Wacky Wednesday {July 13}

Another early morning drop-off for me and then I joined Camden for a run around Mill Pond Loop. My THIRD day in a row exercising – which is pretty much unheard of.  I knew I’d be sore after yesterdays boot camp class, but Camden is moving to Georgia soon and I couldn’t say no.

Abigail got to tour the UW Stadium and locker room today – she was impressed. 

Carly had a few yard waste containers to clean this morning and as she was wrapping up she said, “I have something fun I want to do with Jason when we’re done.”  Um, come again!?!  Not that the two don’t ever spend time together, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard something like that come out of Carly’s mouth before. 

After lunch Carly and Jason headed down to the ridge on their bikes.  Carly wanted to pickup a Starbucks gift card for an upcoming birthday party and she wanted to stop in at the yogurt shop to eat through some of her recent cash inflow.  It was so sweet of her to want Jason to go with her that I was all for it.  Turns out part of the sidewalk was closed so they had to find their way to the ridge on greenbelt hiking trails.  What an adventure!  They even spotted some local wildlife (thankfully, not a bear).  They were gone over two hours and had lots of fun – except for the ride back home where they ended up having to trek up the steepest hill to get home.

Meanwhile, back at home, I put Drew down for a nap and Katie asked me, “Why don’t you watch any of your shows anymore?  Can we please watch a show together?”  We rarely watch TV and it’s even more uncommon for me to sit down and watch anything, but it sounded nice to my aching body so we sat down and watched an episode of 19 Kids & Counting (yes, we’re THAT far behind).   

We’re eating lots of otterpops around here, even though the temps have been much cooler than normal

Justin was planning on picking up Abigail at the Underbrinks in Carnation at 8:30pm (the other girls from camp were all spending the night, but we don’t do sleepovers) they invited him to come early and join them on their sport court.  They arrived home hours later with Justin ready to tear up our backyard and put in a sport court.  If only we didn’t have multiple backyard neighbors in whose yards we’d be losing balls on a all too frequent basis.  Meanwhile Carly had friends over for a “late night” and I finally got a chance to start a new book I’ve been excited about.

Cow Appreciation Day {July 12}

Today was an EPIC day – meaning Carly spent all day cleaning trash containers (see post below).  Jason wasn’t feeling at all helpful today but Katie spent hours outside helping Carly any way she could and earned herself $3 this week. 

I was glad to capture Jason and Katie doing a little reading mid-afternoon.  This picture make me so happy.

Today was also Cow Appreciation Day – meaning we could each score a free entrée at Chick-fil-A by wearing any type of cow paraphernalia.  Problem was that Justin drove the carpool out to UW this morning with the van so I didn’t have the enough space to take all the kids. So we waited and waited for Justin to get home (of course there just had to be a major accident on I90). Another obstacle was that it was also youth night so we were super tight on time to make it there and back.  The second Justin pulled into the driveway we loaded up and headed out.  We even drove his car out to the Preston park-n-ride so we could split directions afterward without coming home first.  Goodness, the things we do for free food!

Thankfully, the line at Chick-fil-A wasn’t too bad.  It was a nice change to be able to order any entrée on the menu instead of being limited to the original chicken sandwich (lest you forget we ate over 150 original sandwiches in the last 15 months).  I settled on the chicken wrap, which was tasty, but Abigail’s salad looked like the direction I’ll need to go next time.

Jason and Justin zipped off to Snoqualmie Falls for a scout hike, arriving about 15 minutes late, and I got the girls to the church about 15 minutes late as well.  Totally not the way I roll, but justified :)

Working Girls!

In my mind summer is the perfect time to get things done.  Sure we like to have some fun too, but I think it’s important that my kids know how to work.  I’ll try not to get on my soapbox about kids feeling entitled to things.  I don’t give my kids an allowance.  They rarely get rewarded to babysit their siblings or help with household chores and projects.  They are members of this family and they have responsibilities as such.  I have super strong feelings about teaching children to manage money, but I don’t believe it should be with my own.  I cringe when I hear parents claim their kid saved “their money” to buy something when in truth the kids saved their parents or grandparents money.  Anyhow, soapbox… I’ll stop now.  Abigail has been babysitting a lot this summer.  I think she’s had eight gigs in the three weeks since school got out, which is a lot considering she was gone at EFY one of those weeks.  Carly has babysat a few times as well, but naturally Abigail will typically get first dibs on babysitting jobs since she’s older and more experienced.

Carly wanted to also earn money this summer so I proposed a business plan for her and she was willing to get on board.  This was my advertisement on our neighborhood facebook page:

Are your trash containers in need of a good cleaning?  My 12 year old daughter Carly would like to earn some money this summer by creating Eagle Pointe’s Immaculate Containers (EPIC) cleaning service.  She will pick them up curbside on a Tuesday after trash collection and return them to your home clean later that same day.  Each container will cost $10 regardless of size or condition.   Carly is a hard worker, detail-oriented, and very responsible (she’s also a great babysitter, but her older sister usually gets first dibs on babysitting jobs). 

If you’re interested please send me a PM with the number of containers you’d like cleaned and we’ll let you know what day she’ll be able to service your containers. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it.  :)

We tested out the concept with our trash containers beforehand.  It took her about an hour per can, but we keep our trash and recycle containers in the garage and always bag our trash so we knew our cans would be cleaner than most.  Here are our before and after pictures I included in the ad.

The response has been great and this yesterday was Carly’s fourth Tuesday cleaning containers.  She has been amazing – working up to 8-9 hours each Tuesday and then cleaning few more containers each Wednesday – another 3-6 hours.  Jason and Katie have helped pickup/dropoff the containers (which earns them a quarter) as well as helping with some of the cleaning and drying of the containers.  It’s been a family affair and I LOVE seeing my kids working hard.  I check each container before it gets returned, but otherwise Carly is the boss and she has rocked it.  How many 12 year old girls would climb inside of filthy trash cans? It is disgusting – she’s cleaned up poop, cigarettes, and has tediously scrapped paint off of containers.  Although she doesn’t necessary like the type of work she’s doing I know that Carly feels a great sense of accomplishment and pride with the work she is doing. I am a proud Mom.

Manic Monday {July 11}

Abigail is attending a volleyball camp this week in Seattle at the University of Washington.  She’s been so excited about this camp and wanted to go bad enough that she was willing to pay for half of the fees herself.  There are four other girls she knows participating – one lives in Carnation, another in Fall City, one in “Old” Snoqualmie, one in North Bend and then us in Snoqualmie “Ridge”.  We chose the park-n-ride in Preston as our meeting point.  We live the closest to Preston so that’s a nice perk – carpooling with school friends usually doesn’t work in our favor.  Anyhow, I had to get her there at 7am so, since I was already up, I headed straight to the gym after dropping her off.

Carly and Jason still had piano at our house later that morning and then it was Katie’s turn for a summer lunch date.  She also chose Red Robin (my third visit in 2 weeks) – I actually didn’t mind since I had my free birthday burger to use.

Facebook notified me that six years ago today I shared the top picture below of Katie.  Then and Now.

I miss my babies!  They are all growing up so fast.  I can’t even bear to think of how much my baby girl will change in six more years.

Katie and I ran a few errands together and then before long it was time to pick up Abigail.  Abigail’s phone died while she was a EFY.  T-Mobile had a 4th of July special offered a new iPhone 5S for $299 and she decided she was ready to make the biggest purchase of her life thus far.  Glad she’s willing to work hard and save, but I have a hard time letting my kids spend their money.  Anyhow, we went straight from pickup to the T-Mobile store to get her new phone activated.

Since we were just a few miles from a 7-11 on 7-11 we had to swing by for a free Slurpee.  Those few miles at 5pm and the long line at 7-11 didn’t make for a very quick trip, but Abigail loved it.

When we arrived home Carly just about had dinner ready {seriously, that sounds so awesome, right? To come home to a home cooked meal at the end of a long day}  Dinner was followed by FHE which was followed by hostess cupcakes for dessert which was followed by my jumping ship to hang with friends for the rest of the night – much needed and enjoyed.

Saturday {July 9}

I have a few friends that have been trying to get me onboard the Spartan train.  Andrea’s pretty hard core and has been hosting workouts at her house (aka Spartan training course) on Saturdays.  I don’t have any intent on running a Spartan race, but her workouts are great and it motivates me to push myself physically.  I feel pretty good about the spear throw.  Today was my second attempt at the rope climb and I didn’t do as well as my first week where I made it half way up – bummer.  We also tested our chest press strength 3-rep max.  Next time I need to not work out the few days leading up to Andrea’s training cause I felt pretty weak this morning. Then we spend a hour doing circuit training in her garage – intense stuff with an awesome group of ladies.

Abigail was getting together with some school friends this afternoon/evening.  I was the chauffeur out to Megan’s house in Carnation.  We picked up two friends in the Snoqualmie area – crazy how huge our school boundaries are.  One of the friends we picked up was a BOY, with another BOY meeting up with the three girls at Megan’s house.  This whole hanging out with mixed genders is new to us.  Nobody was paired off and these are really good kids, but it still felt strange for me.  They spent some time at Megan’s and went bowling as well.

Since I was already out in Carnation I had to stop in at Harvold Farms for some more raspberries.  Only four pounds this time.  I’ve set aside some to make a yummy treat for a get together Monday.

Tonight Sommer and I celebrated our birthdays with some good friends and good food (Café Rio) followed by an chick-flick in Tukwila.  Grateful for such great friends in my life!

Lunch Date w/Carly {July 8}

This morning I captured Drew “reading” a book to himself.  I had to video him because I’d never seen him making up his own little language and speaking quite this animated. Oh, how I love this boy!

The only thing I can make out is the occasional “Let it go” – from reading Frozen seek & find books and “The End”

Carly’s turn for a lunch date today and she was in the mood for….. {drum roll}….. macaroni and cheese? – um, ok!  I’d heard that Beecher’s Handmade Cheese had recently opened a location in Bellevue Square and that they had the “World’s Best Mac and Cheese”  I was surprised that it was more of a take-out café than a sit-down restaurant, but the reviews on the mac and cheese were on point – so yum.  It was so creamy and rich.  We shared a large serving of mac and cheese as well as a grilled cheese sandwich – both delicious.

Carly and I ran a few errands before and after lunch, including picking up Fifi at the Bellevue Nursery.  I’ve been wanting a fiddle fig tree in our living room for over a year.  Justin and I saw one in Home Depot last spring for $30, but we hadn’t painted the room yet so I thought we’d just wait and buy one later.  Well I’ve probably checked multiple Home Depot stores at least two dozen times since then and they haven’t had any fiddle fig trees nor could I request one be brought in from their supplier.  I finally decided it was time to just buy one directly from a nursery even if it was going to cost 3X the amount.  So thus enters Fifi into our lives.  She’s only 4 feet tall, but a 5 foot tree would have cost $200 and a 6-7 foot tree $595!!!  Hopefully with time Fifi will grow to her full potential.

While Carly and I were out Jason went biking at Duthie Hill with the Ricks family.  Apparently, there are some pretty intense biking trails and obstacles at Duthie Hill.  Thankfully, they stayed on the green trails.  Jason had a blast.

Before bed Justin had the kids upstairs watching American Ninja Warrior.  When I came up mid-show I found that he was having them do burpees during the commercial breaks.  So funny to see Drew out there giving it his all.

Another Cloudy Day {July 7}

We don’t do a lot of outings in the summertime. I like the kids to be home and like to keep activities simple.  The kids have been playing lots of board games – Jason and Katie often play Risk and Monopoly.  Carly and Abigail have played lots of Ticket to Ride and Settlers.

Abigail was invited to hang out at a girls house in our new ward this afternoon.  Too bad the weather wasn’t ideal because they have an outdoor pool, tennis court, basketball court, etc… 

On the way we popped into the North Bend library for their free summer lunch.  This is the first summer any location nearby has offered free lunches – we used to go in Auburn at least once a week.  We were surprised to walk into the library and see juice boxes and a selection of boxed “meals” on a table.  In Auburn they had full on meals – hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc..  At first the kids were pretty disappointed, but the packaged food inside was apparently quite tasty (though not nearly enough for my big eaters).  It’s not close enough for us justify going often, but when we’re in the area we’ll definitely stop by.

Tonight was the second night this summer that the community outdoor movie has been cancelled because of poor weather.  Instead Jason went to a swim meet with the Gibbs and Carly had a movie night at Chloe’s.  Mike sent me this picture of Jason and Aubrey, “What do you do at a swim meet when it’s raining?  Sit under an umbrella and play on the DS.”

Order Up & Dual Wardship {July 6}

Each summer it takes some getting used to having five kids at home expecting to eat each and every day, multiple times a day.  We still haven’t quite gotten into the groove of having planned and thought out lunches and dinners.  The girls are each supposed to cook at least one meal a week during the summer so that should help a bit.  Today we threw together paninis for lunch.  Jason and Katie are always excited to take turns taking everyone’s orders – having it organized makes it much easier to put together a bunch of sandwiches at the same time.

(Abigail was off babysitting most of the day and Drew shares a sandwich with Katie)

I gotta say I’m still super happy with my implementation of assigning each child a different color of plastic cup and limiting each kiddo to just two.  I did this back in the summer of 2014 and it has changed our lives!  Seriously, a brilliant concept for any mom with lots of kiddos.  It has saved us many dishes and it makes it super easy to know who hasn’t put their cup away or finished their drink.

Looking at the picture above I’m also reminded how glad I am that I used a different first initial for each of my kiddos.   I use their first initial all. the. time. – on their towel hooks, on my calendar, on shopping lists, etc…  

The Snoqualmie Falls ward just switched their youth nights from Tuesdays to Wednesdays.  Since our new ward meets on Tuesdays still this means my girls can attend the SnoFalls youth activities on occasion.  Tonight they were invited to join the SnoFalls YW swimming.  Not the best weather, but in the northwest we take what we can get. 

Apparently Carly won the competition “holding your breath under water the longest” – I’m such a proud mama.

A Birthday {July 5}

Today was my 39th birthday.  Justin had donuts from my favorite local bakery on the counter for us when we woke up.  The rest of the day was pretty ordinary.  I have a really low bar when it comes to birthdays and it pretty much met that.  I spent a lot of the morning putting the kitchen back together after a whirlwind holiday weekend – I did about 6 loads of laundry since we’d taken so many blankets to the fireworks the night before.  In the afternoon I attacked the backlog of pictures on my computer, determined not to get too behind on documenting our summer.  We had a groupon for dinner at an Italian place on the ridge that was expiring next week so Justin and I decided to go out for dinner.  It all felt pretty ordinary which was a kind of a bummer. It was nice to receive birthday texts/messages throughout the day.  Sommer sent me a super thoughtful text while we were eating dinner.  I’ve always thought my love language was acts of service, but by-golly her text made me realize I like words of affirmation too.   Sommer’s birthday is just three days after mine so we’re planning to go out this weekend and celebrate.  Having a birthday twin is pretty awesome – we’ll have to kill it next year when we both turn the big 4-0.  I remember as a kid it was always hard to have a birthday party because so many people travel over the 4th.  I remember one year I was giving my close friend Susan the guilt trip for going on a family vacation.  I remember telling her that NOBODY was going to be able to come to my party.  She felt so bad she tried to convince her parents that they needed to cancel their vacation. 

As Katie pointed out at the end of the day there was no birthday cake but while we were out at dinner Abigail must have taught Drew the Happy Birthday song because my sweet boy sang me a little tune before heading off to bed.