It’s almost August. Have you noticed? Guess what? We have not been to the lake once! I stopped their swimming lessons in June figuring we’d spend the summer at the lake, but, umm… nope. Today we had a trip to the dentist at 8am and decided to head to the lake after that. Sunny and high 80s, it was a good day.

At the dentist both kids got cleanings and Lex got explicit orders to wiggle that loose tooth and get it out! Otherwise we’ll be back in two weeks to discuss extraction. He is not in favor of that. Both kids did a stellar job of behaving for the hygienist and the dentist.

Eve at the dentist

Then we headed to the lake! The sun was shining, the water was warm, and I have top-notch kids :) We had fun. They even decided to wear their life jackets this year! Lex remembered the belly button rule and asked if he could go deeper if he was wearing his life jacket. I said yes, if he had the life jacket and I was with him. He ran up the beach to get his jacket! So funny. I didn’t have the camera then so you’ll just have to use your imagination, but here are a few other pictures.

Eve testing the waters

Lex watching fish

Lunch time

One of my favorite activities! We found a new blueberry patch that’s just a few minutes from our house. After a quick trip to the grocery store and the playground we decided to do a drive-by and see if the blueberry patch was open (it was 5:30pm already). When we got there it looked awesome and was open until 7pm. It’s way out in the country, quiet, on a rolling hill, and ripe for the picking. The kids immediately clamored to get out and pick some berries. Twist my arm. The whole time they were talking about who is more like Little Sal (Eve, of course!) and what we should do with the berries we picked, besides eat them. Lex decided muffins were definitely in order.

I was craving cookies as well so we did some baking today. I let funny boy dictate the cookies so we ended up with oatmeal raisin bar cookies, cut out with cookie cutters. They are tasty at least. :)

These posts are out of order. I should have done this one first to keep them in proper chronological order… but oh well! These are from the other day.

I love seeing Eve playing with my baby doll. It makes my heart happy.

Isn't she a good colorer? I love how she colors everything with color patches.

The morning glories are supposed to be politely climbing up the sunflowers (symbiotic, right?) but some seem to be a little overzealous and are suffocating the poor sunflowers! I hope everybody eventually blooms happily.

The neighbors invited us over to make s'mores with their fire pit. Parrish was thrilled (he's done this before), Eve was intrigued, but look at Lex in the back. He looks a little concerned.

Eve dug right in!

Parrish enjoyed his!

Lex, however, would have nothing to do with toasted marshmallows. We eventually talked him into eating a graham cracker and chocolate sandwich. Ha. Funny kid!

Lex discovered Dorrie, the witch, and here is what this morning’s outdoor play time looked like:

Luckily he’s a fast reader and was done with the book before long. Then there was lots of running and playing. He may look like his daddy, but he reads like his momma! :)

A few weeks ago I made a cleaning schedule (maybe I mentioned it?) because I feel like I spend a lot of time cleaning and neglecting the kids and it stresses me out… yet somehow my house is always dirty!  Actually, I think I did it the same time we made our summer schedule and blocked out 7am-8am as cleaning time.  I did great with it for a few weeks, but then got sick and went to Vegas and lost all touch with reality.  Sigh.  This week I decided it was time to get back to it.  The idea of the schedule is that I can clean, guilt free (ha!) from 7am-8am and get done what I get done and not have to think about it all day.  Usually the kids play during this time, though some day I may start making them do chores too! 

Today I said that I had to sweep and mop inside, sweep the front porch and sweep the mudroom.  To my surprise the kids both jumped up and said they wanted to clean the mudroom!  Well, ok!  We headed outside and I started telling them that I usually like to start by putting the shoes up on the bench.  Lex interruped and said, “No, we put the black mat outside and then put all of the shoes on it.  But first we have to bang the toes together and then the heels together to shake off all of the dirt.”  Apparently they’ve done this before, and believe it or not they did an awesome job!!  They worked together to get all the shoes out (Lex showing Eve the proper way to hold the shoes and tap them together) and then while Eve attempted to sweep the front porch with a big broom, Lex did an amazing job of sweeping out the mudroom!  I was shocked (what low expectations I have of my own children).  I did a tiny bit of touchup around the tight edges, but he got 98% of the dirt and dust out of there.  Towards the end I was thinking that I should have just sent them out and stayed inside myself to do the sweeping and mopping inside.  Who knew they can do the whole job!  After Lex was done sweeping they came up with a plan to get the shoes back inside without trecking in more dirt.  Lex wiped off his shoes and took them off in the mudroom, Eve stayed outside and brought each pair of shoes to the doorway (tapping them off again on the way), and then Lex took them from there and put them where they belonged.  So very cool!  I think next Tuesday they are on their own with that job! :)

I added a few more quotes to that page. Not sure if anyone ever looks there, so I’m going to post them here too :)

“I think I hear the noise of pumping pistons!” said Lex as we walked near a railroad track. 7/20/10

Eve: “How can you eat food when you’re sick?”
Lex: “The usual way, Eve.”
7/12/10

“See that pile of brown over there? That’s my mom!” says Eve. 7/3/10

The kids ask me, daily, when we can go back to the airport. They want to go back to Logan but I’m not real interested in a 2+hr drive just to watch the airplanes. This morning we went to our local (tiny!) airport to watch some planes. The arrival/departure times listed on the website were wrong, so we ended up hanging out at the airport, having a snack on the runway picnic table, and making friends with passengers. Overall a good morning, I suppose. The kids had fun but still want to go to Logan. Maybe we’ll try Manchester some day. Or try to save some pennies and actually buy a ticket to fly somewhere! I think all of us except Alan would enjoy that. :)

Snack time at the airport!

We made friends with a little girl (2.5yrs old!). Her daddy was flying away.

My kids decided to go back outside and Lex promptly took her hand and away they went.

Finally a plane came in!

We went inside to watch the plane boarding. Small plane and small airport, but you can't get this close to the action at Logan!

I’m not feeling very verbose at the moment (very tired instead!) but here are a few pictures from yesterday and today that I wanted to share. It has been nice settling back into a routine with the kids. I feel like we’ve been so super busy these past few weeks that the whole family is a bit out of whack. I’m working now on getting us all back on track… in time for school next month! :)

Lex got green beans from the plant he brought home from school! He even shared one with me. Yum!

He also brought a pumpkin plant home from school, and it's flowering. I hope we get a pumpkin!

The peas are growing strong.

This is why I garden. He won't touch veggies on a plate, but fresh from the garden... he eats them up!

Our sunflower house is growing well this year, but we seem to have a back door as well as a front. But the morning glories are growing and vining and I think we'll have at least two solid walls. Maybe next year I'll be in charge of the planting. Or maybe not!

I'm thinking hard about replacing the swing set next summer. Something bigger and stronger because these two (and our neighbor) are getting bigger and stronger!

We found a bird's nest on the ground. I love how it has so much bark from the nearby birch tree. Eve was VERY concered about the baby birds and had trouble believing that they actually flew away and didn't fall with the nest.

The kids have suddenly gotten camera shy, so we were being silly this morning and I was trying to get them to let me take pictures. This is the best I got :)

Lex woke up this morning with a plan in mind. It started with a sign (paper, markers, glue, popsicle stick), then a chair, and a parking garage... that's when I took this picture. He is in the living room right now building the hotel on top of the chair. Apparently there is an airport behind it. I love when he is so certain about his plans.