Farewell to Summer...

Today is officially my last day of summer vacation. It has been a WONDERFUL summer. The Brinkleys did not travel far from home this year to find adventure. Instead, we had a "staycation". The most difficult decision facing each day was "Which porch shall we have our coffee on this morning?" and "What book shall we start next?". We spent countless hours at the pool and playing tennis. We read dozens of books and enjoyed our fabulous new library. We entertained many play dates and sleep over guests, even throwing a tea party on one occasion. We piddled in the yard, endured six hours of gymnastics each week (Sophie), visited the free movies each week, enjoyed a great VBS, had a screaming great time at Six Flags, and loved seeing my brother's children from Montana. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable summer that we have had in some time. I am so very thankful that we were all together, healthy, and for most of every day truly enjoyed one another's company.

I was so lazy this summer that I didn't get the camera out very much, but here are a few shots that I did capture.

Our visit with Morgan and Garet- My aunt Anita hosted a party for the children to visit with all the extended family. Below are a small number of the great-grandchildren represented on my mother's side.

Morgan and Garet spent one night at our house. I asked Garet if he would like pancakes for breakfast, and he informed me "only if they're homemade". Here they're enjoying their homemade pancakes.

Reagan helping me bake homemade blueberry muffins. We picked blueberries on two different occasions this summer. YUM!

Reagan and her friend Carsten enjoying some pool time

Sophie and her pal Elise

It's a wonder the girls didn't grow fins and webbed feet this summer!

Reagan planned an American Girl tea party at our house and invited the Huster girls over. She got the recipes for the party from an American Girl book that she has. The four girls and I spent the morning baking and had the tea party afterward.

Sophie and Rebecca

Reagan and Laurel

The menu included petit fors, wedding cookies, candied pecans, and PB&J sandwiches.

Dad and Sophie easing into the morning on the back porch

Lily found that she could watch the squirrels from this chair.

It's back to the five a.m. routine starting tomorrow!

4th of July cont'd

Friday evening my parents brought the girls home so that we could all go to the fireworks and Partner's Pizza in PTC. Unfortunately, Reagan wasn't feeling up to it, so she went to grandma's instead. We met up with Chris and Melanie and their girls and Mark and Mandy and their cutie pies and Ms. Charlotte on the lawn. The kids had a great time running around waiting for the fireworks to start. Here are a few snap shots.

Sophie, Allie, and Avery

Romeo and me sporting our road race shirts

Mark, Ethan, and Nina

Ms. Charlotte and Mandy

Ethan

Sophie Bug

Mimi and Poppy

Chris and Avery

Somehow I didn't manage to take a single picture of Melanie. Sorry girl!

Happy Birthday America

Happy Independence Day friends! This morning I experienced the Peachtree Road Race for the the first time. It was fantastic! Romeo and I met Sandy W. this morning bright and early to make our way downtown for the world's largest 10k. Sandy was in group 2, and Rome and I were in group 3. Lucky draw for us! What an awesome experience! I'm not a serious runner although I have been working at the whole exercise thing for a few months now. I was very pleased to run about 2-2.5 miles altogether of the 6.2, and kept a steady pace for the remainder. Thinking it would take me an hour and a half to finish, I was excited to come in at 1 hour 19 minutes. Romeo finished in just over 1 hour 4 minutes. Sandy has bragging rights this year. You'll have to look at her blog for the details. It was such fun! Wonder if we're in the sea of people in this picture. The girls were watching the race at my parent's house, and both of them insist they saw us on t.v. I tend to believe they did since they told us what we were both wearing.

This was our third year having friends over on the 3rd for the "pre-race carb meal"-spaghetti. It was also Todd and Sandy's daughter, Kate's, birthday. In addition, the Hamby's joined us for the fun. I got some really cute shots of the kiddos playing.

Dean and Houston entertained themselves with Lily's doggie door.

Happy 6th Birthday to Kate!

Hey, is Dean stuck?

Playing on the gym set

This past Wednesday, Romeo and I took Reagan and her friend Juliana to a U-Pick It farm to pick blueberries and blackberries. Sophie was at a friend's house for a couple days. The girls had so much fun-as did I. We've had homemade blueberry pancakes and blackberry cobbler-YUM!

Reagan said, "Mom, please promise that we'll come back next year."