You know, I'm just going to post pictures...

This is what we've been up to. I've had the worst (busiest) teaching schedule ever, we run around constantly, but we've had some fun too.

Preschool starts next week. Fall soccer started this week. Time passes quickly!

And that was June!

Notice how my last post was almost a month ago? Yeah. June went quickly!

Our fun kicked off on June 3, Ainslie's 4th birthday. I can't believe how fast her year of being 3 went. All the new things she can do! In the past year she started preschool and dance, got moved up (again!) in gymnastics, learned to sound out words and read a little, made tons of new friends, said a million hilarious things, and grew three and a half inches. On her birthday, we did fun things all day, then grandma and grampa came over for her birthday dinner--she wanted pepperoni pizza, popcorn, and strawberries. I had never served popcorn as a side dish before, but whatever, it was her birthday!

The very next day, I drove her to Kingdom City, MO, to meet my mom, who took her back to LS for a whole week, because Craig won a trip to Cancun--so that's where we were until the 9th. The resort was gorgeous, the beaches were beautiful and it was a great time.

The following week, Craig and I ran around in circles getting work done and getting ready for Ainslie's return and the Big Birthday Party and Dance Recital Weekend. 15 4-yr- olds at our house. Dance recital the next day. Lots of relatives. Fun--but if I had it to do over again... alas, I do not. ;-)

Then we had a week of VBS, peppered with trips to the water park, gymnastics class, playdates, farmers' markets, and me trying to get to my new job and the class I teach now and then. (Luckily I can work from home most of the time!)

June ended with 6 of us kidnapping my friend Holly, who will soon be a fabulous 40, and taking her to Chicago on the train overnight, where we all tried to act like we are 20 again. FUN WEEKEND!

July looks a tiny bit less busy, but we are having fun. Lots of trips to the library and water park, swimming lessons, and I start a new quarter at Robert Morris, this time teaching 3 sections. That is a lot of papers to grade.

Happy Summer!

So, a month later...

BUSY. It's feast or famine with my jobs, and lately it has been feast--which is terrific because I was terrified of a famine not too long ago, but feast time leaves little time for other fun things.

The cat is gone, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I got the job! I applied for a part-time HR job with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and ended up getting a consulting gig out of it. YAY. Not only is the work something I enjoy, but I'm proud to be working for such a great client!

I am also teaching a section at Robert Morris and it looks like I may be teaching two sections next quarter, starting in July.

Meanwhile, if it ever gets hot, we have our water park season tickets to use, a week of preschool camp at church (Around the World in Five Days--doesn't that sound fun?) and another week of VBS.

In more specific Ainslie news, she has her first dance recital coming up, she finished her first year of pre-school (and in case anyone is wondering, she passed to the 4-yr old class for next year,) and my little monkey is turning FOUR! In the middle of all this, she gets to go spend a week with Grammie and Grampie because Craig won an incentive trip to Cancun.

Whew and Whoopie!

Soccer is also going well--the change in all the kids is unbelievable. The first practice was an hilarious mess, the last game, they creamed the other team! (Our pediatrician's son was on the other team, hope this doesn't make shots hurt worse in the future.) Ainslie broke away with the ball twice, and once, she got knocked down and kept kicking! She even told us she likes it when parents cheer for her, but she doesn't always hear because she's concentrating!

Over the summer, she's doing swimming lessons and gymnastics. I really hope she finishes learning to swim this year--I know I'll rest easier knowing she could swim if she had to. She caught on last year, so hopefully this year she'll really take off.

School is out--and I'm a mom with a little schoolkid, sort of. Gearing up for a busy, fun summer. Even if it is 58 degrees today.

My heart grew two sizes that day

Thursday, my baby took two large steps toward growing up--two steps that are wonderful and definitely in her best interest, but still---so large.

First, she got her Hogwa--preschool--letter in the mail. From her teacher, addressed to her, with her first-ever school supply list in it. She had to open it, then she had to read it (according to her it was about learning the planets and stars, since there were stars around the border of the paper.) We went down to the office and made a final selection of a personalized backpack to order.

Sigh.

Later that afternoon, we went to the waterpark, where, after 2/3 of a summer of loving the water but not wanting to put her face in, she swam. She's no Summer Sanders yet, but she put her whole body face down in the water, flailed her arms and kicked, and came up for air, repeatedly. She loved it. She is so proud of herself.

We have three weeks left of going to the waterpark, playing all day, and lolling around in summer splendor.

Before the All-Star Break

We've been too busy to blog!

I just love summer. I especially love summer in the midwest, the soupy, sweaty, hot-and-sticky, wonderfulness of it all. I love the smell of chlorine and sunscreen mingled in Ainslie's hair. I love chubby little bottoms oozing out of swim-bottoms because the person in question is too busy climbing up the hill to the big waterslide to be bothered. I love the heat. I love that produce takes up the most room in our grocery cart. Ah.

Here is what we've been up to so far...

Summer kicked off with Ainslie's birthday party. The week after that was Princess Camp. Then, she did the first summer session of gymnastics. This month we are trading swimming for gymnastics, since she also started dance class. Intermingled in all this have been the summer reading program at the library and about a zillion trips to the waterpark. The season passes paid for themselves in about a week! Who wouldn't love to have Ainslie's life?

The adults in the house have been busy too. Thankfully, summer is wine and fruity cocktail season, so Craig has been busy. My work has slowed down a bit, but there has still been enough to keep me multitasking. We've also joined the church we'd been attending for almost a year, and are working on becoming more involved with various things there.

Coming up...tons of birthdays, Ainslie's baptism, more Cardinals games and my Harry Potter/PALP weekend! Ooh, and the Simpsons Movie, Order of the Phoenix, more trips to the waterpark, preschool orientation...

I love summer.

Got Your Jar Ready?

You may think I'm exagerrating if I say I live at the edge of town, next to a corn field, but it's true. I'm sure someday our subdivision will be further developed, but for now, I really enjoy having the fields around. It's very peaceful, the stars are bright at night, and now that it's summer, there is a new delight. Fireflies, or Lightning Bugs, as we grew up calling them, are everywhere!

Now, the cornfield to the west of us gives way to a soybean field about half a block down, and I saw something Monday night that I hadn't seen since childhood, visiting my grandparents. Hovering, as far as the eye can see (which, due to the treelessness of central Illinois is pretty far) were thousands of firefly lights. It was breathtaking. Ainslie was enthralled, and frankly, so was I. We all three just stood there and watched.

Yesterday, Ainslie was full of the promise of a "firebug" hunt, and she was at the ready, with a jar fashioned by Daddy and stuffed full of clover and grass. We managed to get enough of them to make quite a little lantern, and we 'kept' three of them, named Jaxey, Maxey, and Nanny. They are still alive, in case you wondered whether any lightning bugs were harmed...

We told her we'll go watch again tonight. Like most magical memories from childhood, Firefly Season passes all too quickly.