June summer fun

Lately I am really enjoying spending time as a family.  Which I guess is a good thing seeing as we (at least the kids & I) are all together 24/7 now that school is out! 

 

 This family picture was taken on Mother's Day at church, and I love it.

I tried to use this picture at the top of my blog while redoing the layout but now blogger is telling me I have "exceeded my photo upload quota"....and they want my money.
 UGGGH!  I am not computer savvy enough to figure it all out right now.

We have been having fun making eating smores!

Catching lightning bugs:

Having parties and picnics with friends:

Swimming and splashing in the pool:

And of course Chloe is always up for making crazy faces:

This week Audrey has been at science camp and she and Carter are BOTH going to soccer camp!  

Busy week....but lots of fun.

My Pinterest Home - the summer look

Welcome to my home! 

Extreme Makeover - Summer Kid Edition

 

This summer I have an 8, 5 & almost 3 year old home 24/7.

They are having lots of fun and helping "summer-ize" our look.

Lincoln Logs, K'nex, Tinkertoys, Legos, blocks, dollhouses, coloring books & markers.... my house is just trashed "decorated" all the time.

I have decided to just go with this summer look.

Do you think anyone on Pinterest would be interested in our summer home makeover?

 Matchboxes strewn artfully all over the couch....

 Legos on the floor...

 K'Nex creations decorating my side table...

 More K'Nex (and instruction pages) scattered willy-nilly on the chair...

 Lincoln Log houses right in the middle of the carpet...

 Doll house furniture welcoming you at the top of the stairs....

 Blocks dumped out (Chloe's DIY stool to reach the bathroom sink)....

Doll house set up with furniture all around.
Actually, the dollhouse decorating might actually be pinterest-worthy.
Audrey's a great decorator!

I don't even have photos of my deck...which is decorated with beach towels drying over the backs of deck chairs and hanging off the railings. :)
DIY forts and drying racks!

I just have decided to embrace our summer look.
Yes, I do make them clean up at the end of the day.
But come by some time midday....and you never know what you may find!

I am choosing to believe that the mess summer look is a sign of brilliant & creative minds at work. :)
Or at least just kids havin' fun!

Thespians

 I haven't posted too much about Audrey lately.

Mostly that's because whenever I take a picture of her recently she says "Don't put that on facebook!  Or your blog!"

So I am trying to respect her privacy and also not embarrass her unnecessarily... :)

 Anyhow, she deserves her own post now.

Earlier in June, Audrey and her friends in the neighborhood decided to do a play.

As in, write a script, type it up, print it out, practice it, make invitations, have a "dress rehearsal", set it all up, and act it out.

All of us parents had nothing to do with it.  At all. 

I was so impressed with how the girls planned and executed their event.

 

They even set up their own chairs.

 Their play had to do with picking cherries and finding a fairy.

 They did a great job!

 Although perhaps they need to work on facing the audience. :)

 And maybe getting their noses out of their scripts?

 If you haven't noticed yet, the play involved MANY outfit changes. :)

(This IS a girl play after all.)

 But they were so proud!

And we parents were so proud  of their hard work!!

I love, love, love when the kids use their creativity!

The girls have already written a play for July entitled Firework!

Can't wait to see it.

Goodnight Moon, Part 2

Tonight's exchange:

Me:  Good night!  I love you Carter.

Carter:  I love you more.

Me:  I love you to the moon.

Carter:  I love you to Eris!   (...which - in case you are like me and didn't know this - is a dwarf planet past Pluto.)

Me (feeling confident that I would "win"):  Well.... I love YOU to the Sun.  And remember?  You said "the Sun can hold a million earths so it is the greatest love."

Carter:  Well, I love you to Venus.  And Venus has more points than the Sun.

Me:  Why is that?

Carter:  Because Venus is the goddess of LOVE. 

Me:  {speechless}  Okay, I guess you win....

[In full disclosure, Carter does have a Planet Quest game in which he has learned a lot of planet facts.  But I could not believe he put that response together so quickly in order to "beat" me!!!]

Goodnight Moon

A bedtime exchange:

Me:  I love you, Carter.

Carter:  I love you more.

(This is kind of a usual little exchange we have that he thinks is fun.)

Me:  I love YOU to the moon.

Carter, my lover of all things celestial:  I love you to Uranus! No! I love you to PLUTO!

Me:  I love you to Pluto and back!

Carter:  I love you to the Sun! {pause} And the Sun is the greatest love because the Sun can hold one million earths. 

Carter.....you are one special boy.

T-ball 2012

On Saturday Carter closed out his 2012 season of t-ball.  

He did a great job this season!

You can tell he already has a few seasons under his belt, his skills are just so much better than last year at this time when he first started t-ball.

He loves playing first base.  I think mainly because in t-ball, you get the most action at first than at any other place on the field. 

Because mainly in t-ball you stand in the field like this...praying that something comes your way. :)

And sometimes your prayers are answered!

After Carter threw this ball home, I overheard someone say "wow, that kid can throw" and his coach replied "yeah, that kid's got a cannon."  Is it weird to say I was proud to hear that my son has a "cannon" for an arm?? ;)

 The girls were super excited to be at the game... can't ya tell?

Audrey brings along a backpack of stuff for her & Chloe to do so they won't be "bored."

I have to admit, I have skipped my fair share of games this season...

They ended up down by the stream throwing in rocks and sticks.  Until they got stuck in the quicksand mud, screaming commenced, and Chloe lost a shoe.  But that is the stuff of another blog post....

In any case, I am very proud of my little slugger's hard work all season!

I have a feeling I will be sitting through plenty of ball games in the future!

Welcome summer

Summer has arrived!

 This girl is now a 3rd grader.

 She seems pretty psyched about it, especially the way she came flying off the bus!

 As usual the neighborhood kids celebrated the last day of school with a "picnic and play" afternoon.

See-sawing (round and round as fast as possible)

 Chatting under the umbrella

 Water fun

 Hanging out

 Coloring & playing games

Resting after a super busy but super fun afternoon!

We're looking forward to all kinds of summer fun!