Wrapping up Summer – 2011

I have been cleaning out pictures on  my computer a little here and there.  I came across so many fun summer pictures that I hadn’t done anything with yet.  I thought I would do one last post about our summer in picture form.  Here ya go…

These two photos SCREAM summer!  Nothing like a hot day and water from the tap outside.  Yuck if you ask me, but such a summer kid thing.

Our summer started out with a visit from the Swenson’s.  Amongst all the other fun things the kids did, we went berry picking.  Definitely one of the highlights of our visit. 

Shortly after they came to visit us, we took a trip to Arkansas to visit them.  On the list was a trip down town to the Peabody Hotel to see the March of the Ducks.  We explored a lot of other fun things while we were downtown.  A visit to the sno-cone shack and lots of free time at home to let the kids get creative while Andrea and I chilled.

One of our favorite outings at home was a trip to Galveston with the Dickamore’s and the Stingham’s.  A trip to the beach each year is mandatory. 

We had lots of these kind of days.

I wish we had more of these kind of days.

Fun times and great memories!  We are so blessed to have such awesome friends to do fun things with!

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!  

Alphabet Summer {Letter W}

We had a water day!   My girlfriend Tami and I took our kids to a new splash pad down the street from us.

It turned into a bowling party.

We brought water bottles for the kids to drink and they started using them as any sort of toy they could think of.  They would put the empty ones on top of the water fountains and watch them shoot into the air.  Fun times and great free entertainment.

I usually enjoy being HOME with my kids during the summer, but this year some of our best memories have been our weekly outings.  It’s been so much fun and a great change of pace to meet friends at the pool, the Children’s Museum, McDonald’s when it’s raining,  a trip to the beach, family outings to Splash Town and to the library. 

You would think it would be harder to go places with 4 kids, but actually it is much easier to keep up with Ady when we are NOT home.  When we are out, she is entertained with the one thing she is supposed to be entertained with…our outing.  Not every obnoxious household item she seems to be constantly entertained with at home. It definitely takes a village to raise this child!  Ughhhh…that is an entirely different post! Anyway, I have come to realize that routines change every summer.  Some things work from previous summers and others don’t.  It all depends on where each of us are in life and what my children’s interests are.  But no matter what, there are always memories to be cherished. 

Alphabet Summer {Letter I}

 Alphabet Summer would not be the same with out our usual Indoor Campout.  Letter I is always the same.  It’s a summer tradition.

This is a must for the kids and it stays up for days.  They pull one of the laptops under the table and watch movies.  They play board games, read books and eat lots of snacks.  It’s fun times for them.  I think this will be one of their treasured summer memories as a child.  I hope so anyway.

After this one finally got cleaned up.  They moved the party upstairs to the game room and made a fort out of the ENTIRE room.  No photo of that, but lets just say I am glad it was upstairs and not downstairs.  They have pretty much ruled this household all summer.  Which is why I think I have dove into my own projects the past couple of weeks.  I have to feel in control of something!  They are having fun making a mess and so am I…mostly because I know some sort of calmness will return in the next couple of weeks.  Until then…my kids are busy making memories!

4th of July {postscript}

Yes.  I am posting about the 4th of July in August.  I am long overdue with this post.  I always feel bad when I want to post something and it’s way past the fact.  Usually I just don’t post, but that is when I need to remember the timing of a post really doesn’t matter.  If I’m late that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t post about it.  Especially since I’m always late. :)

This is what I am thinking:

1. I want to take the time to remember the good things.  It distracts me from the things in life that aren’t so good. :) This is the whole reason I started blogging in the first place.

2. Let’s be real.  It is taking the place of scrapbooking for me.  I would love to scrapbook, I really would, but I can’t seem to find the time.  So this is where I record and document our family happenings so that when I actually do get around to scrapbooking (and I will) I will remember what happened and how I felt about it. 

3. It would be really unpatriotic of me not to show pride for our country and share our 4th of July celebrations.

4. I want to remember so many things, big and small about members of our family, activities, decorating and all things I love, so instead of questioning myself and worrying about the timing and wondering if people will really care to know this fact or that about us I am going to post it if it is important to me.  That is the one rule for my blog.  I just decided.  If it is important to me and I want to remember it, then I am posting it. 

5.  So… that means I am going to be back tracking a lot.  I am going to try to stay current with things, but when I get the chance I am going to go back and share some of our summer memories.  This summer has flown by and we have been so incredibly busy that I haven’t had time to record it.

Alright.  Enough about that. On to the 4th of July. :)

I actually decorated for the 4th.  I think this was the first time ever.  We are never home for the holiday.  We are usually vacationing in Utah.  The one time we were here I was pregnant with Ady and Kaylee was getting baptized so it was the last thing on my mind.  Anyway, it was fun!

My friends Sara and Christian were in town house hunting.  We spent lots of time with them.  We started the day off with a Parade down Market Street.

I think we were CrAzY!  I think everyone else there had lost their minds too.  It was SO dang hot and it was only 9:00 in the morning.  I seriously was sweating like I never had before.  Too much information, I know, but let me just tell you it did not feel good.  And we were not in a shady spot either.   We tried our best to stay slightly shaded and hydrated.  When I think about the parade, the heat is the one thing that comes to my mind.  Which is why I am thankful I have photos because it really was fun and patriotic…but I’m hoping we won’t be here next year (wink, wink).

The boys loved this truck of course.

There was a stream of colorful Volkswagen Bugs that went by.  Old and new.

This cute one said “Our American dream is Peace.”

That is what Kaylee’s tattoo said also.

They threw out sunglasses and beads, dum dums and popsicles.

Not even halfway through the parade, Ady spilt my entire Coke all over Sara!  Can you imagine being super hot and sweaty and then having a sticky drink spilt all over you?  Gross!  Of course Sara was so sweet about it and we ended up laughing after the shock of it, but I felt awful.  I’m hoping Ady was saying sorry in this photo even though it was after the fact.  It’s a good thing she is so stinkin’ cute!  It has saved her life several times.

She was obsessed with her sunglasses.  

It was no Murray Parade where they throw out TONS of candy and the weather is perfect, for the most part.  But it was fun.

We made our own memories.  I love the black and white photo of Drew.  His expressions (or lack of) make me laugh.

The rest of the day was spent birthday shopping for Kaylee and Drew.  I had just gotten home from Arkansas a couple of days ago and didn’t have time to get that done or even think about it.  Kaylee’s birthday being the day after the 4th with Drew’s following a couple days later is always a little tricky.  We knocked that out and then came home to throw a BBQ together.  It was pretty much a crazy and hot day.  That evening we went to the pool to unwind where I ended up falling asleep on the lounge chair!  Lots of fun I was.  They banned fireworks this year.  It had been so hot with no rain.  I have to say that it was kind of weird to not end the day with a big boom.  A little untraditional, but what do you do!?

You make memories with your family anyway. :)

Alphabet Summer {Letter M}

Thursday last week was letter M for our Alphabet Summer.  We went to the Mall and rode the Merry Go Round. 

The Merry Go Round is really such a small and simple thing that the kids usually get told “No” to every time we go.  So they thought this was extra nice of me. 

Also while at the mall (not pictured) we visited the pet store, played on the playground, walked through some of the kids favorite stores where the boys bought new matching flip flops and Kaylee bought herself a new back pack.  The trip to the mall was inspired because Kaylee got a gift certificate for some feathers to be put in her hair for her birthday.  She invited her friend to share in the day and they had tons of fun.  They went to their “own” favorite stores while I was close by in other stores.  They thought they were so grown up and talked about how much fun it will be to go to the mall by themselves and shop.  I remember those days.  They are some of my favorite memories.  Sadly, that time isn’t far away for her.  It is such a bitter-sweet thing for a mom!  

Anyway, we ended the mall with some lunch (and a HUGE meltdown by little Miss Ady) and came home to finish our letter M.  The kids wrote  letters and put them in the Mail.  

Some peeps are going to be surprised!

I think I will share letter I next.  That was a fun day. :)

Incase you are wondering…these photos were taken with my iPhone and edited with the  instagram app.  I think I am going to do this more often for little things.  It was so nice not to carry my big camera with me and only spend one minute editing 6 photos.  Nice!!

Alphabet Letter { L }

We are going strong with our letters for Alphabet Summer.  Yesterday we did the letter L.  Our dining room has had Legos all over the place for the entire week, but yesterday was officially Lego day.  The kids are trying to get featured in the Lego magazine.  They have worked hard, but they still have lots more to do.  I have a feeling that this is taking the place of puzzles from previous summers.

The kids took a break from Legos long enough to meet dad for Lunch at our family favorite, Freebirds.

After lunch I bribed the  kids to stay outside for some play time with big Lollipops. 

It has been so hot that the only time they even go outside is to go to the pool.  It worked like a charm, even if it was only for a little bit.  It was nice to be outside for awhile.

 

We have also done the letters, A, B, G,H,I, N and V.  I will share more soon.  :)

Catching up…a list

Where have I been? 

You may have been asking that question.  But then again…maybe not! :)  It has been a month since this poor blog and blogging world has heard from me.  I can hardly believe I let myself get so far behind!  Busy, busy, busy is about all I can say.  So busy I can hardly catch my breath, but we have been having lots of fun.  That is the important thing…although I am SOOOOOOOO ready to get into a routine, even if it is a summer routine!  Here are some of the things we have been up to…incase you wondering.

In list format (that’s the way my brain thinks):

A couple of days after our summer break began Andrea and her family came to visit for a week.  Berry picking, family photos, a massage, baseball game and shopping, LOTS of kids play time, outings to the pool, just to name a few things.

Ady went on a trip to Utah with her daddy for 4 days.  It was over Fathers Day weekend but it really was more like a Mothers Day present to me!  Awesome dad/husband, huh?

We wrapped up swim season.  We now have 2 extra hours in the morning and Saturdays free. 

We took a trip to Arkansas to visit Andrea and her family.  It was just me and the kids.  I drove myself there and back.  Pretty proud of that.  So glad I did too, because the trip was exactly what I needed, even if we did just see each other a week and half ago.

When we came home from Arkansas we had some very special visitors here.  My friend Sara and her husband Christian were here house hunting for 10 days.  We grew up together and were pretty much joined at the hip!!  The kind of friendship where our parents seriously considered each of us the other daughter.  We are so excited that they are moving here.  Not only to Houston, but into the neighborhood and our ward!

Then we celebrated the 4th of July.

And then it was Kaylee’s birthday.

And today is Drew’s birthday!

So as you can see…I have been a tiny bit busy enjoying friendships and family celebrations. 

But wait!  There’s more…

I have been VERY busy dealing with the household craziness that comes with having 4 kids home for summer break.  Ughhhh… is how I have been feeling most of the time.  But I know that is about to change now that we have more free time and a summer routine to look forward to.  We have so many fun things planned and I really can’t wait to get to it!

I have had 4 photo shoots this past month. Which might not sound like that much, but to me it is A LOT.  I am loving it though.  It is so rewarding.  I’m just working on balancing all things which really is a never ending story. You can view two of my recent photo shoots here.  I’m working on editing the other two.  Check back soon.

Besides all of that I have been working on my photography portfolio.  I have my photography page up and running on Facebook and I am so glad I did that.  What a wonderful way to advertise.

Since I am on the topic of photography…I made the BIG change to CS5 and WOW!  It is amazing.  The best change ever!

AND…I am in the process of organizing and purging 1000+ photos I just took off my memory card.  HUGE headache!

I also have been pinning…A LOT!  What is not to love about Pinterest?  It is easy, fun, addicting and creative.  If you haven’t tried it yet you really should!!!  You can find me here.

I had a fun surprise a couple of weeks ago when my friend Michelle e-mailed me and told me I had been featured on Tip Junkie!  OK…what???  That was my thought.  She sent me the link.  I checked it out and sure enough there was a photo of Ady’s 1st Birthday.  Second one from the top.  So fun to see that!

So there is one month for me in a nutshell!  I have so many things to catch up on.  Since a post (for me anyways) isn’t complete without a picture, here is one of Drew.  Since it is his birthday today and all. :)

I plan on getting caught up on this and so much more very, very soon!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Our Summer To - Do List

I did it!  Our Summer List is framed and hanging on our laundry room door for all to see.

I took the idea from here and made it work for us (see post below for other links).  The only thing I had to buy was the frame.  I purchased mine from Target.  I gathered up my scrapbook paper and chose about 6 different patterns that I liked together.  They were 12x12 sheets of paper and the frame was 12 inches in width, so I cut the paper into 1 inch squares to fit across the frame.  I used the paper that came with the frame as a template to glue all of my strips onto.  I used my kids lined paper for the background of the header. I made my title in Photoshop and printed it on a scrap of one of the papers I used.  I was planning on using some of my old scrapbooking embellishments, but my supply has ran out since I switched to digital.  If you have some, this would be a fun place to use them.  I also don’t have colored ink right now so I went with a black title, but I am happy with how it turned out.  This was one project that I was not picky with and just enjoyed putting it together.  Once I had all of my paper pieces glued on and inside my frame, I wrote out our list.  I wrote on the glass because I want the kids to be able to check off the things we do.  The only problem is, it isn’t glass, it is Plexiglas, so the ink doesn’t come off.  It should come off with Windex if you are using real glass.  I had to be very careful while writing because of this!  I really don’t like my handwriting, but I’m over it. :)

I think it is such a fun summer addition!  The kids love it and can’t wait to start marking things off. 

As for the things on our list, I wrote all or our Alphabet Summer Activities (see post below for more details), some projects we (me) needs (wants) to finish and other summery things.  Like:

Water balloon fights, sleeping in, family movie nights, tissue paper craft, making treats and dinners with mom, sleep- overs, pool trips, library trips, re-doing the game room, late nights, pick berries, scrapbook, go to the temple, celebrate Fathers Day, celebrate birthdays, read a chapter book together, play in sprinklers, exercise regularly, explore Old Town Spring, Children’s Museum, make birthday party gifts for next year, back to school shopping, organize food storage closet, go to Arkansas, Waterway Square, do a puzzle, 4th of July, have a picnic under the trampoline, print my 365 book, and have a bike wash. 

We are ready to go!

We have survived our first day and a half of Summer.  We have been to a 4th grade pool party, had a sleep over, taken Ady to the dr. because I thought she broke her wrist.  She is fine but… is now in a big girl bed.  Made a trip to the pool, eaten at Chic-fil-A, been to another pool party, went on a photo shoot, watched movies and still have had time to bicker, nag and tattle tale!  Welcome Summer!!!! :)

Alphabet Summer

 

So, the question is… Are you ready for Summer? 

I am getting there. 

I got all organized: cupboards cleaned out, lists made and arts and craft shopping done this past weekend, so I’m feeling less panicked.  Now I just need to get to a stopping point with all of these other projects going on around me and then I will feel much better!  I only have a day and a half left.  Ahhhhhh!  Who am I kidding…it’s not going to happen.  Oh well.  That’s the life of a mom. :)

Last year we did Alphabet Summer for the first time.  The kids loved it so much and REQUESTED that we do it again, so we sat down this weekend and made up our list. Here it is:

A – Animal day – Read about your favorite animal, share some facts and then act them out.

B – Baking day with the letter ‘B’.

C – Craft – Make Cards – we are going to make birthday cards and thank you cards for the whole year. I’m trying to get prepared for birthday parties next year. Sometimes they can be a little overwhelming.

D – Dinosaur Museum

E – Eat anything for lunch. (we did this last year and they HAD to do it again this year. )

F – Ferry ride and Fossils – There is a ferry ride in Kima that we have never done and they want to make homemade fossils.

G – Game day

H – Hide ‘n’ Go Seek

I – Indoor Smores and Table Tent (another one we did last year that definitely made it to the list this year).

J – Jammie day

K – Kickball

L – Lunch with dad

M – Mail a letter

N – National Holiday – the 4th of July

O – Obstacle Course

P – Homemade Playdo and Popsicles

Q – Quantity Graph - (maybe with buttons and colors or something, haven’t decided yet).

R – Rock skipping contest/Rock out to Wii Sing It.

S – Snow Cones

T – Treasure Hunt

U – Uniform day – dress up and act it out.

V – Vacation

W – Wings for dinner and a trip to Hook airport to look at the “wings”.

X – Be eXtra nice this day (should be interesting).

Y – Yellow plate lunch  - lunch on our special yellow plate and all things yellow. (also done last year).

Z – Zoo Pal picnic – make our own zoo pals

And there you have it!  I am going to be totally flexible with this.  We will probably do 2 letters a week in no particular order.  Last year each of the kids had an Alphabet  notebook.  They would write the letter big and draw pictures around it that started with that letter and on the next page they would write a story about that letter.  This year they will still write the letter and draw pictures, but instead of the story we are going to work on spelling.  They will write as many words as they can think of, trying to spell them out all on their own.  The ones they miss I will have them write 5 times.  Kaylee has insisted that I reward them with stickers and a stamp on each page. 

Deal.

Now I’m off to make this:

That is the one from last summer.  Here is the one from this year.  They have a free download.

I’ll let you know how it goes. :)

{ Project 365 }

This post is going to seem like old news now since it is all about our last week of summer.  Makes me miss it (a little bit).

Alphabet Letter H for Hat :  This was an easy alphabet day!  I love this photo of me and my kiddos.  They are few and far between. 

Alphabet Letter U for find the letter U: The kids walked around the house to hunt for objects that had the shape of the letter U.  They carried Casey’s camera around and had fun taking snapshots.  They were surprised at how many objects they found. 

Alphabet Letter J for Homemade Jam: Kaylee had quite the week.  She proved to me just how much she is growing up.  This jam making day was a crazy day.  I was about ready to say we are done…no more, when I walked down the stairs to see Kaylee making it on her own.  Casey had put the strawberries in the blender for her and she did the rest.  Not only did she make jam, but earlier in the week she made brownies.  She was bored one day and decided that’s what she was going to do.  She did it all by herself from start to finish, even the clean up.  She also tended her brothers one evening (and we payed her).  We aren’t going to make the last one a habit, but it’s nice to know that if I get in a bind I have her to help me out. 

 

Bed Head – Half the time Ady wakes up from her naps with her rubber band missing and her hair all over the place.  This day it was extra crazy!

This struck me as funny -  I have a rule that there are no toys allowed at the kitchen counter or table.  When Drew eats at the bar, he brings his blanket and whatever he is playing with and puts it under his chair for safekeeping.  I’m used to seeing cars and legos and superheroes but I have never seen the remote before.  I just started laughing when I saw this.  My kids couldn’t figure out why I thought it was so funny.  That made me laugh even more…to think that they thought this was normal.  My kids then told me that Drew does this all the time, “He does it so we can’t take the T.V. mom.”  Well sheesh…where have I been??? 

A Different Perspective – Kaylee took this photo.  The boys were playing ball outside while Kaylee and I were in the kitchen.  I had just told her that I wondered what my picture for the day was going to be.  She told me she wanted to be in charge of it that day.  So she took off with my camera all over the house and ended up outside with the boys.  She came inside with grass all over the front of her shirt.  I said, “Kaylee, why do you have grass all over you?”  She said, “Because I was laying in the grass taking a picture.  Look at the picture I got!!”  Ohhh…what have I taught her!  I think she needs to start hanging around with someone else. :)

Last Day of Summer Break – Our backyard is going to feel lonely come Monday morning.  No more kids jumping on the trampoline in their swimsuits or a sandbox filled with water and dump trucks.  No more melted popsicles and water balloon wars or trips to the pool.  We have made some great memories but it’s time to move forward and start a new routine.