A Blessing

Nothing puts the simple things like swimming with the kids into perspective like a weekend in the hospital. I told him if he really needed alone time with me he could have done it a different way :-). It was a scare of a weekend, but at the same time so many God things came out of it and I can't wait to post them. I have written them down but will share them for our family memories along with some "date" pictures.

Most of all, when we find ourselves in a situation that you have no clue what is going to happen you can cling to fear or cling to faith...somehow every time the faith brings a peace that fear can't even begin to compete with. So thankful for faith, for amazing friends who stepped up and took care of our kids and loved them and spoiled them like their own this past weekend and for family although far were AMAZING at praying, calling and especially my own family, all three of them being the first to tell me immediately that they would be on the first flight out and to just say the word. I love you all and thank you for being there for us always!

K's 3rd Annual Bake Sale for Charity

When we sat down back in May to brainstorm ideas for our summer FUN list, the bake sale was the first thing out of Kennedy's mouth. It has become a tradition, one she has since taken charge of and one I am so very proud watching her lead. She makes the lists, makes the calls, writes down ingredients, picks out poster board, and gets the baking stuff organized. She did want to wait until her cast was off so she could use both arms to wave that bright neon sign around while screaming Bake Sale for Charity :-). Plus after being in the heat the girls love a good excuse to all jump in the pool and celebrate their earnings that go towards helping kids get the meals during the summer that they are used to getting during the school year with the district's assistance.

The organization is Share Our Strength and it is an awesome thing to contribute to and something that both my girls can see and understand how they are helping right now. It just goes to show something that started out 3 years ago as a fun new idea transformed into an idea and tradition that will prayerfully continue each summer turning into something bigger and better as the girls learn to serve and give to others with their hearts! All I can say is I smile bigger, brighter and love just watching on this special day, proud that they are helping others even just a little bit.

It reminds me of a message at church last week that our teaching pastor gave (and one of the advantages of living in a small suburb is that this teaching pastor happens to be our pediatrician too). In his profession he is asked all the time what is the key to raising "successfull," well adjusted and content kids? He said very simply there is no set answer but the one thing he believes is that it is simply about teaching and modeling being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Sounds so simple yet is so hard in this world we are living in and the messages we are surrounded with or even the message that sometimes floats around in the front of my mind. How am I supposed to help others when somedays it feels like it is hard to handle what is right in front of me? But I realized sometimes what is right in front of me feels that way because I am so focused on that or only that. I don't have the answers but I do know that I am trying to start asking God more often what it looks like for us/for me and for our family in helping and serving and making those around us bigger than ourselves. It's a start and one I am proud that Kennedy is experiencing at a young age and sharing with her friends too!

Carter is right in the middle of all the action - he loves it and the girls don't mind one bit. All of K's friends are very sweet to him and I am thankful for that!

Brooklyn & Raya -

we have the greatest friends who stop by to contribute and eat some goodies.

The girls walked away with $107 to donate to Share Our Strength! One of the 2nd grade teachers at the girls' school drove by and was so sweet; she stopped to say hi and talk to them and told them she had just gone to the gym and wasn't going to take any sweets but gave them $20.

Shared kindness, amazing!

They ended the day with a fun pool party and pizza to celebrate.

Way to go GIRLS!

A Date with B

One of the things we love to do with our summer schedule is take the kids on one on one dates. I usually get a sitter or switch with a friend and off we go. Today was Brooklyn's date of choice.

Up first, whatever else than pottery painting at Mudpie. Seriously the girl could open her own pottery painting store and have plenty to display of her own. This girl loves to use a paint brush. She asked me on the way in more of a statement form...."you are painting too right mommy?" Of course...I made a mini round cupcake stand but thought I would use it for my ring when I am washing dishes.

Another famous jewelry box by Miss B

Perfect color blue - add some white polka dots and voila!

 Up next we had to get something to munch on since we were so hungry from painting - cupcake time and watching Brooklyn in the cupcake store picking out whichever kind she wanted for us to share was priceless. This girl is super special and she has this mama's heart! I absolutely cherished spending the afternoon with her!

She chose Wedding Cake...

Fun activity, yummy treat, the best company = perfect afternoon!! I love being able to get my kids attention and be with them one on one and this one especially is in her element when she gets that time and attention. Love ya sweet girl!

Our Summer So Far - June Wrap Up

June flew and like always our hearts start to race a little faster as the new crayons and backpacks hit the Target shelves and the catalogs start coming in plastered with back to school ads. We have had a summer filled with a little bit of everything. We normally brainstorm ideas and put them in a decorative bucket that we made a few years back and clothespin hook them to the bucket when we finish the adventure but this year we just made a poster board and it hangs right smack in the middle of the craft room! The girls have had fun checking it off and even though it's simple it's more of a fun visual for them to run to the list and find the things we still want to do. Here are a few extra things that happened throughout June but hadn't been captured yet in other posts.

They wanted their VERY own library cards. They take this very seriously and are reminding me when their books are due back! Brooklyn was and still is ecstatic to have this. I love that the little simple things are a big deal. You can tell a little bit but her face was priceless as she was telling the librarian she was there to get her OWN card. And both girls right away were concerned with Carter. They both made sure he picked a book out that they could each check out and share their card (and their love)!

Note to self: don't put summer haircuts on the summer list and then schedule appointments on the last day of school where everyone has that summer adrenaline rush and is unstoppable at anything they do! It's kinda like the time I begged my hairstylist to chop my hair when I was EIGHT months pregnant. You just don't do that! Brooklyn had been asking and asking for what felt like two years to chop her hair and I always held her off. Well we headed in for a compromise. We were going to do a GOOD cut that left her hair a little below her shoulders...shorter for her definitely but still able to do fun things with and a good cut for swimming. She has always had long hair and that is how I always pictured her.  The stylist that cut the girls hair two times before this was less conservative and more into styles than our previous stylist. It hadn't been an issue with B because she had always gone in for only a couple of inches (the most 4) which still left it super long. But K did go shorter and I thought the stylist was just always treating her more grown up because of her age. Clue #1 when she always asked the girls instead of me if they wanted more cut off - ummmm. So I must have come across as that wishy washy mom on the outside. Needless to say Brooklyn sat down and we started talking and she ended up saying if you just go another inch "or so" (should have been clue #2) she could donate (which Brooklyn had mentioned she wished she could do). When she held the hair where it would be too it honestly was not too much shorter than I was comfortable with going. I must have been feeling risky and brooklyn was all for it and her face was so cute and donating hair, what an awesome thing so SNIP SNIP went the hair. What the stylist didn't mention and what my own stylist ended up telling me was that when they are cutting it off to donate it they take it straight across so in order to straighten and even it out it ends up being cut about another 1-2 inches...gulp! The hardest part was that Brooklyn took one look after and looked like she was going to cry. It was what she had wanted but then it actually happened and she seriously looked crushed. I was then crushed that I had thought it would be ok and not asked more questions. But I found myself saying things that any mom would say: I LOVE it Brooklyn. You look beautiful. Brooklyn, you would look beautiful if you were bald! In the end I know it's only hair, it looks adorable and fits her personality but as silly as it seems there was a bit of a loss and she just looked and seemed to take on a different age/personality. I still look back at pictures and am sad...the thing is is that Brooklyn could honestly pull off any hair style in the world, it's just like anything else in life that's a change, it takes some time to adjust and we don't always like change especially when it signifies your baby girl growing up!

Lots (and lots) of swimming routines and sychronized swimming. I smile, clap, cheer, hoot and hollar and give up fake scores! But I smile more because when they do this I can picture and it takes me back to a time when it was my brother (he is going to kill me for saying this) and I who would make up our very own pool moves/routines. Gosh he was a good little brother for doing this with me :-).

These fun cousins came in for a visit for a few days on their to a cruise.

What a fun fun weekend we all had!

Beautiful family!

We have pulled out some oldies this summer: cootie catchers and ones we just started last week, friendship bracelets! So much fun and simple!

Not only do they anxiously wait for him to get up and race to get him out of his bed but they sit there and play squinkies with him and make him one happy little brother.

And this just makes my heart happy: This would be the 3rd annual bake sale for charity that K puts on and plans and this makes the 3rd year I am so very proud of her! So many fun pictures to share in another post soon.

Our favorite summer homemade popsicle recipe! Yumm

Lots and lots of dance parties - boas optional

Baking and friends over

And more friends over...

Nature Bracelets

I think this was back on our very 1st day of summer...we wanted to get outside before it got TOO hot and K was limited to what she could do because of her cast, so we headed out on a nature hunt to make some nature bracelets. Sounds fancy, but not the least...take wide masking tape or wide duct tape, cut it to fit your "model's" wrist, turn it inside out so sticky side is up and voila kids (and mommy) are ready to head out on a walk and find anything we want to stick to our bracelet to make our one of a kind nature bracelet.

We do have a lot to choose from here on the greenbelts...the girls loved it, Carter not so much. I think it was the fact that we called them bracelets that shut him off.

Cast Off!

The cast came off last Wednesday, June 20th! And it was by far the happiest day in our house this summer. It must have been a mental thing because that to us felt like our FIRST official day of summer. I was so excited for her to be able to get in the pool and swim, shoot water guns, throw water balloons, and do everything else associated with water and summer. We had planned to have her wear her suit to the doctor's office and then her cover-up over so that when she got home she would literally run into the pool but I think deep down she was nervous and a little anxious that the dr. would tell her she had to leave it on for two more weeks so she decided to wait.

We had planned a little "cast off" pool party with some of our close friends right after her appt. She did keep asking me though mom what if I don't get it off what are we going to do. And like any good mom trying to reassure her worried daughter I simply told her that I would cry hard with her and then we would go get the biggest carton of cookie dough ice cream (her favorite) and eat it while watching her favorite movie. See smiled at me big and I think because I am the one always saying it will be fine or telling her to not worry about it until it happens, so this wasn't typical mom but understanding her fears and telling her we would figure it out together if even the "worst" happened.

She spent the last morning in her cast doing everything normal, especially using her stick scratcher to get all those itches that were getting worse and worse by the day! She couldn't wait for me to massage her arm and put lotion all over it.

She walked into the dr.'s like this....

The waiting for the x-ray felt like ages and she was so figety...

...but finally our orthopedic dr. walked in with a smile and she knew.

And she walked out like this...except when we actually walked out the

cast was sticking out of my purse!

And what did she do when she FIRST got home???

JUST like she did the LAST time!

And perfect timing for the out of town special guests who was coming to hopefully swim - score one for the cast off and bone healing just in time!

Swim Lessons

"Look at those kids mom, they are really using their ice cream scoopers!" Carter said to us while we were watching the olympic swimming trials. And those "kids" were swimmers like Michael Phelps! He knows so much of the swimming lingo now because he has been taking swim lessons for a few weeks now. If I have learned anything with Carter it is that he will do it WHEN he is ready. He loves swim lessons, doesn't fight them and does what he needs to do to get his lollipop! He trusts our swim teacher (the same one Brooklyn had) and I love how she won't break that trust and do anything until he is ready because that is how Carter works. Just like with Brooklyn, it will click and next thing you know he will take off. In the meantime he is having fun jumping in, doing superman dives off the step, kicking and scooping and searching for turtles, but he is gripping on too to make sure you aren't about to let go of him!

Ms. Kim is awesome with him and we all enjoy having her here. The girls asked her if she would come back and teach them the REAL strokes and how to dive in like a swim race and flip turns. Now mommy teaches them but I am not a "real swim" coach like Ms. Kim is so I guess I don't really officially know what I am talking about. They want to be sure they have the real deal. Maybe I could help them with "swim dancing" or something like that! They start stroke camp right here next week and are counting down the days and just praying that all the rain stops so they can swim.