finally!!

We've all heard from Maggie this week...Ian and I got seperate letters with leather keychains from the craft room (you can't tell but mine is a butterfly with hearts and the word, MOM). Rosie and Clementine even got one, too! Check your mailboxes, I'm hearing rumors there are more letters to come!

last day

It's Maggie's last day of camp today. It looks like she is still having a fun time and possibly making new friends! I'm betting it was a rough night...the weatherman reported that the area had "monstrous" thunderstorms that resulted in 1,000 lighting strikes every 3 minutes!

anyone for targets?

Isn't this a silly picture? It appears that Maggie has made it to the rifle range for target practice... one of her favorites! It was mine, too. On the archery range Maggie reports that they added plastic animals...and she shot a deer in the neck. Lovely.

waterfront fun

I was thrilled to see her on the "banana boat." Maggie told me it was scary last year and that she might not ride this year. I wonder if peer pressure kicked in or if she seriously considered my letter reminding her that she got an award at school for being a risk-taker and to try something new at camp this summer. Whatever the case, I know she is having a wonderful adventure with her friends!

She's OK

We are slow to get pictures and they are not the best of quality. No matter...I am thankful to get a glimpse of Maggie. She loves the craft room. I'm sure she will be bringing home another leather necklace!

Maggie came to camp this year with 8 friends from school. It looks like they are pretty much sticking together at first.

Later, Maggie appears to be at one of the rope courses with a different group of girls. I wonder how high she went?

cabin 2G

After a long wait cabin pictures were finally posted on the camp website. I know the girls are going to have a fabulous adventure together. Unfortunately, her friend had quite an adventure before we even got back to Houston! Good news...she returned to camp the next morning!

Camp Cullen or BUST

THE day finally arrived...to go to camp! The moment Maggie steps foot onto camp property she feels so completely happy! She chose a bunk, got settled in and even found time to make a new friend! This year she has 8 friends from school that joined her this year...

letterbox #15

Ok, this was the most wonderful letterrbox ever! "Guido's Hand" was hidden INSIDE the Fondren Library at Rice University! The actual letterbox was hidden inside a fake book. It was a cool relief from the heat and tons of fun to find!

letterbox #14

We are at it again! Today we introduced friends to letterboxing. We found "Wild Things" at Bayou Parkland near our house...it is right off the bayou and Almeda. It is actually an urban forest that is part of Hermann Park. Despite being really hot, the girls were ready for 1 more...

Love Thursday

Surfiside Beach...found seashells

Rainforest Cafe

This morning Maggie had a dentist AND orthodontist appointment before school starts. I was shocked to find out she has lost 19 teeth with only 1 left to go. I guess I lost track somewhere after a dozen. The orthodontist was very pleased because he said she would be ahead of the other kids getting braces. Even though Maggie is excited about getting them, I think she will pleased to get them off sooner than later!

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day at the Galleria getting Maggie's school clothes. If I wait until August when she gets back from camp, they will all be sold out! Maggie has grown an inch and a half this summer and does not fit in any of her school clothes from last year. Sadly, this is true every year!

We took a break from our appointments and shopping to eat lunch with Aunt Karen. She works just down the street. The Rainforest Cafe just opened in the Galleria and Maggie felt we had the best seats in the house...snuggled right up close to the elephants!

After lunch Maggie insisted on going to Dylan's Candy Bar for a little sweet treat...she especially loves the wall of Pez!

Rosie's baby

I know you are not supposed to give dogs stuffed animals because they will get confused about what is hers and what is Maggie's. This is not true with Rosie. Maggie gave her this dog and she carries it everywhere and even sleeps with her head on it. It is very cute. If you ask Rosie, "Where is your baby?" she will get it for you!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 11th anniversary.

Tigger

Here is our little Tigger cantaloupe. The wierd thing is...it will have orange stripes when it is ready to eat! I wonder why we chose this variety? :-)

lizards & okra

I was checking the okra progress and stumbled upon this cute little lizard. Those that know me...I am terrified of lizards. Not this one.

wow...

Maggie and a friend had a good time playing in my drill team outfits today. They were a bit baggy in the top and the skirts were a bit long...but it is very hard to believe these fit throughout high school and college. Never again...who knew I was that thin!

beach fun

Another fun day at the beach! The weather was iffy for a while but ended up being nice and breezy. We looked and looked but none of us ever found a single shark tooth. I have no idea how I used to find them all the time! We ended our day by eating yummy old-fashioned hamburgers at Kitty's Purple Cow in Surfside. They had an amazing story about being completely demolished by Ike and rebuilding in just 6 weeks...amazing! I hope we can make it back to the beach soon...

Maggie's beach art

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

On our way to Surfside, we took a quick detour to the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge near Angleton. It was very disappointing to Mags because she was expecting the beach. My fault for not telling her. I'm sure it is a great place to poke around...maybe another day! I bet there is a letterbox or two to be found there...

painters

Let's just say...our house is STILL a mess! They will come back Tuesday to finish.

dogsitter

Maggie was asked to dogsit for a friend on our street. We usually have the dog stay in our home (that was before Rosie) but this time Cody stayed home. I really worked hard to let Maggie do it all on her own...be responsible for the key, feed, walk the dog all on her own. The hardest was letting her leave the house by herself and walk half a block alone...without me watching her until she got there. Yikes!

Cody is older and a bit more set in her ways...and got tired of Rosie's puppy ways and endless shenanigans! As requested by her family, we brought her back to her empty and lonely home!

More pickles!!

We made pickles again today. This time we made them with a friend that wanted to learn how how to make them. Thanks Jennifer for letting us trash your kitchen! Now we just have to wait...

perfectly polished

A friend of mine invited Maggie and I to dinner and pedicure today. It was a fun treat for Maggie and we enjoyed the company of my friend and her middle-school aged niece.

volleyball camp

Maggie finished up volleyball camp today. She had a great time and is ready for her volleyball season to start up again in the fall!

Rosie

Rosie is getting spoiled with Maggie and I home. She wants to stay inside all day long...it's so hot outside! She's gonna really be sad when school starts...

Love Thursday

Silly picture...my water spilled at the beach and look what happened!

ugh...

Maggie's room has totally gotten out of control and I've made it known that it will be clean by the time she leaves for camp. To break it down and make it a little more easier to digest...Maggie tackles one small project a day. So far she has cleaned out her toy chest, dresser, baby crib, under her bed, one closet and the junk pile on the mini tramp! She still needs to go through the other closet, desk and 2 bookcases. As you can imagine, I am heavily encouraging that she seriously think about throwing stuff away, donating gently used items, etc. She's done a great job and she can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Yesterday, she found an entire uneaten lunch in her backpack from the last day of school...from a month an a half ago!!!

okra

Despite the extreme heat and unfortunate circumstances while I was gone, the okra appears to be thriving! Too bad Maggie and I hate okra...Ian loves it!

cake boss

Maggie likes the TLC reality show, Cake Boss. Amazing cakes. Maggie wanted to make a cake all on her own...mixer and all. OK I said...trying hard not to meddle. I helped her take it out of the oven and pour the batter. I love spice cake...that was our wedding cake BTW. I've eaten one polite piece but the rest is off limits...I am trying to get back on track with my diet! Boo hoo.

summer fun

Maggie spent some time at the pool with a couple of friends today. I could tell she had a great time being around her friends again. She misses them during the summer when we are out of town or other's being at day camps during the day.

Galveston

We spent the whole day at the beach in Galveston. Ian even got in the water...I think he got a bit sunburned. The beer was cold, the weather was nice and I think everyone had a great time!

new digs

Maggie was glad to come back home and find that our neighborhood pool doubled in size!

summer reading

This picture was taken on the last night we were in Tahoe. We've gotten into a crazy schedule of staying up really late...1:00 am and then sleeping until lunchtime. Needless to say, Maggie has gotten A LOT of reading done! The 1st thing we did when we got back to Houston was hit Barnes and Noble to turn in her summer reading program sheet. Her reward was a new book... she chose Schooled, by Gordon Korman. Some of her favorite reads have been books I enjoyed reading when I was her age. It was great to see her enjoy them, too!

thank you

I always seem to take a last minute photo inthe driveway before we leave for the airport. Unfortunately, when I remembered to take it this year Grandpa Howard already left for golf! Thank you again for another memorable summer in Tahoe!

We're Home !!!

Ian surprised us with flowers. We were so happy to see him and to finally be home!

We had an unusual request this year. We asked Ian to bring Rosie to the airport to meet us...we just couldn't wait! Maggie was so glad to see her. Rosie was, too.

goodbye beach

Today was our last day to spend at the beaches in Incline Beach. Boo hoo. We leave in the morning...

fireworks!!!

We ate dinner at the Lake Tahoe Hyatt and stayed for their big fireworks celebration on the beach. As usual, we were not disappointed in their show...it was magnificent!

We miss Rosie...

We stumbled upon this sweet dog. I don't know who missed who the most. This dog clearly missed his owner and begged for our attention or Maggie who misses our sweet Rosie. We hope Ian brings Rosie to the airport Monday...

pancakes!

We woke up earlier than our usual late and went to Grandpa Howard's annual 4th of July Lion's Club pancake breakfast. Uncle Roger arrived just in time to join the holiday festivities!

beach time...again!

Since we were already at the beach for the duck races...we stayed a while. Even though we are leaving in a couple of days, Maggie wants to try to go to the beach at least 2 more times! It was REALLY crowded today. The tourist season at the lake starts the 4th of July weekend.

Duck Race

I had no idea what we were signed up for. Simple me thought the duck race meant exactly that...dump the duckies into the river and see which one reached the lake first. Wrong...I was so wrong. There was an adult race AND a children's race. Plus there was 6 heats before the adult challenging race and then there was 11 heats before a challenging race. Then they had the BIG race. After all was said and done...it took 2 1/2 hours. Most of the kids lost interest after half an hour...not our Maggie. She watched the entire thing with big interest! We didn't win but Maggie felt like a winner becasue we could claim our duckies at the end of the race!

Sidewalk Chalk contest

This morning we actually had to set our alarm...Maggie insisted on participating in the 4th of July sidewalk drawing contest! We saw a lot of flags, stars and firesworks. Here is what Maggie drew...