The last few days have been 90's and hot and such a surprise because I was all set for Fall when the kids went back to school! We're celebrating Porter's Birthday today ( or as Porter has been saying - "Birthday Cake Night!") and still feeling out what the perfect routine for our days will be as we get back into this school year time.
So while we're shifting out of summertime, here are some fun little things from these summer days -
What could be better than a freezer shelf stocked with homemade strawberry jam? These two were great little helpers :)
Our ward's annual pioneer day parade (more fun than you might guess from Ellie/Owen's serious expressions!) My red, white & blue decorations on Jordan's unicycle caused a technical malfunction (the streamers wrapped around one of the pedals so tightly that it fell off!) but fortunately, we stopped right in front of the right neighbors' house (Ed Redd) who ran inside for tools and helped us with a parade route repair before we caught up with the kids at the pancake breakfast.
Landon just moved up in Scouts to Bears and was excited to join his friends there who had moved up before (though he was sad to leave his scout leaders who he knew loved him so much!)
This little Porter is as crazy as can be a bout being "up a counter?!" If I am cooking, he is sure to be up on the counter with me, sometimes helping and many times throwing things off as quickly as he can (carrot sticks, shredded wheat, oatmeal... )
We had this pool out back for a while with just a little bit of water and it seemed like every day Porter would end up sitting in the pool, soaking wet and fully clothed (and so happy!)
We decided to be super brave and all go to the ward campout (even me and Porter, even overnight, even though we might have said at one point that we wouldn't try a campout till all of our children slept through the night... but we were excited)
We had a fun time setting up camp (with these great handcarts for hauling gear/children) and visiting with friends. After dinner, it started raining but we all just huddled in close under the canopy and ate treats while a few brave ones roasted marshmallows in the rain. Finally Porter and Owen were ready for bed so Jordan went to help them get to sleep and found lots and lots of puddles in our tent -- it was not quite so waterproof as we thought! So rather than enduring a soggy, wet night, we packed everything back up again (with such kind help from a friend too) and hurried home to our own dry beds.
April was in town for a quick weekend visit and we all loved seeing her. We had the tent set up (drying out from the ward campout) so the kids had a some fun April play time out there.
Our perfect climbing tree out back had a bunch of branches that had died, so Jordan took a Saturday to finally clear it all out and prune it back. We had a ton of branches to clean up and the kids and I worked hard to help through the afternoon. Then Landon got home from soccer in the evening and he and Jordan stayed up late (with the flood lights out and everything) working so hard together to get it all cleaned up. (It's a big deal for us to start and finish a project like this in one day!)
Just cute kiddos :) Our summer movie/screen time was pretty minimal, but every once in a while they'd set up here at the foot of my bed to watch a movie. (Usually Porter's favorite - "Jake a pirate!")
And haircuts! All the kids + Jordan got back to school haircuts. My roommate in college, Laura, used to cut hair for a bunch of the guys in the ward, including Jordan. At one point, she told me "Once you're married, I'm not cutting Jordan's hair anymore, so you better learn" (or something like that :) so she taught me and after 10 years of haircuts plus trims for 4 kids, those lessons (and the clippers she gave me too!) have been well used!
