REMEMBERING UNCLE CHARLIE

Last Friday night, my uncle lost his life in a tragic motorcycle accident. He was a fun uncle, a super grandfather, and a loving father. He was a brother to my mom and a son to my grandma, and he was loved by so many people. He was quick-witted and loved to make people laugh. I loved to hear him laugh. My sisters and I are the only girls in our generation of Shrives, and even though he was around all those rough-and-tumble boys all day, Uncle Charlie was always soft and gentle when we were around. His smile was warm. He was a big teddy bear. I'll miss him terribly.

STELLA'S TIME

With Claire and Matthew in school these days, Stella and I have each other to ourselves. She loves the one-on-one time! And already she is experiencing a lot of "firsts". She played Ring Around The Rosie, finger painted, and said her first 2-word sentence: "Mama play!" all this week.
I didn't realize how much she was missing out on until I got to have this time with her. I am so thankful I have this year with her.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

We're going to miss summer, but we're excited about school starting. Claire and Matthew are back at our neighborhood school, this time as a first grader and a kindergartener!

Today was the first day of school. Claire was so excited to wear her new rainbow headband and her black Converse high tops (no socks showing, Mom, please!). And Matthew was excited to be in kindergarten, where he gets to go to art class, and have computer time! Plus he has Claire's old teacher, so he feels like he already knows the ropes.

Claire came home with tons of things to say, and didn't stop talking until I tucked her into bed that night! Matthew was a little more worn out, and much less talkative. But they both had great first days! It should be a great school year.

WORLD TRAVELERS

This summer I am taking the kids on a trip around the world! Well, we're getting as far as the library anyway!

We started by studying maps- world maps, city maps, pirate treasure maps, globes. Then we went into the different countries, starting with our home.



We played statue tag in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, tap danced to mariachi music in Mexico, saw beavers and moose while in Cananda, and ate with chop sticks in China! The kids have been making tons of crafts- and I have discovered that I love the way my house smells after they paint with tempera paints!!





We celebrated Raksha Bandhan in India, where siblings honor each other with homemade bracelets. We also got Henna tatoos at the beach! In Japan, we learned origami and tried sushi. When we got back, we visited the Japanese gardens here in Houston.




We are currently in the United Kingdom, visiting Big Ben and having tea with the queen. We're hoping to catch a glimpse of the Loch Ness monster as we travel further north in the UK! We'll post those pictures when we return!! Heehee!

NEIGHBORHOOD BIKE PARADE

To say goodbye to summer vacation, our neighborhood family co-op hosts a bike parade and pool party. Participants ride bikes along our esplanade and down the quiet streets to the neighborhood pool. There we swim in the pool one last time, eat hotdogs and hamburgers from the grill, and hang out with our friends. It's a great way to end our summer.

STELLA'S SECOND BIRTHDAY

Stella turned two on August 13th. It was a small celebration, just the 5 of us. It was simple and sweet. But I hadn't prepared her for her birthday, so the candle on her cake frightened her; she wouldn't even blow it out! But then she opened her presents (she thought that was really cool!). One present she got was the Fisher Price Little People Airplane. Matthew and Claire went nuts, taking it upstairs and setting up the Little People Doll House and all the people. Stella was not so thrilled.
But when she finally got to play with her toy, she was all smiles!

That Sunday we went to my parents' house to celebrate her birthday with more family. It was a sweet birthday for a sweet girl. I just can't believe she's two. My littlest one is getting so big...

LEMONADE STAND

Claire has been wanting to have a lemonade stand for about a year. I kept putting her off. Well, yesterday I was working on the computer and they were busy playing. Every once in a while they would march through with a big cardboard box, or the tub of markers, but they were staying out of my hair so I didn't pay much attention. When I finished my work, I went to check on them. They had created a lemonade stand.

Claire had made the sign: "Lemonade 3 cents" (complete with a backward 3!). Matthew nailed the sign to the box with about 25 nails (two brads would have done the trick, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, I suppose). And Stella was just proud she was allowed to watch (in their defense, Claire and Matthew probably had to redo their sign a couple of times because of Stella's scribbling habits, and probably had only just banished her to the corner right before I walked in).

Their determination was admirable, so I made some lemonade. I doctored some lemonade Kool-Aid with the two lemons I had. We let it chill for a couple of hours, then hit the driveway.

It was a slow day in the lemonade business. It was a Monday at 3pm, after a thunderstorm. Not much traffic. The kids drank most of the lemonade themselves! But one nice guy on his way home from work bought a cup and paid $5! It wasn't a total bust after all!