Summertime shenanigans

We are into the second week of summer and I love being schedule-less.

Ebeth's last day of school complete with science fair and award ceremony.

The girls started their summer with their dance recital. Uh, it was so busy and kind of crazy that I really only got a couple of pictures of them, which stinks because Ebeth was in 3 different dances and I only got a picture of her in one of her costumes. I'm still pretty grumpy that I didn't have it more together in the camera department. This is the only one I have of them together:

 A small portion of the chaos that was Recital Weekend, is that the high school we always have the recital at had to change their graduation date and time, which then led to our dance school needing to adjust recital. So, instead of have recital in 6 hour and a half shows all day Saturday, they had to split the shows between Friday night and half of Saturday. Ebeth had one recital at 8pm on Friday and then she had her other two dances during one Saturday show and Julia had her dance in the show right after Ebeth's.

All of that was nothing compared to this kid:

 Who was hell on wheels the whole weekend. She insisted on wearing her own costume (which she adorably calls her "dance class"). She could not sit still for 1.5 hours (not that I thought a two year old should) but she wasn't content with just running around in the area outside of the theater. She wanted to bounce in and out of the theater, walk up and down all the stairs, go up on stage and dance, too (Which??? SHE ALMOST DID!!! She totally tricked me into thinking she was heading for the exit in the theater and did a complete turn around and got the to wing of the stage before I could grab her and drag her screaming from the theater. I then took her to the car, strapped her into the car seat, offered her a drink, and drove around until she passed out and took a nap. Holy crap, people, that kid is crazy.)

Now, we are living the life of summer. Days spent inside reading, puzzling, play-dohing, and playing somewhat nicely with each other. We've also been spending time outside in the shade with neighbors, too.

We've even made a trip to the splash pad on base. I always forget to take advantage of this place. The younger two love it! Ebeth usually brings a book, which I would too if I wasn't in charge of supervising my offspring.

She held onto this beach ball like a lifeline for a really long time.

 

This is her face of pure glee that she successfully swiped her best friend Mac's truck from him. This picture is a very good caption of their relationship. It's true love wrapped up in a bunch of mischief.

What I was trying to capture was her drinking the water like a dog. Cause she did. It was super gross.

 Right next to the splash pad is a great park to play on. We usually play there until we're totally dry and cranky and ready to head home.

Sliding is hard in a swimsuit.

I love this picture! This is her thinking face she makes. She taps her little finger on her chin a few times with that squinty eyed look of ornery. This face cracks me up!

Julia is a great friend. Mac was scared to cross this little bridge area and Julia yelled out, "I'll help him!" She rushed over every time he wanted to cross. It was very sweet.

 It's been a fun summer so far.

May Book Log

I was much more productive reading in May! Seven books this month and so close to finishing an eighth!

Here's my May list:

Mission at Nuremberg by Tim Townsend
I borrowed this book from my neighbor. It's about her great-grandfather, Henry Gerecke, the US Army chaplain for the Nuremberg trials. This book was so well written. I knew a little bit about the trials prior to reading this book, but getting information about the behind the scenes from the chaplains who ministered to the Nazis brought a whole new depth to the subject matter. Gerecke was an amazing man and I really enjoyed reading about his life and major role in WWII. Definitely a book I have been recommending to others and would love to have for my personal library.

Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler
I bought this book because I have been Fulwiler's blog Conversion Diary since beginning my own faith journey to Catholicism in July of last year (from the archives in order from 2007 to her current posts) (I'm in 2012 now!). Honest, smart, funny, I love her writing and was so excited to see that what I love about her blog writing translated so well into her book writing. I have always felt that Fulwiler's questions, stumbling blocks, and realizations in her faith journey really mirrored my own. Her book hit home for me and I found myself crying at how she captured my feelings in words in a way I have not been able to on my own yet.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
This book has been on my radar for a while due to Elisabeth begging me to read it to see if she can yet or not. Man, this book was so good. Green's style was easy to read, easy to get lost in. His voice for Hazel, through whose point of view the book is told, is honest and sincere. I had a big ol' crush on Augustus Waters from the get-go. The book had me ugly crying a few times. This book is a keeper.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
After the lovely Sarah at Harry Times gave such rave reviews for this book, I hurried to find it for myself. I could not put this book down. To describe it will make it sound contrite and I promise you it is anything but! I enjoyed the off balance time line, which was actually done properly and not in a confusing manner as happens with some authors. I really loved Rosemary's voice--I felt like i really knew her. Definitely a book I recommend and will be keeping to re-read some day.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
I had a hard time reading this book while pregnant with Vivian over 2 years ago because, as with all my pregnancies, I couldn't concentrate on this or any book. However, even not pregnant, I really struggled not giving up on this book for the first 80+ pages. The points of view were sloppy and overstepped each other. I didn't know who I was supposed to be connecting with because they were all such flat characters. By around page 100, I started enjoying the book and was committed to finishing it. I liked Robbie's perspective and couldn't put it down when he was the voice narrating. The very end was disappointing and unnecessary. Three out of five stars if I had to rate it that way.

Tobit's Dog by Michael Nicholas Richard
I gave a full review of this book over at my other blog Mea Cuppa, but will summarize by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Also, it was the first book I finished on my Kindle! (I just can not get into reading on my Kindle)

The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones
I adored this  book!!! I also gave an extensive book review at Mea Cuppa on this book, too, but oh my goodness, I just big puffy heart loved it so much. The book was so inspiring and motivating to continue the journey of learning and improving and expanding one's cooking skills.

I have a nice pile of books to read this month! I'm hoping to get a lot in with it being summer and sitting outside while the children frolic until the sun starts melting us into puddles and we have to rush inside to relish the joy that is air conditioning.

7 Quick Takes Friday

Woohoo! It's Friday! 7 Quick Takes Friday!

1)

One of the big reasons I am so excited about it being Friday is that Evan comes home today! He's been gone to Washington, DC for a work trip and the day he actually comes home from trips is always the most exciting and the longest! The girls are really pumped to see him and for their own unique reasons--Elisabeth because it is Dr. Who date night and she's glad he'll be home so we call all watch it together, Julia because he is her favoritest person so she misses him something awful, and Vivian because she thinks he's been stuck on an airplane for 5 days so she's just glad he gets to get off the airplane finally.

2)

What do you think this flower is besides weird and fascinating? It was growing by the Quadrangle on Ft Sam and I just don't think I've ever seen it before.

3)

The weather has been SO LOVELY for Texas weather. Days in the high 80s, cool breezes, partly cloudy days that block the sun. We've actually been enjoying time outside more than normal. Well, except for Vivian. I think she is adverse to heat because she refuses to go out when it is super bright and sunny and seems to melt into a puddle of anger/tears/despair if outside too long. She may get that from me...

4)

Dude, you guys, last weekend there was almost a coffee emergency in that there wasn't enough for a full pot on Sunday!!! So, Saturday night I ran out to buy some and missed getting to the Commissary before it closed by 5 minutes which is just absolutely annoying. So, I went over to the PX (which is military speak for "the store that sells non-grocery items which is not at all connected to the grocery selling store, the Commissary, so you will have to drive to the one after having gone to the other if you need pens along with milk, eggs, and butter) and they had two coffees to choose from. It was already after 8pm, the next nearest store would have been at least another 20 minutes before I would be back home, so I chose the Dunkin Donuts brand of coffee. Wrong choice. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I had never bought that brand before ever, so had no idea that is was so sub par to our beloved Caribou or Trader Joe's brands (which have surpassed our old love affair with Starbucks). So, yeah, we won't be buying that ever again.

5)

Ooh, another Quadrangle new find from our last visit--we got to see baby peacocks!!! I am actually unsure what baby peacocks are called, but I will assume chicks. Anyway, there are so many peacocks that roam the Quadrangle and are very aggressively friendly (especially if you have brought any sort of food, even carrots!) but I'd never seen their chicks until last week! Here is one of the peacocks:

 And here is a peahen with their babies!!!! How cute are they?! And look, you can see their feather coloring already resembles their parents' patterns.

I'm sorry the picture quality stinks in that last one, but there was a goose patrolling the fenced pens that this peahen and a duck with her ducklings were living in with their babies. We got close and the goose came over and honked and then hissed at us in its creepy goose way. The girls got to learn about how hissing is a way for geese to warn you that they are angry and will bite you if you keep doing whatever you are doing to make them angry. I have no idea why he felt he needed to guard the ducklings and peacock chicks, but he did and he was all business, pacing back and forth the length of the pen, stopping to stare at us cockeyed to let us know he meant business. It was kind of funny in a "geese are quite frightening" kind of way.

6)

I'm really excited to share all the books I've been reading this month with you all. I will probably also share my reading log over at the new blog I share with my lovely friend Kara, Mea Cuppa. Sharing books is my favorite and I need to share it with all the people everywhere. 

7)

So, we have a Twitter and Instagram account going for Mea Cuppa which is super fun. I've been running them for about a week now and with Instagram I am gold because I already have had a personal account there for a while, but I have never ever ever ever ever ever had a Twitter account before. Talk about feeling out of your element. I definitely get the posting part and the challenge of only have 140 characters for a post. I've got the hang of retweeting. But responding? Uh...  I'm also not sure how the hashtags work with Twitter, but I use them anyway. Yeah...thank you for not mocking me too much, or at least not doing so out loud.

Have a great day, everyone!!!!

Elisabeth's First Communion

The Saturday before Mother's Day, Elisabeth had her First Holy Communion ceremony. Usually, children take their First Communion classes in 2nd grade, so Elisabeth was a few years older than most of the other kids. Being Elisabeth, though, she made the most of it and was sweet and kind to her younger classmates. She was relieved though when two other girls attended and were around her age as well.

The ceremony was beautiful. All these boys and girls, dressed in the finest, excited to partake in a sacrament they've all grown up watching their families partake in weekly. The front part of the church was packed to the gills with family members and friends trying their best to be as close to the participants as possible.

It's blurry, but I really love this picture:

I got there early enough to get a seat on the end of the pew so I got to sneak some pictures of her going forward to see Fr. Eddy.

Her dress was a Costco find, but, unbeknownst to me, most stores like Target and Kohls sell First Communion dresses. Her veil was a gift from her godparents, Kara and Zach and her shoes were a gift from her Nina because her Nina is the Queen of Awesome Shoe Finds!

 After Mass there was a cake reception. The First Communioners were all lined up by the Parish Hall stage to receive scapulars from Fr. Eddy. I thought the interaction between Elisabeth and the little girl she walked into the church with about their veils was sweet to watch.

Fr. Eddy told all of us that the priest at his home church always gave the First Communion recipients scapulars and he thought it was a tradition that should be brought back. The kids were pretty excited and I know Elisabeth has been wearing hers quite a bit. I actually had to look up were scapulars were and the history behind them because, well, I'm still learning.

It was a great morning. Evan and Vivian are not pictured in the picture below because after she ate her cake (and by that I mean ate all the icing and declared the cake part yucky) she darted around the hall like a crazy zoo animal that had broken free of its cage and Evan was following/chasing/trying to control her.

Julia is really excited to partake in her First Communion in a couple of years. She wants to wear Elisabeth's veil which I think is sweet.

Eat. Sleep. Softball.

 The softball season is starting to wrap up. Elisabeth has her last double header this Saturday and then we're done! April and May are super busy months with all the softball and tball practices and games. It really overwhelms our schedule, but it does kind of fly by.

I will say, though, that getting back our Saturdays back. All of Julia's games have been at 9am and most of Elisabeth's have been double headers on Ft Sam with the first game at 9am. We usually both bring travel mugs of coffee to see us through the morning. One game, one of the kids from Julia's team knocked over Evan's coffee in the dugout while he was at the first base coaching. I think Evan wanted to cry but didn't want to make a scene in front of all the children.

 This crazy kid:

 has her last game on the 31st, so I'll still have to keep the softball bag and 4 chairs we use from games in the trunk of the Flex. Holy cow, my car seems so empty after we clear out all the softball gear.

 Elisabeth's really grown in her softball skills this year, so she's been more enthusiastic about games. Her coaches keep her on 2nd or 3rd base during games and she rarely sits out. I kind of wish the season was longer so she could continue improving. Maybe the next place we move to will have a longer season.

 This is how big of an area we take up when watching games:

 Actually, we usually have even one more chair, but I'm pretty sure I had to drag it all from the car solo while making sure Vivian didn't get run over by a car while pushing her dump truck. We bring a bag of snacks, toys for V, a bag of all the mitts, gloves, and balls, and then a the 4 chairs. Oh, and if you look closely, Vivian had brought BOTH of her dump trucks to that game. It's like a traveling circus.

 I think I might frame this picture for Ebeth:

 Even though they keep her mainly on the bases during games, Elisabeth shows a growing interest in learning to pitch. When the pitching coach warms them all up, Ebeth usually joins them.

 Of course, it's hard to practice pitching your best when your sister is clinging to the fence you're throwing the ball to...

Or when your other sister decides to dig with her dump truck right up against the fence...