I hope I don't regret it, but I really haven't taken very many pictures of our completely awesome summer.  I decided at the beginning of May to try to live in the moment instead of outside of the moment, hence, I haven't been carting my camera around very much.  Luckily for me, there such a thing as a cell phone camera, so if I really see something that I just can't resist, I can still snap a picture, but my waterproof, lime-green camera has spent most of the summer sitting on my desk.

It's taken a great deal of will power.  My Japanese instincts insist that a camera is as important as underclothes and a bathing suit, but I am determined to play this summer rather than record.  I've had a lot of fun, and I think we've built some good memories.

We've gone to the beach a couple of times this summer, and all of the girls head straight to the water.  Reagan will play in them for a few minutes, at least as long as Mommy is in the water (which is about 5 minutes tops).  Once Mommy heads for the umbrella and lounge chair, Reagan heads for the sand, shovels and buckets.  I've always declared that I go to the BEACH not the OCEAN, and I've finally got a kid that likes to do the same things I loved doing as a kid.  Reagan and I have spent a couple of lovely afternoons together digging trenches and moats and building impossible walls.

And then there is Kate, who is the waterbug of all waterbugs.  She will stay in the water until her skin is withered and wrinkly.  We have to make sure she doesn't keep going deeper and deeper!  If she had her druthers, she would be surfing already!  She has amazing heat stamina.  I start to wilt, and she's ready to run.  She turns a lovely, silky brown that matches her golden eyes and hair.  Most people know her as a bookworm, curled up on a chair next to mom reading thick volumes of musty paper, but Kate loves to be active, warm, sweaty and wet!

And then, I discovered that Reagan can read.  I'm not sure when that happened, but it did.  Sometime between the ages of 4 and Kindergarten, she figured out how to recognize letters and words.  It makes Georgianna jealous, so I won't be surprised if Georgie starts reading early, too.

Emily has been a whirlwind, amazing, fun-loving, totally-awesome Auntie!  She and the girls get to do all sorts of fun things while I'm stuck at work.  They go swimming, do the dollar movies, hang out with other kids, go bowling, walk to the park, have picnics, visit Target.  Of course, she makes them clean their rooms and pick up the house which is super nice!

We're a little concerned that maybe we're making them do too much work.   Last night when we were talking about God creating a new heaven and a new earth, Reagan said, "yes, we wreck the world, so when God makes the new one, I have to remember to put my toy away before I get out a new one!"

July passes swiftly by

Why is it that the most poetic sounding phrases are so grammatically incorrect?  Regardless, we are heading round the bend of July, and I am not prepared for the summer to come to an end.  We haven't really felt like it has been a summer.  At least, not a summer by Texan standards.

While the rest of the United States seems to be suffering from heat waves, drought-like conditions and all those uncomfortable things, we have been blessed with rain and mild weather.  I know, sounds like the Northwest doesn't it?  Of course, our rain happens when it is 82F, but it is still rain, and for Texas 82 is mighty pleasant.

Now, if I were at home with the kids, they would be allowed to play outside, ride their bikes, scoot on their scooters and the fun things you get to do in the spring, but there would be no way that they would be going to the pool, splashing on slip and slides or having water fights.  It would just be too cool, and I'm sure that they would agree with me.  I would have moans of, "Mommy, I'm freeeeeeziiiiing!"  But, since Emily is here, the kids are getting plenty of water time, and as far as I can tell, they aren't freezing.

I find it perplexing.  Their differential attitude that is, not the fact that they aren't freezing.

I can tell that the weather has been mild because the girls are the same color they were at the beginning of summer.  No tan lines.  No sun burns.  All in all, I'm thankful for the no sun burns part.  Emily is unhappy with the no tan lines part.  I'm relatively certain that things will start heating up pretty soon.  After all, August is coming...right?

4th of July

I couldn't let the opportunity pass to share our 4th of July.  We slept in late.  Translation: till almost 8:00a.m.!  I think Tanner woke up a bit earlier than me because while I was tottering around in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make breakfast, he came waltzing in with a cappuccino from Starbucks.  I never did get breakfast made...

We wanted to give Emily a break from kids and stuff, so we piled the kids in the car, swung by Home Depot for one of those pump sprayer thingy-mums and then found some breakfast tacos.  I tell you what (please imagine a deep Texan drawl at this point), the whole darn city shuts down on the 4th of Jewelye!  We couldn't find an open fast food restaurant to save our lives!  Took us almost 20minutes to find a place to feed the kids.

Well, then Jonny called us and told us that his work was having a 4th of July party, so why not come over and hit the pool and have some hamburgers and hot dogs.  We did.  We had a lot of fun, and I finally got rid of the office pasty white that has become my usual skin tone.  Unfortunately, I had planned hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner, too!  But that was okay, because I had planned a truly northwest experience.  Turkey burgers and chicken hot dogs, so it was different.

We decided to do the rooftop parking again rather than go to the George Bush Museum for the show.  I just didn't feel like fighting the crowds this year.  The girls played with glow sticks and made funny animal shapes with them.  My favorite was the panda face they made.

Speaking of pandas, we got onto the subject of Kung Fu Panda because the girls and I made chocolate ice cream for after the fireworks.  Emily was gushing about how delicious it tasted, and Kate said, "that's because of my secret ingredient!"  Well, of course I had to be a proud Asian mamma at that moment, and as we were talking about it, Tanner started laughing as he remembered the duck's confession about there being no secret ingredient when we were all expecting him to confess that Po was adopted.  Kate said most emphatically, "Well, I knew he was adopted!"  Tanner asked, "Really?  How did you know?"  We all expected her to say something like, "Ducks can't have pandas" instead she said, "Because I saw Kung Fu Panda 2!"

Okay, back to pre-fireworks...So the girls climbed on to the roof of the van with Auntie Emily so that they could have a good view.  When the fireworks began, the biggest racket I've ever heard those girls make assaulted my ears.  Woohoos!  Whoops!  Aaaaaah! Screech!...all sorts of noised and shouts.  They were the loudest group on the rooftop.  I felt like I was in 7th grade again, saying, "I don't really know them."  At least they had fun.