Sometimes Juliet gets to go on the big swing too.
We barely need baby clothes for summer. Juliet has discovered what raspberries are and they make her laugh so she gets a lot of them.
Eleanor with her three favorite dolls - two Wellie Wishers and Juliet. Kudos to my mother for the matching dresses.
The kids will do pretty much anything to make Juliet laugh. In concerning news, Juliet laughs for me primarily when I'm giving her fake stern lectures about looking the correct direction for photos and so on. She already laughs at my lectures, we're in trouble.
Naked baby!
Quiet time alone in rooms has been an important part of this summer vacation and Bradley spent who knows how long making this stack of Pokémon figures one afternoon.
The kids did VBS at our church soon after summer vacation began and had a blast. Here's Eleanor during art time next to her friend Naomi.
Group photo of the boys modeling the shirts on which I had to do iron-ons with the VBS logo. I only sort of wrecked one shirt while doing this and fortunately Eleanor prefers modeling her dance recital dress anyway. And this is what I get from Patrick these days when I ask him to pose for a picture.
But look at how cute he is in his official VBS photo!
We've also been at the pool a ton already. Did you know that Patrick's name is three syllables when Eleanor is mad at him for not hiding his face while she's changing? "Paterrrick!!"
Everyone but Juliet approves of all the pool time. She screeched and cried whenever we dipped her toes in the water until we got a hot stretch and the pool temperature increased from frigid to bath temp.
Bradley is a crazy person and liked climbing up the giant inflatable and jumping off of it, even though he barely makes the age cutoff to use it.
Patrick would play around in the water but may have been on team Juliet when it came to the temperature, he spent a fair bit of time bundled poolside.
He's just a little bit of a stinker. Last week in church he decided it would be hysterical to do his trick where he sticks his nose on my lips for a kiss. He did it over and over again while the youth pastor was up in front of the church talking about something pious, I don't really know what he said, it was hard to pay attention, and when I told Patrick he really needed to stop because the pastor was talking and it wasn't very polite (maybe I would have been more believable if I wasn't laughing while saying this to him) Patrick stopped and started saying "blah blah blah" loudly instead. Ah Patrick.
Maybe I shouldn't encourage this behavior, but he's so proud of himself whenever he does it and it makes us both laugh. His poor siblings though. Patrick lives to get a reaction. Yesterday morning I came downstairs as Nathan was feeding the kids breakfast and Patrick had a huge smile on his face as he loudly told his siblings on repeat how he was the oldest and they were younger than him. Then I sat down next to him and he said "oh, hi DADDY!"
Patrick also decided he spoke Spanish and kept speaking in it which drove his siblings nuts because they knew it wasn't Spanish and yet he insisted it was all correct.
They're quite the crew but they're the cutest. Juliet fits right in.
Patrick generally comes in and cuddles me when he wakes up every morning. One morning Nathan was trying to give me extra sleep after a rough night with Juliet, so he locked the door when he took Juliet downstairs and I went back to bed. I didn't sleep for long though because a few minutes later there was a whimpering Patrick staring through the kitty door in our bedroom door. I let him in and he got his necessary cuddles.
Juliet has not the most demure personality (a good thing with this crew) and has been known to holler and root around at whatever is near when she's hungry. We call her the little cannibal whenever she does this. One time I was helping him give her a piggie back ride and she kept giving a war whoop and then aggressively grabbing his hair and sort of growling as she tried to chew on his head. Bradley and I were laughing so hard that we were crying a little. Here she is doing the same thing on the front of Bradley's shirt. I feed her frequently, the baby is not starving.
See? Look at these rolls.
Juliet is finally big enough to sit in the cart at the grocery store and we aim to please so we try to pad things a bit to make her extra comfy. She still only makes it in the cart for 5-10 minutes generally. Also, please note Patrick's awesome mohawk in this picture.
Bradley has caught the reading bug this summer which is great news for little Juliet.
We went to Nathan's company picnic again this year and it was a dazzling paradise of bottomless treats and fun rides.
Although it was unfortunate that Bradley had been to Silver Dollar City recently because he kept yelling "when is this going to go faster?" on this particular ride.
Axe throwing bouncy house!
My kids all went off a high jump bouncy thing that terrified children twice their size.
Eleanor's turn.
And even little Patrick.
Eleanor had her dance recital later the same day and did really well. How adorable is her troll themed outfit and hair?
She's the little girl on the far right in this picture.
Many thanks to my parents who took the boys for the afternoon so we could focus on cheering on Eleanor rather than doing crowd control with antsy children.
With her good friend Gabby!
We even remembered to bring Eleanor flowers. Which it turns out was really important, because on the way home from the recital we had this exchange in the car:
Eleanor: I worked really hard at dance. And I just didn't do it to show off.
Me: Oh good.
Eleanor: I did it for flowers and a teddy bear. (The teddy bear was from her teacher).
It was a weekend of performance, at church they got to perform their VBS songs in front of the congregation.
And then they got to finish some of the leftover ice cream from the VBS picnic lunch. Bradley literally runs to get into Sunday School first when they are dismissed from the church service, it's pretty fantastic how much these kids love our church.
And if there's a picture that sums up Patrick and Eleanor this summer, it is probably this. They made a laundry basket cage for Eleanor. Patrick is feeding her toy food through the slots. They played like this for much of an afternoon.
And then, oh joy of joys, it was time for our girls' trip to Santa Cruz! Eleanor had been talking about this trip daily pretty much since we booked the tickets a couple months earlier. It was hopes and dreams coming true.
It was also Juliet's first time flying on a plane! She started out happy at least. She cried enough on the second leg of the flight that we were a bit famous when we got off the plane, at which point she finally stopped crying. People were very nice and mostly made sympathetic comments like "oh good, she's finally out of her misery" and the second to last guy to get off the plane walked up to me and said "oh man, if I could buy you a drink I would!" I would have taken said drink, it was quite the flight.
But we made it out to Diana and Bill's place and Juliet slept the exhausted sleep of the dead and Eleanor got to sleep next to me and then wake up and play on a tablet. Already a great success of a trip.
Sister cuddles in the morning!
We got to go and see Granddad right away which was wonderful. Juliet was enthralled with him, he's amazing with babies.
Eleanor was a fan too but was a little shy at first.
Eleanor picked lots of berries for us every day in my aunt's garden. People commented on how smiley Eleanor was in all of the trip pictures but this is just Eleanor's photo face these days. Boring smiles are for boring people.
At the Santa Cruz boardwalk.
It was so hot, there aren't many pictures of Juliet here because it was about 95 degrees and she was a puddle even in the shade.
Diana introduced Eleanor to the concept of bunny ears on this trip. New great photo prop!
Eleanor truly lived her best life on this trip.
And then we were off to the beach. Eleanor was obsessed.
Juliet did quite a bit better by the water, there was a breeze and it felt a lot cooler.
Although this didn't necessarily mean she wanted to get wet. Poor baby.
Eleanor loved everything about it, although I think she's crazy for getting so wet in the very cold ocean water.
Back at Diana and Bill's place, helping with the gardening.
Popcorn and a movie and staying up past her bedtime. Eleanor loves vacations.
The boys were with my folks during the day and Nathan picked them up when he was on his way home from work each day. They also ate well while we were gone. Bradley is hardcore into ribs these days and Nathan was delighted to accommodate with Joe's KC BBQ.
Patrick's more into fries and ketchup. He also was happy.
Making their own coloring books with Grandma. The boys had a pretty great time while we were gone.
We call this "trapped in the redwoods."
This tree was hollow on the inside and Eleanor is standing at the opening. It was huge, you could have easily had 10 people stand inside.
The trees are so incredible.
Back to the beach! Juliet was much happier this time around.
And then back to the garden. Eleanor lived in her swimsuit for much of this trip.
Scott girls group photo
Apparently the boys were very upset when they saw a picture of Eleanor eating a chocolate covered ice cream cone so we took a photo and video of Eleanor finishing off a container of ice cream.
I even got to play some card games with Granddad and Diana and Bill while Eleanor relaxed on the couch and watched some shows. Juliet was the trophy for the victor. She's a little milk drunk in this photo.
She liked Diana's aquariums.
Juliet victory trophy
And a picture of me with the 94 year old who still beats me at cards despite my best efforts!
We went to downtown Santa Cruz for dinner that evening.
Bill got to tease Eleanor about her double lipped pouty face when we left the cookie shop after dessert.
Eleanor had such a great trip.
Checking out the kiddie area of the bookstore.
And a final picture with Granddad before we left.
Eleanor and I had some fancy danishes before getting on our plane home.
And we left Juliet in charge of the boarding passes while we ate. Good plan? I was so relieved when Juliet had a very sleepy and easy flight home, she barely cried at all.
There was a rather joyous reception for Juliet in particular when we got home. I think the boys would have done this for Eleanor too but she's not as willing to be smooched. Eleanor slept in until 10:15 the morning after we got back and would have slept longer if I hadn't taken Juliet into her room to help her wake up. I had even let the boys run around yelling wildly an hour or two earlier and Eleanor notified me that she had heard it and it had been really loud. She's already this good at sleeping in, I shudder to think what she'll be like as a teenager.
I quickly got back up to speed on life with boys. I said this cart could only fit one child and I was obviously so very wrong.
Juliet was so happy to have great Patrick stories again when she got home.
And no big deal, my parents live five minutes from us and it only took me about five months to get a picture of them with all the kids after Juliet was born.
Eleanor and I have matching clothes now. I tried to find something for Juliet too but couldn't, apparently our range of sizes is a bit much just yet.
And this is what an afternoon at my parents' house looks like. We went over while Nathan was out of town for a couple days.
I took the kids to Walgreens to get popsicles and allergy medicine (the essentials) and it turns out it's the best place to spend allowance money on cool toys.
The kids invented their own games to play in the backyard, which were amazing to watch.
And they played Mr. Wolf (a swim game) in the front. My favorite version of tag ever.
That night I told the kids I couldn't read to them because Juliet was fussy and I had to walk around with her. So they took turns reading to each other and it was so stinkin' adorable.
We started swim lessons and I told the kids they needed to go to the bathroom before we left for the pool each morning. Patrick asked if he could go in the bushes and I said sure and then he did it every morning that week until he realized there were bugs outside and then he didn't want to do it anymore.
We played in the sand area most mornings before the kids had their lessons.
And sometimes we stayed after the lessons for lunch and then some swim time in the big pool. Juliet took daily naps on my friend Julie.
Juliet mostly hung out in the shade and cuddled with me because the water was so cold and she hated it.
However on the last day of swim class I finally realized she could at least play in the sand a bit.
She loved it! Although her first two official foods at this point may be cat hair and sand. She didn't eat the sand on purpose, but when a girl likes to suck on her fist and it still has some sand bits on it … ah well.
The kids were very helpful in providing entertainment for Juliet as she played.
Patrick with his friends Mabel and Lauren on their last day of class.
Even at home Juliet always has at least one willing cuddle buddy. Lucky girl!
These kids. I know I'll miss this someday. One person can never start an activity without the other two joining in.
Reading to each other at bed again. With a baby buddy there for cuddles.
Nathan came back from his trip and brought the most ridiculous sucker for the children.
And I had to wake up this for an errand of some sort. It just kills me to have to wake her up when she's napping like this.
I had my birthday and Bradley made me a card. It says "Happy Mother's Day."
"I hope you like the flip-o-rama. You are the best mom I have had! Everything is orange!" The Captain Underpants books all have flip-o-ramas and Bradley explained that the star on the front folds into the ball on the inside. So clever!
Birthday cuddles.
Followed by the Scott Family Summer Funfest a couple days later on Eleanor's birthday! We made it a sort of big summer party with a little bit of cupcakes and popsicles at the pool in celebration of Eleanor's birthday. It was a great time.
Another day at the pool, another nap on one of my mommy friends for Juliet. Thanks, Amy!
We played lawn games and had loads of popsicles whenever they cleared the pool for an adult swim, we ended up staying at the pool for three hours and I think everyone had a pretty terrific time.
Especially Juliet, who got to hang out with Mike Monahan who got more laughs and smiles out of her than anyone besides her siblings.
And we did a family ice cream cake the next day with my parents to celebrate. Even though they were at the other party too. No one complained about extra cake, it was fine.
Eleanor was so happy about presents and I didn't just get her books and games, I even got her Hatchimals so it was a good birthday indeed. When we first talked about getting Eleanor presents Bradley informed me "she likes Pokémon!" but as helpful as that was to know, we decided to go in another direction for her presents.
We also found a mermaid blanket for her that matched her swimsuit. Eleanor was so excited about the blanket that she asked the boys if they wanted to have a sleepover. They said yes! Nathan had to go up when he heard some thumping around and talking and it turns out Patrick was trying to cuddle in next to Eleanor so he had to go into his bed. Eleanor still somehow managed to sleep in the next morning, the girl's sleeping powers are unmatched in this house.
The next morning I asked Eleanor for one picture of her in her swim suit with matching mermaid tail.
She then took an ottoman out to the middle of the kitchen and initiated a photo shoot where she told me poses she was going to do and told me when to take pictures.
There were lots more than this. Eleanor really likes her new blanket.
Juliet is so cute and fun and into things now and I get stopped everywhere I go with her because people tell me she looks like a living doll version of a baby because she's so little and cute and has great hair.
We combined her four month check-up with Eleanor's 6 year well visit at the doctor's office.
Juliet is officially my tiniest child. 18th percentile height and 24th percentile weight!
However, I pointed out to Nathan that this means she's still a bit round for how tall she is so it means she has the baby rolls I go nuts for.
Summer is so great. How am I going to equal this level of entertainment when the big kids go back to school?
Hopefully Juliet can entertain herself a bit by then. She's getting pretty good about grabbing at stuff all on her own these days.
Look, four kids all playing together.
Unfortunately, as much as she wants to care about their shows this is how she currently feels about PJ Masks (Patrick is obsessed right now and we are a PJ Masks themed household).
We made it out for our annual trip to pick blueberries this past Friday! We went first thing in the morning but it was a very hot day and I was rather worried about how Juliet would do. Fortunately, we got to pick in a shady area and it was our best blueberry picking trip yet!
I skipped breakfast for the kids so they could have giant muffin tops from the little store at the berry patch. Eleanor and Bradley did well on theirs but Patrick refused to eat any of his and has Spiderman Cheez-Its for breakfast instead.
Me with the gang.
With my fabulous parents - there's no way I would have been able to do this solo with the kids just yet.
The kids ate a few berries each and then I told them they really needed to put them in the bucket because we needed to pay for what we picked. This ended up being fantastic because we got 9 lbs of berries, a new record! However, this was because my kids instantly turned berry picking into a competition and there were heated discussions about whose bucket had the most berries and if it was fair to have three people picking for one bucket and only two for another.
Fortunately, my parents don't mind a little competition and we all got to go home and eat loads of berries so we all won really.
Grandma was generally surrounded by berry pickers.
How Juliet spent most of our time at the berry farm.
They were so proud of how many berries they picked!
And they definitely earned a little ride behind the tractor at the end.
Patrick fell asleep on the way home in the car while leaning on Grandma and then again during quiet time later that afternoon. Picking berries is hard work. Although when is this boy not working hard? It's actually his favorite thing to tell us these days. "I'm working hard on my painting! I'm working hard on building in the sand! Did I do a good job?" I'm not afraid to fish for compliments either Patrick, and you always do a good job.
Some Patrick dance moves for the end of this blog post. He's so awesome.
