My Summer Fave’s

Still catching up on a little bit of summer journaling.  This one goes way back to the beginning of our summer.  Casey took Ady on a plane ride with him.  He went to Utah over Fathers Day weekend to visit his family, namely his FATHER.  Ady was still free to fly and everyone always wants to see her so he packed her up for the trip and hauled her away.  He really is super dad incase you’re wondering…and he’s all mine. 

  

I would be having a panic attack right about now, anticipating Ady’s behavior on a plane ride where her freedom is completely taken away, she has to behave and there are people around who would like to enjoy their quiet in a confined space.  My girl is as free spirited as they come.  They even flew first class!  All went well and hopefully all goes well for me in October when I do the same thing to visit my family.

This just happened to be one of my favorite weekends.  I was able to do something that I don’t get to do very often.  I thoroughly enjoyed my grown up kids and took them on grown up outings.  

We went to our favorite pizza joint.  Grimaldi’s.  They have the best, REAL pizza ever.  This isn’t an all the time event so they knew they were loved when I agreed to take them.  Way better than Chic-fil-A or McDonald’s. 

They bring out pizza dough for the kids to play with.  It is their favorite. 

Doesn’t this make you hungry?

I think this is going to have to be our next date night.

We ate a ton and still had some leftover.  I planned that btw…ordered more so we could have lunch the next day. :)

And of course soda to go with our pizza.  I think it’s funny that Kaylee and Jake order Diet Coke when we go out.  Casey drinks Diet and I drink regular.  I always wonder what the waiter thinks when my kids order Diet and their mom gets the real deal. 

After that we went to see a movie.  I don’t even remember what we saw.  I think it might have been Kung Fu Panda.  I just remember how much fun I had with these 3.  I could listen to everything they were saying with out getting interrupted, or thinking of something else, or preparing myself mentally for what Ady was going to do next. Which btw, I think  sometimes I might make Ady seem like a total terror, hahaha…which she is, BUT only because she is seriously so FULL of it!  She is hilarious and so incredibly busy and curious and FAST.  She is the definition of spunk.  Everyone who is with her for even a day knows exactly what I’m talking about.  I love her to pieces and there is no other child like her.  I am laughing right now just thinking about her.   But let’s face it…she rules the roost around here and a lot of times the other kids have to fend for themselves out of necessity.  Which is fine because they learn so much that way, but they also get lost in the shuffle.  It was really fun to have a long weekend to hang out with Kaylee. Jake. and Drew.  I felt like I got to know them as my individual children all over again instead of the oldest, the middle and the almost baby. I love them each so much and I am so grateful for all of the different elements they bring to our family. 

One of my other favorite things I want to remember from the summer is reading.    I think it would be safe to say it was the kids’ favorite too.  We took outings to the library every other week.  They never could go through all of the books they checked out in one week, so every other week was good.  They loved this, especially Ady.  At the beginning of the summer I always choose a chapter book for us to read together at night.  This year we chose the Boxcar Children.  This was the BIGGEST hit!  I have even enjoyed it.  They were so cute and would get so excited about it every evening.  We always read in the boys room.  They have a special reading chair and light.  Each night they would get it all set up for me.  And each night they would beg me to read just ONE more chapter!  Sometimes I would give in. :)  There are so many books in the Boxcar Children Series.  They have convinced me to keep reading throughout the school year.  I think they are going to make sure we finish them.  Fun times!