Please excuse us for our lack of posts,

but we've been busy enjoying the summer.

We'll be returning soon with an overload of pictures and sarcasm.

Carpe Summer Diem

We were eating dinner around our kitchen table last night.  The amber glow of the sinking sun was highlighting our meal, gently shining on my children's faces, giving their eyes an extra twinkle, and making me want to grab my camera and capture the moment forever.  I fought the temptation, fully aware of the fact that I often forget to enjoy the moment that is happening because I am so busy trying to make it last longer than it naturally does.

Our home was filled with the smells that accompany a home-cooked meal, and the air rang with the laughter of a family that, for the moment at least, was content to just be together.  I watched Porter shake too much pepper on his corn on the cob, Adi eat a serving of cheesy rice without taking a breath, Piper pat Wyatt on his head as he shoved an entire crescent into his toddler mouth.  Orrin was quoting a line from the Princess Bride and I was marveling at the beauty of a laid-back summer night.

"There are only three weeks until school starts again," Adi proclaimed in between monstrous bites of her chicken crescent roll up.

This proclamation snapped me out of me quiet reverie.  "No there's not.  Summer just started," I said as I stood up to check our family calender that hangs loyally on the fridge.

"No, this has to be wrong!" Because arguing with a piece of paper has always worked for me in the past.

Sadly, Adi was right.  Three more weeks.  That's all.  Three more weeks until Adi starts fourth grade, Piper starts third, and my little buddy Porter begins his kindergarten adventure.

Three more weeks of jumping into swimming pools, splotchy sunblock, mid-evening runs to Target, melting Icees from Circle K, chapters of Harry Potter, playing Monopoly till I dream about Chance cards, dancing to Call Me Maybe...

It was too much for my little Mommy heart.

Tears filled my eyes and threatened to overflow.  Piper saw my emotional state and immediately tears began to drip down her red cheeks (no one cries alone when they're with Pipes).  Even Wyatt noticed the shift in the atmosphere and stopped rubbing rice into his hair long enough to stare at me.

I smiled brightly and told them that since it's nearly the end of summer break we had better start living each day to it's fullest.  Piper's face became thoughtful as she named a few things we had to do.  Soon everyone began listing things; some doable, some completely ridiculous that I laughed my loud, Courtney Cackle. 

We softly slipped back into our easy banter and smiling fun.  Yet, something had changed, for me at the very least.  There was now a countdown of these wonderfully long days.

And we are going to enjoy every second of it until the clock reaches 0- when the school reaches it's educational tentacles and wraps them firmly around my children's bodies and pulls them back into seven hour days away from me.

That night we went on a family walk right before bedtime- everyone save Orrin was wearing pajamas.  Porter collected pine cones and Piper talked non-stop about who she hopes will be in her class this year.  Adi walked silently next to me, slipping her tiny hand into mine occasionally, and then quickly pulling it away as she suddenly remembered that she was too old for that.  Oh, how I love moments like these.

And then, just like that, another day ended.

In which Adi sets a goal and attains it in a week

"Mom, I really want to get a pet frog," Adi said to me not-so-long ago.

"Hmmm... start saving your money and you can get one."

"Really?!  I have to buy it's enclosure (they don't call them cages anymore, Mom), rocks, food..." Adi was squealing in delight.

I continued playing on the computer doing important work, without giving it much more thought.  I knew Adi and I knew that she would never be able to save that much money.  She likes spending it waaay to much.

Guess who proved me wrong?

After doing numerous extra chores around the house (and I believe Nana helped her out a bit monetarily), spending hours on the computer googling everything frog care, and watching so many Youtube videos on how to set up a frog enclosure... she did it.  She saved up over $40 to get the dang frog.

Let's just say she impressed her old parents just a bit.

She even had a price comparison sheet of different stores for all of the things she would need.

*sigh*

Let's go get the creature.

We went to Walmart (as listed on her sheet) to get a few things.

Look at her, acting all grown up.

Then over to Petco we went.

Daddy (and everybody else in the family) helped set up the environment.

See that little food jar sitting there all innocently?  That's ground up crickets.

Imagine just how wonderful that smells.

Piper fell so in love with Adi's frog (I don't know why.  I personally think they're pretty darn boring), that she went out and bought her own the very next day.

They are getting along just fine.

*wink*

Everyone loves watching them eat.  Guess what's worse than a jar of ground up crickets?  Keeping a bag of live crickets to feed them since they only eat things that move.

Oh... the best part?

The girls named the stupid things Orrin and Courtney.

Oh Snap! It's Independence Day.

As I was browsing through my pictures from the 4th, I realized that a whole bunch of what we did I had gotten the original idea from Pinterest.  I am such a follower.

Anyway, we started off the morning with blueberry mini muffins (and chocolate chip ones for the haters) and bubbles.  How else would one kick off Independence Day?

We went swimming for lunch with dear old Aunt Stephanie (no pics of her lovleyness).  Well, we stayed at the pool for a bit, but since it was monsooning we just left and ate pizza at home and watched Independence Day.  Because what other movie is there?

We had some down time,

and then we got ourselves all festive for the day.  We tried hair chalking- and I have a few things to say about it.  Yes it works.  I'm not sure if it's just our type of hair or not, but our hair got really matted and gross feeling after doing it.  Anyone else ever done it?  I would love to compare results.  I'm thinking maybe if I had sprayed our hair with conditioning spray first...

I digress.

We got ourselves pretty.

Yes, even the boys joined in on the primping (that's the hazard of having a mom like me).

We then attempted taking a group photo.  It did not go well.

The kid seriously hates it when I take pictures of him.  

We went over to Aunt Whitney and Uncle Chris's for a BBQ.  And boy, did Whit and I have fun decorating for the fourth.

Yeah, we're pretty much awesome. 

We ate until we waddled, 

and then watched a most delightful performance of Firework by these two fancy ladies.

In the midst of their dancing frenzy, little Porter-Pot decided to push an ottoman across Whitney's very beautiful wood floor.  Oh, crap.

Have I mentioned how amazingly awesome my very forgiving sister is?

After we all recovered from the most traumatic experience, we went out and threw Snap-Its at each other.  'Cause that's how we roll.

S'MORES!

Once the sun set, we traipsed off to a local park in hopes of seeing the fireworks without having to deal with all of the people.  It didn't really work, but we had fun laying there and pretending to see them :)

And there you have it.  Our celebration summed up... well, it wasn't really summed.  It kinda took a long time to share it all. 

God bless America!