Summer!

I have a love/hate relationship with pinterest.  I think I have a love hate with most things.  There's just always two sides.  I think it's the most incredible way to get ideas and save and organize them.  There is so much visual inspiration and it's far more efficient and cost-effective than buying magazines or even searching blogs.

But sometimes I think my head is going to explode with all of the ideas and sometimes I think my sense of worth is going to disappear as I add up ALL of the ideas I will never ever have the time to realize.  I pinned a picture of a garage door (the little one that goes into your house) painted black and thought... "should do that-- my white door gets so filthy. Better pin this to do it some day." But then I thought.... "seriously, of all of the rooms and walls and projects in my home that I see every day that aren't done, like I'm going to spend time on what was always meant to be an ugly, functional door. Who cares.  WHO cares. (please don't tell me if you care.)

Going into this summer I felt so much pressure (self-inflicted) to make it so organized-- so we'd be sure to get in plenty of reading time, swimming time, craft time, cooking time, quiet time, family time.... etc.  We got a white board so we could calendar our weeks for the girls to see and I bought weird things like borax to make slime.... and special colored pencils you can paint with water to make look like water colors.  We have tons of art supplies, but somehow buying something new I saw on pinterest made me feel like I was better prepared for the summer.  I'm such a sucker.

As it turns out: 

-They like their normal crayons and water color paints better.   Like they'd rather just choose one or the other and not some fancy hybrid.  

- They found slime at the dollar store for.... a dollar, and my 12 dollar box of borax sits in my laundry room.  Maybe the creation would be super fun... maybe some day.

- Reading time is harder to make happen than I hoped.  We have incorporated the library in our routine this summer.  Maybe after I spend lots of dollars on pinterest inspired "great books for girls from 4-7" we'll read all the time.  No-- I know it's me.  I try reading aloud in the afternoon while Finn naps and I almost always doze off a few pages in.  This forces Sophia to take over so I can "rest my eyes".  So maybe it's a good thing in the end... thank goodness I can count on Ross to read at bed time...

- Between friends' pools and hotel pools, we swim several times a week... and it doesn't always leave tons of time for other stuff... but when it's 112 degrees outside, we've decided it's the priority. Who wants to be cooped up inside, even if you do have a cupboard full of pinterest-inspired super-mom crafts?

- They still default to drawing and painting and glueing and taping every afternoon when we're home.  I think I've decided it's ok if I'm not there monitoring a new and awesome craft.  They're creating and they'll do it on their own.  Am I really going to mess with that?

- "Cooking time" consists of them playing with a miniature ball of dough when I make bread, cracking an egg any time there's an egg to be cracked, stirring the waffle or pancake batter while I add to it, and eating cookie dough when it's done.  They don't care much beyond that and frankly I cook much faster without them.  Am I awful?

-  Quiet time happens when they watch a movie after a morning in the sun and water, while Finn naps.  I think quiet time is supposed to be a time for reading and reflection.  We've got room for improvement there.  At least it's quiet and we can all recover from the fast paced morning.

-  Family time is all the time.  Maybe this needs to be scheduled in when they're teenagers.  But they can't do much without us now.... so by default, we rock at family time.  

So mostly-- we're just going with it.  We fill our weeks with friends and swimming and chaos and fill in the holes with whatever we feel like.  It works for us.  I guess this is my public declaration that I'm letting myself off the hook for any list of 101 things to do this summer.  I am a horrible planner and I'm afraid of commitment-- but I love to be busy and happy.  So I'm soaring with my strengths.

(p.s. If you are organized and fabulous enough to have done some incredible summer plan with a check-off list, I am obviously just super jealous. )

Father's Day

Thanks pinterest for our little ideas.   They did my little interviews completely independent of each other and didn't know the other's answers.  I love how many are the same. He's a basketball watching, cross-fit obsessed, water drinking, kind and playful giant.  They're pretty spot on.

Father's Day weekend for us meant:

- Nana and Grandpa took the girls to Orange County on Saturday to play with their cousins for the day, so we had a babysitter stay with Finn while he napped and Ross and I took a vacation day at a nearby hotel pool.  Ahhh... that's when this desert heat doesn't seem so bad.

- we did breakfast in bed for Ross of course.  And it wouldn't have been the same had I actually used the powdered sugar for his french toast and not accidentally corn starch.  It's true.  He ate his whole plate before he came downstairs and said... "that was delicous.... buuuut.... that wasn't powdered sugar." huh? I looked a the box I'd been sifting from.... 100% pure corn starch.  As if it was rubbing my insane mistake in my face.  Luckily he likes a good story.

- Blue cheese crusted steak for dinner.  All in all, a more successful meal than breakfast.  Which isn't saying much I guess.  But it was good.  Any red meat with blue cheese is a hit with me.

Did I mention I covered our father's day french toast in corn starch?  Best father's day ever.  

Some more maygrams (the possibilities for instagram-word-blending are endless)

A few of our latest moments include:

- Mila's first trip to the dentist
- A dinner out way past our curfew
- Sophia bribing me to pick at her feet with tweezers while she reads to me... she loves having her feet touched!
- Twin day with cute friend Kate
- Our backyard slide coming back in business for the summer until it breaks for good--- at which point we'll debate getting a new one at full price or waiting 'till the end of the summer to get it half off.  Decisions....
- A family game night
- Baking... baking... baking.... mostly my favorite whole wheat cookies and my first batch of whole wheat cinnamon rolls.
- All with my NEW lovely 6 qt kitchenaid with the gorgeous shiny bowl and cool curled edge... sometimes it's exciting when things break. I had no choice.  I had to get it.
- The last of my birthday celebrations with Ross at one of our favorite restaurants-- Roys.
- And a happy me after a birthday massage.... ahhhhh...
- Some daddy/Finn skateboarding time
- And a possibly line-crossing picture of me and Ross on our 9 year anniversary.

I remember the days when I would be posting the pictures from our memorial day weekend right now, instead of all of the day-to day before that.... but when I skip, I never  come back.  And I need this stuff in print some day to make it worth all the obnoxious snapshots.

Second Half of April in Instagrams (a little behind)

Hmm... anything noteworthy?

- we played outside

- we painted some nails

- I went for some runs and took pictures of my shoes to make myself feel good.

- we gave some baths

- we watched Phil Phillips and fast-forwarded the rest

- we rode our bikes before May hit with some premature triple digits

- we played at the park

- I made homemade hamburger buns

- I practiced my Katniss braid on Sophia

- SHE LOST HER SECOND TOOTH!

-And got sick :(

- Finn let me hold him a little less than the month before

-Sophia read a little more than the month before

- Mila was just as wild and crazy as ever.

Florida Through the Phone

It all started in Ontario.... for leg one, of THREE legs of flights.  We started happy.  Finn roamed his first airport lookin' all cute and big and I took pictures and thought, my kids are so rad, maybe it won't be so bad.  Ha.

They're still rad, but it was bad.  It's always bad traveling with a baby isn't it? Especially when they're young and you don't have to buy a seat-- so you don't because you think the suffering is worth the many hundreds you're saving.  But then the flight is full and you're ACTUALLY stuck with the lap child on your lap (or your sweet husband's lap) and your cute babe is eventually driven by exhaustion and cabin pressure and too many fruit snacks being desperately shoved in his mouth to become something wild and awful and out of control.  And there's no where to go. And no where to hide.  And people try not to watch but they're all watching.  It's enough to make a person want to jump out the emergency exit.  

You see this is why Ross held him almost the whole time.  He deals with that kind of stress far better than I.  Thank you Ross.  And I'm sorry, sweet Finn.... I know it's not your fault.  If it was socially acceptable for me to cry and scream and arch and throw my head back in exhaustion after hours of traveling and surviving on snacks because Southwest doesn't do food, I'd do it too.

PHEW--- but eventually, close to midnight, we got to Florida.  And after getting the rental car and driving for a couple of hours.... we got to Aunt Lacy's house.  And the real fun began!

We went on a nature walk to see wild alligators... and we definitely did.... let's take a closer look at that one above.  Here it is below.  Still gives me the eebie jeebies.

We did an awesome little teaching zoo.... so beautiful and green and NOTHING like our dry, dusty wide open, desert zoo.  We got sitters for the babies and floated down the river on inner tubes ... wandered a museum, got a sitter and went to my favorite Gainesville restaurant (that's the picture below where it looks like I have a booty.  Something weird happened there.)... we did Strawberry picking (AWESOME), and ate strawberries at every meal thereafter, we swam, we Easter'd, I saw my old friend, Michelle!, and mostly soaked up my sweet sister and her entertaining husband and darling kids as much as we possibly could.  It's always so so hard to say goodbye.  

Oh and the flight home was SO much better.  One less stop.  And Ross got a whole row on the long flight for him and Finn.  Which meant we could lock him in his seat.  And he could sleep and we could READ! And the girls had the most awesome giggle attack when a little boy behind them all of a sudden said "we're fwying wike a biwd"... and it went on and on and on.  Cutest thing ever.

March in Instagrams

So we just got back from Florida, where we went for a week to visit my lovely sister, Lacy and her family.  My girls have been talking about it for months, I've been dreaming about the time with family and waking up in cold-sweats imagining the hours of travel with Finn.  We survived the travel... and we soaked up our sweet loved-ones as best as we could... SO sad to see it end.

I hooked up my phone to get the pictures from the trip and started feeling the OOOPA.  (Out-of-order-posting anxiety.  It's a real thing.  For me.)

So before I could post our fabulous wanderings around Gainesville (mostly documented through my trusty iphone-- I feel like I'm cheating on my nice camera but sometimes convenience just has to win you know?)... anyway--- before I could post those.... had to squeeze in our March.  Looks kind of uneventful.  But I'm convinced that 70-yeard-old me won't think so.  Hmmm.... what did we do......

- Lots of bike/scooter- ing on these beautiful spring evenings
- Giggled a little at the bum crack that we cannot keep covered on Mila... I've tried everything I tell you.
- Watched Finn make silly-squishy faces in the window
- Searched for ladybugs
- Ate lots of greek yogurt with dates/honey/walnuts... a favorite around here
- Enjoyed reading-time on a backyard blanket
- And on the couch
- Fresh flowers
- and the Lorax
- Watched Finn be generally, insanely cute because a wabbly waddling 15-month-old with a huge belly, strawberry-red hair, and a bunch of teeth to growl through is insane.
- Celebrated with Sophia after she lost her first TOOTH! (lost while the poor things was throwing up with a horrible flu.)
- Had a date-night to the Tennis Tournament which was awesome...
- Continued to let Mila choose her own clothes despite the result.
- Had Nana & Grandpa B time!
- And snuggled ... and snuggled.... wore silly glasses.... and snuggled.

February in instagrams

I love that as long as you put them in a grid, you can include WAY more pictures than anyone would ever want to see.  Or at least I tell myself so.  At least there's no major scroll commitment. That's something.

 right? 

The pictures cover: 

-valentines

-my new barstools, (only the most important things, obviously)

-some kite flying and a nice child-taken shot up my nose

-Mila letting Finn pick her boogers in the back seat "because it's making him happy!"

-Ross's annual mancation

-a trip home to San Diego to see Nana and Papa while Ross was on mancation

-a game night with Nana and Grandpa B.

-cookies- cookies- and more cookies

-Finn walking, then two weeks later REALLY walking

-Sophia winning two metals at her first track meet

-Ross recovering from Kidney stones 

- And lots of other random teensie tiny memories I decided I couldn't possibly live without.

If a tree fell in the forest and no one instagrammed it, did it really fall?

Proof that we've done stuff the last few weeks.

- Hanging in our jammies 'till 2 on saturdays.

- A before of my kitchen (still haven't blogged the official after because the white is looking blue-- don't get me started-- I give up. I just give. up)

-A lunch date with Mila and Finn

-A movie date, just Mila and me

-A trip to the oasis with dad

- Ross turning 34

-The girls asleep in our bed when we come up at midnight... their new thing.

-The Diva Dash! A fun little 5k with some obstacles and RAIN! in San Diego I did last weekend with a bunch of girlfriends. So fun. Made a weekend of it.

- Rain back home and Sophia enjoying it-- or-- eating it?

-Finn after bath--

-And his little nursing feet-- I feel like it's gonna end soon. So sad.

- Mila after saying "my hands are tired of moving."

And that makes me feel all caught up.

(ps. I usually do these collages in photoshop where you have lots more control and can make it a little cuter. But I was in a hurry and so did this one in picasa and just remembered how quick and easy it is to make a collage there. I've had a few collage questions, there's your easiest option!)

The last couple of weeks -- recorded, thanks to instagram

Dinner out for Finn and Grandpa B's birthdays, the girls being ... cute, new years eve dinner with friends in Palm Springs, a visit from Mike, Mel and the kids, sick, blistered baby... etc... etc...

Ross is off work tomorrow. Sophia's off school--- and I could not be happier. I wish life were on more of an every other day schedule rather than a measly two day weekend. If I ruled the world....

Happy weekend... hopefully yours isn't over yet either!

One way to feel like I'm "catching up"

Some recent instagrams. Why is it such a ginormous battle for me to balance feeling so busy in November/December that I get anxious for January, and yet utterly DEPRESSED at the thought that this month will ever end! I love it! I wish the whole year could be "the holidays". But I know better. Such a crazy/special/precious time.