Olympics

We are eating up the Olympics around here. According to our family tradition, we brought the big mattress from Eleonora's room into the living room and faithfully watch from 8-12 every night. 

Eleonora woke up and joined us in watching some gymnastics at Craft Nightlast week. She loved it and ran around with her arms in the air. 

You've got to soak the Summer Olympucs up while they're here, because as I told Jennifer, next time they come around our Lydia and Josiah will be in 3rd and 7th grades!  (I'm guessing Chris and I will have more company watching with us in 4 years - I doubt we can keep the boys 7o'clock bedtime going quite that long!)

Tomato Tuesday

Hope everyone in this house likes tomato soup because Amanda and I (and our girlies) have gotten together twice to mass produce bags of (hopefully) delicious and nutritious soup!

And in other news, Eleonora is really starting to enjoy coloring and painting. We found two of these fun paint-with-water pages in an old book of Caleb's.

 

County Fair

On Saturday afternoon, my mom took us to the county fair. 

I'm not sure how long our Rhea County has even had a fair, but I do know that it was our first experience with it. 

It was much less crowded than the Hamilton County fair that we used to attend when we lived in Hixson, which was pleasant. 

The boys' favorite part was surely the little carnival. 

We all rode the Scrambler, and since we were the only customers around, we got to ride it forwards and backwards. 

Another crowd favorite - cotton candy!  The boys stopped when they got near the center to save some for Eleonora, but her little puff kept getting smaller and smaller as they carried it around the fair. 

We decided that we had better experience the rodeo since we had already paid to attend just by getting in the fair, but we were getting toasty, so we headed to Jennifer & Joel's to wait for rodeo time. 

A wonderful time was had by all!  Thanks to Grandma for the trip to the fair!

Highway 127 Yard Sale

Eleonora, Amanda, and I had a fun Friday exploring the Hwy. 127 Yard Sale last week.  It was as hot as blue blazes, let me tell you. Especially with a toddler on my back. 

We didn't cone away with as many treasures as last year, but we still had a jolly good time!

Tomatoes

It's tomato time in Tennessee!  On Monday, Amanda and I whipped up nearly 4 dozen jars of salsa. We filled this huge bowl twice. Amanda took more pictures than I did, including one of me wearing swim goggles to chop up 12 onions. I'll leave that to your imagination. We threw in a few of our own garden veggies in the salsa, but most of the tomatoes came from the mountain - 25 pounds for $8.  That seems like a bargain to me!

Yesterday Caleb picked tomatoes from our garden to make this delicious bruschetta. Next up, tomato soup and canned tomatoes in large quantities!

Back to School

Good morning!

 The boys were back to school today.

 Yesterday, all 5 of us went to meet their teachers and drop off their school supplies.

 It looks like they're in for a good year.

 Jennifer asked if I shed a tear when I dropped them off this morning.

The answer was no.

As you can see, we were not in a sentimental mood this morning!

Harbor Island

There were other photographers in our group, so I only snapped a few shots with my phone. The kids played on the porch with this little lizard for ages. 

Our little island community had weekly 'Turtle Talks' and 'Alligator/Snake Talks.'  The boys and I (and a few friends) attended both and learned a lot. 

At least enough to recognize the marks from 'turtle crawls' where loggerhead sea turtles crawled onto the beach to lay their eggs in the night. 

One morning Chris and I went on a sunrise bike ride and spotted at least 5 turtle crawls. So the next two night we went out at midnight with red cellophane covering our lights to try to find turtles in action laying eggs, but no such luck. 

Eleonora and her cousins enjoyed modeling their sailor suits. 

The view from our deck in the evening. 

I almost forgot to mention that, while the sea turtles remained elusive, we did spot a large gator up close and personal. 

My dad was taking Jennifer, the kids, and me for a golf cart ride and Chris was biking alongside us. We got to the most woodsy street of the neighborhood, and there was an alligator, maybe 4-5 feet long, basking on the side of the road. Jenn immediately started screaming and gathering all the children to her to stand on the seat of the golf cart. Chris pedaled quickly past, and of course my dad went and waved his hat in the gator's face. It just laid there. 

We went back almost every day to try to see him again, but that was it. We had many more adventures which were documented by my mom and Jennifer, but it remains to be seen if I will share those pictures or not. Another highlight of the trip was a visit to the lighthouse.  And a 4th of July golf cart parade. And some friendly family swimming and diving competitions.