Summer Time

Summertime is our favorite time of year around here!  We love to be outside and enjoying the heat and time together.  We do plenty of chores and work keeping the house and garden going, but we definitely make plenty of time for fun.  I have been busier with life and trying to enjoy living in the moment more so I just haven't taken as many pictures lately.

The girls practically lived in their swimming suits all summer.  They love to play in the water and sprinklers and pools and mostly just run around in fluffy girly swimwear. 

 Teagan, Eli, and Mason are always super sweet with Eloise, Jordyn and Adeline.  They have already taken on the role as protectors for their little friends.  They were trying to pull them all over the yard together.  It was pretty darn sweet!

We had a lot of lazy mornings hanging around inside.  I didn't like how much time the kids were spending with their friends instead of each other so I changed our job rule.  They couldn't play with friends until their jobs were done, but they could play with their siblings anytime.  They chose each other over chores (which was part of my master plan, cue maniacal laugh) and had quite a bit of fun playing together and destroying the house.

Cookies and milk for breakfast??? Or maybe right before bed, I can't remember.  haha

 Eventually, we would make it outside.  The raspberries were amazing this year!  We picked about 15 gallons worth!  The kids were so helpful with the picking.  Especially Teagan and Eloise.  Adeline mostly just followed us around and stole raspberries out of our buckets.

This was at Haven Ivin's baptism.  Reese Ivins, Adeline, Boston Davis, Jordyn Heath.

The kids played in the water pretty much everyday that they could.  Teagan and Adeline especially love playing in the water.  Miley Newell, Adeline, Teagan.

When the newness of summer was wearing off and I was hearing the words "I'm bored" floating around, I gave the neighborhood kids a challenge.  I zip tied a hose to the trampoline and told them that if they could get water to flow from the trampoline to the pool they would all get an otter pop.  There were about 10 kids working on it together and they spent an hour or two making it work.  They found leftover PVC pipe and used chairs and slides to get the water about halfway there.  Then they made a pulley system with a bucket to get the water the rest of the way there.  I was so proud of them!  It was a great team work and critical thinking activity.

 One day Teagan decided to make giant bubbles.  We had a bubble wand that we'd never tried that had a recipe for bubble solution.  Teagan went outside to measure his 12 cups of water.  Addy wanted to help.  So every time Teagan poured a cup in the bucket and turned around, she would dump the bucket out.  He figured out was going on pretty quick and had to give her a stern "no," which she didn't listen to at first.   It was pretty hilarious to watch from the window.  Eventually, he got the point across and she let him fill his bucket.  The bubble wand and solution were an unfortunate fail...darn.  Maybe next time.

Addy loves to be out in the garden with me and loves to pick and eat carrots, strawberries, raspberries, green beans and raw corn.  She also loves to pick seedlings when we are weeding.  I always plant extra, just in case.  And when she succeeds in pulling out all of them I take deep breaths and remind myself that I love my children more than my garden.