Our End of Summer Stuff

Our summer break has officially come to an end. School has started and we are back into the normal hustle and bustle of life. This summer has been one for the books- really, I enjoyed pretty much every day of the whole three months. The kids had a blast, we did so many fun activities, spent great time together as a family, had fun with our friends and made a million new happy memories! 

Our "summer routine" was awesome this year. I told the kids they could leave their room at 6:45 am and go watch TV as long as they were quiet. This worked amazingly well. Davis has been teething and just generally a crappy sleeper this month, so I was able to sleep in a little (7:00-7:15 usually) and it made a huge difference to me! After we were all up and had breakfast we went to the gym pretty much every morning. I checked the kids into the kids club and worked out with my friend Megan and it was awesome. Usually about once a week we'd have an adventure planned somewhere (museum, hike, zoo, etc.) so we'd skip the gym on those days. Otherwise we were really consistent.

After that we'd have time to play. Sometimes at home, sometimes with friends. Sometimes they kids played with Davis so I could get a few things done around the house. We all had lunch together (Chase asked that our normal 12:00 lunch time be moved to 11:30 because that's when he eats at school and he gets hungry. Sometimes I did, sometimes not). After lunch I'd put Davis down for his nap and then I did reading time with the other two. We read a lot of good books together this summer, highlight were "Little House on the Prarie" "Little House on the Banks of Plum Creek" and "Ramona the Pest". After reading time they got to watch TV and I got the mostly nap. It was awesome.

After naps the kids ALWAYS wanted to play with friends. Many days each week we grabbed some friends to go to the pool with. Sometimes we played with friends at home or their houses. Then we had dinner and did bedtime routines. The kids played so hard all summer that putting them to bed was no problem! They were always asleep within minutes of saying good-night.

This might seem tedious to write down all this stuff, but I just wanted to record it for my memory. I really loved these days! Enough structure to keep us going, but enough flexibility that I wasn't stressed like crazy and we had some good downtime. This summer has really been the best!

A few more things that actually got documented (I really didn't take many pictures this summer, I guess I just wanted to be more present enjoying my children than worried about getting the best shot of them).

Most days after TV time the boys had a popsicle on the porch. Almost always without Davis, but for some (messy) reason we included him this day. He was thrilled. He needed a bath promptly afterward.

I finally convinced Ben to go to the zoo with us one Saturday and it was possibly the best zoo day we've ever had. The older Davis gets the more excited he gets about every animal. Cute Hudson brought Seamore along so she could see her parents and uncle (A Seal and 2 Sea Lions- who were conveniently being fed and doing amazing tricks when we went by!). The animals were active and entertaining and there were employees all around to teach us things about the animals. We got there early and beat the heat and the crowds. It was some great quality family time! 

On our last week of summer, the boys reminded me that we hadn't made it to Hill Airforce Base yet. So we went. The big kids loved it. Davis realized he could sneak under the ropes around exhibits to run away from me (and I cannot slide under those ropes nearly as easily). After a fun and exhausting/stressful 45 minutes we called it a morning! It was fun and I'm glad we did it, I just probably won't be taking Davis back any time soon. 

We've had a few fun trips to the Discovery Museum with the Bennnetts this summer! I love that they have all these matching little boys for my boys to be friends with! I love this pictures of Davis and Brooks on the helicopter! They are only 2 weeks apart and cute little buddies. Their big brothers were all playing and running all over the place, so Alyse and I just stayed close to our babies.

We've spent some fun evenings playing soccer- getting Coach Ben and Chase ready for their soccer season. Our ball-loving baby loves to be included, but also makes it slightly harder.

And that's a wrap on Summer 2018! It really was an amazing time. I asked the kids several times what their favorite summer memory was, each time I got a different answer from there. There are just too many to choose from! 

A few of my Favorite Things

I like to use this space to record some of my favorite things about each of my little guys these days!

Chase:

I love Chase's zest for learning, it continues to astound me. Lately his obsession is the Lusitania and other disasters at sea. I love how he's always wanting to tell me what he has learned. I also love how Chase is such a wonderful older brother. He lets Hudson come play with him and his friends- it melts my heart to see them running off to play together and that he's happy to include him. There aren't many kids in the neighborhood Hudson's age, and there are a lot of kids Chase's age, so Chase just lets him tag along. He's also so sweet and helpful with Davis. He picks him up and carries him around, plays cute little games with him, and tries to make him happy when he's sad. Chase is such a great kid, I love watching the great person he's becoming.

Hudson:

Oh Hudson, this kid makes us laugh all the time. That is probably my #1 favorite thing about him right now. His sense of humor and comedic timing are the best (and his facial expressions when he knows he's being funny). I always talk about his imagination, but it really is the best. He has very involved imaginary games going all the time (just tonight he was in Star Wars world for over an hour, assigning everyone at our dinner party a different role to play and he stayed in character all night long). He's working so hard on reading right now and I'm so proud of him. Also, he does this thing where he furrows his brow and looks upwards while twisting his mouth that is so hilarious- he does it when he's thinking or trying to show that he's mildly disappointed in you.

Davis:

I could go on and on about all my favorite things about Davis right now. One of them for sure is every time I go get him out of his crib. He meets me with the cutest smile, and then immediately runs to the other side of the crib to tease me like he doesn't really want to get out. Then once I pull him out, he always snuggles into me for a short love. It's really the best! Also, he does this little trick that makes us all laugh. We count to three and then he plops right on his bum! He'll do it over and over and I don't know how it doesn't hurt him! We call it "doing a Davis". I also love his laugh, and how when he's in a group of people who start laughing, he fake laughs along very enthusiastically with everyone. There's also something so cute about the way he walks- he has so much confidence and he's got places to go. I really love everything about him and this stage is especially cute, but these are just a few of my favorite things.