Summer

I know you have heard me prattle on and on lately about just how much I love summer. I just love everything about it and tonight we did one of my all time favorite things to do on a summer evening. No, we did not take off on a romantic date or anything remotely wild like that. We simply grabbed a couple of snow cones (for me, Kyle, and Hope) and did another stop off at McDonald's for ice cream for Mike and David and we took a drive.

Yep, a drive right in our town. We looked at new things being built and enjoyed our cold concoctions. For me, there is something so darn right about everyone piling in the car for a drive. Mike and I get to have a little adult conversation amongst the wind blowing through the car and the kids constant chatter in the backseat. For us, it is just a nice way to hang out together for a bit. Call us weird, but it works for us!


For me, summer is all about taking time to do things that the constraints of the school year do not allow such as lazy afternoons at the pool, playdates, sleepovers, family visits, and spontaneous fun!


This summer Kyle has gotten some "real life" training being a volunteer at a local Summer Enrichment Program for special needs/disadvantaged children in our area. He volunteered two days a week in a classroom of three and four year old children. I LOVED hearing about his day and I was so excited about this opportunity for him!



Here is his class with most of the kids and helpers. Each day he was assigned a buddy and it was his responsibility to take care of his buddy!:)
The little boy on his lap was his buddy several different times and I enjoyed hearing stories about him:)

I love that his buddy jumped in his lap for the picture:)

Each morning when I would drop him off, I had to pry myself away from there. It was AMAZING to watch these 8-12 year old volunteers greet children in the morning, help them off of the bus, and overall just play with them. We noticed a big leap in maturity and responsibility from Kyle's involvement in the program:)

One day he got in the car after a day at the water park and he told me that his buddy that day had "tested his patience" by not listening at the waterpark and being so demanding of his attention! HA!

I am determined to enjoy the next few weeks with my kiddos before the school bell rings again to start another year. Maybe we can work in another stop at the snow cone place before it is time to pack up those backpacks:)

Siblings

I love still photos and I always cherish the snapshot of life that they capture, but there are times such as this that a video is just what is needed to truly capture the essence of the moment. Above is a short and cute video of Hope and David doing what they do best-being silly and having a ball together. Hope has suddenly fallen in love with her babies and David loves to play babies with her even if it is in a funny, non-traditional way. In this video David keeps making the baby fall off of the high chair much to his sisters delight!!

The interactions between my children often take my breath away-literally. As all three of my babes have grown over the last year all their relationships have changed and it has been amazing to watch the metamorphosis. I often stop in awe as I watch Kyle flutter around the house with a sturdy Hope on his hip-entertaining her and talking with her in his sweet "daddy" voice. It is equally awesome to watch David be Hope's playmate and play peek-a-boo for way longer than my adult task-oriented brain could ever muster. He often scolds her by saying "no mam" in his thick-tongued, southern accent which is inappropriate but oh so precious!

We never "planned" to have three children much less with this much age difference, but what a blessing from God these three are:) Videos like this will always be in my heart as I watch these children continue to grow and change:)

By the way, pardon the ice cream sandwich smeared all over both Hope and David's faces. He had just shared his treat with her:) Also, scroll down to the blog music to pause so you can hear the video!

More Than You Can Handle!

The last few days have been packed full of super fun stuff going on. This post may be so full that it is more than you can handle! HA! It started Thursday afternoon. Hope and David have been in a 10 week Music Together class here locally and this summer Kyle has gone with me to "help"

Hope dancing with the scarves:)

David stomping like an elephant!

I cannot even describe how sweet it is to watch Kyle "mother" Hope. He complains about having to go to music with us, but once we are there, he loves to be Hope's "mommy" and do the class with her.

David loves to play Mrs. Rae Ann's guitar after class!

This is Hope and her friend, Brady. I love that he is going for her hairbow!! They are eight weeks apart and we get to spend lots of time together.

Another fun treat this week has been that my nephew Clayton spent Friday with us and even stayed and had a sleepover!! It went beautifully and my boys were in heaven that he was here. Our first stop was McDonalds and then we went straight out to Hungry Mother to swim!

Is Clayton going to jump off of the high dive?

There he goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope loves a swimming day:)

This picture makes me laugh so hard! While at Hungry Mother, This group of kids invited David to play with them. They were sooo sweet to him and we were so amazed watching them. Then all of a sudden, they started posing for their grandmother for family pictures and they insisted that David join them. Ashley and I got so tickled that we almost fell out of our beach chairs!

Clayton LOVES baby Hope! He insisted to sit beside her in the car and and showered her with ten million kisses:)

Overall we had a wonderful time at Hungry Mother park with Clayton! We got run off by a bad thunder storm, but the kids enjoyed swimming in the water:)

Saturday we went to my grandparents house at the lake for a family reunion. It was AWESOME to see family members that we have not seen in years and my kids had a ball. Above Kyle and Clayton are playing with their cousin Ellie.

Hope and GG having some snuggle time during the family reunion. It was amazingly hot at the lake:)

This is such a precious picture because this is my grandfather in the white shirt and his brother in the yellow shirt from Texas. It amazes me that they both have COPD and are on oxygen. I so enjoyed watching them fellowship together. The ladies behind my grandfather are his sisters and they live in Radford. Of the original 11 children, (yes 11) these are the four remaining Wright siblings.

I would love to have a picture sometime this summer when I do not have pool hair, but here is a picture of me with my cute girl!

My funny cousin, Katie, from North Carolina came to the reunion and she wanted to tube first so she could show everyone else up! I so wish that I had pictures of her trying to get on the tube!! HA!

Hope and Aunt Net Net snuggling on the swing!
In addition to all the fun that we have had over the last few days, we did work in a trip to the ER:( I twisted my ankle in the yard on Friday night and really hurt myself. After icing, elevating, and resting my ankle it still hurt, so Mike dropped me off at the ER and a friend came and picked me up. He did not need to bring our three plus Clayton inside the hospital! Luckily it is only a sprain and some time off of it will hopefully make me good as new:)

The last few days have been precious as we have seen family that we have not seen in years and gotten to spend some precious time with Clayton. Clayton lives in Vinton which is about two hours from us. Their busy schedule and our busy schedule make coordinating family stuff challenging, so we always enjoy cousin time. Now, if we could just figure out a way to get our nephews from Shreveport here, then my kids would really have a field day!

A Day at the Beach

Here is a little update on sweet Hope because I feel like she is growing and changing so fast right now. She is learning some cute things and we are just eating her up around here:)

Those cute baby blue eyes:)

The boys just love her so that I often find them both snuggling her! As you can tell she clearly does not mind all the brotherly love coming her way.

David, Hope and I are taking a Music Together class right now and here she is yawning like we do in one of our songs:)

Our silly girl also has a serious side to her-we often see this when she is sleepy.

My sweet little playmates that love a good loveseat cuddle.

We are taking several

tenative steps right now and I was so thrilled that I captured these on camera:)

She loves to lean on this little ottoman and play with various things. She is really into baby dolls right now-she loves them, kisses them, pats their little backs. It makes my heart melt to watch her "mother" her little babies!


She often squats when she plays which I do not remember the boys doing? Here she is squatting and playing with her Princess castle.


Here is a cute shot that actually shows off her pearly whites that she has recently gotten. She did not cut her first tooth until right around her first birthday but now she has five that have come in like popcorn!

She is officially weaned now which is exciting but bittersweet. I just feel like she is not our little baby anymore-especially when she yells "no" and "mine" at her brothers:) She is our most verbal baby yet-I hear that is a girl thing!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A Day at the Beach

To end the vacation, we traveled about an hour from Williamsburg and hit the beach for the day. We are the kind of people that suck the life right out of a vacation-when we do it, we really stuff it full of fun stuff:) This vacation was soooo busy that it was nice to end it with our toes in the sand watching our children frolic in the surf. Or, the reality was that it was heaven to be at the beach, but the surf was pretty rough and we were on our children like white on rice!! I have a healthy respect for the surf and did not allow the kids to go as far as they would have liked.

There was a storm brewing so the beach actually closed for a few hours during the storm. We went and got some dinner and then hit the beach after dinner and enjoyed the sunset.

We really had a great day-I watched my girl enjoy the sand for the first time ever (except for Hungry Mother) and I danced ring around the rosie with David as the waves crashed on us, and I enjoyed watching Kyle look for seashells for the special people in his life. We usually are active vacation people and this was a rare treat to sit in a chair and observe my kiddos in action.


My fish Kyle loved the beach, but did not like the salty taste of the water!! There is not a body of water this kid does not love.

Sweet Davey feet in the sand:)

Daddy and the kiddos:)

I love having my toes in the sand. Hope's toes match mine right now:) This summer when I have done my toes she gets hers done as well! Right now we are both sporting sassy pink!

Please excuse my wild beach hair, but here is a rare shot of me and my three!

I tried so hard to get a good shot of all three in the sand and this was our best effort. When sweet girl finally woke up, a storm was brewing in and the beach was closing so we had little time to work with.

Little Hope is taking a few steps here and there, so we wanted to see her stand in the sand:) I am sure the next time we are at the beach she will be running in and out of the water, and I just wanted to record this milestone:)

It was certainly not the kind of day at the beach where I could kick back and read a book. It will be years before I will be at the stage, but it was wonderful to watch my babes enjoy the day at the surf.

I am sad that vacation is over. I know that we spend a lot of quality family time together, but nothing can replace time spent on vacation. You are away from most distractions and the focus is on having FUN! Often when we are home together we are working our way down a "to do" list and often miss the forest for the trees. Vacation allows you that chance to spend quality time together and just enjoy the moments together. We will all miss Mike when he goes back to work tomorrow. In the meantime, the laundry is calling my name and I need to make my "to do" list for the week:)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Busch Gardens!!!

Despite the high temps, the day at Busch Gardens was a total blast!! Here are some fun pictures from our day:)


I love this picture because this was the first ride the boys did together and David loved it and was screaming for joy and here is Kyle cracking up at him! These two can fight, but they certainly do love each other and have fun together.
Hope, Mike and Zoe!! She was not scared at all and really loves ELMO!
Sweet moments such as this melt my heart. Kyle really is a great big brother and it was fun that they could ride rides together just the two of them:)
This was one of the highlights of the day for Dave. There is a ride called Pompeii that splashes people on the deck and David loved riding the ride, but he really loved being on the deck and getting wet. If you look super closely, you will see sweet Dave underneath the spray!
Another photo op in Sesame Street!
Mike and Hope walking across one of the brides to change countries
During the super heat of the day we went inside to the Octoberfests House ( I know they spell it differently) but that was a great, cool place for us for a couple of hours. While we were there, they did a show and David loved it!!
My girl loves a good splash/water area:)
Kyle is an amazing big brother when he wants to be and here he is taking Hope through a little splash area to cool off:)
One of the highlights of the day for Hope and David was the Sesame Street Live show!
It was soooo hot and humid that Mike's glasses fogged up when we got out of the car in the morning and Hope's curls went wild!!
They had several cute photo ops along the way and David insisted that I take his picture at each one:)
Mike and Kyle on the front car of the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster! These two brave souls rode every roller coaster in the park at least once:)

Hope took a late nap so when we she woke up we rode the train around the park to get back to Sesame Street to watch the Live show there!! Sweet, sweaty girl:)
Hope loved the fireworks even more that David did. I love this look on her face!
A magical (but hot) day was ended with awesome fireworks at 9:30. Mike and Kyle watched the fireworks from a roller coaster they were on and I enjoyed them with David and Hope:) We really enjoyed the day at Busch Gardens!

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