A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. . .

   Or in this case, it will have to be since I seem to have taken a brief and unplanned hiatus from blogging over the summer months.  I would love to say that I was soaking in every single minute of summer bliss with my children while I was off from work, but truth be told I was in a nearly constant state of crisis control during "Summer of the Two-Year-Old BOY".  Oh, we had our fair share of wonderful, blissful Norman Rockwell-esque days, but we also experienced the retirement of the regular afternoon nap, the eventually-rewarding world of potty-training, and the trauma of stitches in lieu of a birthday hat this year.  Throw in a commitment of summer tutoring with some of my sweet babies from school, shuttling the Reporter to her first year of swim team, and trying to maintain somewhat of an exercise/training program and it goes without saying that most of my nights ended in a heap of pure exhaustion on the couch.  However we had many good times and completed a few cool projects. . . so here you have "A Snapshot of our Summer"!

The summer began with a family trip to Tweetsie Railroad--a little amusement park in the NC Mountains devoted to the old days of Cowboys and Indians!  In addition to riding the "Big Train", we enjoyed feeding the barnyard animals, riding the chairlift, letting the Little Guy drive his first "car", taking a spin on the carousel, and watching the Reporter jump out of her comfort zone and onto the tilt-a-whirl multiple times!  It felt good to get back to the Mountains, if only for the day. . .

Before the Fall. . .

After the Fall. . .

"Stitches All Gone!!"

At the end of June, we tried to beat the heatwave here at home by escaping to the beach to celebrate the Little Guy's second birthday!  Unfortunately we spent a large portion of his birthday in the Urgent Care center at the beach stitching up the gash between his eyes!  Guess I'm finally part of the "boy-mom club" now! Not to worry, he was just fine and enjoyed his vegan banana pudding, compliments of "Grandandy" to celebrate his big day!

We returned from the beach just time to celebrate the Fourth of July with a bike parade and fireworks!

The bulk of our summer was consumed with the Reporter's first year of swim team.  I cannot even put into words how proud I am of her achievement.  She has an amazing, unbreakable spirit and showed determination far beyond her years.  The Reporter started the year as a non-swimmer and now asks to join me in the pool for laps on a weekly basis!

Our big project for the summer was redecorating the Reporter's room to take it from "little girl" to "big girl"--I guess the next redo will be to "teenager"!  eek!!  We scored a cute little bed at an estate sale and went to work painting.  Every spare minute that I could keep my eyes open after the kids were tucked in was spent working on the year-long quilting project. . . pictures to come SOON!

Other projects included:

Trying our hand at yo-yo hairbows. . .

Creating art for the reading nook. . .

knitting multiple baby gifts. . .

Creating treasure from trash. . .
(I scored these frames on a long run back in the spring. . . now they are cork boards in the kids' rooms!)

Re-upholstering the bar stools. . .

And finally, after 12 years, re-upholstering the breakfast table chairs (Full living room makeover is in progress. . .)

The rest of the summer was filled with various and sundry activities each day. . .

Afternoons of sand and water table in the shade. . .

Tree climbing and Nature Scavenger Hunts during tutoring sessions. . .

When Mother Nature tried to keep us inside, we went outside to splash!

Some major biking miles were logged, while running continued, but at  a scaled back rate  due to the heat!

There were evenings on the swings. . .

and train rides and carousel rides at our local park. . .

Lots of popsicles were consumed. . .

And we devoured at least a watermelon a week!!! (sometimes more!)

The summer ended with a trip to the zoo. . .

And new, snazzy haircuts for SECOND grade!

Whew!  No wonder I didn't have time to blog!!  

But the very best part of my summer took place the first weekend in August. . .

Stay tuned!