Summer Days Drifting Away....

 Bailey has 10 days of summer left. : ( I just can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. This is my post that will hit the highlights of what we have been up to so far. I confess that before Beau was born I was nervous about having a baby and entertaining the big kids with how hot it has been the last few summers, which ended up meaning that the summer has been busy due to activities. Almost too busy, but everything has been very fun and I just know for next year to allow for some lazy days.

We started off the summer with getting Blair potty trained!!! Next we did 7 days of swim lessons from Ms. Barbara, which were amazing! Then it was off to Weird Animals VBS. All of these were back-to-back and sometimes overlapping before leaving for Trail West.

 Father's Day 

 Father's Day was somewhere in the mix of all of that and we grabbed take-out lunch and went to one of our favorite parks after church. I tried to get pictures of the kids with Luke, but ended up just getting some of them playing. Ali & I also coordinated dinner with the other Mezgers & Franny for a Father's day dinner at Waterloo. We sure do love our daddy!

We can officially fill up an entire swingset.

 Ali & I call these two Gen 3 and they were having fun copying each other.

Backyard Camping & Fishing at the Dock

This was probably before Father's Day, but our family sure missed camping this Spring. So much so that Luke volunteered to camp out in the yard with the older 3. We combined this with fishing at the dock to knock two things off our summer bucket list.

 Fishing is one of those things that takes patience & luck. We were as patient as we could & tried really hard, but didn't have alot of luck. We did catch one fish & Luke had brought an empty tote so we could observe him. Eventually we left the poles to swim & paddleboat. We love Uncle Doug's dock.

This is literally how Blair would fish. The tip of the pole had to be in the water.

 

Doves 

After we got unpacked from the 4th of July at Gigi & Pa's we went on a family bike ride and Bailey caught a dove. Luke & I were pulling of the rear of the bike train with Blair and Blake comes running at us that Bailey had a caught a bird. It did have a hurt wing, but still. That Bailey girl and the things she has caught.

We left that dove in a safe place near where we found him, but literally the next morning Blair found this baby dove in our backyard. We made him a nest, put him in the playhouse, and kept an eye on him for 3-4 days before he flew away. Poor guy got lots of lovin' and we probably scared the mother to death as she watched us at a safe distance.

The Tooth Fairy Has Been Busy

Bailey keeps losing teeth and now reminds me of a jack-o-lantern. She has lost 5 so far and the 6th is loose. 

 Swimming, Swiming, Swiming

The pool has felt like a second home. Ms. Barbara's swim lessons + fins gave me two confident swimmers and the pool has not been as bad as I had thought. Especially since Beau is so content in his carseat.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back and Blake has enjoyed having matching suits with some of his friends.

This is one of my favorite places in Austin- the Quarries.

 The Quarries again.

Bailey with school friends.

The Y pool with Mia.We really do love this pool.

We had to take Nana to the Y pool and show her what we had been talking about.

Impromptu Lemonade Stand

I had promised Bailey a lemonade stand and needed to make good on my promise. She sold original artwork and lemonade. She probably only covered her costs, so not our most successful lemonade stand, but a fun reason to see neighbors and pass an afternoon.

 
Pine Cove Camp in the City 

Bailey got to do Pine Cove Day camp this year! This was on wear-your-team-colors day and she showed the Aggies some love! Reveille even got to go help decorate Moolaba's tent. (Moolaba was the group Bailey was in.)

 

Here is one story that I think will always stick out in my mind about this camp. Bailey snuck my old iphone to camp. It had been dropped a day or two before and had a shattered screen. 

This was my conversations when picking Bailey up the first day, "Soooo, Bailey brought a phone to camp with her and if it is okay with you we would like to ask you not to send it again". "Really??? (Me not remembering the broken phone at first) Ohhhhhhh.........of course", pausing to look at the girl's name tag, "Yes, Glass Slipper, I had no idea. I just got a new phone and Bailey has been excited to have my old one. I'm so sorry! I hope it didn't cause any problems." I then turn and giving Bailey big eyes, "It will not go to camp the rest of the week". 

Y'all I even checked her bag before she left. She claims that she just wanted to take pictures to show me what camp was like, but there sure was a mischevious look on her face.

Watermelons!!! 

One of the things the kids wanted to grow in their garden this year were watermelons. We didn't see much going on until we got back from Trail West, but this is how big they are now and we have 5!!!

Gymnastics Showcase

Bailey, Emmy, & Boone's group showed off a dance and what they have been learning in class, plus got their medals. 

Showing off on the bar.

 So, I am that mom who lets her girl wear a swimsuit to the Showcase, but Bailey's friend Mia was with us that day and Bailey let her wear her leotard. I admired Bailey's sharing heart so much that I didn't make her change, but we were told that she could not wear a two piece in the future-Oops.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these kids.

Re-capping all of this I just feel like the days of this summer slipped through my fingers and I wish I would have some of them back. I know I feel this way about most seasons and you have probably noticed that I do posts like this, but time just goes so fast and I want to remember life. 

Here's where we are: Bailey is about to start 1st grade and be 7. I can't tell you how many times I have been so confused in conversations because I still think she is going into K. Blake is about to be top dog at preschool and will go 4 days. Blair is not my baby anymore and my baby is almost 5 months old. All the kids are sleeping through the night and we only have one in diapers.

 One another note, one thing I will remember about this summer is that it really just got hot. If there have been some really hot (think-you-are-going-to-die) days we must have been out-of-town because this summer has been awesome as far as the temperature. Maybe that's why it still feels like June in my mind. 

Summer 2014