What time is it?

SUMMERTIME! I couldn't resist answering DD1's question that way this afternoon. (I do apologize to any High School Musical knowing people who will have that song stuck in their head the rest of the day....) I always have big plans, ideas for activities, learning experiences, fun outings.... We purposely have not scheduled anything in the summer besides swim lessons and softball games, all finished by the fourth of July. Downtime and fun time, that's the goal for the summer. The routine book will be out every morning, just to keep things in shape and make sure we can make it out of the house before 11 am. An early summer tradition has been to have each child make a summer list. A list all their own filled with activities they want to do during the summer. The list is not a guarantee of anything, only a guide and a way to look back in Mid August and see, yes, we DID do things things this summer. So far there is swim, camp out with friends, bike rides, State Fair, ice skating, fishing, and birthday parties (we have a lot of Summer birthdays in our family). Looks good to me....a few things I have on my list include reading programs, regular family time in the garden to keep the weeds under control, shrinky dinks, reading to the girls from a book picked out together (maybe the little house books), teaching each older child 2-3 recipes they can master and make without (much) help and allowing some guest blogging if they are so inclined. The first 1/2 day is over, a summertime to go.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is My Mom's birthday. My Dad sent me this photo from the time they had with ds last week. The same gentle hands that held and comforted me are now doing the same for my babies. I am so blessed and thankful to have my Mom near me and my family. Happy Birthday Mom, here's to a wonderful 2009 and many more. I love you.

Reaching the limit....

I think the tire swing was close to reaching it's load limit, but not the kids. They could have hung around for much more bouncing, running, digging, climbing and haunting, but it was time for lunch! We took our family and 3 of dd1's friends to the pumpkin farm for some birthday agritainment. (for those unfamiliar with that term, basically, fun on the farm or how some farmers supplement their income....) It's 10 days until her official birthday, but with no school and no work for Paperman, it worked for us. We had beautiful weather, exhausted kids and dd1 said it was just what she wanted, so the day goes down as a success. Happy almost birthday!(dd3 was not crying in the photo, just saying something like "pumpkin farm" that gave her that look of ahhhhhh!)

Happy Birthday Nephew!

Happy Birthday to you, remember Jesus loves you, he made you so special, Happy Birthday to you! (This is dd3's special version of Happy Birthday, which she insists on singing, by herself, at nearly every birthday party. Sing on sister!) Five is cool. Have a happy day tomorrow and every day.

The kids and I spent the morning and part of the afternoon celebrating our godson's (nephew #3) fifth birthday. He is a Thomas, dinosaur, snake loving boy. It was fun to get all the kids together and see the other half of my family also. The kids got to play with 2/3 of their cousins. The other 1/3 came to our house tonight for pizza. He's almost 15 and we don't get to see him nearly as often as we like or used to. Something about friends and sports that take up his time now. So much for little cousins and aunts and uncles.