Schooooooools out for summer! Good thing schools not out forever, or I would already be going insane. For now I’m planning to enjoy as much sleeping as possible.

Sunday:

E is baffled why ANYONE would lie in the horrible, horrible sand, let alone someone who shares his DNA

The weirdo that made him a father, celebrating Father’s Day at Chili’s.

Wizards in training

Monday:

Bed head

She insisted Baby Jesus needed to come to the post office with us

The princess demanded a strawberry coolata. Princesses run on Dunkin.

Tuesday:

Snacks in her chair are her new favorite.

Next year they will BOTH be getting on buses to go to school.

Monsters at the grocery store. MONSTERS.

Wednesday:

Both kids wanted to give the afternoon driver a present. They’re going to miss her.

Water slide party at Stay & Play!

Creepy baby watches you in the bath.

Thursday:

Morning puppet shows

Afternoon weridos in boxes

Evening photo assistants

Friday:

Stroller Strides in our AWESOME Cocoon X2. They love it.

Free Fanta Orange samples at BJ’s. You can see the crazy sugar high in her eyes.

MOAR MAGIC SPARKLERS

Saturday:

I went to a (sad) estate sale where everything left in the house was for sale. I wish there was a way to go back in after the new owners fix it up, it’s going to be GORGEOUS.

I bought a stool at the estate sale. They are insisting it is a table.

Chugging her lemonade while refusing her dinner.

Tomorrow we start summer (outside!) swim lessons with the kids in two separate classes. Evan will be with bigger kids who I hope will challenge him. He’s the kind of kid who sees someone doing something cool and immediately wants to know how soon he can do it too.

Tomorrow I also start putting the nursery together FOR REAL because I cannot have a baby when I have NOWHERE to put it. And I would really like to have a baby ASAP.  An outside baby would mean no more heartburn, which at this point is so bad I spend half the night staring at my bottle of Tums thinking “Oh, those kidney stones aren’t SO bad”. Plus after the actual getting-out part my pelvis wouldn’t hurt so much. You KNOW this is why nature makes the end of pregnancy so miserable – because it has to be BAD before you start hoping to push a watermelon out of your lady parts. I am ready for the watermelon.

I decided a little while ago my goal for 2015 is to apply for Pro status over at ClickinMoms. That gives me all of 2014 to improve and build a portfolio of work I love and am proud of – and because I just said it here, now I have to follow through. I’m also currently taking a class with the very talented Sallykate Photography so my camera is coming with me EVERYWHERE for the next few weeks. I’m hopeful I’ll have a newborn to practice on soon (PLEASE GOD LET ME HAVE A NEWBORN SOON) so I hope you like baby pictures.

These are all from two Sundays ago at Rocky Neck State Park, taken with my Nikon D600 and 50mm 1.4 Sigma lens. Editing in Lightroom only.

The beach was actually SUPER crowded and the water is brown because it was full of seaweed. It was also freezing. Neither kid cared. Also, Caroline loves sand. LOVES it. Rubbed her face in it. Weirdo.

Fun! Kidney stones! More fun! This week went by super fast, despite the break in the middle for allllllll the painkillers. It was the last full week of school too – Evan only has a few more days and then we’re all going to go work on our tans erry day.

Sunday:

Morning at the beach…

…afternoon in the sprinklers…

…evening at the playground. There was also lots of ice cream.

Monday:

Apparently this year we love the birds

She also loves the dumb 5 minute 4D version of Rio

Battles not worth fighting: Christmas jams in JUNE

Tuesday:

Guilty face

Lots of laying down because I wasn’t feeling great

Cuddles from this weirdo helped with the pain

Wednesday:

We have the same eyelashes

Our kid dentist is super fun

ALL THE DRUGS ARE BELONG TO ME

Thursday:

When your chart says “Clear liquids” this is the only edible thing they give you for breakfast.

There may have been a sliiiiight lack of supervision while I was in the hospital.

Friday:

Kindergarten orientation at his new big-kid school

She made a nest and passed out

Everyone wants to sit on Daddy

Saturday:

Who let this kid get so TALL? (Also pretend he’s not wearing the same clothes as yesterday. It’s another fight I’m not having.)

MORE couch naps. I have no idea what wore her out.

Evening walk to play with sparklers

We had a very nice Father’s Day (my husband just finished a rather large pitcher of mango margaritas) and I’m feeling much better. I have a couple of photo sessions this week that should be fun and easy and I have my fingers crossed I’ll get through the rest of this pregnancy problem-free. Technically I don’t HAVE to leave the house again until, like, September, so if I “waste” a few days lying on the couch while the kids watch Harry Potter movies we will all survive. Although like I said, the current plan is to beach it up as much as possible.

Today it is only in the 60’s and threatening to rain, but Monday was gorgeous so we went to the lake. The water was can’t-feel-your-toes freezing – almost as bad as the ocean this time of year – but the kids had a great time.

(Sidebar: The one zillion dollars I have spent on swim lessons so far is totally worth it for the peace of mind it brings me around the water. We’ll still be sporting those across-the-chest floaties for most of the summer, but the fact that both kids understand how to hold their breath, float on their back and get to the wall/shore means I can actually ENJOY going to the lake instead of freaking out the entire time about the very presence of water more than 1 inch deep. I plan to continue throwing money at our swim lessons all summer.)

We were not the only people there. Evan actually ran into a friend from school and that friend has some siblings/friends for Caroline plus their favorite baby-friend Baby Charlotte came too. I like this lake in May. by July it’s crowded and trashed (because it is free and has lots of parking and people are jerks) so we’ll be at the real shoreline beach with everyone else.

I spent the last 3 days attached to my real camera – between shooting and editing and messing around with my equipment it was a very photography filled weekend. I’m totally feeling it tonight though. Taking pictures requires a lot of crouching and stretching and bending and balancing and walking and carrying furniture out into an orchard (ok, maybe you don’t HAVE to do that last one) and I’ve reached critical mass in my pregnancy. Meaning my legs and back are DEFINITELY critical of my mass and shout at me.

Sunday:

Someone is a little wired on candy at 8 am.

Walking to church helps burn off a sugar high

OH NO I GOT FROSTING ON MY DRESS I BETTER LICK IT OFF BECAUSE I HAVE NOT HAD ENOUGH SUGAR TODAY

Monday:

Running errands

Running away

The only angle at which my room looks semi-clean

Tuesday:

Peeps donut is ridiculous.

OMG A STICK I LOVE STICKS (I think Caroline might be a dog)

My pale, pale feet finally have pretty spring nail polish

Wednesday:

My only picture from Wednesday. The whole day was a bit of a blur (BA DUM CHING)

Thursday:

These are her friends who we have to bring with us everywhere all the time. It’s not annoying at all.

HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT TARGET WITH THAT FACE YOUNG MAN

Dinner = world’s easiest tomato sauce

Friday:

Caroline and I had a morning adventure

Ordering her sandwich all her own self

My children are very attractive.

Saturday:

Just looking at this picture makes me want another cheeseburger.

Calibrating my camera lenses made me insane, but is hopefully worth it.

She was SO whiny we suggested she just go take a nap…and she agreed. That is a tired child.

I am going on vacation this week. REAL vacation. The kind where I do not have to wipe anyone’s butt or clean up powdered sugar someone has dumped all over the kitchen. Even better, it’s for the Mom 2.0 Summit conference in Atlanta, where I get to see some of my favorite people, meet some writers I really admire and go to fancy parties.

Obviously being 6 months pregnant puts a damper on both cocktails and fancy shoes, but NOT doing mom-stuff for 3 days is just the break I need (so. much. whining.) before I have ANOTHER small person to take care of. I might actually skip half the conference just to sleep and/or eat yummy southern food.