Summer 2012

We have had the best summer!  I think the kids' ages had a lot to do with it.  Nearly 2, 6 and 8 are such sweet, sweet ages.  We've had a great balance of activity and down time.  We've been lax on schedules but not without.  I've heard far more laughter and singing than anything else.  It's been almost blissful.  However, in full disclosure, because the whole point of this blog is to remember my life in everyday snippets, the last week has been a bit rough, not terrible, just enough bickering and whining for me to be sad that summer is over but not bawling my eyes out.  Summer is great but so is school and the routine and structure it brings.  So we say good-bye summer and hello new adventures!

Tonight we had a good-bye summer dinner.  We made a chart with all of the things we liked about summer.  Here are a few of my favorites....child spelling included-

*Staying up a little later- Emma

*Cooken- Eleanor

*Fort of Jali -Eleanor

*Having more time to read- Emma

*Getting ears pierced- Emma

*Haven more time with famliy- Eleanor

*Seeing all of the plants-Eleanor

*The fairy house class- Emma

-Horseback riding- SURPRISE--Mom!

*Vacation in Colorado-Dad

2!

This girl loves pajamas and was delighted to receive two new sets of pjs this evening!  Now to get them off of her tomorrow morning.  

 Happy Birthday to you Lucy Adelaide Baum, the skip in our step and the song in our day!   I am thankful every single day for the delight of being given this beautiful, spunky, loving child to raise.  She rounds out our family and makes us complete.  She came like a flash two years ago today, I was admitted to the hospital a little after 7pm and she arrived at 10:13pm and ever since she's been just like that, quick, quick, quick and on the run.  We love you Lulu!

Happy girls!

  A couple of years ago, when asked, I told the girls they could have their ears pierced when they turned 10....totally arbitrary age, honestly I just didn't really want to mess with it.  Several of Emma's friends had their ears pierced this year.  So when Emma said she'd like her ears pierced I said we could talk.  She was shocked and dropped the subject entirely...for a few months.  Then at the beginning of summer the discussion came up again, and Eleanor wanted in on it.  I agreed to getting their ears pierced at the end of summer if they were responsible and earned responsibility points for things like taking care of their teeth and hair.  They absolutely were responsible girls this summer and so today they got their ears pierced.  None of us cried, not even me!  

Our harvest

We've never had any luck with tomatoes.  Usually our garden will produce a few...and by few I mean maybe 4.  We've had squirrel problems, bug problems, and just plain problems.   The tide has turned, this year at least and we've hit the tomato jackpot.  For five tomato lovers things just can't get much better.  Our lycopene levels have to be sky high!  I did actually look up the effects of too much lycopene...really, we're eating that many tomatoes!  Seems your skin may turn orange...hmmm, that may not really be considered a problem around here.  In other garden news our basil, something we've always had loads of, is pitiful and everything else is less than stellar...but who cares, those lovely tomatoes, they make up for everything else!

Today's harvest!  

She loves the cherry tomatoes, picks them herself and eats them like candy.

August?

She leaves me speechless...a lot.  I've never been around someone who works so fast.  She is amazing.

Today is the second of August which means summer vacation is just about over.  We have a check list made of back to school must do's and we're slowly trying to get a couple of little bodies around here reprogramed for an earlier bed time ( boy the Olympics make that hard!) and earlier wake up time.  We're in no rush though.  July was packed for sure and it feels great to have some lazy days around home, picking pounds of tomatoes, playing in the water hose, making forts and fairies, writing plays and songs and putting on lots of performances.   I'll take as many days of this as I can get.

Home Sweet Home

We are home from our nearly two week vacation.  It was super!  It's great to be home though.  Last night when we walked in our front door I felt like our house gave me a great big hug, maybe I was delirious from the drive but I felt like crying for happiness!   It's an awfully good thing to go away on a lovely vacation only to be delighted to come home to your lovely life.

The big girls are in camp this week so this morning after we dropped them off  Lucy and I headed to the grocery store.  She fell asleep on the way....she has a few hours to catch up from vacation.

We're back to doing laundry, playing in the water, reading books and sharing lunch.  It's truly the good life!

12 years!

Kevin and I have been married for 12 years today!  I really hit the jackpot with this guy!   There are so many things I love about him but one quality I noticed about him from the very beginning, (almost 17 years ago) was the way he treated others and his constant willingness to help.
Take this weekend for example,  and you'll see what I mean.   Emma, Eleanor and I wanted to go to Columbia on Friday to see my cousin Madalyn perform in the play Legally Blonde.  This meant Kevin would need to be home with Lucy.   The girls and I wanted to leave by 3:30 in the afternoon so Kevin left our house on Friday morning at 5am to squeeze in a couple of  hours of work,  knowing that once he came home Lucy wouldn't let him get anything done.   At 3:30 when Kevin arrived home he also had a bike, not belonging to him, in tow.    He's taking the bike to Colorado with us next week, strapping it to the top of the mini-van and babying it like it's his own.  His friend is competing in a bike race in Colorado and Kevin kindly offered to take the bike out there for him.  By the time Kevin arrived home on Friday, it was decided that Eleanor was still too sick to go to the play.  Was he frustrated by the fact that he'd gone to work at 5am, that I hadn't figured out our plans until too late to call him and say," go ahead and stay at work" because Lord knows he could have used the time...?  Of course not!   Instead he jumped right in and started figuring out how to help.  Poor Eleanor was so sad at missing the play.  Kevin cheered her up by driving to McDonalds ( a place he really despises) and picking up dinner.  He then ate his dinner like he just couldn't be eating anything tastier.  After dinner Kevin and El snuggled up and watched Ratatouille.  He laughed and made a big deal at all the right parts.
Saturday mornings we both like to run and the girls have dance at 9 so sometimes, when we sleep in, and it's super hot, fitting this in can be tricky.  Yesterday,  in the blistering heat, he loaded up Eleanor and Lucy in the double stroller and ran with them from our house to COCA, because I'm no good running in the heat and he wanted to make I sure I could fit in my run (on the treadmill) and the girls got to dance on time.  When Emma and  I pulled into the COCA lot there was Kevin in the middle of the parking lot, directing a woman in a large SUV who had her car stuck in a parking spot.   He helped her figure out how to maneuver out of the tight spot without damage to any cars.  After dance, we headed to the produce stand where Kevin collected ingredients for ratatouille, and that's what he made for dinner because Eleanor just had to try it after watching the movie.
 On Sunday mornings, Kevin coordinates a bike ride for all kinds of people, and makes sure everyone who wants to ride feels included.  This morning he loaned his bike to a friend who's thinking about taking up cycling, Kevin had that extra bike here after all. After the ride, he always helps me with Sunday school and because we were short a teacher today, he even helped me teach.  And darn it if he wasn't an awesome teacher!
 In between all of this he's dog sitting our neighbor's dog, killing wasps in our yard, ants in the house, mowing in this impossible heat, and taking Eleanor to the pool!   Seriously, this guy is gem.  I'm so thankful I have him by my side and my girls have him as an example of what an amazing husband looks like.  I love you most, Kevin!

We had a memory lane adventure this evening, McGurk's for dinner, a south city tour of our first two houses, and Ted Drewe's for dessert.  Happy memories!

She loved it all, but especially her own ice cream, of which she ate very little but refused to give up.

Thank goodness for the T.D. hose!