Berry Picking on the 4th of July with Grandparents

We went to Smith's farm this year for the 4th.  They had live music, a BBQ and farm animals for the kids to feed.

Kins and Sadie were pros at berry picking.  They spent a good portion of time walking around giving others advice on how to find the best berries.

Even though the girls were all decked out in patriotic clothes on Sunday, today they insisted on these outfits.  Sadie was all matchy with Minnie clothes and she even did her own hair.

Hite loved being out picking berries too.

After picking our fill of berries we order hot dogs and sat down to enjoy some jazzy music.

Happy 4th of July!

Spontaneous Hagg Lake Trip

Saturday July 1st we were super productive and we worked really hard all morning and afternoon, doing a bunch of stuff that amounts to very little.

Then I took Dakota for a walk and noticed a lot of boats headed to the lake.  So I came home and mentioned it to Wes.

40 minutes later we were loaded up and on our way to the lake!

The kids swam.  Kinsley and Sadie mastered kayaking.  Hite mastered jumping ship and "swimming" back to shore.

Caleb enjoyed throwing rocks from the shore and eating food.

It was super relaxing and the best idea ever!

Summer Day 12-15 Library, Electronics, Library

Monday we went to the library.  I swore I'd never go again with all the kids but it's summer, what can you do?  Leave them home and pick out books for them? ...actually that's not a bad idea.

Upon checkout (the absolute worst part of the library with kids) my account stopped checking out my books.  So I took them to the service desk to figure out why.

Turns out I had reached my limit of books checked out.  100!  What?  That's embarrassing.  I need to see if I can find them all.  Haha!

Tuesday:  Yesterday I checked out the last two books in a series written by Kiera Cass called the Selection.  They are totally geared towards teenage girls.  Try not to judge.  Anyways, I stayed up until 1am Monday night, er Tuesday morning reading them. But I wasn't done.  So I caved and turned on a movie for the kids to watch.  It was considered lame by the two oldest who went to play with friends instead of watching possibly the one movie of the summer and Hite fell asleep.  So just Sadie and Kins watched the movie.  I feel kind of guilty about caving less then two weeks into Summer but I guess we could turn it around and count the 12 whole days I didn't carve!

Thursday: Found us back at the library:  You know you've given up all hope of sanity when you find yourself at the library, on your own with six kids twice in a week.  At checkout my account was locked again.  Don't worry we returned some books.  Back to the service desk again, to discover that we returned a book without a CD.  I didn't remember seeing that book, let alone the CD.  The kids claimed their never was a CD.  Wes (whom I called) said he might have read the kids the book but didn't remember a CD.  So they "noted" my account.  Call me paranoid but I totally can imagine the things people write when they "note" accounts.  This specific one probably reads, "Mother with gaggle of kids and multiple piles of books "claims" ____book didn't have CD to begin with.  Doubtful.  She looks frazzled.  Does she realize one of her kids is wandering towards the exit right now?"

Friday: Found the CD.

Summery Day:9-11 (Rock Creek Reservoir Camping)

This weekend we went camping at Rock Creek.  It's on the East side of Mt. Hood.  I grew up camping there just about every summer.

It was fun to take the kids somewhere I was familiar with and get to show them all the fun things I used to do when I was their age.

My dad and stepmom Christine, my Uncle Richard and his wife, Rebecca came also.

It was by far the best camping trip we have taken with the kids to date.

They were perfect little angels the entire time.  I'm being serious.  I have no idea what got into them but they were just perfect.  Except for Caleb who refused to sleep at night unless he was in his carseat in the car...poor Wes had to sleep in the car both nights.

Something extra fun about this camping trip was that we got to try out our new canoe and kid kayaks!  Sadie and Kins loved fishing.  They both caught the only two fish in the lake that anyone in our family caught.

Hite and Caleb weren't that into canoeing or fishing.  Caleb's lack of interest might have began about 5 minutes into the first canoe trip when he fell head first out of the canoe and into the lake.  Baby heads are kind of heavy, you know.

So the two boys and me went exploring while the girls fished.  We found a little spring and Hite LOVED playing in it, even though it was freezing cold water.

After the girls came back we showed them our little discovery and we spent a good portion of the afternoon playing in the spring.  Wes and I collected pine cones and sent them down the spring for the kids to collect.  It was pretty much effortless fun.

Later I went fishing with the kids which I hated.  Seriously.  I have no idea how my dad fit four kids into his little boat and had five lines out and kept both his calm and the motor going.  I was losing my mind with just two lines out and trying to row.  I ended up giving up on fishing.  I just rowed to shore and had the kids jump out of the boat, swim to shore and then I'd pick them back up.  On repeat about 20 times.

 Our kids were filthy, free and happy the whole weekend. 

This is a little pre camping picture.  The kids were waiting on the porch for dad because they were so excited and couldn't wait one more second!  They also packed the entire contents of their rooms before I told them they could only pick 1 blanket, 2 books and 3 toys each.  You should have seen it.  Their floors were covered with piles of what they thought they were taking.  Ha!

  

Summer: Day 2

Today was by far better then yesterday.

We woke up, skipped chores, workbooks and went to the library.

Yes,  I took all six of my kids to the library.

No one hit the big display glass (which always elicits a shout from the librarians of, "Don't Touch The Glass!").

No one had a meltdown about getting to check out their own books.

No one even tried running out the doors before everyone else was leaving.

Though I can't figure out why Caleb always seems to save pooping in his diaper for the library...

In the evening Wes and I went on a "date" to go watch Novalee dance in her, end of the year dance performance.  

It was soooo nice to just sit and relax for a while.  

I take excellent selfies.  ;)

You might be wondering about this pose. 

 I think my dad secretly, not so secretly wants to be a Rockette.

He may or may not have hinted at really wanting to get up on the stage and dance with the kids.

Novalee was so super cute dancing.  

It looked like we were going to wrap up the day on a high note but then we realized we had missed a call from the babysitter.  

It's never a good sign when the babysitter calls.

Tomorrow the kids will be writing apology letters.

 

Summer: Day 1

Today began the time of year that I both look forward to and dread at the same time.  

Summer Break.

This year, we, I decided that we were going to have an electronic free Summer.  

Just kidding.  

My kids think I'm being mean and punishing them.

But it rained so much this winter and the kids spent so SO much time inside watching TV or playing tablets.  By the end of "The Continual Downpour of 2017" I was so sick of hearing them fighting over whose turn it was next.  Sick of turning off the TV and getting to listen to them gripe that they didn't get enough time watching TV.  So sick of them acting like I was torturing them when I actually asked them to help out around the house.

So yesterday before the last day of school got out I hid the tablets and remotes.  

Mwahaha!

This morning started out well.  I fed them.  We cleaned up a bit and then we worked on Summer workbooks.  

Look how good the day began.

But it didn't end well.  

Not at all.

Sadie whined all day like a broken record about the time limit I set to work on Summer workbooks being too short.  She was on constant repeat about it.

It rained which meant no electronic and no outside play.

Sadie, Kinsley and Hite were crazy.  So crazy! They were running around downstairs from one end of the house to the next slamming into the walls and screaming and roaring at each other.  

About every 2 minutes I had to get Caleb off the table.  He has learned how to push chairs that have been pulled away from the table so he doesn't use them to climb, back to the table.  And also how to set them upright when we put them on their sides.  It has become futile to even try stopping him.

After lunch I asked Novalee to put away her laundry.  I just happened to go in at one point and discovered a bunch of clothes, dirty and clean, that she has been storing in a corner between two dressers with a bunch of other stuff.  Not a big deal except she recently brought home from school, one of the biblical plagues the Pharaoh of Egypt was struck with.  

So then I felt like I needed to wash a bunch more things to hopefully eliminate being struck with the plague again. 

Plus vacuum their rooms and beds.  

It just took time.  

Time I was planning on using to enjoy the summer with the kids, not clean

Then before I knew it, it was dinner time:  

Hurry make dinner.

Kiss my husband hello and goodbye.

Go to work. 

Come home.

Go to bed.

No electronics day 1.  

No fun for anyone.

Getting Old

Today I found not one but two grey hairs on my head

. 

 That's fine.

  However, the kicker was that they were completely grey from root to tip. 

My hair is long.  

Which means they've been grey a long, long, LONG time.

Which means, I'm old.  

On a related note, yesterday while running back to my car for something I forgot, I could hear my knees creaking. They were loud.  Loud enough I could hear them over the sounds of other people talking, the slapping of my feet on the pavement and cars.  

Getting old sucks.