Can Tabs & Crayons

Got all three sisters in the shot for our morning sister pics today! And as of today, we’ve now officially had Pennie for one whole year! We adopted her on July 21st last year, and she’s been such a great doggie for our family 🙂

Before we left the house this morning, I put all the stuff in to slow-cook a giant pot of Swedish meatballs. This is the same recipe I’ve been using since my mom and I meal-prepped a bunch of meals before Emmie was born back in 2017, and now the girls both love it too.

So Addie did want to wear her giant Elsa sweatshirt today, but we had to take it off to fit in her car seat. So I carried it into school for her, and as soon as we hung up her backpack and put down her water, she had me put it back on her. (And it was in fact pretty chilly in her classroom.)

And apparently she ended up wearing it quite a bit throughout the day.

We switched back to mommy taking Addie to school, and Jeff taking Emmie for the week, as she’s going to Mega Sports Camp (kinda like a sports-themed VBS) at our church, but she can’t be dropped off until 8:30. And she’s very excited for cheerleading, which is her chosen special area, and for all the fun post-camp activities she gets to participate in. Uncle Bo (who is also our children’s pastor) always runs a small after-camp for about 10 kids, and they get to go on field trips and have water slides and stuff, and she loves that part too.

Got to the office today, after being gone for an entire week, to find some of my coworkers had left me another installment of these can tabs that we collect for the Ronald McDonald House in Jacksonville, where we stayed back in 2020 for Emerson’s open-heart surgery. We’ve collected these tabs ever since then, and try to take them back to Jax every year or so, when we get a huge collection stored up. We are planning a trip over Labor Day weekend, and we’ll stop through there to drop them off, which is good, since we currently have a bigger stash than we’ve ever had. If you’re one of our friends & family that also collects these, let me know and we’ll meet up to get them from you sometime in the next month before our trip! Or, start collecting them with us now, especially if you’re a soda family or a sparkling water family that goes through a lot of these!

I picked up Emerson from camp, and we went home and finished getting everything ready for dinner. Jeff picked up Addison and when they walked in everything was ready and smelled delicious. Addie marched over immediate to get closer to sniff, and was very excited for meatballs.

After we finished eating, Emmie got out a cute little Bible verse coloring book Aunt Meggie and Uncle Bo gave her for her birthday, and found the memory verse for this weeks’ camp theme. *Correction – the little book is actually from Grammy & Papa, but gift-opening chaos is always confusing, as far as who each thing comes from. 🤣

And while she was coloring, and then eventually Emmie and I were playing cards, Addie was also working on her own little activity book.

Both girls actually ate a really good dinner, but were ready for a little after-dinner snack too. Luckily, Grammy sent us home with about 10-12 bags of the Kirkland brand microwave popcorn the other day (they have a huge Costco size box, obviously, but they don’t love it, but my girls did love it), so they were happy to snuggle up together with “Grammy’s popcorn” and watch “Wicked” for a little bit.

Once it was time for an episode or two of Bluey, I read my book a little bit, since I’m still slowly working through the Hunger Games prequel. (I actually didn’t read very much all last week when I was home sick, so I’ve got some catching up to do.)

After getting the girls in their nightgowns and teeth brushed, I read a quick book to Addie then left her with Jeff, and came into Emmie’s room to find her all cozy reading in her special little spot.

I purposefully made even more food tonight than normal, and planned to just eat the same thing again tomorrow night, since it’ll be a busy night with gymnastics. So, here’s tomorrow night’s dinner, all ready to go.

Last night, I washed dishes for like 45 minutes, and was able to get everything washed. But as it always happens, the sink is full again with stuff from today, so I’ve got more work to take care of tonight…