In Summer!

Summer is sadly coming to a close.  

I love this time of year!  

I love having all my kids around me, slow mornings, and just being together.  

One afternoon, as I was preparing supper, I looked out my back window and saw this scene that I thought pretty much sums up summer for me.  

In that moment, I was feeling so blessed, and started to think about my favorite sounds, smells, sights, and tastes.  

Most of them happen in the summer.

These are the little things I want to remember, to include in our family journal, 

the tastes, sights, smells and sound track of our summers together.  

I sure do love these littles of mine who never seem to want to stay little!

Summer sounds like...
Fire works, children playing, giggling, and crickets chirping on warm summer nights

Feels like...
Sunshine, sweat, and jumping into a cold pool to escape the heat.

Looks like...
Blue skies, towels drying in the sun, outside forts, and hushed plans made with friends(I wish I could be a fly on the wall for this cute little conversation)

Tastes like...
Watermelon, slurpees, bbq, and ice cold lemonade.

Smells like...
Sun tan lotion, fresh cut grass on a baseball field, and cotton candy.

We have packed a lot of fun memories into this summer, but feels like Landon's last day of school just happened.  He was so sad to say goodbye to his amazing teacher and friends.

As grateful as I was for a great school year filled with wonderful friends and teachers, I COULD NOT wait for summer to start, so my kids could be ALL MINE!  

We kicked our summer off right with slurpees, and went to the park with friends.

We also had dental appointments only a couple days into the summer.  

Super fun!;)  

It was Oaklyn's first one.

Last summer, I got the idea from a friend to give our summer days a little shape by creating a schedule with an outing or an activity for each day of the week.  I loved it so much that we decided to try it again.

 

I always feel pretty sentimental when our anniversary rolls around each year.  

Mostly, because I feel so lucky to be married to Dave.  

This year marks 8 years since our family was born.  

If you know me, you know I love any reason to celebrate.  

I love Valentine's Day, because it is a day that celebrates LOVE, but our anniversary is even better, because it is our very own LOVE holiday.  It marks the day that we chose to be with each other for eternity.  

We continued with some of our favorite traditions.  I met Dave at the door after work in my wedding dress, only this year Oaklyn wanted in on it, and I let her try it on too.  I hope she marries someone just like her Daddy.

We went to get frozen yogurt to celebrate our family being 8 years old. We even sang happy birthday to our family at the yogurt place. 

The day ended with a princess bride themed date with my sweet heart!  I found out Dave hadn't seen "The Princess Bride" all the way through, and it seemed like a crime, also the perfect date for an anniversary("Mawage is wot Bwings us togeder today").  So, I sent him a princess bride themed invite via text.

We had chicken fingers for supper(six fingered man), peanuts while we watched the movie("Stop rhyming and I mean it.  Anybody want a peanut?")

We also started a new anniversary tradition of each picking a love song to dedicate to each other.  The idea started when we were engaged, Dave dedicated a song to me, it became our song, and every time I hear it I think about us and get butterflies.  Each year we are in a different phase with our family, and our relationship is always changing and growing in different ways.  So I thought it would be fun to pick a song each year that we think fits us.

 

We each explained why we chose our songs.  

I picked "Everything" by Michael Buble for Dave.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYwMxD6jW1k 

I think the lyrics fit our life right now.

This probably sounds cheesy but, (after 8 years together, I think we deserve to get a little cheesy:) he is my everything.  When he comes home at the end of the day, it is the best part of my day, 

and not JUST because it means reinforcements;) 

 I live for that moment.  

I love the chorus about our "crazy life".  He is working 80-90 hour work weeks, works so hard, and can't be home as much as either of us would like, but when he is home my heart just "sings" like it talks about in the song.  

I love how we can just look at each other across the room and know what the other person is thinking, and that I can talk to him about anything and "everything".  

I feel like we can make it through anything and "everything" together.

In case you are wondering, he chose "My Best Friend" by Tim McGraw for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRJ0lpu6XaU

Before I get too sentimental, we better move on with our summer play-by-play. 

My Mom sent this cute package of Canadian stuff so we could celebrate Canada Day right.  We had poutine and Canada flag shaped rice krispies(Which I didn't get a picture of, so here is one from last year.  Look at those cuties.  I can't believe how much all of them have grown!)  I also sang our national anthem to the kids for their bed time song.  

 We celebrated the 4th of July with a parade, bbq with friends, and fireworks.

There was A LOT of baseball.  Oaklyn liked to sit right on the bench with Easton's team.  She became his own personal, unofficial water girl:)  

Paxton looked very serious mauling over game strategies.  There were some nail biters!

 

Chick-Fillet gave out free meals for dressing like a cow on cow appreciation day!  We "milked" that for all it was worth because Dave was working a 24 hour shift that day. 

 It was so fun!

 

We have been continuing our family nights going along with our family motto.  

http://thoughtfulmotherhood.blogspot.com/2015/01/mcgarry-family-motto.html

July was about scripture reading, and we talked about how reading our scriptures each day is like the armor we need to make it through our day.  We used one of the kids as an example as we dressed them up.  At the end of the lesson, we decked them all out in tinfoil armor, and let them go at it battling each other for quite a while.  It was a fun bonding family night even though they were attacking each other!

We went to the zoo.  

I sent this picture to my Mom.  The kids are posing in front of a capybara which are found in Brazil.  They miss their Grandparents and play "Brazil" a lot.

Here they are playing "Brazil" in our backyard

  

We got to see my sister in Michigan quite a bit, which I love!  This is Oaklyn and her cousin Jade at church together.  Even though she doesn't look too happy here(mostly because I was leaving her in a nursery she wasn't used to) but, they love to see each other, and it is always a party when they get together.

More cousin cuteness...

Look at that sweet face!

These two girls were inseparable.  Oaklyn doesn't have any sisters, so I love that she has two girl cousins close to her age.

The lunch bunch!

These girls raced across the front porch one morning back and forth, giggling and had a look of pure joy on their faces.  I wish I was THAT happy when I run!

And THEN there is these two!  Two is definitely cuter than one.  It makes me want twins....ALMOST.

 To encourage my kids to read through the summer, I borrowed an idea that a friend of mine did a couple years back, and started a kid's summer book club.  Our first book was "Charlotte's Web".  One of my favorites!  I hosted a book party at our house at the end of the three weeks it took to read it.  We checked out some farm themed puppets from our library.

 For one of our "make it Mondays", the kids helped me paint this barn to play in.  It had a fold down window for puppet shows. We used the tape webs to play a game called "feed Charlotte".  The kids threw wads of tape at the webs and got points for having their "bugs" stick.


A sign on the door fitting how Charlotte greeted Wilbur in the book.

After we finished the games, we ate watermelon.

Each child made their own web

And took home a Wilbur balloon

They each got a Charlotte hat

This web had the main characters in the book at the ends of it.  Each kid had to pick their favorite character, start in the corner, and walk the lines to make it to their favorite.

Our second book was Indian In The Cupboard. 

We made Indian feathered hats and did war paint.  These were some pretty cute little Indians.

We had arrow snacks too(The kids helped me decorate them):

Each day, the kids do personal scriptures and pray, and we read scriptures and say prayers as a family.
For chores we use this amazing book that has a list of everything your child needs to know to leave the home by 18 and be independent.  It is broken up into what they need to know at each age.  I work on teaching my kids these skills each summer, because we have more time.  One of the skills Landon was working on was dusting.  He did a great job!  The skills they are learning for the summer are put into a bag, and they draw one out each night that they "get" to do the next day.  They surprisingly get really excited about picking one.

One of Easton's skills is to help fold towels on laundry day.  Looks like he fell asleep on the job but this was during his quiet time.  I have a similar one of Landon at his age.  I guess ALL that laundry makes my kids sleepy.  It makes me sleepy too!:)

Easton

 Landon

We also exercise each day as a family.  Nothing intense, just yoga, dance parties, stretching, or small amounts of time on the treadmill.  For one of our dance parties they put on Dave and I's socks and slid around the kitchen floor as they danced.  Landon suggested wearing a helmet, and I didn't want to discourage being safe, so I said yes.  Safety first!:)

Landon and Easton also took turns running a mile with me around 7:00 some nights when the younger 2 went to sleep.  I loved having the one-on-one time with each child and their running speed was about my level too!:)

I also did some mini magic shows for the kids before quiet time some afternoons.

Dave planned a trip for our family to go to Indianapolis(only 5 hours away) to the temple open house.  An open house happens right after a temple is built.  The church invites anyone who wants to see the inside of the temple come and tour it.  They keep it open like this for a few weeks, and try to let as may people come through as they can.  This temple had about 90,000 people come through in just a few weeks.  Then, they clean it all up, and an apostle comes to dedicate it with a special prayer, so it will be ready for use by all members of our church who hold a temple recommend.  It was GORGEOUS!  The artwork inside, and the structure itself was stunning.  Easton said he didn't want to leave when our tour was done.  I didn't want to either.  It was neat to have our family all there together.  

Some pictures are better than others.  Haha!  We had one shot to get this picture, and it was hard to get everyone happy and looking at the camera.  It looks more like a mug shot:)

We had fun on the drive up.  

Dave made a blanket fort for the kids.

I guess Landon didn't appreciate the volume level in the car on the ride up, and used what he had handy to remedy the problem and get some sleep:)

They LOVED staying in a hotel with a pool!

Here are some example of the activities and outings we did this summer...

Make it Mondays:

I gave each child a dollar sometime right after the 4th, and they picked out something in Walmart clearance to decorate their "float" with.  The paraded down the driveway with friends.  It was a great way to get rid of some junk hanging out in my craft drawers.

Our cute neighbor Ayden

One Monday we made "snowballs" with shaving cream and cornstarch.

We had a backyard summer snowball fight!

We popped balloons filled with paint on an old sheet to make balloon paintings

Time to read Tuesdays:
 We went to the library, played, got books, and participated in their summer reading program.


Wet Wednesdays:

I don't mean to brag, but we have a POOL!  Haha, I think it might be time for an upgrade next year when Paxton is ready to join in too!  They spent some Wet Wednesdays in our pool with water squirters making targets to shoot at.

We visited the splash pad.

Made boats to float in our pool

And made their toys ice skate across our deck.  The used tools to chisel their toys out after.  They loved excavating their favorite toys.

We also continued with our weekly family movie nights on either Friday or Saturday night.  We pop popcorn and cuddle around the TV for a relaxing family movie.  Except in the summer sometimes we mix it up by using our projector and having an outside movie.

Thoughtful Thursdays: We brought cookies to neighbors, visited the elderly, sent letters, and many more fun activities.  My kids picked a lot of the things themselves.

And we brought back the "I'd love to jar" because let's just say, we needed to revisit that lesson:)  The "I'd love to jar" is a jar that we work together as a family to fill with pom poms.  Pompoms are earned by saying, "I'd love to" and immediately doing what Mom or Dad has asked you to do.  This time, once the jar was full, we could go to the minion movie as a family.  They earned it, and I have to say it was so fun!  We don't go to many movies in the theater as a family, so they were so excited!  

I found minion socks for $1 at target and surprised the kids with them to wear to the movie.  

Paxton wasn't too interested in the movie.  He thought it was a snooze fest!  We liked it though.

We made a Sunday can jar 

Recently we've really tried to emphasize to the kids how important Sundays are.  That they are the Lord's day.  We limit our activities, and really try to make it a day of rest, and bonding as a family.  The kids write in their journals, we go on family walks, and it is my favorite day of the week!  We don't want our kids to look at Sundays as just a day where we say no to everything they usually get to do, so I found this fun idea of a Sunday "can" with popsicle stick ideas of things they "can" do on Sunday to keep the day special.  Things like family history, writing letters to missionaries etc.  When they are looking for something to do, they can pick one.

Friend/field trip Fridays:
We had friends over to play, met them at the park, or went with them to the zoo.  I don't have too many pictures of our friend Fridays.  We were too busy having fun I guess!

Paxton just lays there, smiling and taking it all in.

Speaking of Paxton, I have a few pictures of him, because he is so cute, and is growing so fast!  We love him!

Each morning when I unswaddle him, I feel like he could be the mascot for the Little Debbie slogan "unwrap a smile".  He is so happy to be unwrapped that he can't stop smiling and cooing.  Paxton has been the best part of our whole family's summer!