Watch Me.

The dad of the house celebrated his birthday in style.  Mother Nature pulled though with her own little birthday present.  A beauty of a day with a short intermission for some rain and a wind that sent the table umbrella flying over the roof of the house.! These perfect lake days are cherished.

The kids outdid themselves jumping off the dock!  It's such fun to watch them. As I was watching the kids and taking pictures of their tricks I was thinking about how awesome life is, And I was thinking about Nana and Papa and how their baby turned 42 years old.  I was wondering if they closed their eyes for just a second if it felt like it was just yesterday it was Jon and Mike and their cousins jumping off that dock?  Because that's how it works right?  You blink and their all grown up. So for every "Watch me, mom.  Watch me! Watch me!" that I get from my girls this summer, I will try my best to look and watch with open eyes, because I know what will happen if I blink.
Happy Birthday to my hubby!

The Day The Kids Were in Charge

As a general rule, mom's say, "no, not now, maybe another time, I don't think so, I'll think about it, probably not, we can't today, etc, etc..." all the time.  Kids live in the present time and adults spend most of their time in the past or the future which gives us all kinds of reasons to say no to their requests.  But every once in a while I like to join the girls in their present-ness.  I let them direct the entire day, make the decisions, decide what to do, where to go, what to eat, and make the  million other split second decisions that happen in the day.  All within reason of course.  Because once you've become a responsible adult it truly is impossible to forget the lessons learned from the past and to ignore how the consequences of your your present actions will impact your future. No matter how much I wanted to live entirely in the present with my girls for just one day, no matter how much fun it would be to spend their entire college savings at the dollar store, once an adult, always an adult.

So when I posed the question to them, "What do you want to do today?" I wasn't bombarded with a list of "I want to do this, and this and this." Nope.  Their brains operated differently.  They were linear in their thinking.  It was one thing at a time.  One thing led to the next depending on their internal state.  So when I said, "What do you want to do?"  Their response was, "we want to go to a restaurant for lunch."  Makes sense to me since they had slept the morning away and it was nearly lunchtime. They probably were hungry.  And so it began.  The day the kids were in charge...

Where do you want to go for lunch?

Subway.  Sandwich, chips and a cookie.  And we will sit at the tall stools that mom never wants to sit at!

After lunch we headed out onto Main Street and just as I was about to ask what we were going to do next, we bumped into Grandma.

Mom, can we go shopping with Grandma?  Sure.

Mom, can we try flying a kite today? Sure.

Girls, our friends just sent us a text inviting you to their house to play.  Do you want to go?
Mom, can they come kite flying with us instead? Sure.

Four kids and four kites and we were ready to go.  Funny how the wind seems to stop as soon as you're ready to fly a kite.  

Mom, we're hot from running with the kites.  Can we go swimming?  Sure.
Can we have chocolate bars? Sure.
Can we go to the park? Sure.
Will you watch us play gymnastics?  Sure.




What's next girls?
Can we go for ice cream?  Sure.
Hey look mom, can we go for a walk on that Boardwalk?  Sure.

It's time to take our friends home now.
Mom, we're going past Grandma and Papa's house.  Can we stop and show Lexi the bird's nest? Sure.

It's home time girls.  The sun is going down.
Can we have a swim in our pool?  Sure.
Can we watch a movie at that place in the forest you were talking about?
You mean you want to go to see your first Drive-in movie?  Sure.

Is it straight to bed when we get home mom?  
It sure is!

The Summer Scoop

You know that quiet, let down feeling you have after a houseful of company just left?  Well after camping with with great friends and tons of kids last week, this week has felt quiet.  We are settling in nicely into a quiet summer sorta-routine.  By sorta-routine I mean staying up really late and sleeping in! 

We gave Lexi the camera to take some pictures of the moms.  She got this good one...

...but I think this one's even better!

And I see these girls together and wonder...

...if they will grow up and have as much fun together as their mamas!

The kids tried their hand at tye dying again this year.  And since this is our second year doing this we decided that it is officially a tradition.  Callie is already planning her pattern for next years shirt.

We spent some time at World Rock this week and the girls stopped for some pictures with the old cars along the way.  We had thought we had better go for a visit to World Rock because we aren't too sure of World Rock's future as the highway construction crew gets closer and closer to our house. They are blasting away lots of rock to widen the highway and we were discussing if the girls favorite place to adventure to is going to survive.  So far it looks like we're in the clear.

And no summer can be complete without a blow up pool in the backyard. This little dish of water provides hours of entertainment.  And on a super hot day you may even see the mom and dad splashing around trying to cool off!

Every summer we do a lot of the same things but yet every summer is different.
The inside scoop on this summer with an eight year old and an almost six year old...

...these girls can stay up later than me.  But they can also sleep in until 10 am or longer.  Remember the days when they would stay up late but still get up early making it not worth letting them stay up. Now they sleep until 10 and I quietly get up and read my book and have coffee on the deck until they wake.
...whatever room I am in, there are two girls right behind me.  They do not like to be alone.  If they realize they are alone in a room they call out, "MOM", as if checking to make sure I didn't leave to go grocery shopping or something.
...my girls know that life if better with friends but they also love some quiet time.  When they wake up they ask right away if its a friends day or a home day.  Tomorrow I'm going to put them in charge. They get to make the plans.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up  with.

Time in the Summer

We are two weeks deep into this thing we call summer and I don't even know where to start.  You know back in the winter months when you're busy with work and school and lessons and sports and stuff and you know that there are a million little jobs you need to do around the house but there just doesn't seem to be time.  I tell myself I'll get those drawers organized, those blinds put up, those pictures put in the empty frames, those cupboards cleaned out, all those little jobs done in the summer when I have more time.  Well I can tell you that summer is here and I haven't done a single one of those little jobs with all this extra "time" on my hands!

As it turns out, we are just as busy in the summer as we are in the winter.  Busy having FUN that is! There has been no time for work.  We have only had time to ride the Ferris wheel on Main Street, go to the petting zoo, sleep in a yurt for five nights, visit with friends from out of town, visit with friends from in town, climb the scenic tower, go for bike rides, play at the park, eat campfire hot dogs, bannock and s'mores, paddle a canoe, stay up late, light sparklers, sleep in, fight off a couple of stomach bugs, go to the library, read books, go to the beach, build some sandcastles, apply sunscreen, and of course, swim a little.  

So like I said, no time for the little jobs around the house, yet.  

But there is always time for a few photos.

Enjoying summer...

The worst army worm invasion in many years has passed.  The forest fire smoke is starting to lift from the air.  The highway construction on the way to the beach is slow but it's amazing to watch the transformation as they blast away the rock cuts.  We've got holiday plans, and more books to read. More beaches to visit and more fun to be had!

Maybe there will be time next month for the little jobs.
Happy, happy, happy summer!