Father's Day

Father's Day! A day to celebrate the dad. We packed a picnic and took it and our bikes to church with us. After church we went to the park and ate and then set off on a bike ride on our favorite trail. The weather was perfect!

The scenery was beautiful. Lots of birds and butterflies passing us overhead. I did see a snake though! Yuck!! Lucky for the snake he was off the path on some rocks and then slithered into hiding. Ewwwww! It gives me a shiver to think about it again. 

We haven't ridden too much this season yet. I was so tired pulling these two HUGE kids in my trailer. Cam (who is in awesome shape any season) took Sis into his trailer with Tuba. What a guy!

Sis is actually really close to riding on her own. I bet she will be doing it before summer is over. Next summer I hope to be pulling only my own weight...which is plenty.

We had a lovely day. We are lucky to have an amazing man in our lives....husband and father to us. 

Speaking of Cam and his awesomeness. Cam was voted Nurse of The Year by the Department of Surgery at his hospital. We attended a banquet last week where he was honored. He truly is an amazing Nurse Practitioner and a gem to both patients and co-workers. It was nice for him to be recognized for his hard work. 

I forgot

I forgot a few things about summer vacation.

I've had no time to blog because.....

The kids eat ALL day long!!

Tuba walks around the house saying "bubbles.....food". He loves to listen to the washing machine go around....and he loves food.

George wants a meal every 30 minutes.

My food supply looks like a bunch of locusts went through the cupboards. Oh, that's right....they did. Kid locusts.

I was planning a summer of relaxing leisure but now I know I'm facing a summer as a cook.

Plus, we've had lots of rain....this is normal for June in our part of the world. It doesn't get sunny consistently until after the 4th of July. I forgot this part of summer too.

We spent one day last week at the library. Another FREE activity! I took the kids out for a treat on the way there. Okay, the donuts weren't free but for $10 we each had a yummy treat. Coffee for me and sugar for the kids.

The kids checked out over 50 books. So the rest of the rainy day was spent reading books. The kids are participating in the library's summer reading program. Due to all the rain the kids have had a very good start (and near finish) on recording all their reading hours.

Today is rain again...and wind...and cold. So, more reading and eating for us. 

A Little Wonky

This beautiful Sea Star is from our local beach. I took the photo on a field trip with Busy Guy. 

It's that end of the school year crazy busy time. Why do so many things happen this time of year. I tell ya...I'm hanging on by a thread....one made of silly string...pink colored...just because.

Yesterday's morning pretty much sums up my life right now.

Tuba's bus leaves and I sit down with Busy Guy to read his book. Yes, homework is still happening. I'm pretending to think this is GREAT! Tax payers, you are getting your money's worth!! Teachers (at least my kids') are teaching up to the last second.

So after reading and answering questions I start breakfast and then ask Busy Guy about lunch. He makes the wonderful announcement that pizza is on the lunch menu and he wants to have it! Alleluia!! I just earned some precious time because I won't have to pack lunches for two boys. Yeah. I assumed that Mr. P would also want pizza. C'mon...what kid wouldn't?

I sit down and read paper and drink my tea....lazily.

With three kids still sleeping I realize that I need to wake them and get moving. After waking sleepy heads I check my preschoolers' calendars to make sure they don't need any show and tell. Yike! No show and tell but they need SACK LUNCHES!! I quickly make two lunches....pb&
js, Cheetos (world's best mom for buying these for a field trip), and water bottles (since I'm out of drink boxes of chocolate milk)...and I should say that Sis had to go outside and into the playhouse to find her water bottle, and fruit. Ta-da!

About this time Mr. P wanders in and protests having school lunch pizza. Oh no! He wants a lunch. I make him a lunch.

Cripes!! I then realize that the preschool doesn't allow peanut butter. So I quickly make Sis a cheese sandwich and after George loudly protests to cheese sandwich I pack him a yogurt and spoon.

As I'm rushing around the kitchen I quickly take one more look at the school calendars. Now I notice that only Sis needs a sack lunch and George does not!

At this point I'm standing in my nightgown with dirty hair and I am now late. I now have 2 sandwiches and an entire lunch that nobody needs. Brilliant.

I wearily wandered upstairs to get dressed and head out for our day.

Only 1 more day of school....I can do it...I can make it...

This is of course the same mantra I will be saying at the end of summer...only in reverse.

Old Windows Project

I finally finished my photo project for our family room. I found these cool old leaded windows in our playhouse. I cleaned them up and used them for this fun project. 

The old wood looks so nice with the beach photos. I love it!

Garden

The garden is in...and now the experiment has begun. I bought this nice 4 X 4 cedar planter for our veggie garden. The kids (Sis and BG) helped me put it together.

They even carried big bags of dirt across the yard to me. Team effort for sure.

Tuba got down and made sure I was doing it right. Cam would want me to note that the grass looks long but he mowed it that night. :) He would also want me to tell you that he isn't too thrilled about our garden plot being in the lawn. :) But, ya gotta plant where the sun is the best.

We planted corn, beans, peas, carrots, onion...all from the seeds in the egg carton that BG brought home from school. We also planted a mystery plant that Sis brought home in a cup. We added pumpkin seeds and pepper plants as well as a marigold.

It's now been about 10 days and we have pumpkin starts coming up! Yeah! Success so far. 

Truly the hardest part of this is that I have to beg/force one of the children to go under the deck and turn on the hose. I REALLY hate to do it....spiderwebs in the hair kind of hate. The kids can do it without have to stoop over and I've assured them that there are no spiders (that I can see). :)

Another Freebie Day

We had another fun adventure. Free Adventure...a Freeventure! Our town has an annual car show. We took the kids to see the cars (and burn off some energy walking around town). The weather was drizzly but kind of muggy. 

The kids all loved the cars. There were hundreds of them. We walked around for over an hour and only saw maybe half of them. 

I was especially thrilled looking at all the meticulously clean interiors and engines. Wow! These cars had some uber-anal clean freaks as owner....just my kind of people! I wanted to get all of their car detailing tips but I was afraid they would start with Do Not Let Children Ride In The Vehicle. 

Yes, I deserve Mother of The Year Award for this...because I let her wear it. Sis picked out this flashy ensemble herself. She fit right in with all those over the top paint jobs. 

After the car show we took the kids out for pizza. A local place has half price lunch. Plus, they have a nice fireplace AND free video games. Free!!

After lunch we took the family to walk through an arboretum. We had never been and it was on our list of things to do/see. Beautiful! We will definitely be back in the summer for a picnic.

We had the whole place to ourselves. The kids ran around while Cam and I strolled and looked at the plants and trees.

Fun, fun day for the cost of pizza, soda and two beers $38.00. Happy Day! 

What are your favorite free activities to do? Leave it in the comments.

Explore For Free

We have been taking advantage of the numerous things to do in our area....that are free! As the weather warms up we can find lots of things to do outside.

We headed into the city and explored a sculpture park. It was sunny and warm with a view of the water and the city scape. There were beautiful walkways and lots of sculptures to see. 

And flowers to pick.

Since this was a free activity I made lunch at home and made sure everyone was nice and full before we left. Of course one hour later I had kids complaining of hunger, dying of thirst AND in need of restrooms. Ugh! 

I felt like a rookie parent. In order to keep it a free activity I should have packed water bottles and snacks. Considering it was hard to find a restroom I wondered if I should pack a few pull-ups.....just kidding (only because the kids over-ruled me).

After listening to oodles of whining I broke down and bought the kids Italian sodas. It was amazing the transformation that occurred. Frowns to smiles, lethargic complainers into bouncy cheerful kids! It was worth the $12.00.