More

Yes, there is more. We have been up to so much more since Lizzie's graduation in early May! May began with that bang and continued on with the start up of swim team. We have four swimming this year! One of the twins has opted not to swim, but Asher, Claire, Isabel and Parker are enjoying the season.  

Claire's big deal of the year is that she is swimming with no floatation devices at all this season! None. She is also able to swim the 25 meters without touching a line line or wall. Boy has she come a long way for this, her third year swimming! 

Asher is following right along. Although he was on the team last year, he never swam in a meet because he really didn't learn to swim. This year, we started out about the same as last year, but he finally got the hang of it and was in his first ever meet a week ago! The day before his big meet, he impressed the coach by swimming freestyle the entire 25 meters in 47.49 seconds! Pretty good for his first time. The night of the meet, bless him, he completely forgot how to do freestyle and pretty much doggie paddled the whole way. But, he made it and he did not touch the wall or the lane line!

June means we celebrate one of the best days of the year! Father's Day. It's the best because my kids have the best. I was blessed to know from the beginning that Paul would be the kind of father that would sacrifice to be the best father he could be. I got to see him in action with Lizzie while we dated. And that sealed the deal!

Though Lizzie was not with us, Paul and I have managed to get ourselves blessed with 5 of the best kids on Earth! And they love their Daddy beyond measure! 

Which is still only a fraction of how much he loves them!

And since it was Father's Day, Daddy got to pick the activities for the day. We started with church, of course, grabbed a bite at a favorite spot in town and headed to the bowling ally. Daddy wanted to bowl with his kids! 

The kids had a blast!

Have I mentioned how much the boys have grown up in the last few months? 

No?

Good.

Let's not mention it.

Daddy is happier if we don't!

 Even with all that, we managed to squeeze in a VBS week and some time hanging with friends to "do projects".  In other words, neat ideas that we see but don't have a slice of time for during the school year.

 

 Like making squishy bags with hair gel and food coloring and glitter.

 Pretty cool, huh?

Claire thought so!

 Even the big girls had a blast with this idea!

I Spy Bottles were also a hit that day!

 That's the great thing about these kids. They don't need much to be entertained! Just a friend and a simple activity like stuffing pom-poms into cups in with a hole in the lid. 

So, we have successfully moved from spring to summer and my blog is pretty well caught up. 

I hope to post some more, but it's about to get crazy around here as we move all the kids bedrooms around to see if we can make room for more!

And on that note, I bid you adieu!

*I wrote this a few days ago and scheduled it to post today. Today is Asher's birthday so look for a post with Party Pictures to come very soon!*

So much.

Okay, so much for post after post. This having 5 kids at home thing really takes a bite out of my so called free time! Since my last post was in April and it is now.....

Oh my gosh!

Is it really the end of June?

Well then. I guess I'm more behind than I thought. Moving along. What have we been up to? Since April?

Isabel and I got to go see her favorite (and only) Godmother, staring as Ms. Hannigan in Annie at a theater downtown. It was wonderful! Cindi was great and as a bonus, Uncle Morgan and MM (God-sister) were also in the play.  And the coolest part was spending time alone with Isabel. The kid really digs plays too!

We went Strawberry picking. A big favorite spring activity around here!

Our Saturdays are always busy with projects, Honey-do lists, yard work, laundry, and housework. No fun there. So, we try to do a lot of Sunday afternoon picnics in the spring. The weather is always nice and we have great places to pull-up some grass around here!

Sometimes there is tree-cimbing involved. :)

Clearly fifteen is not too old for tree-climbing!

And there is always frolicking. 

'Cause what's a good picnic without some frolicking?

 Right!?

There is also always a beautiful view! Well, we do live in Charleston you know. 

We are surrounded by water and marsh.

And beautiful parks!

So spring is pretty cool around here!

But, probably the highlight of the spring was Lizzie's College of Charleston graduation! 

After four years of hard work and dedication, she has a well deserved degree in Anthropology.

We are so very proud of the young lady Lizzie has become and we know that the future holds many wonderful opportunities and amazing adventures for her!

We are hopeful that her first adventure will start with France. She has applied to be an Au Pair for a family in France and if she can get her visa sorted out she should be leaving the country in August. Travel is something Lizzie has always wanted and while we will miss her dearly, we want her to have the time of her life!

I think I'll end this update here with this bit about Lizzie. I don't want to detract from the awesomeness of her achievements by carrying on with the story of our lives just yet. Instead we can soak in pride for a few days. And then I'll pick up where I left off.....

Promise.

And now, Shawn Gour, you made a deal with me! You wanted pictures and you got them. Pictures for pictures, girl! So, I better be seeing some of your pictures in my inbox of a certain little someone very soon! :)