Grammar Lesson: Adjetives, Verbs & Nouns

I didn't capture most of our mid-week adventures on camera, but luckily, this memory of mine can at least remember things that happened in the last 7 days!

This week...

...we were sponge-painting-painters...

...and paint-brush-painting-shell-painters

...and chocolate-chip-cookie-eating-library-visitors...

...which turned us into Mouse-and-the-Motorcycle-book-readers...

...and too-many-days (and-too-much-money-spent)-shopping-for-non-holey-pants-for-kids-shoppers...

...and excited-to-be-back-at-swimming-lessons-swimmers...

...and play-on-the-playground-before-swimming-lessons-adventurers...

We were dating-our-son-parents...

...at the movies...

...and then at the Olive Garden...

We were brunch-eating-with-old-friends-females...

...who turned into singing-happy-birthday-to-my-sister-for-the-first-time-this-week-ladies...

And finally, this week, we were celebrating-my-sister's-30th-birthday-lunch-guests...

At the par-tay, you could find lovin'-on-Samantha-mamas...

...or, snow-cone-eatin'-party-peeps...

...a toothless-cupcake-smashing-grandson...

...a present-opening-beauty...

...OR, a candle-blowing-birthday-girl...

Whew! That was basically our week...such wonderful memories were made! It was an honor to spend time connecting with old friends...a joy to spend quality time with our son...a thrill to see the kids learning and sharpening their swimming skills...such fun reading books from my favorite childhood author (Beverly Cleary)...

...AND exciting to celebrate the 30th birthday of the baby in our family, my sister/bestie/bester/sistie...JENNI! I know our next 30 years together are going to be the best years of our life! I look forward to finish schooling our children together, witnessing our children become responsible and God-fearing adults, watching our children fall in love with their spouses, enjoy at least a few more vacations together, spend time with the wonderful friends and family in our life, run a few more races side-by-side, laugh until our sides hurt while eating donuts, and experience the ut-most fun of grand-mothering together in those next 30 years! "30" is only the beginning!!! We have SO MUCH MORE FUN TO BE HAD!!!! I love you friend!



Dear Jennifer Hudson (Week 21)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

I broke the yo-yo cycle! :0)))) 2 weeks in a row now I have recorded a loss on the scale...yipeee! This morning at my WW meeting I was down another 3.2 pounds, for a total of 40.4 pounds!!! The members in my meeting are so generous with their compliments, and it is so neat to be a part of that group. As kind as they are all to me when I experience success in weight loss, I feel/express the same towards them. Being with these people for almost 5 months has made me genuinely interested in their weight loss experience also. I am SO excited for them as they are dropping the pounds, and even some of them are one-by-one reaching their goal weight, and that is so motivating to imagine myself in their shoes at some point. 40 pounds done....31 to go! (Although, once I get to that weight I may decide that I want to lose a bit more.)

This week I made some delicious recipes out of a "Fitness" magazine I stole from the gym (I fully intend to return it once I'm done sampling the recipes). :0) The article was "Cook Once...Eat Twice"...

The first recipe was the most AMAZING meatballs!!!...initially you put them on pasta...

...and then the next night, you use them for mini meatball sliders (aren't the buns cute!? I found them at Trader Joes)...

The 2nd recipe was for shredded BBQ chicken in the crockpot. First you used that chicken to make a sandwhich on a "sandwhich thin" (instead of using a full bun)...



...and then you use the chicken to make lettuce wraps with some brocoli-slaw, fresh lime juice, and a couple of dashes of hot sauce...

As I have previously told you, I have a very BUSY summer! We have events on the weekends for as long as the eyes can see. This weekend's par-tay was a super fun time celebrating the 40th birthday of my lovely friend Veronica!!!

Prior to the party she told me to save some WW points for the cake...a very special CHOCOLATE BACON cake!!!

I did.

What I didn't know, was that there was also going to be an INCREDIBLE taco bar...

...and equally tempting was the "treats table" that we could be sampling off of throughout the entire party...

Being the girl that I am, it should come as a shock to no one that I think the food just might have been the BEST part about this party! It was DE-LI-CIOUS!!!

I ate way more than I should have though.

Although, with the constant hand-slapping of my sister, I didn't eat nearly as much as I truly wanted to, lol!

This party was an 80's themed party, and my girlfriend had told me that she was going to do this theme back when I threw my 80's party for my 30th birthday last year. With that being said...I knew to hold on to my costume! :0)

This was me at my party, last January...



And this year, I rocked it again!...

And finally, in the gym this week, I called my sister and told her that we were going to mix things up!..."Meet me on the courts for my Basketball Bootcamp!" We had so much fun! We ran laps around the gym, did some burpees with the basketball, did some squat races across the court, and then I finally had us do some drills shooting hoops...

I got my game on too!

In addition, I got to run outside a couple of more times this week (one time pushing the kids for 6 miles in the stroller), AND we got in our pool, and I was able to swim laps for 30 minutes...it's fun to change things up! :0)

I hope you had a great week too J Hud!

Your biggest fan,
Elizabeth

Kinks in our Coil

I'm a little bit cranky...and a lot tired...this should be an interesting post...I'll fight the urge to be sarcastic through the entire thing...

This was a BIG week for Wyatt...the highest highs...and the LOWEST low!

Everything started off on a positive note...after a conversation about Disney movies, we discovered that as a family we knew far too little about the flick "101 Dalmatians"...so I devised a super fun surprise for the kids...after the gym on Monday night, I put the kids to bed...I told myself to wait 5 minutes, and then go back in their rooms, and say, "Just joking! Let's do movie night instead of sleeping!"...only, when I went in to Bea's room, she was already asleep!!! :0( BOOOOOO! Oh well. When I moved on to room #2, Wyatt was TOTALLY game for a movie night instead of bed time! :0) I pulled out the sofa bed in the living room, and we settled in for an adventure with Pongo, Perdita, and their 99 puppies (well, only 15 were actually theirs....who knows their Dalmatian trivia NOW!?!?)

And then, later in the week, we did one of Wyatt's FAVORITE activities...SWIMMING! :0)

The kids start back in swimming lessons this upcoming week, for 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing them progress with their skills...and chat with my girlfriend while our kids are in the pool. ;0)

And this week it was Wyatt's turn for his Awana ceremony...he completed his 3rd and final year in Sparks! Next year he will be in 3rd grade, and will move up to "TNT"...where does the time go!? :0(

The ceremony dragged on for quite some time (MAJOR props to Grammy for attending AND hanging in for the whole thing)...and I found Wyatt occupying his time in other ways...

Wyatt also enjoyed Legos with his cousins...

...and after practicing his piano recital song for his cousin's on my sister's piano, Brady HAD to bring out his guitar, and show Wyatt a thing or two...which then meant that Wyatt HAD to play a guitar also...Can you tell which child actually knows how to play the guitar!?)...

But then things kind of went sour for the week.

Wyatt received his 2nd (ever) bee sting...

And while an incident as traumatizing as a bee sting would normally be the talk of the week, unfortunately Wyatt apparently had something else he wanted to say...more specifically: a-single-4-letter-word...

Ugh. ROUGH day. That stung harder than the bee. :0(

One day I will forget that moment ever happened...and one day "normal Wyatt" will come to mind again...you know, just like this...

Beatrice had a SLIGHTLY better week than Wyatt.

She loved the picnic lunch we had at our park...

And even though swimming is NOT her favorite sport, she sure did enjoy splashing on the stairs...

...and CLINGING to the wall...

Bea had TONS of time with her "Coustie" (cousin-bestie) this week!

I remember my mom always telling a funny story about how when my siblings and I were younger, she never let us have toy guns, but yet she would always find my brother turning anything and everything into a gun anyway...including our Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Soooo, when I discovered these little girls using the boys' Legos as a make-up set, I couldn't help but laugh! :0)

We were all blessed to have Samantha even come to our house for a sleepover this week! :0)))

...but first, there was a "Princess Bath"...

Having TWO princesses in a bath (or anywhere for that matter!), can often lead to a ROYAL dispute! Someone is shouting at someone...and someone doesn't like to be told what to do...

When a sleepover ends with cinnamon french toast....

...and a surprise guest at the breakfast table...

 ...who can remember if/how/what/when/where things ever went wrong!? :0)