I’m starting to see a bit of pattern here…my kids are trying to leave home!!   Seriously…this is a little much for me.  I just got one back and now another one is leaving! This adorable little group of soccer buddies are at youthfront camp for a few days.  I miss his sweet little face already but I know that he will have an absolute blast!  Thankfully he will only be gone 2 nights.  This camp looks pretty awesome and they have enough junk food and money on their accounts to have a 10 year old frat party.  YIKES!  I hope he will refer back to the note I slipped into his bag from time to time…

Youthfront camp is new to our family.  We signed up many months ago because they fill up so quickly and I can see why now.  There were a TON of people lined up to get checked in.  I hope my Jakers has everything he needs and chances are he will only come home with half of what he brought…he’s a bit of a scatterbrain when it comes to hanging on to things!

I already can’t wait for him to come home and tell me all about his adventure!!  Although, I am mildly afraid of his demeanor when he returns.  He doesn’t function well with lack of sleep and we are heading straight into Morgan’s 13th birthday party.  I’m praying for a super fun week for all of us and making lifelong memories!!  And maybe lets try to put a stop to this pattern of leaving home…it’s throwing this mom into a tailspin.

Love you to pieces Jake!!  Hope you are using your manners (he will laugh at this later because I tell him 50 times a day to use his manners).  ha!

 

Is it possible to miss someone so much that your stomach hurts!?  Mine did…for 6 days straight.  But she’s home safe and sound and this little lady had an awesome time on her mission trip.  Maybe too awesome because I’m not sure she missed us like we missed her!  She made some new friends, worked super hard, got very little sleep, and is already talking about doing this again next year.

They were supposed to arrive back to the church between 8-9pm on Friday night which I was not thrilled with since I was going to be at the Royals game with my brother and parents (a belated father’s day gift).   But, as it turns out, they were running late so I had plenty of time to get home from the Royals game and get to the church to greet her.  The kids wanted to see her too so they ventured up to the church with us at 11pm in their pj’s and jake was wearing all of his new favorite things (including his new cleats…that will need to be a separate blog entry).  I love that he was excited to share all of these new things with his sister even if he was sort of bragging 😉

The first van arrived and we had our sign in the air with a flash light shining on it and staring into that van looking for our Momo.

She wasn’t in there.  Then the second van came…she wasn’t in there either.  By this time it was raining on us and it was clear they were trying to torture us by putting her in the last van to arrive!  They finally pulled up and the lights were on inside the van and I could see her sweet face smiling at us.  I couldn’t tell if she was embarrassed or happy that we were making a spectacle of ourselves in that parking lot (I did not even care for a second if we looked like dorks or not!!)  We were the only ones with a sign and little siblings.  But many people commented how sweet that was that we did that for her.  Thank you Aunt Jenn & Shauna for pulling that together for us!  She later told me that she was tearing up when she saw us and our sign.  I still wonder if she will ever know how much she was missed.  She is the ‘glue’ to the family you know!

It was very late by the time they unpacked and finished with a group prayer…we hit our pillows by midnight.  We had to wait until the next day to hear about it.  As always, we had a busy weekend with a golf tourney and baseball so I caught up with her as much as I could between other responsibilities and hugged her every chance I got.  I know I’m smothering her and she probably wants to get back on that bus to Des Moines!  Brian was also traveling this week so I kept our schedule very busy so I wouldn’t think so much about it.  The dynamic of the house changes when anyone is gone for awhile.  Many of you know that I’m not a facebook person but I had to break down and create an account so I could join her youth group page and see pictures and updates of her trip.  I totally need a lesson on this facebook stuff.  I could barely navigate it but I was stalking it every 5 seconds to see if any pictures were posted.  I would magnify everything to see if I saw her…even just the back of her ponytail, or her shorts, or a familiar t-shirt.  obsessed.  Do people actually do this on a regular basis, I’m exhausted just doing this for a week!  So, I won’t be back on fb again until I am forced to for stalking purposes again. 😉

Each night, Greg, the youth group leader would send us an email about what went on each day.  Many times it was the middle of the night.  I’m serious…did these people ever sleep!?  I couldn’t wait to read it each day!  The kids and volunteers did some fun team-building activities, helped each day with children, cleaned clothes closets, packaged meals, washed church vehicles, visited a homeless camp, and ended the week with a tubing fun day.  Morgan really enjoyed the day when they packaged meals because they really accomplished a lot that day…over 14,000 meals packaged for needy people!

Here are a few pictures I pulled off FB:

 

Morgan, I’m so happy that you had a great time (even though you didn’t miss us!).  I hope you always have kindness in your heart, give back to others, and have some fun along the way!!

P.S. I also hope Reece will vacate your room…she’s been sleeping in your bed every night missing you to pieces.  XOXO

Reece and I are learning golf for the first time this summer…YIKES!!  This family loves the sport but we could probably use some improvement.  Fortunately, we are using this summer to get better.  We are taking private lessons at Lake Quivira, the boys are playing the Par 3 league at Overland Park and the little Jr. League at our community golf course, Falcon Valley, the golf academy at Burning Tree in DeSoto, and boys are doing the LQ league and golf team where they compete in matches against other country clubs.  It sounds a little ridiculous when you put it all into writing doesn’t it?  You would think we were trying out for the PGA tour or something.  Nope…we’re definitely not…just making the most of the time we have this summer.  I’m just happy to have my first set of clubs and maybe someday I’ll actually get to play a round.  😉  Here’s a few little video clips…

 

 

 

We received a nice surprise visit from my Grammy D and Aunt Kathy yesterday!  They are in town for a few days and stopped in to see us.  We are so blessed to have a 92 year old Grammy and we adore her!  So so happy they made the time to step into our chaotic summer household for a little bit.  They probably needed a nap and a soothing temple massage after leaving this mad house…

Look at this beautiful ballerina!!  She performed in her 2nd dance recital at the Music Hall over the Memorial Day weekend.  I know I’m a little biased, but she was amazing!  She knew that dance and was even able to perform it by herself without the music for grandpa who was unable to come to the recital.  I was really proud of those little girls getting on that giant stage to dance and sing.  They worked really hard to learn that!

Here’s a YouTube link to one of her rehearsals if you want to check it out.  It’s pretty precious!

Our little spunky 6 year old has been asking to get into cheerleading.  The thought of adding one more thing into our family schedule makes my stomach turn.  Some of her Kindergarten buddies are on a cheer squad and I know the amount of time that takes so we settled on trying a cheer camp instead.  Keep in mind, she also plays soccer, has gymnastics 4 hours per week, just finished ballet, and is learning golf this summer.  The first week of the summer she did a  camp with her buddy, Macy, at the high school we feed into, Olathe Northwest, and she had a blast!  The last day of the camp they performed for us and it was SO CUTE!  They did a chant and a routine to music…pretty good for a 4 day camp!

 

We spent our father’s day weekend at Field of Dreams in Basehor, KS and Brian wouldn’t want it any other way.  These cuties LOVE baseball and competing in tournaments is fun for the Bulldogs.  Since our team is comprised mostly of multi-sport kiddos, we don’t get the opportunity to enter into very many tournaments due to schedule constraints.  So, when we do get to go out and play and support our bulldogs…we are there…even in super HOT weather.  We won 3 out of the 4 games we played which brought us home with a 3rd place finish, medals, and a cool trophy.  Jake big-heartedly gave the trophy to John, a teammate who unfortunately broke his hand in a league game just prior, and couldn’t play and will be out for the rest of the season.

The first team we played was from Emporia and Jake came in to pitch.  The first pitch he threw the guy hit a homer.  Not really the way he wanted that to go!  Coach had to remind him that he was throwing strikes which is what he was supposed to do.  And hey we won the game anyway so no harm done!  It’s actually pretty cool to see a 10 year old hit a home run.   And Jakers, I think you are the cutest little pitcher in the world 🙂

The parents on our team gave us a sweet and super cute family gift for Brian’s time coaching.  We have a great group of families!  Go Bulldogs!

 

If this is any indication of what it’s going to feel like when my children leave home for college, I’m doomed!  This mom has been crying off and on all afternoon!  I’m trying to pull it together, but not having Morgan here is absolutely killing me.  As Morgan would say…she’s the glue that holds this family together.  I’d like to think I’m the glue but, she may have a valid point.  I would glue her to my side if I could.

This group of 7th & 8th grade kids pulled out of the parking lot of our church this afternoon in 3 large white vans labeled “Dory”, “Marlin”, and “Nemo” (Reece was thrilled when Morgan got to ride in the “Dory” van).  They are heading to DesMoines, IA until late Friday night and will be working in the community with small children, visiting homeless, sorting/organizing at a food pantry, packing meals for nationwide distribution, and much more.  I’m so proud that Morgan made this choice to graciously give her time and talents to help others.  I think this will truly be a life-changing experience for her!  On the flip side, I’m very sad to not be able to talk to her or see her for almost a week!  They are not allowed to have cell phones so we will not get to communicate with her!  I had hopes that maybe she might get sick and not be able to go or perhaps the van would break down and the trip would be cancelled…I shouldn’t be saying that out loud, but seriously, I miss her and it’s only been a few hours.  We barely got out of the church parking lot and Reece was already saying she missed her best friend.  This is excruciating!  

We got to the church about 12:15 along with about 32 other middle schoolers and the adult helpers going on the trip.  They started loading up sleeping bags, supplies, snacks, games, suitcases, musical equipment.  A LOT of stuff was shoved in those vans!  Reece and I got the privilege of spending about an hour there with her while they prepared and I was not going to leave one minute before those vans pulled out.  I was hiding my tears though my sunglasses and trying to be brave for my girls.  Meanwhile, Reece spotted a stack of hula hoops that were making the trip too and she looked at Morgan and said “Morgan have you practiced your hula hooping?”  Morgan said “nope” and Reece said very seriously “you better quickly get the hang of it!”  This girl absolutely cracks us up sometimes.  Soon after, I spotted a very shiny penny sitting right by our feet.  At that moment I decided that it was a lucky penny and it was a sign to the three of us that Morgan was going to have a great week.  Reece kept that penny and it is going to be a reminder of Morgan  for her.  Of course, we played several rounds of “heads or tails” to pass some of the time and as soon as we got home she put that penny in a special place.

We also watched Jake’s baseball game on my phone and I wished the boys could have been here to see her off!  They will get to greet her when she returns home and who knows…they may learn to appreciate her a little more!  or not!?  According to Drew, Morgan is going to pay him 5 bucks if he won’t fight with Reece and make her cry while she’s gone 🙂  and as I sit here writing this, Reece is by my side saying…Morgan told me not to miss her and I’m trying not to…

Of course many of you know that she is super organized and responsible so she had been getting herself packed all week and checking and double checking the packing list without any need for help.  She is not a last-minute type of girl….she was prepared!  

MoMo, I’m so proud of you and that group is lucky to have you there.  There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you will make an amazing impact on many people this week!

Thank you to our family that came to church this morning to see her off and wish her well. The cards and words of encouragement will stick with her forever.

 

 

I left for just a few hours to catch Drew’s baseball game and when I got home, Morgan’s creative mind had been on overdrive.  She created this marble slide out of some pool noodles!  Of course she did…this is totally a normal occurrence on a random Wednesday evening isn’t it!?  As hot and tired as I was (I swear KC is melting before our eyes), I could not help but smile from ear to ear about this creation!  Morgan, you absolutely are the most creative and FUN person I know!!  Can’t wait to see what you do next…

And just one other fun pic to share from today!  Morgan is leaving on Sunday for a week-long Mission Trip which means we are in serious party planning mode for her BIG 13th birthday!  She’s become my #1 assistant with parties BUT today Reece was really a trooper! Did we forget she was in the cart!?…we buried her in party props!  I suppose the better choice would’ve been to get another cart.  Ok…next time Reece, we promise not to bury you in merchandise!