Friends & Summertime

It's been a long, great summer. We couldn't have hand-picked a better neighborhood. Within two weeks of moving in, we knew all our neighbors up and down the entire street as well as the neighboring street. There are 29 kids just down our cul-de-sac street and our kids have loved running around with friends all day. They're all good kids and have a lot of fun together.

There were some days where the kids would literally be running around all day long. You know they're are having a good time, when they come in in the afternoon, sit on the couch for 3 minutes and end up like this.
It takes a lot to get Matthew this tired. I thought it was too funny, I especially love how Emily wanted to hop in the picture as well.

Some things I remember the kids enjoying this summer.

Jacob: riding his bike, playing basketball, hours of baseball with friends, playing 'Go-Go's' (picture below), riding his scooter, swimming, reading everything- sometimes disappearing for hours to finish a book, playing street hockey, being our garden helper, playing games.

Caleb: riding his bike, roller blading, baseball with friends, learning to read, playing "Go-Go's", favorite color green, , playing at the park, going to the gym, sometimes declaring "worst day ever!" Not that he had a bad summer- but if there was ever a time when he was upset about something, he would say that pretty dramatically. Sometimes it was hard not to laugh.
Matthew: chasing birds, riding his 'tractor'(little car that looks like a John Deere tractor), playing with the big kids, catching grasshoppers! He wants to go out everyday to catch grasshoppers- they usually don't live long but I'm definitely not sad about that, eating plain peanut butter sandwiches- no jam, only peanut butter, favorite color blue- everything blue! He only wants to drink out of blue cups, blue bowls, eat blue popsicles, and sometimes only the milk with the blue cap. When we finish a book or story, he always ends with a heartfelt "Amen!" I guess he thinks that's what we're saying when I say, "the end." I love it!

Matthew has also had his first crush this summer. There is a darling little girl who lives across the street named Varity. She's the same age and Matthew loves her! He blushes and gets shy every time he sees her and always wants to play. It cracks me up though, because he totally acts like a boy with a crush on her, he'll try to impress her by running around or doing crazy things. He told us once, "She likes my tractor!" Jeff and I busted up laughing, thinking of the country song "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Fortunately, Matthew has gotten so he isn't so shy with her and they've become pretty good little friends. I love watching Varity and Matthew together. I need to get a better picture of them together.

Emily: playing outside, loves pushing kitchen chairs around and climbing up on them as well as the table and counters- and our table is a counter height, she loves going through my purse and pulling everything out, dancing, catching grasshoppers with Matthew- she's his right hand girl, following the big kids around, swimming, saying lots of new words "hello, hi, daddy, mommy, thank you, turtle, Lilah, night night, bye, doggy, diaper, teacher, hot, this one, here you go, etc", she's getting harder and harder at church- but nursery is only a few weeks away, her hair is getting longer everyday, and she's looking older all the time. My baby is growing up.

Back to School Shopping Trips

I swear the stores try to make summer end early- they put back to school supplies out on display in mid June. I don't like seeing everything out so early, but when we get to August I definitely look forward to taking each of the kids on their special 'Back to School' shopping trip. I love taking each of them by themselves to get a couple things. They really didn't need a whole lot (other than the mile-long school supply list...) but it's still fun to pick out a couple things and get a bite to eat together.

Matthew was the lucky one who got the first trip- actually Jeff had a little break between patients, so I took him when I could. He was pretty excited about his new Lightning McQueen shirt, and ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.

I ended up taking Jacob the same day as Matthew once Jeff got home from work. I normally let the kids pick out a treat or eat somewhere cheap, but Jacob had asked on his birthday to go to Red Lobster and we weren't able to go, so I let him go for his school shopping trip. Thank goodness they have cheap lobster on the kids menu- he'd been dying to try it forever, and was so excited to go to a real restaurant. We don't take kids very often for obvious reasons. Jacob thought it was pretty awesome- especially when the server let him touch one of the live lobsters.

Caleb was the last one to go. He always cracks me up with his pictures, I had to put in a couple of my favorite poses of his. He was so excited when he found a Mario shirt on the clearance rack at Target, and also thought it was pretty cool to get a kids' meal for lunch while we were there.


And we're done again for another year. I didn't take Emily- I figure she'll have plenty of time with me while the boys are at school. I'm so glad my mom started this tradition with us when we were kids. We used to draw names for the order we'd go in, and get so excited to see what everyone would find. It's so fun to go enjoy a couple hours one on one with each of my kids, and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Date Night

When you have little kids, date night is really something to look forward to. Now I can understand why my parent's enjoyed Friday nights so much. We've been lucky enough to find some good babysitters so we can go.

I had been dying to see the new Harry Potter and really wanted to see it in the theater. Jeff and I went one evening for date night. It didn't disappoint! Well, it was a little sad that it was the last movie, but we loved it anyway.

Jeff being funny.

Another night, Jeff got a groupon coupon to go hit at a driving range. I've actually never golfed (real golf) or even been to a driving range, so this was a totally new experience. You know it's bad when little kids, and gramps sitting in his car with his cane are giving you pointers! Ah well, I had fun anyway! Jeff does great and can really hit the ball.


Whether we're grabbing a bite to eat, catching a movie, playing sports, or even just running errands, I'm grateful to have a little time with Jeff!

State Fair

Jeff was off early one afternoon so we took the kids out to the state fair. It was fun to go through and see all the farm animals. We were able to watch them being shown and go around and see all the ribbon winning animals. Jacob and Caleb loved the goats.
Emily also found a darling baby goat that wasn't much bigger than a cat. I liked the small cute animals much better than the pigs that's for sure!
After walking around seeing all the animals, we went over to the carnival part of the fair. They're always way over-priced, and sometimes I think it must be a requirement or something for fair workers to have a cigarette in their hands at all time, but we got a few tickets and let the kids pick a few of their favorite rides. I don't know who has more fun, the kids or the parents watching them!

I got lucky and got to take both Caleb and Matthew on the Ferris wheel. I love that ride! Emily's favorite was definitely the bounce house. It's hard to take a picture through a big screen window, but she was in heaven in that place!

Because we were there during the afternoon, the fair wasn't all that busy yet. It was nice because we didn't really have to wait in any lines. Jeff & Matthew took Jacob & Caleb on in the bumper cars. It's a little trickier to bump people when there's only two cars out there, but they had fun and were actually able to drive around.

We finished up our tickets just as the place started to get really busy, and headed home for Caleb's back to school night. It was fun to spend the afternoon together.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We decided to take the kids to a baseball game one summer night. The boys love watching baseball, especially the major league teams- and especially the Phillies. Obviously we don't have that option much anymore, but we thought a local team would be fun too. The day was perfect! Not too hot or too cold, and the stands weren't too crowded either.
Jeff had to work later than expected, so I took the kids up by myself for the first half of the game. It was going great at first, but pretty soon Matthew and Emily decided that sitting there watching a baseball game wasn't as much fun as running all around the place. Jeff still wasn't there, and I'm lucky that Jacob and Caleb can be good sitting by themselves while I keep an eye on these two!
They had a blast running all over the place. They were a little crazy!
I was thrilled when Jeff made it during the 5th inning. Not because I couldn't do it alone, but because I knew Jacob and Caleb would be so excited to sit and watch with him.
Emily was pretty excited to see daddy and wanted to go sit on his lap for almost the rest of the game.


With Emily sitting with Jeff, it let me focus my attention on Matthew. He didn't have too much interest in the game at this point, but he did think it was hilarious to take videos and pictures of himself. Then he would watch them and just laugh and laugh. This kid is pretty dang funny.
By the time we hit the 8th inning, it was pretty late and Matthew and Emily were definitely ready to head home for bed. So I took the two younger kids home a little early while Jeff, Jacob, and Caleb stayed to watch the rest of the game. Our team won and it was a great night!

Afternoon at the Zoo

One Friday afternoon, my friend Shelly and I decided to take our kids to the zoo. It ended up being the perfect day for it- not as hot, and not too crowded. That was great because we had 10 kids between the two of us, so they were able to run all over the place and just have fun. Alot of the animals were even out and about, which made it even more fun.

Jacob and Kaylin have become great friends. They're only 5 months apart and have similar personalities.

There was a peacock putting on a pretty good show for us.He was trying to attract a girlfriend, but it was fun to watch him with his feathers all spread out anyway.

This little girl is a girly-girl. She already has some funny little poses and definite personality.

It was fun to spend the afternoon with friends. The kids had fun running around, and as was to be expected, most of them were asleep before we even got home.

Pool Fun

Apparently playing in an empty pool is almost as fun as playing in one filled with water. The kids were out on the deck and pretty soon started a game of dancing in the empty pool. Emily thought it was so funny, and they were all out there just laughing.
Don't you just love the 'glass slipper' look of the jelly shoes? These have been some of Emily's favorites. She is always bringing them to me to put on her.

Comic Relief

With all that's been going on in the political world and all the financial issues our country is having, I thought this comic was pretty good.

Caleb

Any guesses as to what might have happened to Caleb?

If you guessed that Jeff pulled out a tooth, you'd be right! Jeff has an issue with teeth that are barely hanging on- whether or not the child is ready for them to come out. It led to a pretty dramatic aftermath. The funny thing is that this is the 2nd tooth Caleb has lost. A few weeks ago after coming home from church, we realized that Caleb was missing a tooth! He didn't even know it had fallen out.
Jacob was pretty helpful with the ordeal, and once he explained to Caleb that pulling the tooth was equal to free money from the tooth fairy, Caleb decided it wasn't as bad as he originally thought. Caleb definitely adds a lot of life to our family!

Improvising

It's been a hot summer around here. Not just hot, but hot and humid which makes a big difference! It's brought back a lot of memories of muggy Philadelphia summers. It hasn't been uncommon to have days near 100, with humidity taking the heat index temperature ("feels like") to 110-115. On those days, it cools down at night to a balmy 85 degrees. It sure has made running a beast! Some days I've waited to go run until 10pm after dark, and it's still over 90.

Anyway, when it's like this the kids don't even want to run around outside because it's way too hot- so the activity of choice becomes water in all forms- hoses, water fights, water guns, sprinklers, whatever. I wanted to get a little plastic wading pool, but by this time they were out of stock everywhere! While we waited for them to get back in stock at the stores, we improvised with big bowls of water out on the deck. Matthew and Emily loved to sit out on the deck eating popsicles and playing with toys in the big bowls of water.

One afternoon I guess just playing in the water wasn't cutting it for Emily. One minute she was sitting there playing nicely, the next minute this is what I saw.

Either she decided it wasn't enough to just play in it with her hands, or she thought it looked like a small version of a swimming pool, or it was just too dang hot. Either way, she decided it was more fun to be IN the bowl. I guess I should have expected it and just put her in her swimming suit first, but I thought it was funny and pretty cute. She sure was pleased with herself too.

(That is, until she decided the feeling of a 10 lb diaper wasn't all that nice... :)