What Summers Are Made Of

Summer.  The most intense season of the year as a mom. It's so much fun...except when it's not.  It's is always a combination of sweet memories and pulling your hair out.  And I would absolutely still take it over winter 100 percent of the time.

Because of this...

THE POOL.

Marvel's newest super hero...Pretzel Man.  

And this...

Our yearly tradition of going out to breakfast for Father's Day at the Mark Twain Dinette in Hannibal.  This is always more sweet and precious in the picture than in real life. :)

Super Summer...living with friends for about 2 weeks.  The kids don't even ask for a "real vacation" at this point in life because of Super Summer.  They love eating at the cafeteria (I'm slightly offended, but there is ice cream at every meal so...), being with people they love, playing with friends, going to the "morning show," and getting to see grandma and grandpa.

 And this...

Getting to celebrate this sweet girl every June.

 My one decoration for her party.  Majored on fun, minored on decorations this year.

  

 We celebrated with a princess Belle cake and Chinese food with just the six of us on her actual birthday.  The next Saturday Grandma and Grandpa came down for the day, followed by hang out time and the pool with friends.  This was her favorite birthday by far (she only has 5 to choose from, but whatever)!    

And this...

First family trip to Silver Dollar City.  It was HOT and the kids did amazing.  I thought it would be a repeat of  our trip to the zoo last year, but I was pleasantly surprised.  

Micah, Avery, and Ella all rode their first "rolluh coastuh."

Kelly rode with Micah so I could ride with Avery. :)

And this...

The girls got scooters to ride this summer so they can keep up with Micah.  They were obsessed with these for about a week.  Oh, the hours of fun and fighting over running into each other while riding them in the garage.  I have a love/hate relationship with their scooters because of this.  Don't they look cute on them, though?

We ended up not having plans for the 4th of July so we had family time.  It was so good.  We took the kids up to Stephen's Lake beach in Columbia to play in the sand and water instead of a pool for a change.

This was the day we grilled out and Ella climbed up in my lap and said to Jeff, "Mommy is my fav-uh-wit.  Fo weal in weal life."  Followed by a smile that said, "GET ME." Which he did. :)

They felt pretty big getting to light smoke bombs all on their own this year.

The blast from my past.  Avery got a slip-n-slide from her friend, Cordie.  They quickly fell in love with it...and then I quickly killed our grass with it while Jeff was gone and I forgot to move it.  Ooops.
Who knew grass was so fragile?  Not me, obviously.

Cousin time at Mimi and Papa's house and Rothwell Park!

Being the spontaneous, fun people that we are, my dad and I took them out on paddle boats.  
It was super fun to do together!

Having two grandsons is finally paying off, Dad.

And this...

The other "vacation" our kids love to take...the St. Louis Project.  They love going to parents night at one of the VBS ministry sites so they can get in on the games and face painting.  There are obviously no try outs to work at the face painting table.  Bless 'em for trying though. ;)

Our annual trip to the zoo!  No blow outs and no melt downs this year.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The hippo photo bomber.

We have learned that L LOVES animals.  She loves them so hard.  It's a little overwhelming for the animals if she gets close to them. She used to be like that with babies so I have hope that she will grow out of this...let's all hope.

Jeff got to sneak away one afternoon and go swimming with us while we were in St. Louis.

I love their creativity.  They figured out that you can turn an inflatable chair into a "belly bopper."  They would run into each other over and over.  It was entertaining until someone would cry.  I knew that would happen, but I figured the fun outweighed the risk in this scenario so I let them go for it.

Plastic tubs will always hold a special place in my heart.  Strange?  It's just that I have given all four of our kids a bath in plastic tubs just like this one during The Project since they were born, until they out grew it.  I will be down to one last kid in the tub next summer.  I am also sending another one off to kindergarten in a month so I am without a doubt going to be overly sentimental for a while.  Just ignore me until I come out of it. 

So, that's it.  It's the memories, the sunshine, the time together.  As hard as the travelling can be with four young kids in tow, I know that they will look back on these adventures with fond memories.  One day I can tell them the stories they probably won't remember...like having to come home early from Super Summer because of major attitude problems, the bed time shenanigans I went through to get all four of them to sleep in the same room, the crazy things L ate and I found in her diaper, surviving doctor visits, long days, and loading/travelling with them while Jeff was out of town.  Someday, when they are hanging on to their own sanity by a thread during the child rearing years, I will tell them all about it while I sip on coffee in my clean and quiet house.  I will tell them that we all survive days we think we won't, there is more grace than we realize, and they'll miss it when it's over.  I hope I live long enough and close enough to help them survive it, too.

I love summer...because of them.