Summer, Week 10

Week 10 was the busiest week of our entire summer!
It started off with the Appleton Alliance Church's summer music production of "Rock Solid".
The musical was WONDERFUL.
This year, both Ellie and Jayna participated and Ellie was "aside speaker #4"!
The songs were very catchy, and anyone who sat near us saw that even Colin was VERY into the musical this year! :)
To see a snippet of "Rock Solid", click HERE.
To see "God Will Never Stop Loving You...", click HERE.

The 2 top row photos below are of the girls doing actions to the song "The Amazing Thing Is..." to see a snippet, click HERE...this was Colin's FAVORITE song and Jayna could not keep the huge grin off her face--she knew exactly what he was doing in the audiance! On the bottom row, Ellie is taking her bow with the other kids who had speaking roles, and bottom lower right, Ellie is doing one of her parts. She did awesome, we were so proud of her! To see one of her segments, click HERE.

Grandma gets the "crazy Grandma of the year" award...she made a last minute decision to make it work to come see the play..she showed up, took us out for dinner, saw the play and zoomed back to Freeport, IL all in 1 night! Thank you, Grandma (and Rebekah!) for coming!
And...we ALWAYS have "Granny" Marlene come to the plays...the girls love having her attend their functions as well!

Above, Jayna is getting her shirt signed--a big thing with this camp is having all the "campers" sign your shirt after the musical. And we can't omit Colin's humor... :)

We got home late from the musical, schlepped the kids into bed...and at 6:57am the next morning, we were pulling out of our driveway for a whirlwind trip to Minnesota!

This September, my Grandpa turns 90!
My parents had a birthday party for him and most relatives were able to attend. It was really fun seeing the relatives that we haven't seen in 15 (gasp!) years and connecting with their children.
Here is the photo shoot with Grandpa and his great grandchildren that were in attendance:

The Gorden relatives:
Dad, Grandpa
Megan Grandpa Katie, Megan Tucker Katie

We also got a lot of Penny-loving time. I especially love this photo of Ava soothing Penny!

It was a beautiful day--my parents had the best set up for a gathering like this: campfire, picnic tables, good food, areas for kids to play...and then the swimming pool, of course!

Andy was the center of 2 attentions on Saturday (we all know how he likes to be the center of attention!)...1st one was where he was playing catch the football on the pool deck. He leaned too far forward and did a BEAUTIFUL foward roll right into the pool, wearing his clothing! (No camera capturing this--just a memory of laughter at the image!)

A couple of hours later, Oscar was sitting on a blow up dog raft and tumbled into the pool...and there was Uncle Andy, right there to rescue little Oscar!
And while we're talking about Andy...he and Megan had a little "war" going with who could capture the best photos of the day. Here are a few random photos I found on our memory card...
While we were in MN, we also celebrated Jayna's birthday with the family. This is something she has never gotten to do! She loved it!
For her "cake", we had my parents get her a pink sprinkled long john donut--she was in sweets heaven! She loved it...and then asked if there was ANYWHERE in WI that makes donuts??!?!
We also had a batch of Oreo Brownies with the icing saying "9/64"...Happy Birthday Month to Jayna AND Grammie!The rellies we never see on birthdays...
And after all of the birthday celebrating, there was plenty of time to sit and relax because...
Ellie loved the pool...
Jayna loved the pool...Ava loved the pool....
And Colin? He loved riding Grammie's pink bike AND swimming in the pool!
As for Andy....when he wasn't playing water games with the kids or launching them into the water, he did manage to catch up on a Netflix movie...
Before we started our trip home to WI, Colin was insistent on getting to ride on Grampy's John Deere ("Look! Grampy has a John Deere too!) and the Gator. Ellie couldn't miss the Gator ride--towel and all! And, there were many times that Grampy put the Wiggles DVD on and Colin just waited with his hands out for Grampy to hold him and watch the Wiggles WITH him!

When we arrived home, we had a huge appointment to keep:

WHOOHOO! Jayna got her braces off! FINALLY! It was a day filled with gum chewing and sticky candy eating...and corn on the cob for dinner!

To see the difference that her face made in just 1 year, check out these before and after photos! The left photo was taken June 2010 and the right one was taken August 2011!

The same day the braces came off, my dear friend, Sarah and her girls came to visit from Chicago! The kids instantly bonded (with the help of Colin who drew everyone close immediately!) and they had just 24 hours of fun with Emily and Maicy, but the kids made the most of their time together and can't wait to get together again. It was nonstop fun, with outside play and MUCH costume play in our basement! (Thank you, Megan, for letting me keep all of our dance costumes from so long ago!)

How do I know Sarah? When we get asked that question, we always say "Well, it's complicated!"
I "met" Sarah online in a group of moms who were all expecting babies in November of 2000. We have known each other for over 11 years! We have a unique friendship that can go months without talking and then just pick up where we last left off. Sarah is a gem and we truly enjoyed having her and the girls visit!

Here are some of the photos of the kids:
The girls had an idea that they would make lemonade and give it away free.
Interesting huh?
Most people in the neighborhood that were approached said "No thanks." (Really? Saying NO to free lemonade from 4 cute blonde girls?!) In all, the ended up making $1.00 and they split it 4 ways...HAHA.

I love this bottom right photo...it was Emily's idea to lay on the ground and take an aerial shot--the joy on all the kids' faces speaks volumes to the fun we had the day(s) they were here.

After Sarah left, I went to work on freezing the 2 lugs of peaches we had purchased in MN. Yikes. That was a lot of peaches--Ellie thinks it was around 150. They were all laying on my dining room table...it smelled heavenly!

In the end, we froze 18 quarts of sweet peaches for our enjoyment this winter and one of the best times this summer was standing at the island with Ellie side by side peeling and slicing the peaches together. I think we have a new tradition. Perhaps we should try 3 lugs of peaches next year?!??!

That's it for our crazy week 10. We also were able to put eye appointments, 3 dentist appointments and a well child check in that week as well. No photos from those boring events though!