June & July Jumble

So I’ve finally reached summer!  And what a summer it has been so far!  We typically say that summer doesn’t start in Seattle until after July 4th because June tends to still be rainy.  Not this year!  I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that we’ve had the hottest summer in history so far.  Until the past few days we’ve were in the high 80’s and 90’s day after day after day.  Thank heavens for air conditioning.  

The kids' last day of school was Wednesday, June 17th.  Both Carly and Abigail took advantage of the early dismissal time to bring home a friend on the bus that would usually be hard to get together with because they live farther away.  I’ll admit the first couple days of summer were rocky for me.  I came into summer thinking productivity and the kids came into summer thinking friends and fun.  It took a little adjustment on all of our parts, but I feel we’ve reached a nice balance. 

I was surprised that the kids wanted me to create job charts for them.  I was even more surprised that it was my teenage daughter that wanted them the most.  It’s been helpful to see what chores may need to be done and the kids enjoy putting on stickers when they do something.

(We didn’t have the most productive week this past week, especially Miss Katie)

Something new this summer is that the girls pick one day a week to prepare dinner.  They get to choose whatever they’d like to make.  Abigail made a delicious vegetable lasagna the first week and salad with homemade French bread this past week.  Carly made tostadas with mexican rice and homemade pizza.  Yum, yum! 

Katie was in charge of folding and putting away all the dishcloths and she came down the stairs balancing this huge stack!

Of course there’s been lots of sibling bantering, but thankfully there’s been sibling love as well.

I don’t organize many activities for kids and our media is pretty minimal so my kids come up with their own entertainment.  There have been many games of Ticket to Ride, Risk, and Monopoly played over the last few weeks.   Jason and Katie disappear in the bonus room for hours playing games or Legos.  In the afternoon they venture outside to play with the neighborhood kids. 

Drew (like all my kids) would be a media junkie if I would allow it.  On this particular day he was helping himself to a little morning Leapfrog playtime.

And another day on my iPad

This is the face of a sad little iPad-less boy

This next picture reminds me that I need to take the kids to the library to get some summer reading – there hasn’t been much of this going on.  I love to see quiet moments like this - Katie has become a great little reader!

Having two in-house babysitters allows for a little extra freedom this summer.  This has been nice personally, but it has also allowed me to take some one-on-one time with the kids by having a weekly lunch date.

Jason was the first to have his special lunch.  We met Justin at Lunchbox Laboratory in Bellevue (thanks to Groupon) on Friday, June 19th.  He ordered chocolate milk with his kid’s meal and I can’t resist a milkshake made from Snoqualmie Ice Cream.

Not even five minutes after this picture was taken, Jason threw up his chocolate milk and didn’t touch any of his lunch when it arrived.  I figured he’d just come down with a stomach bug so we headed straight home after lunch.  

By the time we got home, his breathing had become wheezy so I called the nurse at our pediatricians office.  I knew at this point he was likely having an allergic reaction, but I didn’t know if it would get worse or if this would end up being the first time I would have to use the Epipens I’ve been carrying around for 12 years.  While I was on the phone with the nurse I noticed Jason had hives all over Jason’s body – that was enough for her to advise me to get him to the emergency room asap.  It was a scary situation but as we drove toward the hospital Jason’s breathing was improving and he said he was feeling better.  So I did what any frugally minded individual would do and went to Walgreens.  Our insurance deductible is so high that if a simple dosage of medication would work that was what I needed to try first.  (Rest assured if I felt any of my children needed emergency care I would pay whatever it took to get them the help they needed – thankfully it didn’t come to that in this case)

Jason spent the next couple hours like this…

Then he was back up playing with his cousins who were staying with us overnight.  I called the restaurant later that afternoon to ask if they use almond milk.  They said they prepare chocolate milk in same area as the shakes where nuts abound.  Never would I have thought I’d need to wonder if a simple chocolate milk would contain nuts.  Definitely a reminder of how careful we need to be with three kiddos allergic to peanuts.

We took the kids through the car wash the following day and were surprised that Drew was split between wonder and awe and shear terror.  In the end he signed for “more” so I don’t think they’ll be any lasting scars.

Justin and I went out that evening.  While many were out celebrating Father’s Day, I took my man to Sam’s Club and Winco.  I love feeling productive and I love a stocked pantry.

On June 22nd I ran my 100th run.  

Crazy that this whole running business began just last summer.  I still run with Camden, but we’ve mixed things up a bit now that I don’t have a training program to follow.  We even bought a Groupon for ten hot yoga classes at the same place I fell victim to last summer.  It is a tough, miserable workout, but it’s good for me.  We hiked Rattlesnake Ledge early on June 29th.  Justin has hiked this at least once a year since we moved here, but I’ve always stayed back with the younger kiddos so this was my first time up.  It was amazing!  The advantage of doing this popular hike at 6am is that we only saw a few people on the trails and we had the top to ourselves.  I live is such a beautiful area!

Not having to run every Saturday morning allows for early morning snuggles.

Carly attend our stake activity day camp on June 23-24.  I love that our stake organizes this fun event each summer.  This will be our last for a few years as both Abigail and Carly will be in the youth program next year.  Carly was lucky enough to have some of her closest friends in your group.

Abigail was there as a youth volunteer and helped teach the girls a dance to perform at the end of the two day event.

I love watching Drew’s little personality develop.  Still adorable, a little more opinionated.  On this particular day I got him dressed in shorts and a tee shirt and he pointed to a sweater vest and insisted I put it on.  Then he went to my dresser drawer and found his favorite accessories.

Drew waving to the camera while we sip our healthy morning smoothies

On Thursday, June 25th, Abigail and I were able to sneak away with a few of her ward friends to the temple to do baptisms.  Justin has gone with her a few times, but this was my first time being in the temple with one of my kids.  It was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon and we were able to perform 48 baptisms.  

That kind of afternoon deserves Costco gelato! 

We’re still trying to get used to longer days and summer sleeping schedules around here.  It's been hard to pull the kids away from summer fun to even get the little kids to bed by 8:30pm.  This is how I found Carly one evening on her bedroom floor.

And Jason one afternoon on my bedroom floor.

Thankfully, Drew still naps everyday. It’s a little later in the afternoon, but it’s still around 3 hours long.

The kids decided to recreate this picture from last year

In a few more years we’ll be out of stairs for them to advance!

Our ward has a weekly lake day – I don’t go often cause it’s so much work to get everything and everyone ready and there’s not much relaxing and visiting with friends when I have little ones to keep from drowning.  We braved the beach though on July 1st and it wasn’t nearly as stressful as I feared.  Drew is busy, busy but everyone had a great time.  

With warmer weather we’re seeing more wildlife around these parts.  Gone are the days we’d see deer roaming around the house on a daily basis.  Instead, we’ve been bombarded with bunnies.  So many that we might have to invest in some chicken wire to keep the little rascals out of our yard.

Just one more recent summer outing – the Gibbs invited us to join them at Lake Sammamish one evening to break in their new kayaks.  We left home a little early so we could swing by Chick-fil-a beforehand.  Perfect summer evening!

Kid likes Chick-fil-a lemonade!