End of Summer - End of an Era

The end of summer is approaching fast and, with it, the end of an era.  My best friend here in Texas is moving to Pennsylvania.  Her husband quit his job here a few months ago and just accepted a new one.  The big part of me is happy that he found a job he is excited about, but the selfish and scared part of me wonders what I will do without her.

We met when our now-9-year-olds were 5. They were lucky enough to be assigned the same Kindergarten teacher and became fast friends.

Here are our kiddos the very first day of Kindergarten.  They even sat next to each other.  Back then it didn't matter that one was a boy and one was a girl.  There was no pressure, not teasing and playdates were easy.  That all changed when they hit the end of second grade.  Peer pressure won and their friendship faltered.

Luckily for me, AB's mom and I continued to be friends despite Princess and AB's parting of ways.  Princess has three little brothers, so we were still able to get the kids together by slyly calling our get-togethers playdates between AB and her brothers.

This is a picture of me and AB's mom the night my little Duke was born.  I honestly don't know how I could have made it through that week without her.  My little Duke ended up having an infection and he and I spent the first 8 days of his live in the NICU.

AB's mom was a nurse in her life before kids.  She knew just what to say to me to help keep me calm for my family.

We have shared countless books with each other.  We have seen lots of movies.  And it was AB's mom who invited me out for birthday dinners.

And now they are moving.

Life here in Texas has been very lonely.  It took a long time to find a good friend.  Sometimes it bothers me because when we left Des Moines, I had several really good, life-long friends who would do anything for me just as I would do anything for them.  Plus two months after we moved to Texas, my sister and her family moved back to Iowa.

Having kids invites involvement in the community.  I volunteer a lot at the school and am around a lot of adults during the school year.  There are just not a lot of opportunities to really get to know people.    My kids are getting old enough to go to playdates on their own - so there are fewer opportunites to get to know their friends' moms.  Maybe the Knight's starting Kindergarten this fall will present some friendship opportunities.

AB had a sleepover with the boys last night.  It was kind of a farewell playdate for them and it gave AB's mom some last minute packing time.

She picked him up about an hour ago and now they are on their way out east.

My heart is broken.  I feel very, very alone right now. 

Maybe that is why I returned to my blog.  It's been a while.

Great Weekend with Friends!

We love love love having visitors!  It is one of the many perks of living in a popular city. DadOf4's college roommate and his wife arrived in our fair city on Thursday.  They had won a trip through work and the resort where they were sent just happens to be about an hour away from our house.  We picked them up yesterday at checkout time and packed in as much fun in the following 24 hours as was humanly possible!  They have three kiddos of their own so they are used to lots of caos - which is just what our house is full of!

T and Duke.

S. and Prince on our boat.  Sure it was a bit chilly and raining, but we braved the not-so-perfect conditions to have a wonderful afternoon on the lake!

T. and S. together!  We are hoping they come back with the family someday soon!  We will get to see them this summer when we travel back to IA too.  :)

T and the Knight.  He was in rare form yesterday - I don't think the kid sat still for more than 5 seconds at a time - most likely because I forgot to give him his tummy meds so he didn't eas as much as he should have and was hungry, tired, and crabby. 

Crabby cakes!

Pretty Princess and Captain DadOf4.  (Prince - our 6 year old - is steering the boat.)

S. and a very happy Duke.  Thank goodness he still likes boating!

T. with the kids up front.

Yep, these two college roomies are now daddies to 7 kids!  It was fun to hear them tell stories of way-back-when they were single guys in college.

(To get Duke to look at the camera, I snitched his balloon.  See him reaching for it!  Mean mommy, I know.  But he got it right back after I got the shot!)

DadOf4 with S. and T.  Friends Forever!

Nice Weekend!

We went boating with some friends again this weekend. Princess got up on the skis again!
The Prince and the Knight loved the boat ride. The Prince and AB would not try skiing again. I think the Prince was following AB, and AB was a bit sad that Princess got up before he did.

Everyone had fun tubing though! Here are Princess, Prince, and AB getting ready to tube. They went a really long way before falling off for the first time.

The Prince, the Knight and Princess had fun playing in our backyard on Sunday. You can just see how hot it was in these pictures. We were over 100 degrees yet again.

Just look at the sun shine on the pool. Hot hot HOT day!

DadOf3 and I kept cool with our little tupperware foot soakers! The best $10 we ever spent! Having our feet in nice, cool water really makes a difference when we are sitting outside.

All in all, we had a very nice weekend! I hope you did too!

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If you are looking for my 5 Minutes for Mom Summer Photo entry, go here!

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Swimming today!

We had a fun day yesterday!

We went to the last free movie of the summer. I was not expecting much from the move, but I was pleasantly surprised. There is always a G rated choice and a PG rated choice during the summer free movie fest. Against my better judgement I let the kids choose the PG movie, Bratz. I expected, well, brats. However this movie was about friendship, peer pressure, and re-finding friends after losing them to peer pressure. It was a good message: choose your own friends and stick by your decisions even when there is social pressure to drop them. I was even tearing up at the end of the movie. Very cute! I highly recommend it. I am not sure why it was rated PG other than a few "mean girl" moments from the movie villian, a pretty girl intent on keeping everyone in their place. It was very "high school musical" if you've see those.

Today we are heading to the gym to go swimming. We are bringing guests this time. We went swimming at a "natural swimming pool" last week with the same friends. This week we are showing them our gym. The Prince just loves hanging around their son. He will be a big first grader this year.

Two weeks and 3 days left until school starts.... :'(

Photostory Friday #1!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Princess and Prince!

Princess took this picture!




Pretty Swimming Hole!

We went swimming at a new swimming hole this morning! We left at 8:00 and got there around 9:00. Then we swam for a couple of hours and had a picnic lunch. What a fun morning!

Boating fun!

Princess, Prince, and AB on the tube!
Princess popped up on her VERY first try!!

Princess was so happy and proud of herself!

My little prince got up too!

Here is Prince again!

My little Knight had a great time on the tube with AB's dad!

We had a great time boating with friends this afternoon! Such a fun day!

Rain, rain go away!

It is supposed to be rainy here today so that means my plan for taking the kids to a free movie is on! We have only made it to one other free movie this summer. Last summer we went to about one per week. A year ago, it rained all summer long. This summer has been better, thank goodness.

There is not much else going on today. Yesteday was a busy, normal-ish day. We went to the park, got groceries, and I got all the laundry done. We have earned our easy movie day. I do still need to get into the kids' rooms, however. We are planning to have a garage sale in the near future. The kids are pretty excited about selling some of the toys that they do not use anymore and making a profit off of them. It is not a bad idea. But to really do this, I think we need to pick a date and stick to it. A deadline will help me get organized.

I bet Princess will want to have a Lemonade Stand at the garage sale too. She is quite the little entrepreneur. I am not sure even how to price things. I guess we will just guess!

Bitter Sweet....

We had a fun night last night. We took our good friends out for supper and then came back to the house. They have a 9 year old daughter who gets along really well with Princess. They also have a 14 year old son who loves video games and plays with Prince and Prince LOVES the competition! At 5 years old, he has surpassed everyone's video game skills around here except for DadOf3.

It was a bitter sweet night because they are leaving on Friday. The dad has accepted a new job many, many states away. We had a great night last night but we will sure miss them!

I have created a new website if you are interested in hearing about more the announcement I made yesterday. Until December, I will write little to nothing on this blog about it. If you are interested you may visit www.momofonetwothreefour.blogspot.com. :)

Now I need to upload the pictures from our big Iowa trip! I hope to post some soon. Family members - be on the lookout for emails from me with pictures!

Tonight I am flying out for my annual GGW trip! Once a year I get together with my good friends from Iowa. With our family changes I will not be able to go next year so I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Princess Enters First Grade!

I don't think I could have planned a better morning for Princess!

She requested that DadOf3 wake her up this morning. Because he was going to take her to school for her first day, I didn't send him up until 6:30. She woke up happy and came downstairs and, after getting dressed, ate some eggs for breakfast.

I got her up early every day last week so she would be used to the new early schedule.

She and DadOf3 took off in the truck around 7:20. DadOf3 called me just a few minutes ago with the drop off story.

Since parking was very minimal, he had to drive around a bit to find a parking spot. After they found one and started walking in, Princess spotted AB, her good friend from Kindergarten. Princess and AB talked the entire way to the classroom. DadOf3 had to keep scooting them along and AB's mom and dad had to keep hollering at AB to keep up with them!

Princess told me last night that she and AB would be sitting together this year. Since their last names are not anywhere close to one another in the alphabet, I doubted this and told her so. As it turns out, Princess was right! She and AB are sitting together! I am not sure how long this will last because both Princess and AB like to chat.

What a great day though! She meets up with one of her best friends on the way into the school and then gets to sit by him! How sweet!

I will write more after I debrief Princess after school!

:)

Weekend fun!

DadOf3 and I invited some friends over last night to play cards. It worked out really well.

They have an 8 year old girl and an almost 14 year old boy.

The 8 year old and Princess disappeared within minutes of their arrival and the 14 year old really wanted to play cards.

While I was away on my Girl's Gone Wild weekend trip, this family stayed with us. They were in the process of closing on the house they were selling and closing on their new house and were stuck in limbo, without a home for 5 days. I didn't plan to be gone while they were here, although a small part of me was glad to escape having visitors for several days (weak, I know). DadOf3 and the kids were good hosts and I was around for the last night of their stay. While I was away, DadOf3, the 14 year old and his parents played lots of cards! That is how last night came about.

It was a fun night!

Do any of you play cards?

Euchre is really big in our family. I am extremely glad that I learned how to play the game before meeting my in-laws because playing euchre with them can get plenty serious!

We taught our friends Euchre last night and we also played Pitch.

They ended up staying until right around 11:00. That meant that Princess and Prince stayed up until 11:00. It was not a pretty sight trying to tuck these two in! DadOf3 ended up laying down with the Prince and I laid down with the Princess until she fell asleep. DadOf3 fell asleep beside the Prince and I thought it would be cruel to wake him up to tell him to go to sleep so I just left them alone.

I came downstairs, checked some email, and read for an hour or so. It is rare to get an uninterrupted hour of reading....

Because of the late night, we skipped church this morning. The kids would have been awful to their Sunday School teachers.

Speaking of Sunday School teachers, did I mention that DadOf3 and I are going to be Sunday School teachers next year? It will be fun! It is only for a couple of hours one Sunday a month. We may or may not have Prince's class.