Schwartz Family

August? Truly? Sorry to my regular (non-google reader using) readers for my lack of posts through July...I'll try to turn things around for August!
So what's been going on?
Chronologically:
A couple weekends ago, Maryland and Kentucky battled it out on the sand. Maryland relied heavily on their fans to pull out initial victories. But the tide turned as Chris and J, demoralized by their fans' departure to LL Bean, gave way to team KY who were fueled by their newly appeared fan base. In the eleventh hour, Maryland poured on the heat to win North v South Sand V-Ball 2009.

We then chilled, literally, in the pool.


And fraternized with the enemy...

The next day, the girls and I headed out to meet up with friends at the beach while Chris represented at the GCC get together.
I was a little anxious about taking the girls on vacation without Chris. What kind of "vacation" would this be, single parenting in a new place with children who only sleep well in their own beds???

Turns out my friend Chelsea really did think of everything and had wonderful Anna H along to nanny.




Five girls in pajamas in a baby pool.

Going to the beach.

One sister hated the waves and the sand...
...while the other was hesitant at first...
...but then begged Chelsea to take her in farther, FARTHER!
Anna climbed this rock wall by herself- with Mom's hand on her back pockets, just in case.
One afternoon, we found these two buds reading on the back porch.
We had a wonderful time with our dear friends. =)

The day we came back home, we picked up my college girlfriend, and AUTHOR!, Erin Claxton. You can check out her new book on Amazon! Anyway, she is very multi-talented and I roped her into taping cardboard together to make a cookie cutter and learning about royal icing so we could make these for a wedding:

Self control, self control...
(Actually, I walked into the room and she said, "I licked one." Looking at an angle, I did find the marked cookie, so nobody had a licked one. I'm pretty sure.)
That weekend we went to see Bye Bye Birdie. Here's Anna and her buddy Jen at intermission:
Conrad and his steady. =)
We spent that night at Chris' parents' and the girls were up at the crack of dawn to go fishing.
After all fish were caught and scattered, we went up to visit Great Grandmom.
And to take Opa for a wagon ride.
Anna befriended this quiet boy and his silent puppy.

Then we left the napping girls with Oma and went to Chris' softball tourney. I read MSL cover to cover in one sitting. And I did watch Chris play ball, see-

The girls having happy meals with Oma:


Okay, I will have to finish up July later. It is taking forever for these pics to load up. So, here's one mongo post....