Back to School!

And in the blink of an eye, summer was over!

Here are my three babies on the first day of 4th, 6th, and 8th grade!  Every year has some sort of significance.  This is the only year that all three of the kids are "Big Man/Woman on Campus".  This is the last year to go up to school to see who our teacher is.

 And this is the last year to attend our beloved elementary school and to walk into school on the first day.  Mary Beth has two new to the school teachers who we absolutely love.  She has had incredible luck getting awesome teachers every year.  It's going to be a fabulous year!

Mary Beth turns 9!

Mom always reminded me with each of the kids that when they turn 9, half of their time at home is gone.  This wasn't technically true for my two fall babies, but it is very true with my August baby!  It has gone so fast, how could half already be over?

Here are a few fun facts about my 9 year old:

*Mary Beth is the sunshine in our life.  Joy radiates from her body!  She is easy to love, easy to raise.  I think God knew that we were pretty tired by kid three, so he gave us the easiest most pleasant child in the world to round out our family.

*She is very laid back and even keel.  Nothing seems to bother her (an occasional frustration with her big big brother notwithstanding) or get her down.  She is never anxious or worried about anything.  She is also fearless, and could ride roller coasters all day long.

*She is a tremendous helper.  She anticipates needs and does things without being asked.  Mary Beth was at a dance event two weeks ago.  She saw a few mothers throwing trash away, and she immediately sprang into action finding trash to throw away as well.

*She is so confident!  She has lots of friends but doesn't seem to need to be joined at the hip with them. One of her friend's mother, who sees her regularly at school, remarked to me that Mary Beth is just as confident sitting my herself, or another child who isn't her friend, as she is with her 8 best friends.  Whitney is still her BFF and has been since babyhood.  I love watching the two of them giggle!

*Mary Beth is hilarious!  She has the funniest one liners and facial expressions. She keeps us laughing.

*She loves to read, do crafts, sing, play piano, watch musicals, and dance.

*Mary Beth is in no rush to grow up.  She still plays with dolls.  One day this summer, she ran into our room and exclaimed with her hands in the air, "I LOVE BEING A KID!!"

*She has a very mature palate, and prefers oysters, pad thai, and sushi to any kind of meat or potatoes.  We have a very carnivorous family, so her dislike of meat is an issue!  Hopefully, she will grow out of it.   Another thing I hope she will be able to curb in her future is her extreme love of candy.  She is a moth to the flame when it comes to sweets.  She recently got sealants put on her teeth to prevent cavities (she's never had one).  The hygenist recommended that she not eat anything sticky until they set.  For some reason, Mary Beth now thinks that she can't have any sticky sweets while her sealants are in place.  I, heaven forgive me, have not corrected her.  :)

*She loves school.  Her dream is to still be a nurse, or work at Justice.  :)  She loves science and math.  I am so grateful that she has two incredible teachers this year that make her so excited to be at school this year.  One is well over 6 feet tall and one of the funniest people MB has ever met.  Every day is a funny Mrs. McDaniels story!

Well this about sums up our little girl.  We are going to enjoy every moment of our last single digit year!

3 weeks

We had a crazy 3 weeks to finish out the summer!  At one point, all three kids were in three different states without us!

Matthew went on a youth group trip to New Mexico.  It was called Summer Summit, but one kid got sick in their group, so they technically didn't summit the mountain.  Matthew was bummed about it and decided to call it Summer Failure.  :)  There were many other fun activities, though, including white water rafting.

Thomas went to Kanakuk.  No one loves Kanakuk Kamp quite like our Thomas!  It's his favorite thing to attend!  This was his last year to be at K Kountry, and so enjoyed all the benefits of being Big Man on Campground.  There is always a huge awards ceremony at the end of Kanakuk.  Lots and lots of awards are handed out!  Bryon texted me that it looked like Thomas didn't win a single award.  But then, they announced the final award, the Kanakuk Spirit Award, awarded to only two boys and two girls out of 200 kids.  Wouldn't you know that Thomas won it!  He was beaming!  So proud of our boy!

Mary Beth went with my parents to California.  Each grandkid gets to go with my parents to one of my dad's summer conferences.  The boys went to Washington DC with them.  Matthew, after kindergarten, and Thomas after 4th grade.  Well, it just happened to be that this year was a California trip, which was right up Mary Beth's alley!  They enjoyed Disney World, the San Diego aquarium, Seaport Village, and apparently, lots of yummy food! What a special trip for three of my favorite people!

Meanwhile, back in Texas, Bryon and I enjoyed spending our 17th wedding anniversary in San Antonio.  We have spent many anniversaries there since Bryon's annual Family Law conference is there.  Matthew was back home from his trip, but couldn't come with us because of football, so he stayed with his best friend for two nights to give Bryon and I a short getaway.  It's always so much fun and I have to narrow down my restaurant choices.  I love love San Antonio cuisine!

Another fun event during these three weeks was Bryon's brother's wedding.  Thomas was still away at camp, but Bryon and Matthew were groomsmen and Mary Beth was a jr. bridesmaid.  After the wedding, I headed home because of work, Bryon left for Missouri to pick up Thomas, and Matthew and Mary Beth spent a few days in Conroe by themselves.

 This picture makes me miss being 13!  Ha!

Also during these three week...yes there is more....were my 2 high school reunions!  The only benefit of moving halfway through your high school experience is that 20 years later, you can attend two parties! ;)  I went to Abilene for the AHS reunion, which might have been the most fun two days I have had in decades.  The Midway reunion wasn't as much fun, but I'm still glad I attended!

We also celebrated my 38th birthday and Mary Beth's 9th birthday slumber party.

Matthew is now officially taller than his mama...when I'm not wearing high heels, which he hates! Look out Bryon!  He's coming for you!

Anyway, after three crazy, fun, exhausting weeks, we were finally reunited!

We had lots of fun this summer, but I must admit that I was ready for it to be over.  Lots of sad changes occurred this summer.  Friends got divorced, best friends moving, and several dear friends lost loved ones, including the death of Bryon's beloved Granny Doris.  It was a summer to remember the lesson to cherish every moment.  Things can change in the blink of an eye.  Tell those you love how much you love them as often as you can!

Cape Cod!

This year, for a change, we decided to go to Cape Cod with just adults.  You would have thought that we were asking our kids to amputate an arm or leg having to stay behind and go to church camp!  Bryon and I told them that they were much too spoiled going on so many vacations with us, and maybe we should start going on more solo vacations to get them more used to the idea.  That quieted them down...a little. ;)  We just thought it would be nice to not have to get up at 8am every morning to take a kid to sailing lessons!

We also decided to take our dearest friends, the Gunns, with us!  Keith had never been to New England, and we always have so much fun together, that we were so excited when they could go with us!

We had a very relaxing week watching Cape Cod baseball, a trip to Boston to watch the Redsox play the Yankees, reading my the river, walks, Newport, RI, and shopping.  Unfortunately, there was a heatwave going on in New England right when a freak cold front hit Waco in July.  That's right, it was 20 degrees cooler in WACO than it was at Cape Cod!  What are the odds!

We found out a week after our trip that our friends would be moving to the metroplex.  Bryon and I met them the day after we came home from our honeymoon 17 years ago.  After many many tears, I can truly say that I am happy for their new opportunities, but will miss our friends so much!  I foresee lots of road trips in our future!