Summer Fun to Birthday Fun
We began our summer break with a trip to my parents for my grandfather's funeral. Daddy Tom had suffered a stroke 6 months earlier, and it had been a hard half-year for him, for my grandma DeeDee, and for others in the family helping take care of him. So, although death is always sad, we were at peace knowing he was free from his physical suffering. We enjoyed time visiting with family we don't see often enough, remembering good times and funny times, and taking pictures.
My brothers have the best memory. I laughed with them, but struggle to remember things like they do!
Later that night it got really full when my aunts and uncles and as many of their kids and families that could join us were there!
Jacob's on a quest to get Gideon to like him.
Gideon (like several of mine) is not the crowd-loving type, and was not happy about the noise. Kristen's a favorite and he found solace with her. (Safely away from Jacob's annoyance and his older cousins' craziness.)
Thank goodness for technology during boring things for little guys (like a funeral).
These are all of my boy cousins except 2 - one's on a mission, and one died 12 years ago. (Hopefully that grandson greeted Daddy Tom as he stepped through the veil into the Spirit World.)
Some of the great-grandchildren sang and played songs during the visitation time to entertain themselves. They looked for songs in the available hymnbooks that were familiar to them from ours.
Once we got home, we began our summer break "as planned." Usually I plan summer starting around spring break, but this summer just snuck up on us!
One of our recently made plans was a weekly summer music series that began with Rob and Kaitlyn.
To watch individual videos, the entire series (that we add to each week), or to subscribe and get notified, go to our channel!
The first full week of summer break we repainted the downstairs bedroom and then finished the week helping Rob's parents (who are making their first relocation move in 30 years!) It's a big job, but we put in lots of effort for the 2-3 days we were there helping to purge, pack, sell, and haul away in preparation for them to move.
We were exhausted at the end of that week, but feeling very accomplished!
We painted Monday and Tuesday during naptime (Trim one day and walls the next.) Everyone home helped, even Alee (as assistant).
Seth's attention to detail was not so perfect for painting, but he has the height for hardware installation that we needed.
Much more serene with a fresh coat of paint and furniture rearranged.
Carolyn loves it. (We did remove the white dresser and put her real dresser there later.)
I didn't really take before-and-after pictures of our work with Rob's parents; we were all too busy working! :) But we got some downtime pictures:
Eggs up Grill has fun waffles that Kaitlyn loves.
Ready to record and photograph!
Happy Father's Day!
The 2nd full week of summer started with an invitation (a plea) to keep a neighbor's bunny for the week. This wasn't part of my original summer plan, but I felt I should, so we did. The kids no longer beg for pets of this type. :)
It was adorable, but we swept the areas we let it run about 3 times a day!
We had a nice surprise from Memere for helping the previous weekend. Mmmmm....
The library and its activities are always a big part of our summer. We are in a weird phase where most of our kids are completely in the teen program, but still have 1-2 in the kids interested in the childrens' programs. Some weeks we are the library multiples times and other weeks just once.
We have more that we're trying to get done, so the daily fun is not so much daily this summer as when they were younger and we had a posted summer calendar. I am trying to give each an afternoon to choose a board game everyone is required to play (for at least an hour). Seth chose Monopoly (Carolyn was grumpy about this.) Kaitlyn chose Life (we played with Seth and Carolyn were at Youth Conference so I didn't have to deal with more grumpy).
We've had a few zoo trips - one on our own, one with extended family while Seth and Carolyn were at Youth Conference, and another the following week (specifically to see animals and not to have water fun included to deal with).
Gideon loves cars!!!
We now have a swim shirt AND a swim suit that fits.
Natalie now also has a swimsuit that fits. (Gideon's reusable swim diapers came in the next day.)
Alee gets cousin time - a tween library activity cooking followed by a sleepover.
Gideon was sad to see the bunny go home at the end of the week; I can't say I shared his feelings. It was cute, but I was happy to have my kitchen stay clean longer.
We ended that week visiting Rob's parents new apartment. (They will finish moving in this month. They brought up a few boxes and let us swim in the pool there to enjoy more relaxed time than the previous weekend!) :)
It's beautiful.
Time to tackle my own house! The twins have moved into the room over the garage (which has been both a playroom and a bedroom for Alee and Kaitlyn), but since Carolyn moved downstairs and Alee and Gideon moved to her old room, we moved Natalie out of Carolyn's and into Kaitlyn's. It's been a bedroom for a while for K & A, and the twins have been sharing for over a month, but the room has been holding on to too much of the playroom set up and has not yet had form or function! That's our goal this week; to find some of both!
Before:
After (so far):
Seth and Carolyn leaving for Youth Conference (her first):
The normal every day nap time routine. (Because Natalie helped me with it today I was able to snap a photo of this daily ritual.)
Their youngest is almost 3 months older than our youngest.
Our zoo trip - the one with extended family. Sadly, the water splash area was mostly shut down for reflooring (which was one of the main reasons we picked the zoo for our activity). We still had fun, but we would not have brought along all our water-related stuff!
Our 3rd summer zoo trip - just to see animals! (Baby Flamingo!)
However, after this trip, Gideon said his favorite animal was goat! They have a new petting zoo that we get into free with our wristband zoo passes.
I think I was pushing it too far that day because after the zoo, I repainted some white bookcases (being moved from twins room to the den on either side of the fireplace), and I decided while I was already messy and in gloves with paint, I might as well start on my bathroom update. So I painted the bathroom cabinets that day too. The kids are so helpful the older they get. I couldn't do all these projects unless they were doing parts of them with me.
(And then we helped a friend that's moving later that evening unload a trailer.) In case you're thinking what I think you're thinking, yes, we were very tired and did mostly nothing on Wednesday.
We did have an outdoor movie night where we invited friends on Wednesday (4th of July Eve).
We had a laid back Independence day -
Roman Candles and Sparklers
We finished the week with the older kids going to the temple (and getting to see my aunt/uncle and my parents), and remembering my cousin Noah. He would have been 18 this summer.
Practicing for our next Summer Music Series performance...with our "diy mute" for Rob's instrument.
week 5: This Little Light of Mine
We found a little one at Publix and added on the "race track" with candies, banner, car, and candles. Mom and Carolyn found the idea on Pinterest I think. The car didn't make it to dinner. Gideon climbed up and took it off to play with it; it was part of his present from her. Then he wanted to put it back on the cake! AFTER he'd driven it all over the floors and walls! We had to put the cake up until cake time.
Gideon has been living it up...birthday - unlimited screen time, pacifier while out of bed, and pizza for dinner.
Cars are the biggest favorite this year. He walks around holding them to his chest, and when offered help carrying them, he says "Keep it."
(The cars actually came from grandparents (his and mine).
We got him the toy drill plus a cheap ukulele and plastic ocarina - all things he tries to take from other family members. The musical things will become favorites as he has his own over time, but the cars and drill are immediate happy.
(He also got clothes, including the one he's wearing.)
Plus whatever is in his "box" that his other grandparents have for him.
Happy 2nd Birthday, Gideon!
Quotes of the month:
At first Gideon was excited about the bunny, then scared of the bunny, then liked it, but only when someone else was around with him. Mostly, I think the bunny was scared of him. But Alee was very hesitant about the bunny, so Gideon walked around saying, "Alee scared bunny." (Sounded like Owie sked bunny.) It irritated her, and I think that's why he kept repeating it.
When we went to the zoo, at each animal he liked, Gideon reached out and said, "Hold it."
"Seth knows everything about Marvel. Carolyn knows everything else."
(Natalie says)
Word of the month: "Dangerous"
Word of the month: "Dangerous"
I'm trying to teach Gideon what dangerous means. It's not going so well, and he's adventurous with the occasional "scared."
Gideon's most said phrases this last month are "So cute!" (about everything tiny or moving), "So scary..." (about everything new and different or loud), and "Keep it" (to everyone that might try to take his beloved possessions - which is whatever is currently in his hands).
He has also started giving commands to his sisters. That is funny to watch.
Gideon's most said phrases this last month are "So cute!" (about everything tiny or moving), "So scary..." (about everything new and different or loud), and "Keep it" (to everyone that might try to take his beloved possessions - which is whatever is currently in his hands).
He has also started giving commands to his sisters. That is funny to watch.
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