It's a Tater!

Wow, I feel like I haven't had a chance to catch my breath this week! A crazy, wonderful week that the girls probably won't forget. Last Friday, we kicked off our 4th of July weekend with the pool, then a family campout (I love everything about the family campout except the part where we sleep on air mattresses outside), then 4th of July fireworks with friends which means we were already sleep deprived and then staying up way too late and were out the door by 8:30 because it was finally TATER DAY!

To say these kids are in love with this puppy is an understatement, obsessed might be a better fit. I'm sure the newness will wear off at some point but it's all they talk about and all they want to do. All of this is fantastic but it makes it hard to find quiet moments with him for training since they are very distracting playmates for him. I have to make them leave the kitchen sometimes because I know he needs to learn to hang out on his own...I mean, I love  him too but I'm not going to play with him 24/7 when they're at school. 

Oh, Look they're finally letting me hold my puppy!

Jason said this is like north, south, east and west surrounding him

No, Tater we did not have that playground rope installed for you

See how excited he is to go places with us

They even do their work by him

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I'm always finding Harper in the kitchen with a sleeping Tater in her lap  because "he just crawled in my lap"

Jason spent hours making Tater's toilet & he really likes it...to lay down in

Harper totally staged this picture and then said, "look, he loves his squirrel"

This girl loves her lab

Harper keeps saying "I can't believe we have a real live dog"

Summer kickoff at the beach!

What a wonderful week...of course Jason & I feel like we might need a vacation from our vacation but when you have 4 kids that's to be expected. It was actually much more relaxing than our cruise last year, I would definitely do a week at the beach next year. A week of staying up late, sleeping in (well, as much as kids sleep in & I didn't even get up and work out once!), long hours at the pool, walks on the beach, collecting 20 pounds of shells, mini golf, countless ice cream cones, Jason melting in the Florida sun while grilling, girls trying shrimp & gator for the first time....

This trip was such a breather from regular life for us, for me it was an opportunity to just BE with the girls. I wasn't trying to get the house cleaned up, get us anywhere on a schedule and thinking what I should be doing.  It was so nice to be a team with Jason & parent together for a whole week..we're a great team.

Things I observed, heard & saw on vacation with this herd:

• Why is pushing the elevator buttons still a big deal? For example, on Lacy's birthday they let her push ALL the buttons ALL day
• Lacy double checked that her blankie & puppy were still in her backpack after they went through security..you know, because the TSA has been looking for a dirty, ratty old satin blanket along with an old stuffed animal whose ear has been sewn back on
• Lily found a tiny shark fin that was ripped off, she also found a chicken bone that she left in her bag of shells. I couldn't understand why my beach bag smelled so bad..then I found the moldy chicken bone
• It's really really nice to be able to stay up late with the kids, have them sleep in..nobody needs a nap or has a meltdown
• My kids like 104 degree whirlpool even when it's 95 degrees
• Wedding was set up on the beach, Harper asked if she could go. When told NO, she asked if she could at least get cake
• Lily was on pool watch everyday, one day she was rushing me through breakfast, "we better hurry, it's getting crowded"..I look and there's one person in the pool
• While hanging out on the pier one night, we watched dolphins jump around and Harper said, "I thought they were aqua" and Lily who pretty much knows everything responds "Harper, the aqua ones are very rare"
• Before heading into the tacky t-shirt shop, I advised the older girls they may see t shirts with bad words on them and to just move along. It took 2 seconds for me to spot a hat with the b** word on it. Took them about 5 seconds and then they immediately alerted me to it.
• I've ran out of ways to say "Wow, that's the prettiest one ever"  or "I've never seen one that color" every time they bring me a shell they found
• Harper's funny..she bought a mood necklace with her vacation $ and immediately put it on. We're walking along and she starts grunting and making these angry faces while holding her necklace. I say, "What on earth are you doing?" and she says "I'm trying to make it change colors by being mad"
• We went through 7 bottles of sunscreen
• Harper was chased by a dog in the airport. On her way back from throwing something away, she was skipping down the aisle and a woman hadn't secured her dogs carrier. Harper's loud skipping must have startled the dog and he jumps out of the carrier, starts barking and chasing her. We see Harper come tearing around our row of chairs with the dog yapping at her heels, Harper runs to Jason (of course!) Her little heart was beating a mile a minute!!

Picture round up which are totally out of order...

This is us waiting for Jason, pretty sure we look like squatters

Crossing our fingers that we're under our luggage weight limit

God bless Jason, Lacy wanted to go skating on her birthday & Jason gave it his all!

Night swimming

Lily practicing her yoga @ sunset

King of our castle and his girls

Love this 9 year old!

@ Clearwater Aquarium to see winter and hope, the dolphins from Dolphin Tale. HUGE waste of $$$

Feeding stingrays

At the tackiest souvenir shop EVER, I didn't think we would ever get out of there. They loved it!

One of many ice cream stops

Haley Mae getting ready to putt

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Only in Florida will you get to feed baby gators while mini golfing

Haley the photobomber

Advantage of having older kids is they can take a decent picture of their parents

Bubba Gumpsn

I love this picture, the way Haley Mae adores her Daddy

Pool time & Haley the photobomber

And again

Harper stalking the wedding behind her 

It's a Christmas miracle, I'm sitting in a lounge chair with a beer. 

Giant gross sea snail

Lacy made several luggage tags for her special items

Powering through the last few weeks of school!!!

It may not feel like summer is almost here (hello, hi temp of 52 degrees today) but it is! Haley's out next week, Harper the week after and the big girls the week after that. I never thought as a parent I would be as anxious for them to get out as they are but I am. Can't wait to not pack lunches (except for the beach), no rushing out the door, Harper can take an hour at breakfast without it causing me an ulcer, no more instrument practice and it goes on and on. Plus, we're starting our summer break off with our trip to the beach...yeehaw!!!

Some happenings...Harper finished speech therapy so we celebrated with ice cream for dinner. We have driven past this baskin robins for the past year and every time Lily says "can we stop for ice cream?" so I promised them ice cream for dinner when we were done with speech.

Lily turned 10, 10!!!! How have we been parents for a decade? I've been unemployed for 10 years, how does it go by so fast? Jason who isn't usually as sentimental as I am, was a little sad his little girls are growing up.

Haley had her Kindy evaluation today and she actually seemed excited about it, I was getting concerned she might be the one who is finally going to cling to my leg begging me not to leave her. When people ask her if she's excited to start kindy, her usual answer is "NO" but Ms. M told her how smart she was today so I think that helped...;)

The biggest news in our house, especially if you ask Lacy, is the puppy! We're getting a puppy, should be home by the end of June. The girls must have asked, "are you serious?" a million times. They were way more excited about that than any trip!! I'm super excited too. For Lacy, she's such an animal lover (she may like them more than people) and I think this will give her a hobby other than reading even though she's reading books about the dog now.

Since the weather is warming up or was warming up, Jason's been taking the girls down to the dock to fish and it's just the sweetest thing every how excited they get. Not so much about fishing, but just hanging out with their daddy. I do not enjoy fishing and I love that it's something they do with just him. Before he gets home in the evening, they will practice casting on the driveway...and occasionally get their line stuck in the weeds. I'm so glad to be married to a man who must have the patience of a saint...4 girls, 4 fishing poles with hooks, worms, Harper's musicality while fishing. A saint I tell you!

Look it's spider girl!

At the ophthalmologist office, glad I got a second opinion after the optometrist said she had to wear glasses all the time, patch her eye & on and on. No glasses, no patch, recheck her in a year!

Harper made this for me, she brightens my day everyday!

Lily got her own camera for her birthday, it's kind of a big deal...

Don't you vacuum in your heels on a Saturday morning????

Hmmm....wonder why we attract so much attention when we're out and about?

Pretty day hanging out with Haley in town, there are some perks to hanging out with me

Must have lipstick on while waiting for my sisters in car line

Spring finally..I think

I think Spring has finally sprung, at least this week anyway. I can tell because the girls room only look like a tiny tornado went through them this week. Once homework is done, they're outside until dinner and then usually back out until bedtime. We usually watch a show before bed but someone misplaced the remote and nobody cared that much to find it until Friday evening.

We went and visited the Newfie breeder last week, and of course now every sentence starts with, "When, well if we get a Newfie....." We really loved the dogs but they're really expensive, we need to figure out our fence situation and we already told the girls we're not doing anything until fall so hoping we can figure something out. I have puppy fever too! Probably has something to do with being on my own during the day in the fall ;)

Busy week at our house, Harper's almost done with speech therapy (yay!), book fair family night which always equals at least $50 when we go, Choir and music performances for Lily & Lacy during which Harper commented rather loudly "Wow, this song almost sounds like real music" Guess that's a compliment from her.

So, last week we got a ton of rain and whenever that happens, we get a small pond in our side yard near the big tree. We're loading up to go to school, well supposed to be loading up and Harper is nowhere to be found because she's checking out the pond & of course falls in it. She totally soaks herself down to her undewear with mud and rain. Don't worry though as she's stripping down in record time she informs me "It's really God's fault because he made it rain and he made me fall" I just stared at her.

When we were at Atlanta zoo, there was a volunteer sharing information about how much apes and humans are alike. I overheard her telling her sisters, "Well, I am 97% ape and 3% human" I corrected her but like usual, she probably only absorbed about 25% of what I said.

We usually pray in the car before we head off to school and on Friday, Lily's was "and Thank you God for giving us mom & dad so we don't have to be homeless hobo kids" However, a few minutes later when she was driving me nuts with her drumstick pencils (who makes pencils with drumsticks on the end?? the book fair!) and I told her I was going to use those pencils for firewood she said, "I wish I was a hobo kid so I wouldn't have any rules"

Yep, that's Harper wearing shorts, a tank top and her cozy winter boots. Notice the monkey wrapped around her neck, she took off the lion mask she had been wearing. It was only 65 degrees but I pick my battles. 

Saturday morning and Harper had opened the window, was sitting in it, robe flying in the breeze while she sang LOUDLY to anyone walking down the street. 

Summer List! Powering through 6 more weeks of school and then it's our favorite time of year!

Lacy checked these books out at the library because well, that's what Lacy does!

Oh Look, it's our rain made pond just right for a swim before school 

Haley painting her own nails for the first time, so serious!

Lily's Easter cake

Oh, look it's a cup on the floor. What it really is the evidence of one of my sweet girls drinking all my lemonade while hiding behind the kitchen island. 

Harper's picture of a Newfie...with a crown...and some weird bird..and six legs.