One Crazy Summer Day

Wednesday, July 13th turned out to be a whirlwind! Like every summer morning, I start with a little exercise. Then, it's swimming for Carter at 8:00, feeding and getting the rest of the kids ready, piano, summer school books, Emma to swimming at 9:30, Braxton to summer school at 9:45, Emma picked up at 10:20, and then by noon, everyone is home. We raced out the door to Phillips Park for a picnic. Here I am with my Bubba. I got my hair cut a few days earlier and tried a headband for the first time in my life. My kids were so cute giving me compliments and Emma wanted to take a picture of it. Here I am! We visited the Mastodon Museum--always amazing to see the size of what was uncovered on that plot of land not far from my home!


I couldn't resist! It's been nearly 8 years since I took this picture--before the girls were even a twinkle in my eye!


Here is my future eagle with the real thing.

I love Bald Eagles!

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave..."

Braxton insisted he was too big to play, but the girls are always able to get him to cave in and do what they want. He's such a softie!

After a good hour at the park, we went to Aurora Skate Center for a little roller blading. Braxton and Evan really enjoy themselves as they speed around to the music. Carter improved a ton while we were there, and Emma really tried. :)

We then ran over to the 2nd hand store & Dollar Store for a cowboy shirt and some western "stuff." Braxton is lucky he's big enough to also be able to borrow from his dad. Well, he definitely looked the part and slipped into character for a special tri-ward hoedown for the teenagers at our church.

Too bad I didn't have Wranglers!

Carter had basketball practice, Evan had his last volunteering session at the library, and Emma had her last game of the season.

She got 3 great hits and her team won the game! What a fun season!

Needless to say, we fell into our beds that night! Whew!

July 4th

I hope everyone had a Happy Fourth of July...because we sure did. Lizzie and Emma were up early ready to dress in their patriotic clothes and get their hair done. (I love having girls!)

Lizzie posed and asked if she could get her picture taken to put on the blog. Here's her cute hair!

Our ward has a tradition of putting on a breakfast with a parade and some games.
Steve, Braxton, and Evan participated in the flag raising ceremony.

Evan rode his ripstick in the parade. It wasn't as fast as the bikes, but very impressive.

Carter has a fun group of boys that he LOVES hanging out with. Here they are all trying to beat each other in the parade.

Emma's not to be outdone. If you look closely, Lizzie was trying her best at her scooter, but ended up on the 2nd time around going for a ride in the wagon on the right. Lazy bones!

Tug of war is always crazy and fun! This was YM v. YW!

Gunne Sac races are the best! I regret I didn't compete this year, but enjoyed watching the kids have fun. This picture features Evan (far left), Emma (2nd from left), and Lizzie (3rd from R).

Here's Steve making an amazing catch in the water-balloon toss. What a man!
After the breakfast, we headed over to Cantigny, a 500 acre park with gardens, museums, a tank park, and free entertainment. After a picnic lunch, we headed over to the magic show and blow up slides.

The kids always love climbing all over the tanks (and not getting yelled at for doing so).
I love the First Division Museum, where you enjoy American History through the eyes of the First Division. It takes you through WWI and into the Gulf War. I learn something new every time I go.

On the way home, we hit the swimming pool for an hour and then home to wash up and head over to our good friends' home for food, fun, and fireworks. What a spectacular day!

I know it's silly, but I love the food on the 4th. Hamburgers, watermelon, and anything with red, white and blue sprinkles. Mmmmm! My kids obviously love it, too. Here are my favorite shots from the pie eating contest.

What a great way to celebrate!!!

(It's what the Founding Fathers would have wanted, right?!)

Scout camps

Being a mother of boys, I am so grateful to have grown up with brothers. My experiences with my brothers have really prepared me for some of the fun and challenging moments in my life. I have a love/hate relationship with scouting. I love Boy Scouts! I love the opportunities it brings to teach my boys about themselves and the world around them. I love that it teaches how to set and reach goals and accomplish hard things. However, when a mom has sons in scouting, they are in scouting. Also, being somewhat over the cubs and webelos as Primary President, it stresses me out, but I'm trying to keep perspective.

All three of my boys have had some great scouting experiences in the last few weeks. Braxton and Evan left with Steve at 4:00am to head up to Camp Napowan in Wisconsin. Evan, only 11 years old, was able to go for 1 night because his dad was there and because it was before camp officially started. Our troop combined with multiple other troops from other stakes for games, church services, and team building activities. They had a blast! I drove up to Madison to meet he and Steve and bring Evan home. How he hated leaving his buddies and brother up there! Luckily he only brought home one tick and a huge desire to be ready to go to Napowan next year.

Braxton returned home after a week with 10 more merit badges. He worked hard up to the very last 15 minutes of camp wrapping things up.

Here he is with a few of the boys.

Braxton ready to eat. Steve said if there was a merit badge for eating, Braxton would have totally accomplished every requirement with ease at camp.
Shotgun.
This one was a challenge at first. He didn't do well the first day, but stuck with it and by the end was able to hit more than 25 out of 30 targets to complete the requirements. After it was all done, in order to use up the "wood nickels" that are the currency to buy ammunition, Steve challenged Braxton to a shoot-off. Braxton won hitting 5 for 5. Steve missed one. He told Braxton that he wishes he would have figured out how to shoot earlier so that we could have saved a few bucks at the beginning of the week. :) Oh, well.

Wilderness Survival.

Braxton had to build a shelter for him to sleep in throughout the night by himself. Evan and Carter laughed when they saw it saying that it looked a lot like Eeyore's house in Winnie the Pooh!

Braxton is so NOT gangstuh!

Pottery

Blacksmith

Public Speaking--yep, this shocked me also.

Wood Carving--he loves working with his hands and is quite good at it! Here he's carved a wolf.

Theater

Lovin' it!

Campfire to the extreme!

Carter attended Webelos Camp for 3 days this past week and had a great time! They got to make tons of crafts with leather, clay, wood, and paper.

Here is a wristrocket station.

Science - Learning about the Bernoulli Principle

Archery--he shined at this station! He got so many bullseyes that he earned silver, gold, and a glow-in-the-dark arrowhead!

BB guns. So fun! On the last day, they got to shoot 5 BBs and even I got to participate. I didn't hit it in the center, but was on the border. Carter was pleased with how "awesome" I did, which made me even more proud of myself.

Playing a water-based relay tag game. Perfect for a summer day!

Carter got to attend with 2 terrific friends, which makes everything more fun. He may have had more fun playing 500 with his old and new friends in the small breaks between stations than listening in the classes, but we both had a great time! I'm so glad I could be with him for 2 of the 3 days. Emma and Lizzie went to the "tot camp" offered for siblings of scouts whose parents were volunteering. They had an absolutely terrific time and are ready to be scouters themselves. As much as I love silly scout songs...hearing your 3 year old daughter singing about having to go to the "john" and birds pooping in your eye gets old quickly. Maybe I should look into a ballet class for the girls. Hmmmm.

June...gone so soon?

All the kids came home singing "School's out for summer!" I, too, was excited to not have to make 5 sandwiches every morning and have a change of pace. However, I'm left wondering... what is busier--when school is in...or out? Hmmmm.

Here is a quick rundown of our month.

My Evan finished the 5th grade and is now preparing for middle school. This year, many 5th grade moms got together and put on a mock graduation party at the school. The kids had a great time. It was the same night as the Fathers & Sons campout, so we were pulled in lots of different directions, but as stated earlier...just par for the course.
So long, Kendall Elementary!

Hello, Crone!

Carter wrapped up his soccer season in June with yet another loss. This poor team has lots of great kids, but struggle working together and attacking the ball. Carter, at times, has shown lots of talent and intensity. He is often put as full-back because of his powerful foot...and the ball seems to come on his end of the field too often.

The team!

Father's Day was right around the corner and Steve even got to share it with us this year. He's gone to scout camp and missed it in the past. Every year I give him a photo of the kids. This year was not professionally done, but the kids had fun coming up with the idea of wearing their dad's dress shirts and holding signs up that say "We Love You This Much!"

It was also applicable for our Grandpas as well.

Shrimp, Twice baked potatoes, salad, corn on the cob, watermelon, Sunday Surprise (beverage), and texas sheet cake with ice cream were on the menu. MMMmmmmm!

Lizzie got to participate in a dance camp put on by our high school. We missed the first day of camp because we took the family to Six Flags for the day using up the 3 free passes they got for their reading program at school. Six Flags really was a blast! The weather was perfect: low 70s. The crowd was small. The rides were a hoot and because my kids keep getting bigger and bigger (braver and braver), they got to go on more roller coasters.

Lizzie was penalized a bit, however. She was only allowed to perform in 1 of her group's numbers and was told she "wasn't good enough" for the "Be Our Guest" selection. Seriously? My 3 year old not good enough for a small 3 day camp? Oh, well. It made her feel like she had something just for her this summer, so it wasn't a total waste.

Due to Evan's illnesses, we had to pull him out of swim team. To give him something to do other than just piano, scouts, reading, and a math class, we signed him up for an art class his art teacher referred us to. He said he didn't learn a ton, but he made some beautiful and fun art for us to display in our stairwell down to the basement. I love seeing the new additions to my walls! The classes were held in this old home with a gorgeous backyard. We took advantage of the scenery and had picnics after we dropped Evan off.

Emma is a very busy 6 year old. She is playing on a coach-pitch team this year and enjoying it. She has a really good swing and actually, a good arm. Steve volunteers to take her to her games while I run the rest of us to where we need to be. I think he's secretly praying she'll continue in his beloved sport.

Sweet Lizzie gets a lot of down time at fields and swimmeets. Here she is enjoying her summer!

The majority of our summer is spent near a pool. Carter and Emma are on the Neuqua Otters team and have practice 5 days a week. Of course their practice schedules are at different times! We also have 2-3 swim meets a week in the evenings or on Saturday mornings. They are typically about 4 hours long. This used to be harder when Lizzie was younger, but she is making friends with the other swimmers' siblings and making the best of it. I have grown to totally enjoy the meets. I can't get enough of watching Carter swim. He is a beautiful! I do miss watching Evan and Braxton. Emma makes me smile and laugh, especially as she "dives" or launches herself into the water off of the blocks.

Does she look like she could have any more fun?

Like Emma, Carter loves the sport and the social aspect, but Carter's in it to win it.

50 Breast--his favorite race.

This is the 9-10 A Relay Team. They are really good! They typically lap the other relay teams in both the Medley Relay as well as the Freestyle Relay. Carter has LOVED swimming with these boys.