Back to School! AGAIN?!?!?!

I'm just not sure quite how this happened.....My little babies have been growing up right before my very eyes! I have first, second, third and fourth graders!!!  A little difficulty getting everyone to smile all at the same time, or even at all.... 

Yesterday was their first day of school, and this came as a bitter-sweet moment for me.  As much as I love spontaneity and flying by the seat of my pants most of the time, I do like me a good schedule... A routine. ORGANIZATION, if you will.  Things that summer is usually severely lacking in around here.  Don't get me wrong - if I had a couple days off from work, I would be the first one telling everyone to go back to bed, let's sleep till 11:00.  But there's something about getting up with a purpose and a plan and a goal outside of "how many ways can I get myself in trouble today because it's summer break?"   

This latter thought comes inspired by the girls' attempts to play "hairdresser" and Rea whacking off a chunk of Ni'ke's hair the night before school, all in the name of giving her "bangs" for her first day.  (sigh) My daughters....  Thank goodness for curly hair and bad ideas going relatively unnoticeable.  Ni'ke asked for "a bun on each side" of her head, so yes, she went to school looking like Princess Leia.  Rea only changed her mind four times.  Not bad for her.  And the boys, the fact that they outgrew their sneakers over the summer was nearly undetected because they lived in flip flops for three months.  They almost had no shoes to wear, but we were able to dig the discarded shoes out of the bag headed for Good Will right before it was time to leave for school.  They have a few more wears on them before we go buy out the shoe department at Kohls.

I start classes online in less than 2 weeks.  We have one last big "hurrah" swim meet on Labor Day weekend in Morgan Hill.  We love our little weekend get-a-ways..... Oh, to be able to slow down the clock every now and then!

So grateful for the joy and the blessing that summer has been!  And now we are on to the next chapter of school adventures!!!

Olympic All-Around and Cars Breaking Down

Don't you just love the Olympics??!!  We are big fans around here.  Four years ago the kids were barely old enough to appreciate the games or understand much about them, but this year they're over-the-top fascinated!!  Especially with the swimming.....  Every race, every athlete interview, every medals ceremony, they're right there watching and commenting about when THEY are going to be in the Olympics some day.  Keep dreaming BIG, Smith children!!!!

And how cool is it that Gaby Douglas won the gold??!!  We've been cheering her on all week, and it was fun watching her win last night!!  The mother in me would get all weepy every time the cameras would catch her mom in the audience, watching her daughter with fists clenched and a prayer on her lips.  As the kids have gotten older, (and especially this summer it seems) their questions and curiosities over race and religion how the world goes around and why people think and feel and act the way they do have increased ten-fold.  Lord, let us as parents show them Your heart and speak Your words into their lives!!

Yesterday didn't turn out exactly as I had planned.....  No where in the day had I scheduled my car going completely dead leaving me stranded in the middle of down town (for the third time in 2 months...) or waiting an hour and a half outside in the 87 degree weather for the AAA guy, or road tripping half an hour up to Healdsburg with said stranger/tow truck guy, or then getting to a friend's bridal shower 45 minutes late, due to above events in addition to getting horribly lost in Petaluma. (sigh)  On a thankful note, despite my frustrations, I can see God's caring hand in yesterday's events. I thankfully parallel parked in metered parking before my car quit, which was the most perfect spot to be if you might need a tow truck later.  And when my parking meter expired (you know, because I was STRANDED) the ticket officer had mercy on me and didn't give me a ticket!  (Whew!) AND, boy was I grateful that I decided NOT to go get my gazillion groceries BEFORE I made my stop downtown.  Wouldn't that have been fun, melted ice cream and all.....  "I will give thanks in all things!"

Tid Bits and This-n-That

 David flew back to Baltimore earlier this week.  That was a big bummer.....  The kids cried and his parents did, too.  (sigh)  The time sure goes fast it seems.  Before he left, he taught the kids how to make and print off a checklist from the computer to help them keep track of their swim gear for practices and meets.  Hooray for organization!  We prayed a blessing over him before he left, and Ma-lak said, "Lord, help David in school so he can finally graduate and be a really good lawyer and get a nice job."  Amen to that!  One more semester and we will have lots of celebrating to do in December!

 Ni'ke and her fashion - what can I say? Hair turban, scarf, high heels, and the nightgown Grandma made for her that shrunk funny when we washed it. Thankfully this was just "play at home dress up" and not a public outing.  Nope, that would be the NEXT outfit.  This is was what she wore to swim practice yesterday....  I say go for it, girl!  Be colorful and bright and happy, just like YOU are!  

Dutch Oven Rosemary Chicken!  My sister and my awesome brother-in-law Jim got me hooked on this very cool website called the Cooking Husband.  The recipes are great for outdoor cooking over a fire, which is what they like it for, but they're really just very yummy tasty recipes that are pretty easy to make!  I love how they show play-by-play pictures of how to make and what it's SUPPOSED to look like!  Here's my creation from Tuesday - a big hit at home!

 There's a lot of noise going on outside our house!! (Thankfully I didn't work last night and am not sleeping in today!)  They're resurfacing the road, and we are unable to drive into or out of our garage or park anywhere on Blue Sky Lane till 5:30 tonight! Held hostage by a construction crew?? Daryle had to walk a block this morning so somebody could pick him up for a meeting!  Sort of threw a wrench in my grocery shopping plans for the day....  But oh well, it'll be really pretty when it's done!

Today Ma-lak has a temperature of 102.6, a very nasty cough, and the energy of an 85 year old woman - unless of course you're my grandma, then that's not an accurate analogy. So he's been laying low up in the loft (now reclaimed by the Little Smiths since their big brother left) playing Play Station and drinking lots of water and orange juice. I certainly hope this bug is of the "24 hour" species and doesn't hang around too long.

 

Speaking of being organized, I'm trying to get back into my Couponing routine!  With school quickly approaching and the summer coming to an end, I know that my time and how I spend - INVEST it - needs to be a little more thought out.  And being thoughtful and careful in my spending  and menu-planning is a must.  Looking forward to stocking up and getting set!

 

A Little Pool Time

There's nothing like a "stay-cation"....  Aaaaahhhhh....  Sure it's fun to travel around and take a trip, but there's just no place like home!  This past week I've been off and we've spent time together just HANGING OUT.  So blissfully peaceful.  Sleeping in every morning (which I love) having big meals (I've tried 5 new recipes this week!) swimming at the pool this weekend (it was SO hot!) taking little day trips (ballgames and amusement parks) and coming home at night to sleep in our own beds.  Like I said, "Aaaaahhhhhh....."

 We went to Findly to swim this weekend, which is great because it's closer to our house, and it's a nice change of scenery from Ridgway since we feel like we live there already.  The little ones decided they wanted to try the diving board.  They're used to going off the blocks for swim competition, but they've never been off the board.  Well.  If that wasn't the most hilarious good fun, watching them discover a whole new world!  If there's anything that makes them go faster or higher or have more fun somehow, then they're all for it.  They were a little cautious at first, feeling it out, and then it was all out FEARLESSNESS.  Rea spent the past two days doing nothing but flips and crazy dives and had a blast.  Ni'ke was not about to be left behind.  She's so courageous and adventurous!!!  We've created a couple monsters?!?!

 Even Ya'shar had to give it a try!  Grrrrrr.... show us those muscles!!!

Future Olympians!!!

 Yes, the Olympics are coming!! And you better believe we have our DVR set and ready to go!  The kids loved watching the Trials last month, and we were cheering for Maya Dirado, who just narrowly missed making the team!!  She is from Santa Rosa and swam with the Neptunes for more than 6 years before she got a scholarship at Stanford.  The kids had a team swim meet this past Friday, and Maya stopped by to show some support to her local team!  She'll be giving the kids some private swim lessons to work on their stroke technique before she goes back to school.  We wish her the best and hope to see her in Rio 2016!!  (And the Smith kids in maybe, say, the 2024 or 2028 Olympics??!!)

 Hurry, Ma-lak!  You're behind on the take off!!

 Ni'ke in the middle!!  She swam the 25 fly and 25 breast for the first time!

 Rea, "taking her mark."

 David and Ma-lak, horsing around!

Oakland A's vs New York Yankee's!!!

 We were at the Oakland Coliseum last night when Oakland BEAT the Yankee's 4-3!! We've been wanting to take the kid's to a ballgame for awhile since they've never been, and it's been ages since we've gone too.  They LOVED it.  They loved the FOOD, the excitement, the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the 7th inning stretch, they giggled at the kissing cam, and Ma-lak cheered the loudest of all.

 The score board when we got there - we were a little late....  Boo for city traffic, we missed the National Anthem.  But the good news is that we were ahead!  And when I say "we".... Hmmm, who did we root for?!?! Well, we are all wearing A's garb, but the Yankee's and the A's happen to be Daryle's two favorite teams....  So much to the amusement of the New Yorker's sitting  in front of us, Daryle cheered pretty much all the time.  And he came back from getting us hotdogs so he could watch Derek Jeter hit. 

 #2 - Derek Jeter!  He got the biggest boos of all every time he came up to bat.  Except for maybe Alex Rodriguez.

 Ma-lak was beside himself with excitement.  He was so hoping to catch a foul ball...  Maybe next time!

 Yummy hotdogs and brats!  And popcorn and cotton candy..... The cheeseburgers were amazing.

 Ni'ke managed to work her way into nearly all the pictures!!!!

 It got cooler as the sun went down and Rea wanted to snuggle!  Of course I didn't mind that at all.  And yes, they were asleep before we got out of the parking lot......  :-)

6 Flags Discovery Kingdom

 Wednesday this week we took a little road trip out to Vallejo to the 6 Flags there! I LOVE that park!  It's a little smaller than some of the other amusement parks, and it's very zoo-esque with all the animals, and it's right on a lake, and it was so fun!  :)  And let me tell ya, going in the middle of the week is definitely the way to go - hardly any lines!  And the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

 I love my little map-readers.  As soon as we got there, they were mapping out their plan of attack.  (On a side note, do you see how their shirts are very different from the ones they wore in the post above?!?!)

 More map-reading and plan of attacking!!

 The girls.....

 Daryle asked me yesterday, "Um isn't she a little young for wanting to be so girly and wear all the pretty jewelry stuff?"  I said, "No, she's the perfect age....."  Ni'ke is in full-on girly phase and accessorizes if she's going to the PARK.  She likes to do her own hair, and her outfit selections are only moderately more toned down.  She's our little high-fashion avant-garde creative artist. I asked her the other day what she wanted to be someday when she grew up and she said without hesitation, "A musical prodigy."  (Actually she said "prog-idy"  :-)

 Aren't my sunglasses cool??!!  Well, they fell OUT of my pocket where I carefully placed them...

 On THIS ride!!!!  The new Superman ride was awesome - probably best ride I've been on and for sure the best ride there!  It was ridiculous.  Oh, I lost all the loose change in my pockets, too.

 Ma-lak giving the dolphins a "hug"

More map-readin' - I think he was looking for Medusa.....

 The butterfly house was beautiful!  We didn't stay in there too long because it was very warm and Rea thought it smelled funny.  (She was right.)

 "Thrilla Gorilla!"  We waited for the little ones awhile on this one - they had to ride it twice.  So to entertain ourselves, my husband and I made each other giggle by saying "thrilla gorilla" over and over in the voice of the Copy Man on Saturday Night Live.  Circa 1990 or something.  hehe

 Waiting in lines and exercising patience does not come easily for most of our children....  Or for us either for that matter.  Hmmm......

 Ice cream time!

 I like these pictures of the park as the sun was setting!  A fun day.... And yes, they were all asleep before we were even out of the parking lot!!