With everything that we had going on in the summer, I'm going to compile it all into one post to save me the headache. First, I'm going to say that we've had an awesome summer! The kids have been so much fun and every year gets better and better. This is the first summer that I've been able to leave Cams home with the kids for an hour so I can go to the store, or somewhere quick. That in itself is so huge for me. I really lucked out having girls first who love watching the little kids and are so excited about babysitting.
At the beginning of June, I gave my kids this schedule for every day of the week:
Monday - Make something
Tuesday - Go somewhere
Wednesday - Friends Day
Thursday - Library
Friday - Free Day
I must say it worked out quite nicely. They looked forward to everyday and it seemed that we actually stuck to it while we were home. Lucy especially loved it because we had some of her friends over from school and she felt like she was on top of the world. She has some sweet little friends and I'm glad they'll be together next year. Along with this schedule and their daily chores, I gave my kids 6 media coupons they could use throughout the week. This allowed them to play on any tech device for 30 minutes at a time. So they would go over to their chart, grab a coupon, bring it to me, then set the timer. Once their time was over, the knew they were done and it was never a struggle to get them off. However, the tricky part was that since they only had 6/week, they had to use them wisely and as you can tell form the picture, Lucy doesn't have any of her coupons because she would use them within 2 days and then the rest of the week she was out of luck. This system was great because it didn't make me the bad guy! They were completely in charge of themselves.
As far as other things the kids had going on, we always have swim team. That's a staple. I don't know why my kids are such water people, but they are! They love to swim and they're really good at it. Maybe it's because they're a foot taller than everyone else their age right now, but that will change soon enough. Here is Kendyl showing her excitement for her swim races. Her best strokes were freestyle, butterfly, and backstroke. Cams' best strokes were backstroke and breastroke. Lucy loved freestyle and butterfly. She is one strong kid, too. They had the top times in the city in a few of their strokes. Even though John was not a fan of the 110 degree swim meets, I thrived on them and loved seeing my girls compete.
More swimming with our neighbors Keelee and Brinna.
And of course, doctor appointments with our favorite Dr. Chang. As you can tell, he really loves our kids and I think he's a very good doctor.
The girls did a sewing camp with Kaits and loved it so much they came home and made their own projects. We now have headbands for every outfit. This is a great skill they will use throughout their life.
Bo Bo turned 18 months this month and is finally ready for nursery. He went a couple times up at the cabin and didn't have a problem. Hopefully, this continues in our ward. He's been such a pleasant kid and so easy to have around.
Benny had his 4th birthday in June and he scored on some awesome BYU football gear. I actually had bought him some toys a while back and hid them in our house but when I went to wrap them the night before, I couldn't find them so this is all he got. I guess I hid them a little too well. Still can't find them.
Big news for Cams is that she finally is an official member of the Brace Face Club! I think she looks really cute in them.
Some more lazy days of summer activities included card towers and Kendyl showing Lucy how to make the 'perfect' bed. Kendyl has my mom's OCD disorder with this kind of stuff. Maybe I have a little too.
Next up was the Arnett reunion in Richfield, UT. The Ahlstrom reunion was also scheduled for this same weekend up in Morgan, UT but we couldn't drive 7 more hours with our young kids. Sorry Dad. I felt bad about that.
After the reunion, we came home for a week, then headed up to the cabin. This is my kids' favorite place to be in the summer. This summer there was a ton of kids up there including the Geigles, Gurrs, Beagleys, Kings, Woods, and Denise Palmer's kids. Every night there would be night games so everyone would change into their dark clothes and play 'X On' and Follow the Judge. I loved sitting in the cabin hearing the kids run around screaming and laughing their heads off.
One of the nights for FHE, we had our favorite train guy come and speak to us about being a Sergeant in the Navy for 25 years. He and his wife's names are Rex and Sam Nichols. In their front yard, they had an amazing train setup that the kids thought was a dream come true. Benny and Bo couldn't get enough. It was neat to hear his experiences in the navy.
Bo was a wanderer at the cabin. Many times I would find him at the playground in his diaper or hanging out with the older cousins at various spots. This little kids loves to wave at everyone. Seriously, any car that drives down the road he waves. It's a crack up! Not my child for sure. After 2 weeks, we came home and now it's time to get ready for school. Boo. John and I are sure lucky to have these fun kids as our own. What a great summer.
