What we've been up to: Summer!

Summer has always been my favorite season, especially since I've been a stay at home mom. Being stuck inside with little ones all winter is really hard. Although this last winter was pretty easy peasy what with no snow and all, I still prefer summer. I was surprised this summer though at how much busier it is with Savanna home all day. She was only gone for 2 and half hours for kindergarten but it's been a change having her home! We started the summer with no schedule, just lazing around with bits of madness in between. It wasn't good, we need a schedule around here, something to keep the days moving. I made a new rule of  No Movie (or computer or tv) Monday. The first day we tried it was wonderful, we played in the yard, got a lot of projects done and tried some science experiments. No Movie Monday was so popular that we added Wednesday and Friday to no movie days, I love it. We joined the Summer Reading Program at our library and they have something all my kids can participate in, it's been great motivation for Savanna to keep reading throughout the summer and Avery and Miles are always up for story time. This summer everyone got in on the swimming lesson action too. I originally signed up just Savanna and Miles but Avery was furious that she would not be going in the water too so she and I did mom and me swimming. It was so much fun! Everybody learned a lot and they all passed their classes so they will be moving up next year!

Savanna played T-ball this year, the first time she has played a team sport. It was very cute to watch! She had a great time and Avery and Miles had fun running around getting into trouble during the games.

This summer was the first time we took all the kids "real" camping. It was awesome, it made me remember how much I like to camp. The kids were really good and had a lot of fun. My favorite part was sleeping in the tent. Having my whole family right next to me (or on top of me, our tent is pretty small) was so special. We were all settling down for the night and Miles asked if I had brought Avery's sleeping medicine (melatonin drops). I told him he didn't need any, it was so late he would be fine. He started whining and saying he was never going to be able to fall asleep in the tent, he laid back down and was out in about 5 seconds, it was so funny! I was kind of worried that we might have a sleep walking incident but Savanna just woke up once and said "can we still make smore's?" then went back to sleep. Miles woke up really early and said "are we still in the woods?" then fell asleep again. We only stayed on night but it was really nice for our family, it was nice to have that much uninterrupted time together away from it all. We want to go at least once more before summer is over.

The kids got a special package in the mail from Aunt Bubbas all the way down in Mesa. My kids still ask about once day where Bubbas lives. Whenever we drive by a big apartment complex they say "hey, I think that's where Bubbas lives."  For a long time whenever they saw a mazda or any dark colored car they said "hey that is like Bubbas' car!" Then it changed to, "she doesn't have that car anymore, now she just barrows a car when she visits us." And finally when we parked next to a Jeep the other day they said "That's the kind or car Bubbas has now!" It's taking them awhile to figure it all out, the fact that she lives far away and has a different car,  probably because she is such a huge part of their lives. They love when she comes to visit and were super excited to get fun stuff from her in the mail. By the way, Bubbas is James' sister Heather.
So this was a long post, I need to blog more often but we have been pretty busy. I can't wait for July 4th and all the fun it will entail!