Last week of summer

It's the last week of summer and me and all my kids are so excited for school to start again. I always think it's funny when people act guilty that they're happy their kids are going back to school. I personally think it makes complete sense. Nobody thrives just idling around all the time, and there's a goodly amount of that during the summer. School means growth and learning and new achievements and in our house it's super exciting for all my kids. Aaron starts preschool this year, Genevieve first grade, and Spencer second and they're all thrilled for all the fun they have at school. I'm thrilled for them and to be able to breathe in and out a get a bit of a break. We'll try to fit in a few more fun things this week to end summer and then school is looking great.

I continue to be amazed at how much Aaron looks like my Uncle JP. This is a picture of them at similar ages. JP is on the bottom left and I snapped this shot of Aaron yesterday. And speaking of resemblances, I'm seeing quite a lot of resemblance between me and my mom, top right, and also my Grandma Kitty, bottom center. I love seeing how family looks twine through the generations. 

 We went to the park with some friends a few days ago and ended up playing for two and a half hours! Talk about enjoying time with friends.

Spencer got a new shirt a few months back from his grandma that has constellations on it. He wore it for the first time yesterday to church. He put together this whole outfit and I have to say, he looks pretty snazzy!

 We did a new hike on Saturday, called Twin Falls on Reedy Cove Creek. It was awesome. It felt positively tropical. The kids rocked it. We climbed over a gazillion downed trees and generally had a grand ole' time.

 Chloe setup her own little breakfast table the other day, cute girl.

 Spencer and I did a run/bike together earlier last week. Four miles. He's a strong kid!

Not so many pictures

I've made a conscious effort in the last year to be more present and less always taking pictures of fun things happening but not participating in them. This makes things way more fun while I'm there, but lots less photos for this little ol' blog. Like on Saturday we spent four and a half hours at our friends' house on Lake Keowee. We swam and kayaked and went out on their boat and jumped on their water trampoline and ate good food and had a fabulous time. I didn't take a single picture. I didn't even have my phone out. It was wonderful. But I have nothing to show to document this event. All is well though because I really did have a good time, and that is more important than pictures of us having a good time.

I finished my latest paint-by-number last night. I like this brand. Their pictures are super detailed. It takes more hours than I can count to do them, but the pictures look like photographs turned into a painting. This is the fourth one I've done by this company and maybe the last I will do of theirs because I've done all the ones I like, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have an appointment for a haircut next Saturday. My curls are getting unruly, lol. I think my hair got a bit curlier after Chloe's pregnancy. It's fun to still have curls even with a pixie haircut. Which I love this length, I might add. It's SO nice not to have hair on my neck.

Trying to take a cute picture with Chloe. Got a nose picker one. Lol.

Genevieve's creation from Lego story time at the library last week.

Tying off loose ends

I feel like I'm a broken record. We're almost done with grad school! Bill is finishing up writing his dissertation! We're going to finish in May. No, August. No, December. No, May. No August. Wait. Still not done. Talk to anyone who got their PhD and they'll all have similar stories. It is such a slog. So it's very hard to plan for things like school and sports and other such things when you never know if you're going to be done in a few months or not.

I can say for sure that this fall will be our last semester at Clemson. See, Bill was awarded a grant from the university only given to students who are in their last semester of school. Haha! So there it is. They're not giving us another penny after this semester, so we best be done. He's actually trying very hard to finish his writing by the time school starts in three weeks, but as always, it's really hard to gauge how much work is left when it's this huge of a project.

Since I didn't expect to be here still now I never signed up Aaron for a preschool, which is rather a large problem because most of the ones around here, or all that I had previously known of and checked, have been full since February or March. Ay yi yi! But this week I finally tackled the problem and found him a preschool at a local Baptist church. It's a good price. We took a tour last week and I like it. The assistant director even lives in my neighborhood, and we've never met before. I feel good about it.

The one upside to the current situation is that this particular grant Bill has doesn't include any sort of TA or RA work that he needs to do. So literally the moment we are done and then have a job, we can leave. So if we up and move like September 13th or something ridiculous like that, you'll know we finished and are just over the moon to be done and on our way. We hit our six-year mark in December, so that day couldn't come any faster. I am so happy we got to come to Clemson and love everyone we know here and actually really like the area too, but moving onto the next phase of life is the dearest wish of my heart.

In other news, we celebrated Bill's birthday this weekend. It was a good day. We took the kids hiking to the first hike we ever went on when we moved here six years ago. It's still one of the best ones. 3.5 miles and the kids rocked it. We had a great time. The three younger ones all fell in the water, lol. It was fun.

Every Tuesday I take the kids to a free movie. They LOVE it, especially the big tub of popcorn I get too.

 I turned around while I was working this morning to find this lovely picture going on. Spencer was reading books to his siblings. He said he particularly was reading to Chloe, that lucky duck. Those two have a sweet relationship. He read four books! He's such a great kid.

Just a couple things

Aaron got a new backpack this week in preparation to start preschool next month. Chloe was insanely jealous, so Bill let her use his CamelBak and she has been wandering around wearing it all week. It's the cutest thing. 

 We've been going to these different performances at the library all summer and this one was from a guy that made all these masks himself and then told stories from all over the world using them. They were so incredibly detailed. I was really impressed.

mid summer

Summertime is really flying by. We're already halfway through, if not even further. I just checked and first day of school is August 20th. Barely more than a month away!

This was a fun week. We went to Cow Apprication Day and got buku amounts of food for hardly anything.

 The kids made a reading nest.

And a napping nest. But only pretend on that one. 

I know we did other things but hey, this is what I documented, lol.

Happy birthday, Aaron

Happy birthday, my sweet Aaron! Four years have flown by. I can't imagine life without your awesomeness as part of it. You are the life of the party. You always have a joke to tell. You're mischievous and determined and a problem solver. You are our little family policeman. You try to keep everyone in line and protect when you can, especially Chloe. You have a twinkle in your eye that always tells me when you're going to do something goofy. You're loud and crazy and still love Goonie beyond all reason. Tomorrow is your big day and I hope it's the best one yet.

2014

2015

2016

2017

 

 

 2018

Selfies

Apparently this wasn't a week to take pictures. I scanned through my phone and all I got was a bunch of selfies from Spencer and pictures of my new haircut. And honestly, that's about how exciting this week was. Just Bill working like crazy, and normal summer activities like free movies, park visits, and kids fighting, I mean playing, together. Haha! We made it through the first month of summer. Huzzah! Oh, and I got a new haircut and I love not having hair on my neck and actually being able to see earrings when I wear them, and being able to wear scarves without having hair all covering them. It's the little things after all.