Hello Summer!

3 weeks left till schools out, cannot wait.

One of the things I LOVE about Texas is that all the neighborhoods have a community pool (It’s included in your HOA dues) so you can go as much as you want and it’s so convenient when you’ve got little kids.

I mean, what else are you going to do every day during the summer?

I remember the summer’s in Utah were just so annoying because if you wanted to take the kids swimming, you would have to pay each time and it was just a big process driving some place, etc. Here its so easy because its literally a block away, so we can come and go as we please.

I love it I love it I love it.

So, from now until about October when the pool closes, there will be a lot of pictures poolside.

Sorry, but it’s true.

Pierce is going to be the next Michael Phelps, you watch.
And look at these adorable pictures; these are only 10% of the ones I took.

Don't you just want to bite those chubby thighs?

I did.

Pierce sharing with his sister. Precious.







Char feels like such a big girl drinking a Capri Sun. Love it.

This was the best photo I could get because Cecily didn't get out of the pool once!



Who does she look like? We can't tell...

This is genius

This idea was stolen from my friend Emily who has a

fantastic blog, I love this girl.

So, as many of you may know I do a prize bucket with the kids. They can earn something out of the bucket if they obtain 10 ice cream scoops.

They can earn a scoop for completing their chores,

helping mom out,

good behavior at school & sports,

you get the idea.

Pretty much for anything.

Some of the prizes include a trip to Baskin Robbins (a favorite)

Stickers,

candy,

toys,

crap from the dollar store I don't feel bad throwing away after,

etc.

And this has been working quite well I must say.

All I have to do is threaten or bribe ice cream scoops and they shape up rather quickly. I love it. They love it.
What kid doesn’t like prizes? And who doesn’t like to be incentivized?

Duh.

My hands

Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small, and always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls. But everyday I’m growing, I’ll be grown up someday, and all those tiny handprints will simply fade away. So here’s a final handprint just so you can recall, exactly how my fingers looked when I was very small.

Yes I cried after reading that.

Cecily made this cute Mother's Day hand print thingy.

I loved it and she was so excited to give it to me.

I feel like I need to constantly be reminded of how fast they will grow up and to savor the moments, even the hard ones.

Today after school we

snuggled on the couch and watched re-runs of Olivia,

caught bugs,

painted nails,

layed out,

and played dolls.

I love this girl.

Great WOLF Lodge

Trips that are free make them oh so much better!

We got a 3 day, 2 night stay at Great Wolf Lodge and we had a blast!

It was almost as exciting as going to Disneyland for them. Cecily called it “The great big lodge” instead of wolf, it was so dang cute. We would ask her questions on purpose with the known answer of the great wolf lodge just to hear her say it the wrong way. We do that a lot with things she says that are wrong or backwards.

Love it.

So, this place is quite the kids place.

Everything is catered to children.

Everything.

Huge indoor water park

(and outdoor too but that doesn’t open till the end of the month) and tons of kid activities throughout the day at the hotel. We had the room from Monday till Wed but since the kids had school, we didn’t go all day, all three days.

On Monday I kept Pierce home from school and we checked in at about 2pm and swam until about 8pm. The kids were screaming down every single ride with the biggest constant grin on their face the entire day. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. I love seeing them like this.

My mom was kind enough to offer to watch Charlotte on Monday so that we could just take the older kids. They loved that all the attention was on them. After we got dressed to go home, we stayed for Storytime.

It was a cute animated story where the trees,

moose,

squirrels,

and people

came to life and talked and sang.

The kids did not make a move.

Then, they read the kids a story and had one of the wolves (Violet) come and say hi to the kids and take pictures with them.

It was cute.

On Tuesday the kids went to school and went to bball practice and that night, we packed up and took all the kids to swim for a few hours and stayed the night. Well, we were thinking how fun it was going to be to have a sleepover, watch a movie, make popcorn, stay up late, etc.

Sounds fun doesn’t it?

Well, it didn’t go quite as planned.

It was 11pm,

Charlotte wasn’t falling asleep,

the kids were picking on each other,

I burned the popcorn and our room smelled horrible,

and we were all exhausted.

Jake and I were getting impatient with Cecily and told the kids we were packing up and going home. They fell apart and soon after, calmed down and fell right asleep.

Jake and I were laughing about it all. Wow...

The beds & pillows were so uncomfortable and we slept horrible. There is just something about sleeping some place else. I never sleep the same if I’m somewhere else.

So. On to a new day...

Wednesday was going to be a full day of swimming. We went to Mimi’s for breakfast and then Jake had to run into work so I kept the kids all day long to swim. It was fun and they had a blast. I however, was exhausted! 4pm rolled along and I was done!

I was ready to go home and relax.

The kids fell asleep in the car 5 minutes into the drive, they’re bodies were just as tired too. 6 hours of non-stop swimming.

It was a fun 3 days.

Applecreek Picnic

Every year Applecreek does an end of the year picnic and it’s a pretty big deal. We went for just about an hour because Pierce’s soccer game was during the middle of it all but they were glad to have gone for just a little bit.

They had it at the Castle Park (that’s what we call it)

and it was full of bounce houses,

face painting and game booths,

different restaurants catered food,

and Disney characters to top it all off.

Sleeping beauty was a favorite of the kids’.

She was handing out silly bandz.

See, I told you.

You’d think my kids would be over them but they’re not. They don’t really wear them anymore but they still like them.

Kids had a great time.