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!