Summer Smorgasbord

What a crazy summer.

July in particular was just NUTS, and I'm coming up for air a bit now and am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's certainly bittersweet, but I'll hesitantly admit that I'm exhausted and feeling teeny tiny twinges of, I don't know, relief, that the insane schedule we've been keeping will slow down a bit and some sort of boring routine will soon set in.

Though along with that "boring routine" will be a ton of changes for our family, with Gus starting Kindergarten, Louie going to preschool, Olive saying goodbye to her Auntie Maria and heading off to ingest all those fun germs waiting for her at daycare.  And I'll be starting a new slightly tweaked work schedule that will put me in the office 4 days a week instead of 3, but with shorter days so I can get Gus home from school at a reasonable time and still bring in a little more cash each week to help combat the cost of daycare times two AND preschool AND private elementary.  

Yeah, so not really boring at all, really.

Still, July had us running ourselves ragged, in a 100% completely good way, and I am a stubborn fart who refuses to go to bed at a reasonable time in the evenings.  So I am sleep deprived and the brain is quite foggy and I fall asleep at 8:00 PM every single night nursing Olive to sleep, and then somehow still find the will to rally, wipe the drool from my chin, load the dishwasher, wipe the sticky dining room table, throw out junk mail, pay a bill, fold a pile of laundry, pick up piles of matchbox cars and action figures and markers strewn throughout the house, and finally pour myself a glass of wine and pick something to watch on Amazon Prime and then enjoy the sweet, sweet relief that is the couch.

(Side note: remember when the term rally referred to drinking too much, getting sick, sleeping it off for a bit, and then getting back out there to continue with the partying and the drinking?  Oh yes.  And now this term's application in my life involves sweeping floors and organizing my calendar and scrubbing pots and pans at 9:00 pm after getting three children safely asleep in their beds.) 

I think that's the hardest part about having three kids, you just don't have the time, nor the free hands to be able to keep up with things throughout the day.  I am so immersed in the living and the surviving and in meeting the needs of all of these little hands and mouths we've miraculously created.  And darn it they just make these SPECTACULAR messes SO QUICKLY.

Anyway, that is all neither here nor there and nothing I planned on writing down.  I am not complaining, this is just what life looks like now and I'll tell you, these full and wild days make that couch all the more comfortable and that husband all the more snuggly and that wine all the more delicious at the end of them.

Oh and I should not admit this but I will, half the time we find ourselves sitting on that couch, talking about our lovely precious perfect little spawn and sharing little anecdotes and giggling about the hilarious things they said today and watching boring old videos of the boys as toddlers.  Clearly we are wacked.

Gah.  So this summer.  This awesome, busy, play and swim and socialize until we drop, fun summer.  Here are some of the things we've been up to.

First up, the little pool. This summer we have two kids that don't really need naps and one baby who is very much a 3rd child and has been forced to go with the flow when it comes to her routine. (Well, Louie is certainly much easier to handle when he gets a nap, but he can pretty easily skip it most days, as long as we've got something fun to keep him occupied.)  All of that to say, we've been able to get to the pool much more this summer than any other before it.  It doesn't open until 1:00 PM, which is a struggle because HELLO.  Nap time.  But this year we've been able to enjoy the pool so much.  Next summer, all bets are off.  Olive will no doubt be on a pretty regular nap schedule that I will have a difficult time convincing myself to deviate from (because 16-month-olds are {excuse my language} bat-shit crazy and exhausting, we will no doubt all need that break).









Whiz Bang Days!



We tried to participate as much as possible in our little suburb's annual festival, but so many of the "events" we hit up were very lame or not child-friendly, and we ended up spending the whole day walking through the neighborhood in EXTREME heat and humidity to find that everything that was going on was pretty low key and very low-attended and not very well organized and really just not that fun.  Oh well.  Next year we'll do the parade and the fireworks on Sunday and not waste our time with all of that other nonsense.

First stop on our trek was for burgers and brats on the plaza.  Highlight of the day, pretty much all downhill from here.

The extent of the promised "chidren's activities" at the Art Fair.

They were the only kids at the Art Fair, actually.  Though a very sweet woman selling homemade glassware came up to us and gave me a pretty little bud vase, because I needed something in which to put the dandelions that my "sweet and beautiful children" picked for me.  That was truly touching.  My little crew usually stands out like a bull in a china shop at things like this, more often than not pissing off rather than endearing themselves to other childless patrons.  But this woman fawned over us and smiled at my boys and made me feel really proud of them.  The kindness of strangers.

This was cool.



After a disappointing few hours in 100 degree humidity, (and watching the food trucks drive away before we were able to get to them, almost two hours earlier than they were scheduled), my mom convinced us {wouldn't take no for an answer} to go to my grandparents' church festival that evening. She was obsessing over the fact that the Raptor Center was going to be there at 4:00 and of course Louie would LOVE that.

Well we were already pushing our luck with 3 cranky and hot and tired kids, so it's no surprise that the church festival was a bust as well, but there were small moments of fun.  Also Louie's insane and angry tantrum over the ice in his snow cone, that was memorable.  ("It is not even a snow cone without the ice, kid, that would just be disgusting cherry syrup in a paper cup.")





Oh and did I mention that my mom had some bad information and the Raptor Center was there from 3:00-4:00 so we completely missed it?  And that the food we got was nearly inedible?  What a bummer all around.  Kids were asleep by 7:00 and Dan and I made a frozen pizza and drank multiple beers and rented American Sniper and thus were able to redeem a very disappointing day.

The parade the next day was super fun though, despite it being scorching hot, and we got prime spots in the shade and took home buckets of candy and junk.  (Love bringing more of that stuff into my house!)



HAAAAA!  She doesn't even look like herself, her cheeks all squished.  Poor baby girl, it was so hot, but she didn't seem to mind, as long as I let her drink out of and slobber all over my water bottle.



We put the kids to bed at 6:30 after a long hot day with family over for lunch and walking to the parade, and then woke them up at 9:00 to run out in their pajamas to a Thai restaurant parking lot to meet Dan's parents and some of the kids to watch the Whiz Bang fireworks.  As we were doing it I kept thinking, "why are we doing this to ourselves?" but it's the one time a year we do fireworks and it feels like some sort of nostalgic, sweet, summer thing that I can't let the boys miss out on.  Getting them up after a few hours of sleep and then expecting them to go right back down after was a risky move, but it paid off, so no regrets.

"Helicopter" rides from Julia and Kari waiting for the fireworks to start.












 Enthralled.

We need to remember the noise-blocking headphones next year for Gus. Poor little sensitive guy kind of hated it, and kept asking when it would be over.

On to the park play-dates.  There have been many many many park play-dates. 



This was a park day with Michelle and Graham that involved virtually no playing on the playground.  It was one of those extremely hot summer days and we ended up sitting in the shade for the better part of 45 minutes and then calling it early and going home to attempt naps before meeting up at the pool. 

Speaking of naps.  I think this summer might be the end of forcing Gus to take mid-day naps so we can stay up late and do fun things in the evening.  Every single time I've had to do it this summer it has turned into an all out war involving threats and yelling and crying and it just isn't worth it anymore.  He is nearly 6 years old and doesn't want to take naps and that is fine but he also gets up at 6:00 am no matter what we do and is very affected when he gets behind on sleep so...eh.  The only thing in my control anymore is to avoid evening plans and adhere to his early bedtime, but I will admit that I sometimes kind of resent that he's not a more go-with-the-flow kid.  But then I feel guilty thinking that because he is who he is and I love who he is so much.

Oh and Louie fights taking a nap as well, something fierce, by laying in bed yelling and screaming and kicking around, but then falls asleep within minutes once he calms down.  He is so THREE right now I don't even want to talk about it.

Clearly not tired and didn't need naps.  This was after over an hour of being punks up in their room.

I've eased up on going to absurd lengths to control and limit screen-time this summer because 1.) I have a baby and I need the kids to not be so loud when she's sleeping or I'm trying to get her to sleep and 2.) These boys are crazy active and spend tons of time outside running and digging and swimming and jumping and being nuts, so why is it that I've been ingrained to think that downtime at home with a couple of tablets is going to ruin them in some way?  I'm sick of that battle and I've been waging it less often and I don't even think the kids are getting an excessive amount of screen time despite my easing up.  So whatever.  

Sometimes we forget when she was last bathed, but she loves her very sporadic baths so much!

When dad brings the boys grocery shopping...

That's one way to make sure you ingest all of the sugar from DONUT cereal.

Another park play date that overall was super fun but did end with some grumps.  If I remember correctly Louie fell off this teeter-totter thing (he's on the other side, not pictured), bonked his head, and then in hysterical tears requested his water, which he had already drank all of at lunch.  So I poured most of what was left in Gus's water bottle into Louie's, which somehow Gus got wind of ("Guuuuus, I'm drinking all your water!") and then there were some brotherly fisticuffs that I had to break up and more hysterics, this time from big brother, and then Abby got really sad and mad that she wasn't coming back to our house after the park and then the babies started getting restless and... well, wisely Heidi and I decided to call it a day.

That big rock in the middle of the wading pool is very annoying because children tend to congregate behind it where you can't see them.

Random mom and Olive selfie.

Random sibling cuteness.

I signed both boys up for gymnastics, Gus on Friday mornings when I'm off work and Louie Thursday evenings.  And as is normal for our family, it was fun for a few weeks and now we're all over it.  Love/hate thing with all of these "activities", that's for sure.  

No pictures of Louie at gymnastics because his class is a parent/child one so I can be found directing him through activities and galloping around a mat and holding his hand on the balance beam. Usually in my work clothes and sweaty.  No opportunity for taking photos.

I had a birthday!  It was fairly non-eventful but sweet.  And Gus keeps getting the numbers of my age mixed up and saying I'm 43.  Which I don't appreciate. 

Dan's parents took the kids for the evening the day after my birthday, after work and daycare, so we could have a few child-free hours.  It was hectic getting there but really really nice.  We've been spending way too much time with our children this summer. ;)

Came back to their place after dinner and the boys were in the bath with their cousin and baby girl was conked out on grandpa. 

Dannell bought me a selfie-stick.  Hilarious time-waster.

Another church festival - this one we made a big deal about for Gus because it's where he's going to school this year (and where I went to school K-8).  He unexpectedly got to briefly meet his teacher and then we spent absurd amounts of money on corn dogs and nachos and kiddie games with guaranteed trinket prizes and tractor train rides and all of that kind of thing.  

Shooting water balloons at Dan and Louie.  This cost us just $1 per kid and was awesome.

I have pretty much never used a sling type carrier for any of my babies until I broke this thing out (still in the packaging like 5 years later) in desperation a few weeks ago when my tried-and-true mei tai was at the bottom of the laundry bin and I had to make a target run with all three kids.  

And I love it.  It might not be quite as hands-free as the other style, but Olive loves to be hip-carried and in on the action, and when she gets tired she just lays her sweet little head on my chest and goes to sleep.  For right now this thing is working for us and it takes up about as much space in the bag as a receiving blanket. 

Dan is going to be a sexy pirate for Halloween.  Arrrgh (Rawrr!)

Graham was not going to let us get a picture of the babies.  ;)

Sooo... Gus does not know how to throw a football. 

Olive and Harris with my dad later that night, when we had dinner at my parents' for my birthday.

She's still such a happy, laid back baby and everyone just ADORES her.  Like this morning, when I was saying goodbye as I left for work, I was having a hard time walking away from her because she just radiates sweetness and happiness.  She gives the best hugs, wraps her arms around your neck hanging on with dear life and lays her head on your shoulder.  She charms us and delights us in new ways every single day.  She makes me want to have a thousand more babies just like her.

That night at my parents she was clearly tired and then fell asleep while I nursed her before dinner, sitting outside on the lawn.  I figured it was worth a try, so I asked someone to go grab my parents' little infant bouncer thing and I laid her in the seat and she slept like that under the tree in middle of my parents backyard, for the next 45 minutes while we all ate dinner just a few feet away.

She's awesome.

Oh and trouble.  She's trouble.  Rolling like a machine and getting herself stuck in precarious places, usually underneath furniture.  I feel like her babyhood is whirring by me in a flash and I kind of want it to slow down, but then I also kind of can't wait to see what's next. 

The surest sign of a solid summer day - dozing during bedtime stories.  

Of course this summer we've spent plenty of time in our own back yard as well.

I am annoyed with myself because Louie came to give me this fish and he called it something really cute or said something really precocious and I took this picture so I could remember that funny thing and now... NOTHING.  My brain is mush.

I haaaaaaaaaate lugging that exersaucer outside but it is such a good way to make her feel a part of "things" out there going on with the boys.  And then it frees my hands up to drink coffee, which is very difficult to do with her in my arms because of her apish tendencies. 

Evening light.

A blurry picture, yes, but an action shot of Louie's overgrown mop of hair must be documented.

This past Friday afternoon a neighboring city put on this pretty awesome annual water slide event, in which the fire department comes out with their trucks and hoses and their guys stand there for hours spraying down these slides set up on a huge hill while children fly down them into the mud.  It was awesome.  A little much for the littlest kids, and poor Kellen stepped on a bee and that incident pretty much ended things for Suzi and her kids before it started... but Louie did end up doing one of the slides multiple times.  And Gus and Abby and Julia and my friend Kate's son Gabe all totally went for it.  Lots of messy fun was had and exhaustion levels rose pretty quickly from hiking up that hill over and over and over.  (I did it about 5 times with a sleeping Olive on my hip (oof) before I decided to hold down the fort with Val in the shade at the bottom of the hill.

Gus's first go at it.  There were three of these slides. 



Of course there was an ice cream truck parked at the bottom of the hill so the kids started begging for popsicles almost upon arriving.



Such a muddy mess by the time the kids had had enough. 



She slept in the pouch for most of the afternoon, then woke up happy as a clam.

More fire-fighting fun on Saturday at our local fire station's annual open house.  It's a pretty great (free!) event for kids. 

They give the kids rides around the neighborhood in vintage firetrucks. 

Checking out the holding cells in the police station.  "That's not a real robber is it mom?"

And Saturday night we saw the Off Broadway Musical Theater production of Oliver at a nearby city's park.  My parents and aunt are on the board for the theater and this production takes up A LOT of their summer so it's important to me to support them. 

So... the kids did GREAT and I was really proud of them and they were so cute clapping after every musical number and being quiet and paying attention.  However Oliver is not so much very child-friendly, and honestly not very exciting as a whole.  It was fun, and it was something different to do and it's fun to expose the kids to new stuff, but I'm hoping it's a more kid-friendly show next year.  :)

We did leave after intermission at 9:30 because not only was it late, but also I was warned that two people die in the 2nd act, and one of those deaths is quite violent (we're talking a knife and a throat, eesh).  Overall, it's hard to leave the house basically at bedtime, to go do something like this, that you know will surely be challenging (especially with a baby), but we did it and I'm glad we did. MEMORIES WERE HAD! 

On Sunday we had another park meet-up with friends, this time at the Chutes and Ladders park for our buddy Kellen's 5th birthday.  It rained most of the time we were there which was a bummer but also meant the place pretty much cleared out and we had most of it to ourselves.  Kids don't normally get the chance to play in the rain and they all went full on crazy with it.  Some of them ended up half naked wearing just a rain coat, some of them were barefoot, all of them were soaked.  I took essentially one picture and it's this one of Louie and Graham as we were leaving.  The sun had come out and the kids were nearly dry.

It gives me a lump in my throat because goodness gracious my little boy is looking so big and so old.  Especially with that backpack that he packed full of stuffed animals for Olive and insisted on bringing along.  Oh I love that kid.

On Monday Lisa took the day off and we planned a fun day at the beach with Carter and my kids and Suzi's kids and Michelle's kids. 

Carter and Olive.  These babies and their blue eyes just melt me. 

There are a number of children here (not naming any names) that were very uncooperative for our half-hearted attempt at a group photo.  ;)

I am obsessed with Olive's little $6 Target clearance flamingo swimsuit. 

So that's our summer so far.  There were a few really great weekends at the cabin as well, but the 4th of July in particular was documented extensively on Facebook with pictures and I'm not going to try to shove those all in this already too full post.  Maybe I'll go back and just post some fun cabin pictures here so I have them.  

Three or so more weeks until it's officially over, and we've got both Dan's and Gus's birthdays coming up in those few weeks.  So much to celebrate and I'm feeling very thankful.  And tired.  And happy.