August 15 - August 21

Aug. 15th. Empty for now.

Aug. 16th. Chief decided to play the trumpet for his first band experience. He's really excited about it...we'll see if it lasts.


Aug. 17th. Buddy and I were sitting in the grass on the school grounds while waiting for the other boys to come out after school. He wanted to take pictures while we waited. Here's one he got of his Power Rangers flip flop.


Aug. 18th. I put Buddy back in another session of swimming lessons so he would have something fun to do when the other boys went back to school. He loved having his own thing to do and looked forward to it every day.


Aug. 19th. Today's picture is courtesy of Chief. He went outside this morning and then came back in quickly. "I need the camera! There's a beautiful butterfly outside!" I'm not sure if it's a butterfly or just a moth, but I loved that he wanted to get in on the Picture Of The Day action!


Aug. 20th. The boys are all about catching grasshoppers these days. They like to look for grasshoppers during recess, and then in the backyard after dinner.


Aug. 21st. I love it when the kids pull out a toy that hasn't seen the light of day for a while. Buddy and Maxwell Smart built this together.

August 8 - August 14

I'm really workin' the collages a lot lately...

August 8th. Buddy was a bit bored while the older family members played Apples to Apples. I gave him the camera and let him go wild. This collage is just a sampling of the many pictures he took.

August 9th. The Skipper and I tried out a new (to us) Italian place for lunch today. Mmmmm. I imagine we will return sometime.

August 10th. The tradition continues... Every year I make a school bus cake for dessert the night before school starts. I usually like to be in control of the cake-decorating, but last year I let the kids take over that area (after I frost it). I thought they did a good job.
Chief came up with this very clever idea. He cut the head off of an E.L.Fudge cookie and placed it just so -- instant bus driver. :)
Another view... We put candles on (usually crayon candles, but not this year) and sing "Happy School Year To You" 3 different times so each boy gets a turn to blow out the candles.

August 11th. First day of school. We always go out to dinner on the first day of school. The kids look forward to it, and I look forward to hearing all about that first day. We thought it was interesting that the dessert menu was in a View Finder. (We don't go out much, so maybe that's just the way it's done these days and we're a bit out of the loop!)

August 12th. Still thinking on this one.

August 13th. Maxwell Smart lost his other top tooth. Love that toothless grin! He actually lost it on Sunday, but I decided to go with Buddy's Apples to Apples collage for that day.

August 14th. Buddy...in his Lego Batman shirt...for the 5th time this week.

August 1 - August 7

This week just flew by. We got home late last night from 5 days of family-filled-fun! On with the pictures...

August 1st. We sang one of my favorite hymns in church today. (I took the picture when we got home.)



August 2nd. It's been a while since I've posted one of my great deals. I spent $1.08 on all this stuff! Plus...I got $4 back in rebates/store cash. I often get asked how I do this. For these items, it went like this: I combined coupons and store sales to get the pretzels for free. I combined coupons and store sales to get the gum free + there was extra change leftover from using the gum coupons which was used to go toward the spaghetti sauce total. So it was basically 34 cents for the spaghetti sauce since the other stuff was free. For the crayons and markers... I paid 74 cents and got back $1 in store cash (from the crayons) and a $3 cash rebate (from the markers). Crazy!


August 3rd. We went swimming with friends today. I will probably use a different picture for my album, but this one works for the blog. :) Chief and his friend, Maxwell Smart and his friend.

August 4th. The Skipper was "giddy as a school girl" -- his words, not mine -- when his new phone showed up yesterday. He was showing the kids some of the cool features. He said he was very much excited about this level feature. Being that I'm someone that isn't all that interested in technology...I just didn't get the hub-bub of it all. But that's OK.

August 5th. And so begins our 5 days of family-filled-fun! We had a great time meeting up with my husband's family. We played some fun outdoor games after we arrived.

August 6th. Swimming was on the schedule today. The cousins had lots of fun together. Seeing as how I'm almost always behind the camera, I've kind of gotten into the habit of taking a picture of my feet, just to prove I was there. :)

August 7th. We started out the day with breakfast in the canyon. Mmmmm... we are hoping this becomes a new tradition. We had a great time!
See you next week!

July 25 - July 31

Here we go... :)

July 25th. Maxwell lost a tooth! This one has been loose for months. It finally just fell out tonight. His other top tooth has become extremely loose since this one fell out. It's pretty much dangling. I'm hoping it falls out before we have family pictures taken later this week.


July 26th. I took the boys and a couple of their friends to the park today. They wanted me to take pictures of them jumping out of the swings.

July 27th. The kids were cleaning up the playroom today and came across Chief's Pinewood Derby car. I realized I never got a picture of the finished product. So here it is, 3 months after the race. :) I thought he did a great job making his Boba Fett car.

July 28th. The Skipper gets all giddy when the latest issue of Consumer Reports arrives. It's his favorite magazine.


July 29th. "Chief Was Here." There were 3 darts on the fan, but by the time I pulled out the camera two had fallen down. By the way, it's still there. :)

July 30th and July 31st. My brother and sister-in-law and 2 nephews and 2 nieces came to visit for the weekend. The POTDs for these days will be of the cousins having fun together. We hope they come visit again soon.

Until next time...

July 18 - 24

I'm actually getting this done before the official start of Project Life Tuesday! ;)

July18th. Buddy...making a birthday card for Grandma.



July 19th. Chief drew this. He loved all the books in the Percy Jackson series. (The picture that will go in the album won't be so cropped.)



July 20th. Still thinking on this one.

July 21st. Chief at swimming lessons. The kids love looking at their swimming pictures...they think the "underwater distorted body" look is so funny!


July 22nd. Maxwell engrossed in his new book.


July 23d. Not sure yet what my Picture of the Day will be.

July 24th. A trip to the mall. The kids love to ride up and down the escalators!

See you next week...

July 11 - July 17

Better late than never... :)

July 11th. Today's pic: I was talking to my sister on the phone. Buddy came into the kitchen and hid in the pantry. He was sneaking something and I caught him in the act!

July 12th. First day of swimming lessons.

July 13th. The kids' swimming teacher gives them a sucker every day after their lesson.

July 14th. We made fruit kabobs and took some to a lady in our neighborhood who recently found out that her cancer had spread.

July 15th. My husband's work collected items for care packages to be sent to employees who are currently serving our country abroad. I took all the kids to the store at 9:00pm with the list of wanted items. They had a lot of fun choosing which things they wanted to buy. Chief stayed up until 10:30pm, organizing the items into 5 similar piles so my husband could take them to work the next day.

July 16th. This week's picnic in the park. We do this at least once a week during the summer. It was really hot, though, so we didn't last too much longer past lunch. We wanted to get home to cool off with some ice cream!

July 17th. Happy 55th Birthday Disneyland! I'm a big Disneyland fan. This is a t-shirt I got on my trip a few months ago. It has a portion of Walt Disney's July 17, 1955 opening day speech on the front.
I'm on a roll...2 weeks in a row!

July 4 - July 10

Ugh. I'm skipping a week again. Anyway...

July 4th. We always do fireworks in the street in front of my brother's house. It has become a tradition to eat licorice sticks while we do fireworks/watch the town's fireworks. In our family of 5, black is preferred over red... 4 to 1. :) Forgot to get a pic of that part, though.


July 5th. We took our kids and their cousins to play in the park I spent many hours in as a child. Had to get a picture of the slide steps that haven't changed in at least 35 years!


July 6th. My brother's perfect S'more!


July 7th. Today's picture is of Chief after he got home from Webelos Day Camp. He had a great time canoeing for the first time, fishing for the first time, making a terrarium, winning a prize for shooting a bulls eye with a BB gun, and so much more.

July 8th. Trying to figure out the "Color Accent" feature on my camera...


July 9th. Time to retire Chief's Skechers. He wore a hole in the toe of his shoe, which led to a hole in the toe of his sock!

July 10th. Today's picture is of Maxwell Smart and his friend eating pizza Lunchables at the park.

That's it for now!