July Fun

As we enter into the last few days of July, I wonder...where has this month gone?  And how is it that school is going to start again in just a few short weeks?  We have settled into such a nice summer routine--staying up late, sleeping in, checking fun activities off our list, spending lots of time outside, catching up with friends we don't see very often.  I'm not ready for all that to end.  But here's a peek at what some of our July has looked like...

Now that Briggs does not need a consistent afternoon nap, we've taken lots more opportunities to enjoy the State Farm pool.  We've gone by ourselves, with friends, with cousins.  Adelie now loves jumping off the diving board and Staley has conquered the big water slide.  So much fun!

And way too many of our swimming trips end with an ice cream treat at the State Farm boathouse.

(Briggs was so excited to have our neighbor friends join us for a day at the pool.)

We enjoyed a morning of fun at Bicycle Safety Town.

The girls rode and rode and rode their bikes.  The both conquered going down the big hill on their own.

And Briggs continues to get better with his pedaling and steering at the same time.  Not perfect, but better.

We took a family outing to the Peoria Riverfront Museum for their mythical creatures exhibit featuring dragons, mermaids, and unicorns.  

Briggs LOVED this big dragon.  As we ventured throughout the exhibit, he kept asking to go back and see the dragon.  We did...no less then about 8 times.

Staley and I celebrated the birthday of a family friend at her swimming party.

We enjoyed time with some friends at the Peoria Playhouse.  These 2 girls are exactly the same age as Staley and Adelie.  We met at music class when Staley was 2 and Adelie was an infant.  As the girls have gotten older, the play dates have become less frequent but we continue to meet up once or twice a year.

We traveled to Springfield for a day of fun with one of my best friends from college and her kids who drove up from the St. Louis area.  We found a great park and just spent the day playing, picnicking, and catching up.  It was so much fun!!

I was so glad our kids got along so well because that gave Jenny and I lots of time to visit.

We also spent a fun evening with one of my best high school friends and two of her boys when she was in town.  We hung out at her parent's house (where I have so many fun high school memories).  My kids had a great time playing with her boys, riding around in the golf cart, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  They even have a long zip line that Staley LOVED and did 3 or 4 times.  And I had a great time visiting and reminiscing with Katie.

*We also fit in some fun play time with my best friend, Christie, and her girls when they were in town visiting for a few weeks.  I'm not sure how I managed to not take one single picture during our times together.  If I had one, I would insert it right here.

We've also had swim lessons, Vacation Bible School, Stage Kids, and library programs.

And we've filled in our free time with lots of outdoor play, jobs around the house, trips to the park, family walks, and neighborhood fun.

Our July has been fun and full and I can't believe that it's almost over.

Worlds Colliding

A little girl might enjoy pushing her baby dolls in a stroller.

A little boy might enjoy pushing his monster truck around in the driveway.

My little boy might enjoy pushing his monster truck...

...in a stroller.

That's just how we roll!

Plans

Tonight the kids and I were talking about what we might want to do tomorrow.

Briggs:  "We could go to Disney World except that it's really, really far away."
Staley:  "And if we were going to go to Disney World, we'd have to make all our reservations and stuff already."
Adelie:  "And Disney World costs a lot and lot of money."

Right, right, and right again.
Guess maybe we'll just go to the zoo tomorrow instead.

Little Things

I always enjoy looking back on my posts about my kids that remind me of all the little things that define them at any given moment in time. 

1.  My kids, especially my girls, are really into books on tape at the moment.  We fill most of our long road trips now listening to books on tape.  We've listened to all the A-Z Mysteries series, Charlotte's Web, Nate the Great, The Princess in Black series, Frog and Toad stories, The Pond stories, and Magic Treehouse books.  They are also really into 2 musical stories that I listened to as a girl: ' Little Tree' and 'Nathanial the Grublet.'

2.  Briggs has spent his summer working through his fear of things blowing away.  At the beginning of the summer, our deck umbrella blew out of the table and off the deck while the kids were eating outside with a baby-sitter.  When she tried to put the umbrella back into the table, our glass deck table shattered.  Since then, Briggs has been generally scared of wind, umbrellas, eating outside, and things blowing away.  We've worked our way down from an epic meltdown at a graduation party about eating outside to some mild anxieties about umbrellas on windy days.  It's a work in progress, but we are getting there. 

3.  Adelie loves to be under the water.  During swim lessons, she kept getting in trouble because when it wasn't her turn to swim, she'd be under the water instead of listening to the instructor.  When we go swimming, diving for toys and swimming underwater are her two favorite activities.  Maybe she is part mermaid.

4.  Staley continues to be so persistent when it comes to learning something she wants to do.  She recently mastered climbing the very high rope ladder up into our neighbor's treehouse.  Her current skill that she's trying to master through perseverance and practice is diving off the diving board at State Farm pool.  Although it scares her, she won't give up and keeps trying...belly flops and all.

5. Briggs still calls night time "bed night."  He'll also let me know if he finds something "intseresting."  He still says "sings" instead of "things" and "sing-ers" instead of "fingers."  I love his little voice.

6.  Staley makes her bed every morning before climbing down off the top bunk.  Adelie?  Not so much.  Staley keeps her little desk area very organized and clear of clutter.  Adelie?  Not so much.  Staley is very open to cleaning out and giving things away that we no longer use.  Adelie?  Not so much.  She even had a hard time when Zach was trimming our trees, not wanting him to cut off any of her "favorite" branches.

7.  I've been trying to work with Adelie on writing her letters since she still insists on starting most of her letters from the bottom rather than the top.  She has very little interest in working with me on skills for kindergarten, although her reading and writing skills somehow continue to improve.  In comparison, Staley has expressed concern that she might be forgetting some of the math skills she learned in first grade and seeks out opportunities to do learning time.

8.  Staley is currently very interested in learning about dinosaurs.  She has been checking out dinosaur books from the library all summer to work on her dinosaur "research."

9.  Although he has been potty trained for well over a year, Briggs is generally unphased about having an accident.  He always takes himself to the bathroom to poop, but pee accidents aren't all that uncommon.  He'll wander in to where I am and nonchalantly tell me, "I just peed in my pants" or sometimes he'll wait until I find his damp underwear and then tell me exactly when it happened.  He is generally more concerned about missing out on something or stopping a fun activity than he is about hanging out in damp underwear.

10.  My girls are really into drawing, writing, and doing craft activities.  They'll spend hours in the play room drawing while listening to books on tape.  (Mermaids are still Adelie's favorite thing to draw.)  Shrinky dinks are a new craft favorite for all my kids.  My girls also love doing Perler Beads, Rainbow Loom, and Plush Craft.  Adelie is always making Rainbow Loom bracelets for everyone we know.

11.  My girls always have deep theological or philosophical questions that come up at bedtime as I am trying to leave their room.  Apparently when the lights are out and the bedtime routine is over is when my girls feel the need to ponder things like "How do we know that God is real?" or "How do we know that our religion is right?" or "Where is heaven?"

12.  All 3 of my kids LOVE gum.  They are always asking to chew gum, especially anytime we are in the car going anywhere.

13.  On days when we don't have anything to do or anywhere to be, the kids will climb into bed with me when they wake up and we'll just read books for an hour or so before getting up to start our day.

 It's all these little things and all of life's little moments that I never want to forget.

From the morning family time...

to the sister love...

...to sibling reading time

...to watching Shrinky Dinks shrink.

It's the little things that I love.

It's the little moments that I cherish.

It's these little ones that bring such joy to my life.

I am blessed!

Question of the Day

Zach and I have been teaching at Vacation Bible School at our church this week.  We are with a group of 9 2nd graders from 6-8.  We only have to lesson plan and teach for 30 minutes of that time.  Tonight is Day 5 and I am exhausted!

So my question is:  How do teachers do this all day every day with a class full of kids all year long?  Because one week, 2 hours, 9 kids is enough to wear me out.

4th of July

I won't say that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, but it is one that I always look forward to with great anticipation.  I think part of my enjoyment is that we have a tradition that includes fun, family, food, festive wear, and fireworks.  What's not to love about that???

The kids look forward to time spent with cousins.  Another tradition?  The 4th of July cousin photo op.

The parade is always a winner.

Briggs loved pointing out all the vehicles in the parade.  He did cover his ears for the firetruck sirens and the fireworks, but seemed to enjoy both the parade and the fireworks despite the loud noises.

Adelie was too excited about collecting as much parade candy as she possibly could to pay much attention the parade itself.  (You'd think they'd learn that, once home, all the candy goes into a community bag and most of it gets taken to their parents' work anyway.)  Adelie loved all the glow jewelry, enjoyed playing with cousins, and liked the fireworks--although she was also a firetruck/fireworks ear coverer this year too.

Staley had a rough start to the day since her shorts didn't feel quite right.  However, she recovered nicely and had a great time playing with her cousins.  Although she has progressed past needing to cover her ears for most things, I did notice that we were 3 for 3 on ear covering during the fireworks finale.  

I loved the parade, the food, the time spent with family, and the fireworks.  I didn't cover my ears at all, although I did spend part of my fireworks viewing time covering Briggs' ears for him.  

All in all, it was another wonderful 4th!

Pentwater

 We just returned from another fabulous week of Pentwater relaxation and fun.  As each year goes by, vacation gets a little bit easier.  The older kids entertain themselves on the beach, we no longer have to work around nap times, and the kids are able to stay up late enough to enjoy Pentwater sunsets.

Although enjoying Pentwater sunsets can also translate into getting-soaking-wet-in-your-clothes if you're not careful.

But I do believe that Michigan sunsets might just be one of my favorite things ever.

With the kids able to stay up later and our house this year being a short walk from the lake, we enjoyed Michigan sunsets most of our nights of vacation.

We stayed in a new house this year with my brothers and their families.  It was the nicest place we've ever stayed.  There was a main house and a carriage house above the garage, so my family stayed in the carriage house with my brother Ethan while Erik's family and Evan's family stayed in the main house.  It was so nice to be able to stay all together, yet still have a little separation to lessen the chaos for all involved.

We still ate dinner together every night at the main house.

The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and riding together to the beach.

There was plenty of family time together even with the separate living spaces.

We had beautiful weather all week long.  We spent all day, every day (except one) on the beach with the extended family.

Our whole group would generally congregate at the beach during the day.  The beach we go to is rarely crowded and is right on Lake Michigan, but also right on the outlet from Bass Lake to Lake Michigan.  The outlet water is calmer and warmer, which is more agreeable to the younger kids than the cold, wavy water of Lake Michigan.  When everyone was there, we had over 40 people, including 19 kids ages 2 months to 13 years old.  There was always someone to play with.

The older kids loved going on dune adventures, building sand creations, catching tad poles, playing wiffle ball, and swimming in Lake Michigan.

I have less pictures of Staley on the beach than my other kids because she was always off playing.  But she LOVED swimming in the waves of Lake Michigan.

Adelie was a little mermaid.  She loved being in the water, although generally preferred the water in the outlet than that of the "big lake."  She also enjoyed spending time playing restaurant on the beach.  She really did not like stopping beach fun for bathroom breaks, especially when she had to walk through burning hot afternoon sand to get to the bathroom.

Adelie loved playing mermaids in the water with Caroline.  She also spent lots of time playing with Gabby (another of my cousin's kids) and Reese.  Guess what??  They were also pretending to be mermaids.

So it only makes sense that she needed a mermaid tail made out of sand.

Adelie still has a special bond with my mom's sister, Aunt Maggie.  Adelie loved playing with Aunt Maggie on the beach every day.

The kids worked hard on various sand creations all week long.  

There were always plenty of cousins and "beach cousins" (my cousins' kids) to play with.

Although Briggs enjoyed wading into the still water of the Bass Lake outlet, he wasn't keen on going into the wavy water of Lake Michigan.

He was generally more interested in playing in the sand and eating snacks than playing in the water.

He spent a few days playing for long periods of time with Reese, one of my cousin's kids who is 4.  They had a great time collecting rocks and chasing seagulls together.

He also LOVED playing with Uncle Ethan.  Since we stayed with Uncle Ethan, Briggs was always knocking on his bedroom door, asking to listen to Uncle Ethan's music, and asking Uncle Ethan to read with him.  Luckily, Uncle Ethan was generally agreeable to all those things.  

On our one cooler, overcast day, we took advantage of the less-than-ideal weather to go out to breakfast, shop in town, and then enjoy the farm market/petting zoo we found last year.

We joined Evan's family for the afternoon of fun.

Staley loved the big spinning barrel.  The older kids also loved playing "robbers" on the wooden train set, jumping on the jumping pillow, and riding the pedal tractors.

Everything is always more fun with cousins.

Briggs loved seeing the animals, riding in the barrel train, the sand box, and playing on the wooden playsets.

Adelie was pretty happy to be doing whatever Liam and Staley wanted to do.  She liked the duck races, jumping pillow, and barrel train ride.

And, of course, there are certain Pentwater traditions that we hold sacred.

S'mores night.

All my kids enjoyed roasting their own marshmallows this year.  Staley LOVED it and went around offering to roast everyone else's marshmallows too.

Spaghetti night.

Walking into town for ice cream.

Dressing alike with my sisters-in-law might not be a tradition, but maybe it should be??

We also had a great time playing games after the kids were in bed.  Euchre and Taboo were the preferred games this year.

And a cousin picture seems to be a tradition that gets a little easier each year.

Pentwater holds so many memories for me.  I loved it as a kid and I love that my kids are growing to love it just as much as I do.

They love the beach.

They love the traditions.

They love the time with family.

We love you, Pentwater!!

See you next year!!