Summer is Heating Up

Who decided it was time for it to be summer?  We've loved the mild weather the last month or so, but the first day of summer seems to have brought on the heat this last week.  And while we're totally used to low 90's and humidity, 104 is a little much. 

We had to cancel our plans for our annual gathering at the symphony and fireworks show last night because it just didn't seem prudent (or appealing) to take Peanut to sit in the sun when it was in the 100's.  And you know its bad when it's too hot to go to the pool before the sun goes down.  Lots of indoor time this weekend.

Luckily, this week has also felt like summer in a lot of other ways. The kids had a pretty busy week where they weren't home much, so they are probably ready to play indoors. 

They spent the week at ceramics camp,

hiking, exploring, sketching, and learning how to make pots and animals and nature inspired pieces.

 

As expected, they had a blast and are now begging to go for another week. 

Meanwhile, Peanut and I had 4 mornings to run errands and nap in peace (well, Peanut got to nap, I got to eat lunch alone, which is also something I enjoy).  While I enjoyed the one-on-one time with the little guy, I think Peanut missed his big brother and sister.  Riding around in the car without them isn't very fun for either of us.  But the shopping was quite enjoyable.

 In the afternoons, we had 2 swim meets, lots of reading time (this is our current read aloud--one I loved as a kid and Bug and Bean haven't been dissappointed), and a major overhaul of the craft room so its actually usable again. 

And finally, Wednesday afternoon, when we got up from naptime, and had dinner in the oven, ready to go, we headed off to our own pool for a little free swim and it finally felt like summer vacation to me.  We've been so busy and spending every morning at the other pool for swim practice has meant no swimming for us at home, and life just hasn't had that slow, lazy pace that I usually look forward to summer afternoons.   But summer is finally here!

Eight is Great!

Happy 8th Birthday, Bean! How on earth did we end up with an 8 year old?!

Her actually bithday was spent at a swim meet, where she swam hard in her 5 races and had about 200 people sign "Happy Birthday" to her.

The next day was her "swim" party.  Of course, the only thunderstorm of the entire week feel during the 2 hours we were supposed to be at the pool.  But luckily she'd kept it small this year with just 3 friends from school, so we moved the party to our house and they had fun playing Twister and being silly and eating cupcakes.

Who says you need water or outdoors for a beach party?  We did just fine inside.

We still haven't had her birthday dinner (tacos, by resquest), but have friends coming over to share that with us tomorrow.  It's more like a Birth-week this year.

And in honor of her 8 years with us, here are 8 things we love about our Bean:

1.  She loves to learn--she's excited about pretty much anything new she gets to learn.

2.  She's a good friend.  She has a kind heart and really tries to stand up for people.

3.  She has a great laugh that bursts out when we are watching funny movies.

4.  She is sweet and innocent.  We may not have too many more years of this.

5.  She has a great imagination and loves to play pretend and make up stories and keeps everyone very entertained.

6.  She's a good big sister.  She teaches Bugaboo everything she knows, and is so helpful with Peanut.  Both her brothers look up to her and love to be with her.

7.  She's very determined--which can be difficult when her will doesn't match up with ours, but also leads to her being a great worker and good at finishing projects once she gets going.

8.  She's our Bean.  There are just so many little things about her that make her our little girl--the way she dances, her sweet singing, the wise-beyond-her-years thoughts, the fact that her brain never turns off (when she was a baby who wouldn't go to sleep, this wasn't such a good thing). . . She's one amazing girl and we are so lucky to be her parents and watch her grow up.

Bottomless Pit

That is what our Bug has turned into.  It all started when he lost 5 pounds during a bout with a stomach virus in April.  Once he got feeling better, he started eating like a hobbit.  Two breakfasts, large snacks several times a day, and always the complaint, "I'm hungry!  What can I eat?"

The other night at Bean's swim meet, he started in with the hungry demads as soon as we got settled.  He ate the cheese stick, pirate booty, and banana that I'd brought quickly, then I bought him a hotdog, Cheetos, and Gatorade (I know, great dinner--they don't have a lot of food choices at these things), which he also downed, along with some of his sister tortilla chips, and then still was begging for candy because he was "starving!" 

That was the same day that he had 4 pieces of french toast and milk for breakfast (just to give you perspective, Daddy-o eats two); ate a big bowl of yogurt, slices of cheese, bread, bell peppers and mango for lunch; two big snacks; and a couple cups of milk thrown in there.

Some days, his lunch is 2 quesadillas, an apple, veggie sticks with dip, a granola bar, yogurt, and he's still hungry an hour later.  He always wants a fried egg after he finishes his breakfast.  He never passes up bell pepper, mango, kiwi or apple slices.  He would eat cheese sticks all day long if I let him.  And he's never too full for a little treat.

I can only imagine what this kid will be eating like when he hits 15.

We Love Daddy-o

I stole these from the awards Bean made for Daddy-o for Father's Day--just a few of the things we think make him a great dad!

1. Very Funny
2. Good at pancakes
3. Plays games with us
4. Great artist
5. Makes lava cakes (and he had to make his own yesterday--a sick baby kind of squelched my productivity and I didn't get that done before the little guy had to go to bed.)
6. Fun to play polar bears with
7. Gets nice presents for us (we know what Bean's Love Language is)
8. Takes us places
9. Best dad!
10. Loves us.

I'll just add a few more of mine own.  I could go on for a long time, but this is a good sampling:

11.  Gets up with our babies so I can get a few hours of consecutive sleep on occasion.
12.  Reads to the kids every night.
13.  Teaches the kids how to work (and pretty soon, they'll all be better dish washers than I am.)
14.  Makes our family his priority, even when things get hectic.
15.  Knows each of our kids and understands what they need from him.

Really, what more could we want from a dad? 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads in our lives!

The Happenings

I've already blogged a couple of the more exciting events of the past week, but here's all the other stuff that didn't make headlines:

Going away party for THREE families we're friends with.  Yes, it feels like everyone we know is moving away this summer.

2 appointments for Peanut--he's looking pretty healthy, but every single doctor we see seems fixated on fattening this baby up.  Guess it's time to feed him coconut oil by the spoonful.

2nd swim meet:  Bean broke her 25 yard breaststroke record by 15 seconds!  Probably the biggest time improvement she'll ever see in her swimming career (that's the type of success you see when you don't stop on the lane lines to catch your breath :)).  It was really fun to see how proud she was.

Poison Ivy.  Again.  I do not have good luck when it comes to summer weeding and am returning to my No-Way-Jose stance on gardening.  Not quite as bad as last time, but its around one of my eyes, which makes me look pretty scary.  Good thing I can wear sunglasses most of the time I'm out of the house.

3rd week in a row of a 5+ hour playdate, not to mention several shorter ones, with our friends which resulted in the comment/complaint, "We NEVER get to play with them!"  My thought, "What have you been doing the last 5 hours?"

Chores.  Tackled the mountain of clean laundry, been working with the kids to get a good morning routine going so we can keep up with the daily stuff.  Maybe next week we can streamline the process so it doesn't take all morning.  It was not my goal to spend the entire summer cleaning up.

New job at church heading up this organization for our congregation.  Little overwhelmed (and still in the state of not even knowing what questions to ask or what exactly this is going to mean), but so far, it seems juggle-able and the potential to provide worthwhile service feels good to me.  I've layed pretty low for the last couple years, it probably really is my turn.

8 trips to the pool (at least for Bean--no one else had to make all 8), 5 to the grocery store, lots of quiet reading time, 2 big rainstorms, numerous night wakings, even more baby hugs (love that he's learned to give hugs!) and big kid snuggles.

Not a bad week.

Little Swimmer

 We took the leap this year and signed Bean up for the neighborhood swim team.  After the first week, I wasn't sure if this was a good idea because she had a rough start and wasn't handling the pressure very well, but practices started to go better and she finally seemed to believe us that all she had to do was try her best.

  First meet was last night, and she had worked herself up into a nervous wreck by the time it started.  Everytime we mentioned the meet the last couple days, she would clutch her stomach and complain of a stomach ache.  It brought back lots of memories from my short lived stint on the high school swim team--I would make myself completely nauseous before the meets.

 But when race time came along, Bean rocked it!  She wasn't first, but she wasn't last in any of her races and she made it across the pool without stopping, which was a first for the season.  We were so impressed by how hard she tried!

What I can't get over is how grown up she's looking.  This is our little baby girl--not sure how she got so tall and grown up (and it always throws me to see her looking serious--we don't see a lot of that at home).  But it's fun to see different parts of her personality emerge and we're loving getting to cheer this sweet girl on as she tackles life.

13 Months

 Peanut has really taken off in the last month!  At his 12 month check, his pediatrician was a little concerned about his mobility (or lack of mobility), but since then, he's mastered real crawling, pulls up on everything, and in the last couple days, has taken a couple small "cruising" steps here and there and has mastered the stairs.  With the stairs, its actually pretty typical 3rd child stuff--I have no idea when he could have climbed the stairs because we put baby gates up a few months ago and I just hadn't gotten around to letting him try them.  He's had lots of practice on the single step down into our living room, though, so he made it to the top of the stairs his first try.  Now, we're working on coming down, which he has the idea of, but the actual practice of scooting backwards is pretty funny to watch.

 We also just finally figured out the bath.  This little guy has NOT liked his bath, ever, for the last 13 months.  We tried warm water, cool water, in the sink, in the tub, with kids, alone, in the shower. . . We'd tried it all.  But I guess it had been awhile since we tried with Bug and he's finally decided that bath time with his big brother isn't so bad.

It helps that he's enamoured with his brother and sister.  They are absolutely amazing people in his little eyes (and rightly so--they are pretty amazing kids!)  We're pretty sure he is also trying to say Bug's name ("buh," which works for his nickname, too).  Still waiting for a consistant "Mama" or "Dada".  Wonder if that means we rank below the dog and his brother, or if its just that he knows he always has our attention.

Other Peanut facts right now--

He's about 19 pounds, which means he put on a pound this last month--Go, Peanut, Go!

He both nods and shakes his head to correctly answer lots of questions.

He's pretty good at putting things inside of each other, not so good at stacking.  He'd rather have us stack things and then he'll happily tear them down for us.

He doesn't cry as much when he first wakes up in the morning, maybe because he can now get himself standing, so there's more for him to see.

Sleep is still pretty bad at night.  He takes one nap these days, typically from 11/11:30 to 1/2, but nighttime can range from wakings about every 3 or 4 hours, to wakings every hour or so.  Most nights we get at least one 3 or 4 hour stretch, but it feels pretty pathetic to be suggesting that as a good point.  Wish our babies knew how to sleep. . .

He still loves to say "Uh-oh"--guess when you only have 3 words, you have to say them a lot.

He loves fruit--he hadn't had much at all until the last month and we now have to hids it if we want him to eat other things.  Canteloupe, pineapple, and bananas are favorites.

He also loves the coconut flour baked goods--lemon cupcakes, pumpkin waffles, and the newest favorite are zucchini muffins.

He is so smiley when we are out around other people.  He doesn't always want to go to other people, but he'll grin at them from our arms.  And that gummy little grin will win over just about anyone.

Summer Sweetness

This is my new favorite dessert.  And you probably won't believe the ingredient list, because it sounds a little unlikely to be anything amazing, but trust me, it's worth trying it.

I first saw this recipe on pinterest, from this website, and I'll be honest, I was interested because when you can't have dairy, sugar, or grains, its pretty tough to come up with many dessert options.  And when the weather turns hot, I really like ice cream. I was feeling pretty desperate.  But this is made from only frozen bananas and raspberries.  Nothing more.

I made up a batch of it for dessert one night and we were all pleasantly surprised that throwing frozen berries and bananas into the food processor actually can yield something smooth, thick, and creamy that really does resemble soft serve ice cream.  And it tastes good, too!  Even the family members who are able to eat whatever desserts they like enjoy this treat.  And we enjoy it fairly often.  Sometimes even for breakfast.  After all, it's only fruit.

The key is the bananas--they create the smooth creaminess, and they add a lot of sweetness.  You want very ripe bananas, and you want to pull everything out 20 minutes before you're going to make it so the fruit has a few minutes to thaw.

We've made this with some pineapple added to it (yum, although a little chunkier), and with other berries.  As long as you can thaw the fruit to a state where it gives a little, I think any soft fruit would work.  I want to try peaches soon.

It's so nice to have a summery treat that I can eat with the family.

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

 Our summer kick-off actiivty:  a trip to the zoo!  For Peanut, it was his first zoo and he LOVED seeing all the animals.  He thought they mostly looked like dogs and did lots of his little "woo, woo" that is his dog bark, but he's also got a pretty good lion/bear growl down. 

It's so fun getting to show things to these little ones for the first time.  Makes everything so much more exciting.

 The big kids had fun too.  Bean brought along her new summer notebook and recorded her observations of several animals throughout the morning.  It's things like this that make me feel totally comfortable in my abilities to homeschool my children--I don't have to do much, they are pretty good at taking charge of their education.

 And some of them were doing some pretty fun stuff to observe--these apes were going a little crazy.
/

 Some were not.  Although this is actually probably the first zoo trip where we've actually seen a koala awake and climbing around.  This one was just being snuggly and cute.

The zoo isn't exactly close, but we got a year pass and are planning to make a few trips down there as  field trips.  I think the kids are fans.

Year End

 Last day of 2nd Grade, with the most amazing teacher who we are going to miss so much!

 And what a last couple days its been.  Ice Cream and dance party (the kids needed to get some of the sugar rush out of their systems before they went home for the day).

 Doing the robot :)

And then after school today, a pool party for the whole school, hosted by one of the families.  There actually weren't too many kids from Bean's class there, but the kids still had a great time and it felt like a fun way to celebrate the end of the school year.

I only got a little choked up a couple times today.  I hate goodbyes and change and all that, so I haven't been looking forward to this, but honestly, I think after the rollercoaster the last couple months, I'm resigned to what has happened and have just felt everything I could feel.  I don't have much left in me, other than looking forward to what new, fun things we can come up with.