Moving Week

Moving is hard.  Moving to another country is almost more than this scatter-brained mom of four can handle.  We started  the process by dividing our house into four groups: suitcases, going by air, going by sea, or staying to go to storage.  We got a bunch of sticky notes to label where everthing was going.

I like Spencer's sticky notes.

And during this week of moving out, we sold our van.  It was a good van, but won't really work in Australia.

The first day the movers came on Monday July 30th,  they had to load this truck with five big containers, and they couldn't go home until it was full of everything we are taking to Australia.  They stayed at the house until 11:30 pm that night.  We were exhausted since we didn't get to be until 4:00 am the night before.

The movers came back the next day to start packing all our stuff that would go to storage.  That was the biggest job, and they drove it off in this truck.

A stressful week, but the kids had a blast walking the red carpet that was in our house while the movers were moving things out.

Happy Birthday, America!

 A little late, but we had one hot Fourth!  We started early at the Running of the Mosquitos in Hooper.  The Riches, Mammy, Donnellys, Jeff, Taycina, Cade, Kallie, Grace, Spencer, James and I ran the 5k.

 The boys took lots of "shortcuts" but crossed the finish line nonetheless.

People tell me I need to get a better running outfit, including shoes.

Taycina and Mammy

 We had one yummy breakfast after our run.

 Megan won the coveted zombie mosquito as the winner of the women. Way to go, Megan!

 Then we were off to Hooper's parade.

 The boys got air.

 And then we partied at the Riches'.

We love the Fourth of July!

More Goodbyes

Tonight we went to a party for our dear friend Valerie who is on her way to a retirement community in Florida.  I can't imagine Virginia without her. Here we are with some of our favorite people in the world, Valerie and the Browns.  Good luck, Valerie!!!

Movie Stars

I made the girls popcorn and put it in these popcorn containers.  Faith was so excited and said, "This is what movie stars use when they eat popcorn!"

Once Every Four Years

 I know they are celebrating in London tonight for the Opening Ceremony, but here in Virginia we had a party of Olympic proportions as well.

 We had several Olympic events to test our skills.

 Like how well you can get shaving cream off your brother's face with a water gun.

 And how much water you can pass over the shoulders to fill a bowl.

 A version of the shot put with water balloons.

 The Browns did a great job getting us together and making this Olympic pinata for the kids.

Here's to two weeks of Olympic fun!