Project 365: Week 28 "the fourth, family, friends, & frying"

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Today we went "back home" to visit MY side of the family. And I totally stinkin' forgot to take a picture today. SO. I'm going to share a picture from LAST Sunday that I just found on Paul's phone. It was taken unbeknownst to me by my eldest son. He's always playing around with our phones. In this case, I was glad he did, because I had completely forgotten to commemorate the occasion with a picture.

This is my former kindergarten student eating lunch with us after church. He was in town visiting family and ended up going to church with us! (He just finished his freshman year in college, by the way. Yeah. I'm that old.)

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence Day

The day started with Mimi and Da making pancakes for the grandkids. Those who were boarding anyway.

And later Aunt Erin brought some lentil soup for lunch.

See, my niece is enamored with The Barefoot Contessa and has been wanting her mommy to make this lentil soup for quite some time. She's really into cooking lately. In fact, when they were at our house a while back, she saw me chopping carrots and wanted to help. Which. I. LOVED. (Thanks, Aunt Erin, for capturing the moment!)

This girl is one-of-a-kind.

I made Blueberry Crumb Cake courtesy of Pioneer Woman for the occasion. And it was scrumptious, if I do say so myself. 

You know how I'm always talking about how hard it is to try to get a good picture with all four kids wiggling around? Well, my parents have eight grandchildren, and it's cray-zay trying to get all eight in a picture! But we gave it our best shot.

Gabriel decided to start hamming it up a bit.

This one's funny. Cubbie looks like he's posing with a great big grin!

I guess they're all pretty cute.

The kids had a good time together. Swinging.

Eating homemade ice cream.

And being patriotic.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Today the kids got to do a little swimmin' with their cousins before we headed back to Little Rock.

Atticus spent time with Gracie.

And just a warning for the rest of this post, I accidentally ended up leaving my good camera at my parents' house for the week! (Ugh.)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

It was Gabriel's turn to spend some one-on-one time with Mimi and Da this week. So he stayed behind. And today they took him to the mall to ride the same two-story carousel Saylor got to ride when it was her turn.

They did a little shopping and had lunch.

And he got to see Cars 2. A pretty fun day for a little fella.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Today was movie day, it seems. I took the three remaining kiddos to a free showing of "How to Train Your Dragon." We've seen it before, but it's nice to see things on the big screen when you can. Especially when it's free!

This picture made me laugh. He's thinking up something good.

THEN when Paul got off work, we took them to see "Cars 2." 'Cause Gabe had already seen it, and that just wasn't fair!  ;)

Atticus was especially excited to see the short "Toy Story" film at the beginning of the movie.

'Cause they ARE his favorite "people" in the whole wide world.

Welp. We thought it was fantastic!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Tonight Noah came flying in, screaming about how we just HAD to come see the clouds--he'd "never SEEN such a huge, amazing cloud before!" So I tried to get a semi-decent picture with my point-and-shoot. (Boy, I sure do miss my good camera.) It really was a pretty cloud, but who knew a cloud would get a nine-year-old boy so excited?! Love that kid. Makes me think about what he used to say when he was two and all obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. He'd look outside and say, "It's a glorious day!"

Saturday, July 9, 2011

I spent all day in a pool with a bunch of the ladies from my church today. And I didn't take one picture. Just relaxed. And got good and crispy. (Seriously, ouch.) When I got ready to head on home, I saw a text from Paul saying we'd be showing our house at 7:00. Oh, my. That left three frantic hours to prepare. But we managed to pull it off. And then I spent the rest of the evening on my bed, slathered in aloe vera or soaking in raw milk. One thing I learned, salt water in a pool, while better than chemicals, intensifies the sun's rays on your frighteningly-white legs. I found that out for you. You're welcome.

The good news is that my Gabriel is back home. And his little face is good medicine.

So I'm back to being my good ol' late self. All is right with the world again, Sara.  :)