Better late than never!

Our summer has been crazy, from mid June to mid July we were out of town 3 out of 4 weeks. I realized looking back that I never talked about D's birthday.  Poor little guy! He did get a big piece of homemade chocolate cake so he wasn't too upset.

I did my senior project in high school on the interesting subject of birth order - based on a book I had read. I know there is a lot more that shapes our personalities besides birth order but it is an interesting thing to look at. I was listening to Sadie and Eli's conversation the other day and thought about the "middle child." This was their conversation.
Eli "Dadie, come here!"
Sadie "Where are you?"
Eli "my room"
Sadie" you don't have a room."
Maybe that's why he ends up in our bed most nights.
And our 3rd child, that's even worse. When Sadie turned 1 we had a big party, a tailor-made "Ladybug Cake", lots of people. Eli had a big party too, with a camo cake and all our family. D got a nice dinner (that we enjoyed more than him) with his family and grandparents, who also happened to be there for Sadie's preschool graduation. We sang, ate cake, took pictures, then rushed off to Sadie's preschool for her ceremony. By the time he knows what's going on we'll have a big bash for his birthday.

Here's my "graduate"! I can't believe she is starting kindergarten in a little over a month! 

On our first trip this summer we went to Skyland Bible Conference in Dayton, TN, with the whole Harrell clan. It was a great conference, the kids all did well and were thrilled to be across the hall from their cousins. Above are the "three musketeers"  with Grandma in a rare calm moment, reading Dr. Seuss.

Eli is never far from his sword. Which brings me to other, exciting, potty training news. We were home from the conference and the beach (we left Skyland a day early and drove 6+hours to Hilton Head, where my whole family was. It was a fun day and a half and I was glad to get to see all my cousins and the many 2nd cousins running around together) and my mom came up with a brilliant idea. We took away the sword as punishment for accidents, then gave it back when he went all day in the potty. It worked! He is officially trained. Most of the time. :)

Our 2nd trip was to Hawaii, which deserves it's own post. A few days back from Hawaii and we headed to camp, where Steven served as a counselor and I was the camp nurse. Not the same lush accommodations as Kauai but I didn't have to prepare meals, so that was great! Steven's mom came with me which was a huge blessing, being the nurse with 3 kids to take care of is a little more than I can handle alone. Camp was fun but it was great to get home to clean sheets and my own kitchen. Other than small trips to Charlotte we are home for the rest of the summer. Check back soon for a post about Hawaii!