WHERE DID JULY GO?

Seriously, where did July go? It was just the 4th & now we are in the last week of the month! Here's what we've done!

• Allie is going to tutoring for math 2 days a week. She is improving a ton & loves going. We will keep it up during the school year too.
• Jake saw his ortho. He gets by another year with no braces or retainer. Yay!
• Jake's baseball team won against Gilbertville. It is the ONE team that we wanted to beat more than any other in the league. They were so happy. We celebrated with some of the team by going out for pizza after the game.
• Jake's baseball season came to an end. The end of the year tournament for the silver medal didn't go well. We lost all 3 games. We ended up 3rd in our conference, which I thought was great.
• We went to see Despicable Me as a family. It was a cute movie.
• I made a flying trip to see my family. We took in one of my nephew Ben's t-ball games, had dinner at Hall of Fame & the girls got their toes done. It was a great time.
• Scott's 20 year reunion has come and gone. We went to Fairfield on a Friday evening after dropping the kids in Cedar Rapids with my mom. We stayed in a hotel and enjoyed being without kids. We went out with Scott's classmates Friday & Saturday night. Scott took me for a tour of his hometown & showed me where he hung out, went to school, worked etc. It was a great time.
• We spent 4 days in the Ozarks with my whole family. We went boating, jet skiing, swimming, fishing, shopping, used the paddle boat, golfed, ate, drank & laughed. What a great time. We are already talking about booking the same lake house for next year. Sure hope it works out! I took about 450 pictures, I put a sampling on the page...
• I took the kids to Grand Mound for Kid's Day again this year. Allie really enjoyed herself. Jake is getting too old for the festivities.
• The kids and I went to the pool the other day. It might have been the hottest day of the year, so they had a blast.
• We bought our school supplies. School starts in less than a month. I can't believe how fast the summer has gone by!
• I had my friends Luke & Kristin over for pizza and beers. We hadn't seen each other for several weeks due to vacations. We needed to catch up & we sure did that!
• I started a new challenge (from my friend Luke). I am posting a picture a day on a website called http://365project.org/grinsteads/365 check it out, it's kinda fun. Let me know if you decide to try it out too. You can also check out Luke's project http://365project.org/lukewa/365 He is way more creative that me!
• Coming up: tutoring for Allie, pool party for Jake, my 20 year reunion, carnival meeting, football camp, registration, Allie's 9th birthday, Allie's party, doctor appointments and hair appointments.
  
  

Ben & Mike in the Ozarks
Maddie sipping a frozen drink on the beach at Coconuts.

Jake, Allie & Tesha on the boat.

My angels :)

Our family at Coconuts.

Allie at Coconuts.

Jake & Allie on the giant floating sea turtle at Coconuts.

Me, Allie & Delaney on the hammock.

My family by the lake.

My whole family in our matching Fischer shirts.

Front: Allie, Ben, Drew & Jake

Sitting: Tesha, Maddie, Mandy, Mom, Delaney, Kim & Me

Back: Will, Mike, Dad, Michael & Scott

My & my nephew Drew.

We celebrated Allie's birthday early.

Jake in the lake.

Jake & Drew

Drew pretending to drink some beer.

Me & my love!

Jake fishing

Taking a ride on the paddle boat.

My kiddos getting along!

Miss Allie

Allie bowling at Kid's Day

Jake bowling.

Jake pitching during the tournameny

Jake up to bat.

4TH OF JULY 2010

My very favorite day of the year has passed. What a great time we had! We went to my parent's house for their annual 4th of July celebration. The forecast called for rain & guess what? The weather people were WRONG! We had a wonderful day spent with family & friends. We had great food, drinks, conversation & laughs. We had some new faces join our get together & missed some of the regulars who didn't make it. We enjoyed a water fight (with about 1600 balloons), whiffle ball, snakes, the ice cream truck & ended the night with fire works. What a great day!

Snakes!
Ice cream from the ice cream truck.

The Campbell's coming by during the water parade.

The containers with 1600 balloons.

Some of the kids waiting for the water fight to begin.

The grand daughters.

The 6 grand kids. Maddie, Ben, Delaney, Allie, Jake & Drew

Scott, the kids & me

Jake is ready to party

Allie is ready for the 4th.

SUMMER FUN

We have started out the summer being quite busy & having loads of fun!

• Allie went to her friend Hannah's birthday party. It was held where Allie used to take gymnastics. She now thinks she wants to give that a try again. I'm thinking "no".
• I went to a surprise 40th birthday bash for my friend Karen. We had a nice time.
• Jake has had several baseball games they have won 6 & lost 2 since my last post. Jake has been hitting well. The highlight was another double that brought in 2 RBI's. He got to pitch in one game & did ok. He has been fielding well & caught a beautiful fly ball in right while running. He still has practice twice a week.
• Allie had a presurgery appointment to make sure she was healthy enough to have her mole removed. She also attend a party at the surgery center. She learned all about what they would do the day of the surgery. It helped ease her mind. I am pretty sure I had an anxiety attack & almost passed out while touring the center. Allie's surgery went well & she has stitches to show off right now.
• Jake slept over at his friend Adam's house & at his friend Paul's house.
• Jake had Paul over to play a bunch, along with Adam, Nick & Ben. Allie had her friend Maddie & another friend Madison over.
• Allie started tutoring. She loves it and her tutor even taught her how to crochet!
• Allie went to the city pool with her friend Maddie.
• Both kids went to a late night swimming party for a friend's birthday. It was freezing that evening, but they both had fun swimming under the lights of the pool.
• The kids and I went to my parent's house last weekend. We got to visit with a lot of family. Mom had a get together with the Fischer's & there were cousins from all over the US there. It was a great time.
• Allie & I went to Drew's 2nd birthday party. We also attended Delaney's Baptism and I had the honor of being her Godmother. Jake had a ball game so he missed the festivities.
• The baseball team had a swimming party & potluck the other night. It was a good time.
• We went to the neighbors to roast hot dogs and make smores the other night. It was so nice hanging out by the fire pit.
• Allie got her hair cut. The stylist straightened her hair & it was so cute.

This week brings: baseball practices, tutoring, a baseball game, Allie gets her stitches out, I get a haircut and my favorite holiday is coming up. I love the 4th of July.

Allie enjoying a smore
Jake loving his smore

Paul, Jake & Adam roasting mallows

Lauryn, Sami & Allie

Some of the baseball team

Drew playing with his new tractors
Delaney & her Godparents
The 6 Fischer grandkids
Allie before surgery
Allie with a blanket Nana made for her
Jake with his blanket

The wind up

The throw

STRIKE!

The 14 roses that Scott sent me for my birthday.

SUMMER IS HERE

Now that summer is here, I hope to update more than monthly.

• Baseball season is in full swing. The boys are doing ok. They have won about half of their games. Jake has had hits & done well in the outfield. He had a couple of amazing catches in right field. I'm proud of him.
• Soccer season is over. They had a good season. They didn't do so well in the tournament. They did have a fun weekend of soccer though. I volunteered to work concessions and got to hang out in the Gator selling snacks. It was a fun time.
• Allie had her end of the year Brownie meeting at the bowling alley. She won a ton a prizes for selling the most cookies this year.
• Scott went to Chicago for business a couple of weeks ago.
• Allie had a playdate at Carter's house. They spent some time at their neighborhood pool too.
• My brother Michael & his wife Kim welcomed Delaney Rose into the world at the end of May. She is perfect.
• We celebrated Beach Day at school. The kids wore beachy clothes and flip flops. They had picnic lunches in the gym and got to listen to fun music.
• Jake had safety patrol duty again.
• We went to an open house for our principal that retired at the end of the year. We are sad to see him go.
• We had snow cone days at school. The kids love those 2 days at school and indulge in as many snow cones as they can.
• Jake had a taco party in honor of their last book report of the year. It was a taco shaped report, hence the party.
• Both kids did great in the Talent Show. I was pretty proud of both kids.
• I co chaired the Talent Show & it went off without any major issues.
• Allie had a picnic with her class to celebrate the end of the school year. She had a blast.
• Jake was supposed to have a picnic with his class, but rain cancelled the event. They watched a movie and ate lunch in their classroom instead.
• Allie, my friend Kristin & I decorated Allie's teacher's classroom for his birthday. He has never had a birthday at school, but since we got out so late this was the first! He loves chips so we hung 100 bags of chips in various places in his room. What fun!
• I had an end of the year para educator meeting. I can't believe this year has come to an end.
• Jake was recognized at the awards assembly at school for perfect attendance and being a member of safety patrol.
• We had an end of the year staff party at a co workers house. There are 4 staff members retiring so we said our goodbyes to them.
• Michael, Kim & the kids came up and spent the night. They wanted to catch one of Jake's games. Unfortunately, it was cancelled.
• The kids had vacation Bible school. They loved every minute of it. On the last night we had a pool party under the stars. That was cool to them.
• Scott and I celebrated our 14 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long! We celebrated with dinner at a Japanese steak house. YUM. Scott sent me 14 beautiful red roses too. I love that guy!
• I went outlet mall shopping again with friends. I am now set on warm weather clothes and about 1/4 done with cold weather clothes. I think one more trip before school starts will do it.
• The kids each picked a friend and we went to see the new Shrek movie. They had a good time.
• Mandy, my mom & the kids came to catch one of Jake's game. The team didn't do well, but Jake had a hit & RBI. I enjoyed their visit.

Coming up: pre surgery appointment for Allie, pre surgery party for Allie, baseball games/practice for Jake, Allie starts tutoring next week, Allie has her mole removed & lots of other things.

Jake loving his mom
Drew & Delaney

Delaney

Adam, Paul, Ben, Jake & Nick (Jake's best buds)

The special ed staff

Front: Barb, Sheryl, Denise, Me

Back: Leanne, Judith, Ana, Renee, Tempa, Ellie, Shelly, Shay & Cara

Mr. Wagner on his birthday (note the chips on the ceiling)

Allie & her besties (Abbie, Allie, Skylar, Morgan, Madison & Katie)

The Brady Bunch; Ben, Olivia, Jake, Makenna, Paul & Sophie

Allie & Jordyn

Soccer team: Carolyn (coach), Kyle, Paul, Matthew, Brady, Peter, Steven, Jake & Luke

My class

Molly & Allie

Jake

Jake