Yesterday after the soccer games, Daddy, Raine, and I were sitting in the library when all of a sudden Carter jumped into the doorway and growled. As soon as we stopped laughing enough to speak, we asked him what in the world he was doing. He said, “This is me being Hulk!”

This picture is going to end up in a Senior slideshow or something many years from now! The farmer’s tan on those skinny little arms is priceless.

Monday was the first day of school. Carter started kindergarten…

And Raine started 2nd grade.

We all walked over to the school.

We dropped off Carter in Mrs. Schultz’s class.

Then we took Raine upstairs to Mrs. Allen’s class.

Today, I took off work to spend a little extra time with Carter since the kindergartners only attend half day the first 3 days of school. We rode our bikes to school and back.

Carter still can’t pass a flower patch without picking one for me!

See that painted fingernail? I was painting Raine’s nails for the first day of school and Carter begged and pleaded to have his painted too. I tried to pacify him by saying that I would paint a couple toenails, but he wanted it visible. This one finger on his right hand was our compromise! I told myself that it’s an educational aid because it helps him remember which hand is the right one. He likes it because it looks green indoors and then turns blue outside.

These past three weeks, cousin Sydney has been staying with us to be a nanny for the kids. They (meaning the kids, I can’t speak for Sydney) had a BLAST! Sydney is 14 years old and therefore can’t drive, so everywhere they went, they rode bikes. They made countless trips to the library and the local playgrounds. They also rode to Jump Street trampoline park, the McDonald’s play place, Baskin Robbins ice cream, Milwaukee Joes ice cream, the Kids-ville playground, the nice covered playground at the elementary school, and the movie theater (I think). It’s great that we live so close to so many fun places!

They spent plenty of time around the house too. I think Sydney did enough crafts to last her for the next six months!

We’ve had the most mild summer this year… until Sydney got here, then the temps soared to 106* and sat there. Each afternoon, they soaked in the little inflatable pool in the backyard. They also spent time on the trampoline.

Playing crack the egg.

On the weekends, we tried to show Sydney some of our favorite “everyday” kind of things. Things like shopping at the Grapevine Mills mall (during tax-free weekend no less), Bahama Bucks shaved ice, Central Market, and the Colleyville City library party.

The City hosts great, completely free, parties. They had pony rides:

and a petting zoo.

The kids really liked this pig!

They also had inflatable obstacle courses, crafts, carnival games, and prizes. It was so much fun that we didn’t even mind the evening heat.

When Sydney mentioned that she had never been to a rodeo, we knew we had to take her to the Fort Worth Stockyards Rodeo.

Nothing says Texas like longhorns.

And nothing is more Texan than a rodeo.

Raine did the mutton chase… in flip-flops!

This kid can sleep ANYWHERE!

We also made a couple trips to the water park.

All the photos are of Carter because Raine and Sydney were off riding slides the entire time. They both worked up the courage to ride the Green Extreme roller coaster slide (once at least—I won’t mention who chickened out the second time ;)!

We loved having Sydney here. We worked her like a dog! But hopefully it wasn’t too traumatic of an experience because it was super nice to have a babysitter available *ALL*THE*TIME* And since she is family, she does most things like we do them so she fit right into the family. The kids were especially sad to see her go. She was the big sister that they never had. Tonight at dinner, Raine was telling Carter that he should turn into a girl so that she could have a sister! I think she really enjoyed having a girl around 24/7 to play with her.

I’ll be honest, I’m just glad to have this crazy summer almost over! The kids will start school next Monday and I’m counting on my life getting a whole lot simpler.

Mid-week birthdays aren’t as exciting as weekend birthdays, so there isn’t much to report. The kids put together a 13-clue treasure hunt around the house that lead him to two of his favorite things — bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Daddy opened his presents, we had a yummy ice cream cake, and now he’s another year closer to the big one!

We are officially pet owners. After years of begging for a pet — and me telling them that the lizard living in the front bush was the only pet they were every going to have — the kids prevailed, with the help of a high-pressure salesman, and we are the proud owners of two hermit crabs.

This was taken before Raine learned what it feels like to get pinched! Somehow she managed to hold onto the little critter and not fling it across the room, but she sure wasn’t as eager to pick it up after that.

We built a fantastic little crabitat last night and provided them with two new shell options to explore. When we woke up this morning, Carter’s crab had shed the superman shell and taken up residence in the more natural-looking spotted shell. It spent most of the day buried in the corner — probably recovering from the shock of changing environments.