Thoughts on summer

I've been thinking that I need to share my thoughts on summer.  While our summer was really great and it honestly flew by like never before, it wasn't all sunshine and roses everyday.  Because, well, "Momertainer" gets tired, runs out of ideas, and would like to clean the disgusting bathrooms that have been neglected.

CROCS.  I have a love-hate relationship with them.  While they are the pinnacle of summertime shoes and meet our needs for ease of getting on and water friendliness, they are also filthy, sweaty, dirt traps.  My children shed their crocs at the door and then leave a trail of sweaty, nasty footprints all over the place.  So gross.  I have hosed those things off numerous times this summer.
2 QUESTIONS.  Heard daily from the mouth of Matthew: "What are we doing today?" and "What's for dinner?"  Every.  Single.  Day.  And often more than once.
SWIMSUIT.  I lived in mine.  I feel like I put it on everyday.  I drove around town in my swimsuit.  Sitting on a towel.  Our house was littered with them.  They would hang from every available rack, knob, hook, door, you name it.  And so the bathroom always smelled like chlorine.
TOWELS.  Constantly being washed.
HYGIENE.  Not so great in the summertime.  How many days has it been since you've come into contact with soap, Matthew?  Myself included.  Many, many make-up free days.
FROZEN YOGURT.  You don't need an occasion.  It's always a good time.  And it always tastes SO amazingly good.
LATE BEDTIME. Good Lord.  You know, it's certainly nice to not have strict bedtimes and to have the freedom to be out later to do things, but sweet Lord, can I at least get them to bed at 8 tonight because I am DONE!  It wouldn't be so bad if they actually slept late, but that was not the case.  Up at 6:30 at least and then allowed to come bounding out at 7.
GROCERY STORE.  Once a week.  I made painstaking efforts to make sure that I only had to take all 3 to the store one time a week.  I planned out every detail of every meal for the week and shopped accordingly.  They're not fussy at the store.  Just opinionated and sometimes overly helpful.  And, my 7 year old found it too taxing to walk through the whole store, so there I was pushing 3 boys and a cart full of $200 worth of groceries.
THE GYM.  Was my saving grace.  I was there MWF with all 3 of my boys.  I dropped them off in the playscape room where they got to play with friends, watch tv, and eat a snack while I escaped into the wonderful world of cardio and weightlifting.  Often followed by a shower.  Those were some great mornings.  :)  Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without the Quarries and their amazing staff.  LOVE them.

We had our fun, we did.  We picnicked with some of our favorite people.  And come to find out, Pam has mastered the art of ice cream making.  She has pulled off some fantastic ice cream recipes this summer.  YUM!

We played with friends.  Underwear shooting match.

Superhero stick-up.

Lunch time loonies.

We made a trip up to Dallas to fetch Matthew who was a Brown for a week, staying with them and attending Lego camp with his good buddy, Josh.  He had an amazing time and was reluctant to come home with us.

On our drive home from Dallas we stopped by Health Camp for some delightful shakes.  Matt is so tall!  Soon we will be seeing eye-to-eye.  Yikes!

Mr. J loves to be outside.  He doesn't care if he gets hot and sweaty and filthy.  He quite enjoys a dump truck full of water too.  Splishy-splash!

The kids entertained themselves quite well building forts.

Beers were shared.

Johnny loved the train track and all the books at Barnes and Noble.

We saw some funny movies.  My favorite of the summer: Despicable Me 2.  Hilarity.

We swam in so many different pools.  Everywhere...north, south, and everywhere inbetween.

And then some days I was too lazy or unmotivated to go the trouble of blowing up the backyard pool for 30 min. worth of use and entertainment. So, I filled up a bucket for Will and he had a grand time.  Upon exiting the bucket he took on the persona of a superhero you may have never heard of: he called himself SuperWetGuy.  And I was stifling giggles.

Superman made many appearances.

JohnnyMan wore the cape and chased his brothers round and round the table.  Cuteness.

The boys sat in ALL of the ride on toys at ToysRUs.  Even the pink Escalade.

Johnathan discovered the delights of sitting on and playing on the couch.  He now flops around on it daily.

And then there was one blissful day in August that I got to spend the entire day with some of my very dearest friends at Lake Austin Spa.  Scrub, massage, spa lunch, pedicure and dinner out.  A wonderful, perfect day.

One of the highlights for me was swimming laps in the barn pool.  All by myself.  I was in the pool all summer but with children all over me.  So this was pure bliss.

Matt's school puts on a back to school skating party each year.  Now, my son has never worn a pair of roller skates.  He swore to me he wanted to do it.  I of course wanted to give him the opportunity but was pretty sure I already knew the outcome.  He hated it.  You may notice the forced smile.  I myself had not worn skates in I don't even remember when, and it was not easy.  I know I looked like a complete fool.  But, we got to see the class lists that were posted, catch up with friends, and see what buddies Matt had in his class.

And then school started.  It did!!!  Will started a week before Matt.  It's his last year of preschool, I can hardly believe it.  He is loving school.  He's in a class with 10 other boys, and no girls.  Those poor, poor teachers.

Matthew began 2nd grade full of confidence, and it's going great.  He's got friends, great teachers, and competition on the recess playground is in full swing.  It's going to be a fantastic year.

Sea World!

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to Sea World, and it was a really fun day.  I was really nervous about how Johnny was going to do, but he did amazingly well.  He was totally in awe at everything he saw around him.  We got to the park at 10:30 and didn't leave until after 7 that evening.  It was a full day!

The first part of the day we spent exploring the amusement park.  Sweet little Will was still not tall enough to get onto any of the big rides.  He handled the let down really well.  Matt & I enjoyed the Shamu Express ride together.  It was a little warm-up for the other rides.

There's a fun little Sesame Street themed water area for the little ones.  Johnny thoroughly enjoyed walking around and splashing in all the fountains until someone ran into him and he landed flat on his back.  Poor guy.  He recovered just fine and was back to playing.

This is the net that Will LOVED.  He talked about it the rest of the day and was begging to go back to it.

Steven & I would alternate riding the rides with Matt.  Steven & Matt rode the Journey to Atlantis ride that has a pretty good drop at the end and splashes a huge wave of water onto onlookers.  There was no line after they got done, and I had to beg Matt to ride it again with me.  To quote Matt, he said it "killed his stomach" and didn't want to do it again.  But, we did, and it was so fun!  In the mean time, Steven was with the other two.  Will got too close to the fence there and got blasted by an enormous wave of water.  Reportedly, Steven got the giggles.

After wiping Will's tears away, we sat and watched Shamu and friends jump around.  Johnny loved it.  He sat in my lap and watched the whole thing.  And he's not one to sit in my lap and chill for any length of time.  He was very generous with his applause, too.

We then ate a quick bite of lunch, and then Steven and I took turns riding the big roller coasters.  There were NO lines---we just walked right on.  So awesome.  Matt was tall enough to ride one of them, but no amount of begging could convince him to join me.  So, I screamed like a girl by myself and then turned around and smiled at the girl behind me.  Maybe next year, Matt!

By then it was time to head over to the waterpark, Aquatica.  It's all new with all manner of water activities for big and small.  We enjoyed the wave pool, the lazy river, explored all the little kid areas and went down tons of slides.  We had ice cream treats and got to pet some sting rays.

This was Will's favorite part of the day.  He found these slides that he could go down all by himself, and he probably did it a hundred times.  So much fun for him.

Captain John had a boatload of giggles walking around in the little pool and splashing around.  At one point I left Steven in that pool with Will sliding and sliding and Johnny walking around in the water while Matt & I went to go do some of the innertube slides.  We came back and Will was still sliding and Johnny was asleep in Steven's arms.

Just when you think that was a full day, we decided to head back to the amusement park and let Will ride some rides that are Will sized.  Right before we left the waterpark he had a huge meltdown over the fact that he couldn't go down one of the big water slides that Steven & Matt were going down.  He had done really well with it all day, but it finally got to him.  He was frustrated by his lack of height, and I totally get it.  He got to ride some rides back in Elmo land, and climb that net again, so he was a happy guy.

Even Johnny got to ride the carousel.  He was unsure at first, but once the ride got going he really enjoyed it.  And then, we were spent.  We left the park and went to Schlotzsky's for a quick dinner where everyone just derailed.  Spilled drinks, tears, "I don't wanna eat", baby throwing food and demanding fountain drinks, Will ran into the counter in the bathroom...it just got ugly.  We got out of there and drove home.  Everyone fell asleep, even Matthew if only for a few minutes.  We love Sea World, it is a total blast!  We'll be back next year for sure.

Matthew

I know everyone is probably wondering what Matthew is up to these days.  Especially Matthew himself; probably the #1 reader of this blog.  What does he like to do?  What does he spend his time doing?  What are his favorite things?  Well.  I will attempt to answer those questions.  Matt, you can correct me if you like.  You will deduce by looking at this first picture that Matt likes to read.  Or at least, he likes Foxtrot.  Steven has a collection of Foxtrot books from his college days, and Matt discovered them last year some time.  I daresay it's his favorite thing to read because I see him with one of those books at least once a day.  No doubt he has them memorized by now.  You're probably wondering why he is reading a book while lounged in the grass on such a nice day.  I can't answer that.  All I know is that he loves to read.

Another thing you should know about Matthew is that he loves to build.  When he was a toddler he would stack food.  Then he stacked blocks.  Then he learned how to construct his own train track.  And then he accessorized it making it a full blown city with Legos, signs, cars, blocks, you name it.  He can't stop himself.  He also enjoys building really neat towers with Johnny's huge Lego blocks.  He goes into great care and detail trying to make them symmetrical and cool looking from every angle.  This presents a challenge when Johnny is in the room.  He's super good at destruction.  Not so much construction.  I had to snap this photo quick before babyzilla started swinging his arms.

Matt also enjoys games.  Let me add that that is a Steven look right there!  Video games, phone games, computer games, board games...he loves them all.  We usually have a small pocket of time while the two little one's naps overlap where we can spend some one-on-one time together.  I love that he can play games with me.  Some of our favorites are Sorry, Monopoly, Uno, Skip-Bo, Scrabble, Busytown, Battleship, Risk, and Bananagrams.  The kid is a whiz at Bananagrams.  I am always amazed at his vocabulary and spelling skills.  He is a worthy opponent.  :)

He loves to create music with his brother.  He and Will trade off playing drums and guitar and coming up with lyrics that they can scream into the mic.  He is a creative and imaginative boy.  Currently, he is working on a script to Cars 3.  He and Will have been reenacting scenes from both Cars and Cars 2 in their entirety over the past week.  It's hilarious.  I am impressed at how well they know these movies and how much of it they can quote.  Even though I know they've seen them both dozens of times.  Matt draws a map everyday.  I have a huge stack of them that he's created over the summer.  He works hard on them.  He is also working on writing his comic series Crystals of the Legends.  He has written several installations this summer and plans to sell them to his friends.  Actually, what he really wants to do is set up a lemonade stand where he can sell lemonade, his comics and his Pokemon cards.  And what would he do with the cash?  Buy Legos.

He still loves to collect "treasures" wherever he goes.  Namely change and bottlecaps that he finds.  His eyes are constantly scanning the ground.  Our collection of bottlecaps is out of hand.  Time to find some crafty way to make fun use of them.

And did I mention that Matt likes to read?  Any place is a good place.  He completed his summer reading sheet for school with lightning speed.  Now he'll have $5 to spend at the book fair in the fall!

Now, another thing you should know about Matthew is that he is NEVER tired.  He can't and will not admit it.  Even if he's snuggled in a chair with his blankets and yawning.  Nope, nope, nope...not tired.  And here is evidence that he fell asleep in the car.  We were on the outskirts of Austin and he remarked how the trip seemed faster on the way home, and I told him it was probably because he fell asleep for part of it.  He adamantly denied it!  "No I didn't fall asleep!!!"  Uh, yeah you did.  Look at this picture.  Still denied it.  "My eyes were just halfway closed!"

He rediscovered his earphones and old discman recently and channeled his future teenager self.  Again with the Foxtrot.

He is not always in favor of being photographed.

But, Matthew is a marvelous big brother.  He bemoans his birth order sometimes, and I always tell him God made him #1 for a reason.  Most of the time he is so easy-going, patient, fun, a really good teacher, and just really sweet with his two brothers.  He lets them crawl, jump and pounce all over him.  When we go to the gym he spends time with Will and his buddies and then will go into the baby room to play with Johnny.  The ladies there just LOVE him, and I know why.  :)

I love seeing Matt & Will snuggle up in the same chair.  Too precious for words.

The most exciting event for Matthew this summer was at VBS when he accepted Jesus into his heart.  He knows that Jesus died to give him life, and he wants to follow him.  He was baptized in July.  As parents, we couldn't be prouder.  This boy is something special.

July 4th

We celebrated July 4th this year in a laid-back fashion.  We invited friends and family over to eat pulled pork bbq sandwiches, sit in the heat, and watch the kids pile into the the baby pool and crazy inflatable ball thingy.

There was a lot of this...

And then Henry and Will always find themselves alone at the table together.

Cousins being adorable.

I thought water balloons would be fun.  And they were for the kids.  It took an adult though to fill them up and then tie each of them off, and that was me.  As labor intensive as it was it was still fun.

Eventually they learned to save their balloons as I filled them up rather than chucking one at a time.  Then came the water balloon fight.  Will and his over-tired self lost it at the end in full melt-down mode.

I made strawberry margaritas and even the grandparents enjoyed them!  :)

I put Johnny in the pool amidst all the chaos and he was a wee bit overwhelmed.  Later, after all the kids had gone inside he had the pool all to himself and had a ball.  He had the audience all to himself too, and that makes all the difference.