A Give-Away

Hey friends - A blog I visit is having a give-away. Go on over to enter. Leave her a comment to win; her name is Jen. Tell her you found the give-away link on my blog. There's a prize for the most referrals. Yeah. go here: http://girlydos.blogspot.com/ Good Luck!

I Am From

Rachel (10 years old) had an assignment in Writing class this week. She had to write a free-style poem entitled - I Am From. The only rule the teacher gave was that it could not be a list of place names. Here is Rachel's poem.
(I just had to share...a proud mom moment...)

I Am From, by Rachel Ball

I am from running around bare footed in wide open spaces. I am from wet, sunny days on the beach. I am from the backyard living with the dirt and worms. I am from loving parents who like to travel. I am from a family that loves animals.

Brown-Eyed Beauties

Does anyone remember in MuLan (thank you, Walt Disney) when the Emperor's Secretary was watching over the troops? He was the one who took notes to see how the General son was doing in training the troops. Well, on his desk in the movie is a picture with him and the Emperor of China, and he is pointing to the Emperor just like Rae is pointing to Sam in this picture.

It is also one of my favorites of this past summer because it shows that even though these two sisters have tons in common, they are also quite different. Samantha is more reserved and knows how to smile for the camera, while Rachel takes each chance she can to be the goof-ball and make us all smile.

Either way, they are both our Brown-Eyed Beauties.

Bath Pops

This photo is from last year, but, you can't beat it for

a tribute to summer! Coolin' it down with Ice Pops in the tub!

Charlotte - 4 and Josephine 3. Summer 2007

ZUMA !!!!!!!!!!

Anybody else play this game? Zuma. I have to say, I do. A lot. It's where you will find me whenever the last child is sent off to bed - just me and the Zuma Frog. The idea of the game is to shoot the colored ball from the frog's mouth into a series of the same colored balls. The balls are rolling toward the gold hole. It will open when the balls get close. When three or more balls are combined, they disappear. You win by making all the balls disappear and you lose if the balls go into the gold mouth. So far, I have finished 11 levels and I just can't beat number 12. I am trying though, way too much!

A quiz for you ...

Take the Quiz here!

I found this on the blog of a blog...see who you are - leave me a comment and we'll compare notes. Everyone bone up on your reading, now, too!

Happy Half Birthday, Jay!

Jay will be six months old on the 20th of August. It's hard to believe that six months have flown by so fast. Those first two weeks in the NICU dragged on mercilessly. Today, our Baby Jay is a healthy, thriving little man and we are so blessed to have him rounding out our pack of ladies.

Happy Half Birthday, Jay!

Our Stay-cation 2008

What to do with a family of seven for vacation? Gas prices are high. Airline tickets are out of our reach. What to do? Our answer this year was - Stay home. No boarding the dogs, no hotel rooms, no eating out. Wait, this is a vacation? ...

So we had a stay-cation. We had high adventure planned. We were going to do everything we wanted to do that was close by. We made a list of all the places to go and then we ... waited. James doesn't get much time off, so we let him sleep in everyday. Everyday. Once Daddy was up, it was on. Besides, it's in the 90s. We either hit the pool or played at home while we waited for Dad. We were stopped by rain one day, and another day we had company. But we had fun.

Here's the photo roll of our week.

We saw Wall-e in the real theatre, with popcorn - a treat in itself - then we played mini-golf, something the ladies have been just dying to try. Samantha and James both had holes-in-one. The ladies were intrigued by the fact that the ball disappeared at the end. The family who runs the place gave everyone a second ball and we played until 10pm! These pictures were taken when it was starting to get dark. Sorry, they are fuzzy.

We went to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. Jay supervised while the little ladies played on the great play structure there.

Then it was bowling and pizza at the bowling alley. This is great Ball family fun. They have bumpers and ramps to make it easy for all ages of ladies to play. Plus, the machines keep score for you. All I did was take pictures and order pizza! Bowling is even free for kids in the summer, all you have to pay is the shoe rental.

We went to the pool and had ice-cream at Sonic.

We had a visit from Uncle David (my brother) and Aunt Kris! They were only able to stay a little while, but, we did go out to a new local restaurant - Fat Daddy's Catfish House - where David and Kris both ordered hamburgers, and then we went home for ice cream and to play on the Wii which travels with them.

One last tidbit. We had a big project planned for the backyard, but, it hasn't arrived yet. More to come on that when it arrives, so yes, James, you got a vacation, not a honey-do list for the backyard. Slipped outta that one, huh? For now, anyway.

Post-It Memories

I saw this on my friend's blog and enjoyed posting a comment on hers so I hope you all will do the same for me.

Here's what you do:
1. Add a comment to this post on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot…anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.
3. Go!!!

F --- O --- R --- E

James' Dad is a golfer. Both of my folks are golfers, too. So, shouldn't our ladies be golfers?

James' Dad found a camp for kids ages 9-11 who want to learn the game of golf, so he signed them up. For four days, in the heat of the sun, Rachel and Samantha were out on the links learning the art of putting, driving, chiping and pitching.

There were 20 kids in their class, divided into foursomes with a coach. Of the twenty, only three were girls - two of those were Rae and Sam. They liked their coach and were excited to go to class each day. When Samantha came out of her first day's lesson, I asked her how it went. She answered, I want golf clubs for Christmas!

At the end of the week the whole group competed in driving, putting and chipping. Rachel won third in putting! Way to show those boys!

Now when the ladies write that "what did you do this summer" essay they'll have something to say that not many can - this summer, they learned to drive!

Michael's

I went to Michael's just recently looking for one particular item. I was apparently too engrossed in my search, because when I turned to look for my darling daughters, this is what I found - they had been transformed into four beautiful princesses!

Jay at Five Months

Game On, USA

I have to say that I love the Olympics. It could be the pageantry, the humanity or the common striving for perfection that brings the world together. For me, it's the fact that these athletes have spent so much of their lives to be a part of the 2008 Summer Games. They are dedicated and gifted and even those who don't win a medal have already gained an experience that I will never come close to. They achieved a lifetime goal and they are in Beijing to show the world the talent they have been blessed with. Go, go, go. I'll be cheering for you.

Say Cheese

Just the gang with Jay in a seat called a "Bumbo". He seems to like it - it's molded to hold him, even though he isn't actually sitting up yet. This way he can see more and be in the action. July 08

Bunk Beds!

The little ladies needed some more space in their room, so we got them a set of bunk beds. We had to put them together, so it became a family project.

It took hours. Help from the kids isn't always a time saver, but, they did help. I took pictures!

The little ladies still share a small room, but now it's a small room with floor space. Gotta have somewhere to drive all those cars.