Life of Riley

Just for fun, I thought I would do a "Week in the Life" post for each of the girls. First up is Riley...

This was the first day of school. She loves her "bumblebee outfit" that my mom made for her. She chose it for her first day outfit, but has also wanted to wear it every day since.

Happy girl. She LOVES getting her picture taken.

Her day off from school, doing what she does best. Making a huge mess.

She thought she was hot stuff on this day.



Wearing orange in anticipation of UT's first game. The outfit just wouldn't be complete without the boots. ;)

First (and Second) Day of School

We have had two full weeks of school now. It is crazy to me that its been that long and that summer is really over. I am still in shock that I now have a 5th grader, 3rd grader and a pre-schooler. Wow.

It has been so VERY nice to have a routine again and to be on a schedule. I am very much a to-do list kind of gal and having the girls back at school makes it so much easier to actually cross some of the items on my list off. It is NOT so very nice to have to help/check/make people do homework again, though. It hurts my brain. Or what is left of it.

Only Jenna and Riley made it to school on the first day. Kellen was sick and had to miss. She was so bummed and I hope that never happens again. Besides K missing the first day, we have a great start to this school year. They all LOVE their teachers and that is such a relief. We are all looking forward to seeing what the school year brings!

Jenna on the first day.

Riley on the first day.



Kellen on her first day.

Waiting on the bus the second day.


So happy.

Last Days of Summer

Before school started back, that is. We took one more trip to the Science Center before our year membership was up in September.

Riley's favorite thing to do every single time we went was to play in the water room.


Kellen wrote and did her own weather report.

Jenna built a cool ramp.

The night before school started the girls asked to go on one last walk to ride their bikes and scooters. Of course, it won't be the last walk of the year by any means. But, it will be the last feeling of freedom before the routine of school, the grind of homework and all those after-school activities begin that will soon be dictating our lives.
Goodbye Summer!

Rainy Day

Yesterday was a rainy day which meant for the first time this summer we did NOT go to the pool. We went to the Science Center instead.

They loved checking out the interactive exhibits. Unfortunately, I only got a few pictures because my memory card was full. I got several of R...

...and then one of all three together. That was in our first 5 minutes there. On the down side, I missed lots of photo ops. On the up side however, I was free to play with the girls instead of constantly taking their picture.

We had a great time except for the wild hooligan kids running around the museum. There were several camp field trips that were not very closely chaperoned taking over the whole place, a pre-teen girl splashing water on her grandmother (who must have told her to stop at least twenty times) and quite a bit of lackadaisical parenting going on. My perfect angels (insert snicker here) had to wait forever to do almost anything. I usually don't mind too much, but when another kid (who had to be at least 9) literally rips a car out of my 4 year old's hands, that is where I tend to draw the line. Sometimes I am just shocked at how rude other people can be and that other parents don't seem to mind. I would be so embarrassed if my girls were outright mean to another kid. To each his own, I guess.

Other than that, we had a great time and my girls actually were very well behaved.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

I've been a tad neglectful of the blog for quite awhile. I have no excuse other than life is just pretty darn busy. These are some of the things I missed blogging about:

*K's 10th birthday. She had a Percy Jackson themed slumber party. All the girls took a quiz that K made up herself to determine what goddess they were...K was Artemis, her favorite. Then they made and decorated their own togas. They went on a quest (scavenger hunt) ala Percy in the book. We had tons of "blue" food to eat. The girls enjoyed ambrosia (chocolate chip cookies) and nectar (chocolate milkshakes) while watching Jason and the Argonauts.

We also had a Greek themed party for the family. Everyone tried their hand at archery using K's bow and arrows she got for Christmas. Then we had a huge Greek feast of gyros, kabobs, hummus, feta and olives. YUMMY.

*Memorial Day. K got to march in the parade with the school band. She had to try out for the drill team in order to march. She was so excited to make it. The rest of us had fun watching.



*The last day of school. I cannot believe that next year that the girls will be in 5th grade, 3rd grade and finishing pre-school. Where has the time gone?



We have had a very active summer so far without really doing anything significant. The girls didn't get out of school until the middle of June so our summer has only just begun.


Kyle has been working crazy long hours...8:00 in the morning to midnight or later on most days, including weekends. He works from home so work is always there to be done. Since he is here the girls have to be mostly quiet and while that was fine during the school year, it's not so easy during the summer.

We belong to a pool club and that is where we spend our days. EVERY DAY. K and J are on the swim team, are taking a synchronized swimming class (which is really cool and they are learning ACTUAL synchronized swimming!), and have a swim lesson. They also have tennis two days a week until swim team is over. R also has a swim lesson everyday. She just learned that she won't sink if she's using a noodle. She is beyond excited and thinks she now has free reign of the pool.

After all the scheduled activities, we usually hang out and swim for fun. Today is our first rainy day of the summer, so we are staying home this morning and then heading out to the science center this afternoon. I am so happy to see this rain just to break up our monotony.

Last week, J and R were sick. R got sick on the 4th of July so we missed all those festivities. She had a high fever virus that seems to be pretty rampant up here. Her temps were in the 103-105 range all week. Pretty scary. I assumed it was strep but three different tests came back negative. Back in May I pulled two ticks off of her, so we thought it might have been Lyme. Thankfully that came back negative as well, so it was just a virus after all. J started feeling bad and running a fever last Tuesday and she did end up having strep. And now, everyone is back to normal...knock on wood.

There we are. We have some fun things in the works for this weekend and as long as everyone stays healthy I'll tell you about it soon.

My Happy Place

For Mother's Day, Kyle and the girls took me to Newport, RI. My absolutely favorite place in the world. The place that made me decide to move from my beloved Tennessee to New England.

Kyle made me a Happy Mother's Day playlist with some of my favorite songs...

*Far Behind by Candlebox

*With Arms Wide Open by Creed (I know, I know...make fun of me all you want, but I was pregnant with Kellen when this song came out and it makes me think of her.)

*To Be With You by Mr. Big (Fine. Make fun of me a lot. I don't care.)

*Soul Sister by Train

*The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

*Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson (I am a little obsessed at the moment by Ingrid Michaelson)

*Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler

*Total Eclipse of the Heart by the Glee cast

We drove the hour and a half to Newport listening to my new playlist the whole way. Once we got there we had a picnic on the rocks at the beach.

Then, the girls did some exploring. It was a crazy, windy day. Quite cold, too. Beautiful, though. I could stare out at this ocean forever. I love watching the waves crash on those rocks. There is nothing that calms me more. We found a bunch of sea glass and then left to see a mansion.

Newport was the place to "summer" if your last name happened to be Vanderbilt or Astor back in the early 1900's. There are tons of "summer cottages" i.e. MANSIONS dotted along the coastline. Now the Preservation Society of Newport owns, restores and gives tours of about 1o of the mansions. We toured Rosecliff for Mother's Day. The movies The Great Gatsby, True Lies and 27 Dresses were all filmed there.

After that, we got ice cream, went to the Newport Winery and had the yummiest pizza ever and headed back home.

It was the perfect day.

Here and There

K and J played basketball again this winter and they really love it. K is great at defense and J "has mad skills" according to her coach.

K at the awards ceremony.

J making a basket.

For Dr. Suess's birthday, we had a "Cat in the Hat" pizza.




J was one of FIVE! kids from her school whose artwork was chosen for a statewide art exhibit.