so it begins

Lauren is all signed up for Pre-K. As many of you know that in and of itself was a challenge. The very best programs here require ridiculously HUGE registration fees and mothers to line up the night before registration...

So everything is all set and I took Lauren to see the school on Tuesday. She put on a huge show of not wanting to go and even I teared up a little. School doesn't start until Sept. so I'm using this time to prep her. Like any other girl (in my family at least), back to school shopping is critical to school attendance. La isn't interested in anything but the shoes so I thought this would be easy. WRONG!!

My child wants only one type of shoe. She's been asking Nick for Skechers since she saw the commercial between Tom & Jerry reruns back in June. So I sat down with her today to figure out just what shoes she's obsessed with...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Lauren wants "twinkle" shoes. They light up, cost $42 a pair and she wants a pair in white and one in brown. She seems to think it obvious that two pair is a must. I can not believe we are already having this conversation. I looked straight into those big brown eyes searching for some diversion when she said "...and mom, they don't sell these at Wal-Mart".

holy crow.

ode to twilight

Twilight fever in our house.

philology.

Or logolepsy if you prefer. True. I love words (and can't spell worth a darn). One of my latest reads has me hanging on every word, and skimming the dictionary for words like skirr, malaise and thebaine. I think my obsession started with my father, who as I've said before is a walking dictionary.

I've been eyeballing (how's that for eloquent?) this turn table game since last September. I was wondering why I hadn't made the purchase tonight when I suddenly had a hankering to play. So I'm putting this out there as birthday bait...but at least you don't have to guess!

Girls Camp

The Ropes Course was a favorite of the girls. One girl is pulled up by the rest of her cabin and then dropped 30 feet on a swinging rope...so fun!!

zip line

Alma Delta Five cabin (Alma chapter 5). My friend Vanessa was the cutest cabin mom!

The entrance to Youth Inc. Camp...pool, canteen, mess hall, lake and much more!
"One Heart" shirts. I was in charge of registration. We had over 150 people at camp and I have to say every hour of prep time was worth it!!
We made lanyards for all the cabin moms, campers and leaders. Their names on the front and the daily schedules on the back.
Devotional hour.
All the cabins had a view of the lake. You can't see it very well in this picture (my camera battery died 2 hours into the first day). Such a beautiful place and everyone was so happy! We had the most amazing time!

So long Ken...Hello Ben!

Lauren started swim lessons on Tuesday this week. She loves her instructor who she says looks like her Ken doll aka: "Prince Antonio" (from Barbie Island Princess)

She was a little too eager to practice jumping in....

Perfect form.

And lets do it again, Ben!

hardcore.

Must, must read. Real live humans living a real life. In all my "emergency preparedness" dreams, I never hoped to find a book so inspiring...I had to stop in chapter 1 to blog:

Okay, I admit I have high hopes for this book. I love the humor and sarcasm of this author. It's so easy to get sucked in. I'm already trying to figure out where my water comes from, plotting out my garden and deliberating over free range chickens. Did you know that each food item in a typical US meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles? Gross much.

So all I'm saying is, if you have the least bit of interest in educating your backwards, lazy consumer driven lives, we should sacrifice a few more thousand acres of forest lands and buy this paper back book...but be sure to walk to the book store.

Melissa you have to read this with me!!

"This is the story...of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air." ~Barbara Kingsolver