Thursday, August 15th

We had an outing scheduled with a large chunk of our SASCH group to head to Acworth Beach... however, Wednesday evening was chilly, wet and dreary and the forecast showed Thursday morning to look similar.  It never ended up raining, but the high was only 72 degrees!!  Crazy weather!  So we headed to Catch Air with our friends, the Lawsons, and had a wonderful time :-)  I'm always so happy when public/private schools start back up insofar as going to places like this is concerned - it wasn't crowded at all, and those there were fairly low key.  The kids had a blast and played for almost four hours!  Back home we had a short rest time, then the kids played both inside and outside for about three MORE hours with their sweet neighbor friend before nearly collapsing :-)  

While they were busily running 80 mph around the front yard (thanks Gram for supervising!), Waverly and I were tackling a major toy purge and clutter dump in the playroom.  When Jim was finished with work, Nana played with Waverly for a bit while he and I tackled the kids room. Then after dinner, we held our first monthly Toy Draft (more on that below).

Arriving at Catch Air, the girls humored me with a picture before they were off and running. Interesting side note: Victoria had a specific style in mind for how she wanted me to fix her hair for the day.  Other than "down" or "ponytail" she has never expressed any opinion on how her hair is styled and will let me do what I want.  This day, however, she gave me very clear instructions: "Some down around my face, part back up top and the rest back on the bottom."  And truthfully, once I'd finally gotten it *just* how she wanted it... it looked really cute! :-) Side-side note: In this picture, Waverly's eyes are somewhat closed.  That is her response to situations where the kids get either too close for her comfort (usually only Lincoln - the girls can get in her face and she doesn't flinch), or they are bouncing around her... she just sort of closes her eyes and, in my opinion, hopes for the best! lol

Lincoln!  This place is MADE for him :-)

Ready for lunch! Victoria, Julia, Scarlett, and Lincoln~

Shortly after this picture, the workers took pity on us and allowed us to eat in their currently unoccupied party room... ah! It was blissfully quiet in there and the kids were able to spread out. 

First monthly toy draft!  Jim and I had decided to convert the play room into a Family Room.  Our kids are blessed with an abundance of toys, however they often end up playing with one of three things: empty boxes, weapon-style toys (of which there are a limited quantity and have a designated bin), or craft items.  That's not to say they don't ever play with the rest of their items, but we have noticed that they play better and with more purpose when less toys are available.  So after our major toy purge - bags of items to donate where taken to Goodwill - this was the (still large!) pile of toys that were left.  Books and puzzles were not included, nor were building blocks.

Jim set them all down and explained that they would take turns and on each turn, one kiddo could select a toy to keep out to play with this month.  When the two bins were loosely (not stuffed) full, all remaining toys would go into a large bin to be stored in the attic. Next month we will pull those bins out and they can cycle out a few different toys.  We'll plan to do this once a month.  The kids could also choose, on their turn, an item to donate if they felt there was a toy they just weren't interested in anymore.  They did great!  No complaints :-)

Lincoln's turn.

Victoria's turn - looking through the pile...

...then taking a winner to the bin of Items to Play with This Month.