Last Few Weeks of Summer Break!

On Saturday August 7th Allison and I decided to volunteer in our community. With just a few other people, Allison and I walked around our neighborhood and picked up trash (Joslyn decided to stay home with Philip and Moriah). All volunteers were asked to meet at the commissary at 9am. We were all given a trash bag and gloves. Allison and I picked up trash for about 1 1/2 hours. I was proud of Allison for showing interest in volunteering and flowing through!

We celebrated Joslyn's 11th birthday on Saturday August 15- Sunday the 16th. She had 2 of her friends over to help her celebrate. Joslyn planned her celebration. She new what she wanted at her party. The girls made pizzas for dinner! Joslyn made her pizza with mushroom and pepperoni toppings.

Joslyn made a request for her birthday cake. She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She also wanted mini marshmallows mixed into the cake batter. I bought a small tube of blue frosting (blue is Joslyn's favorite color) and decorated the cupcakes. After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to Joslyn and ate the cupcakes! They were pretty good. The marshmallow idea was great!

Joslyn's best friend Mia gave Joslyn 4 snow globes (Joslyn collects snow globes). Two snow globes had pictures of Joslyn and Mia inside of it. The 3rd snow globe had a picture that Mia drew. The last snow globes is empty and Joslyn can draw a picture to put inside the snow globe. Dianna gave Joslyn 11 dollars (1 dollar for each year). Allison went shopping with me the day before Joslyn's party and bought Joslyn a game for her game system. Philip and I gave Joslyn a kids coupon book. She has MANY cool coupons! Just a few examples of the coupons; Get a Free Pass on Eating Your Vegetables at Dinner Tonight, Turn in This Coupon and Mom and Dad can't tell you to clean your room for 1 week... It really is a cute coupon book.
At about 10pm we all went outside. Philip got the fire going in the BBQ pit and the girls roasted marshmallows in the fire. I bought chocolate bars and graham crackers so the girls could make smores! They had a BLAST!! It was also cold outside (in the 50's) so being around the fire was comfortable too!!

After making smores the girls came back inside and watched a movie. They were soon fast asleep. In fact Dianna was the only one who watched the movie in its entirety.

Sunday afternoon Philip and I took all the girls (Moriah, Allison, Joslyn, Dianna and Mia) to the indoor/outdoor swimming pool. They all had so much fun swimming, jumping off of the diving boards and sliding down the water slide!

Joslyn's actual birthday is the 18th of August. We took Joslyn to the bowling alley with her best friend Mia. We had dinner and the girl's played one game. We all came back to the house. We sang Happy Birthday to Joslyn and ate ice cream cake! She opened a present from her dad, Philip and I. Joslyn really wanted an Ipod (a personal music player) It is very expensive, but with a huge contribution from her dad Jason, we were able to buy it for her.

Last Saturday our neighborhood had a Back to School Splash Bash. There was a live band, food, challenge course, bounce houses, a swimming pool and so much more! Allison complete a challenge course while Joslyn had fun just hanging out with her friends.

Yesterday Philip turned 30 years old! Welcome to the 30's Philip! I planned a night out for just the 2 of us. No kids!! I wanted to keep it a surprise, but I couldn't. I was too excited and had to tell Philip. The girl's and I decorated the house...

The girl's wrapped the presents they bought for Philip and set them on the table. When Philip came home from work we got dressed, dropped the girls of at a friends house and went to the movies.

After the movies we went to eat dinner at a Greek restaurant....

When we came home from a wonderful evening out. The girls and I sang Happy Birthday to Philip, he opened his presents and read his birthday cards.

It was a great night and Philip really enjoyed it!!
Now I am finally caught up on my posts! Allison's first day of 4th grade and Joslyn's first day of 6th grade (middle school) is on Monday August 30th!! We are all ready for school to start however I think I am more nervous about Joslyn going to middle school then she is!