Juliet started out the month terrified of the swim class I signed her up for. Would she get to wear her floatie? Why not? Would her face get wet? Oh the terror! I told her she had to at least try one class, that they always make it nice, and pointed out that she had been practicing swimming with daddy at a swim party she had recently gone to and she didn't particularly care about getting her face wet. She was very nervous, but agreed to give it a try.
And shocker, she was amazing. The most enthusiastic in the class about sticking her face in the water and she swam all over the place. She loved it and asked pretty much every day if it was a swimming day.
On this day I also got to lead a group of 2nd grade boys through a discussion of the book The Tale of Desperaux. It was a very long book and only Patrick and one other boy finished it, so it's good that the majority of what I had planned for the boys was taking turns guiding each other through a maze. And it wasn't all that impressive that Patrick and I finished the book, we ended up having to skip church the day before so I could get another hour and a half of reading in because I hadn't counted on just how long this book was. It looks bad when the person leading the book discussion doesn't complete the book. May have set a bad precedent with skipping church though ...
In my defense, it was a week rather packed with activities and I only had the one day as an option for Patrick's Chat n Chew group because I was leading another group on Thursday for Eleanor's grade, I needed to film board game videos at some point, and there was a choir concert. And I didn't want to bring Juliet with me to the book group, as enthusiastic as she would have been about participating.
Choir was cute, Eleanor has a nice group of friends doing choir with her. Next year is going to be brutal for the girl who likes to sleep in - between choir and strings she'll be at school early 3 days each week.
Juliet did go with me to the choir performance. May was full of trips to the school for me and Juliet.
We have pictures of Callie like this basically every evening. She gets tired and assumes ridiculous poses.
The next morning was our only chance to make it to the book fair as a family, because Patrick sports were at full tilt for most of the month and I spent my afternoons racing from one practice to the next with a packed dinner for the boy. It's good he loves sports so much, it would have been brutal if he wasn't so happy about all of it.
Juliet talked me into a fluffy notebook at the book fair, despite all my efforts to get her to get a real book.
Eleanor picked out a pile of books but then had to wait fifteen minutes before they would let her into her classroom so she staked out a spot under a table to start reading.
Soon the other children followed her example. Can you find all three of the big kids in this photo?
Juliet got to go straight from this to muffins with Mom at her school. We had some muffins and she gave me lots of hugs after I walked her to her classroom.
Dessert after dinner that night. Juliet was very excited to get to finish the last of the ice cream straight from the container.
We've been on a bit of an ice cream kick now that it's warm out.
The boys and I have had some repeat conversations about the appropriate ratio of syrup to ice cream.
Sookie comes and cuddles Patrick most evenings as he's going to sleep. It's nice that the kitties are still getting some good cuddles even with the dog disruption that has entered their lives.
Juliet has been really into the swing this spring and had some new tricks, like standing up. It's very scary to watch and she's very proud of herself.
Patrick baseball games. There have been lots. He got hit in the face by another ground ball while he was playing at the pitcher position (he doesn't actually pitch yet, it's machine pitch in 2nd grade). I hate sports where he gets hurt and said a lot of things about quitting and switching to tennis so Nathan has wisely made it a point to put him in safer fielding positions for the rest of the season. Although here he is playing catcher, which I don't particularly love either. He has such a pretty face, it would be a shame to wreck it forever with a bat injury. Tennis is such a better sport.
Callie is such a happy dog.
She is making some headway with the cats.
It has slowly dawned on me that she actually enjoys when they chase her and try to swipe at her. It's a game!
Layla is the most ardent in her desire to murder Callie and so Callie gets the most excited whenever she sees her in particular. Guaranteed attention and chase time!
She's such a sweetie. The cats are getting more used to being around her, I think it will all sort itself out with time.
I got to help chaperone Eleanor's field trip to a school of economics.
The kids all had different jobs to help run businesses around a town and they spent money on food they made themselves and little arts and crafts. It was really impressive and a lot of fun!
And that night Nathan and I got to have a fancy date night with friends out to a Royals game.
We had very nice tickets right behind home plate and even had a special entrance we got to use to enter the stadium. It turns out I like fancy things!
Grandma and Grandpa watched the kiddos and Juliet got loads of cuddles time and books.
The next day Nathan and I had a big anniversary date outing to Lawrence where we ate good food and got to wander around the main street and check out little shops.
It was very fun and very weird to have a whole day to wander around and do whatever we wanted. Patrick had a soccer game we missed and a lacrosse game that my dad got to take him to. That's a typical Saturday for us these days.
I thought we had picked a rather casual place to have dinner but it was in fact rather posh. I had the best beef gnocchi ever which balanced out the terrible wine tasting we had gone to earlier in the day. Kansas wine is a bit of a questionable undertaking.
The next day we got the kids in time for Patrick's second to last soccer game of the season and team pictures.
Patrick only pulled a little bit of nonsense while getting his medal from the coach ...
Then we had a nice long Sunday afternoon and Bradley and I played a new game together! Dinosaur Island Rawr n Write. It was fun but it was LONG and a lot to learn, thus reaffirming my dedication to playing shorter games whenever possible.
Fortunately, Bradley loved it and he had a good helper when it came to learning all the new rules.
Nathan took Juliet to a swim party for Casey (Timmy's little sister) while I was playing games with Bradley. She was very excited to show off her swimming skills to her daddy.
Then Bradley helped grill dinner!
5th grade had an event called Battle of the Bands where all the kids learned little songs and performed them. It was very cute.
We came home from the event and I really need to stop feeling bad whenever I leave Callie in her crate for a while because she didn't particularly feel like getting out even after we opened it up and she was rather delighted when Juliet joined her.
After school has been full of popsicles and time on the swing. All three kids like to hang on and twirl around while they are simultaneously holding a popsicle. It is something to see.
We had a play date for Callie and the neighbor dog Norbert so while our neighbor Jay was over I put him to work playing catch with Patrick. Jay's girls don't play baseball and he played in college so I think he was rather delighted at the opportunity to play catch with a cute kid. Callie was so happy to have a doggy buddy!
Bedtime hangout time with Eleanor. Meg possibly loves this time more than both of us combined, she'll yowl at me until I go into the room so she can cuddle on my lap while Eleanor and I have a little evening chat.
All of the kids had a dentist appointment but the only kid I sit with while they have their teeth cleaned is Juliet. She's such a cool girl!
We got the new version of Castle Panic and tested it out to see if anything was different. It was completely the same but that's okay by us, we love it.
Meanwhile, Nathan had an evening out with Brian to see Tenacious D. I'm so glad he has a friend who wants to go see these shows with him, I'm at the point where I've realized that I'm just not into concerts and would rather see a musical or comedy show. Or sports - I love going to baseball games. Every year we drag the kids to a game because that's how long it takes us to forget how little of the actual game we get to watch when we're there with small children.
I got Juliet new goggles for swim lessons. She was so excited for them for exactly one lesson and then realized what a pain they were to have on her face just right so they were tight enough and wouldn't leak. So she's back to no goggles. Oh well, we have them ready for her if she ever decides she wants them again.
Callie is such the perfect dog for our family. The early puppy phase was some chaos but it was worth it because she loves the kids so much and tolerates basically anything. She lets Juliet attach her leash for walks and Juliet is so proud of herself.
A cozy afternoon rest for me with the kitties.
Patrick has officially chosen lacrosse over soccer for his fall sport. I'm so glad. I don't think he's particularly good at soccer, he's just athletic and fast but he doesn't seem to care about practicing and doesn't have great ball handling skills. Also, if he moved up to the regular Stanley team he would be with Colten Pearl and by the end of the school year they were driving each other nuts every day. So a sport without his arch nemesis on the same team seems best.
Also, he's quite good at lacrosse! The coaches are awesome and there's some contact but not anything that has made me hate the sport yet. We'll see how it goes in the future but we're very happy with it for the time being.
Goal!
We had my parents over for dinner and games. Juliet has been getting in on the family game time lately and we all really enjoy it. Sometimes I think it's silly that I have so many games and spend so much time buying them and playing them and posting videos. But then we have such great family time and it's all worth it.
Playing Don't Llama Dice - it is so fun playing this with Juliet.
For Mother's Day I had Juliet wear the embroidered dress that my mom made for her.
It is so fancy and Juliet loves it - except for the buttons in the back. I can't have her ride in the car while wearing it. I'm trying to teach her to sacrifice a little comfort for the sake of great beauty but she has been raised in stretchy, super comfy clothes so it seems it is a difficult idea to go along with.
Mother's Day dinner on the deck. I love a good burger!
All the kids made me cards and I got to eat a chocolate bar in front of them and describe the flavors, which they know I love to do. Then I did in fact share said chocolate bar.
We moved Bradley down to the room in the basement so he could have his own space and while he was a little nervous about being in the basement at first, he quickly realized that he loved having his own space and it's actually a pretty lovely setup. It didn't hurt that all of his siblings were super excited for him and helped him carry all his stuff down and set it up.
Happy boy!
Callie loves car rides so much. She's going to miss the rides to and from school during the summer months, although it's worth the sacrifice so she can have the kids with her all day.
Bradley has been super buddy buddy with Juliet lately, which has been cute to watch. Here he is playing Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart with her.
First night officially sleeping in his own room! It was excellent timing because Patrick had a bit of a cough and Bradley definitely got better rest by not being in the same room as him.
Patrick playing with Juliet and Callie in the back.
Callie likes to chase after kids and bump them with the toy she wants them to throw for her.
I got to go on a field trip with Bradley which meant I helped chaperone a field trip for all three of the older kids this year.
They had a bunch of various challenge activities that they had to figure out how to accomplish. Honestly, it was mostly a little silly and all of the nice kids did their best but Bradley treated it like the joke it was. It was supposed to teach you how to be a leader and unlock your inner potential and Bradley didn't care about any of the activities and just wanted to play with his friends.
I was a little embarrassed and tried to get him to unlock his inner leader. Which he did, but not for these silly made up activities. He just started running a Dungeons and Dragons group that meets at our house every Tuesday night and he puts in the work for this, because it is something that truly matters.
Oh this cute little boy. He steps up but only when the situation calls for it. He had a very fun field trip day at least. I got my first ever tick bite. So gross.
I must have been a little tired after the field trip. Eleanor comes in for morning snuggles before she officially has to get up for school and this is the picture Nathan got of us the next day. I had Eleanor plus three kitties. Poor Eleanor, usually I help her wake up but I definitely didn't help with that this time.
Darling Patrick has taught Juliet some new tricks on the swing. He did this upside down trick before school one morning and came inside sobbing because he had managed to hit his head on some rocks. I do not know how to protect this boy from himself at times.
Fortunately, no such mishaps for Juliet just yet.
Nathan worked from home the other day and had a bit of a fan club around him as he tried to get things done.
More fun with friends for Callie
Official talent show! They both did so well.
Some afternoon cuddles with Meg. She is always the happiest when I need some rest time.
Poor tired Callie.
My parents were gone on a trip so Bradley mowed their lawn for them a couple times. He was thrilled for the additional funds to go towards Dungeons and Dragons figurines.
We brought Callie with us and she was delighted to get to run around in her favorite back yard.
And the other kids enjoyed getting to play with the toys that live at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Or you know, do some gymnastics in the living room. When did Juliet's legs get so long?
First night of D&D at our house. Bradley was in heaven. The kids battled a lot of monsters and ate a lot of snacks and then ran around outside and played on the swing and played some football in the front yard.
The next day was Bradley's 5th grade graduation ceremony.
Nathan went as a chaperone to the afternoon trip to Top Golf.
And I went to a Biergarten evening at the Arboretum with my friend Meghan. We felt very fancy!
We recently put a cover on our nice leather chair and put it up in Eleanor's room as a fancy reading chair. Turns out Meg likes fancy things.
It's really good we decided it was okay for Callie to get on the couch.
Standard morning for Callie. Patrick runs her around the yard a bit and then lays down and she comes over and cuddles him.
They had the end of school celebration for the elementary school and it seems the only picture I took was of Juliet with her preschool friend Bo. He lives just up the street from us and I'm friends with his parents and we are all rather delighted that they will be in school with each other next year. They're a cute little duo.
Nathan took the younger two kids down to the lake that evening so they could participate in the fishing derby first thing Saturday morning. They hung out with the Rutherfords and there was a 'tiny' bonfire.
First s'more of the season!
The fishing derby was pretty uneventful for our crew. I don't think they caught a single fish! But our friend Charlie caught a big one and ended up winning, which was very nice.
Meanwhile, I hit up Panera for breakfast with the older two and a very excited puppy.
She was so happy about the lake! Nathan had already set up her zipline so it was really easy to have her hooked up to it and able to run around a bit.
Every time Juliet would come in from the water she would strip down until she was naked and we would wrap her in a towel to warm up. She loved some Eleanor cuddles and Eleanor tolerated it long enough for a picture.
Callie basically didn't stop moving the entire day and she finally took a short rest in the afternoon.
We put her in a puppy life jacket for her first time going for a swim!
She was a bit unsure about the water but she liked hanging out on the stand up paddle board quite a bit.
Eleanor helped ferry Juliet out to the lily pad so she could be around for Callie time.
Callie very much liked being around the kids on the water even though she was worried about new things.
The Rutherfords brought their dog Bear over to play and suddenly Callie was very happy to jump in the water and swim over in order to hang out with her buddy. They spent New Years Eve together when Callie was a very tiny puppy and Annie and I took the dogs on a walk together a month or so ago so I guess Callie remembered Bear.
Bear does not like the water at all but allowed himself to be shoved onto a paddle board with Callie.
Then they spent a happy afternoon together. Callie had nonstop and rather annoying amounts of love to give so it's good we tied Bear to a nearby tree so he could walk away and get a breather when needed.
Eleanor read in a hammock for much of the day. I was later told how boring and unfun this lake day was for her and pictures like this make that reeeeally hard to take. It's because I made her share the hammock with siblings later in the day. The hammock has never been the hot hangout spot before this weekend.
More nudity by Juliet. Nudity and chips! Seems like the perfect day for a four year old at least.
Patrick made up for striking out at the fishing derby by having a few big catches at our lake in the afternoon.
Juliet time in the hammock!
Patrick wanting time in the hammock. I thought they could share ...
It went so so great.
In the least shocking development ever, Juliet seemed pretty tired after dinner. She fell asleep during a golf cart ride around the lake.
She awakened refreshed and ready for yet more hammock time and s'mores over at the Rutherfords' lot.
The Rutherfords had two hammocks. That sounds like plenty but I can assure you it is a very inadequate number of hammocks for seven children.
Callie was absolutely wrecked that evening when we got home. I brought Patrick home with me so everyone else could get good sleep in the RV without him coughing and Eleanor came home with me because annoying people wake her up before 9 when we're down at the lake.
So it was Bradley and Juliet who got to go mini golfing with Nathan in the morning.
How cute is this little golfer?
Our friends the Svabs came over to hang out on Sunday and Juliet and Casey got to take full advantage of all the new play doh toys I had just gotten through my Community Giving Facebook group.
And Eleanor's day was way better than the day before because there were new, fancy lake toys to try out. The Svabs brought an inflatable island with them, which we attached to the lily pad, and it was super fun.
Callie got another try at water fun.
I took Callie on a full trip down the lake and back and she did okay, even when she saw other dogs jumping into the water on repeat a bit down the lake.
And Juliet paddled her own kid kayak for the first time! She did great!
The next morning we spent around the house and Meg came to find me because she had been missing me. A very excited puppy hopped all over the place until she finally decided to sit in my lap because it was both safe from the scratch claws kitty and it guaranteed she would still be in on any love and affection. Slightly pathetic, but very cute.
We spent the afternoon at the Lionsgate pool and Juliet finally got to show off her swimming skills without a floatie. She's so good!
Patrick swam a little bit but mostly lounged around and ate cookies and showed us what the good life looks like.
When Sookie decides it's cuddle time it's cuddle time, even if you think it's your time to play your new Switch game.
I could almost frame this picture of Patrick and Callie. They love each other so much. Patrick was covered in sweat and Callie just thought that made him all the more kissable.
Patrick had his first basketball game of the summer season. He loves being on a team with all of his school friends!
He played really well. He was a good teammate and I'm trying to praise good passes and defense but yeah, the most exciting bit is when he scores. He got two baskets and one free throw in.
Free throw
He missed the free throw and then got the rebound and sunk a shot. I thought I had stopped the video right after the missed free throw and was thrilled to discover I hadn't turned the video off properly and had gotten his amazing shot!
I missed the beginning of Bradley's second Dungeons and Dragons night in order to be at Patrick's game so my dad came over to the house in order to have an adult around for the beginning of the D&D event. He was cracking up over all the yelling and excited commentary he could hear in the basement. When I got back I gave Juliet permission to go down and take a photo with my phone and snag some of their awesome snacks. Not a bad picture for a four year old!
