So Long Spring, Hello Summer

Here's my grab bag post finishing off the Spring and heading into Summer.  Liv keeps asking me to take pictures of her doing various things and post it to instagram.  This was one such occasion.  I was visiting teaching and Staycee Hutchings has these two cute little dogs that my kids were loving since they were small enough of them to pick up and carry around the room.  Liv loved that this little dog was giving her licks and wanted it posted to instagram.

One May day it got cold again after finally getting warm and we had some snow flurries.  Camden was so excited for the snow and suited up to go play in it.  Snow suit and all even though there was little more than a dusting on the grass.

One afternoon the kids got creative.  Liv made a little rail friend and Camden made Carter (who was asleep an missed out on the festivities).  Camden smiled and told me, "And I only colored on the wall a little bit."


This picture cracks me up.  I caught Camden sitting this way, and he said "Look Mom, I'm doing how they sit in China."

One evening at the Thorsted's they boys delightedly rode around on their little 4 wheeler.  Camden insisted on driving the whole time and Carter was happy to be driven (luckily).

One crazy day when it wasn't that warm.  The boys were thrilled to run in the sprinklers.  I thought they were crazy, but they had fun.

 The first real hot day this year both my boys passed out of the couch in the afternoon after playing hard in the sun.

I hit my 1 year mark since knee surgery.  Felt huge.  And I do feel like my knee is mostly back to functioning normally.  I mean I don't think I will get out on the indoor soccer field anytime soon, but I can hike and run and do just about everything now.  I don't feel like I have to brace for impact every time my kids get near my knee and remind them that I have a bad knee.  In short, I don't have a  bad knee anymore!

Derek and I ripped out some rose bushes along our front fence and while Derek wanted to replace them with sod to avoid having to weed there anymore, I begged him to let me plant flowered.  I am loving everything we planted there and was thrilled when this first ornamental poppy opened up.

Derek and I considered not planting our huge garden plot this year since he was down an arm, but luckily Jedd and Sandy Maylett offered to help plant if they could reap the benefits of our garden.  So, the fully garden plot with lettuce, kale, spinach, peas, carrots, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, and peppers.  They even helped lie down the drip system while Derek stood by and ordered us around from the sidelines.  All the plants have really taken off!  It should be a good garden year.

The warm weather has Liv begging to do a lemonade stand every day.  I hate lemonade stands and guilting our neighbors into contributing, but she was so excited that I folded, two days in a row.  After the second day I banned lemonade stands for the rest of the summer upon learning that a neighbor girl had stole a bunch of money from her brother to buy lemonade from Liv.

I like to work with the kids every summer on letters and math and reading just so they don't forget what they spent all the time in school learning.  And, I also decided that they are all old enough to significantly help me with chores.  So, the night before the first official day of no school I had all the kids help me make these little cookie sheet chore charts.  We bought cookies sheets at the dollar store, printed off a little to do/done sheet from online and used the clear rocks and magnets I already had to make magnets for each of the chores around the house.

Every night I put the tasks the kids have to complete before earning Ipads, tablets, TV, movies for the day.  So far they think it is fun and I am loving all the assistance I am receiving around the house.  Their favorite thing to have to do is "learning time".  Hurray!