Last week of July!

Jarrod and I have both been really busy with work. We had our summer meeting at work last week- where we bring everyone in for 2 days. It’s good, but exhausting!! We took everyone to Memphis to the redbirds game and rented a suite and had dinner catered. It was really nice! It was only my 2nd Redbirds game, ever! I think we are going to have to do better about taking Stratton- he would love it! The only real baseball game he has been to was last summer in St. Louis and he still talks about it sometimes! We should really take advantage of having a place to go watch baseball so close to us! Anyway we had a good time, but we left about 5pm and didn’t get back till 11ish. Everyone in my house was asleep (of course when I got home) and I had to leave early Friday morning to get back to the office to set up for the rest of the meeting that day- I kinda missed not seeing the kiddos!

This is the picture Jarrod sent me of Arden at dinner. Apparently they had cake or something??

The kids are doing fine. Arden is still loving her new school. We are so pleased with the change, and they continue to tell me how smart and mature she is for her age! Stratton is glad to be swimming again and getting to participate in all the water activities at school again!

Arden happy and having breakfast at Montessori- her teacher sent me this after we’d had a little bit of a rough morning so I would know she was fine!

Getting ready for school- they can be a mess in the mornings!

Oh and I almost forgot we tried Build a Bear last Friday for Arden! It wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. I thought she’d love it. Nope. The stuffing machine scared her. The bath blowers scared her. She picked a puppy of course and wanted him to have a bowl- a pink one, but that was it! She made Stratton do all the work while she sat in her stroller and watched!

This past weekend we spent Saturday and most of Sunday in Hickory Ridge. Jarrod had to work so the kids and I got up and around and got to mom and dad’s about 10am. Stratton was excited about swimming in their new pool. We swam for awhile, had lunch and took naps then swam some more. Jarrod came up after he got off and we had dinner. Then Sunday after church we had lunch and the whole family came over to mom’s and we celebrated Stratton’s birthday again! After lunch we swam some more! This time Aunt Brandye swam with us. It is really nice to have that pool! **Jarrod- DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER** I’m thinking that we might need to get one next year! The kids love it so much! I know it’s a lot of work though.

One last thing. . . Last Monday (after grocery shopping with the kids mind you!) I cleaned and cut and peeled all the fruit-apples, strawberries, grapes and blueberries- and put them into serving size containers so the kids could have easy access to them (without asking me to cut or clean them) and to make it easy to make school lunches! I was so proud of myself! I am going to try and do better about this but it’s hard. It took me over and hour and I had to wait till the kids were gone to bed of course! But it’s been so nice to have this week. We’ve almost cleaned the drawer completely out! I will need to re-stock in a few days! Even though this is the last week I have to fix lunches for Arden! They start back with providing lunch on the 4th! Whew! It’s hard to come up with finger foods that aren’t messy, and that she will eat!