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!
