fundraising time again at Ashlynne's school

Ok, I'm sending out the plea to all capable and interested parties! (hint, hint, grandparents!) Ashlynne is raising money for school and this year it's easier than ever for our dear family far and away to support her too! You can go to this website: http://www.gafundraising.com/ and click on the online store tab to see all the stuff they're offering. Everything from wrapping paper to food to magazines. Her school code is 952564 and then click go. After that you'll just enter her name and start shopping! Anything you can do to help her win that hamburger phone she'll be forever grateful. :-) Her orders are due by Sept. 3rd. Thanks again!

playin' around

It was a nice slow weekend for once that included playing dress-up and an impromptu merging of our dinners with the neighbors on Saturday. Basically, we threw leftovers together and whatever needed to get out of the fridge and onto the grill.

Ashlynne had a great first week of school and loves loves loves that she has a locker for the first time. She's got at least a couple of kids she knows in every class from last year's school. She's already come home with some crazy stories about her English teacher, Mr. Thomas. Apparently he likes to talk about himself. A lot. One topic was "ask me about a band and I'll tell if I've seen them and what I think". One kid said, "Plain White T's?" "Uuugh", he said. "Hey There Delilah? Your BORING! Next." Hmmm....

She likes her science teacher, Mr. Tanaka and that he looks exactly like an asian version of Grandaddy. I can't wait to see him.

Future Olympian

Of course we've been watching the Olympics here and gymnastics was on last night. It's a little dark-- sorry about that, but too cute.

Early Riser

So here's the problem with kids and two year olds in particular-- they're early risers. And Trey clearly doesn't want to trouble mom with this fact and likes to go down stairs and see what he can find to occupy himself until I wake up.

"Occupying himself" led to our purchase of hotel-style latches on the front and back doors, kid-locks on the pantry, oven, laundry room door, dishwasher, pantry and fridge. Plus, we lock the doors of the bathrooms and Ashlynne's room. What could be left? In a word, mousse. I still haven't figured out how he got a hold of it.

Here's what I awoke to yesterday upon which immediately followed a bath. What you can't see is how it's all in the carpet too.

School's Back!

Today was the first day back to school for everyone around here. 4 days earlier than last year. Remember when it was always the week after Labor Day when you were a kid? I almost felt sorry for Ashlynne this morning as I sent her off to the bus-- then I went back to bed for an hour. :-) Still waiting for her to get home so we'll see how middle school fares.

I may have mentioned to some of you that upon returning from our big summer adventure, I found death and carnage in my backyard. Namely all my plants, flowers and lawn had died a tragic death. It looked like someone had set a match to the whole thing. Not a funny thing in California to joke about, but there it is. So all weekend I worked to set it to rights. This time I shopped in the "drought tolerant" sections and bought bouganvillea, verbena, hibiscus, french lavender and a couple of other pretty ones I can't remember the names of. Bought the pretty red cedar mulch too so it makes a nice impact. Now I just have to try and save the grass on 7 minutes of watering allowed three times a week. Cross your fingers. I'll snap a picture when things settle in.

To close out today, here are still more pictures from our trip. This time these are from the Blue Bayou water park in Baton Rouge, La. Trey had a blast with cousin Ryan-- so much fun you can see how they passed out before the day was even done! And Ashlynne loved being able to go on all the water slides with Pop-Pop, Nathan, Jordan, Kathleen and Chris. In fact, Ashlynne was on slides the entire time and I never got a picture of her!