July Ends, August Begins

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the grand opening of Edith's Café as one of the first patrons. Edith's food was varied and delicious. I highly recommend it. And it says on the sign out front, "All Organic and Local" and "NOT Fast Food." Bud was a nice brother to help her make the sign. 

Big and Edith can be so hot and cold with each other. They either get along so perfectly that it seems almost fake, or they get along so miserably that you try to ban them from being in the same room together. One day, when they were struggling to get along a little, Big walks up to Ginger and starts to tattle on Edith who was trailing along behind him.

Big: "Edith called me a name. She called me a"

The dialog stopped abruptly because Edith had slapped her hand over Big's mouth to keep him from saying anything further.

Edith (with her hand over Big's mouth): "I called him a Fabulous Joy Angel. That's what I called him. A Fabulous Joy Angel."

She then removes her hand from the incredulous-looking Big's mouth. 

Big (with a tone of amazement): "No, she didn't. She called me a poopy!"

Edith: "Whatever."

Pretty quick thinking on Edith's part. She really is awfully clever. Too bad she was lying. 

Luckily, Big and Edith make up for the fighting by continuing to be strangely self-motivated workers. Edith took it upon herself one day to re-shelve the books left on the fronts of the shelves by her siblings. The cutest in-house librarian I've ever seen, that's for sure. 

And Big was at it again cleaning windows. Seriously, I like it when they're like this. 

They also took it upon themselves to clean the dirt from the cracks in the driveway. Pleeease no one tell them about power washers! It keeps them occupied for ages!

I took the kids (both Ginger and Pen, too) to that lake with the beach again. It was fun to wade into the water with the girls and count down until we all dunked our heads under the water. Takes your breath away, but it's a blast. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. Next time we go we'll definitely bring Rophone along. 

We threw another float party, too. A bunch of families came and it was a lot of fun. I think we'll definitely make it a summer tradition to throw a few. 

My sister, Martha, arrived in town with her family at the beginning of August. The cousins play together really well, so it's always nice and relaxing to just hang out while the kids amuse themselves. Her husband, Plumbean, and I mostly hung out at the house while Martha was busy at Sunstone, but on Saturday he joined her so I took the kids on a hike by myself. Why not? I mean, Ginger was babysitting at Sunstone (an awesome paying gig that Martha helped get her set up with) and Pen was working her job, so I only had 6 kids to take rather than the potential 8. Piece of cake. 

The hike was kind of funny. At first Edith was in the lead and was setting a pretty good pace as she always does, but that kind of led to a daydreamy Cindy Lou getting left in the dust. I pulled Edith back from the front so we could more easily keep everyone together and then it worked out great. It was really enjoyable and relaxing.

It was so relaxing, in fact, that when the kids were exploring and scrambling over rocks at the end of the hike I realize I could maybe enjoy a moment sort of alone. Well, as alone as you can be with kids around you. The fact that no one was talking to me for the first time in a few hours made me feel like I was alone, though. 

I sat on a huge boulder for about 5 minutes. So nice.

Then I decided to get even more comfortable. Wow, this is great!

Then I closed my eyes...and Edith fell from the boulder she was climbing and landed on her back. So much for that. It was good while it lasted, though. Edith was okay, but I took it as a sign that it was time to head home for lunch. 

After lunch, Rophone and I left Pen and her cousin, Mathman, in charge and went up to the big city to pick up Ginger from her babysitting gig. Here's a photo of my date, Rophone, and the third wheel.

Just kidding. It was really fun to hang out with just Ginger. It isn't very often that we can both be with just one kid together. It seems like we're usually split up to divide and conquer. 

I asked Edith one night to please get in her pajamas and brush her teeth so she could go to bed and she replied, "Ugh. I don't think I can. My elbows really hurt. I think I pulled a groin." How awful! Sounds really painful. Nice try, kid.

Martha took Ginger and Bud camping with her for a few days. I was kind of glad we didn't go with them when the first night and day looked like this:

I managed to swing a couple of daytime visits to the camp with Big and Edith. We all had a really good time. I think next year we'll try to make it as a family.

After all of Martha's commitments were done with, we got to spend a few more days together. This included lots of game playing, of course. 

Martha's intense dice-shaking face was the best. :) We take our games very seriously.

I loved it when everyone told Edith she was too young to play Apples to Apples but then she was in the lead. So perfect. I'm sure happy about all the visits from family we've had this summer. Such a fun time. We're glad you could come, Martha!

Mid-Summer Dreams

After Art and her boys left, things sort of got back to our summer-normal. I say sort of because one big thing was different-- I got a job. Rophone and I had been talking for awhile about how it might be good if I got a part-time job, but nothing was working out schedule-wise and what-to-do-with-Edith-wise. But then, while she was here, Art got me set up to work for her employer as an editor. It's the perfect job for me! I get to do it from home around my schedule, and it's doing something I enjoy. Plus I really like what her company is doing. It has been so great for me to have something other than just "Momming" in my life. I really needed it. I'm learning how to readjust the well-oiled routine I've had for the past few years, but it will become normal after awhile. 

Anyway, a few days after Art went home, I took Big and Edith to the school to watch the construction trucks. We decided to play on the playground for a few minutes before going home. 

I think this was my favorite moment of the morning. There was a little boy, maybe 2 years old, who started hanging from a crossbar and swinging out over the drop to the ground. Edith was watching him get ready to swing, clearly worried about what he was doing. When he swung for the first time, Edith gasped and whispered only loud enough for me to hear, "Oh, no! Don't do that!" I was touched by her concern for the little boy's welfare. So cute. 

Look at Edith's sweet face, right? I have to tell you, though, she's really kind of getting to be a big smart alec. She was following Bud around one day, annoying him by pretending to be Siri.

Bud: "Stop following me around, Siri."
Edith: "Here is what I found on the web for 'Stop following me, Siri'."

She is so quick-thinking and clever, that girl. It makes it easy to forget she's only four. Hopefully she learns to use it for good or it might get her in trouble one day. 

We've been doing the construction/playground thing a lot this summer. It sure is handy having a new school being built just around the corner. 

We're trying to make sure we even things out with a lot of game-playing.

A good friend and I took our kids to a little man-made lake with a beach that she'd heard about. It was so much fun. Great to be together as friends and to do something we don't normally do. And it's so close to the house, too! Less than 15 minutes away. I think it will definitely become a place we go to often in the summer. Big could have stayed there to dig the entire day long.

The water was pretty darn cold, but very refreshing on a hot day.

A few days later (on July 19th), I took the two youngest on a hike we hadn't been on together before. It was a cooler, slightly breezy day. Perfect for the hike we were going to do. It was really steep on the way up, and it took us forever because we kept on getting sucked in by the view. I didn't mind the slow ascent too much, though, because it kept me from keeling over. Ha! 

This is a picture of this at the top of the hike...

...and this is the view from the top:

Now you can see why we kept stopping to take a look. It's fun to see our little world from above. The hike down was slow, too, because there were so many great rocks to pick up. I love that my kids like to find cool rocks as much as I do. 

July 19th was also National Ice Cream day, so of course we had to celebrate! I got some cute shots of Edith as she was enjoying her cone. She understands the importance of not only having fun when eating your cone, but also eating it with intense concentration. It's all about balance.

The evenings are a perfect time to ride scooters on our driveway, so she had to do some of that, too. I love when she scooters up and says, "I love you!" I sure do love her, too.

The kids started swimming lessons on July 20, and that day happened to be pretty cloudy and cool. So that means when you get chilled at swimming lessons and then go to the park in kind of cool and cloudy weather, you dress like it's October.

Not so sure she can do it. 

And then you go home and have hot chocolate because "It's like winter out there!" I've been loving how many cool and rainy days we've been having this year. So not the norm, but it has made this summer much more tolerable for me than it usually is. I'll take the rain and cooler weather whenever I can.

This post is getting pretty long, so I think we'll pick it up from here on the next one. It really has been an enjoyable summer thus far. For real.