"Warm like fire..."

Sunday was Father's Day, so we incorporated lots of little festivities just for fun. The girls baked cupcakes Friday with Sam and we decorated them that night. 

(Leaving two plain, for Jared).

 Jeremy got home from working in Paris Friday night also, and I decided to go ahead and give him the grill so he would have time to put it together over the weekend. The girls and I made up a scavenger hunt for him. His first clue read, "This is where your two little princesses rest their pretty heads." On their pillows, he found a scrub brush and another clue that read, "This is the bedroom of the boy who made you a father." On Jared's pillow, he found tongs and a clue that read, "You'll find this by the treats your girls baked you for Father's Day," and in the kitchen he found a spatula and the last clue, which directed him to the garage, where alas he found the grill.

Heart's crown drawn by Jenna; "Baby Jared" (aka Boo Boo) drawn by Julia. 

My picture of him with the girls and the grill box didn't turn out,
so I will get one of them with it all together.
Jeremy was pretty happy with his gift :-)

 Just a snapshot from the weekend: Jenna has now started reading Harry Potter! She's on the first book and she's hooked; I love to see the kids read!

 Saturday, in addition to Jared's haircut (which he continues to hate just as much as he did when he was little) and guitar lessons, the girls and I baked Grandpa his favorite cookies (Peanut Butter) and also made a batch of chocolate chip to share with him and with Gene. The girls have been baking quite a bit with Sam and I can tell Julia is getting better with measuring and with her attention span.

She helped me measure, and added & mixed
all the ingredients herself.

Jenna is very meticulous to line up all the cookies precisely
on the cookie sheet. We worked on our multiplication facts
in relation to our cookies as we went. 

 Sunday, we met Gigi and Gramps for Father's Day lunch. It started out as a fiasco, but ended well. We first went to Wooden Nickel, stood at the door for 15-20 minutes, and then left. Even though there were empty tables everywhere and they weren't particularly busy, we were told they couldn't seat us yet because they didn't have enough servers. I think we would have been okay to wait if we'd been at least allowed to sit down, but they didn't go for that. We then went to Ruby Tuesday and the line was out the door. We were going to wait the half hour predicted for a table, but then got tired of it so we left again (not before KTVO interviewed Jared about what Father's Day means to him, which I didn't catch on the news that night. I don't think Jared knew quite what to say beyond it being a special day to spend time with his dad and grandpa). So off we went to La Fuente. There we were seated and served immediately, despite being a full house. Lunch and service was good, not to mention less expensive than either of the other two choices. Lesson learned. We gave dad his cookies and his gifts from Aunt Tiffy and Aunt Missy that they had sent to me, and then I had to go grocery shopping while the others took a bag of cookies to Gene.

Jenna's almost as tall as Gigi; Jared as tall as Gramps!
(Jared is just a hair shy of 6 feet. He's TWELVE.)

Monday, the kids, mom, and I headed to Columbia for appointments. Mom's appointment with Dr. Schermer went very well, and I feel infinitely better about him handling her care from here on out. This means we are starting back at square one, and she could need surgery again. I wish we could have started out with him, but at least we are there now. We take her back for some testing July 3, and Tiffy will be here then to go with us. We had lunch then at the Mall and did some browsing before finishing the day at Jared and Jenna's Orthodontist appointments. For some reason, we didn't bring Jenna's retainer, but they were okay as long as I brought her back in 3 months instead of the usual 4. This works out better as her next appointment will now align with one of Jared's 6-week appointments. It took us over an hour to get out of Columbia due to me going the wrong way to get to Baskin Robbins, stopping at DQ to get Julia a cheeseburger, and stopping at Taco Bell to get all of them churros. Naturally Julia had to use the restroom at 31 Flavors and Taco Bell. I think she just likes checking out the bathrooms at public places, (which I remember being accused of myself as a kid). Julia let the other two split her churro because she discovered she "only likes the ones in Florida". (Aunt Tiffy got her one when we were at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure a year and a half ago, that was so good, she still remembers it - maybe more than other things on the trip!)

Jared mostly avoids my camera now, but I got him
laughing at the Mall :-)

So this brings us to last night. Jenna had a game and just as we were leaving a big storm cloud with quite a bit of rain came through. But as quickly as it came, it went on by, and they were able to play. It actually turned out to be a pretty nice evening. After dropping her off to warm up with her team, Julia and I circled back to pick up Grandma, and Jeremy and dad joined us when the game started. Grandma sat in her lawn chair and sewed Jenna's stuffed animal (Lady) that needed stitching, along with a couple of the girls' new slipper socks that needed stitching right out of the bag. The girls won their game, and Jenna had a great night. She played first base the whole game and made five outs. She was also the lead hitter and hit all three times she was at bat, and made it home each time. She was "warm like fire!" {referencing a Julia-ism that I'll explain below ;-)} It was a good night for me to have brought my camera. I have even more pics to add later, but here are some I got edited last night. I thought Jenna's last game would be next week, but I found out that they will play in a tournament (so Aunt Tiffy might be here for a game!). After the game, Coach McLain told me, "I've found my first baseman for tournament play." :-) 

Rounding home and heading to the dugout!
Hi Grandma and Grandpa and Dad!

Here comes another out :)

We had another beautiful sunset at the ballpark. 

Jeremy headed back to Paris this morning (he worked there Monday but they sent them home that night as they were working on something different on Tuesday - which allowed him to see Jenna's game last night). When he told me goodbye, Julia was sleeping with her back to mine; we were facing away from each other, but our top arms were linked. (She's coming into our room fairly often at night, and she's even asking to be rocked before bedtime - which I do despite it taking a toll on my back when I pack her to bed. Someday she won't ask me anymore, so I snuggle her while I can; Jenna still likes to sit on me in the recliner, too.) Julia is thrilled that she has negotiated a sleepover with Grandma tomorrow night for herself and Jenna, so I was able to give Sam the day off on Friday; added to my day off Monday for appointments, I just have to pay 3 days childcare this week, which is nice (for me, maybe not as much for Sam). Friday night, Julia has a game. Saturday she has an eye exam (the school sent me home a note at the end of the year that their screenings indicated she needed tested; that her acuity seemed to be OK, but her eyes might not be working together well - so we'll see how that goes). Jared has guitar lessons again, and I hope to work on some photo thank you's for the girls' coaches, as I've been trying to get pictures of their own kids' playing, and of them in coaching-action. Another thing, I spent a good chunk of time yesterday trying to coordinate appointments for everyone and planning my schedule to allow for them - we have Ortho. appointments in August and September; Jared is seeing Dr. Cleaver July 5; all three kids' wellness exams in August; plus Jared's eye exam in August. Not to mention Jeremy is getting his B12 shots every Saturday for 2 more weeks and then will get it monthly for 5 months. Oh and Grandma's next appointment in July, which will result in more appointments, I'm sure. I also have swimming lessons on the horizon to schedule, VBS, and possibly gymnastics for the girls. Oh and Jenna has been hounding me to get a body wave in her hair. She loves for me to braid it in tiny braids when it's wet, sleep in it, and have wavy hair the next day. That's a little time-consuming, and since she asks so often, I suggested the body wave a while ago. She's been waiting for her hair to grow out long enough to do it. We were going to do it in July, but Ashley said it wouldn't be good to swim a lot afterwards, so I scheduled it August 3 (along with back-to-school haircuts for the other two, while I was at it). She may still swim some between then and school starting, but we should start winding down then, and swimming lessons will be over too. It's a little risky getting a perm, and being her first, you never know how it will turn out and hold. Hopefully it will turn out like she's expecting. So the calendar is filling up quickly and before we know it, they will be back in school. Jenna is so excited to get her hair done she is nearly wishing summer away!

Over the weekend I was able to do some photo editing, so here are some I took at one of Julia's games: 

The gang heading to the field with Coach Feeney. 

Twirling our hair in the outfield ;-)

Look at that serious little face. 

Here Julia is having a conversation with...perhaps the grass? I'm not sure.
But she's so adorable. 

Now she gets into the game! 

Good job, Julia!!

Jewels and Sophia

Yet another pretty sunset, gets me every time.
(Julia is right in the middle).

 Here's a couple of pics I took at a little "photo shoot" we had for Jenna before one of her KV games (except the first pic was taken at the game in Schuyler).
  

She loved coming up with "poses" for me
that would look realistic to a game ;-) 

Million Dollar Smile.

I'll end with a quote from Julia last week. She was asking me to sit and snuggle with her. I can't remember what I was doing, but I asked if Jenna could for a little bit while I finished something up. Her response:

"No, you're warmer, because you've had three kids. Jenna's had zero kids. You're warm like fire. Jenna's warm like a microwave."