Summer Days

It seems we have finally settled into a summer routine.  Expectations are in place and amazingly life is settling down a bit.  We still have lots of talks about emotions and how we react and deal with situations and boundaries are still stretched and pushed but for the most part we are at least on the same page!  I find that the kids are a great source of power...cleaning power that is!  Everyone has assigned jobs...mostly ones I don't like and are finally to the point where they will get them done early morning without too much nagging, although it is still hard for me not to re-sweep the floor or re-wipe counters after they supposedly completed them.  Andrea is my animal care person she does a great job and was so concerned she ran out of dog food while I was out of town...mainly not for the dogs but because she couldn't complete her jobs.  Thankfully we don't have a turtle to care for.  Worm hunting is not always easy!  It has been quite a saga and after about 2 weeks of turtles the last one finally made a huge escape-with I believe some help from the dogs.
   After getting work done around the house I then take them and put them to work at the old house.  I call them my "work crew"  Becca told me to enjoy because when she was going to be at camp my work crew was not going to be very good!  Brayden mows the lawn and the girls weed...which kind of back fired this week as they all got poison ivy.  It is amazing what we can accomplish in a morning-I am so thankful for their help...we are all motivated to sell the house.
   This week we have been having "tennis camp"  kind of funny but they love it. Basically just us on four courts( because no one else is crazy enouph to play when the sun is shining) chasing balls or Brayden trying to hit a 100 mile hour serve over three fences-but it tires everyone out. Today it rained and I told them camp was cancelled and they were all disappointed, until they remembered that chucky-cheese was a summer rainy day activity...much to my excitement.  Funny thing was that the girls really struggled at learning how to hit the ball, and I was ready to just let them play on the playground.  Both girls have lasted the longest on the court in the heat and usually want to stay while I am ready to hit the car and air conditioning!  James is usually a basket case, mostly because he is as competitive as Brayden and throws a huge fit every time he misses the ball.  His racket is old and the blue grip lets off all over his hands which then ends up all over his face with tear streaks running down by the time we leave-what a mess!
  The afternoons are spend trying to accomplish some sort of writing or reading, which usually turn into some sort of computer playing TV watching.  I realize I am horrible at cursive and need to look up many things on the Internet!  This week the library has given us things to do-science shows and a mentalist.  Ask Becca how a fork got bent in a closed bag which she was holding in her hand.  I had to buy more vinegar and baking soda after our last acid/base bag experiment-somehow they didn't quit blow up quite as big as the kids expected...  I am wondering how many kid crafts books they library has-I think Becca has checked out every single one.  This week it was all about making a bulletin  board for her pictures, lets just say none of us girls are very good with a hot glue gun!  Yesterday we all discovered what the 100 dollar monkey was, everyone is pretty much into the book (Summer of the Monkey's) but I realized it might be a bit much for James as just the description left him not wanting to sleep by himself that night.

Just listen to these kids....I call it nonsense noise and they do it all the time!

The days are full-the car is a mess and the kids are loud but we all sure have a lot of fun!  Much of our time the kids are a sweaty mess, Becca had me feel her hair yesterday because it was so crunchy...too much time in the pool (which was filled to the brim with 11 kids this week) These are a rare shot of all four with clean hair!

They are a goofy bunch, I never know what they game they are going to come up with-they love making movies of themselves.

Yes, most things focus on food. Donuts, ice-cream and slushies are usually the plea from the kids.  The pantry is full of snacks, and yes too much fruit can really be a problem.  We tried our hand at making some home-made donuts.  It was a two day process but the end results were delicious.

I think we are going to start a poll....who has the better slushies, QT, Josh's, or Sonic??