What Goes Up Must Come Down

We are taking advantage of every last day that the heat rises enough for us be in water. The other day that meant getting ourselves packed and in the car and out to the water park. It was new waterpark that I hadn't been to. My sister and her kids had scoped it out, and Kaitlyn had declared it perfect for Sof. My sweet Kaitlyn...love her. She has one volume, loud. She reasons with you like an experienced school counselor. She is the problem solver. Tangent. So, Kaitlyn was so excited to show Sof the little water slide just right for her! We went immediately to it. Sof is skiddish with water. If it's shallow and still it's her friend, if not, she's not going near it. Period. She trusts and loves her cousin though, so she followed her up the steps and watched her sit down and slide, and then did exactly the same thing. Success, until she slowed down and stopped near the end. Then came confusion, followed by her trying to crawl back up the slide, followed by panic. At this point there was no choice but for me to slide down and rescue my baby. End of slide(so I thought).

We moved on to bigger and better slides. We splashed in pools and water fountains,and rested in the sun.

Still, the failed slide attempt lingered. My Sof is a rock star though, so of course she had to try again. She marched herself back up there, all 2 1/2 feet of her ready to conquer. She sat down and I gave her little push to assure she got to the end. Success. My poor sister had to spend the next hour catching her at the bottom of that slide! I stayed at the top to make sure she got on okay, but she soon did not need me. She would climb right in and sit down, and Kaitlyn would go before her and meet her at the end. My favorite part? There were some bigger girls sliding also. They were in a hurry and didn't want to wait for a two year old to go before them. I get it, but I still had my mommy feathers ruffled watching them try to cut in front of my girl. Silly me, I forgot she's a Culley. She actually put her hand up and yelled, "Stop!" She holds her own...LOVE IT! You go girl.

Same Scene, Some Different Characters

Summer weekend=off to the cottage. We were able to sneak away on Thursday night and meet our friends Anne and Rick(AKA Aunt Anne and Uncle Rick). We spent Friday biking with them which was great fun. There is a trail that goes from our cottage into the city. Anne approves of this because she needs the promise of a cold beer at the turn to get her purpose driven bike ride on. 40 miles all said and done.

If you're looking for me I'm the midget.

With that behind us we spent the rest of the weekend with more friends, family, food, fun, and dance parties. My sister and family were in, along with her in laws, my Mom and Dad and Grandma came out everyday, and Brian and the kids were there. Lee and Harv joined us for dinner on Saturday also. Plenty of of people to mix and match, and a nice humm of laughter and conversation hung in the air.

You are my sunshine(or twinkie)?

Speaking of sunshine, there was a lack of it on Saturday. The rain was relentless. What do you do with 10 kids on a day like that? You buy them t-shirt decorating materials so they can take their dance party to the next level. They worked all day, all together, and oh yeah it was the best ever:)

There was no shortage of lovin' on babies...

And we celebrated Nolan's 9th birthday. Where did that time go? We love you Noly!

It wasn't a total washout, we were able to sneak out to the boats for a quick spin.

I will miss this feeling of heading back to the house after a lazy day of water fun to get cleaned up and enjoy food and drinks and dance parties. Sweet summertime memories.

Dear Ballet World,

My daughter has arrived. She is armed with good training, tough teachers, enthusiasm, and her first pair of perfectly fitted point shoes. She is ready for you, are you ready for her?

This is the moment she went from being a dancer, to being a ballerina.

Her sisters were there looking on in admiration. I dressed Sof in her dance T-shirt and ballet shoe bow, and Lexi chose her tutu on her own. We dressed for the occasion.

I welled but did not let any tears escape my eyes. That would have been too much, really. There's a fine line between proud mama and OMG you're so embarrassing.

She's spent 10 years working toward this moment. You go girl! I'm so proud of you.

Friends So Near Yet So Far

This past week we reconnected with two different sets of friends that don't live near us. Our friends Rick and Traci and their kids came to our cottage. I haven't seen Traci in about a year, and so missed her company. She's the kind of friend I don't see often, but instantly feel comfortable with. We enjoyed laketime, food, campfire, and even snuck out to Starbucks.

I had to add this picture because it's the only one I took. Who gets out their camera and then only takes this picture? Me I guess! I don't even know why I took this one, doesn't show much! Oh well, I guess it just means we'll have to get together again soon.

Later in the week my old teaching partner Dana and her family came for a visit from Connecticut. Oh how I miss her. As soon as she walked in it felt like she's never been gone. It was a wierd day for me with lots going on, but seeing them was like nothing else mattered. So easy, low maintenance(think Chinese take-out!), and great fun.

My kids were so excited all day to see them! Our kids are not anywhere near in age either, except Sof! It's funny to think a couple years ago we went to Disney with them when their little boy Brady was just a year old.

Sof was not even a picture in our wallet then. This fall Sof and Brady will both turn 3 within a few weeks of each other! The even crazier thing is that Sof looks like their little girl Ava! Never in a million years did I think Dana and I would have kids the same age. What a difference a year makes:)

The Blink of an Eye

Where does time go? It's so cliche, but really? A week is but an instant these days. It was last Saturday we arrived home and decided we weren't ready to stop that summer vacation feeling. So, a few calls, a quick trip to the grocery store, and we had ourselves a get together. The kind of get together that only happens in the winter usually. That's because we're never home on a weekend in the summer. It's good to be home though and reconnect with friends. The kids were happy too. They miss their neighborhood buddies as much as we miss their parents! It was a night of relaxing and hanging out and kids running wild.

Love these two...frick and frack...Lexi and Jack!

The big girls like to pretend they are too cool for this kinda play, but the lure is too much. They put themselves in the line of fire, and then yell at Jack as if he instigated them getting wet!

Sof does not pretend, she is too cool for this. She looks at the others as if to say, "Why would I mess up this bow and dress for that nonsense?".

Uncle Rick got an unsolicited close encounter. Made the man's week.

Scratches got some much needed love and attention(and food).

It's good to be home, but even better to be off to the cottage again. It's inevitable when August hits feel the summer winding down. My partner called about getting to school to set up our room, we went to Target and bought school supplies, and I hit the Old Navy jean sale. Sigh. I bought a size 10 for my sweet Lexi Lou. When did that happen? I couldn't even buy jeans for Adrienne because she has to go in the adult section and try them on herself. Even the ones I bought for Sof were not sized by months, but just a straight 2T. Like I said here, I knew it would come to soon...