Crummy Photos Phrom the Phone: 8/2022

Blueberry picking.

I took the kiddos swimming quite a few times while the older girls were working. Ransom loves both swimming and swinging, so he was in heaven.  

On an uncomfortably muggy evening when Millie and Annika were gone in the OBX for Poiema, and John was working late at Walmart pushing carts, I had the brilliant idea to use some money I'd just made cleaning an air bnb to take the lonely remainder for ice cream. Brilliant, right?! We went to the closest ice cream shop, and I ordered everyone "smalls." I should have deduced there might be a problem when two different shop employees asked me, "Are you sure you want smalls?!"  

"Why, sure, I do!" I cheerfully declared, thus setting in motion one of many mistakes I've made in my life. 

These were SMALLS.

Just imagine five children from ages ten to 1.5 years, frantically trying to eat mountains of ice cream that are melting faster than they can swallow.  Panic ensued. On top of that, this goofy girl dropped the ice cream off her cone into the parking lot less than a minute after I handed it to her. (I scooped it back onto the cone after wiping off gravel. No harm done, right?)

Another problem. Because I ordered Piper a "medium" before I knew that the "smalls" would be large, I was left with this-- OLDER girls who were also asking me to finish their ice cream as it melted. 

A hundred dry napkins couldn't do the job, so after we left, I pulled over near a stream, and we tramped down a short trail to wash off amid schools of minnows. 

Moving on,  Susannah drove the van a few times before the transmission went. Small girl: huge van: documented.

Right before Annika's surgery, I took everyone to the park, but swimming was closed because of thunder, so instead we went for a hike/run in the woods and were caught in a gorgeous storm: torrential downpour, kind park ranger, and all. Here's Cadence in the parking lot after we got back to the van. Zeke wallowed farther away and longer than anyone else. It was even better than swimming (until that flash of lightning right overhead that made me bellow for him to GET OUT OF THE WATER AND GET IN THE VAN RIGHT NOOOOOW!)

Oh. Here's a picture of a sleeping beauty on her uncomfortable bed.

And that, folks, is August.