Starting Our Summer Off Right

 

I may have gone a little crazy with the charts this summer (the ones pictured are only about half :))  But I am determined to have a little organization and learning along with our fun this summer.  And I am also determined to not have to yell and nag to get it.  And I'm determined that I am not going to spend all summer cleaning up after everyone. 

 

When I get determined, I make lists.  And charts.  And plans.  I've been busy the last couple weeks!

 

So, after giving the kids Thursday and Friday to mostly just play and celebrated school being out, we had a meeting last night to kick off our new plan for the summer.  It's a little (I think Daddy-o thinks it's more than a little) complicated, but basically, the kids each have a chart that they fill in boxes each day when they finish their task(s) for that day.  They have chores (and the chore chart alone is probably crazy, but they like to mix things up, so we rotate days, as well as a few things they are responsible for every day), but also reading, math, writing, exercise, and piano.

 

And then comes the fun--they get to earn small daily prizes (screen time, extra reading or snuggle time at bedtime), and weekly prizes (a book or craft from the prize basket, inexpensive date night with a parent, or pick out a new book at the used bookstore).  And as an added bonus, if we all have a good week, we have a family bonus of a movie or game night at the end of the week.

 

I know today is the first day, and it's all novel and exciting, but if it's possible to even keep half this enthusiasm going for the summer, I'll be pleased.  Bug started on his morning chores as soon as he woke up, and both of them couldn't wait to get going on the math the second their chores were done.  They cleaned up after themselves at lunch time, the laundry got transferred to the dryer (before it started to smell like mildew!!!), and they spent an hour writing movie scripts about some game they were playing with friends this morning.

 

I went ahead and made a similar chart for myself and was pretty happy to have read my scriptures, exercised, and cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast, all in time to leave the house at 8:45!  Let's hope Day 2 starts as well because we've got a lot of fun to pack in this week along with the work.

 

Since school got out on Wednesday, we've gone out for frozen yogurt, been to Bean's last softball game (they won, finishing the season with a 4-4-1 record), a swim team lap-a-thon (Bean and Bug swam 50 and 25 laps respectively--pretty awesome for 40 min. of swimming), a softball team breakfast to celebrate the end of the season, Bug's double header baseball games--which they won both, sending them to the Championship game tonight, church, and a well check for Peanut while the other two played at our friends' farm.  It's been a busy 5 days and we have a packed week ahead of us as well!

Play Ball

 

We've got two of them playing ball this year.

 

And a third who can't wait for his turn.

 

Bug has moved up from t-ball/coach pitch to machine pitch.  It was a little bit of an adjustment, but he's turned into one of the most consistent hitters on his team.

He's also gotten to try out some new gear. . .

I think seeing these little guys in all the catcher gear has got to be one of the cutest things ever.

This season hasn't been quite as fun as t-ball was, but Bug has been learning a lot.  After each game that they win, the coach selects one of the kids to get the game ball.  Last weekend, they had a double header and Bug got the game ball after the second game for being the only player to hit the ball at every at-bat.  He is definitely not as experienced a player, or strong as a lot of the kids on the team, so he was pretty happy to be acknowledged for his efforts.

And I do think he likes being on a winning team--they are currently 7-1, with only a couple more games to go before the championships start.

 

Bean had so much fun watching Bug's games last year that she wanted to try playing herself this year.  She's playing 9-10's softball and it's been a good learning experience. 

 

Most of her team is new to the sport, so they've been working on the fundamentals.  Figuring out how to hit and catch and throw, and a few simple plays in the field.  Like how you can actually tag the runner who is going right past you, not just throw it to a base across the field. They're slowly getting the idea.

And at this first age group that the kids pitch, it's a whole different game.  Not a lot of hitting going on, which means not a lot of opportunities for defensive plays, but a whole lot of runs because of all the walks.  Bean hasn't had a hit yet, but she does tend to hit a couple foul balls each game, so she's getting better at keeping her eye on the ball and learning which pitches to try to swing at.  We're still hoping she'll get to connect once this season.

 

Because of Daddy-o's crazy schedules and a few days out of town, I've gone to a lot of these games on my own and with all 3 kids.  At Bean's first game, these two lost interest in actually watching pretty quickly, but Peanut was happy to follow his big brother around while they found things to play.  Watching them walk, hand in hand, down the road was so sweet.  These are the moments that make having more than one kid worth it.

Bummer Weekend

It's just been one of those weekends. Daddy-o broke his ankle sliding into third base. He doesn't have to have a real cast, but he is on crutches and supposed to stay off it for awhile. It should be healed in 6 weeks. We tried to officially start going diaper free with Bugaboo--he's been peeing on the potty irregularly for months now, so I thought it was going to be easy and fast, but 2.5 days into it, he pretty much has an accident every time I put any article of clothing on his lower half, so unless he's going to be a nudist, he is not ready for the world without diapers. Bean and I spent all Saturday morning at a church service project, which was great, but between that and Daddy-o's visit to the Urgent Care and the silent auction at Bean's school last night, we got no yard work done on what is usually the best day of the week to get stuff done. And we still have 3 piles of yard supplies sitting in our driveway. We were so excited last night to make our first "real" art purchase. The classes at the school each do a painting to auction off and these are usually the big ticket items of the night. Well, Bean's class painting turned out absolutely AWESOME. We decided we really wanted it, so we outbid another mother who also really wanted it, and got to bring it home and were elated because it looks really great in our house. And then Bean informed us that she didn't help with that one at all. There were a few others, fun things but not quite as striking, or in as good of colors for our house, that they were selling after the auction and she did a lot on a couple of those, but maybe not this one. I'm so dissappointed. And feel really bad about taking something that another mom, whose son probably did help with it, really wanted. I'm not sure I want to keep this $200 reminder of that. I may actually talk to the other mom on Monday and see if she wants to buy it from us. (But now Bean is saying she did do it. Not sure if that's because she wants us to keep it, or if her first reaction was because we showed her that we got the painting instead of the bucket of fun outside toys which is what she wanted us to buy.) But the painting really is beautiful.

Softball

Daddy-o plays softball for a Bank of America team on Monday nights and we decided to be a good family and go support him for one of his games tonight. It was on the early side, the weather was perfect. . . why not, right?

In the first 25 minutes, Bugaboo fell over backwards off the bench and hit his head, Bean got her finger caught in the fence and while trying to pull it out, slipped off the bench, Bugaboo ran away and made it into the men's bathroom where I had to reach in and pull him out as someone was using the urinal, and Bean peed her pants before we made it back to those same restrooms. Oh, and not that it was his fault, but Bugaboo also almost got hit in the head by an overthrown ball to first.

But Daddy-o's team won both their games--their first wins this season!