Summer 2013

When people ask me what we've been doing this summer, I've been answering by saying that we haven't been doing much. Just staying home and playing a lot. We opted for a "staycation" this year because we just bought a new house and haven't sold our other one and are trying to save money when we can. 

At the beginning of the summer, I was determined to make each and every day filled with educational, artistic, memorable activities straight from my Pinterest "For the Kids" board. However, a couple of weeks in, I came to the realization that my kids don't need/expect that anymore than I feel motivated to actually do it. I took all of the pressure off myself and decided to go with the flow and follow my kids' lead. What resulted was one of the best summers I can remember having. This post is written for the purpose of preserving these memories, and hopefully to remind me next year to stop over planning and just enjoy life as a mom. Here is how our summer went...

Lots of sweet surprises and helpfulness from Aly. She's grown up a lot in the last couple of months.

Watching Friday night fireworks from the playroom window

Splash Park fun

Trying to potty-train...without much success. 

Waiting for, chasing, and trying to flag down the ice cream man, who apparently had something against driving down our street.

An indoor camp out 

Lots of time at the water table

Lots of games

Lots of fun at CLC's Summer Xtreme Week

Lots of fort building.

Lots of throwing pennies into fountains, which excites Luke more than just about anything.

LOTS of ice cream!

Lots of fun times with friends!

Lots of trips to the library

Lots of movies, in the theater and at home

Lots and lots of silliness!! 

Luke spent most of the summer wearing nothing but flip flops and a "swim biaper".

Daddy's day off usually means we're going to have fun. One day we decided to go to the zoo on a whim! 

We have spent countless hours playing in our new playroom. We are so thankful God blessed us with a new house that meets all of our needs.

After we lost our sweet dog, Durango, Aly said she didn't want another dog. After lots of research, and lots of waiting, we finally brought Hedgie the Hedgehog into the family.

She's very low maintenance, yet provides hours of entertainment.

A new pet means lots of trips to the Pet Store, which Lukey didn't mind one bit.

We went to Silver Dollar City during the most beautiful summer weekend you could imagine.

Slip-n-Slide, which at our house should be called a "Sit-n-Splash"

We finally got a trampoline!

We spent a wonderful, relaxing 4th of July at home. We live close enough to a nearby ballpark that we got to watch fireworks from our driveway.

We finally ditched the high chair and learned to drink from a big boy cup.

Lots of all-day-in-our-pajamas days

Lots of "cool dudes", aka sunglasses.

Lots of sibling snuggle time.

My goals for the summer were to get Luke potty-trained, break him of his puppy that he carries everywhere, and get him to sleep in a big boy bed. I guess one out of three ain't bad?

Luke's long therapy days meant donut mornings with my girl! I love having one-on-one girl time with her.

Aly had her first sleepover with someone she isn't related to! She's growing up way too fast!

We spent too many days to count at the park by our new house. Almost every time we get in the car Luke says, "Wanna go swing?"

Donny and I had a weekend away in NYC. He was there for work and I met him for the weekend. This was probably my favorite trip we've ever taken without kids. 

Luke turned 3!!

Now it's time. Time for decorating the classroom, packing lunches, early mornings and busy evenings. It's been such a great summer, but who's to say the school year can't be just as memorable? I'm determined to take the Pinterest mom pressure off of myself this school year and to just enjoy life. It's ok if I have to order pizza because I'm just too tired to cook. It's ok if my house is a mess. It's ok if we skip a bath or stay up just a little too late sometimes. I'm just going to love on them when we're home and live in the moment as much as possible. It's going to be a great year!