How can it be August already??? I mean, summer just started….like yesterday! And now summer is ending. ARRGGG…. I really, really don’t like that. As in, I want to dig in my heels and have a (not so small) temper tantrum. Maybe not the best example for my kids, but truthfully it’s how I feel every August. Don’t get my wrong, August is a fun month full of birthdays and anniversaries. It’s also filled with going back to school….and shorter and shorter days….and the end of summer. I suppose the good news is that I do enjoy fall and crisp mornings. So, okay bring it on. Maybe I’m ready, maybe I’m not, but bring it on anyway. But before we skip to September, let me recap some of our fun filled, August adventures.
Maylin started August off right with Ballet Camp. Yes, I said Ballet camp. A child of mine willingly and enthusiastically went to Ballet camp. And loved every second of it! Yep.
Maylin’s smile pretty much sums it all up. She loved Ballet camp!
Maylin has been enamored with ballet for years now, but I didn’t really think that an energetic, wild child would enjoy the elegant and slower paced nature of Ballet. Well, what do I know?? Not much apparently, because Maylin loved it! And Maylin rocked it too! She learned the entire dance routine to a song from the movie Mulan.
Our deal was that I would let Maylin take a one week ballet camp this summer to see if she really liked ballet. If she loved it I would sign her up for Ballet classes in the fall. I was completely sure she would hate it by the end of the week. Wrong! She didn’t hate it. She danced out of class every night recounting every second of class to whoever would listen. She tried valiantly to teach me the various positions that she had learned. Now, that was funny! A ballet student I am not! I had to draw the line when she tried to get Jessie (the basset hound puppy!) to do ballet by placing her feet in certain positions. Poor Jessie! Maylin had to settle for dressing up the poor puppy in a tutu which Jessie happily chewed on and Rocko quietly hid in his crate for fear of being dressed up as well. I really should have gotten a picture of the puppy in a tutu. It was pretty darn cute.
So, Maylin has now decided that she wants to take ballet and gymnastics. Well, I want a million dollars and a slamming beach body but it’s not gonna happen, honey! And neither is Maylin taking both ballet and gymnastics-for several reasons. One is simple scheduling. I just can’t work out the schedules with their other activities. The other is my sanity and not running all over town every night to get all 3 of them to their various activities. So, for now she will have to suffer through another year without ballet until they have a class that fits our schedule. Poor Maylin is insisting I have ruined her life. I think I blinked and she became a teenager overnight….. Oh dear me.
While Maylin spent the first week of August dancing through ballet steps, the rest of us sloshed through mud puddles and dodged flooding. That was a lot of rain!
All the rain sure made the pastures look good though. Loving it!!
The kids were grateful to get a break from fencing and outside chores but I wasn’t as thrilled as they were. My plan was to have the fencing completed this summer and it’s looking like it might be closer to the end of fall or maybe even the end of the year before the fencing is completed. I hope…. Somehow I just never get as much done as I want to. Story of my life…
At the end of the summer we had quite a bit of fencing done. The clearing on the distant hill is our house. We managed to fence all the way down the driveway and down to the creek. That means that Minnie Moo’s new pasture is almost complete. I just have to install a gate and she is all set.
Once we fenced down to the creek we started fencing in the future hayfield.
This is what the fields look like from the driveway. We still have a few brush piles to burn. It’s either too wet or too dry to burn lately, but one day soon we will let Jim’s inner pyromaniac free again. Heaven help my nerves!
This is the future hay field. At least we’ve started the fence line. Then I ran out of fencing supplies. As in I ran out of T-posts, wooden posts, concrete and staples. Then the rain returned so I was forced to take another break from fencing.
If you’re going to live on a farm, you better learn how to fence. Maleah has taken a crash course in fencing this summer. She passed with flying colors of course. Life skills on the farm!
I tried to fence for an hour or two everyday, but some days it just wasn’t possible. Some days we had to take a break and celebrate. Days like Camden’s 4th birthday!
Somehow I blinked and this little cutie pie turned 4! Excuse me, I need a tissue….my baby is not a baby anymore. What nonsense is that????
Okay, Camden loves dinosaurs, guns and transformers. So a gun that transforms into a dinosaur is a huge hit for him.
He will always love Optimus Prime though. The original Transformer or as Camden says “The Good Guy”.
It might have been Camden’s birthday, but everyone enjoyed this racetrack set. It even glows in the dark so we have races at night around here. Yep. Fun for everyone.
Camden turned 4 this year and he celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese for the day. I know it’s not very original but he loves being able to play games and eat pizza. The girls love it too since they get to play games and eat pizza also. This was acutally the first year that Maleah was able to enjoy it without being afraid of the mascot and somehow I forgot to take a single picture. We were having so much fun that I completely forgot to capture anything in pictures. The old memory ain’t what it used to be obviously.
Camden then held his birthday party at Fun Depot the following Saturday. As I just wrote that I realized that we might be spoiling him just a little….. Yeah…..I’m going to have to work on that…
Camden has always managed to charm me with that sweet smile. He charmed his Nana into making him this transformer cake too.
Anyway, we invited the family and handed out the play cards and watched the adults act like kids! It’s always fun to watch the adults turn into kids before your eyes! Go-cart races turn into bumper cars and bumper cars turn into personal vendettas. Everyone had a lot of fun though.
My dad and Jim had a healthy little competition going on the rock climbing wall. I won’t tell you who won though because I don’t want to embarrass anyone! You might notice that they forgot to wait for Maylin before they started. Silly men.
Jim and I celebrated our 21st anniversary this year. I’m still so in love with that man and so blessed to be sharing this life with him.
We enjoyed a simple hike around the farm on a beautiful day.
I love hiking around in the woods at the back of our property. There are so many places that I haven’t been yet.
Jim had seen this cool spring box when he first walked the property with the logging guy but I had never gotten the chance to see it.
I was so excited to finally see this! It seems to be an Appalachian spring box. We had no idea that another home was on that part of the property. We are hoping to hike back there again this winter and take Maylin’s metal detector and search around for cool stuff.
Just a few days after our anniversary came my birthday. We decided to treat the kids to a trip to the WNC Nature Center. The plan was to go to the Appalachian Gateway Museum in Old Fort on the way home but of course they are closed on Mondays. However, we did get to walk around and take a few great photos.
What mom doesn’t love a good picture of her family?
August is also the month we officially start back to school. We actually do schoolwork through the summer while we are at therapy on Mondays and Wednesdays but in August we start back every day. Every. Day. As in Every. Single. Day. I’m trying to stay positive here. I’m trying.
This year Maylin is in 3rd grade. Have I mentioned this little sweetheart is smart as a whip? Well, this year Maylin is trying online schoolwork and is loving it so far. She started over the summer as a trial and did great. She placed into a 4th grade Science class and is taking Spanish and Coding. Did I mention that she is 7??? Whew. Watch out world! I pray that she continues to love her schoolwork and to excel in it.
Although Maylin doesn’t need therapy she has to tag along with her brother and sister a few times a week. So we pack up her schoolwork and take it with us and she works for the hour that we sit and wait on them. Maylin loves unicorns and mermaids so this unicorn backpack was quite the find for her. It was on sale, so it was quite the find for me too!
Camden has developed a love of making silly faces. I had to include this silly face because it’s the one I see ALOT every day. It’s just his signature face for now.
Camden is doing some preschool work this year but is mostly focusing on learning to talk.
Camden had to get a new backpack to take his letters and numbers book to speech therapy with him.
Maleah is a senior this year. Excuse me for a moment…. Yep, I’m okay now. As I was saying, Maleah is a senior and is trying to focus on her schoolwork and working with Jim a few afternoons a week. She is still saving to buy a yellow, VW Beetle Bug with a sunroof.
Maleah still goes to therapy a few mornings a week but she didn’t want a new backpack to take with her this year. She loves this backpack some friends gave her a few years ago and chose to keep using it. I love her frugal side when it appears.
These 3 are my heart outside my own body. I love each of them for who they are and all their crazy antics! Let the school year begin!!!
