Another Patrick basketball highlight. There are many.
We kicked off pool season with me breaking down on not bringing friends to the Lionsgate pool. Technically we are the guests because it's my parents' neighborhood pool but my kids play so much nicer when friends are around so I found myself running solo with seven kids at the pool at the beginning of the month. We brought Timmy and Casey and then Eleanor's friend Judy ended up joining us as well.
It was great until the two youngest just wanted to swim to me on repeat. It's a little tricky to hold onto two new swimmers at once. They were very squirmy.
Even with a pool available to them the girls ended up in the creek.
Patrick has been one of Juliet's favorite people lately because he will read the My Little Pony graphic novels to her.
I took the older three to the Cardboard Corner Cafe because my mom has Juliet time on Friday mornings. We played Coconuts, which is a favorite.
I think Eleanor won.
We're working on sportsmanship on the part of the losers. They were all a little hyped up.
They had a giant Connect 4 and a tic tac toe board.
But most importantly, the adjacent store had miniatures for Bradley to purchase and bring home to paint!
Eleanor had her swim meet that night. She did so well!
She did some rather intense events. 50 backstroke
Followed by 25 breaststroke, which she came very close to winning!
And finally 25 butterfly, which was killer and I don't know if she'll do it again. But she was a champ for pushing herself!
We're really happy she has a sport that is happy and fun for her but also allows her to push herself. She's getting to be quite the swimmer!
And that Saturday was Nathan's work's company picnic.
Bradley and I focused on the very important gelato food truck.
While Patrick and Eleanor stood in an extremely long line in order to get to ride on the jumpy swing thing. They loved it though and I'm told it was worth it. They also didn't suffer too much, we kept bringing them treats while they waited in line.
They did a lot of cool tricks!
It was crazy hot and Juliet spent time in the shady areas of bouncy houses.
Patrick and Eleanor won prizes at arcade booths and only once did I walk up while they were enthusiastically hitting each other with the stuffed toys they had just won.
The best choice of the day was when Nathan took Bradley to go to a birthday party and I had the other three kids. We wandered inside and joined a musical bingo game. I grabbed lunch for them and we finally got cool while getting to eat and play a fun game.
We didn't necessarily know all of the songs so the older two used an app on my phone to help us figure out what song was what.
And then - after I told them not to get their hopes up because one never wins these things - Juliet won at black out! She got the final prize for our round and it was a lot of fun for the kids to get to run up and pick out something from all the many prize options.
She picked a giant Etch-a-Sketch!
Meanwhile Bradley had a very nice time at the fancy pool party at Xavier's house.
Juliet was excited to show off her prize to Bradley.
And that evening Nathan took Patrick out for batting practice in our backyard.
I finally followed through on my promise to Eleanor and Liberty and took them out to Dairy Queen after a Monday night swim practice.
Bradley has been hosting D&D on Tuesday nights and we had very good attendance one week. They were medium interested in D&D and very interested in running around in a chaotic manner in our backyard ... we're working on having more actual D&D on these nights.
One afternoon I was pretty tired and went upstairs to rest for a while. When I came downstairs I found this.
It was pretty adorable. I don't know if it would have lasted for much longer but it cracks me up how these kids are always playing around each other.
Callie loves us, but she loves the kitties more.
She also really likes being able to watch people and dogs pass by our house.
Poor Bradley has had quite a few instances of being in the middle of a puppy/kitty love fest.
Why do kitties always like to rest on his book? Poor Bradley!
Bradley does pretty okay on Callie cuddles though.
In the evenings I often walk down to a very tired Callie. You can always tell she's super tired when she shows her belly!
Sometimes she gets help getting bundled up and cozy.
Patrick and Juliet had a lot of fun doing crafts at the library.
Both are simply naturals around a camera.
Eleanor has been a bit mia from family fun lately so she had an evening with her Dad where they solved some MicroMacro crimes and then he taught her how to play TEN. And I bribed her with popcorn and lemonade.
Juliet has had a blast at Patrick's baseball games this season. Sadie is a sibling's little sister from our team and Juni is a friend from preschool who also has an older brother who plays baseball.
Most of Juliet's friends are older than her, we went to a 1 year old bday party and she got to hang out with the baby's older sister Aria who is a good pal. Juliet is so used to hanging out with older kids she is sometimes a bit of a stinker about hanging out with friends her own age. There are some really sweet boys in her class at school and the moms are nice and I would arrange play dates but Juliet has informed me that they all talk like babies and she doesn't want to be around them. So glad she's going to be a peer model this upcoming year at a preschool that helps kids with speech delays and other issues ... she's going to be such a dear.
Grandma Colleen made it out for her first solo visit since Kerry passed away and we're really relieved she was able to make the drive all by herself.
Juliet was in heaven for the visit, she got in tons of Grandma Colleen time. The other kids got in good chunks of time here and there!
It was a very nice visit, we're glad Colleen is doing so well and has so much support back home in Iowa.
The kids had a performance of a couple of their VBS songs at church on Sunday.
And I had my first board game class of the summer with the help of two wonderful assistants!
We went through so many games at the camp. It was my Blue Orange sponsored camp and here's a picture of all the games I used over the course of two hours. It was a very fun camp!
That said, I was very tired afterwards and had a little rest in my room. Good thing I wasn't lonely.
We went to Deanna Rose for the afternoon with Eleanor's friend Faith.
Big kids sharing little kid toys went medium well.
Super cute that Eleanor and Juliet fit on the ducky together.
Bradley took Juliet on a pretend tractor ride and then shut a bunch children into the "prison" area of the tractor and guarded it with gusto and the kids were all way too happy about it and others were begging to join in. Hilarious.
Then we found the toy horses to ride. Real animals are only a side attraction at Deanna Rose.
Bradley was not supposed to be in this picture. Hence the joy.
Then a day or so later we went on our trip to Santa Cruz! Juliet and Patrick were invited to check out the cockpit.
When we landed we got to ride a shuttle to go get the rental car and Eleanor is so so fancy.
The boys are cute as well. We love this family trip.
Then we picked up our rental car and went straight to In-N-Out!
The kids liked the French fries and beverages but were super whiny about sauce on their burgers. So we might not take them there again. How does one complain about In-N-Out??
Decorative burger in picture.
I polished off my burger. I could have had another couple more if I had wanted to, thanks to picky eaters.
We got into Diana and Bill's house rather late so took it easy the next morning and let kids blog out with tech for a bit.
This was a popular decision.
Diana fits in with the kids a little too well at times.
Patrick was so so happy.
We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk our first morning and we were very excited about all the cool merch at the arcade booths.
We were also just very excited in general.
We like the booths where you are guaranteed a prize when two people compete against each other.
Look at the cute toy Bradley won!
Patrick ... did not love losing.
Don't worry, he recovered quickly. There was a theme for the photo booths for the trip - Bradley would run and grab the boy spot and Patrick would be a good sport and run over to the girl spot each time.
We love that the beach is just off the boardwalk theme park area.
The next arcade booth surely had to go better than the one that made Patrick cry, you just sprayed water until a balloon popped.
The balloon popping was extremely loud and Juliet was in hysterics until she was handed the prize that Eleanor won for her. Patrick had lost yet again. He was also displeased. Sigh. Arcade booths are dumb.
But again, things soon looked up for Juliet especially when she rode the Bulgy the Whale ride.
It was a cool, overcast day. We were really happy the boardwalk wasn't particularly crowded.
Watching the boys ride this ride together was maybe one of my favorite bits of the trip. Patrick had insisted on having his hands up in the air but then they started making the ride go fast and he flew sideways into Bradley and they were both cracking up.
In the back right of this picture is the spinny ride I tried to talk the three older kids into not doing. All I succeeded in doing was talking Eleanor into doing it when she had been hesitant to do so beforehand.
Juliet rode on the cute boat ride. Pink boat!
Meanwhile, the older three made a horrible life choice.
They survived and were so proud of themselves.
We had Juliet ride the little roller coaster that had terrorized her the year before. But she loved it this time!
Then we got churros!
We had a discussion about who made the best pathetic face.
I messaged my parents the options and they said Juliet won. There was some spirited discussion among the older children about how wrong this was.
Then I took kids to the beach!
Bradley surprised me and he didn't want to do any more rides. So Patrick and Eleanor went back with Nathan and I took the other two to play at the beach.
The two minutes of joy before Juliet had a bathroom emergency and I had to run her to the bathroom which was very far away. This happened at least three times on the trip, each time she had been at the beach for a few minutes. And yes, I had taken her to go potty immediately prior to this. Oh well. At least she made it to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, the other two were hitting up other arcade options so Patrick could finally win something.
Coming out to the beach to join us!
My kids are such good beach kids.
It was rather chilly if you got fully submerged in the water, which Bradley found out the hard way.
Luckily he recovered and played some catch with Nathan.
The entire crew. Football and some construction in the sand.
Nathan is cute.
But so am I, especially when I'm surrounded by my cute girlies.
Photo op on the way out.
Travel and beach tires kids out.
When we got back to Diana and Bill's house there were some serious negotiations for the boys to agree to be sprayed off with a hose rather than taking a shower after beach time. I think they made $3 each.
It was a joy to watch.
Eleanor had her own room above the garage for the trip, which she loved so very much.
It took about an hour and a half to go through the whole thing and the kids were so good. We really love a murder mystery.
Juliet acted out her bits while Nathan read her lines. Her character was not so secretly ga ga over his character.
Many of us thought that Patrick was very suspicious and voted for him as the likely murderer. But it was in fact Diana's character who was guilty! Which I think Bradley and Eleanor guessed correctly. They were so proud of themselves.
Cozy reading time was a nice part of the trip.
We had only one cultural experience of the the trip - we went on a train ride up a mountain to look at the redwoods. We waited for the train at a cute old timey town in Felton and it had a lot of cute photo ops.
This may be my favorite picture of the boys from the trip - it's tough though. The beach muscle pictures were pretty great as well.
An actual nice pose from the child who gave the immortal quote before the train ride, "Why are we doing this? I've seen a tree before."
So excited to ride a train!
It was a bit chilly so Eleanor got to borrow a jacket from an adult.
Juliet didn't want her feet to touch the ground so we took turns holding her.
Accurate picture of what it was like waiting with these children.
Nathan got so many Juliet cuddles on the train ride.
The train itself was very cute.
My turn for cuddles!
Enjoying nature together!
Eleanor had had a few pep talks by this point. To be fair, I think I wouldn't have appreciated this experience as a child.
Juliet was actually a huge pill most of the train ride and crawled all over whoever was holding her and was generally laying across them in a face down position, which isn't really optimal for viewing trees and scenery.
So she was given the bunny ears of shame.
Nathan and I decided we were fancy and needed to go to a winery on this trip and we chose to go to a nearby festival at a winery immediately following the train through the redwoods. And yes, we took the children. They had a really good time, it was a bit of a surprise.
We were trying to take a cute couple picture but the four year old kept making sure she was in the photo.
I'm still holding her in this picture.
And in this one. But it looks like we're having cute solo time!
Part of the reason the kids loved the winery so much was because it basically had a farmer's market set up with a bunch of booths. Eleanor got a dream catcher for her birthday present from her siblings and Juliet got a tiny one for free because she made a pathetic face at the vendor when I told her she couldn't have one as well. The lady immediately handed it over. Juliet is actively being ruined not just by her siblings, but by complete strangers as well. Bradley found a nice woman with a booth of nature photos and we got a really neat picture for his room. And Patrick - well, he might have found the best thing of all. The most beautiful ring we had ever seen and it was just $5! He lets me wear it when I'm cheering him on at his basketball games now. I rather love it.
Then it was back to the beach. We knew it was going to be a bit chilly to be in the water much on this trip so we bought some beach toys on Amazon and had them shipped out to Diana and Bill's house before we got there. So there was a good football and even some little water lacrosse sticks! As well as a bunch of good beach toys.
I love how much these kids love running around and playing at the beach.
Juliet got both an aunt and an uncle to read bedtime stories to her.
Vacation can be tiring work.
Patrick helped make waffles one morning. Bill kept us very well fed.
Then it was finally time to get to go to Book Shop Santa Cruz!
Juliet insisted on getting a Shimmer & Shine book despite all my efforts to get her to choose pretty much anything else and Bill was very impressed by her perseverance in the face of adversity.
Then we went to Pizza my Heart! Fun fact - my children were asked to leave the Pizza my Heart located right by the Capitola beach because they wouldn't stop loudly chanting the name of the restaurant while we were inside and I was trying to order. But we got to stay in this one! We're so cultured ...
Poor Nathan had a salad. But he had lots of delicious food on this trip, he didn't suffer too terribly.
It was fun having Bill go around downtown Santa Cruz with us.
I don't know that many families have a required picture in front of the local pizza place, but we do whenever we visit.
Art.
Beach! FYI, going to a beach on a warm day on Father's Day is madness. It was jam packed.
I wanted to show Eleanor how I could do a back bend, just like her. Not too shabby, right?
But then after I took a picture of her doing hers and I compared our photos I notice how she looked like her back was actually breaking and she is much more impressive than me.
I felt better after we asked the boys to try to do the same thing.
Patrick's best attempt.
And Bradley. It seems the boys are not particularly bendy.
We went to the nearby ice cream spot after this. It was also crazy busy, but it was worth the wait.
Fun story, I didn't get an ice cream cone because I figured Juliet would eat half of hers and then I would end up eating the rest and I didn't want to have one and a half ice cream cones. But then the tiny child managed to eat all of hers and I didn't get any ice cream at all!
I did get quiet reading time with Bradley out on the deck, which was delightful.
Diana and her two little shadows. Watching her sing the banana slug song with Patrick was one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Gardening buddy!
I found out that Nathan had put quite a bit of money on boardwalk passes that we hadn't used, so I insisted we go back for some fun and beach time. And also for my new favorite photo op it turns out.
A return to Juliet's favorite ride!
Nathan took a couple kids on more rides.
And I took this to the beach.
They mostly collected shells and fought over sand dollars. Precious times ...
Nathan and I got to have a big date afternoon and we left the kids with Diana and Bill. We thought they would watch a movie or something but instead the kids made them watch over three hours of live action Among Us videos on YouTube. Dear lord. Poor Diana and Bill.
Do I look cool at this hipster winery? They served the wine in beakers and we made fun of that a lot, although we know very little about wine so maybe we just need to be quiet and try to figure out what notes we're getting. I know blackberry is a thing to guess, that's my go-to.
Then we walked back up through downtown Santa Cruz and I finally got to have a little ice cream treat. Delicious!
The next day was my birthday and we went to Gail's Bakery for breakfast.
Everyone loves this kind of celebration!
We went to a nearby playground after this and all the kids fought and I decided we were going to push back a family trip to Japan I've been planning because we are so very much not prepared for anything that fancy.
Then I got a lot of really nice cards from the kids and Nathan.
Followed by Eleanor losing a tooth ON MY BIRTHDAY and not allowing me to pull it out in an exciting manner with a string. On my birthday! It was rather shocking. I pay a dollar for the privilege! I think she just doesn't like how much I want it to happen.
We're gathered by the fish tank because it turns out this is our rather unique and perhaps a little weird family tradition. The teeth go to the fishies!
The fish and snails and little shrimp LOVE them. And look, it seems a little sad to just throw the teeth away and it's a bit weird to have a baggie of teeth sitting in your sock drawer. Fish tank is fun.
The fish also like Patrick's hand.
Our joint birthday cake created by Bill with Eleanor's assistance. She also picked out the type of cake she(we) wanted. It was salted caramel ice cream surrounded by chocolate cake with chocolate ganache on top. Very well chosen, very well made!
Final night reading with Diana. It's the Shimmer & Shine book I campaigned against. Juliet was so happy.
We talked about taking the kids to an arboretum a half hour away for our final full day and then I said, "You know, our kids probably can't really tell the difference between the arboretum and your backyard." So we stayed at the house and the kids got to run around and play hide and seek and they were incredibly happy. Although the car rides were one of the best parts of the trip - Patrick had asked for an audio book on the way to the house from the airport and I said I didn't think we had enough time for a full audio book, so I looked up what I thought was just a book of jokes. I messed up and selected a 5 hour audio book called Jackie Ha Ha, My Life is a Joke. The kids loved it and we had quiet, happy car rides for the entire trip. We finished it fifteen minutes before returning the rental car at the airport to go home. It was meant to be!
End of trip photos. Patrick is so Patrick.
Diana and Bill decided they liked smoochie pictures.
With the kids
The only two who agreed to stay in the photo while they smooched
Bradley really wanted a picture with me and a watering can. I guess I've trained the kids to grab a prop whenever possible.
We have such a fun time on these trips. We're talking about leaving a child at their house for a week next summer so the kid can go to an art camp and get bonus aunt and uncle time!
A very excellent bonus upon finishing our book on tape on the way to the airport was a part of the book where the main character adopts a Valley Girl accent which Juliet took to immediately.
We were surprisingly perky on our departure, mostly because we have decided we're doing easy flights with the kids and don't want to do anything that requires a rushed morning.
Nathan was allowed to take two people into the Delta Club area at the airport and we selected the middle children.
But Bradley, Juliet, and I didn't know what we were missing out on!
Fun fact - I bought an egg chair after seeing these pictures of Eleanor enjoying one.
Meanwhile, my crew was getting a little loopy and causing some havoc.
Both of our flights were delayed. The flight to LA was delayed over a missing coffeepot (really) and then the flight from LA to KC was waiting on pilots so we were a little over two hours delayed there as well. Good thing we brought entertainment!
We landed so late. It was supposed to be around midnight originally, which I didn't think would be too bad because we were on California time. However, 2AM is too much for a sweet little four year old. She was happy and chatting with me until the descent. That zonked her out.
It was quite the ordeal to carry all the suitcases and Juliet. I had to go to the bathroom after we landed and the only person Juliet would allow to hold her besides me was Bradley.
Even Bradley and Patrick were pretty tired by the time we got to the car.
It was technically Eleanor's birthday when we landed and after a short amount of sleep we got up for a birthday breakfast of champions at a new donut shop we had never been to before.
It's called Duck Donuts and they customize each of your donuts for you. It's very fun. We invited our friends Liberty and Mackenzie to go with us.
Then we got Callie and took her home. Callie had actually had an amazing time while we were gone. She got to go to a half day at Woof's each day and then she spent the rest of her time at my parents' house. They have very exciting neighbor dogs and apparently she was beyond thrilled when the bulldog next door broke down the fence in order to get to play with her. Otis is still her favorite buddy there. But she was definitely really happy to see the kids again.
Then we opened presents for Eleanor. Here's the dream catcher from California!
Eleanor's birthday night questions with Daddy
Juliet's attempt at the back bend. She shows promise!
And a couple nights later we had a big friend party for Eleanor. I had been warning her that summer birthdays were hard and probably quite a few people wouldn't be able to come. She had 100% turnout and we had more girls than I had signed on for when we planned the thing.
We started with a fudge taste testing activity at Scheel's. Twelve different kind of fudge to taste and guess the flavor! They had a really fun time with this one, it went even better than I had hoped.
Then we had everyone ride the Ferris Wheel.
I had to ride with Juliet because they wouldn't let any of the other kids serve as her chaperone. Eleanor was an amazing sport about Juliet tagging along on most of the activities. Patrick was gone at the lake with Timmy for the day and Bradley went over to my parents' house for the Scheel's portion of the party.
The group outside Scheel's.
Then we came home and I allowed this many girls inside my house as part of the party. There was not as much chaos as I had feared, mostly because it was nice out and they could play outside whenever they got too wild.
We went to the park at 8:30 at night. So fun, so neat to get to have it light out and be out so late.
There were so many fireflies out in the yard while the girls sat in a circle and all had popsicles and talked. It was pretty magical, although I don't know if the girls really noticed.
Patrick finished out his baseball season the next day.
The Juliet and Bradley bond has been strong these days.
And Patrick, this gem of a human, lost a tooth! We had Callie pull it!
The first failed attempt
Success!
The cats were also really happy that we were home although Bradley says whiny things when they plop down on top of his books while he's trying to read.
We had Patrick read to Juliet one night and he chose his favorite book, The Smoke Jumper.
And big news, Callie now gets to sleep in Bradley's room in the basement! They both enjoy this thoroughly and there have been no accidents so far. She probably would have been fine in her crate at night for forever but what is even the point of having a puppy if you don't get some nighttime puppy cuddles?
It has been crazy hot so we try to get little walks in the park before the heat of the day hits.
Juliet is naughty, as her siblings were before her. She's so proud of herself here. Maybe if I didn't encourage her by taking pictures ...
Nathan had a work picnic on a Friday evening and it was going to be almost 100 degrees. Eleanor had been at Youthfront camp all week and was tapped out on heat, so we decided to leave her with my parents, and then Bradley and Juliet assured us they didn't want to be hot either. Patrick was fine with heat and fun and made a new friend within a minute of showing up at the bbq and they happily ran around throwing water balloons at each other.
And - fun times - my high school friend Kim was in town so we had her come join the festivities! I don't think I had seen her for maybe ten years. We used to live .4 miles away from each other and had many late night movie parties while we were in high school.
She and her husband Sean were in town while he applied for a job. Fun story, I agreed with another two girls to share Sean as our junior prom date and then they didn't show up and poor Sean and I spent a very awkward evening together. We even have pictures somewhere. I really hope they move here although they have lived in Arizona for the past few years and have become weak and are frightened by the prospect of real winter. So we'll see!
And bonus pictures at the end of this post - I edited some photos for Eleanor as party decorations. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy!
And then Patrick wanted one of him being peaceful and happy while being eaten by a shark. Of course.
