Hay Happens and Hay's Happen

Tatum and I already read about 30 minutes per day, so why not make it fun with prizes in the summer?

Clubhouse Jr., the Focus on the Family magazine,  has a summer reading challenge. She must read 1000 pages by the end of the summer. We then send in her log and she gets some type of reward.

As we read, we are logging pages. Now, I understand that many of the books we read have like 10-15 words on each page average, but I figure it still counts.

She colors in each square for each 10 pages.

Nifty!
The summer reading program also goes on through Scottsdale Library, so we just log on after each session of reading and log her minutes.

It’s going to be a fun reading summer: Building good habits while enjoying what we do.

Mama wore her fishy shirt to celebrate the visit. We couldn’t wait to first show her the bathroom. We asked her, “Are you scared?” She responded, “Why? Are there sharks??”
As a matter of fact, YES there are!!!

After surviving the bathroom visit, we headed to the fish. Mama raced right over to the toucans, Ricky and Lucy. They were getting fed which made Mama excited.

I think Ricky likes Mama too.

Definitely adorable and colorful.

The octopus grew since the last time we saw him. What do you think?

Before:

After:

Hmmmm…He’s been eating his spinach apparently.

Well, Mama loved all of the excitement, but we had to head to Tot’s skating lesson.

She couldn’t wait to get her skates on. Bye Tot!!!

She doesn’t need me to hold her hand anymore!

What a fun-filled Friday.

 

I knew I had to make a Dr.’s appt today for myself since I have been having a few problems in some “not-for-discussion-on-a-blog.” problem. It’s for the afternoon, so the morning was ours. Tatum and I needed to make the best of it our early day.

Boy, has this been one of the BEST DAYS EVER with her.

The usual start of the day: Jesus, the gym, and coffee. Then, we were off to see  Bobby and Bob at Bobby’s church in Fountain Hills, North Chapel. I packed a few toys for Tatum to play with so we could just chat. It was great to see him. Friends really do come and go as you progress through life, but Bobby will be a FOREVER friend. Same with Bob. Just solid men. Thank you, Jesus for their presence in my life. Continue to bless their ministries! (especially in the summer when Fountain Hills goes from 23,000 to 11,000: a real ghost town).

I put Tatum’s bike in the back of my CRV so we could find a Lime Bike for me. (These are bikes you rent with your phone and you pay by the mile). On the way to the park, we hit the library. Every summer, they have a reading challenge, so since it starts Friday, we stopped in for one or two books.

Then, it was time to head to Chaparral Park since they have a lake. I’m sure there’d be a LimeBike there.

It was time to sunglass Tot. She needed to look cool of course.

Welllllllllll, we found one, but it was a block from the park. So, I loaded it in the back of my CRV but it wouldn’t fit!! I only had to drive through the parking lot to the next one, so I just let it hang out of my car as we headed to the lake. IT WAS PRETTY FUNNY. Tatum kind of held on to it since I (don’t tell)  didn’t have her locked in and we only had to drive 200 feet or so.

Now we are all ready! I scanned the code and VOILA!

Tatum took my pic:

Off we go (after much sunscreen).

We headed to the lake. Now, Tatum couldn’t take my pic so this is proof I was on the bike:

 

Then it was time for duck stop. This duck met us with excitement. Whatcha got for us????

Hmmmmmm….

Zilch, buddy.

Sorry friends. We have to head back. So, we hopped on and headed for the car. (We did one loop around the lake)

We came home, washed our feet, cooled off, and made lunch.

First, Tatum and Coti prayed. (He prayed for her to drop her lunch).

What focus!

Then she ate.

Sorry, puppy.

We came upstairs to work on a letter, draw, read, and then time to head to the Dr. She was so much fun today. Like a real adult relationship! Very cool.

I couldn’t have asked for a better morning with my lovebug.
Now, I must pray for some healing!

We headed to the Dr. in the afternoon, and guess what you do at the Dr?? You wait.

and wait

 

And put Baby on your head.

 

and oh, here she comes.

OK, so the day was the bomb. Met with my gal pals in the evening for our REACH book group. They all are SOOOO happy for Tot and me. We can’t wait to marry Dougeee.

 

 

While walking Coti this morning, Tatum spied in the sky 5 yellow vintage planes flying in a V formation. They had U.S Army printed on the bottom of their wings. It was a nice loud reminder of this special day.

Upon getting settled, Mama, Tot and I got our supplies out ready to finish the scrapbooks for the Foster kids.

Tatum made photo pages and I finished up the one I had been working on.

Mine was not as fancy as Mama’s, but I was proud of my work. The kids will love them. Mama really put so much time into them. I’m so amazed by her!

Then, it was time to make some flags to commemorate this day. We wanted to show pride for our U.S.A.

After painting our popsicle sticks, we glued them and cut out our blue pieces.

And tada!

We made sure we would pray at 3PM.

To remind us, it was time to wear her slap bracelets. This way, we wouldn’t forget, right?

These things were big when I was little! She loves these things.

Well, it was getting late and time for lunch, but of course, Tatum is into handstands, headstands, cartwheels and anything that requires contortions that make me wince. So…….she wanted me to watch her do her thing:

She’s getting it! Abs girl…abs!

3:00 rolled around, and we were on the way to the pool. We stopped as we were walking and said our prayer of thanksgiving and comfort for our fallen soldiers and their families. We have no idea what they have done for us. It’s beyond belief.

While at the pool, a bee landed on Tatum’s head and then crawled around. After my heart attack, I cuddled her tight. The bee had died, so he definitely stung her.

It didn’t seem to hurt as much as it hurt me, but all seemed ok.

Later, we had a nice dinner and she calmed down with some headstands. I showed her what I used to do when I was little. It’s all in the abs, baby!

I’m exhausted watching her.

Aaaaaahhhh. She is REALLY getting it!!

OK, Tot, time to color and calm it really down.

What a lovely day of art, appreciation, and acrobats. We sure appreciate and honor our fallen soldiers. God Bless America.

It’s a journey every day and it starts with her big heart, ready to learn.

Are you ready to begin?
Well, she’s ready to teach you. First, you have to know that Tatum and I have been preparing; Weekly.

We are up to 45 verses. We started about one year ago, adding a verse each week.

We practice every Sunday. We also are working through the Bible together in our little Bible Study we do nightly.

It’ s so fun to do with Tatum!
Well, folks, now, she’s ready to teach. When I went in to her room after quiet time, I saw Coti reading the Psalms.

Then I saw it. She had all her kids lined up with their own Bible story books.

Now it was time to lead them all. Coti, are you ready?

Turn the page, Coti!

We are all learning, growing, and loving more each day!

Tatum and I love our Saturdays. We love to sing in the car and visit friends.

Today, we went to visit Susan and Jason, but more importantly, their doggies, Mulligan and Jersey.

They look pretty happy! They’re not used to a little compact chick hugging on them.

Well, after all this fun and good conversation (more laughing than anything since Jason is a HOOT and a 1/2), we headed home. It was to be Tatum’s first day of allowance!

When I was little, I got an allowance, but no one ever taught me how to handle money. I did see my mom never go into debt and only spend what we had. We didn’t do much tithing or giving, so I hope to instill the importance of this in Tatum. I must model it first, right??

We are deciding to do $5/week which equates to a dollar for each year of her precious life. This will not be tied to her chores or responsibilities. However, she must divide up the money as so:

Give

Save

Spend

 

We figured out $1 each for giving and saving. $3 for spending.

Stay tuned for all the great decisions she’ll be making as her own money manager. We are starting early!

 

It’s been five years since the official day of Tatum’s adoption. It’s her LOVE day! Although she was in my heart before she was born and she was with me the second after she was born, I still love to remember this day five years ago.

So we headed to school; I love how God shows himself to us. We had another spotting of the quails as they crossed our paths on the way to school.

This little family seems to like our cozy neighborhood. Well the key is that they are happy here, but they are definitely scared of us. Kind of like Scaredy Squirrel!

When we got home, I gave her a little gift. Scaredy Squirrel in puppet form. We love this book series. He’s an adorable little control freak afraid of most everything, but he learns to venture out and make friends and have a life!

She just loves him because he overcomes his fears.

He enjoyed Tot reading to him during nap time.  I hope he’s not scared of Marley the big white dog in her books. (heeeeeehee)

Later to celebrate her love day, she sang Eight Days a Week to me in her new outfit from Mama.

Thank you Mama for the cute outfit! And thank you Tot! I love you more than Eight Days A WEEK!