First Day of 4th Grade

I can not believe my first baby girl is in 4th grade already. Where has the time gone? 

Caroline was excited about starting her new school today!

Caroline with her 4th grade teacher.

Caroline had a great day at school, she said it was fun and she liked all the kids in her class (there are 4 including her). While Caroline was at school we were at a loss of what to do... even her kitten was not sure where she was supposed to be... we found her in our dog Angel's, food bowl!

Kittens and Concert

We have talked about getting kittens for the farm to help keep down the mice and snakes out there but have just not found the right ones yet... well this Saturday as we drove to a store we went by Walmart and in the parking lot was a truck that held a sign saying kittens.... we drove by went to the store we planned to go to but the kids were ready to look at those kittens. After the store we went to check out the kittens in the truck. They had 5 kittens... 

So we have Eli with Spider-Man (the only boy kitten they had)

Caroline with Sugar

and Lizzy with Cherry Cinnamon!

They are pretty cute. They are starting to get used to us and play with us. Sugar is definitely the sweetest of the kittens... she loves to just be held. Spider Man is the most playful and Cherry is the scaredy cat... it takes her a bit longer to warm up to people.

The day we got the kittens we took the kids to their first concert... there's no better way to celebrate a first concert than with a big cookie cake!

Caroline is on the right with her friend watching the concert. There were 6 bands at the concert but the kids were most excited to see Jaime Grace...

however she was last to perform... they made it through one maybe two of her songs before this is how they looked...Eli is the only one with open eyes...

two minutes later this is how they looked. We ended up not getting home til a little before midnight. 

We had a pretty lazy day after church today and were able to have some good kitty playing time.

they loved playing with in our pool towels hanging on the side of the tub.

Cherry walked around the back of my head and settled on my shoulder to take a quick cat nap

while Sugar took a nap on Caroline's lap and Spider-Man hung out next to Caroline.

Catch-Up

Caroline was super excited that we finally agreed to let her drive the 4-wheeler by herself. We had her drive with us on it and now we put it in second gear and let her go... with instructions to stay in the open areas. She has done  a pretty good job.

No one loves to work in the yard unless you get a good wheel-barrel ride!!! 

The kids are much more likely to help you work when they know they get to ride in the wheel-barrel after its empty.

Sweet Eli loves a good mo-hawk... so sweet Mrs. Montes fixed his hair up good after cutting it... although it did give a good scare to his daddy when he thought Mrs. Montes might have actually cut his hair to be in a mo-hawk.

Hard to resist taking a picture of my sweet girl  "matching" her doll.

We got a babysitter and went on a big couples date night. We met some people at a resturant in Fort Worth and had a great time catching up. We celebrated my friend Tricia's (on the right of me) birthday and my friend Shelly's (on the left) anniversary.

Mini Vacay

We talked about going to the beach for a few days this summer...but it is so hot I could not talk Greg into it... so instead we went local. Sunday we headed to Grand Prairie to do a little back to school clothes shopping for Caroline, then went to dinner and off to a hotel in Mansfield.

The next morning Greg took off work (because you buy an adult ticket and get a kid ticket free on Mondays) and we went to a water park!!! The kids had a great time. Greg and I took turns going with Caroline on the bigger water slides that Eli and Elizabeth could not go on plus we all played in the pools and lazy river that all the kids could use. There was also a big slide climbing area that had a big water bucket that would dump water every 5 min or so. It was great fun until it dumped water on Elizabeth, she would not go on those slides any more.

After that she would either sit on the chairs and watch Caroline and Eli have fun, or she would play on these little bitty slides in the pool area... crazy girl! At least she was daring and went down the slide head first!

Could not get pics of the other  water slides without getting the camera wet. After we played at the water park for many hours we headed home and stopped by Braums for some ice cream time! It was a great family time.

The kids just love getting to stay in a hotel, Greg and I don't sleep well in them but the kids do. Lizzy asked if we could just go to a hotel for her next birthday and swim in the pool instead of a party... hhmm something to think about!

Land

Never a dull moment at the land. This day Elizabeth told me she did not want to bring her bathing suit that she was not going to get in the blow up pool and did not need it... well it was a very hot day... so she puts on Eli's bathing suit...

We found a spaghetti squash that was ready! Our first real pickings from our small garden this year!!! The squash has been producing in abundance this season... we should get plenty of spaghetti Squash!

Finally we have a toilet!!! Our outhouse is almost complete... at least we have a place to go to the bathroom though!

Fun in the Mud/Sun

Greg and Eli are working the tiller getting the ground ready for building a septic system.

The kids are loving going to the clubhouse pool because they can touch bottom all the way to the rope. They can swim and sit on the bottom of the pool, they can try and do hand stands. They even went off the diving board last night but I was in the pool and could not get a pic of it!! So proud of them all for going off the diving board by themselves though.

The trench is getting deeper, then we had some rain so the kids now have a very fun mud pit to play in...

Caroline built a bridge to cross over the trench and then can use it to jump in the mud pit!

Oh how fun a hammock in the shade can be... it entertains for hours!!!

That entertainment allows me to help get some things done at the land... like our well/out house being painted...

and the sink getting installed in the outhouse part of the building!!! Coming up next is the toilet!

We just finished  a very busy week of VBS at church. The kids had a blast and moms were exhausted...

Nothing ends a week of VBS better than Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil A... Dress like a cow and get a free meal...

These are the three cutest cows I saw

The girls found a way to make the hammock a double decker hammock... hopefully they don't break it mom:)