Park Fun

Yesterday when I posted and had gone through some old photos on the computer it got me thinking that I haven't taken many pictures this summer. First, reason is that we have gone to the pool A LOT, water and cameras don't get along and they aren't allowed at the pool either. Second, I forget to bring it with me. Today was a beautiful day and I was determined to bring the camera to the park and get some pictures. I want to have pictures to look back on of my kids to see how little they were and how big they have gotten :) But honestly, all of us had so much fun looking through the pictures of them as babies and toddlers and so on. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day!

This picture of Peanut cracked my friend and I up!

We enjoyed a picnic at the park and play time with friends and obviously taking pictures to remember it all...

My Girls!

I finally have learned how to get the pictures off the new camera onto the computer! I know it took me long enough :) GG had a friend over for a play date and this is the sight I saw and HAD to take pictures of them they were too cute.




Next is my youngest on her first day of GYMNASTICS!!! She was so excited to be a BIG kid :)



And just for a little look back this is MY GG in the same outfit when she was in gymnastics!

Tonight

In about an hour and a half actually. My step mom will be pulling up to our house and whisking me and my oldest daughter away for a girls night in Downtown Chicago! My oldest doesn't even know it is happening. We are kidnapping her :) After the pool today I told her she had to dress up. She might have an idea something is happening but she is clueless as to what! After grandma picks us up we are heading to pick up (Aunt) Becky and then go to the restaurant that we are meeting two of my cousins who are in town. One of my boy cousins are getting married this Saturday so they are here for that. I unfortunately am not going to be able to go to the wedding. I feel bad I haven't gone to any of my cousins who have gotten married...I have 22 cousins. I have plenty more to attend in the future! Anyways, I totally got side tracked there. I am so excited to have a night away with just the girls!!! I love that GG is getting old enough to be able to do fun things like this. Great memories should be created tonight that's for sure.

On the topic of girls night the ladies in my small group have organized a girls night out in a little over a week. Then in a few months J and I get to go away for the weekend just the two of us. We have our room booked we just need to get child care but I know that will work itself out. This sounds like I don't like being with me kids. I do love being with them. But I'm with them ALL. THE. TIME. Mama needs a little break every once in a while, ya know?

Little Things

I think I am one of those people who love the little things in life. I look back over this summer and I pretty much think it was a really great one. We didn't do anything BIG. We didn't even go on a vacation at all. We spent most of our days at our new house playing, having play dates with friends, going to the pool, riding bikes to parks, riding bikes to the library, and just enjoying life at a slow pace. J was a part of our church's softball league on Monday nights the kids and I have tagged along, there are only one or two more games. As much as I have loved this summer I can't wait for fall weather to start. And today we had a great taste of what that is going to be like! Things I look forward too, using the firepit more, sitting outside at night, Peanut starting her gymnastics class, the church picnic, going on the church couples getaway, the kids going to bed early (they already get up early) and some of television I actually want to watch. It really is the little things in life that make life so great. This summer has been just that...soaking up the little things in life.

The Boat

First I want to say thank you for the input on what to do with our little Peanut. As for now we are going to leave her where she is with the plan of putting her through K1 and the K2 with the option if she is doing exceptionally well we just move her ahead. We have time :)

Today we went on my dad's boat. Last night when I went to bed the forecast said thunderstorms ALL. DAY. LONG. I got up this morning and it said partly cloudy with 10% chance of rain!!! We headed out the door for what I think was the PERFECT day for boating. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and because the forecast was calling for storms there was BARELY anyone on the water!!! We were on the water by 10am. My dad's 4 person tube (Mable) died. They now only have the two person one. The boys went out first. Then Monkey and Peanut went out, she was love, love, LOVING it. You could hear her laughter all the way in the boat. Then GG and Red went. By the time all the kids had a turn it was lunch time. We anchored the boat by the shore and we ate lunch and then went swimming. My parents neighbors came with us and the wife had some special lotion that attracts the sun to speed up tanning. I put that on and laid out for a little bit. When I got too hot I jumped in the lake to cool off. I did sunscreen the kids and my face a few times. When the adults were done swimming, because the kids could of swam the rest of the day and been happy as can be, we did more tubing. My dad and J went first. We gave Peanut one more turn with one of her siblings (I can't remember which one) before I put her to sleep. Each of the kids, except Peanut got a turn with daddy. J said Peanut didn't weigh enough and it would of been to hard to keep the tube upright. A little after 3pm we headed to the dock to put the boat away. We went back to my dad's house to unload the wet boat stuff and then went out to eat. It was such a fun and relaxing day for me. No cooking meals or cleaning up afterward. See perfect!

Up in the Air

So since Peanut has been born we have talked about putting her in school so that she is 2 years apart from Red. I have a good friend that really wants me to keep her back a year so our girls will be the same grade. She says that they won't be as good of friends if she is a year older in school. They are only 2 months apart in age. If I move her ahead it will be her and two little boys at church if I keep her back there will be her with 2 boys and 6 girls. Then I start thinking about my Monkey and how he is one of the youngest kids in his class. I wanted to hold him back so he could be the oldest in his class but J said has the same birthday and was the youngest and he turned out fine. Now seeing Monkey as one of the smallest kids in his class I'm wondering if we did the right thing. It also doesn't help that at least two boys age wise should be in the grade above but their parents held them back so they could be the oldest. He isn't really struggling academically he gets As and Bs for the most part, though he did get one C the last quarter of 2nd grade. The only way to fix his situation is to put him in public school and hold him back because no one there would know him or homeschool him a year and when he tests in he tests for the lower grade and then he can blame me ;) He is my issue what do I do with Peanut??? Her birthday is 6 weeks after Monkey's making her even younger than him in school. Though she is a girl and the youngest of 4. I just don't want to make the same mistake with her but I also don't want her to feel left out at church. I also don't know if I want Red and her 3 years apart in school. I didn't like the idea of having the boys 3 years apart which is another reason I wanted to hold Monkey back so that he and Red would only be 2 years apart. I guess in the grand scheme of things it really isn't a big deal they just get out of our house a year earlier, which kind of makes me sad. Oh I think we should of held him back :( I hate second guessing myself and having all this guilt. I really didn't sleep well last night thinking about this. What are your thoughts? What would you do with Peanut? How about Monkey?

Emotional

The last few days have been quite the roller coaster ride for me and not in the good way. Two members of our family left to go to camp. I got to talk them the first night away. Monkey wasn't having a good time because he had gotten bit by mosquitoes all over his body and mainly his face. Poor kid hasn't even met any of the other campers and his face is swollen with bug bites. J said the first night he wanted to come home. Yesterday the rest of the campers got there. Monkey has never been my super out going kid that makes friends where he goes. He has pretty much had a built in friend since he was born in his big sister and she is really good at making friends at the park and then he plays too. As hard as this is on me I really think they will be a great experience for him to spread his wings and meet some kids on his own. He is a kid that will be just fine being by himself and couldn't care less that no one is playing with him. J said that he has been walking to meals by himself. That breaks my heart but I highly doubt he really cares if he walks with someone. His cabin leader is my sis-in-laws boyfriend so he knows him, which is good. I just hate hearing reports from J and Liz that he is not having fun. I don't want his first camp experience to be bad, but he is a different kid then his sister. So I am consistently thinking about him and praying for him. Then we have what is going on at the homefront. The first day wasn't too bad. I had a really sad Red because his brother and playmate left. He was super sad at bedtime because he was alone in his room. I offered for him to sleep in my bed with me. Half way through the night we had a really bad storm. Peanut woke up and got scared so she came to my bed too. Red didn't like the closeness of having 3 people in my bed so he want to his bed at that point. Then we had a play date with Peanuts friends (twins) and their baby brother. Their dad is at camp with our guys so it was nice to hang out and share our missing of the boys. They left after lunch and right in time for naptime. I put Peanut down for a nap and went downstairs to clean up after lunch. I hear noise upstairs and when I went up their Peanut was covered head to toe in my hair tac. Apparently she brought it to her bed and then put it all over herself then went into my bathroom to try and wash it off. So it was all over her bedding, the toilet, sink as well as her. I was so upset. I know I was a handful to my parents but I don't remember getting into stuff. ALL. THE. TIME. It never ends with her. The only time I can get anything done is when she is sleeping. And I have to stay close by to make sure she stays in bed and does fall asleep or we have episodes like the above mentioned. She is tiring to the core. I almost feel bad saying that I am looking forward to her starting school. I thought I would be so sad to send off my youngest but at this very moment it can't get here fast enough. We'll see what I say when it actually happens.