It's like this...

or in other words....Lance and I have a week of FREEDOM! I'm not sure to be happy or sad. I guess I'm a mixture of both. Today my youngest went to camp for the very first time. Tuesday, my second-to-the-youngest will go to a different camp until Saturday. Our two oldest are....well, old. They can get by mostly on their own. This gives Lance and I FOUR ENTIRE DAYS AND NIGHTS almost alone. Nearly. Well, close anyway. We both have to work during the day but the evenings are all ours! Now we just need to figure out what to do with ourselves. Here's Ashley with her friend Kiera as they prepared to get on their bus. I was sternly informed that under NO circumstances was I to hug her or otherwise become touchy-feely with her as we signed in and she got on the bus. She was adamant. I was wounded but did manage a bit of a hug before she boarded. I was worried about her ability to manage all her bags and supplies. I think she did ok, see? They weren't much for waving ...

I'm writing this under the influence of Nyquil, so I take no responsibility for what it contains. Last week we spent the entire week at the beach cabin. And by 'we' I mean me and a bunch of teenage girls. The estrogen levels were off the charts. We brought Cassie along (our doggie) and that only added to the hormone level. Much fun was had by all. Alli and her friend Emily went out in a rowboat. I didn't get a picture of that but I caught them post-rowboat fun. It was Allison's 14th birthday, which I spoke about in my previous post. This was her wish, though I hadn't intended to stay the entire week. There was a reunion planned for the next weekend and I was hoping to, you know, look halfway decent when I was to see people I hadn't seen in 30 years. But noooooo, I looked like I'd spent the week at the beach cabin. Oh well. Not that it probably mattered much anyway. Alli brought her bestest friend with her and even though the water was brrrrrrrrr...

Alli wanted to spend her 14th birthday at the beach cabin. I was reluctant (no, really) because we were going over the following week. However, I could not tell her no. So we went. I had no clue we were going to stay the entire week. We have friends here. (yes, I'm still here) I'll post more...but now I need to get back to this...

Lighting fireworks at the beach cabin.....

That's a happy Ahhhhhhh, by the way. See? Lance and I took the three girls up to Volunteer Park the other day. I love my girls so much....so much it hurts sometimes. Aren't they cute? Then Lance and Chris and Sam built a fence in the backyard another day this week. See the men. See the burly men. See the burly men work. Work burly men, work! We also went to a birthday party this week for Jordan. She turned five and she's a princess. Aren't all five year old girls princesses? The answer is yes. Yes they are. Many other fun and thrilling things have happened this week but it's late and I'm tired from the big family gathering we had this evening. Did I mention ahhhhhh?