The End of August

Our swingset has been looking bad.  Since Ben and Mollie play on it nearly every day, I decided it's time for a facelift.  I am staining the wood.  I've bought a replacement tarp for the fort that John is going to install once I get the stain completed.

 Ben wanted to make owl cookies using the directions in a recent Clubhouse Jr magazine.

 Ben and Mollie helping fix up the swingset.

 Ben is tightening screws.

 Annie contributed to the work on the swingset by playing happily in her exersaucer.

Mollie wanted to make a guitar like Curious George's monkey birdhouse shoestring fishing line rubberband yoyo bandolin.  Hers is made from a taco shell box, a wrapping paper roll, and rubber bands.

 Ben took this picture.  He was really just trying to take a picture of Annie but Mollie and I were trying to get into the picture.

We spent Thursday night with Nana and Grandaddy.  On Thursday evening after supper Grandaddy and Ben went fishing in the lake in their neighborhood.  Ben caught his first fish.  Grandaddy and Ben caught this first fish together.  Grandaddy helped him reel it in.

Ben caught this fish all by himself.  Grandaddy had turned to do something and Ben reeled it in.  

 On Friday Nana and Grandaddy took us to Chuck E Cheese where Annie rode her first carousel.  You can't tell in this picture, but she loved it.

 Ben took a brief break from the racing arcade game to shoot baskets.

 Mollie hugging Stuart Little.  We read Stuart Little this summer so she was very excited to find him at Chuck E Cheese.

 Mollie took this picture of Annie playing with Ben's face.

 John was working out of town last week.  When he's gone for several days, he usually brings presents home for Ben and Mollie.  Ben took a picture of the '63 Aston Martin that John brought him.  Mollie got a pack of princess stickers.

 Mollie and I were playing with paper dolls during the NASCAR race tonight.  She took this picture.

Activities

 We had swam at the Y and Ben didn't brush his hair afterwards.

 Ben is in my Sunday School class.  My co-teacher and I have been saving all kinds of boxes for the past few weeks to build the Jericho Wall with.  Here is the wall being built.

 Marching around the wall.  The box with sticks in the Ark of the Covenant.

 Everyone gave a great shout (that could probably be heard upstairs) before the wall came down.

 And the wall was destroyed.

 Mollie's first bun for ballet.

 After ballet, we stopped at Lowes.  Everyone wanted to ride in the Jimmie Johnson racecar shopping cart.

 Ben's first flag football practice.  Learning how to position his hands when throwing.

 Trying to run by without having his flag pulled.

"Swarming" the coach to pull his flag.  Ben enjoyed flag football practice.  He said it was more fun than baseball practice (which he thinks is dull).

Twelve Days of August

Mollie Grace wanted a baby carrier for Cow Baby so I made one from an old t-shirt of John's and Mollie decorated it.

 Our first pod of okra.  We've been waiting for it all summer.  We planted two short rows of okra seeds, but only four plants came up.

 Ben and Mollie love fried okra.  I am cutting up each pod and freezing it.  Eventually we may have enough to fry.

 Annie bounced herself to sleep while I was cooking supper.

 Ben fell asleep this way one night.

 On Thursday we went to Jellystone for a long weekend.  We rented an A frame cabin like last year.  Annie really enjoyed the water.  I completely forgot to pack her swimsuit and sun hat.  It absolutely never crossed my mind.  Thankfully they had suits and hats of all sizes in the camp store.  I guess I'm not the first person who forgot to pack a swimsuit.

 Ben loves playing putt putt golf.  He and John played one full game, our whole family played a game, and Ben and John's third game got rained out on the 15th hole.

 Annie was a trooper hanging out in her stroller while we golfed.

 Annie got fussy on the 17th hole and we had to get her out of the stroller.

 The 18th hole.

 The jogging stroller was our pack mule.  Although my car was packed nearly to the ceiling, John insisted that we make room for the huge jogging stroller.  That was a very good call.

 Roasting hot dogs on Friday night.

 The jogging stroller also served as Annie's high chair.

 Marshmallow on fire.

 It turned out that this was a "Super Soaker" weekend at Jellystone.  We had no idea what that meant but obviously most of the campers did and came prepared.  All morning Saturday you had free range to shoot anybody (except babies) and anything with a water gun.  People filled 55 gallon drums, ice chests, baby pools, etc with water and soaked every one that passed their campsite.  We went on the Super Soaker hay ride.  We didn't have water guns but most people on the wagon did.  Ben and Mollie had a load of fun as the people in the wagon fired on the other campers and they lined the sides of the roads shooting back.  This was not limited to children.  There were grown men with water guns (and occasionally water hoses) spraying everyone that passed.  We got drenched!

 Mollie yelled, "This is AWESOME!"

 John styled Annie's hair.

 There are activities going on all through the day.  One that Mollie wanted to participate in was hair beading.  First, she carefully strung the beads onto a piece of fishing line.

 Then somehow a girl transferred the beads from the string onto a piece of Mollie's hair. She did it so quickly I don't know quite how she managed it.

 Mollie's still wearing the beads in her hair.

 Annie hanging out in the cabin.

 Saturday night it poured and we could not grill or make a camp fire.  I picked up a pizza at a local restaurant and the kids watched a movie.

 On the last day we went to the flagpole hoping to see Yogi.  Only Cindy was there that morning so they posed for a picture with the Yogi statue.

 A goodbye hug for Cindy.

 They were disappointed not to see Yogi to say goodbye so we stopped outside the Bear Cave and called goodbye to him.

 Mollie's fall dance class began Monday.  I don't think you can see Mollie in this picture.  Ben and I were walking (and running) around the track and I took a quick picture through the window.

 Ben is playing flag football at the Y.  Today all the kids came to be weighed, measured, and perform skills tests.  They will be placed on teams based on these things.

 Mollie wanted her picture taken with this piece of okra that we picked.

Annie blended right into the pile of dirty clothes.