Camp

This week Tatum has been at TBarM Camp in New Bransfuls.  Its a Christian sports camp for girls and boys.  I have been checking in on her through the camp websites pictures and she looks like she is having an awesome time!
So at home its been me and the boys.  Needless to say, it has been a 'different' kind of week.  I now see that Tatum brings some kind of balance to the boys.  It's kind of lonely being a boy world.  Those of you moms that live it everyday...God bless you.  I know I would get use to it, but it's nice to have that little girl there to be 'girly'.  I have missed her this week and even though they don't want to admit it, Keaton and Weston have missed her too.

Keaton has figured out how to play the 'Tatum's at camp and doing cool stuff' card.  Every time this week that he has wanted to do something that is no a usual he asks, then follows with "Tatum's at camp and she gets to do special stuff".  For example, sleeping on the couch is usually reserved for weekends.  This week he has asked almost every night to sleep on the couch because "Tatum gets to sleep somewhere cool every night".

We are all excited to get her back and to hear all about her fun times.  Keaton is excited to hear, because next year he gets to go to camp also.

Growing like a flower

This week Keaton has been enjoying a little nerd time.  He has been going to Camp Invention at one of the elementary schools in town.  Keaton has, of course, loved every minute of it.  At the camp, he has taken apart a DVD player, learned about bugs that use infrared vision to navigate, built a clubhouse out of recycled items, and learned about all that science stuff he always wants to know about.

As we are driving Keaton to his camp, we pass a field with TONS of sunflowers.  Weston announces every time, "Look at all those funflowers!"  As we were walking into the school to drop off Keaton, I was carrying Weston.  I told him he was getting heavy and must be growing.  Weston looked at me and asked "Am I growing into a funflower?"

Summer fun

We have been going, going, going since the last post!
We started it off with our annual adult retreat with our Sunday school class.  From Friday to Monday we hung out at Surfside beach and had a relaxing time.  While we were there the kids stayed at Mom's with mom, Marc and his three kids.  They had a fun getting to hang out with their cousins.  They all slept in tents of one kind or another.  The first night there, Marc asked Weston if he wanted to sleep in a tent.  His response was no, so Marc asked where he wanted to sleep.  Weston's response was 'between Keaton's feet'.  Silly boy!

Monday all the adults went to get our kiddos.  Mom, Marc, Stacey and the triplets met us at Moody Gardens in Galveston to go the aquarium.  It was an adventure for sure, but everyone had a great time.

From Monday to Friday there were 14 children and 12 adults crammed into a 6 bedroom beach house!  It was a chaotic, loud and fun!  We all learned alot about each other and Jarrek and I learned to appreciate the ages of our children.  There were times I just looked at them and thought in just a few years they wouldn't want or need us for anything.  It filled me with relief and then sadness.  But none less, we already have been talking about our beach trip next year!  It's something we all look forward to all year long.

Crazy, Sweet and a little strange!

The kids found a piece of wood in our driveway and under it were some ants...really big ones.  The boys immediately found various objects to smash the ants with; rocks, a baseball bat, a wrench, etc.  I looked over and Tatum was gone, but I could hear her voice.  She came out of the house talking very sweetly to one of the injured ants that she had taken inside for rehab.  The ant was doing fine and looked like it was going to make it.  Once she put the ant down with it's 'friends' she immediately began scolding the other ants.  "He's one of you!  Why are you hurting your own kind?  He's your family!  Be nice!"  Then, in true Tatum fashion, she got her notebook, pencil and magnifying glass and began to observe the ants.  Her conclusion: Ants are nice to their family ants, but mean to the ones that aren't in their family and that's why the ants attacked her rehabilitated ant!  He wasn't part of their family. 

And that's one of the crazy, sweet and a little strange things that go on around here!

Palm trees and freedom

Jarrek got some Old Spice deodorant and body spray that smells like (according the label) 'palm tree, sunshine and freedom'. Weston asks everyday if he can smell like Palm trees and freedom!

Choking turtle

The kids and I bought Tatyana our turtle some feeder fish today. Tatyana has a huge appetite when it comes to eating fish. She has eaten every fish we have put in our tank expect one lonely orange gourami. I put the 10 feeder fish in the tank and the kids sat with excitement as Tatyana chased them around the tank eating them one by one. I guess she got one that was too big to swallow and she was 'panicking' as Tatum said. Tatum and Keaton were very worried so Tatum ran to the computer to search on google 'How to save a choking turtle'. She was very disappointed when Yahoo Answers said 'if you have information on how to save a choking turtle submit it now'. Tatum said "I don't know that's why i asked yahoo". Tatyana ended up saving herself, but I think Tatum and Keaton have lost a little faith in Google.

Summer Relaxing ?!?

I thought Summer was suppose to be the time to relax and wind down from the school year. That is not how I would define our Summer so far or how it going to be for the remainder of Summer. We say it every year "We are not going to over book ourselves", but every year we do. It seems like there is never a day that we don't have something and our weekends are booked until the end of July! At least the kids are enjoying all the activities that we have planned.

Our next big adventure is our annual beach trip! We are all so excited and ready to get away and just be beach bums for awhile. I am sure there will be some great stories to tell after our trip.

This is our family photo from the beach trip last year. Many they sure have grown up. New photo to come soon.