Back To School Shopping Already (and a little Christmas too!)

Everyone is talking about getting ready to go back to school.  I'm in that parade as well.  In fact, the Monday we came back from the beach house we bought school supplies for Bella.  I have always made the kids wait until after our beach house week to get supplies.  Monday we popped into Wal-Mart to pick up a few items for the house, saw the supplies and I figured why not...better to get them now and be able to have a choice than get what's left later.  Bella had so much fun picking everything out.  Who knew a pencil bag and super cool pencils could make you squeal with delight.  Chris is easier now that he's in high school. Well I guess its easier...he gets his list of "supplies" the first day of classes.  Bella wasn't crazy about the backpack selections so when we ventured to Target later in the day, she found a cool cheetah print she loved along with a new lunch bag.  As far as clothes and shoes are concerned, we really haven't started that task yet although if I see some clothing pieces here and there on sale, I will probably pick them up.  We did pick up a new running outfit for Chris Tuesday evening.  He starts cross country practice Monday.  I'm really dreading shopping for him.  He's getting expensive and picky and expensive.  I shouldn't really say "picky"...he just knows what he likes and you cannot deviate from that.  Period.  He also found THE BACKPACK he really wanted at Academy so we picked that up as well.  Bella is fun to shop with most of the time, but there are times when I think something is totally awesome and she's like "yeah mom, not so much!" The shoes will be the biggest pain in my ass.  I'm going to stand my ground on buying another pair of Twinkle Toes shoes.  Those things just didn't last.  My girl plays hard y'all and Twinkle Toes are not made for playing hard.

While we were at the beach house last week, I did manage to order a couple of Christmas gifts.  Score for me!  I have to say that purchase has motivated me to get my shopping done in record time this year and enjoy the holidays and my time off with my babies. I have a list going and have been perusing websites looking for more gift ideas.  We shall see how this goes.

I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were at the beach house and my phone never went down tot he beach with me.  Its too new so I'm still a little bit protective of it.

Between me and my siblings, here's what we did capture...

Lastly, Tuesday evening we had dinner Fuddruckers in LJ before heading to Academy.  Chris chose to sit with the King.  Don't we make a lovely pair?

When we got back home these flowers were in our mailbox.  We have no idea who left them but it was a nice surprise to come home to.  Brightened us all up :).

Hope y'all have a great weekend.  Tomorrow is August 1st.  One last official month of summer.  While I realize the heat will last into September, etc....I still look forward to September 1st because in my book....its FALL YALL!!!

Fireworks

So Thursday we were turned loose at work by 3:00--yay to the boss for letting us go early for the holiday.  I skipped on over to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies for a craft project I saw on Pinterest....straw fireworks.

I picked up the paint and 8x10 canvasses which were both on sale (lucky me) as well as gold & silver glitter.  I still can't believe I did that.  I like sparkly things but glitter just seems to get all over everything.  Anyway, I got home and Bella was super excited to start this project.  Chris decided to join the fun as well.  We taped 7 straws together to make the fireworks shape and then we had a practice run on paper plates.  

 Now for the real thing...

I helped Bella.  She was afraid she would get too much paint or not enough, so I dipped and she told me where to place it on her canvass, then she pressed the straws down to make sure the paint stayed on good.

After the blue and red paint was in place, we added the glitter.  Bella choose to add both silver and gold while Chris stuck with just silver.  I love how both of them turned out. 

Christopher's creation....

Miss Bella's artwork...

And here are my two monkeys showing off their art....

I loved this little project that took about 10-15 minutes tops and now we have something to decorate with every year.  I have one displayed on the dining table and one on a shelf.  Perfect.  I should have taken pictures of that huh.  Oh well.  

Saturday evening we went to Lake Jackson to watch fireworks.  I snapped this picture of my monkeys waiting for the show...

I didn't get any pics of the fireworks because I was too busy oohing and awwing with Bella.  It was a fun night.  Hope ya'll had a great 4th of July.

Happy Birthday Momma & Happy 4th of July

Today would have been momma's 74th birthday.  She was the best momma ever.  Even though she isn't with us anymore, she is still teaching me.  I miss this woman every single day and here lately, more than usual.  Now I'm going to sound like a little kid when I say....it just isn't fair.

Y'all have a super 4th of July!!  I hope you get to see some pretty spectacular fireworks!

Y'all have a good one!

More of Life Lately

Summers are tough on me.  Before I had children, they were just like any other day of the year, just much hotter.  Now, I that I have children, I want to be home with my children on their summer break but I can't.  I must be at work making the bacon to take home.  I have vacation scheduled later in July for the beach house and I've been taking a day here and there for other stuff but I just want to be home.  Poolside would be nice too.  ha!

Bella is my shadow.  Always has been really, but lately she does not like being away from mommy at all.  She loves to help in the kitchen, work on craft projects with me, help in the yard, do laundry, take naps, watch shows, read, draw, color, shop, run errands.  You name it, she is 199% in it with me.  I say 199% because that is the magic number with her lately and I love it.  Her daddy recently let her bring home the bike he got for her a couple years ago that was sitting at his house.  She loves to ride so if we're home, I try to take her out to ride in the evenings.  She loves it....

She needs bigger bike so I'm working on that.  :)

If we're not riding, we're taking a walk....

One day last week, we had a baby shower at work for one of the girls expecting her first baby.  The girls asked me to make my strawberry bites. Bella wanted to help but her room needed cleaning.  I told her if she picked up her room, she could help mommy in the kitchen.  She did and her brother even helped a little.  After she was done, she wanted to rest but was a little afraid so she asked Chris to put all her stuffed animals around her.  Chris sent me this picture.  Can you find her in the bunch?  

And later.....our strawberry bites in the making....

My boo loves to get her nails done.  My issue with this is that her polish never lasts long at all, especially on her fingernails so its a real treat when mommy takes her to the salon to get a mani/pedi.  We went a couple weeks ago and got our 4th of July nails.  She was excited because I let her get "diamonds" on her toes.  Love this girl! 

Our cousin and his wife had a Father's Day pool party the Saturday before Father's Day and invited all the aunts, uncles and cousins over to enjoy their new pool.  It was sooooo nice.  I've always said hot days should be spent inside with the A/C, poolside or somewhere near water.  My opinion anyway.    

My view...

Some of the cousins...

L to R: Ashley (hostess), Veronica, Paige, Donna, Diane, Me & Dina

A day spent with family is a great day for me, especially when I get to spend it with some of mom's sisters because its like having mom around again.  Gosh I miss her. 

The other night, this was happening in my living room...a real life nerf gunfight.

Cute vs. Cuter

Bella would shoot and when she'd run out of bullets, she'd call time so she could reload and not get attached at the same time.  It was hilarious.  There were nerf bullets flying everywhere.

On Friday, I left work early to meet a roofing service to get an estimate on replacing my roof.  Back in April, we had a hailstorm hit.  I haven't seen any noticeable problems nor have I had any leaking but I've been paranoid and after talking to a few people, I'd opted to have my roof checked out.  Rather be safe than sorry. Turns out, our trees did protect a lot but there were still areas heavily damaged so the inspector recommended a full roof replacement.  He came out, gave me an estimate and will actually get started on it next week!  I expected to be on a waiting list but since my house but a small one, they can get to them pretty quick.  Win for me.  After that meeting, I was off to get the gray (or most of it ) covered up.  I opted for more blonde this go round.  Back in the day, I didn't have to get these highlights, my hair was naturally this blonde. I was feeling pretty sassy & refreshed.  

Too bad I didn't have a hot date that night :(....

This past weekend while Chris was cutting grass (or attempting to), Bella and I ran a few errands.  We were on the hunt for a belated Father's Day gift for Pop and new tops for me for work.  Bella's favorite store is Justice.  After asking a minimum of 199 times to go there I finally told that if she were good while we went to all the others places we needed to go and didn't ask me again, we would go.  That hushed her up, she behaved and much to my delight, no whining.  She was thrilled to find a "B" purse, and the added bonus is that it was on sale!!  An even bigger bonus is mommy gave her some change to put in it.  #bestmomever

  

Sunday, since we were already getting rain showers and Chris couldn't cut grass again, we went to one of our favorite happy places.  Promise not to get too jealous now...

Gosh we love that place...oh the money I could spend.  

That about sums up our life lately, well what I capture in pictures.  July 4th is this weekend and we are hoping to catch some fireworks and help celebrate a 50th birthday on Sunday.  I am looking forward to an extra day off as is my daughter.  And believe me, she is counting the days until beach house and the week mommy gets to stay home too!  20 days....

Y'all have a good one and I hope every now and then you get sweet little notes from a sweet little girl like I do...