Now that we were back from vacation, we had one month to relax and enjoy summer. I love being able to stay at home and do whatever around the house. I do make my kids do 2 chores each in the summer, plus their kitchen chore, so they don't just lay around ALL day. But, I do love the laziness of summer and not having to rush places all the time. So, our last month was pretty uneventful. During the last half, we went camping--which I'll blog about next.
It was time for a haircut for Noah. We try to put it off as long as possible because he hates it and we hate it. We try to have him watch a show while Garrett cuts and I try to hold him still. Garrett insisted on cutting his hair into a mohawk. I didn't like it and neither did Noah.
Such a sad face!
All done and finishing his show. Looking much better!
Noah has pretty much given up on naps and so I figured that this was a good time to change things up. 1st things first was getting rid of the binky. My sister-in-law Solviej, told us how she traded her kids binky for a new toy and it worked like a charm. We first tried this on Paige and she quickly handed over her binky for a new Island Princess Barbie. There were a few tears that night, but that was pretty much it. So, we did the same thing for Noah. He picked out a big Monster Truck to trade his for. We even went a step further on this one and brought the binky to the store so he could throw it away at a garbage in the store, which worked great. When he asked about his binky that night, I just reminded him that he threw it away at the store and that now he has a cool monster truck to play with instead and he was ok about it. Pure genius Solviej! :)
His new monster truck.
After a week or two of sleeping in his crib with out a binky, I wanted to get rid of the crib and have him sleep in the toddler bed. So we put that up and got him some new sheets for his new bed. He does pretty good, but some nights we have to keep going in and putting him back in bed because he would rather play.
In his toddler bed with his new "Cars" sheets and blankets.
We had a YW activity that was a fun sleep over at another leader's house. These girls are amazing and so much fun!
I love the summer time because I get to sleep in!! My kids come down and watch TV and when they get hungry, they grab a box of cereal and eat. I just had to take a picture.
We only went to the park once. I know, I know...mother of the year award for me, right? Oh well. We're all just so content to hang out and play at home that I don't feel like we NEED to do anything like that. But, I thought it would be fun once. Lydia forgot to grab her swimming suit so she just got a little wet in her clothes.
I was busy making jam! This is just the strawberry freezer jam. I also did raspberry and peach. My chest freezer is STOCKED with jam. Yum!
Going to pick peaches for making jam and canning and yummy peach desserts. I went back again after this time for even more peaches.
We moved our TV to a different wall, so Garrett had to move all the wires so that our surround sound speakers would work with the TV. So, he spent 2 nights under the house doing something with the wires. Lydia was his helper under the house. She LOVED going down there and thought it was this grand adventure. So all the other kids wanted to see what it was like down there. (except Maggie--she didn't care at all.) The access area is in our pantry.
Paige
Noah
Bella was a little freaked out about it and just peeked and then came up.
Garrett took the kids to work with him for Kids Day at Work. He even took Noah, which was nice. Eating ice cream and getting their face painted. They had fun, although I don't think Garrett worked at all.
My friend Gabe (showing us how it all works--in the picture) and her husband Dave are the ones who go all the time and so they take the YM and YW occasionally. They are so nice to share all their equipment and spend their time teaching all of us and being SO patient with those of us that are scared to death.
Listening to instructions
Maggie getting ready to go.
Dave talking her through it.
Success! She actually got to go 2 times.
My turn. Dave trying to convince me that I could do it.
That first step going off is pretty nerve wracking. But after you get over that part, it's actually not so bad.
So, I'm pretty glad I tried it. Maybe next time I can say that it was fun.
My friend's daughter Kayla, is a great dancer and has taken dance classes for awhile. So, in the summer, she offers 4 day dance camps to young girls in the area. She's done it for awhile and since she started, I've been trying to convince my girls that they should try it because all the little girls love it. They've never really wanted to sign up before--they'd rather stay home and play I guess. So, I signed them up anyways for the last one that she was doing. It's 2 hours a day and they learn dance steps and a routine that they perform on the last day. In between, they play games and do crafts and have snacks. My girls loved it and really want to go to the next one that she does. Can I say "I told you so"? :)
Getting their awards at the end for completing the dance camp. I don't have any pictures of the actual dance, I only took a video, but it was cute!
And that's the first 2 weeks of August.
