You can't have summer without Polly Freeze and swimming

My sisters and I tease about how my mother fixes the things she wants for our birthday dinner or birthday cake. So, Lizzy asked me to fix this chocolate turtle cake for our girls night at Aunt Melba and Terri's house. You cannot see the layers from this angle but it was a three layer cake. Yummo!

So these are the girls. Guess who has been tanning? We played Cranium all evening. My aunts are so fun.

Melanie Hawkins and I went to Polly Freeze for dinner one night. I think this is the first time I went there to eat anything other than ice cream. The fish sandwich was huge and delicious and of course we also had ice cream.

June 2nd we had this very cold snap right at the beginning of the summer swim season. Our church was having this pool party at South Harrison pool/ park. We decided to go and give it a try...

Adaline and Micah are the best of buddies. They always look for each other at church. Addie is surrounded by boys. There are no girls her age that we hang around.
Corbin was so cold. He got in once and said can I go swing. That tells you how cold it was for this fish not to want to be in the water.

Addie's lips were blue and her chin chattered but she would not get out of the water.

Later we had a cookout and played on the playground. Check out the cool kid with the shades.

Here is mini Matt.

Little buddy was cranky and would not let anyone but mom hold him. Teething kept him from wanting to nap. But he needed one so bad. It was so pretty outside even if we didn't enjoy the pool the day was gorgeous!

July already

I cannot believe it has been over a month since my last post. This summer is flying by. I went back to the spring to get a couple of things that I wanted to blog about that just seemed like yesterday.

Adaline is so into dress up. It really doesn't matter what the costume, however girlie girl is her favorite. This day she wanted to wear Eli's Iron Man costume. Cute

The kids go though bubble phases. This day they probable went through a large bottle of bubbles.

These lips. Matt keeps saying her husband will love kissing her.

These guys are such good buddies. Addie is going to be lost this fall without her big brother. This will give her time to bond with her little brother. Hope we all survive. She is a little bully to Aiden.

Okay, so around here in the Kentuckiana area Derby is a big deal. In my christian homeschool upbringing Derby has come and gone with no notice, except for Thunder Over Louisville. This year I really wanted to participate in some of the cities festivities. I really wanted to go to the Christian concert on the lawn. So Gracie, Aiden and I went to Building 429. I love their new hit out "Where I Belong". There were two other groups one of them being a contestant in American Idol. Well, my wires got crossed and I told Gracie it was one of the newer winners. After his part of the concert we look at each other, like "that cannot be one of the winners." No it was not. oh well. We had a good time.

I also took the kids to the Pegasus Parade. At the last minute I call my Aunt to find out a good place to watch the parade. She reminds me that cousin Sara is working mere blocks from the parade and yes she would love to have us come down by her and get good seats. Flavor Man is on 8th and Broadway. She has one of the coolest jobs. They mix formulas to drinks. For example Brad Pitt might call and say I have this hard lemonade that my pappy use to make and I want to bottle it and sell. Flavor Man could come up with a formula and get all that rolling. So cool. She showed us the lab and walked us around. So much fun just that part of our day. One of the not so fun parts was getting down to where she was. We had to do some round a bout driving and all the streets near the parade were blocked off , and the police were not going to let us use the parking pass that I printed off from Sara, crying babies, and trains later we found a place to park about six blocks away. But all worked out.

I did not get a group photo but here is a little of us. You can barely see Jansen on the end (Corbin's good buddy) Jillian is by Adaline (Addie would call her her buddy, but Jillian is 9) and Rachelle is holding Reagan between Addie and Corbin. Reagan is 1 and Rachelle is my age.

Rachelle and the kids and I had a great time at the parade. None of us knew what to expect. The parade was about an hour. The kids would get antsy when the gaps between the floats got too spaced out. 8th street is the very end of the parade and this is also the more "don't let your daughter walk alone" part of the city. I never let the kids out of my sight. Sara was awsome and jumped in to help with the kids and make it as fun as possible for them.

This is the Kentucky basketball coach Calipari. He got booed and cheered all over the city. Go Cats!!

Cyndi  Lauper was the Grand Marshall!! Crazy but "girls just wanna have fun." Born in Queens in 53

All in all we had a great time, but ready to leave at the end. Thanks Sara



This was the night Matt and I helped at the Joy Prom at our church. We seldom look nice and dressed up so I requested a family picture before we left.

Awww.... I love my handsome husband....

Happy Birthday Lizzy! 23 is a good year.

Adorable Aiden

This is Addie's silly face

Went to Uncle Glendon's to have a cook out. Nana always wants pics with the kids.

luscious lips

yummo!

Only one remains

I cannot imagine the day when my babies will be out of the house and graduated. But this is exactly where my parents are finding themselves. I mean Adam and I have been out of the house for a while but with the way they treat the girls you would have never thought they have already parented two adults. 

So, Naomi Grace Jones is soon to be one of us. Gracie graduated from Prosser Cosmetology School.

We got to go see her walk the Plank  platform with all the Prosser students. 

A week later mom and dad threw her a party where they presented her with her high school diploma.

I am very proud of my sister for completing high school. She  is so excited about this new chapter of her life, but goodness it is not what you think it is going to be.

Wooly Knot Farm

Well, one of my baby sisters is following in my travel shoes. Rebekah Faith is going to Ireland for two months to study abroad with her Elementary Education Degree. The kids and I went with mom and Lydia to send her off at the airport. She was so quiet about leaving. She said she was overwhelmed and couldn't believe that this day had actually come. She will do great! It will be exciting to see what new Bekah comes home to us.

Aiden is growing and growing. He is now six months and has gotten his first tooth on mother's day. He has two bottom teeth now and is laboring over his front top two. We are waking up at least two times a night now. So he likes to chew about everything and put anything in his mouth. Aiden is also scooting to close things on the floor. He is eating food now at dinner. His favorite it pears and squash.

We went to visit the Murphys at Wooly Knot Farm, as Carolyn has named it. The kids and I love going out to the farm. We don't go out there near often enough. So this evening I wanted to take photos of the beautiful country God has made in English, Indiana. 

This is the veggie garden. So nice and weed free.

I love the way a garden looks with cabbage in it. It just gives it that perfect factor.

In front of the house she has two flower gardens. This is the one she formed not long after moving in. It has her lillies, roses and hydrangeas. You can see to the left the bee hives. They just added two this spring to make three. The tall vegetation in the back right are the raspberries and blackberries.

This is the flower garden that she put in last. I think it is two years old, maybe three. It has all bee food, as Carolyn says. The large window to the left is where she is building the studio that will hold her spinning wheel and quilting supplies. I would call Carolyn the Renaissance Woman. She can do it all; cook, can, sew, quilt, knit, garden and so much more. Play the piano, sing... she is so talented. Some of you say that I am an overachiever, I am just trying to keep up with the Murphy's.

Corbin by the Hollyhocks.

There is the beautiful lady that does it all.

And here are her babies. The sheeps. They have one ram and 13 others. I don't remember how many of the lambs this spring were boys, but the boys get sold in the fall.

The stop to check out the peculiar people watching them this evening.

Adaline my be the next Shepherdess. She likes to be anywhere near the sheep.

Corbin on the other hand begins on this side of the fence till he warms up to the idea of being with the sheep.

Fun time on the farm!

 Here is the papa sheep. Scratching his face on the fence. It looks like he is bowing his head in prayer for his large family.

These are called meat sheep. That is why they do not look like the woolly cotton balls you think of. Right now she is building her heard so they are only selling the boy sheep. She does have a couple of sheep she can shear.
I love going to the farm, so do the kids. They run and play. Country life.