series of trainings and know it will be a great addition to our lessons this fall.

I can not believe it has been almost a week since blogging.

Last night we had a blast at one of my lil' friends birthday party. She turned 5 and we hung out at Chuck E. Cheese for the evening and it was really a fun time for our family.

This was one of our catch up projects this week. I had purchased these kits for frog week and we never did them. So we did them Monday. This week we have been doing activities and projects from past themes that we didn't get to. It's been fun having different projects that have nothing in common.

I have 6 more (working) days with my school aged kids. We are having a huge back to school party for T, J, H, and F before they leave. It has been a non stop moving summer but I will miss having the older ones around.

I am looking forward to having a lighter load the first 2 weeks in August to get KK and Gaby ready for school schedules, get daycare ready for fall, and cleaning. The end of summer is so bittersweet this year.

Normally Mia has the biggest curls in her hair. I used my hot iron on her hair and it looked so cute and so long. I must say, I am not doing this again because it also made her look so old. I have to keep her and Kenni babies as long as I can!!!

We are signing on for yet another house project... this time it is getting hired out (hopefully). I am excited and nervous all at once. Our house is almost 40 years old we are trying to update it on a small budget. Project by project... one day at a time, right?

I was able to use my Gymboree buck this past weekend and stock up on some fall things for KK and Mia. I have an online cart of goodies waiting for Gaby as well. So, we really just need to get bags, shoes, and supplies.

Kenni is doing good... earlier this week I took her her out of the exersaucer and found this. It was on my arm, up her back, and reached up to her shoulders. Man oh man it was a mess. I cleaned her up, threw her in the tub and got her back to my nice clean baby again!

We go for her 6 mo. appointment next week. I am so anxious to see her growth progress. She looks so much longer and cheeks are chunkier. We have started giving her cereal as well. She does pretty well with it and like licking the spoon.

She has one tooth already in and two more poking through. She doesn't act like she is teething but you can see (and feel) that they are coming in.

We are starting to get her on bottles. Kadyn was so excited to get to feed her. I am just not keeping up with her growing needs and I have several all day trainings and events coming up that would be harder to plan for if still nursing. She'll start baby food soon and I still have 1-2 months worth of breast milk stored up for her. So, I think it is a great time to make the move. Plus, the girls LOVE getting to feed her.

We have one last baseball game and then we are finished, our season was supposed to be done back around July 4th. Our rain out game on Tuesday was rained out so we'll have that to make up.
We start swimming lessons this next week. The girls are all kinds of excited and it is Mia's first year in a parent tot class. She has no fear and is used to swimming in our pool by herself. So, I have a little worry we'll be fighting her to stay with us in the class... we'll see!

Dustin and I are up to the same ol' same ol. He is super busy at work and working a litter later the normal. They get so much done when teachers and staff are out of the schools for the summer. He loves getting to wear shorts and tees to work. I love it too b/c it cuts down on the laundry. Like I said, I am gearing up for fall, new lessons, new curriculum components, new kids, new round of learning. I will have a younger group this year so we are going back to basics and I am looking forward to it.

I am growing my hair out which means a lot of hat wearing for me. I hate weird awkward hair times.

We have been doing a lot of playing outside. This is what the tub looked like after Gaby got out.

I guess that is a lot of rambling going on... kids will be here any moment! Promise to keep up on the blog a little better this coming week!

Today we took a break from our theme...
and had a morning of beauty!

Our friend, J came over with her supplies and gave all of our toes a make over!

Everyone got to pick what color they wanted...

And, what design they had in mind as well... KK got pretty flowers.

Even I was pampered as well. I choose my favorite thing, dots!

Thanks J for making our toes pretty for the hot flip flop wearin' whether!
Next up... Cowboy week! Let's go ridin' the range!

our day off...

was spent in KC at the newly opened (as of last summer) Schlitterbahn water park. We have never been and the older kids were excited to try it out! We took off Wednesday so my awesome Mother in Law could watch Mia and Kenni (however I think we might go back and take them too). They had a fun gate to enter through and a fake sand castle as Gaby pointed out!

Gaby, Dustin, and Kadyn by the water slides. All of us went down all three. It was a blast!
Gaby and Kadyn had no fear...

Some of the kids parts... warmer water and play slides for younger ones.

Gaby swimming around...

Goofing off- you can see the park attractions in the background.

They had this cool feature that was a lazy river plus a wave pool in one. These floats were awesome (and free) because they had mesh on one side so younger kids could use them and not have to hold their own weight. I loved this pool, it was my favorite for sure!

Gaby was in the pool with the bar in it. She swam over there so she could sit at the bar. She thought it was so cool to have it in the water!

Dustin and our red lobster... we had sunscreen on her non stop. With it being 98 outside, we just couldn't keep her from not burning!

The cool pirate ship that K and G liked. This was a part of the adult pool so you could sit and drink at the bar while watching your children swim... hmmm. Not so sure about that one!

Ready to go to the wave thing again...

Kadyn's favorite was the water roller coaster... it was pretty cool. It started out up high and open then went pitch black tunnels then it spits you out!

If you never been, give it a try. They have online ticket deals, cheaper then Oceans of Fun, and shorter drive (if coming from Topeka). It was a great day off!

water day...

we had the slip and slide for the bigger kids...

baby pool out for the little kids...

sometimes the lil ones tried the slide... Mia is saying, "All Wet".

Even Kenni enjoyed water play today!