June Phone Dump

June was a busy month around here. Summers are really hard for me. Daniel leaves mid-May and won't be back around in any normal capacity until August. I'm exhausted. Like bone-deep weary. I'm trying to stay sane, stay patient, and have a little fun. But, some days I fail in epic ways. Here are a few of the things we've been up to for the first half of the summer.

On pretty days we've spent a lot of time playing with the water table on the back deck. One day we had a toy "car wash" and filled the table up with bath soap. They loved it!

Some snuggles and bonding with Lea. She is so good to the boys. Carver adores her.

Bath time with glow sticks! This was super fun. I only let Cargy watch because it was too stressful to have them in there together with the water a little deep. This is such a cheap form of entertainment. I highly recommend.

While in the upstairs bathroom (no windows so we could make it really dark), Carson crawled in the cabinet and had a fabulous time playing in there.

These are baby cows. Can't you tell? Loving Carver's expanding imagination.

Oh Birch Box. A little box of happiness that arrives every month. One of my favorite things.

 Starting after our travels in March/April, Carver had a really hard time getting back to sleeping alone in his own room. I made a weekly calendar and marked off days until we got to the day when he moved back to his room. Then he got a sticker for every night that he stayed in his room. After a week he got to choose a new toy at Wal-Mart. He chose Thomas-- his new obsession.

We visited Jaemor Farms-- our local farmer's market. It is our tradition to go fairly often, and every single time we go we get homemade peach ice cream. This was Carson's first time trying the ice cream!

We also have visited the Mountain Creamery a few times. I love the ice cream and it is fun to sit outside and eat it and see the ginormous cow that fascinates Carver.

Carson is definitely eating Coffee Toffee ice cream. My sis would be horrified. 

Winston had two really awful ear infections that created sores outside of his ears also. The result was an enormous vet bill and two weeks quarantined at home to recover. We actually loved having him around but I think he was super ready to get back to camp once he was healed.

Marshmallow Construction. My architectural skills are lacking so we made shapes. When he wasn't eating all of the marshmallows.

Is there anything more exhausting than dragging kids to the grocery store? In and out of carseats. In and out of the shopping cart. Loading and unloading groceries. Exhausting.

Carver's creation. He is getting better and better at independent play.

"Helping" me weed the flower bed. i.e. picking all of my flowers.

Carson thinks Carver is hilarious and Carver loves trying to make him laugh. One of my favorite things to watch.

Helping himself to a snack....

For the first time this year I helped out with Vacation Bible School at our church. It was fun to be involved but it was a really long week. We aren't used to being up and out of the house by 8 every morning. I'm not sure how working moms survive this.

I helped out with preschool crafts which meant that Carver came to my room every day. The first few days were rough. He was clingy, wouldn't participate and threw huge tantrums when it was time for him to go back to his room. Finally by the end of the week he was doing much better.

We try to visit Daniel when we can. He is super busy so a lot of times I just feel awkward and in the way out there. The boys both love it out there and Daniel needs to see them so when we can hang out for a little while we do.

Our library has preschool activities every Thursday and we've really enjoyed participating in that each week. This time two firefighters came to talk to the kids. They did a brief presentation during which Carver stood in the front with them. He was supposed to be sitting down with the other kids. Instead he was wandering around up front while I was in the very back holding a squirmy Cargy and breaking into a sweat watching my 3 year old interfere with the presentation. STRESS.

This library visit went a little more smoothly :)

Playing with his farm animals while out to lunch.

The boy loves umbrellas and playing in the rain.

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My friend Amy came over one evening with her son Eli. Carver loves Eli and I am SO thankful to finally have real friends here-- not just a multitude of acquaintances. Carver and Eli play quite well together and I admit, I am smitten with that sweet boy.

We have gone to Strong Rock's closing program a couple of times. Back around January I found these "I love Bacon" shirts and ordered them for the boys. Daniel's "camp name" is Bacon so I thought these shirts were adorable and SO funny. This picture is one of my favorites-- ever. Can't tell you how much I love these three.

It has been really fun to see more and more of our friends send their kiddos to camp. This sweet girl, and her sister below, were not campers this year but they were there to pick up their oldest sister after her session at camp.

The sweet girl in the middle is the big sis of the ones above. She is always so sweet to Carver.

I'm still playing catch up on the blog. Coming up: Carson's 13 month post; Holly's visit with the kids; Cargy's big birthday bash; a visit with my sis and her family, and our 4th of July festivities....so stay tuned!