Previous year Sunflowers for Wishes: 2013 2012 2011 2010

Apparently, I didn’t manage to blog our trip last year, even though I know we went. I have one picture in my 365 project but I remember it being REALLY hot and crowded so I don’t think I took many photos.

This year was not at all crowded and only a little bit hot. I took a ton of pictures.

Key lime & chocolate brownie batter

Lavender honey

Peppermint stick

My husband just got back from severals weeks underway on his submarine, so the amount of laundry in my house went from “a lot but almost manageable” to “mountains”. I’m going to catch up on these posts in the moments when I can’t handle folding one more plain white undershirt.

Sunday:

SUPER PROUD 3 YEAR OLD

Really excited about his insane milkshake

Making the exact same face as Evan above

Monday:

He loves this, I swear

Upsidedown Lincoln

Lego Batman on repeat

Tuesday:

Sunflower day

Family picture

Ready for the cow train

Wednesday:

I’m signing him up for gymnastics

Friends who love your baby are the best

Thursday:

The ocean

Looking for rocks

Weirdos

Friday:

The kids were fascinated with this thing at Stop & Shop

More lake

Finn really likes Cheetos

Saturday:

Pretending I’m a good Navy spouse by making calendar pages

In between laundry loads I also managed to order the week’s groceries and plan the kids fall activities schedule with reminders to register them for various activities as soon as they open. I still need to find Lincoln a morning activity besides swim (the gymnastic class I wanted is only in the afternoon) to help him get some of his wiggles out before afternoon pre-k. The plan is to make all four children as tired as possible so they go to bed by 7:30 every night. A+ PARENTING.

This week Lincoln turned 1 and I started freaking out because summer feels almost over.

Sunday:

Target is easier when you can tie one kid to your back and bribe the other two with Icees.

All the kids love the Boppy

Lake Baby

Monday:

Sunflowers for Wishes is beauitful

Caroline dressed up for our wagon ride

I made the mistake of asking them to take a nice picture.

Tuesday:

Party planning

We have a LOT of clicky things from Wendy’s kids’ meals now.

This might have been the last time he napped nicely.

Wednesday:

If you look closely you can see my baby playing with his new 7 year old BFF.

Baby’s first deli cheese

It turns out clean and shopping is pretty good exercise

Thursday:

OK, I’M ONE NOW, I’M GOING SWIMMING

Birthday’s are exhausting

Bumpa will read you alllllll the books

Friday:

The bones of The Australia at Mystic Seaport

Figureheads

Using my camera to check and see if Linc is asleep yet. NOPE.

Saturday:

I’m proud that all my party guests noticed my sling matched the decor

He had a really good day

He has sad eyes because he tried to eat the lit candle, but eating an entire mini-cake cheered him up.

Linc’s first birthday party is over and it was SUCH a success. We were completely done and ready for our guests before they arrived (this never happens) and I got to relax and drink champagne while the kids screamed their heads off on the bounce house. My parents and E’s parents were both here which meant we had TWO grown ups per child – not to mention all the dads that Linc conned into picking him up and carrying him around. He’s really good with dads.

We’ve got some vacation coming up and I cannot waaaaaait. But first I have to get all those party photos sorted and posted, or they’ll end up in the file with the rest of this month’s fun activities and no one will ever see them. What good is a cool party theme without a blog post?!

See what I did there? In the title? A-MAZE-ing. Sorry about that, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

With several pick-your-own places within a couple miles of our house and a field of sunflowers the next town over we’ve never made the drive out to Lyman Orchards before last weekend. We planned to just go for the sunflowers but ended up having breakfast (giant apple cinnamon cream cheese bearclaw NOM NOM) and blueberry picking too. The kids loved the maze and would have stayed “lost” in it all day if we let them. And then Caroline ate her body weight in blueberries right off the bush. I would have felt bad about how many we didn’t pay for, except when we carried our GIANT pail of blueberries up to get weighed our total was $5. Best deal ever. We’re definitely going back for apples and pears – the views alone are worth the drive.

I actually had to DECREASE the color saturation on these pictures, because the flowers were so yellow and the sky was so blue it hurt my eyes. Real life, how can you be so gorgeous?!

Lyman Orchards offered free maze tickets to several Connecticut bloggers and I was lucky enough to score them for our family, but no compensation was received and we paid for our food and blueberries.  The sunflower maze runs until August 25th and I highly recommend it!

Our week was busy, except for when it wasn’t because of the pouring rain and flash floods. But mostly busy.

Sunday:

I mean, I only have three doll houses, why not buy another one? (I did not)

Caroline is destined for music videos with lots of mind machines

I appreciate how the trees on the point hide most of the nuclear power plant. More scenic.

Monday:

I’ve never actually seen the state capitol before

Confucius say: Give a man $120 and he will give you an LLC.

Sometimes I take pictures of stuff I want to remember to keep on my phone, but then I forgot to leave them on my phone.

Tuesday:

The local tax office is located in part of an old TB hospital.

HUGS

We love the sunflowers

Wednesday:

Really excited for gymnastics

Playdates make me hungry, and this was super delicious

I told Evan he is my photography assistant, and he said that means he has to push the stroller.

Thursday:

Grocery store in the pouring rain

Destroying the house and having pillow fights in the pouring rain

Watching Thor in the pouring rain

Friday:

Princess Sadface returns

Five kids under a table.

Despite that face, the rainbow ice was delicious.

Saturday:

Home run!!

I never should have showed her how the front-facing camera works.

Restarted C25K. This time I am determined to finish.

The urgency to do as many things and have as much fun as possible before summer is over has hit. I was actually grateful for a rainy miserable day to stay home and relax (even though we ended up having friends over and totally wearing out my kids). July is almost over and August is going to FLY by and then Evan starts 5 days a week morning pre-k, which I am both totally ready and not at all ready for. They grow up so fast, etc etc, but I’m looking forward to a new stage where I have a lot more time to focus on things I love (especially photography) instead of just being Mommy.