Schooooooooool’s out for summer! Caroline starts camp tomorrow AND she has her dance recital this week. She is going to be one tired girl by Saturday morning. I’m hoping that means she might sleep longer than 6 am.

Sunday:

For her last soccer game, Caroline played with the U8 team. She was half their size!

Swimmers

We all love #lakelife

Monday:

We worked on our Father’s Day presents, which are late because E was SUPPOSED to be at sea. Although we are much happier having him home.

Glitter, the herpes of craft supplies

We put in a chin up bar for wrap swings

Tuesday:

Little explorer

A+ dentist visit

Keeping the healthy baby away from the germs at his check-up

Wednesday:

I cleaned out my purse. That’s just the trash.

I think my cat is plotting to kill me

Ice cream weirdos

Thursday:

He always sleeps like this

He really loves his foot

Hanging out

Friday:

Baby friends!!!

Morning playdates are exhausting

Loooook at my fooooooot

Saturday:

I don’t know why.

Water break

Happy weekend!

E was supposed to be at sea but he is not, so we had a nice Father’s Day at the zoo followed by pulled pork and ice cream cake. The kids announced THEY had the best Father’s Day, so I think it was successful. I really like the kind of family fun day where no one has a giant meltdown and I get to eat ice cream cake.

Off topic: I got a Fitbit this week, and my desire to get to 10,000 steps a day has been GREAT motivation for me to move. I also really love that it’s giving me extra points in my Weight Watchers app, because ice cream cake.

Today I said good bye to my kindergartener and my pre-because and welcomed home a first grader and a kindergartener. That means both big kids will be in full day programs at the same school next year. ONE bus in the morning, ONE bus in the afternoon, SEVEN hours of freedom in between. (Well, as free as you can be with a 1-year-old.)

The kids have grown so much this year, both physically and mentally. Caroline’s teachers report she is academically strong and predict she will thrive in kinder. They also said she has great maturity with peer pressure and when some of the girls in class get out of hand she’s great at saying “No, I shouldn’t do this” and removing herself from the situation. Since she’s always trying to keep up with Evan we’re working on her sight words and I suspect she’ll go into the fall already reading. She loves expressing “her style” with her glasses and hair and leggings but has no complaints about the school uniform (I LOVE school uniforms).

Evan looks like a completely different kid than in September. He’s so big and so capable and so smart. He reads at grade level, has mastered all the kinder math skills and got a glowing report on how very much he has progressed in both his listening and behavior since the winter. Even when he was having trouble listening to grown-ups, he remembered to be kind and help others. His school best friend is the smallest kid in the class, who he adopted as his personal responsibility to make sure no one was mean to him or picked on him. The last time the principal called, it was to tell me Evan stood up for a kid in the lunch line and a bigger kid pushed him. Evan told a teacher, but didn’t push back. Best phone call from the principal ever.

I am so excited to hang out with all the kids and do fun stuff and use all our memberships this summer. I’m letting them eat carrots, hummus and Oreos for dinner tonight while we start their very important Lord of the Rings education, so things are already in vacation mode.

First day of school post here for reference. (Sob sob sob so little now they’re so big sob etc etc.)

The peace sign apparently means “no excuses” at Evan’s school, so you do it when you need to prove you’re listening and ready to learn.

One of the reasons I keep up my photography business, if only on a very very part time basis, is because it gives me a tiny bit of truly disposable income. I can spend that little bit of income on whatever I want, whether it’s new photography equipment or getting my hair done or an investment in something else. That last one is what I did with my first quarter income from 2015 – I invested it in my family in the form of a membership in the Amos Lake Beach Club.

So far, it is proving to be a very worthwhile investment. The lake has shade, so much shade that I don’t have to wear sunscreen. The lake bottom is mostly sand and no rocks. There are picnic tables and grills so we can sit and play cards and stay for dinner. It is approximately 15 minutes from my front door to the parking lot. There are swings and climby things for the kids, fish so plentiful and fearless you can catch them with popcorn and a net, and there are almost always other children there for my children to play with but it is rarely crowded.

To be honest, I was sort of dreading the summer and all the free time we would have to…stare at screens and ignore each other. I am not good at saying no to iPad time when it’s only 10 am and the kids are already whining. The lake solves the “should we pack up and go somewhere or stay home and relax” problem. We can do both! At the lake! And we can bring beer! I enjoy my family the way I imagine people are supposed to enjoy their families when I am at the lake with a beer. I mean, I love my family all the time, because they are my family. But there are definitely moments where all I want in the whole world is the freedom to go do something FUN that doesn’t end up being incredibly stressful. But when you’re relaxing only 15 minutes from home, it’s easy to relax. As long as no one breaks their leg (KNOCK ON ALL THE WOOD) there are no emergencies at the lake.

I feel really really lucky we can live the #lakelife this summer. It’s going to be good for all of us individually and good for all of us together.

I took about half as many photos this week as I usually do. I started Weight Watchers so I’m on my phone tracking what I’m eating (or trying to figure out if I can afford to eat another cookie) a LOT and it keeps dying. It’s hard to take photos with a dead phone.

Sunday:

Totally normal grocery shopping face

Wrap nap at the lake

Doing out best midwesterner impression with some Hand and Foot

Monday:

Grabby little toes

Mermaid

I don’t even know what I was trying to take a picture of, but the saddest baby in the world interrupted it.

Tuesday:

You dropped this, let me just crouch and get it like a REAL HUMAN

Tired girl

This is all I could see of Evan’s soccer practice because it was POURING

Wednesday:

My new make up adviser

#lakelife

Having fun pretending he’s not a baby but he IS STILL A BABY

Thursday:

I woke up like this

She’s obsessed with tying things

Working mom life

Friday:

Kinder orientation bus ride, like a pro

Weirdos at Target

It was like 90 degrees in his room but he won’t sleep without the blankie

Saturday:

Crafting! He’s like, “What is this even? We never do this at home.”

TAKE THAT YOU STUPID ASS THORN BUSH

WEIRDOS

THIS WEEK IS THE LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL. It’s not even real days, just half days. We also have every possible kind of appointment. Luckily swim and soccer are over, so we just have to get through dance and the recital and then we are ALL FREE. I cannot wait to just NOT DO STUFF. I could sleep past 7 am! Linc can nap whenever he wants! I DON’T HAVE TO MAKE PACKED LUNCH.

I have big plans to wear everyone out with tons of lake visits and hikes, so we won’t actually be doing NOTHING. But I will definitely enjoy letting the kids eat popcorn for lunch on the regular.

We have just a few more of everything to get through before summer. A few more days of school, a few more soccer practices, a few more end of the year things, a few more days where it’s not 85 degrees. I’m focusing on how busy we are so I don’t think too much about how Linc is going to turn one NEXT MONTH, although now that I’ve started planning his party (theme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) I am not quite so sad about it. Plus we’ve got this whole babywearing thing so I can keep pretending he is a baby as long as I can keep tying him on my back.

Sunday:

Hiding in the car because I do not enjoy soccer in the rain

Rocking her game in a tutu

Getting a swim in before the HUGE storm

Monday:

From the neck down I felt very fancy on Monday

Dreaming of escape at the vet

God bless the iPad during swim lessons

Tuesday:

Shopping list

We match our wraps to our outfits

That spatula is covered in very spicy chimichuri. He loved it.

Wednesday:

Unimpressed

She made up a story to read me. Obviously it included mermaids.

Family fun night

Thursday:

She said she’s going to be a seed scientist when she grows up

THAT IS NOT NAPPING

Soccer life

Friday:

Cake making helpers

This one is for sale but I am not really sure I want it to leave

Watching tires is not super exciting

Saturday:

Super Evan to save City Hall!

Lobsters are the best beach wrap

I always lose but I still love cribbage

I have some killer allergies right now that are making it impossible to sleep and stay asleep unless I am completely upright. It is not a very comfortable way to sleep. And because Linc still gets up a few times a night, losing ANY of my quality sleep is sucky. I have plans to maybe possibly sort of try to get him to sleep through the night over the summer – preferably before we go on vacation in August – but I might be too lazy to make that happen. Fingers crossed he just starts doing it on his own and I don’t have to make an effort.