Responsibility

 Congratulations to Brinley for getting the Responsibility award through character counts at her school.  She didn't really understand what this was or why they made her walk up to the stage but she got this great certificate and a pretty cool cardinals shirt to show that she is a cardinal of character.

 I took this picture of her recieving her award from the assistant principal and then he had her turn around so that I could get a picture of the three of them and my cameras flash wouldn't recharge so this is all I have.

Lincln took this nice picture of Brinley before the program started.  Thanks Linc!

The going ons outside my house.

The above video clip is of a couple birds that snip off my flowers and eat something off the end and then throw my flowers on the ground.  I think it's a little strange but whatever makes them happy. 

This is Sammy.  We have decided to name every lizard in our backyard Sammy because Sammy can be a boy name or a girl name and we aren't sure of the gender so we have made it easy on ourselves.

This was on day when it was raining like crazy.  I could not believe how fast the place feels up with water.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the rain coming down at an angle.  Pretty crazy.

 This is another picture of the rain.  Pretty soon after this the road was a river and the park was the lake.  It's nice to get rain like this to clean the dirt off the sidewalks.  I have never seen anyone spray the sidewalk off like we did growing up and I haven't seen anyone wash their car at home but I being the rebellious one that I am did wash my car out front, I will probably get fined from the community, oh well, my car is clean.  It must have something to do with living in the desert and conserving water.  hmmm!

Over at the park is a big blue dumpster that they bring out to put all the grass shavings in for the park.  They cut the grass as short as they can and rake up all the shavings and put them in the dumpster.  Then they seed because the rhye grass that they use for the summer can't handle temperatures in the 60's and will go dorment.  The new seed is already coming up and should look really good in a couple weeks.  I thought I would share this because I have never seen or heard of this before.  The things people do to have a good yard.  I think it's great!

Where is everyone?

Lincoln and Brinley were so excited to get to hang out at the pool for fall break.  It is a little harder to get to the pool when they have school due to homework and everything else.  We got to the pool and had it all to ourselves.  That would be because it was 99 degrees and not 100.  Nobody in Arizona goes to the pool when the temperature dips that low because it is just too cold.  The kids actually said the water was cold and didn't play in it for very long.  I think that is so funny.  I guess we are adapting to the weather. 

It must be time to put the swim suits away.

Is there anything on my face?

This is what Brinley's face looked like pretty much every day in May.  She thought it was funny to put food on her face and then of course ask us if there was anything on her face.  We learned to ignore her after a while and I think it wasn't fun for her anymore.  Yay, no more dirty face.  Now we get to ignore the lifting of the shirt or the shorts riding up, just to get our attention, I'll spare you the pictures of that grand idea.  What will she think of next?

Lincolns first Karate Tournament

Lincoln had his first Karate tournament today and he did pretty well.  We had a lot of fun watching all the different types of Karate and Lincoln ended up taking 3rd place with his Kata.  He got a trophy but not just any trophy, a green trophy which is his most favorite color of all.  He carried it around the whole rest of the tournament and showed it to everyone that he walked past. 

Congratulations Linc, we're so proud of you!

I did it

I bought a sewing machine two weeks ago and I have hemmed about 8 pairs of pants and I made this:

It was fun and I may have to attempt something else really soon.  I think Brinley likes it as well.

School Days

Today is the first day of school for Lincoln and Brinley.  They were so excited for the big day.  Brinley put her clothes out on her bed Sunday morning.  I set their alarms to wake them up at 7:30 and Lincoln was up at 6:00.  Brinley was up at 7:00.  Brinley could sleep in until 10:00 if I let her.  No need for alarm clocks today.

I asked Lincoln if I could take a picture of him before school and he came downstairs in some shorts from 2 years ago that hit him about 5 inches above the knee.  We went over what were his school clothes and what were his play clothes.  He said: how about we pretend like tomorrow is the first day of school and I will wear these today and tomorrow I will wear new clothes?  I said: How about you get upstairs and get those shorts changed right now or it won't be a good day.  He changed his shorts just like I asked so I can't complain.  (however, I pair their clothes up so that they will have matching clothes when they put them on and he switched clothes so now there are some unmatched clothes somewhere) and yes, Monique, I do need to get over it!  He came down and said, one picture and that's enough.  Ok, here is Lincolns first day of second grade picture.  I know he will have a great day.  He always does.

This is Brinley in the outfit she picked Sunday morning.  I asked her if I could put braids in her hair and she said no, she would like a bun.  Wow!  She really wants to get decked out for her first day.

These are Brinleys cute shoes that I thought would be so fun to wear with  her pink and black outfit.  She has decided that she would rather wear her other shoes. I told her that they don't match.  She doesn't care.  I told her that her white socks would show more than her cute outfit.  She didn't care.  I guess my kids will dress how they want.  hmmm!

These are the shoes Brinley chose to wear, cute but brown with white socks sticking out like a sore thumb and she couldn't be happier.  She looked at the picture and said oooh, those are sooo cute!

Last of all, this is Brinley's backpack.  She is very upset that it is touching her bum.  When we arrived at school she took it off and handed it to me.  It was just too much for her to handle.  I think it's cute and I think that she will have a great day with her cute clothes, fun teacher and new class for her first day of kindergarten.

As for me, everyone keeps asking what I am going to do.  Well for my first day home alone, I am going to take a shower without any kids walking in to ask for a snack.  I am going to sit here with absolutely no noise in the house.  I may clean the house today or maybe tomorrow.  I may even go for a walk all by myself.  Happy day for me!  When 4:00 rolls around, I will pick the kids up, give them a snack and haul them off to karate, bring them home for homework, dinner, showers and bed.

Who knows what I will do next week.  I have a lot of things in mind but I don't know that I have time to do everything.  My big list is to do some family history, help out in the classrooms at school, find a part time job, go swim some laps, jog a few miles.  Have dinner ready on time and the laundry done before anyone gets home.  Wish me LUCK!