Monday morning we loaded up all the kids and went to swim lessons! Even thinking back on it, I am so grateful for both my mom and Maely during this vacation. We had so much planned, and me getting out of the house with all four kids is quite a feat, regardless of what we are doing. Swim lessons with my kids (because Makenzie wanted badly to swim and that means I have to be in the water) would have been extremely difficult, but with two cousins to play with and Maely and Grandma helping we were totally fine during the whole thing.
These girls were so excited to swim! Much more excited the first day than the boys who were sitting behind me, but everyone did very well. The first day, in fact, Kenzie was the one crying the most. That had me regretting putting her in lessons at all this year, but luckily that only lasted for a day.
After swim lessons the first day, I did something I kind of hate. Fingernail clipping...this time for 5 kids instead of 3! so here I think I have 100 finger and toe nail clippings...I'm just grateful for a show to keep them occupied while I did the deed. And I'm glad that the rest of the two weeks I didn't have to be scratched and scraped, and we didn't harbor any unneccesary germs. Gross.
My selection of pictures during this vacation is very strange. It's just a lot of work to keep all the kids clothed, fed, and without a dirty diaper. Add that to fun activities almost every day and we had our hands full. I had so much fun the whole time, and am so glad that we went. I considered for a bit to cancel the trip due to pure insanity in our life. I feel like for the first few days while we negotiated on our house and got our mortgage documents altogether, I was on my phone almost constantly.
Here's a funny picture of Maely helping me make snacks for the kids. We introduced Kylie and Justin to ants on a log (they weren't as tricked into eating the veggies as my kids...) I looked over from my celery cutting station to find Maely 'cleaning up' her messes :). She was SO AMAZING!! of a helper and really fun to hang out with during this trip.
On Tuesday Grandpa Turkey Buzzard took the kids on a must-have donut trip! I went along for the ride, and was surprised by the fact that on past trips, each of my kids (including Kenzie) has eaten an entire donut! I'm not sure they have ever had their own treats this big before...we are definitely a sharing family on the dessert front. Here are each of the kids when I said 'show me your donut face!'...some are more intense than others :).
While we were having all of these fun adventures, Alex was home finishing up work and packing the house. This particular evening he sent me this picture telling me that we need to own less children's books. I might have a problem. We boxed up a total of 10 boxes, and I have bought more since then. I hope my children never run out of things to read, and I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that happens. So instead of getting rid of books, for now I will just try to move less often :).
And we have a few pictures of swim lessons! The main reason for the trip, and a super fun part of each day.
Wednesday's fun activity was the Bounce House! It was a blast, the kids all had so much fun running around the whole place. I did my usual circling of the place with my mom, checking off kids one after another. I threw in a few trips through the obstacles with Kenzie, and it was perfect.
Kylie was SO sweet with Hunter the entire time. She was pretty sure (and vocal about) that she was his favorite person ever, and this series of pictures shows why. He was so happy around her, and loved every time she would sit and hold him or talk to him. Such a fun thing!
On Thursday Carter turned 4! He is such a perfect first son for us. His fun, easy-going attitude makes every day more enjoyable, and he is a joy to watch grow. Being a big brother is one of his best skills, I love to see the sweet moments between him and Makenzie, and now Hunter as well. It's crazy to now think of him as one of the 'big kids', but he has grown into the role over the summer. I can't wait to see what 4 brings for him!
He was so excited to have a birthday, and is thrilled about the prospect of preschool this fall. The kids always get to choose their breakfast on their birthday, and Carter's favorite is cereal, so this year he got cereal chocolate chip pancakes :) He loved it.
Just some Maely wrestling. The favorite part of every day for the kids.
Thursday night was a meteor shower. I should know more about the details, but I don't. I do know that the half hour or so I spent out on the trampoline with these crazies was amazing. Grandpa is pretty sure that stargazing should be a quiet activity, but he chose to include all of the kids, so it was anything but. We listened to Justin's meaningless (and mostly wordless) chatter, Olivia being in charge (quite loudly) of whose turn it was to talk, and Kylie counted to 100! It was awesome. In addition, we saw the International Space Station pass over and saw dozens of shooting stars. It was a great night, and at 11 when we made everyone come inside, Carter was the only one asleep. A great birthday for him for sure!
No comments:
Post a Comment