Friday, August 31, 2018

First & Last

Summer was a time to mentally gear ourselves up for the fact that we were about to send our eldest off to college.  We tried not to think about what life in our home would look like without him.  A HUGE hole, no doubt.

He has a sweet relationship with our Island Princess and she's pretty crazy about him.


MQ doesn't have monkey bars yet but the stair rail sure seems to do the trip for now.
Ummm....maybe not the right size for swinging, Caleb.

Fun With Friends

The Campbell Cousins were here one week and then headed to have their time in Memphis.  While they were gone, I let the Fish Sticks have a play date with school friends.  Taking a swim at the swim hole is always on the agenda.


Hudson and Josiah

Lydia and Maddie

Goofy Roofy

Jedidiah, Bodie, Jeshua and Hudson

Leah and Mary Bradley 

Marxie and Ruth

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Summer Time Fun

I love that my Fish Sticks eat tomatoes as a snack!

Mary Erin was so sweet to spend time with Lydia and Ruth and cook a meal for G and G together and paint wood signs!  My girls will never forget it!

 "Helping" Mommy wash the dishes
 Shopping "cheese"
She's a little bias with her Daddy
 Despite us placing rocks on every ledge we could find on our porches, this barn swallow built a nest.
She had 6 babies...one of which our cat found and eliminated.
 Although I dreaded the clean up of that nest and poop collection under the nest on my porch, we were fascinated with the mama bringing her babies bugs each morning.
 Before they all learned how to fly, our yard FILLED with barn swallows flying close to the grass and swooping in and out of the our front porch.  I never could figure out what this behavior meant but we were very intrigued by it.  It went on for days as the babies were learning how to fly...almost a big extended family affair.

And this little bird made a nest on our top porch ON TOP of the rocks that I had strategically placed there so NO birds would build a nest.  

Oh well!

Post Party

We got home late from Uncle Clayton's birthday bash.  The kids had lots of fun playing with balloon art - so much fun that this creation was made and worn during cartoons the next morning.😳
 And my sweet Liddy Leigh, who had seemed to be having a rough summer as there is no Campbell Cousin her age, got invited to spend the night with her 2nd cousin, Myla, after the party.  

 And I was sent home with this beautiful centerpiece!!💙

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Happy 80th Birthday

My Man's uncle from Memphis was turning 80 and his children were throwing a big birthday celebration for him in Nashville.  The Campbells drove up from Memphis and the VA cousins were there too.  It was lots of fun.  We had not been all together in about 12 years.

All the Stanley cousins



These girls are knuckleheads.  I have tons of this type of pictures from throughout the summer.


Beauties!










Pool Play

Nonie & Pops were getting their house ready to sell and our pool time this summer was limited.  
We enjoyed every last time we were at the pool.  We took our 2nd cousins with us to cool down and have some fun.  Our Payne cousins met us too.