Summer Lovin...

Well, we have not had too much summer lovin' around here yet.  Literally MINUTES after writing my last post I started to feel that inevitable feeling that throw up is coming.  YUCK.  The 24 hours that followed were laying in bed and running to the bathroom.  That is the WORST.  Every time I have the throw-up flu I am reminded of being pregnant and how it is always more awful than you remember.  So glad my little session was only 24 hours and not 4 months long.

We have had some fun summer times though the past few weeks.  The kids play outside until it gets dark and there are kids running in and outside the house. I love it.  (Most of the time....except yesterday, "I am sick! Play OUTSIDE!" We just had a family with 9 kids move in on our circle, so the kids are loving that there are more friends around.  Then there is the puppy...lots of playing with the puppy.

Out for a morning stroll.

I am tired, I think I will just lay here.

This was in the first few days of puppy love.  Anne went EVERYWHERE with the puppy.  The puppy is normally NOT allowed on the couches!

Favorite activity with puppy...

One thing I am going to miss about summer...quiet mornings with these two.  Just playing and occupying themselves with things like ski masks and puppies.

Conga line with the neighbor kids...

Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-CHA!

I love how Michael is really into that last CHA!

Club Meetings on the back porch.  

Voting on the agenda?

Cheers to no more sickness and lots of summer lovin'! 

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

(This doesn't look like the Grandma's from my day! Looking good, Mom!)  

We celebrated my Mom's birthday a day early.  She invited us all to a party at ijump, our local trampoline party warehouse type place.  The kids were so excited. 

The older kids loved the foam pits.  Here is James trying out his tricks.

Joshua flying high...

Melissa and Will.  Melissa had some tricks too...I just didn't catch them!

All the kids with Aunt Melissa getting ready to take a plunge and slide down...

Here I am trying out some moves with Sophie.

Can you see the sweat on my forehead?   It was so fun and a serious workout too...no wonder as kids we were in such great shape. We would jump for hours!  I have so many memories as a kid on the trampoline.  Before we had a trampoline we would jump when we visited my cousins in Utah.  That is all I would want to do, jump on the tramp. We would play house, and stranded at sea, "witch" and we would make up plays.  When we moved to Belgium and got a trampoline it was like a dream come true.  My neighbors (Christine and Leah) and I would pretend we were in the Olympics. We would  make up routines and see who could land their moves the best.  We practiced our tricks over and over.  Points were docked for toes not being pointed and not saluting the judges. I am not kidding about the HOURS on the trampoline.

I still have some skills.

Grandpa was so kind to keep the little ones entertained as we jumped.  They were all content to sit and watch.

Emmaline

This one of Alexis cracks me up. 

Jennifer and Emmaline

Grandma getting ready to do a front double flip twist.  She still has skills too.  (Wink wink)

 The Dodgeball Game got pretty fierce!  It ended up being the kids vs uncles.

These next two pictures of Brett crack me up...it looks like he is trying to scare the kids off here.

David has a good arm, I got pegged a few times.

Abigail had some pretty good moves too.

Tackle Dad!

Yes, that is Sophie that Ryan is holding as he flips into the foam pit.

Hooray!  It is my birthday!

Later that evening we continued the party in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.  We had Grandma's favorite for dinner...hotdogs.  Kidding, about the favorite part.  The fixings were yummy though, Beans, Potato Salad, Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad, Chips, Smores, Chocolate Cake and Homemade Ice Cream.  Yummy!

Michael, Joshua, and James trying to start the fire.

This was early in the evening, happier times before Brett got in the dog house for telling Jennifer they had no food in the house.  Just kidding, Jennifer. 

Anne...can you tell she had a long active day, she sure was tired by the end of the night.

Singing to Grandma...I made the Chocolate Cake from the Best Bites Cookbook.  

James

Ryan is enjoying some of our tasty homemade ice-cream.  It was a berry mixture and yummy.  Pure cream goodness.  (I am serious about the pure cream, that and a little sugar.)  I cook up the mixture and Ryan does the mixing.  A shout out to the Garza's- We thought of you as we ate it and lamented about how on the 4th of July Heidi went to lay down with Austin and missed out on the creamy deliciousness.  She was so sad.

Grandpa getting warm and toasty.

Luke and Sadie

Thanks for the fun Birthday Party Grandma!  It made up for the rest of the weekend, which started of with the throw-up flu.  That spread to ALL six kids.  We were so happy when the throwing up halted. The weekend finished on Monday when we discovered a flooded storage room in the basement due to a broken sprinkler pipe.  Lovely.  I still am not caught up on the laundry from all the disasters.  It was nice to get away and have some fun with our family!  Love you Mom!  Thanks for throwing the party, doing all the prep work, cleaning up the mess, and then doing a few loads of laundry for me to boot!  Hope you have a great day since today is your REAL birthday! 

Daisy

I have been hesitant to announce a new member of our family as of Mother's Day Weekend because

A. Our last failure with our Jack Russel Puppy
B. We already have a dog.

I am actually realizing that most dog people I know have more than one dog.  This always seemed WAY too much for me.  My friend Marla always told me two dogs are easier than one because they keep each other company, and I can already see that is true in many ways.  (Minus the extra food and poop duty.)

We have a new Golden Retriever Puppy named DAISY.  She is VERY cute, and actually pretty good as far as puppies go.  She is not an "around the house" dog.  She is confined to our sunroom, and she actually likes being outside best.  Even though she is so cute she has done some nasty things like caught a MOUSE outside and played with it for an hour.  Gross...but I am happy she can catch mice!  She is very different from Willow, but Willow is learning to tolerate her playful happy ways.  Willow is actually helpful, showing her what is not acceptable and how to use the bathroom.

When given the chance she does like to chew...so we have to keep lots of chew toys and bones available.

She is so soft and perfect.

Here Joshua is making sure both dogs get affection.  Willow has relaxed a little from the first week once she realized she is allowed anywhere in the house and Daisy is not.  It is kind of funny how she "knows".

Michael and Daisy

Anne plays with the dog non-stop.  This is how she carries her around.  I try to tell her that the dog will be bigger than her soon, so I guess she is enjoying her "baby" while she can.   Instead of watching cartoons in the morning now, Anne can be found playing with the dog-that is worth it to me!

She is so affectionate and LOVES attention. 

It is so funny watching these two.  They are both a little clumsy on their feet.

They both tripped and ROLLED down the hill together.  Wish I had it on tape.

One bonus...if you live in Idaho and have a puppy Spring and Summer are the way to go.  It can be outside and roll around in the soft grass instead of the snow.

On another note, today is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!  I always feel a little melancholy about it because

A.  I feel so much gratitude for their teachers.  They have my kids the majority of the day and I feel sad to "let them go."

B.  It means that my kids are one grade older.  I can't believe Joshua will be in 8th grade next year, and that Luke will be in 2nd!  I swear this year went by faster than usual...VERY fast!

I mostly feel happy though, and I think that is pretty self-explanatory.

A. If they stay up too late playing outside (It doesn't get dark until after 9pm) that is OKAY!  They can sleep in the morning.  If we want to have a movie night on a Wednesday, we can!

B.  No homework and hustle and bustle here and there.

C.  Time to do fun things with the kids that we just don't have time for in the school year.

D.  A "new" start...new routines, new chore charts, new goals for the summer

E.  I love everything about Summertime, the weather, snow cones, family trips, lots of birthdays, camp fires...

The only sad thing about today is that Michael had the stomach flu yesterday and missed Field Day Festivities.  And then today I got Luke all ready and right before he headed out the door-PUKE.  So he is home missing the last day of school.  I hope it stops with Luke.