Summer Fun, week 9

We all did chores on Saturday and got the kids ready for their sleepover party at Auntie Cynthia's house. They were excited to see Papa too, who was there for the weekend. 

Lane and I had an anniversary date. Can you believe it's been fifteen years since this???

We went out to an Italian place in Walnut Creek.  We remembered how in ninth or tenth grade, our friend Tim announced that Lane and I would get married and we thought he was crazy (I think Lane more so than I did), we talked about this new baby of ours and just enjoyed a real grown up meal together with uninterrupted conversation. 

We met Auntie Cunthia at the park near her house the next morning. As soon as we parked, we spotted Gabriela running toward us to greet us with gigantic hugs. Easton ran after us too, stopped half way, waved, and turned around and ran away. I think he was anxious to get back to his motorcycle. 

Lane thoroughly enjoyed himself at the park wth the kids. 

I didn't catch any photos, but we headed to farmers market after that. The kids picked out fruit, sampled all the goodies, planted seeds, dug for worms in a compost bin, and enjoyed some sweet treats as well. We came home and knocked that off our summer fun list, though I hope we go again soon. 

Gabriela has been a reading machine this summer. For her birthday last week, we gave her The Series of Unfortunate Events books and she is already on the eleventh one; she has also read some other books in between. I stayed busy sewing some reusable baby wipes. 

Our next two days were beyond crazy. I had some very misbehaved children who were quite possibly possessed by the upcoming full moon. They wouldn't listen, fought with each other and colored furniture, ripped doors off furniture, poured coconut oil all over the place, clogged the toilet, wrote on the house, pooped outside.  It was too much for this mama. We spent the entire afternoon at the pool on Tuesday. Thank goodness, because it was so sweltering hot. I needed some breathing room and they needed to get those crazies out.

Wednesday, Gabriela did her math and journal without any problems. She and easton were so well behaved and got along for hours playing school together. I overheard story time, sharing time, snack time, drawing time, and arts and crafts. I read to them during lunch, which they happily ate. After a little mama nap, I announced it was frozen yogurt and pool time. The kids were happy to have a treat and I was happy to be somewhere air conditioned. It was another scorcher of a day. Thank goodness for spring rolls. Healthy veggie rainbow goodness that takes fewer than ten minutes to prepare and requires no cooking. Why don't I make these more often?!? How refreshing to have a day like this after the previous two. 

My fishies. 

Thursday was Harry Potter's birthday, you know. The kids both helped do chores to get dinner ready quickly and we watched a Harry Potter movie together, taking a mid viewing break for butterbeer and chocolate frogs, of course. They spent their afternoon outside coloring and writing in their journals

We were supposed to go to park day on Friday, but the kids were having so much fun playing school and I was really getting a lot of work done organizing and cleaning up our homeschool room in preparation for the end of this month, that we were all happy to stay home. 

I took some pictures because I have my doubts about this room staying neat and organized by the time school starts. 

Gabriela insists that the table is her desk, and hers only. She immediately started filling every empty spot up with whatever she could gather from around the room and decided to bring in the red table so Easton can have his desk. But then she told him to sit on the floor when I explained that preschoolers don't really enjoy sitting in a desk all day long. 

Refreshing this space is getting my girl excited for more learning. Getting all our supplies is making this mama excited. I am trying to plan what books and activities we will be doing for various subjects now, so it goes more smoothly after we are homeschooling with three kids to care for and a mama with some bonkers hormones. 

This is Gabriela's writing center. She has all her stationary, stamps, address book, journals, stories, and writing books, as well as a suitcase full of her treasured little books, post its, notecards, handmade books, and anything else she can find to write on. 

We picked up some books at the library late in the afternoon and then visited our friend's garden. They are out of town for a couple weeks and said we could pick peaches from their tree and veggies from their garden. How sweet and generous of them to share their garden goodness. Easton loved picking fruit!

He could reach peaches from the trees and loved finding some red ripe strawberries. 

The kids and I were all wishing we had an amazing garden like this. And this is only part of one of the beds!! Maybe next year we can expand. 

We needed a quiet week at home. I have been feeling productive around the house and my kiddos have been keeping themselves busy and spending time together. 

Only a couple more weeks until summer fun is done.