handsful

So, all you moms out there…Do you stress out when it’s family picture time? You’ve made the appointment. You’ve chosen the clothes (which, that alone is a big pile of craziness, trying to get clothes that are the same style AND color coordinate). Everyone gets showered, and hair fixed and then you hold your breath until you’re AT the studio (whew, no skinned knees or hair disasters). The pictures are taken, turn out fairly decently, and you high-five yourself that you survived it! lol…

Tonight, we had our family picture taken at our church, for the directory. It’s the first family portrait we’ve had taken in years. When it was time for their “so, here are all our wonderful package deals…” we had to explain that in the (very?) near future, these pictures would be a tad outdated because we’d have a new family member. We did order a few, though, because they turned out well. And, like the nice sales lady said, we can remember this time, before sweet Lainey joins us.

I made the kids pose at home, still in their color-coordinating photo duds. I have to take advantage of it when they’re clean AND match, right?

Abbey, Sharpay from High School Musical…Marley the lady pirate…Ethan the hologram skeleton…and Payton, the grumpy old man. Abbey had a costume party with the Jr. High at church tonight, then we all went around the neighborhood together. They loved every minute of it.

Here is my “boo bag” of goodies, from Lisa! A few of us on my Ladybug Believers online group (we’re all in the process of adopting from China) decided to swap names and treat each other. She had bags for each of the kids and chocolate, ladybugs, and a great magazine for me! Perfect. Thank you, Lisa!

A beautiful flower in St. Augustine

Since we moved here about 3 years ago, and since he bought a really nice digital camera last Christmas, Randy has loved taking photos. His favorite subjects seem to be nature-related…flowers, palm trees, etc. I thought I’d share a few of his latest takes!

View from the bridge at sunset, looking over the St. Johns river

Majestic palm, St. Augustine

pink sunset, overlooking the pond in our backyard

Gram, Pa-Paul and kids in St. Augustine

Randy’s mom (Gram) and step-dad (Pa-Paul) came for a visit this past weekend. We crammed quite a bit of fun into 2 days! On Sunday, we went to church, had lunch, and then headed to Mickler’s beach for the afternoon. The girls enjoyed looking for shells and shark teeth (so did Gram!), the boys swam with dad and then used a big shovel to dig a hole (what can I say, they’re boys), Pa-Paul tried to stop their dog Panda from sneezing her head off (something about the sand really got to her!), and I enjoyed taking pictures and catching up with some reading.

On Monday, we spent the afternoon in St. Augustine…we did some shopping while walking around the historic town, enjoying all the old buildings and skinny cobblestone streets.

The homeschool mom in me HAD to get this photo!

Payton asked for this picture!

Outdoor cafe in St. Aug.

After leaving St. Augustine, we decided we weren’t ready to go home…so, we drove to the beach at Washington State Gardens. There are lots of big rocks here, that the kids love to climb. We were fine when we first got there. But, soon we were all stuffed up, sneezing, and our eyes were stinging and watering. Randy ran into someone who explained that the red tide algae was the culprit. It’s evidently been really bad in that area! We stayed long enough for some pictures, a little rock climbing, and some beach combing (shark tooth, a coconut, and some dead sea horses!).

Randy and his mom, Ann…before the sneezing began.

Pretty, huh?

** funny side-note about some seahorses we found. Marley (animal lover to the death) insisted on bringing the seahorses home. She laid them on the small brick walls near our front door, to dry out so she could keep them. The next day, all 5 were gone. We think our lizards (tons of them hang out around those nice, warm bricks each day) must have had an unexpected seafood dinner!

Tonight, just as we were getting ready to set the table for dinner, the power went out all over our neighborhood. So, we gathered candles and enjoyed eating our soup and baked potatoes by candlelight! Unfortunately, the lights came back on and threated to ruin our special evening! So….we turned them back off. Power outages…the things memories are made of.

Tonight was supposed to be their first game in kid-pitch baseball (up until this season, it’s been machine pitch)…and, their first game as BRAVES players! However, after 1 1/2 innings, the rain finally made them call the game. There was a definite highlight to tonight, though. EJ made an awesome play by stopping a fast ground ball and then throwing the kid running to 1st OUT! It was especially neat for him, because he knows the kid who was heading to 1st, and he’s FAST.

It’s either “feast or famine” here in the Sunshine (ahem) state. We went weeks with hardly a drop of rain for a while. You could hear our grass gasping for water! Now, this is the 4th day in a row that we’ve had almost non-stop rain. It stops for a bit, then just starts back up again. We woke up this morning to a torrential downpour (see picture!) Can you see how full the pool is?? Hmmm…I wonder if grass can get too much rain?