Weekend Wrap Up

 Random weekend snaps...this little lady got her a new outfit from her Aunt Mary and can we just pause a moment at how grown up it makes her???  Sunday is really the only time I can get her to put on a dress and dress up.  She likes them in theory, but she likes her running clothes and shoes more...she wants to be comfortable.

 

 

 

Shortly, after we got home from Church we had a visitor show up.  The girls love when their BellBell comes for a visit and for some reason her iPad is so much cooler than ours.

 

This is a still shot of an amazing video...it is a Russion gibberish opera completely off the cuff.  It was amazing.  She is so quiet when she first meets people, but she is such a ham with those of us that she is comfortable with.  She literally had me rolling off the couch.

MY BROWNIES

Wayne made brownies....the girls got one each and then the pan looked like this....so it should come as no surprise they felt they needed to get a little creative to mark what they felt was theirs.

 

 

and for the record, I only got one total brownie out of the whole pan...so it wasn't me!!!

My chef's

At Camp Winshape during FAST FOOD, Hadley got to make a recipe each day.  At the end of camp, they sent her home with the recipe cards, so when she asked one night if we could make some of them, I was clearly out of my mind and said yes.  I'm not a kitchen person and the mess and stress of the kitchen can send me over the edge in about 2.5 seconds....but I worked really hard to just let it go and let them make a memory.

 

 

Pizza pockets out of biscuits...this one was pretty good!!!

 

This one was my contribution, stuffed mushrooms...the flavor was good but the consistency of the stuffing wasn't great.

 

Hadley's next contribution, crescent rolls with chocolate candy bars and peanut butter, drizzled with chocolate syrup and sugar.  Not gonna lie these were good, but they would have been better if I hadn't been so carbed up from the pizza pockets.

Paging Dr. Hadley Harper

We were doctoring eczema....I'm not sure why it required a glove...maybe she was pretending it was highly contagious??

 

Melting for you

Hads competed in another tennis tournament...she played hard against some good girls.  I love that she has found something that she enjoys.  You know what is HOT in the middle of July in HOT LANTA, the Tennis Courts!!!!!  As we were sitting there literally melting, I looked at Wayne and said, "you know we think this is hot, but imagine being in jeans, chaps, long sleeve shirt and a cowgirl hat...all day in this."  When I use to show and wore that it was really hot, I have clearly forgotten what it feels like to truly melt.

 

 

At one point while I was melting, I looked down at the red head snuggled up to me in the heat....HELLO doesn't she know it's hotter than the face of the sun and we can't be snuggling....and I see this.  How is a red head so much darker than me?  Clearly there is a good bit of that Asian blood in there...you know what's striking....a tan red head...a combination you don't see every day!!!

 

Hadley has her own jawbone and this was her activity from the Saturday of the tennis tournament....7.6 miles you go girl!!!!

 

LUNCH!!!!  These weren't as big a hit the second time around, the conclusion was they put too many chocolate chips on them.....is that a thing...too much chocolate?  Me thinks not....me thinks a little red head was just tired from the heat.

 

After completely melting, the girls felt a trip to Aunt Mary's pool was in order!!!  Hello coolness!!!

RUN baby RUN

We have a treadmill...and like most treadmills across this great nation...it was used alot when we got it and now it has become a gigantic dust collector..If you look closely, you can see the dust.  So on this night, when girlfriend asked if she could use the treadmill, we fired her up.  She needs to work on her stamina for tennis and she found a way to incorporate her love of technology too.

 

You are a blessing

I've been talking with Hadley alot lately about gratitude.  Being grateful for the everyday blessings of life...basic things like water and food, but also gratitude for the people in our life and how they bless us with their love and care.  I asked her to start keeping a journal, she doesn't write in it everyday and sometimes I have to remind her, but I want her to be more grateful for acts of encouragement and  peoples presence in her life than for  how many things she can have.  In the world today, we are so over stimulated with social media, activities and possessions, it is easy to lose sight of the gifts those around us posses.

 

A red head = LOVE

A lazy Sunday practicing our addition and subtraction...she loves school work on her own terms.  If I had asked her to do this, should would have wanted no part of it.  But she found the cards and wanted to do it, so she was all about it.  She stayed with it for the whole box too.  Bless this girl was so ready to go back to school, she loves to learn...I hope and pray that continues.

 

Slip in SLIDE

Who doesn't love slip in slide water fun.  They would have played all night if we would have let them. 

 

Weekend fun

We went to see the new Minion movie with a big group of friends...my girlies are thrilled.  I on the other hand didn't get it...little twinkies running around speaking gibberish...not only did I pay money to watch it times 3 but I paid money to watch it at the 3D price.  Twinkies in 3D I can't eat!!!!!

 

 

The next day we went to a pig pajama birthday party...seriously everything was adorable.  This was my favorite activity/picture.  So it was a Piggie plays in the mud relay race.  A member of each team runs down, puts their face in pudding and eats it all up.  This little lady had an extra push from her sister, who thought it was a prime opportunity to shove her sister's face in the pudding and get her really dirty..as you can tell, Els is less than thrilled.

 

It's your BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday dear PawPaw, Happy Birthday to you!!!  What did we do before facetime...seriously??!!!

 

A little QT

Friday was family day at Camp Winshape, so Els got in on the action.  Anytime there is a camp and there are "tracks" involved Hadley is gonna sign up for FAST FOOD...because as she says, "you get to eat" and girlfriend loves her some munchies.

 

 

I didn't get any pictures from Wacky Science, I think Wayne and I were both in awe of how the instructor functioned in the level of chaos she allowed in her room.  I think it was all Wayne could do to not take control of the classroom and bring order.  He kept saying, "I would die if my class acted like this."  Sadly it wasn't just the kids that were being rude, it was the parents too.

 

I did snap a picture of her in Musical Theatre, in her Lion King war paint.  They performed a scene and song and dance from the musical.  That smile right there, says it all...she loves to sing!!!!

 

After Family Fund day, we headed to Els final swimming lesson of the season, so she could show of the skills Ms. Darlene the Miracle Worker performed.  Seriously, she is a miracle worker, because prior to these lessons, it was a struggle to Wash Els face in the bath tub.  It was a real and genuine struggle that just wasn't happening.  The odd thing Ellison wasn't scared of the water, no irrational fears or emotions.  She just DID.NOT.want to do it, so it wasn't going to happen.

 

Ms. Darlene was so patient with her and she loves the water now...a little fish all over the place, off the diving board, everywhere!!!  So awesome.

WINNING a SHAPE

We love Camp Winshape, it is a local camp sponsered by Chick Fil A, where the kids get to do all sorts of fun activites.  This year Hads signed up for Fast Food, Wacky Science and Musical Theatre.  Her expressions in each of these photos cracks me up...she has reached the point where we are no pictures allowed.  Notice I prevailed and I have a picture from each day!!!!

 

MONDAY

 

 

TUESDAY

 

WEDNESDAY

 

THURSDAY - color day....RED TEAM

My firecrackers

It rained on the 4th of July...boo...so our plans got changed...Heck we didn't know if we would even get to see fireworks since our amazing local show got cancelled.  We decided to take the girls somewhere new for dinner, Marietta Fish Market.  Wayne had been before and loved it...my review...it was, "meh".  I'd go back, but it didn't impress me that much.

 

 

After dinner, we ended up at a local park, where some friends were going to send up some of their fireworks.  The crew anxiously awaiting the show.  Ellison's face though....LOL!!!

 

Okay, so truth be told I'm not a fan of fireworks....see they have the word FIRE in them and that kind of freaks me out.  So I try to be cautions with the girls, so they are aware, but not freak them out completely so they don't have irrational fears... clearly they are like their Mama, more than a little skeptical..

 

This may be on her senior year book page....witty caption anyone...

Sweet girls winding down for the night.

Honey I'm home

She always gets sad when her sister gets to go over to friends' house's, because 1.  She has no one to play with and she loves to talk to somebody and 2.  She wants to have play dates too!!!  It's hard though, because we aren't close with the families of alot of her classmates at school and this day in age, you don't just send your baby anywhere.  Then there are really only boys at our Church her age.  So we have been so thrilled to have sweet Caroline at our Church, who is just a year older than Ellison and part of a family we love bunches.  These two little ladies are precious little souls that have hearts of gold.  So I arranged a surprise play date for Els and Caroline, picked Caroline up, took her to the house where there was shrieking and mass hysteria and let them play for a bit.  After they played, I took them to dinner, Waffle House, their choice, chocolate chip pancakes.  Then to Walmart for a blind bar surprise...then to Jandy's for some FroYO....seriously Ellison could not have been happier to have gotten her play date.

 

Watch my dust

Watching Sissy play tennis can be kind of boring, so my future cross country runner has to let off some steam...even if it is uphill steam, she still goes full blast.