Piano

We finally found an affordable piano! We bought it on Craigslist and then turned around and sold our keyboard on Craigslist. This is much better for Erin to practice on.

Lizard

We found a tiny lizard one day and I decided to let the cat have a look at it. Keep in mind, our cat is definitely not a hunter. She would definitely starve to death if she didn’t live with us. But she was definitely intrigued by it! She isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box… she sniff the glass and then walk all around it. Then she would paw at the glass and scoot it around the floor, but she didn’t know she could just reach into the glass to get the lizard. It was pretty funny. We set the lizard free outside before she had a chance to figure things out.

Back to School

The kids started school shortly the next week – 6^th Grade and 2^nd Grade. Even though they go to a K-8 school, this is Erin’s last year in elementary school. Next year, she will be considered junior high, and their class structure changes a little so it’s not their homeroom teacher teaching all the subjects.

 

This is also the first year they get out of school at the same time. Grades K-1 go to school until 3:00 but grades 2-8 don’t get out until 4:00. For the last two years, they went to a friend’s house after school until Rob or I could pick them up. This year, Erin has a house key and they let themselves in when the carpool drops them off.  I usually get home about a half hour after they do.

State Capitol

I took a day off the week before school started just to spend time with the kids and finish getting back-to-school stuff together. We had lunch with Rob and Chipotle and then the kids wanted to go to the state capitol. There’s a small museum inside, and Robbie really likes the memorabilia and replica of the USS Arizona.

 

You can go to the top floor and look down through the rotunda to the ground floor. Erin thinks it’s pretty cool, but Robbie kept his distance.

 

Erin's Birthday

For the kids’ birthdays, we let them each invite a friend to Big Surf like last year. Robbie invited our next-door neighbor Ziondric and Erin invited her best friend Rachel. This was only a couple of days after she broke her toe. She wore water shoes, which kept her splint in place. Aside from banging it a couple of times in the wave pool or on the slides, she did fine.

Since I’m in the Young Women’s organization at church, I went to girls’ camp this year. It was a three-day camp, and the last day was Erin’s birthday. On the way home, Rob called to say some friends had invited us to an AZ Rattlers game that night and did I want to go?  I got cleaned up and off we went! I had never been to an arena football game, but it was pretty fun. The kids really liked it.

Since I wasn’t able to make a cake, we picked up a cinnamon cake on our way home and we had it after church the next day. Erin is growing up fast!

Cow Appreciation Day

We went to Chik-Fil-A’s annual Cow Appreciation Day again. Always worth it because everyone who dresses up gets a free meal!  And it’s kinda fun.

Erin's Toe

Erin had an interesting month of July. One day when Rob and I were at work, she broke her toe! She’s a pretty level-headed kid, so when she called in tears we knew something was wrong. She had been chasing Robbie when he stopped abruptly and her foot smashed into his heel. She said her toe was bent sideways across the other toes and she had to grab it and move it back into place… she relocated her own toe!  Ugh. So Rob left work and took her to urgent care.

 

This was in the waiting room:

 

After an X-Ray, a splint, and a walking boot, she was good to go. She’s one tough kid! She only needed Tylenol a couple of times, and she got around on it pretty well.