lazy days of summer

i've decided that blogging is not for people with slow speed internet. sorry for the incredibly long breaks lately, but my new computer still needs a few updates before it runs at a good speed. since i'm the queen of impatience, blogging hasn't been high on my priority list. we are actually staying home for most of the summer this year (we head to maryland to see my aunt on the august 3rd). here's what we've been up to:

• BBQ with friends on the fourth

• convinced Pat to build a little fire pit in our backyard, so that we could have friends over and make s'mores.


• read Harry Potter (this will probably require a separate post).


• i've been the gatekeeper for my friend's pool while they were out of town (basically meant i had the key to the gate for their pool). this job has allowed us to swim tons and my kids have gone to bed exhausted many nights. my friends even have a diving board and i re-learned how to do a back dive. downside to this job: fishing out two dead mice out of their filter. i got one out, but the second wasn't visible until i moved the filter and it popped out. pretty freaky moment!


• reinforcing chores with the girls. i implemented angela's fuzz ball idea - where the girls get to put a fuzz ball in their individual jars when they complete a chore. when the jar is full they get a prize.
• the girls have been watching "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." i wish all of you could hear lily sing "Meet Me in St. Louie" - it has all these funny words in it that rhyme and it's just priceless to hear lily try to say them. grace and i have also been watching "so you think you can dance." she likes pasha and i like sabra.
• the girls like to march up the stairs with me and greet evan when he wakes up from his nap.
• baking lots of yummy foods with zucchini.
• grace has been taking 1 hour piano lessons and she will get lots of horseback riding in when we go to my aunt's house next month.
• jake has been going to camp for the month of july and just giggles everytime i take him swimming.

so that has been our month. i can't believe how fast it has already gone by and i'm glad we have one more month until we are back on the routine of school daily.

four computer glitches and a funeral

well our computer died this past monday. luckily my dad was in town to help us purchase a new one and transfer files. however, we are still working out some kinks/glitches. i was able to upload pictures for the last post, but am struggling right now. sorry i have been so bad about blogging lately. hopefully i'll get these kinks worked out soon and get all the rest of my updates posted.

happy belated fourth everyone!

every 11 years

we went to an air show a couple of weekends ago. the blue angels were the last exhibition for the day. the last time we had seen them was when we lived in seattle and had no kids at home yet (i was pregnant). i seem to relate that year and a half when pat and i had no children to our "single" time. marriage changes life, but kids really mix it up! anyway, pat and i joked that we need to see the blue angels every 11 years. don't know where we'll be in 2018, but i'll guess we'll be seeking out an air show. hopefully it will be another beautiful, clear day like this one was. we just had a fabulous time (minus the traffic - it took us 2 hours to go the last 10 miles - i exaggerate NOT!!) as usual, the blue angels were amazing. i didn't capture it on film, but i especially loved when they would fly right at each other from opposing directions and then flip to the side right when they intersected. (hopefully that made sense).

lily and evan crashed right before the blue angels performed. evan loved looking at the planes as well as lily and grace. jake would cry when a really loud engine roared by. we tried to cover his ears, but that didn't do much. next time, we'll have to remember ear plugs for him.

here i am holding jake in his new jogging stroller. the stroller is so big that it holds up to 200 lbs.