Our week ~ June...well...more like whole the month of June!

The month of June was a whirlwind...a wonderful one, but hard to keep up with!

We managed to sneak in a day with Karen and her kids.  We enjoyed watching a professional juggler at our local library.

Karen was concerned that the baby might not sit still happily, but she was just as enthralled as the big kids were!

 David's favorite part of the act...standing on a ball and juggling machetes.  (The juggler did make the kids promise not to try it!)

We also went to a park for a picnic lunch and playtime.  The boys never held still, and Adel was pretty sure she could keep up!

My little mama soothing the baby for her nap. :)

Be still my heart...Hofmann hot dogs and coneys have come to our local grocery store!  It is wonderful to eat these hometown-favorite hot dogs again!

Look who's finally heavy enough to activate the safety switch on the mower!  It is now David's job to mow all of the flat areas of our yard.

We went on a camping trip with the Kichers and had a wonderful time.  We have declared it to be a new annual tradition.

Bruce has been teaching David how to play chess; they like to play while I finish getting supper ready.

We also had several appointments to go to during June...this is at the office of Abigail's orthopaedic doctor.  They have a lovely, giant aquarium with turtles and fish.  We're always a little disappointed when we get called back for our appointment. :)

Here is Abigail and her beloved physical therapist, Carol.  To the best of our recollection, Carol has been 'our' PT for 6 or 7 years now.  PT isn't an obligation for Abigail...it's happy time to spend with her friend!  We are so thankful for Carol and all she has invested in Abigail.

In between appointments, trips, and rain storms, we have squeezed in a few visits to the pool.  If you look closely, you can see that this visit was about to be cut short by the start of another rainstorm!

We next traveled to Florida to have an incredible visit with my parents, brothers and sisters-in-laws, and -- for the first time -- we had all five cousins together!

I did a terrible job taking pictures...one of my sisters-in-law was snapping them maniacally with her fancy camera, so I got lazy and let her take them all! :-/

Here is one of my brothers and the five cousins in "the tree" at Fort Matanzas.

Bruce took these from his happy place under the shady cabana.  The water was gorgeous, and even Abigail got brave and tried body-boarding!

I will have to revisit this trip once I get my copy of Krystle's pictures...my few just don't do it justice!

It was so wonderful to have all of us together, even for a few precious days...

then we headed home to get ready for our next trip.

This summer has NOT been boring!

Our week ~ April 1

Our week started off with a bang as Abigail decided to have her hair cut for Locks of Love.  We have never cut her hair -- only trimmed it an inch or two twice a year -- so this was a big decision!  She has been deliberating for months, but once her mind was made up, she could hardly wait to get it done, so we headed out Monday afternoon for her big event.

She donated ten inches!  For the first few days, she kept swinging her head back and forth and saying delightedly how "swing-y" her hair felt. :)  She looks beautiful!

Monday night we met RaDora for dinner.  It had been waaaay too long since we had seen her, so it was wonderful to spend some time together.  I was reminded why we love her so much...she is just a lovely person inside and out.

Our week ended under the black cloud of a stomach bug, so we did a lot of this...

...curling up under a blanket, naps, reading, and watching cartoons.  We are feeling all better now and back to our normal selves...and our normal diet, for which David especially is grateful.  He is convinced that the BRAT(Y) diet is a tool for starvation and torture!

I finally did something I have long meant to do...followed all of the instructions for forcing a potted amaryllis to go dormant and then bringing it "back to life" again.  It is blooming now -- a brilliant orange-red four-bloomer with a shimmery, sparkly sheen that I couldn't get to show up in a picture.  We are thoroughly enjoying its beauty.

This past Friday, I finished writing out my lessons plans for our LAST FOUR WEEKS of school -- I can NOT believe we are so close to the end of the school year!  We are all excited at the thought of summer vacation and so we are hitting our schoolwork with a new level of enthusiasm!

Abigail's milestone moment

This past weekend, Abigail got her ears pierced!  She was a champ during the piercing...and now she glances at every mirror she passes, dimpling prettily when she sees her sparkly earrings.  Where did my baby girl go and who is this lovely young lady?! :)  She is a beautiful girl inside and out and we were happy to share this special moment with her!

Once upon a time...

...there was a Magic Kingdom.  And four grown-ups who prefer quiet and uncrowded places gladly went to that Kingdom for the sake of two very special children.  And do you know what?!  Seeing the Kingdom through the eyes of those kids truly was magical!!!

Yes, my parents treated us to Disney's Magic Kingdom.  It was the first time the kids had gone and, as Abigail summed it up, "This really is magical!"  We got such delight out of watching the kids take in all of the "magic."  The weather was gorgeous, the lines were short, and we had a wonderful, memorable time together! 

 We met Mickey and the Princesses first thing in the morning.  Seeing Abigail with the Princesses was...well, magical!  Our usually-shy princess glowed and chatted and wasn't shy at all.

 

I love this shot of my parents and kids.  Bruce and I thoroughly enjoyed watching scenes like this all day.

Abigail had chosen the Dumbo ride as her first-of-the-day ride.

David chose the International Speedway.  He was so excited that I couldn't even get him to look away from the track so I could take a picture!

Look at these two -- they are standing exactly the same but mirror-imaged.  Do you think they're related?!

Bruce and I got to ride all by ourselves on the Pooh ride and then took this picture after we got off.  It is an amusing aspect of parenthood that the ride of choice pre-kids would be the Tunnel of Love but during young-parenthood stage, it's Winnie the Pooh! :)

My camera was on the wrong setting for this one, but I had to post it anyway.  Disney does magic and does it well, I must say...here Abigail was using her spending money to buy a necklace, and the cashier asked if she could sprinkle some of Tinkerbell's pixie dust on her.  The look on Abigail's face was priceless (and we are still washing sparkles out of her hair)!

We rode Prince Charming's Carousel a couple of times, but the night-time ride was my favorite.  It was so pretty with all of the lights.

 I love this picture of my parents!

Cinderella's castle was lovely, especially at night.

We popped in at Mickey's place one last time to see if Minnie was there for Abigail...and she was!  Look at that smile!

We were all a bit bedraggled by that time of night (what happened to my hair?  It looks like I swam in the castle moat!) but it was worth it.

We stayed for the Electrical Parade and for the fireworks.

 And then we went back to the resort and tumbled into bed...a perfect ending to a magical day!

Thank you again to my parents for the wonderful day and memories! 

~

(On a side note here for those of you who plan to go to Disney with your kids someday: in my opinion, our kids were at the perfect age to experience Magic Kingdom (at least for those of us who plan to go only once in a blue moon).  The kids were old enough to remember it and yet young enough for the magic to happen.  They were also old enough to understand the concept of marketing etc, and we discussed that at length prior to visiting.  We saw sooo many toddler/preschool age kids having meltdowns because they were tired and just wanted their beds and/or they couldn't understand why they couldn't have every toy they saw...and we were especially glad we had waited!)