June Part 2

As soon as school was out we started enjoying the beautiful new outdoor space that we have, thanks to Alex and his many hours of hard labor. The kids wanted every meal out there and I am all about an outside mess, so outside we went.

Inside was another story. This is literally the day after school got out for O. Four kids playing with different stuff is like a tornado. A very loud, argumentative, and relentless tornado. When I took this picture I was still putting on a brave face as I looked forward to over 2 months before the kids would have anywhere to go except. home to make their messes.

Alex and I don't get out on too many dates (paying a sitter for 4 kids is EXPENSIVE!!) since we prefer movie/game nights at home. Sometimes, however (mostly whenever the newest Avenger/Star Wars movie comes out) we head out and try a new restaurant and see the movie on the big screen. The day before Father's Day we saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and went to Birch and Barley. It has officially joined our Tour of Favorite restaurants in the appetizer place. This is a picture of my steak bites (also delicious) that I took so Carter could see the purple carrots. In the top left corner, though, you can see the amazing artichoke dip that would start our evening if we were having the perfect Pullman meal. We would start here, then go to Phikun's for Peanut Chicken and Pad Thai, and then somewhere for dessert. We are still looking for recommendations here, as we rarely get dessert when we go out. I eat enough ice cream at home that we don't need anything more as a special treat :).

Father's Day! I can't say enough about what a great dad Alex is. He is such a loving, fun, aware dad who is the perfect teammate in raising these four wonderful kids. We get overwhelmed sometimes, but he is the one who keeps his cool and helps me see the big picture. He comes home from work ready to wrestle and pull kids behind the bike, and tries to make it to as many school programs and picnics as his schedule allows. He changes as many diapers as I do when he's home, and puts up with my overly organizational tendencies. We were thrilled to spend the day celebrating him!

Carter had his first real bike ride! He's still working on his confidence and stamina, but he and Olivia are both officially bike riders this summer.

This guy would do just about anything to get to a steering wheel. Even if I unbuckle his carseat and leave him for 5 seconds, he has always wiggled out of his straps, climbed down (from his backwards facing seat, which is pretty tricky) and is in the front seat driving before I can reach him. Nascar driver in the making! (Or maybe combine driver, if we stick in Pullman :))

Haha...sometimes when there's only 2 leftover hotdogs, one lucky kids gets a 'ham dog'. This time it was Kenzie, and she loved it. Ham is one of her favorite foods, and coupled with the Barbie plate, it just couldn't get any better. Looking back, let's just hope I added some fruit or something to that meal, but if not, we can chalk it up to a crazy day :)

Imagine my annoyance when all the kids are up before 6 one morning, and I come down mid-morning to them all taking 'naps in the living room...can we just sleep in next time?

On Monday the 20th we started our 2 week session of swim lessons! I was thrilled that the instructors let Makenzie join in (technically not 3 but loves the water) so I just sat with Hunter and watched all 3 big kids swim for half an hour each morning. I can't wait to do the same thing again next summer, and we will probably do more than one session if we can. All of the kids had a blast, and the all improved at least some!

This girl would stay in the water all day if I let her...she is moving up into the 'Gator' level, which is all about stroke development and has all kids a few years older than she is...way to go Olivia!

All of the kids had their first gymnastics class that week as well. Both swimming and gymnastics are in Moscow, but swim is in the morning and gym is in the evening, so we ended up driving back and forth a LOT. Luckily, Alex was able to keep Hunter at the office, so I could do Mommy and Me gym with Makenzie. She is so much fun to do anything with, she gives it her all and grins from ear to ear the entire time. We are still trying to work out getting her in a non-mom required class for the fall. I'm hoping the gym will stretch their age requirements, other wise she will have to wait until January to start back up.

Carter is doing a Ninja class instead of gymnastics. They do all sorts of obstacle courses and learn tricks on the trampoline while preparing to be ninjas. It's the most fun way to have a class full of rowdy boys and teach them basic gymnastics skills. He is super excited to keep going, and he has almost learned a cartwheel this summer, so it's definitely a good class.

O is in a level 1 class with girls going into K through 5th grade. On the first day, based on height and trampoline skills (which she has an unfair advantage at...) she was split into the older group of that class, so she gets to try hard to catch up to girls that are totally competent at basic beam work and tumbling. She sometimes gets frustrated at 'being the worst' but is quickly improving and working hard to develop those skills.

Where's O? Oh yeah...underwater, like every time I look over to try to find her. This is a source of stress for me, as she is across the pool from the younger kids' class, so I glance over and can't see her at all...luckily for me, she has a great teacher who keeps an eye on the big class all the time :)

On days like this (pretty much every day from 4:30 until Alex gets home...)

dinner comes in a bag. This actually was a decent dinner (Ravioli w/cheese on top, salad and edamame) but I didn't notice until we sat down that the presentation wasn't wonderful. Oops!

The third and 4th weeks of June we had swimming every morning, Tball on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and gymnastics Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It was a busy start to summer, and was quickly followed up by a July full of traveling, but apparently we don't know how to do relaxing, so this is the pace we settle at.

Thanks Coach Colleen! She had infinite patience with a couple of really challenging kids on the team. Everyone might not have learned a lot about baseball, but they learned which direction to run (when all the parents are yelling at you to run) and that first base is the most exciting position to play :). Next year we will try coach pitch baseball for whomever wants to play, and that should (hopefully) be a little faster pace.

Makenzie and her 37 'friends' taking a nap together. I seriously had to look for a few minutes before finding her in all this mess.

When I saw this at swimming lessons, I questioned their coddling...apparently they were encouraging all the kids to go off the diving board no matter their comfort level. My fearless daughter went off this way :)

One afternoon after swimming lessons, we headed over to have lunch at the Zollingers' (Alex's boss) before heading back to the pool for free swim. It was an adventure to do the aquatic center without Alex, and I relied completely on Korissa and her free arms :). The kids all had fun though, and were completely wiped by the time we headed out around 3:30.

Garage sale Saturday! Usually I take a kid or two and go by myself, but this morning was an entire family adventure. As a practice in not asking mom for a million things throughout the morning, we gave each kid some money to spend (I think .50? not much). Carter found a HUGE marshmallow shooter, Olivia found a HUGE Barbie boat (I looked it up, was $110 new), and Makenzie found a princess electronic learning tablet thing. 3 happy kids for sure, and I wasn't at all surprised that no one decided to save their money :) lessons on frugality to follow...

Sometimes your fourth baby needs a drink...self reliance at it's best!

Watching these two with their teacher's was so fun. They both got more comfortable in the water, which I was super glad for because we spent most of July in the water all the time.

After gymnastics, Olivia and I get to drive home by ourselves. I love this time, as she tells me all about the world as she knows it, and we often stop to do a quick store trip or something on the way. She is so fun to explore with, I enjoy it every week. This particular day she found rainbow cauliflower! She was impressed with the purple and orange, but said of the green 'that one is just trying too hard to be broccoli'. I about died laughing, she is so right!

My swimming lesson buddy! It was super fun to have one on one time with him every day for those first weeks of summer. I'm starting to really enjoy all the little opportunities I have to have time with the kid individually. It makes me think that I should make an effort to make sure I'm getting these moments with each of the kids each month. Anyway, Hunter and I played in the grass, sometimes with other kids and their moms who were impressed with the endless amount of cars, balls, toys, and snacks that I could pull out of my huge summer bag. I started carrying around a big organizing tote (about 2.5*1*1) all the time to hold Tball stuff, gymnastics stuff, swim lesson stuff, sunscreen, regular diaper bag, snacks, and toys to entertain whatever kids weren't doing the activities. It was much easier to carry everything than try to make sure I always had the right stuff for each event. It was a great solution for those crazy weeks, but I was ready to go back to my 10lb diaper bag as opposed to the tote that probably weighed 30 lbs.

Makenzie found her terrible twos a little late, but has been in a crazy mess-making pattern lately. During the two weeks of swim lessons she covered herself from head to toe in liquid sunscreen 3 times, poured out a bottle of nail polish (pictured after I cleaned it below), sprayed an entire bottle of hairspray at the floor, made a Desitin mess, gotten into Olivia's makeup more times than I can count, and stomped on 25ish grapes throughout the kitchen/dining room. I'm not looking forwared to this continuing.

The last day of swimming was free play day. They opened up the water slide and all the other features and just let the kids go crazy. Luckily they also brought in a few extra teachers to cover the madness without parents watching the kids. Hunter and I walked around watching the kids, and mostly played with our sweet shades (before he broke mine...the 2nd pair this summer!)

First thing, Makenzie and Carter went down the tube water slide together. Unfortunately, someone walked into my camera line at the very moment they were coming down with their teacher, so I got exactly 0 proof. Neither one was a fan at all, and the wouldn't go again. Olivia went once when we went for fun, and wasn't impressed with the amount of water in her eyes, so she wouldn't go again either. After that, Makenzie jumped in to her teacher the entire time. Literally for 25 minutes she jumped in over and over again. Her teacher was so patient, and also let her go under a few times (I think to get her to stop wanting to jump - but to no avail) which I like to see.

Here she is...underwater as soon as she sees my camera, like always. Give this girl a pair of goggles and she will live with the fishes forever (although she read this and said she wouldn't live there because fishes poop too much...not sure what that means!)

And just like that we had our whirlwind start to summer and were ready to start packing for Black Butte and Twin Lakes in July!