"New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits; Chinese food makes me sick; And I think it's fly when girls stop by for the summer, for the summer..."

~LFO, Summer Girls

That song has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Except for the fact that it's been in my head for the past two straight weeks. Is it in yours now?? No?? Well, maybe this will help...

Every year at the beginning of summer, I think of that song. Good times I guess.

Our summer was officially kicked off May 24th, when Her Highness and Thunder wrapped up Second Grade and Kindergarten. Hard to believe they will be in Third and First grades next year. Here are the pics from the first and last days of school. Wow. My big kids are growing up.

Softball and t-ball seasons are officially over as well. Our city league doesn't keep score for t-ball games, but if you were to ask Lightning or Thunder, they would both tell you their team went undefeated. Her Highness loved softball, and is already looking forward to playing next year.

I have no real pictures to share of either team. Why? Well, many of the games were scheduled at the SAME time. I spent those games running back and forth from one field to the other, so I could wave and hopefully see all my ball players hit at least once. During the games that weren't scheduled at the same time, I was still busy chasing Flash Flood, who never could understand why he wasn't allowed on the field with his Daddy, who coached both teams. Flash Flood tried to make a break for it many times, but never succeeded. When he wasn't trying to escape onto the field, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "DADDY! DADDY! I ONT DADDY!!! DADDY!!!!!" It was real fun, let me tell you. At one point I threatened to coach Her Highness' team next season so Bert could take a turn controlling our Storm. And during Her Highness' games The Storm was running around doing what they do best... wreaking havoc on the ballpark.

Her Highness finished ballet lessons with a fun recital, where her class performed to Snow White's Whistle While You Work. Again, no real pictures because Bert wasn't with me, due to Thunder had just started with Satan's horrible stomach virus, so I had to choose between videoing the main event and taking pics. Since Bert wasn't with me, I chose to video so he could watch when we got home.

The following pictures are just a montage of what we've been up to lately. (Really, it's just a bunch that I needed to delete from my phone before I lost them, like I've been known to do.)

Flash Flood was sent to timeout for the first (of I'm sure many) time(s). As you can see, he was real torn up over the situation.

These pictures sum up our lives perfectly. Out before 7am riding bikes in the cul-de-sac. Lightning still in pj's. Hail, who dresses himself the moment he wakes up each day, with not only mis-matched shoes, but on the wrong feet at that. Sigh.

Silly boys...

Lots of swimming, and swimming, and swimming...

The pregnancy cravings have been kicking for a while. One night, I was starving and had all five kids alone after attending a birthday party. We had planned on hitting the McDonald's drive thru. After I sat in line for at least ten minutes, ordered our food, and pulled around to the window, the lady asked, as I handed her my debit card, "Is this a debit or credit card? 'Cause our machine ain't taking no debit cards tonight."

"Okay, well, try running it as a credit card. I'm sure it will still go through."

Shaking her head, she replies, "No, our machine ain't taking no cards at all. Cash only tonight. Sorry." Let me pause here for just a moment to say: McDonald's-- You're now on my list with Wal-mart and Winn Dixie as places I HATE going, but am forced to do so. Get your act together already. With our McDonald's plans busted, we went up the street to a sit-down Mexican restaurant. Yes, I was THAT hungry.

Surprisingly, the Storm held it together for the most part, kept their hands to themselves and acted somewhat civilized. Well, until Thunder announced he had to go potty. As did Lightning, Hail and Her Highness. The bathroom door was less than ten feet away. I told them to go straight there, do their business, wash hands, and come straight back. Her Highness, of course, did just that. Twelve minutes later, as I was just about to head into the Men's room to run the Storm out, Lightning emerged. From the doorway he bellowed, "MOMMA, Thunder's done goin' poo-poo. Should he just wipe himself, or are you gonna come do it??"

They almost made it an entire meal without embarrassing the stew out of me.

(Lightning refused to be photographed for some reason. And Flash Flood kept grabbing at my phone when I tried to take a shot of him. I took these and sent them to Bert, because for some strange reason he didn't believe where we were when he called to check in.)

Another random photo from my phone:

I call this one, "O' the places you will go... and take a sucker with you."

My BFF, Lindy, gets tickled at me because of all the times I've unknowingly had old suckers/cracker crumbs/gum/etc stuck to my back/butt/hair when we've been out in public together. She, being the super wonderful sister-friend she is, always manages to quietly point it out. Then she laughs about it until she cries. A couple of days ago, I looked down and noticed this stuck to my shoe... Not sure if it's gum or an air head. Such is life in the peanut gallery.

This last one is Her Highness with her best bud, after swimming. I mainly took this picture to embarrass her. She's definitely hit that stage of total annoyance with her parents. Bert loves telling her friends crazy stories. One day he told them they didn't have to call him Mr. Bert. They could just call him Big Time, since he used to be a member of the band Big Time Rush, but he quit when he had kids so he could spend more time with them, instead of traveling all the time. I feel sorry for Her Highness, because it's ONLY going to get worse.

That's all for this edition of "Random Photo's from Holly's Phone." Be sure to join in next time!

Happy Summer to YOU!